WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.160 Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast. 00:04.840 --> 00:08.260 We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you, 00:08.480 --> 00:12.020 builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God. 00:12.560 --> 00:15.160 Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible 00:15.160 --> 00:17.840 and learn how you can apply it straight to your life. 00:18.240 --> 00:20.380 So welcome and enjoy the message. 00:21.120 --> 00:26.940 If you have your Bible, please open it with me to Genesis chapter 3 in a message I'm calling 00:26.940 --> 00:29.240 God Declares War. 00:30.000 --> 00:36.700 In the beginning of Genesis 3, we find Adam and Eve living in a perfect world in which 00:36.700 --> 00:37.720 God had made. 00:38.100 --> 00:39.940 They're living the perfect life. 00:40.640 --> 00:46.180 But a serpent in verse number 1 emerges, And we know from the book of Revelation that that 00:46.180 --> 00:53.260 serpent is none other than Satan. And Satan tempts Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge 00:53.260 --> 00:59.500 of good and evil, the tree, the one tree that God had forbidden them to eat from. You see, 00:59.500 --> 01:05.820 God created mankind with a choice of whether they would live in perfect harmony with God and perfect 01:05.820 --> 01:13.300 relationship with Him or whether they would choose their own path, Satan's path. Well, the serpent 01:13.300 --> 01:20.900 tempts Adam and Eve, and they join Satan's rebellion against God. Now, last week we looked 01:20.900 --> 01:26.100 at the devastating consequences of their sin in the second half of chapter 01:26.100 --> 01:26.579 three. 01:26.580 --> 01:34.460 We read about how pain now accompanies all the blessings of God and how mankind now dies 01:34.460 --> 01:36.400 both physically and spiritually. 01:37.340 --> 01:41.400 You see, because of our sin, not only do our bodies die, but our spirit dies as well. 01:41.400 --> 01:46.040 That means that our spirits are separated from intimacy with God. 01:46.980 --> 01:53.080 You see, God created each and every one of us in his image, and we were created for a relationship 01:53.080 --> 02:00.500 with him, to love him and obey him and serve him and to glorify him in perfect relationship with 02:00.500 --> 02:07.580 him. But sin messed all that up. And so when we sin, God departed from us so that within every 02:07.580 --> 02:14.540 human heart, there's this hole. And the hole is shaped like God. Now, we try to fill that empty 02:14.540 --> 02:19.560 hole with all kinds of different things, whether it be drug or drugs or alcohol, money, sex, 02:20.060 --> 02:26.140 power, fame, you name it. We even try to fill it with good works, but none of those things 02:26.140 --> 02:34.620 fill that hole. The only thing that fits is Jesus Christ. Now, when we receive Jesus by faith as 02:34.620 --> 02:41.340 our Savior and our Lord, He comes, God comes to live within us, and He offers us this intimate 02:41.340 --> 02:47.120 relationship with Him once again by His Spirit. What was lost in the Garden of Eden 02:47.120 --> 02:53.780 is restored through the cross of Jesus and the resurrection. Now, last week we skipped over a 02:53.780 --> 03:00.520 couple verses in the middle of this chapter where God curses Satan, and we went straight to mankind's 03:00.520 --> 03:07.360 consequences. But God didn't start with us. He actually started with Satan, whom the Bible calls 03:07.360 --> 03:12.580 the enemy. So let's read Genesis chapter 3 verse 14. It says, 03:12.580 --> 03:18.560 So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you've done this, cursed are you above all 03:18.560 --> 03:23.040 livestock and all wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and will eat the dust 03:23.040 --> 03:25.520 all the days of your life. Here's 03:25.520 --> 03:32.060 the first thing we see. God cursed Satan. Now, I'm not sure if you noticed last week, but 03:32.060 --> 03:38.920 God cursed the ground, but He didn't actually curse mankind. Men and women, we experience 03:38.920 --> 03:51.560 terrible consequences because of our sin, but God didn't actually pronounce a curse upon us in Genesis chapter 3. I think because God's not done with us. Before time began, God had a plan 03:51.560 --> 03:57.380 to save humanity from their sin, and He would do so by sending His one and only begotten Son, Jesus, 03:57.560 --> 04:08.500 to pay for our sins upon the cross so that God could give us life instead of death. But we see here that God doesn't offer the same grace to Satan. 04:09.160 --> 04:11.680 Instead, He gives him an eternal curse. 04:11.840 --> 04:17.380 Now, it's true that when we sin, we are completely responsible for our sin, 04:17.460 --> 04:24.220 but Scripture also indicates, in a sense, perhaps we're also victims of the enemy, the devil. 