Well, would you please take your Bibles and open them up this morning to Genesis chapter 4.
It's my privilege to preach this morning and continue our series in Genesis.
We've made our way to chapter 4, and I told you the first three chapters would be a slow walk through the garden.
Now we're outside of the garden, and we're going to pick up our pace just a little bit.
So we'll read all of chapter 4 this morning, and I plan to hit on chapter 5 as well.
But as we stand and read God's Word, I will read chapter 4, verses 1 through 26.
So when you've found it, let's stand in honor of the reading of God's Word.
Genesis 4, 1 through 26.
Now Adam knew his wife, Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying,
I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.
And again she bore his brother Abel.
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.
In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,
and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.
And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.
So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
The Lord said to Cain,
Cain, why are you angry?
Why has your face fallen?
If you do well, will you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
Cain spoke to Abel his brother,
and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Then the Lord said to Cain,
Where is Abel your brother?
He said,
I do not know.
Am I my brother's keeper?
And the Lord said,
What have you done?
The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.
And now you are cursed from the ground,
which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength.
You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.
Cain said to the Lord,
My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground,
and from your face I shall be hidden.
I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth,
and whoever finds me will kill me.
Then the Lord said to him,
Not so.
If anyone kills Cain,
vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.
And the Lord put a mark on Cain,
lest any who found him should attack him.
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord
and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch.
When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.
To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mahuajel,
and Mahujael followed Methusel, excuse me,
and Methusel fathered Lamech, and Lamech took two wives.
The name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other, Zillah.
Ada bore Jabal.
He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.
His brother's name was Jubal.
He was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.
Zillah also bore Tubal-Cain.
He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron.
The sister of Tubal-Cain was Nema.
Lamech said to his wives,
Ada and Zillah, hear my voice.
You wives of Lamech, listen to what I say.
I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.
If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold.
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth.
For she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.
To Seth also was born a son, and he called his name Enosh.
At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever.
Father, we praise you for your word.
We praise you for the promise of your word, of the gospel of Christ.
And we pray now as we sit to receive your word, would you speak to us today?
We pray in Christ's name.
Amen.
You may be seated.
One of my favorite verses comes from the book of Proverbs.
It's Proverbs 13, 12.
It says this,
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
Now, I first memorized this verse when I was in college,
and I thought about it often in the months that followed,
especially as Amanda and I got engaged, and we had a promise to be married.
We put our hope in that coming day, and there's this long waiting period where it felt like each and every day that passed,
that hope was deferred.
And we see the same thing with expectant parents, don't we?
Now, you're expecting a child, but there's this built-in waiting period of about nine months
where you're hoping and longing and waiting for that coming day,
but hope day after day after day, month after month is put off, it's deferred,
until the moment finally comes and the baby is born,
and you get to hold that newborn baby in your hands,
and nothing is like that experience of a longing finally fulfilled,
a desire fulfilled.
It's a tree of life, the Proverbs says.
Last week, we saw in the midst of the judgment of God for sin,
God made this big promise in Genesis 3.15.
You remember what he said, Genesis 3.15.
This verse is a key verse for the whole book of Genesis,
but not just the book of Genesis.
As we go through the Scriptures, what we see is that this promise is unfolded
throughout the rest of the Scriptures leading up to the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Here's what he said.
God said to the serpent,
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
between your offspring and her offspring.
He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.
This promise in the midst of the judgment is hope,
and in the midst of this brokenness in the garden,
God will send someone born of the woman
who will come and crush the head of the serpent.
This promised offspring is going to come,
and he's going to make all things right.
He's going to come and fix what's been broken by sin.
And this promise is what gave Adam and Eve hope,
even outside of the garden in a sin-cursed world.
But here as we come to our passage this morning,
now in chapter 4,
tragically, this hope is deferred.
In fact, for a brief moment,
it looks like there's no hope at all.
The hope in a snake-crushing son of the woman
has been snuffed out with the first murder in human history.
And as we read this account,
as we read this chapter,
we're left wondering,
will God's promises come to pass?
Will God bring forth this promised offspring of the woman?
For a moment,
it looks like the offspring of the serpent is winning the battle.
Will God's promise prevail even in the midst of darkness?
Well, what we see,
the answer that we get here from Genesis chapter 4,
and as we zoom out throughout the rest of the scriptures,
is that God's promise always prevails.
