Please turn in your copy of God's Word to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. This is the first sermon in an Advent series called Shadows of a Son. And the title for this sermon is Son of a Woman. As we come to the reading and preaching of God's Word, let me pray for us. Father, in your light, we see light. And so we pray that you would illuminate the reading and the preaching of your word now so that we would see Jesus more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly. And we ask this in his name. Amen. Genesis chapter three, verse 15. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever. I have five one-word points for this sermon, each beginning with the letter S. Five one-word points, each beginning with the letter S. Boys and girls, you can count them on your fingers. I thought I'd keep it simple so your parents can follow along this morning. You ready? Five points, each beginning with the letter S. Here's the first one. Seed. Seed. Reading the Bible is like watching a plant grow from a seed into a full flower, or flower, as you say here. Reading the Bible is like watching a plant grow from seed to full flower. A seed is actually a tiny plant encased in a hard shell. Everything required for that plant to grow to full maturity and into full flower is in that seed. The DNA code is complete. And it's only a matter of time until that seed develops into a little shoot, then into a small plant, and then into a big tree in full flower. And that's a bit like reading the Bible. The early chapters of Genesis are like that seed. They contain all the key information for the rest of the Bible story to develop. We could say that Genesis 3 15 is the seed promise of the whole Bible. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This verse has been called in the Christian tradition the Proto-Ewangelion, which is just a fancy way of saying the first gospel announcement. And I want to suggest that this proto-eugangelion, this first announcement of the gospel is like a seed that grows organically through the scriptures until it comes to a mature tree in full blossom in the coming of a savior who destroys God's enemy and saves God's people. Notice with me, first of all, what God promises in Genesis 3.15. I will put enmity between you and the woman. Enmity between the serpent, a figure representing the devil, and the woman, Eve, the mother of all living. The promise to put enmity between the serpent and the woman is surprising. for the very simple reason that as God speaks these words, the serpent and the woman are on the same team. They are on team devil. The woman had joined the serpent's side when she ate from the forbidden tree, yet here is God graciously bringing her back onto his side by forcing enmity between the serpent and her. No sooner had the serpent forced enmity between God and the woman than God now forces enmity between the serpent and the woman. But the enmity will not just be between the serpent and the woman. It will continue between their respective offsprings. That is, God is going to maintain this enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. The enmity won't just be for one generation, between the serpent and the woman. It will be for all generations. until it climaxes in a final fight between a descendant of the woman and the serpent himself. He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." This is how death is going to come to this serpent. by an offspring of the woman, a seed of the woman, a male seed, a he, not a she, a him, not a her. And what do we call a male descendant of a woman? A son, a son. That's the seed promise of Genesis 3.15, which brings us to the second S, son. This seed promise of Genesis 3.15 is the promise that God is going to send a son. Adam was called God's son, but he forfeited that right by his disobedience. So God promised another son, the one here in Genesis 3.15. Abraham was promised a son through whom he would be made into a great nation. David was promised a son through whom his kingdom would be established forever. The whole of the Old Testament is the long search for a promised son. And it begins here in Genesis 3.15. Sinclair Ferguson has put it well, the whole of the Old Testament is really just a footnote to Genesis 3.15. Gerhardus Vos, a Dutch theologian, said that Genesis 3.15 is the mother promise because it gives birth to all the promises of the Old Testament. It is the promise of a son. Now, I think there are eight things we can learn about this son. That's right, I did just say eight. So boys and girls, I'm sure your math is good enough. Five plus eight equals 13. Don't tell your parents, but this is a 13-point sermon. Eight things about this son. Now, for the adults, you might be thinking of that old ditty, wonderful things in the Bible. I see some put there by God, some put there by me. But I hope by the end, you'll see that these eight things about this son are all reasonably deduced by good and necessary consequence. So here's the first one. This son will descend from a woman with no mention of his father. This son will descend from a woman with no mention of his father. Did you notice that in verse 15? There's the mention of the woman, there's no mention of a man to produce this offspring. Now