04:24.920 --> 04:26.320 God says to Satan here, he says, 04:26.420 --> 04:30.780 because you've done this, because you've tempted mankind, because you've helped cast them into 04:30.780 --> 04:35.860 utter darkness and to death, because of that you're cursed, and you're now going to be confined 04:35.860 --> 04:48.000 to your belly, and of the dust of the ground you're going to eat all the days of your life. Now, I'm not exactly sure what this serpent looked like at this point, 04:48.000 --> 04:54.560 but apparently it moved more gracefully than a snake does. But now in humiliation, 04:54.560 --> 05:00.140 it is going to be confined to the ground to slither about. Now, it's important to remember 05:00.140 --> 05:06.040 that this curse upon the serpent is also symbolic of the curse on Satan himself. 05:06.940 --> 05:13.120 Verse number 15, we read, God says, and I will put enmity between you and the woman 05:13.120 --> 05:15.680 and between your offspring and hers. 05:15.820 --> 05:20.440 He will crush your head and you will bruise his heel. 05:20.580 --> 05:25.700 Now, you may not see it at first glance, but this verse, Genesis chapter 3, 05:25.800 --> 05:31.200 verse number 15, is one of the most important verses in all of the Bible. It's been called by 05:31.200 --> 05:38.860 many the Proto-Evangelion, meaning the first gospel. This is the first prophecy in the Bible 05:38.860 --> 05:43.620 of a coming Messiah seed who would deliver a death blow to Satan and save his people 05:43.620 --> 05:45.700 in the process. Now, we know 05:45.700 --> 05:51.480 that person to be Jesus, our Savior and our Lord. But I want us to break down this verse because 05:51.480 --> 05:57.080 there's a lot packed in here in this one small little verse. God begins by saying, I will put 05:57.080 --> 06:09.420 enmity between you and the woman. And I think this is the beginning of why women hate snakes so much. Now, to be honest, 06:09.420 --> 06:16.200 I hate snakes as well. But my son Micah, for whatever reason, he loves snakes. It just, 06:16.640 --> 06:21.960 it boggles the mind. He'll go out and catch them. In fact, believe it or not, this week, 06:22.060 --> 06:26.780 weather was good. He caught 12 snakes along Round Mountain Road. 06:27.580 --> 06:32.880 I mean, this dude's nuts, right? A couple of years ago, a few years back, he caught a little baby 06:32.880 --> 06:39.560 snake while we were in Oklahoma, and he decided to take it home with us to California. Now, he snuck 06:39.560 --> 06:45.480 that snake under his seat in a little container, and Kelsey, when she realized it was in the van with us, 06:45.520 --> 06:52.880 she started panicking. So Micah, he assured her the snake was harmless, which meant nothing to 06:52.880 --> 07:00.880 Kelsey. And he said, it is in the perfect container. It can never get out. Well, somewhere, 07:01.300 --> 07:08.040 somewhere in New Mexico, I'm in the back seat sleeping, and I wake up to screaming 07:08.040 --> 07:09.480 an absolute tear. 07:09.600 --> 07:14.280 The van's jerking back and forth, side to side, and I knew exactly what happened. 07:14.360 --> 07:15.840 That snake got out. 07:16.580 --> 07:26.700 And not only did it get out, it slithered its way to the front of the van. It climbed Kelsey's charging cord for her phone 07:26.700 --> 07:38.040 onto the steering wheel before she saw it. And so she is scream crying. And I wake up and I start 07:38.040 --> 07:43.400 shouting. I said, please don't kill our family. Please don't kill our family. Because she's 07:43.400 --> 07:52.720 jerking back and forth. Remember, we're on I-40. She's going like 75 miles an hour and there's semis all around. She had lost almost 07:52.720 --> 07:58.420 all rational thought in her mind. So her body was involuntarily jerking the wheel back and forth. 07:58.860 --> 08:07.580 And so finally I convinced her, slow down, pull to the side of the road, Kelsey, stop. So she does so. She gets out. She runs like 08:07.580 --> 08:14.760 50 yards away, flailing her arm, doing this dance, right? Adrenaline pumping. 08:16.780 --> 08:30.220 At that point, I told Micah, I said, Micah, you have every reason to fear for your life. Why? Because God put enmity between the serpent and the woman. 08:30.320 --> 08:38.380 But let us remember, the serpent is the devil. So primarily God is speaking here. He's saying, 08:38.520 --> 08:47.480 I'm putting enmity between Satan and the woman, his seed and her seed, his offspring, her offspring. Now, this word 08:47.480 --> 08:55.060 enmity is a very strong word. It means conflict, or it is even stronger than that. It means war. 08:56.020 --> 09:08.160 The beginning of World War II, America was trying to stay out of the war until Japan unexpectedly bombed us at Pearl Harvard, killing over 2,400 09:08.160 --> 09:14.140 soldiers and civilians. And the next day, President Franklin Roosevelt took to the airwaves, 09:14.740 --> 09:20.420 declaring war with the now famous words, this is a day that will live in infamy. 09:21.420 --> 09:27.260 Well, I think in Genesis chapter 3, we see that in God's peaceful, perfect garden, 09:28.240 --> 09:34.420 Satan, the enemy, dropped some sin bombs on Adam and Eve. And God basically is saying here 09:34.420 --> 09:41.760 in verse number 15, this is a day that will live in infamy. And in that moment, God declared war 09:41.760 --> 09:48.940 on Satan. He declared war against the enemy, the devil, who is tempting mankind to 09:48.940 --> 09:53.980 follow him into rebellion. It's as if he said, Satan, you started this, but I'm going to finish 09:53.980 --> 10:01.460 it. And I'm actually going to finish it by using a human being to do so. I'm going to put enmity, 10:02.100 --> 10:07.560 war, and conflict between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. 