So let's look at our text this morning.
And first, what we see here is hope provided.
Hope provided.
Look there with me to verse 1.
And again, remember where we are,
the context of this passage.
We are now outside of the garden.
Adam and Eve have sinned against the Lord.
They've been thrust out away from the presence of the Lord.
They're banished from the garden of Eden.
And yet, even there in a sin-cursed world,
we see that God provides hope for them.
In obedience to God's command,
to be fruitful and multiply,
they have children.
These children are offspring of the woman.
Eve conceived and bore Cain,
and again she bore another son,
his brother Abel.
So now,
now we have two image bearers born into the world.
And now in light of this promise that God has made,
we have two distinct possibilities.
The question is,
will either one of these children be the snake crusher?
Will either one of these be the one who will come and set right what's been destroyed by sin?
Now that God has made this promise,
every offspring of the woman comes with this weight of expectation and anticipation.
Could this be the one?
Some of y'all I know follow the royal family.
And I don't have anything to do with it.
I don't understand people that follow them as closely as they do,
but I know some people really, really do.
And you know that every time a child is born into the royal family,
there's all this attention and just focus given to this child.
Why?
Because of the possibility that one day this child who's just been born,
this baby may one day grow up to be the king.
They may grow up to be the queen.
This child may grow up to rule and to reign.
The same anticipation is given here.
There's a sense of anticipation.
Every time a son is born of the woman,
will this be the one who will come and reign and rule and defeat sin in the grave?
Will he be the one to crush the head of the serpent?
And hope is provided here with these two children.
What we see, though, is from the very beginning,
these two children take two very different paths, don't they?
And isn't it funny how two kids born of the same parents,
raised in the same environment,
can come out so different from one another,
with different personalities and different interests and different skill sets.
So we see that play out here with Cain and Abel, don't we?
Verse 2 tells us Abel is a keeper of the sheep.
He's a shepherd.
Cain is a worker of the ground.
He's a farmer.
And just notice already here with this new earth,
with these new people,
a very minimal population here in the world,
we're already beginning to see diversity
and gifting and skill set and variety on display, aren't we?
Verse 3 tells us these two brothers,
with their two different vocations,
bring to the Lord two different offerings,
and the Lord has two very different responses.
Now, here's the tension in the passage.
Look there with me.
Cain brings an offering of the fruit of the ground,
and Abel brings an offering of the firstborn of his flock with the fat portions.
And how does the Lord respond?
Look there.
The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard.
And we should ask, well, why not?
Why is the Lord accepting one offering and not accepting the other?
It makes complete sense to me, at least on the surface,
given their vocations.
Abel's a shepherd.
He brings some sheep.
Cain is a farmer.
He brings some fruit.
Why would the Lord regard one and not the other?
We're going to answer that.
But before we do,
I want you to notice here,
we should notice that it is the Lord,
it is the Lord who decides what offering is acceptable to him.
The Lord dictates what is and what is not right and good and acceptable worship.
We need to understand this,
especially in our man-centered society,
that worship ultimately is not catered to our preferences.
True and genuine worship is not about us and our wants.
It is about the Lord and his wants.
True worship isn't man-centered.
It is God-centered.
And the question of true worship is not ultimately what's pleasing to me.
It's what is pleasing to the Lord.
And here we see a basic fundamental distinction here
between true and false worship.
We read a passage earlier in Hebrews
that I think helps us understand the difference.
And I'm going to read it again here.
Hebrews 11 verse 4
says,
By faith,
Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain,
through which he was commended as righteous.
God commending him by accepting his gifts.
And through his faith,
though he died,
still he speaks.
By faith,
Abel offered to God
a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.
Two brothers,
two vocations,
two offerings,
one is accepted,
one is disregarded.
What's the difference?
Only one was offered up to the Lord by faith.
True and acceptable worship
in the sight of the Lord
must come from a heart of faith.
Without faith,
it is impossible to please him.
True and acceptable worship
must come from a heart of faith,
meaning a heart that trusts him,
latches onto him,
loves him,
honors him,
seeks him above all else
and disregards self.
That's what faith is.
These two offerings,
ultimately,
they reveal two completely different postures of the heart.
This is the difference between faith,
which is trusting God,
and self,
works,
trusting self.
It's the difference between a heart that seeks the Lord
and a heart that just comes and does whatever you think you have to do.
Go through the motions.