that's surprising because it's the man who holds the power of begetting descendants. Basic biology tells us that the seed that produces offspring resides in the man. Yet there's no mention of Adam here. This son will descend from the woman without the help of a man. At least that's what's implied. Of course, in order for Eve to have any offspring, Adam will need to be involved. But the emphasis here is on this son coming from a woman without any reference to a father. So in one sense, we should read the rest of the Bible story with our eye on the women of the Bible. What we have here in this promise is the faintest echoes of a virgin birth. This son will descend from a woman with no mention of his father. Number two, he will be a representative son. a representative son. He will represent all the offspring who descend from the woman. This is seen in the collective sense of offspring used in the second line of verse 15, and between your offspring and her offspring. The Hebrew language uses a single noun, a singular noun for the word offspring, sera. It never appears in the plural, only ever in the singular. Now, a singular noun like seed can refer to an individual person or a collective group. Boys and girls, we have words like this in English, you know, fish or sheep. If you see a single fish, you say, look at the fish. If you see a group of fish, you say, look at the fish. Unlike my Hannah, who used to say, look at the fishies. Okay, but her parents had very bad grammar. No, it's fish, whether it's singular or a collective group. Well, it's the same with the Hebrew for seed, for offspring. It's singular, and it can refer to an individual offspring or a collective group of offspring. In line two of verse 15, it refers to the collective group and between your offspring and her offspring. That's the collective group. And then from that group, this individual in the third line arises. He Singular, individual, he will bruise your head. So this individual will arise from the collective group of the offspring of the woman and therefore he will represent the offspring of the woman. He will be a representative son. Number three, he will be a warrior son. a warrior son. He will descend from a woman with no mention of his father. He will be a representative son and a warrior son. Because he's going to bring the enmity to a focal point in a fight with a serpent, this son is a fighting son. He's going to bring a climactic fight in world history against this serpent. We might call him the serpent bruising son. This is the third thing we see about him. Number four, he will be an obedient son. He will be an obedient son. He will descend from a woman with no mention of his father. He'll be a representative son, a warrior son. And number four, an obedient son. The mission of this offspring is to fight the serpent. That's the mission that God sets for him. And if he's going to fulfill it, then he must be an obedient son. He must be a son who is prepared to accept God's call on his life, to go and fight the serpent. He must be an obedient son. And the reason I speak about his obedience is because it's not going to be an easy fight. for this representative son. It's going to involve sacrifice. He's going to suffer and you shall bruise his heel. Which brings us to the fifth thing about this son. He will be a suffering son. He will descend from a woman with no mention of his father. He'll be a representative son, a warrior son, an obedient son, and fifth, a suffering son. In the fight with the serpent, this son will be injured. The serpent will bruise him in the heel. The anatomical part of the body is significant. Because the serpent is cursed to crawl on his belly all his days, verse 14, the heel is really the only part of the body that the serpent can strike at. But we mustn't get the impression that the serpent is sort of going to sneak up behind the sun and bite him on the heel by surprise, and he's going to turn around and then stamp on the serpent's head. Now notice the order of events in the third line of verse 15. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. The son will go looking for the serpent to bruise him in the head. In other words, it will be in the act of the son first bruising the serpent that the serpent will then bite the son in the heel. The injury to the heel will only occur as a result of the son's initiative to bruise the serpent in the head. The son will bruise the serpent through injury, and he will have the scars to prove it. Because boys and girls, what happens when a snake bites into a person's skin? What does it leave? Some scars. Well, this son in his fight with this serpent will have scars on his body from the fight. He will be a suffering son. But he won't suffer in defeat. He will suffer in triumph. He will be a triumphant son. That's the sixth thing we see about this son. He will descend from a woman with no mention of his father. He'll be a representative son, a warrior son, an obedient son, a suffering son, and number six, a triumphant son. We see this in two ways. Notice the reversal in the order of references to the serpent and his opponent. In the first line of verse 15, the serpent is mentioned first, then the woman. I will put enmity between you, the serpent, and the woman. Same in the second line of verse 15, the offspring of the serpent are mentioned first, then the offspring of the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. But now notice the third line. The order flips around, and the individual offspring is mentioned first, and then the serpent. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. The flipping in the order is significant. It shows that the ultimate victory will belong to the seed of the woman, to this individual who will arise out of the offspring of the woman. He will get the ultimate victory. In the Old Testament, most often, the offspring of the serpent seems to get the upper hand over the offspring of the woman. Just think about Egypt over Israel. The Canaanites over Israel. The Philistines over Israel. Assyria over Israel. Babylon over Israel. Persia over Israel. All through the Old Testament, the offspring of the serpent seems to be more triumphant than the offspring of the woman. But when he comes, when this representative son born of a virgin comes, he will get the upper hand. He will get the victory. This is the first way that we see he will be a triumphant son, just by the order of the parties mentioned in the third line of the verse. The second way is more obvious. He shall bruise your head. The strike to the head reveals a fatal blow that will be inflicted on the serpent. The sun will be triumphant over the serpent by a blow to the head. Now what's striking in the Old Testament is that when the fighting representative for God's people gets victory over their enemies, it often comes with a blow to the head. Boys and girls, do you know any story in the Old Testament where a representative of God's people defeats a representative of God's enemy with a blow to the head? David and Goliath. David represents Israel. He goes into battle with Goliath, the Philistine, who represents God's enemy. And David kills him with a stone to the head. And then David chops off his head. And the Israelites take it to Jerusalem and bury it in Jerusalem, which means that by the time David comes to sit on his throne in Jerusalem, the skull of Goliath is under his feet. That fight between David and Goliath and all the fights in the Old Testament, they are just footnotes to Genesis 3.15. They're just mini-dramas pointing forward to the ultimate fight between the representative son of the woman and the offspring. as foretold here in Genesis 3.15. So this son will be a triumphant son. He will descend from a woman with no mention of his father. He'll be a representative son, a warrior son, an obedient son, a suffering son, a triumphant son. And number seven, he will be a second and last Adam. a second and last Adam. Precisely because this son will do what the first Adam should have done, bruise the serpent in the head by a tree, we can say that he will be a second Adam. And precisely because he will be triumphant in his fight with the serpent, we can say that he will be the last Adam. If he does what the first Adam should have done, he'll be a second Adam. And if he defeats the serpent, then there's no need for a third Adam. He will be the second and last Adam. Number eight, he will be a God-man. He will be a God-man. The Son will be a man. But if you think about it, he'll have to be more than a man. When Adam encountered the serpent in the garden, Adam was in an unfallen, innocent state. He hadn't yet sinned. And yet, in his unfallen state, Adam was unable to overcome the serpent. So if the second and last Adam is just another man, like the first Adam, In a state of innocence, do you think it's going to go any better the second time? No. This second and last Adam will need to be more than just a man if he is going to overcome the serpent. He will have to be a God-man of sorts. This is the eighth thing we see about this son. He will be a God-man. He will descend from a woman with no mention of his father. He will be a representative son, a warrior son, an obedient son, a suffering son, a triumphant son, a second and last Adam, and he will be a God-man. But just who is this son? Well, back to the analogy of the seed. Genesis 3.15 is the seed promise that grows organically through the Old Testament until it comes to its full maturity and full blossom in the New Testament, which brings us to the third S. We've seen a seed, a sun, and now a skull, a skull. In the New Testament, when Jesus is crucified, He is crucified at a place called Golgotha. The Greek transliteration of an Aramaic term which means place of a skull. Some people think that the place gets its name from the shape of the hill on which Jesus was crucified. It looked like a skull. Whether that is the case or not, the fact is it represented the place of death. Remind you of anything? He shall bruise your head. What does the head of a dead animal become over time? It becomes a skull. What did Goliath's head over time become as it was buried in Jerusalem? A skull. This place where Jesus is crucified represented the death of a skull. Death was what the serpent brought into the garden. Death was what Jesus suffered in our place on the cross. And yet it is by that same death that the serpent, Satan, is bruised in the head. And so the New Testament shows us that the seed promise of the Son finds its ultimate