10:08.240 --> 10:13.820 Now, this word seed is a unique word both in Hebrew and in English 10:13.820 --> 10:18.440 because it can be either plural or singular based on context. 10:18.740 --> 10:22.120 That makes it the perfect word for this prophecy. 10:22.780 --> 10:27.760 It's translated in Greek as sperma. We get our word sperm from it. It 10:27.760 --> 10:34.940 refers to offspring. God says, I will put enmity between your seed and her seed. Now, her seed 10:34.940 --> 10:46.720 refers to God's people and specifically the Messiah, the coming Messiah. I think the devil seed refers to everyone who has not yet trusted Jesus 10:46.720 --> 10:52.080 as their Savior. 1 John chapter 3 verse number 10 says, 10:53.220 --> 10:58.660 in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice 10:58.660 --> 11:04.520 righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. So John implies if you're 11:04.520 --> 11:05.800 not of God, if you're not 11:05.800 --> 11:11.840 a child of God, you're of the devil. You're the child of the devil. You're still blinded by his 11:11.840 --> 11:16.500 lies. Now he says a couple of verses earlier in verse number eight, he says, he who sins is of 11:16.500 --> 11:28.180 the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. So the Son 11:28.180 --> 11:36.240 of God was sent by God, why? To destroy the works of the devil. Now, but according to Genesis 3.15 11:36.240 --> 11:41.800 that we've been reading here this morning, it's not the Son of God that's prophesied to destroy 11:41.800 --> 11:45.180 the devil, it's the Son of Eve who will destroy the devil. 11:45.840 --> 11:53.280 So which is it? Well, the truth is the promised Messiah seed would be the son of man and the son 11:53.280 --> 11:58.780 of God. Now, how could that possibly be? It's only through the woman's seed. You see her seed, 11:58.920 --> 12:04.680 that's a unique terminology. It doesn't even make sense at first glance because seed is referenced 12:04.680 --> 12:05.659 a whole lot in scripture, but every other time it's referenced, it's in even make sense at first glance, because seed is referenced a whole lot in 12:05.660 --> 12:11.980 Scripture, but every other time it's referenced, it's in reference to a man's seed. Why? Because 12:11.980 --> 12:17.820 the woman doesn't have seed. She has an egg. The man has seed that fertilizes the egg. So what in 12:17.820 --> 12:26.920 the world is this signifying, talking about a woman's seed? It signifies that the coming Savior, Messiah King, would be born 12:26.920 --> 12:34.140 of a virgin. And we know that prophecy happened thousands of years later when Jesus, our Savior, 12:34.280 --> 12:41.780 was born in the little town of Bethlehem. Verse number 15, again, we read, and I will put enmity 12:41.780 --> 12:46.620 between you and the woman, between your seat and her seat. 12:47.260 --> 12:51.520 He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. 12:52.940 --> 12:56.380 And we see here that God promised victory over Satan. 12:56.480 --> 12:58.360 He didn't just declare war, He promised victory. 12:59.000 --> 13:07.300 See, the war with the enemy not only involves humanity, it involves a savior and it involves a king. 13:08.500 --> 13:14.960 Now, from this promise on there in the Garden of Eden, after rebellion had take place by mankind, 13:14.960 --> 13:22.520 from this point on, the devil set out on a quest to thwart the plan of God. 13:23.160 --> 13:26.300 And for thousands of years, we read about it in the Old Testament, 13:26.560 --> 13:33.200 for thousands of years, he tried to destroy the seed line, the nation of Israel. And I actually 13:33.200 --> 13:38.380 think it started before Israel became a nation. We're going to see next week in chapter four that 13:38.380 --> 13:46.600 after Cain killed his brother Abel, Adam and Eve gave birth to another son that God had given them, Seth. 13:47.080 --> 13:52.900 And Eve said of Seth, she said, God has appointed another seed. 13:53.080 --> 13:56.260 She uses the word seed for me instead of Abel who can't kill. 13:56.860 --> 14:02.440 You see, on Eve's mind was still this promised seed from God. 14:02.780 --> 14:06.420 Now, as we read throughout the Old Testament, you just read about this coming 14:06.420 --> 14:11.760 seed, this coming Messiah all throughout. God keeps telling us a little bit more about the 14:11.760 --> 14:16.040 coming Messiah. He would be a descendant of Abraham. He would be a descendant of Jacob, 14:16.040 --> 14:22.440 of Israel. He would be of the tribe of Judah. We find out that he also will be the son of David, 14:22.540 --> 14:25.720 of his line. He'll be a king. God keeps whispering 14:25.720 --> 14:29.780 throughout his unfolding revelation of who he is. He's saying the seed is coming. 14:30.420 --> 14:36.820 The seed is coming. I have not forgotten. Eve, I have not forgotten. The seed is coming. And the 14:36.820 --> 14:44.840 seed finally came. And he was born of the Virgin Mary, of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. 