Do you realize that two people can sit in the same place
and sing the same songs
and hear the same scriptures
and receive the same sermon
and come to the same worship service
and one person's offering of worship
be accepted
and the others not?
You may say,
well,
I'm here,
I'm standing,
I'm singing,
I'm giving,
I'm doing all the things.
Why would God accept one and not the other?
The difference,
I'll say it again,
the only acceptable worship
in the sight of the Lord
is worship that comes from a heart of faith.
we need to ask ourselves,
as we come in,
as we gather for worship,
as we prepare ourselves for this holy moment
of receiving the word of the Lord,
of offering up praise to him,
are we offering up a sacrifice of praise
that comes from a heart of faith
or are we simply checking the box,
going through the motions?
We see here God has provided hope
with these two children
and already we see their paths begin to diverge
and what we see happens next
is that tragically this hope that was provided
for a moment is deferred.
So second,
second,
we see hope deferred.
Look there with me to verse five.
Verse five,
it says,
Cain,
in response to the Lord
disregarding his sacrifice,
how does he respond?
Cain is very angry,
it says,
and his face fell.
And the Lord said to Cain,
why are you angry?
Why has your face fallen?
If you do well,
will you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well,
here's the warning,
sin is crouching at the door.
It's desire is for you,
but you must rule over it.
Now your version might say something like,
it's desire is contrary to you.
It's the same idea,
isn't it?
We saw this language in chapter three.
You can flip back there
or look back there
to verse 16 of chapter three
and you remember from last week,
Eve,
it said,
Eve,
your desire will be for your husband,
but he will rule over you.
And so now,
just like with Eve's desire,
to rule over her husband,
now God warns Cain,
sin wants to rule over you.
Sin wants to overcome you.
It wants to overpower you.
It is coming to destroy you.
But he tells Cain,
you must rule over it.
This is a test here,
isn't it?
This is a moment of opportunity,
a moment of testing,
rule or be ruled.
Kill or be killed.
Hunt or be hunted.
John Owen,
he used to say,
be killing sin
or sin will be killing you.
This is what Cain is facing here.
All hope hangs in the balance.
Will Cain prove to be obedient to the Lord?
Will he trust and obey the word of the Lord?
Will he keep the possibility alive
that perhaps,
maybe,
just maybe,
he will be the one to triumph over sin?
Here we see verse 8.
All hope in Cain
is shattered.
He does not rule over sin.
Sin rules over Cain.
Cain spoke to Abel, his brother.
I don't know what he said.
I don't believe it was pleasant.
And when they were out in the field,
Cain rose up against his brother,
Abel,
and killed him.
This is the first murder
in human history.
Now we read something like this
and we're almost,
we're just so numb
and desensitized to violence.
We live in it every day.
We see it every day on the news.
We read about it.
We hear about it.
There's violence all around us.
We're just so numb
to the weight
and the heaviness,
the heaviness,
the severity of the sin.
This is the first murder
in the history of mankind.
And just look how far we've fallen
in just a short period of time.
Cain proves to be a sinner
and a murderer
and a rebel to the word of God
just like his parents before him.
But even more than that,
the deeper issue here
is that Cain proves himself
to be an offspring of the serpent.
And Cain and Abel may be physically
members of the same family.
They're brothers physically by blood.
But spiritually speaking,
they are from two entirely different families.
One is of faith
and the other is faithless.
This murder.
We have to understand this story
in chapter 4,
this murder of one brother
against another.
This is the first chapter
of the unfolding conflict
between the seed of the woman
and the seed of the serpent.
And for just a brief moment,
it looks like the offspring
of the serpent is winning.
It looks like hope is lost.
And for just a brief moment,
Adam and Eve are wondering
how in the world
will God's promises come to pass?
In one act of violence,
Cain has snuffed out hope
that either one of these children
might be the snake crusher
God has promised.
For a moment here,
hope is deferred.
Hope is crushed.
And we should notice
how familiar all of this story sounds.
This is a replay
of what Adam and Eve
just experienced in the garden,
isn't it?
Did you notice the similarities here
between these stories?
That we saw a replay of the sin.
Cain disregarded the word of the Lord
just like Adam and Eve did.
And we see a replay
of the Lord's pursuit of the sinner.
Verse 9,
The Lord said to Cain,
Where is Abel your brother?
Do you hear the echoes?
Where are you, Adam?