blossom in the moment when Jesus, God's Son, dies on a cross at a place resembling a skull. It is like as he is suspended between heaven and earth that the skull is under his feet, just like When David sat on his throne in Jerusalem, the skull of Goliath was under his feet. In this respect, Jesus does what Adam was supposed to do. The first Adam was supposed to bruise the serpent in the head by a tree. Jesus, the second and last Adam, bruises the serpent Satan in the head on a tree. Adam entered into battle with the serpent naked beside a tree. Jesus enters into battle with the serpent naked on a tree. Adam brought the curse of thorns and thistles into the world by his disobedience. Jesus wears a crown of thorns on his head and takes the curse by his obedience. Adam refused to fight the serpent. He was unwilling to sacrifice himself in the battle. Instead, he capitulated to his temptation. Jesus fights the serpent, willing to sacrifice himself at great cost and resists the temptation. Jesus suffers on the cross, and he has five scars to prove that he was bruised in the heel by the serpent. But that is not the end of Jesus on Golgotha's hill, on the hill of the skull of death. No, it was only the beginning of his victory. Yes, he was injured, but he was ultimately triumphant. A triumph that was made certain and public when God raised him from the dead. Here then is the son of Genesis 3.15, the representative warrior, obedient, suffering, but triumphant, second and last Adam, the God-man. Here is the offspring of the woman. Have you ever wondered about the references to Jesus's mother at the cross in the four gospels? In each of the four gospels, we're told that Mary, Jesus's mother, is watching him. Now, we Protestants get all nervous with Mary near the cross. We don't like pictures of Mary. We don't like pictures of Jesus on the cross. But we don't want to be teaching that Mary is there by the cross, interceding for him, helping him through like the Roman Catholic Church wrongly teaches. But let's not push her away altogether. She's there. What's she doing there? She's pointing to the cross saying, The offspring of the woman with no mention of his father at the cross. This is the fourth point, the third point, sorry, a skull. Number four, a shed, a tool shed, but I had to shorten it to get the S. Let me take you to a tool shed in Oxford, England. C.S. Lewis once wrote a beautiful little piece called Meditations in a Tool Shed. Outside his house in Oxford, there was a tool shed, and one day, Lewis was out working in the shed, and he noticed a beam of light that was coming in through a crack in the door, and he was standing outside it, looking across it, and he could see all the speckles of dust floating in the beam of light. And as he stood there, he was sort of fascinated by it. Then he thought, I wonder what it would be like to step into the light and look along the light. And so he did. He stepped into the light and he looked along and outside the door through the crack, he could see the blue sky and the trees and the birds. And he realized that it is one thing to stand outside the light and look across it. And it's quite another to step into the light and look along it. And he went back into his home and wrote, Meditations in a Toolshed. I think that reading the Bible can be a bit like that experience of C.S. Lewis in the tool shed. You can read the Bible your whole life and see fascinating things in it. You can read across it from the outside. It's all very interesting. It's all very intellectually stimulating. But it is a very different experience to step into the light and to look along Genesis 3.15 through the whole Bible and see there Jesus on a cross dying for you. Bruising the serpent for you. So let me ask you this morning, Have you stepped into the light? Or are you still outside the light looking across it? Boys and girls, have you stepped into the light and put your trust in Jesus? Moms and dads, adults, all of us here, that is what we need to ask ourselves this morning. Have we stepped into the light? and looked along this promise and see its conclusion in Jesus Christ. And when we do, that brings us to the final S, a savior, a savior. Genesis 3.15 is the promise of a son who is a savior. The one who came to bruise the serpent so that we can be saved from our sin and from God's wrath against our sin. This is what Genesis 3.15 is all about. The seed promise of a son who became a savior. This is what Advent and Christmas is all about. Meditating. on the gift of God's Son who came to be a Savior and bruised the serpent in the head. May God give us grace this Advent season to step into the light and to see the fulfillment of this promise in Jesus Christ. Let me pray. Father, we bless you for the gift of your Son, the Lord Jesus, and we ask that today and this Advent season, you would help us to step into the light, to look along the scriptures from Genesis 3.15 all the way to that hill of Golgotha. and see Jesus, your son, hanging between heaven and earth, bruising the serpent in the head so that we could be saved from our sin and from your wrath. So fill our hearts with adoration for him this Advent season, we pray, so that all the glory will go to him. And we ask this in his precious name. Amen.