14:45.220 --> 14:47.560 Now, when he was born, it's not like Satan just gave up. 14:48.260 --> 14:49.820 He didn't throw in the towel at that point. 14:49.820 --> 14:52.500 He tried to have him killed by King Herod. 14:53.440 --> 14:55.840 They had to eventually flee to Egypt. 14:56.040 --> 14:58.340 We know that all throughout Jesus' public ministry, 14:58.480 --> 15:02.000 the devil kept attacking him over and over and over again. 15:02.100 --> 15:04.260 In fact, he spent 40 days in the desert, 15:05.020 --> 15:08.060 tempted by the enemy, toe to toe with him. 15:08.400 --> 15:12.480 He had spiritual, I mean, demons flocked to Israel, 15:12.700 --> 15:14.360 I think, to attack. 15:14.980 --> 15:16.580 And so he had to cast out these demons. 15:16.860 --> 15:19.060 He faced opposition at every turn, 15:19.140 --> 15:23.160 but unlike Adam, he withstood all the attacks of the enemy 15:23.160 --> 15:26.800 all the way to his suffering death on the cross. 15:28.860 --> 15:35.900 Now, what in the world are we to make of this bruised heel and this bruised head, this crushed 15:35.900 --> 15:49.200 head? Well, this striking of the seed's heel is a reference to the cross. You see, on the cross, the serpent struck the heel 15:49.200 --> 15:59.520 of Jesus. But in the process, Jesus crushed the head of the serpent. You see, what Satan meant 15:59.520 --> 16:09.840 for evil, God meant for good. Now, the bruising of Jesus upon the cross, it was necessary, wasn't it? 16:10.640 --> 16:17.880 Here's our principle. The bruising of Jesus was necessary to forgive our sins. It was necessary 16:17.880 --> 16:25.920 for the God-man to pay for sins. Isaiah chapter 53, there was a prophesied hundreds of years before Christ, 16:26.320 --> 16:29.980 speaking of the coming Messiah, but he was wounded for our transgressions. 16:29.980 --> 16:32.640 He was bruised for our iniquities. 16:33.040 --> 16:36.660 The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we're healed. 16:37.360 --> 16:41.660 You see, the Bible says there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. 16:42.460 --> 16:48.980 You see, our greatest need in all of life is to be forgiven. That's our 16:48.980 --> 16:57.240 greatest need. We desperately need to be forgiven of our sin. Otherwise, we got to be held accountable 16:57.240 --> 17:06.740 by God for our sin ourselves. We need to be forgiven. And our greatest need through the cross became God's greatest accomplishment. 17:07.640 --> 17:15.420 I heard about a professor who used to begin his semester each year with the first day of class 17:15.420 --> 17:20.580 by putting two numbers up on the whiteboard. He put the number four, and then out beside it, 17:20.580 --> 17:27.560 he put the number two. Then he asked the class, what's the answer? And someone would, 17:27.620 --> 17:31.780 you know, shout out six, or they shout out eight, or another person would shout out two, 17:31.860 --> 17:36.820 but each time the professor would just shake his head no until finally when they're frustrated and 17:36.820 --> 17:41.220 they're done guessing, he would say, the reason you can't find the answer, the reason you can't 17:41.220 --> 17:45.180 find the solution is because you have all failed to ask the pertinent question, 17:45.380 --> 17:52.820 what's the problem? And I think that's our world. They can't seem to find the solution to this big 17:52.820 --> 17:59.840 mess of this broken world because they have not correctly identified the problem. We have a sin 17:59.840 --> 18:08.340 problem, and our sin causes pain, suffering, and death. We have a holy God. And so we're distant 18:08.340 --> 18:13.500 now from God. Our relationship has been severed and broken with God. And it also has been broken 18:13.500 --> 18:19.900 with other people so that it separates. We desperately need more than anything else is to 18:19.900 --> 18:27.680 be forgiven by God, for God to forgive us and make us clean. You see, as soon as Adam and Eve created 18:27.680 --> 18:35.500 the biggest problem on earth, God stepped in with a solution for the ages. And the battle with Satan 18:35.500 --> 18:48.660 for God's children, that battle was won by the bruising of the cross. See, Satan was playing checkers. God was playing chess. Now, we know 18:48.660 --> 18:54.440 from the scriptures that this cosmic battle and war is actually still taking place. 18:55.820 --> 19:07.860 And humanity, because of our sin, we're prisoners of that war. We're malnourished slaves of sin. We're malnourished slaves of the devil, weakened 19:07.860 --> 19:16.480 and blinded by the God of this age. But what God did on the cross is he paid the price for our 19:16.480 --> 19:28.020 freedom. And anyone willing to leave the devil's hellhole of sin can now be made free by the blood of Jesus. Now here's the deal though. While victory over 19:28.020 --> 19:38.760 Satan has been secured through the cross, it won't fully be realized completely until Jesus returns. 19:38.880 --> 19:45.780 In fact, that's our principle. The victory Jesus secured through the cross will be fully realized upon his return. 