Who told you you were naked?
We see a replay of the sinner
hiding his sin.
I don't know.
Am I my brother's keeper?
This woman you gave me,
she gave me the fruit.
The man and the woman hid
and covered themselves.
You see the echoes here.
Cain hides his sin from the Lord,
but it goes a step further,
doesn't it?
He lies straight to the Lord's face.
We see a replay of the Lord's judgment
on the sinner.
The Lord said,
What have you done?
The voice of your brother's blood
is crying to me from the ground,
and now you are cursed from the ground,
which has opened its mouth
to receive your brother's blood
from your hand.
When you work the ground,
it shall no longer yield to you its strength.
You shall be a fugitive
and a wanderer on the earth.
All of this
is a sad reenactment
of the garden,
which shows us
that this problem of sin
is not just an isolated incident.
And it doesn't even reset
with each generation.
We don't come in on a blank slate.
This problem of sin
is a virus.
It's a sickness.
It's a power
that enslaves and corrupts.
It's passed down
from generation to generation,
and things are not getting better here.
They're getting worse.
You wonder,
why in the world
the world we live in
is so broken?
You watch the news
and you see the violence
that we see every single day,
and you wonder,
how could anybody
hate somebody so much?
The answer is,
we sin
because we are sinners,
both by nature
and by choice.
We have inherited
the same sin
that Cain has inherited
from his brother,
from his father, Adam.
And yet,
just as we saw
in the garden,
we see here,
despite it all,
replayed once again,
God is merciful
to sinners.
Verse 13,
Cain grieves
his judgment
and says to the Lord,
my punishment
is greater
than I can bear.
You've driven me today
away from the ground
and away from your face.
I shall be hidden.
I shall be a fugitive
and a wanderer
on the earth.
And he worries,
whoever will find me
will kill me.
But listen to this,
the Lord responds
with this provision
of mercy.
Not so.
If anyone kills Cain,
vengeance shall be taken
on him sevenfold.
The Lord mercifully
put a mark on Cain,
lest any who found him
should attack him.
And then Cain
went away
from the presence
of the Lord,
like Adam and Eve
before him,
and settled
in the land of Nod,
east of Eden.
Abel is gone.
Cain is banished.
Neither one of them
are the snake crusher
that God has promised.
And again,
the question comes
to the forefront.
Will God accomplish
what he's promised?
Will the promises
of God prevail
even in this bleak darkness?
forgiveness?
Third,
third,
we see hope
is restored.
Look there with me
to verse 17.
Hope is restored.
Here,
starting in verse 17
and through the rest
of the chapter
and then even on
to chapter 5.
Again,
the question is,
will the promised one
come through Cain?
We know that Cain's
a murderer.
We know that Cain
is wicked
and Cain belongs
to the offspring
of the evil one
but could it be
that the snake crusher
will come through
his line?
And what we see here
in the rest of chapter 4
is two distinct legacies.
Look there with me
at the legacy
of Cain's line.
Verse 17.
Cain knew his wife
and she conceived
and bore Enoch
and when he built a city
he called the name
of the city
after the name
of his son,
Enoch.
Enoch bore Irad
and Irad,
Mahujael
and Mahujael
and Methusael
Lamech.
Lamech took two wives.
One was Ada,
the other Zillah.
Ada bore Jabal
He was the father
of those who dwell
in tents
and have livestock
and his brother's name
was Jubal
and he was the father
of those who play
the lyre and the pipe.
Zillah also bore Tubal Cain
and he was the forger
of all instruments
of bronze and iron
and the sister
of Tubal Cain
was Nema.
Do you hear
what he's tracing here?
He's outlining
the legacy
of the line of Cain
and by all accounts
the contributions
of the family of Cain
are impressive,
aren't they?
These are city builders
and the first musicians
come from this line.
Forgers of instruments
and tools,
these guys are making
some monumental contributions
to the world.
We see development here
of culture and art.
They make incredible contributions
to this developing society,
don't they?
But despite these contributions,
what we see
is that ultimately
at the root,
the legacy of Cain's line
is wickedness.
Look there to verse 23.
Lamech said to his wives,
he's a polygamist.
Well, this is new.
This is a new development
of sin and wickedness.
Sin is progressing.
The virus is spreading.
He says to his wives,
Ada and Zillah,
hear my voice,
you wives of Lamech.
Listen to what I say.