19:47.260 --> 19:54.780 On June 6, 1944, just a few years after the U.S. entered World War II, the Allied forces stormed 19:54.780 --> 20:01.580 the beaches of Normandy in the largest seaborne attack in history. We call it D-Day. And in that 20:01.580 --> 20:07.040 great battle and the great invasion was the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany and the war. 20:07.460 --> 20:09.380 Victory was secured that day. 20:09.460 --> 20:17.940 But it was not until 11 months later on May 8th, 1945, that we celebrated victory in what is now called V-Day. 20:19.240 --> 20:26.360 Well, historians will tell you the outcome of the war was decided not on V-Day, it was decided on D-Day. Because on 20:26.360 --> 20:35.040 D-Day, it was now only a matter of time until victory was fully realized. Using that as an 20:35.040 --> 20:46.100 illustration, the cross was D-Day, and Christ's return is V-Day, meaning the outcome of the war right now is inevitable. 20:46.620 --> 20:48.460 Jesus has already secured victory. 20:48.940 --> 20:53.180 Even though the devil's still kicking, he's still fighting, he's still trying to take people down. 20:53.540 --> 20:55.140 Victory is inevitable. 20:56.380 --> 21:08.700 You see, someday Jesus is going to return to this earth, this time, not as a suffering servant, but as a ruling king. And his return will usher in a series of events 21:08.700 --> 21:13.260 that will lead to the final blow upon the enemy. 21:13.720 --> 21:16.480 We read about it in Revelation chapter 20, verse number 10. 21:16.540 --> 21:21.260 The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire 21:21.260 --> 21:23.860 and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. 21:24.520 --> 21:27.820 And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. 21:29.600 --> 21:34.840 Someday King Jesus will finish crushing Satan's head once and for all. 21:36.040 --> 21:39.720 I remember as a young kid walking out of my grandparents' house in Oklahoma 21:39.720 --> 21:42.900 and walking right up on a rattlesnake in my mammy's garden. 21:43.100 --> 21:46.400 And so I ran back in the house to tell her there was a snake there 21:46.400 --> 21:50.640 because my dad and papa were out working cattle. 21:50.760 --> 21:53.580 And so I ran inside and I said, there's a rattlesnake in your garden. 21:53.640 --> 21:56.020 And she didn't believe me because that's a pretty sandy area. 21:56.140 --> 21:57.860 Normally they don't get rattlesnakes. 21:58.000 --> 22:01.600 But she came out and sure enough, there's a rattlesnake right in her garden. 22:01.600 --> 22:03.600 And I'll never forget what happened next. 22:04.300 --> 22:05.039 Without a 22:05.040 --> 22:12.040 word, she grabbed a hoe and with one swing, she chopped that snake's head off. My eyes were big. 22:12.160 --> 22:26.180 She's like, wow, grandma, you know. She knew out there on the farm that if you're going to strike a serpent, you better take its head off. 22:30.120 --> 22:34.939 And God knew that exact same thing. 22:34.940 --> 22:39.259 So the serpent who came into our Lord's garden that he had perfectly made, 22:39.260 --> 22:40.919 he'll be crushed, and he will spend an eternity in hell. 22:40.920 --> 22:42.060 Rightful judgment. 22:46.980 --> 22:50.660 Now there's one last truth about the crushing of the serpent that we actually learned from the New Testament. I'm going to give you the principle, then we'll look at the verse. 22:50.840 --> 22:59.300 We, as Christians, are actually soldiers in the Lord's army, and we will be used to crush 22:59.300 --> 23:06.420 the serpent. God tells us in Ephesians chapter 6, those of us who are believers, that we are to 23:06.420 --> 23:12.400 put on the whole armor of God. Why? Because we're soldiers in the war. Why else would we need armor? 23:12.640 --> 23:20.740 It's because we're soldiers. Did you know that as Christian soldiers, we actually get to participate 23:20.740 --> 23:26.640 in crushing the enemy's head? We learned that from Romans chapter 16, verse number 20. 23:27.780 --> 23:36.420 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. Isn't that amazing? You see, 23:36.500 --> 23:45.660 Jesus will crush Satan under our feet because Christ's victory is our victory. Now, how's that going to actually happen? Well, I think 23:45.660 --> 23:52.220 we see a glimpse of how it's going to take place in Revelation chapter 12, verse number 11. It 23:52.220 --> 23:57.860 says, and they overcame him, that's the devil, by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their 23:57.860 --> 24:09.000 testimony, and they did not love their lives to death. See, the devil started this whole war, and we joined him. In our sin, 24:09.100 --> 24:15.740 we joined his side instead of God's side. But now God is on a rescue mission for the world, 24:16.120 --> 24:21.500 and he's calling many of us. He's calling us out of the domain of darkness into his domain of love 24:21.500 --> 24:25.380 and light. And many of us listening, maybe not everyone in this room, 24:25.660 --> 24:27.680 but many of us, we have defected. 24:28.100 --> 24:30.460 We've defected from the enemy's camp, 24:30.600 --> 24:33.240 and we have now joined forces with the Lord's army, 24:33.420 --> 24:35.960 joining the fierce battle against the great enemy. 24:37.100 --> 24:41.560 But the question is, how do we overcome him? 24:41.700 --> 24:42.920 Well, first of all, it says, 24:43.380 --> 24:45.320 they overcame him by the blood of the lamb. 24:45.900 --> 24:51.120 You see, it's not primarily our doing. It's Christ's doing. It's God's doing. Hebrews chapter 24:51.120 --> 24:56.740 2 verse number 14 says, inasmuch then as the children were taken of flesh and blood, he himself, 24:56.740 --> 25:06.920 that's Jesus, likewise shared in the same. He became a human. Why? That through death, that's the cross, he might destroy him who had the power of death, 25:07.080 --> 25:08.220 that is the devil. 25:08.800 --> 25:11.380 You see, Jesus destroyed the devil through the cross, 25:11.480 --> 25:13.920 through the shedding of his blood. 25:14.680 --> 25:17.540 So we overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, 25:17.920 --> 25:20.620 but also by the word of their testimony. 25:20.620 --> 25:23.020 Let me ask you, 25:23.900 --> 25:27.580 how often do you share your testimony as a Christian? 25:28.380 --> 25:35.160 How often do you share your story? That is, your story of how you met Jesus, how He saved your life. 25:35.640 --> 25:40.520 Now, I think a good testimony includes your story before you met Jesus, your story of meeting Jesus, 25:40.520 --> 25:45.340 and now your story after meeting Jesus, what He's done in your life. And as we tell 25:45.340 --> 25:53.860 our story, we must always tell His story, the story of Jesus. Paul says in Romans chapter 1, 25:53.940 --> 25:59.360 verse number 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God 25:59.360 --> 26:06.120 to salvation for everyone who believes. So let me ask you, are you ashamed? 26:11.180 --> 26:15.099 Are you ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ? 26:15.100 --> 26:16.380 Instead of shame, we ought to feel pride. 26:18.480 --> 26:21.260 Pride that we have defected and been called out of darkness, 26:21.260 --> 26:24.700 and now God has offered for us to walk in light 26:24.700 --> 26:25.539 if we will just 26:25.540 --> 26:33.460 walk there. I love that every week at our Wednesday evening service, someone stands right 26:33.460 --> 26:40.680 here on the ground, and they share their testimony. There's not a week that goes by that I'm not 26:40.680 --> 26:45.960 greatly encouraged. I mean, the Lord uses it to bless my soul and to give me 26:45.960 --> 26:51.360 courage to keep on keeping on, to see people that were once in darkness and God has called them out 26:51.360 --> 26:57.400 of it and saved their life. It just gives me courage to keep on in the fight. So we need to 26:57.400 --> 27:02.680 be sharing our testimony with each other in life group, in our circles, in our congregation with 27:02.680 --> 27:06.880 other Christians, but we also need to be sharing our story with the world 27:06.880 --> 27:08.940 that doesn't know Jesus yet. 27:09.620 --> 27:10.780 Jesus called them the lost. 27:10.940 --> 27:12.060 They've been lost. 27:13.480 --> 27:15.040 We've got to be sharing it with them. 27:15.640 --> 27:19.080 Now, when you share your story with the lost, 27:20.260 --> 27:21.780 you're not trying to win an argument. 27:22.020 --> 27:25.640 You're not trying to argue with them at all. 27:25.940 --> 27:29.840 You're simply telling them about how you once were lost, but now you've been found. 27:30.680 --> 27:33.840 You were blind spiritually, but now you see. 27:34.500 --> 27:39.040 You were a beggar, and you're sharing with another beggar where you found some food. 27:39.800 --> 27:40.980 That's what Christians do. 27:41.060 --> 27:45.400 That's the word of their testimony, And God uses our testimony in powerful ways. 27:45.500 --> 27:50.120 In fact, I believe it is the most powerful tool that we have in reaching our friends 27:50.120 --> 27:51.160 and our world for Christ. 27:51.960 --> 27:55.720 They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. 27:55.720 --> 27:59.860 And then it says, and they did not love their lives to death. 28:00.780 --> 28:02.179 What does that mean? 28:02.180 --> 28:09.800 That means they went all in. Did you know that you are not really ready to live 28:09.800 --> 28:18.000 until you're not afraid to die? I really believe that. I mean, when you come to the point where 28:18.000 --> 28:27.620 you're all in for Jesus, whatever happens, wherever he takes you, If I die to live as Christ, to die as gain. When you come to that 28:27.620 --> 28:33.940 point, that's when life takes off. That's when you're really living. And that only comes by 28:33.940 --> 28:45.240 complete, utter dependence upon God, complete surrender to Jesus. I love the old song. In fact, I wish we sang it more. It says, all to Jesus I surrender. 28:45.940 --> 28:48.680 All to him I freely give. 28:49.220 --> 28:51.280 I surrender all. 28:52.620 --> 28:54.919 So let me ask you, 28:54.920 --> 28:58.560 have you surrendered it all to Jesus? 29:01.480 --> 29:02.920 Have you surrendered it all? 29:03.860 --> 29:06.480 Or are there still some of the malnourished goodies 29:06.480 --> 29:08.160 of the enemy that you enjoy? 29:09.860 --> 29:12.700 Or there's some of the lies that the devil loves to tell 29:12.700 --> 29:14.620 that you still believe? 29:15.620 --> 29:17.800 Or there's some of the enemy's actions 29:17.800 --> 29:19.360 that you still are mimicking? 