I have killed a man
for wounding me.
He's not just a polygamist,
he's a murderer.
And the murders
don't stop with Cain.
He has a legacy of violence.
It runs in the family.
I've killed a young man
for striking me.
He's not just a murderer.
He's vengeful.
He's bloodthirsty.
This isn't equal justice.
It's not an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth.
He kills a young man
for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.
This is over and above the top.
You hurt me,
I kill you.
Again,
we see sin
and wickedness
is multiplying here
on the earth.
Things aren't getting better.
They're getting much,
much worse.
And he boasts in it,
doesn't he?
If Cain's revenge
is sevenfold,
then Lamech's revenge
is seventy-sevenfold.
He's arrogant.
Boastful.
It's a mixed bag here
with Cain's legacy,
isn't it?
Some very good,
some incredible,
wonderful,
good contributions
mixed up with great wickedness.
And we can look at our own culture
and see the same thing,
can't we?
Men and women of all stripes,
believer and non-believer alike,
are capable of making
incredible contributions
to society.
Even non-believers
are capable of making
incredible contributions
to art and culture
and science
and technology.
And as they do so,
what they're doing,
willingly or not,
whether they're aware
of it or not,
is they are imaging forth,
they're representing,
they're shining forth
the glory of God,
even non-believers.
When Stephen Hawking
explains astronomy
and physics,
now we may,
with our limited understanding,
disagree with some
of what he says,
but even in the exercise
of the brilliance
of his mind,
he's demonstrating
some of the glory of God.
John Lennon
and Paul McCartney,
an atheist
and an agnostic,
when they come together
and they write a song,
the whole world recognizes
that's beautiful.
It's wonderful.
It's art.
It's music.
And yet,
they reject him
and their use
of the gifts of God.
This is called
common grace.
But,
despite their incredible
contributions,
because at the root
of their offerings
is not faith,
before the Lord,
ultimately,
it is disregarded.
Ultimately,
here,
as we trace
the line of Cain,
what we see is
his legacy
is wickedness.
But here in verse 25,
look there with me.
once again,
hope is renewed.
It says,
Adam knew his wife again,
and she bore a son
and called his name Seth.
For she said,
God has appointed for me
another offspring
instead of April.
For Cain killed him.
another offspring.
Again,
hope is restored.
Hope is renewed
here through the line
of Seth.
And look at his legacy.
It's not ultimately
art or medicine
or music
or science
or any of this.
Verse 26,
what's his legacy?
To Seth also
was born a son,
and he called his name
Enosh,
and at that time,
people began
to call upon
the name
of the Lord.
This
is the first
formal,
gathered,
official
Yahweh worship
in the history
of the world.
The legacy
of Seth's line,
like Abel before him,
is one of faith
and genuine
worship
of the Lord.
See here
the distinction.
Do you see it?
See here
the difference
between these two lines?
I want you to
see here
the difference
between faith
and faithlessness.
Between wickedness
and righteousness.
between duty
and delight.
Between boasting
in self
and boasting
in the Lord.
Between external
impressiveness
and a singular
devotion to please
and worship
the Lord alone.
Do you see the difference?
The question
for us
this morning,
church,
is which
one
will we
be?
To which
family
do you
belong?
Every single
one of us
and every single
person in the world
belongs to
one of these
two distinct
families.
We are either
offspring of the
serpent
by nature
or we are
children of God
by grace.
And what's the
difference between
the two?
Faith
in the promise
of God.
We are
saved by grace
through faith.
You know,
that's the same
way any Old
Testament believer
was saved too,
by the way.
They are saved
by grace
through faith
in the promises
of God.
The only
difference is
they are
looking forward
to when
this promise
might one
day be
fulfilled
while we
get to
look backwards
to Christ
Jesus
in the gospel
and see how
every promise
of God
finds our
yes and
amen
in Him.
Here with
the birth
of Seth,
hope is
renewed,
but unfortunately
for Eve,
as we know
as we zoom
out from this
account,
it is a long
way to go
here before
that desire
is fulfilled.
The rest
of the Bible
will trace
these two
lines
and these
two conflicting
families.
The seed
of the woman
against the
seed of the
serpent
and the
seed of the
serpent
will continue
to try
and try
to snuff
out the
seed of the
woman.
But through
a long
and painful
and bleak
history of
sin and
apparent
hopelessness,
the good
news of
the gospel
is that
God's
promises
always
prevail.