29:21.480 --> 29:23.020 Have you come out of the camp? 29:23.980 --> 29:26.860 Have you come through the doors of freedom? 29:28.940 --> 29:35.080 What does your life look like? I heard about an old story about some Roman soldiers who were, 29:35.360 --> 29:39.420 these guys were true warriors, and they traveled by boat to a little island off of Britain 29:39.420 --> 29:45.380 to conquer it. And as the soldiers got out of the boat, the people from the village that were up on 29:45.380 --> 29:49.040 the hill, they saw these soldiers getting out of the boat, and the people thought, well, we've got 29:49.040 --> 29:55.960 to defend our island. Now, they weren't warriors, but they were motivated. So they got sticks, and 29:55.960 --> 29:59.880 they got pitchforks, they got rocks, they got anything they could possibly get their hands 29:59.880 --> 30:05.300 on that they could fight with, and they started down the hill to meet the soldiers. And as they 30:05.300 --> 30:10.140 were walking down the hill, they noticed and saw that when the soldiers got out of their boat, 30:10.260 --> 30:16.440 they turned around and the soldiers set fire to the boat. And when the people saw that, 30:16.680 --> 30:26.420 they dropped their pitchforks and rocks and they surrendered. Why? 30:29.060 --> 30:30.300 Because they realized that those Roman soldiers hadn't come to retreat. 30:31.020 --> 30:33.080 They had come to conquer that island 30:33.080 --> 30:35.040 or die trying. 30:38.740 --> 30:41.340 Let me ask you, Christian soldier, 30:42.060 --> 30:46.840 have you kept a boat pulled up on the beach of your life 30:46.840 --> 30:49.739 for just in case? 30:49.740 --> 30:51.740 Or have you set a fire 30:51.740 --> 30:53.260 to your old life? 30:54.400 --> 30:55.379 Cut ties 30:55.380 --> 30:57.940 with what the devil offers? 30:59.640 --> 31:01.020 The old song says, 31:01.140 --> 31:03.060 I have decided to follow Jesus. 31:03.640 --> 31:04.820 No turning back. 31:05.840 --> 31:08.299 No turning back. No turning back. 31:08.300 --> 31:15.820 Sometimes a drunk who's even trying to come off alcohol, he's trying to quit drinking. 31:17.440 --> 31:23.120 We'll keep a bottle hidden away somewhere for just in case. 31:25.700 --> 31:29.080 Listen, Christian soldier, burn the boat. 31:31.080 --> 31:34.780 Dump out the bottle and give it all to Jesus. 31:35.740 --> 31:37.120 No turning back. 31:38.300 --> 31:39.500 No turning back. 31:40.420 --> 31:42.600 Let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, if you will. 31:44.660 --> 31:47.240 This is a holy moment in the life of our church. 31:48.400 --> 31:52.540 We're asking it not to just be a holy moment for our church as a whole, 31:52.640 --> 31:54.760 but for it to be a holy moment for you individually. 31:56.820 --> 31:59.480 The Bible says that God's word never returns void. 31:59.620 --> 32:07.300 That means that God has something for you today, every one of us. 32:10.800 --> 32:13.660 And the beauty and the brilliance of the Holy Spirit is that he takes his word and he applies it 32:13.660 --> 32:15.600 in specific ways to individuals. 32:16.760 --> 32:19.600 And so what God may be really telling you today 32:19.600 --> 32:21.500 might be completely different 32:21.500 --> 32:23.400 than what God is telling someone else. 32:23.460 --> 32:24.239 And that's okay. 32:24.240 --> 32:25.460 That's the work of the Holy Spirit. 32:25.560 --> 32:30.799 That's the beauty of it. 32:30.800 --> 32:52.400 I'm asking that you make this moment a moment where you receive and say yes to whatever God's putting on your heart. Now, it could be, and likely is, that there are some listening to this message today who 32:52.400 --> 33:01.640 are still a POW, a prisoner of the war. 33:01.640 --> 33:07.420 You're still a slave to your sin. 33:10.960 --> 33:14.319 And as soon as you seem like you've, you know, 33:14.320 --> 33:15.499 started to get a handle of one sin, 33:15.500 --> 33:17.079 another sin pops up, 33:17.080 --> 33:19.999 and you're just a slave to it. 33:20.000 --> 33:22.039 You can't seem to get out of it. 33:22.040 --> 33:22.499 That was all of us. 33:22.500 --> 33:25.660 The Bible says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 33:28.400 --> 33:35.500 I want to invite you to receive the one who came to set you free. 33:37.000 --> 33:37.939 And you know what? 33:37.940 --> 33:45.120 His mission to come set you free, 33:47.960 --> 33:52.960 it cost him dearly. 33:54.200 --> 34:00.379 The truth is, 34:00.380 --> 34:01.600 we must receive what he has done on our behalf in order to be set free. 34:02.400 --> 34:03.379 The Bible says, 34:03.380 --> 34:05.460 whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall 34:05.460 --> 34:11.740 be saved. So you can just call upon the name of the Lord and he'll rescue you. He'll free you. 34:12.680 --> 34:17.900 Not free you to live a life of sin and rebellion. That's enslaving. That's not freedom. 34:18.420 --> 34:20.960 That's what everyone experiences, living for self. 34:21.880 --> 34:25.800 What he's going to do is he's going to free you to live as you were created. 34:28.140 --> 34:34.000 A relationship with God, that's when freedom really takes root and becomes alive and it 34:34.000 --> 34:49.000 flourishes. The problem is sin, isn't it? And at the root of sin is self, and at the root of that is pride. And so what becoming a Christian requires of us 34:49.000 --> 35:09.580 is to humble ourselves, to come to the end of our rope, to realize we can't do it on our own. We need God to do it for us. See, we are saved by the grace of God through 35:09.580 --> 35:16.660 faith. It's not of works, as anyone should boast or be prideful. It's a gift, and we receive the 35:16.660 --> 35:21.520 gift by faith. So I want to invite you to give your life to Jesus today. In just a moment, we're 35:21.520 --> 35:29.200 going to stand as soon as I sing, and there's going to be pastors, as soon as I pray, there's going to be pastors and other leaders here at the front, prayer partners, 35:29.460 --> 35:34.060 and we're just going to invite you to step out wherever you're at, and come down these steps, 35:34.260 --> 35:38.340 these staircases, walk down one of these aisles, and say, I want to give my life to Christ, and 35:38.340 --> 35:44.580 these folks will know how to help you. You say, man, I don't even know what that means exactly. 35:44.940 --> 35:45.839 They'll know how to help you. You just come as you are don't even know what that means exactly. They'll know how to help 35:45.840 --> 35:50.420 you. You just come as you are. You don't have to come with all the answers. You don't have to come 35:50.420 --> 35:56.740 with your life cleaned up. In fact, you can't come with your life cleaned up. You come and then God 35:56.740 --> 36:01.700 begins to work in you. So I want to invite you today to do just that in just a moment. 36:01.700 --> 36:05.780 Or maybe you say, I want to be baptized like others today or join this church family. 36:05.840 --> 36:08.820 Or maybe something else completely is on your mind and your heart 36:08.820 --> 36:10.000 and you want to come to these steps, 36:10.680 --> 36:11.720 pour out your heart to the Lord. 36:11.780 --> 36:12.639 Maybe you're a Christian 36:12.640 --> 36:19.900 and Jesus has set you free from the prison of sin. 36:21.000 --> 36:29.560 He's unlocked the door to your prison cell he's even opened up the door 36:29.560 --> 36:33.900 but for whatever reason you're still in there 36:33.900 --> 36:40.640 you haven't come out or maybe you came out for a while and you went back in 36:40.640 --> 36:46.060 i'm telling you for those of us who are in Christ, we're no longer slaves to sin. 36:46.660 --> 36:51.200 Jesus has set us free. You don't have to live there. Why would you want to live there? 36:53.480 --> 36:58.500 I want to invite you, if you're a Christian today, to go all in, 36:59.340 --> 37:05.420 to burn the boat and say, I'm all in, in the Lord's army, wherever he calls me, 37:05.500 --> 37:11.520 however he wants me to live, that's how I'm going to live. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, 37:12.580 --> 37:17.840 for the gift of your precious son, Jesus. 37:20.040 --> 37:23.980 Lord, here in Genesis chapter 3, it's such a depressing chapter, 37:24.660 --> 37:29.039 the fall of mankind, the fall of creation from the good state in which you made it. Lord, here in Genesis chapter 3, it's such a depressing chapter. 37:29.040 --> 37:31.520 The fall of mankind, the fall of creation from the good state in which you made it. 37:35.720 --> 37:40.380 But tucked away in the middle of the chapter is this glorious verse. 37:41.680 --> 37:44.840 It's our hope, Lord. 37:47.540 --> 37:49.820 You see, Jesus, you're our only hope. 37:51.920 --> 37:52.960 This world doesn't offer any hope. 37:53.500 --> 37:56.459 None. None. 37:56.460 --> 37:57.700 You are our hope. 37:59.220 --> 38:05.380 And we thank you, Lord, that it's not a blind optimism kind of a hope, 38:15.000 --> 38:16.660 but, Lord, it is secured in the death and the resurrection of Jesus. 38:22.540 --> 38:27.860 Please, Lord, do a work in our hearts, build up our faith, open our eyes, give people courage, Lord, the courage that it takes to not walk in pride, 38:28.580 --> 38:29.720 but to walk in humility. 38:30.380 --> 38:32.960 May your spirit, Lord, break them down 38:32.960 --> 38:34.580 so you can build them back up. 38:34.660 --> 38:36.780 We ask in Jesus' name, amen. 38:37.860 --> 38:39.180 Thanks for listening today. 38:39.440 --> 38:41.020 We hope you enjoyed this message. 38:41.180 --> 38:43.180 And if you did, we would be so grateful 38:43.180 --> 38:44.380 if you left us a review. 38:45.040 --> 38:50.000 Also, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast if you would like to be notified when a new sermon is released. 38:50.700 --> 38:57.620 If you feel the Lord calling you to take the next step in faith through salvation, service, or giving, don't wait. 38:58.360 --> 39:01.420 Reach out to us by texting PODCAST to 88988. 39:01.800 --> 39:06.940 That's PODCAST to 88988 or connect with us on one of our social media platforms. 39:07.560 --> 39:12.680 You can also visit our website, valleybaptist.org, to find even more great resources. 39:13.460 --> 39:16.560 No matter where you are in your journey, know that we love you. 39:16.880 --> 39:21.020 We're praying for you, and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.