I want
you to
just look
at chapter
five with
me and
take a look
at this
genealogy and
I realize
even as I
say that,
right,
some of you
are afraid.
I know
that this
is part
of what you
just skip
over this
in your
Bible reading
plan.
I get
that,
I know.
But what
I want you
to understand
is that this
list of names
here is not
just tracing
history.
These
genealogies
are tracing
promise.
Put your
finger there
in Genesis
five and
I want you
to turn
over to
Luke chapter
three.
And here
we find
another
genealogy.
And these
two long
lists of
names,
they trace
the very
same promise.
They tell
the same
exact story.
the only
difference is
that Genesis
five ends
with hope
deferred,
but Luke
chapter three
shows us
desire
fulfilled.
All of
chapter five
is summarized
there in Luke
chapter three.
We have to
read it
backwards,
the bottom
to top.
God
to Adam,
Adam
to Seth,
Seth
to Enos,
Enos
to Canaan,
Canaan
to Mahalel,
Mahalel to
Jared,
Jared to
Enoch,
Enoch to
Methuselah,
Methuselah to
Lamech,
Lamech to
Noah,
Noah to
Shem.
That's where
Genesis five
stops.
But here in
Luke three,
it keeps going.
And we trace
this promise
deferred,
this hope
deferred,
ultimately to
Noah,
eventually to
Abraham,
from Abraham
eventually to
David,
from David
eventually down
the line until
we get to
Joseph.
And from
Joseph and
Mary to
Jesus,
the Messiah,
Luke is
telling us,
finally,
at long
last,
in Jesus,
the promise
has been
fulfilled.
Our desire
has been
fulfilled
in Jesus.
Jesus
is the one
who will come,
now we know,
through the line
of Seth,
and crush the
head of the
serpent.
The question for
us this morning,
church,
is this,
will we
trust him
even if
for a
moment
hope is
deferred?
Will we
trust him
now by
faith even
when we
cannot yet
see him
by sight?
Will we
trust him
to return
and put an
end to
sin and
death and
darkness in
the devil even
while here and
now are so
often so
overwhelmed by
these things
here and
now?
Will you
trust him
by faith
that despite
the darkness
and despite
the opposition,
despite the
apparent hopelessness
of the moment,
despite the
delay,
that God's
promise will
prevail?
This conflict
between the
seed of the
woman and
the seed of
the serpent,
it hit its
climax at the
cross of
Christ.
And in a
moment of
darkness and
apparent
hopelessness,
for a moment
it looked as
if all hope
was lost.
The serpent
struck the
heel of the
son of the
woman and
all were left
wondering,
will God's
promises come
to pass?
At the
cross of
Christ it
looked like
the serpent
had won,
like the
battle had
been lost.
Will God's
promises prevail
even in the
midst of
darkness?
And the
answer that
we see is
yes!
God's
promises
prevail in
Christ.
Christ Jesus
rose from
the grave
and crushed
the serpent's
head so
that now by
faith,
sinners like
us can be
transferred,
delivered from
the domain of
darkness and
might become
sons and
daughters of
the living
God.
By faith in
the promised
seed of the
woman,
despite the
darkness and
apparent hopelessness
of the present,
we believe by
faith that
his promises
will prevail
one day soon
and very soon
church.
The Lord
will return.
Sin will be
no more.
Death will be
finished.
That cursed
serpent will be
done for good.
The sheep
will be
separated from
the goats.
These two
families,
these two
spiritual lines
will be
separated at
last and
the children
of God
will be
separated from
the children
of the
enemy.
The dead
will be
raised and
we who
know him
by faith
will live
with him
forever
in a new
and better
Eden,
a new
heavens
and the
new earth.
Is this
your hope
church?
Will you
trust his
promises
promises?
Even in
the midst
of darkness?
Father,
we praise
you that
all of the
promises of
God find
their yes
and amen
in Jesus
Christ.
We praise
you that
even now
as we live
in between
some promise
and fulfillment,
Lord, we pray
that we would
live by faith
and walk
by faith,
that we would
look back to
the cross
and the
resurrection
and be
reminded that
you have been
faithful to us
already and
surely you
will be
faithful again.
Lord, we pray
now, Lord, as we
stand to worship
you, would we
worship you by
faith?
We pray this in
Jesus' name.
Amen.