I invite you now to open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3. In Genesis chapter 3, I'm going to read verses 7 through 15, but our focus this morning is going to be specifically on verses 14 and 15, where we see the very first promise of the gospel. We see that God's grace comes immediately after Adam's sin, and we see also a new situation, that instead of peace in creation, now we see war. Genesis chapter three, starting at verse seven. This is the word of God. And the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves in the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman who you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 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. I invite you now to turn to Revelation chapter 12. You can find this on page 1034 of your Pew Bible. to refer back to Revelation chapter 12 just a few times in the sermon, but what we see here is really a vision of the conflict and the war that has begun and declared rather in Genesis 3, 14 and 15. We see the same themes. We see the seed of a woman. We see a serpent humiliated. We see a war fought. We see promised victory. We also see that the evil one will continue to do battle against those who belong to Christ. So Revelation chapter 12, we really should see this as an outworking of our passage in Genesis. So here now, God's word once again, Revelation chapter 12. And a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in the heaven. Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of the heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child, he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. Now a war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil, and Satan, the deceiver of the world. He was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power of the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down. He accuses them day and night before God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. For they loved not their lives, even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short. And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place where she is to be nourished for a time. and times and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring and those who keep the commandments of God. and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. Well, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever and ever. Let's pray and ask the Lord to bless our time in his word. Lord, as we reflect on this very first promise of the gospel, as we see the beginnings of the covenant of grace, give us your spirit so that we might see our victorious Christ and be encouraged to join him in this spiritual battle with the confidence that the victory is ours and is already won. Amen. But when we read the Bible, especially when some start to read the Old Testament for the very first time, many are surprised to find that it's a book of war, that there are many enemies, there are costly battles, there are crushing and even bloody defeats, but ultimately that it's also a book of great victory and a complete crushing of God's enemies by our Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, this is probably why we love the Bible so much, because it is about war and conquest and victories. And just as a side note, this is also why those kinds of books and movies are far better to the Hallmark kinds of movies and whatnot. Just have to get that in there at some point. But why is there so much about war in the Bible? Why are there so many blood and gut sorts of stories? Well, there are several reasons why God's people in the Old Testament and us as New Testament Christians need these stories. I'm just going to highlight two reasons why we need them. The first reason we need these stories is we need to understand the times and the situation that we live in. We have peace with God as Christians, but we do not live in a time of peace. We live in the midst of a great cosmic war between the kingdom of God and the God of this evil age. And we are soldiers in this war, and we need to be trained for battle. A second reason we need these histories of battle, these stories, is because we need encouragement for the own battles that we fight. We need to be strengthened as we read of the many trials, temptations, and difficulties, and losses, and victories of God's people. We need to hear that in the midst of these battles, that victory is ours as it was there. We need assurance that it's the Lord who fights for His people. We need assurance and a reminder that we have victory in our Savior. as we continue to fight against the world, our own flesh, and the devil. So with these things in mind, we now come to Genesis 3, our passage, and especially verses 14 and 15. In summary, what we're going to see is that we see the Lord declares war against Satan and promises a son to Eve who would come to destroy the works of the devil. And to unpack this here, first we're going to look at verses 14 and 15 and explain those. And then we'll see how they point us to the person and work of Christ. And then third, we'll spend some time applying these verses to us. So our points, essentially, are explain the passage, point to Christ, and apply to us. So as we get going here, we remember the context. We remember that paradise has been polluted, that Adam has failed as God's prophet, priest, and king. He abandoned his task to guard the garden. He failed the test. the covenant of life or as some call it the covenant of works that God made with Adam, it's been broken and the consequences are spiritual death and sin and misery for Adam and for all his children. But God, but God in His infinite grace and mercy does not leave Adam and Eve in despair. But immediately in the very next verse Next two verses, he promises hope and victory, victory over evil as he deals with the serpent. Again, let's just read verse 14 again. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. So the Lord deals with the serpent first, before he speaks to Adam and Eve, because the serpent is the author of evil, and he is going to be dealt with justly for what he's done. The Lord God spoke creation into existence, and now with that same might and power, he pronounces a curse upon Satan. Now, when we hear the word curse because of, you know, Harry Potter and whatnot, we're often just thinking of bad luck or an evil spell or something like that. Well, in the biblical world, God's curse is an official judgment and sentence against evil all rolled into one. So, if God is going to curse someone or the devil, he's essentially saying, you are guilty and here's your sentence and your consequence and it's so. So the serpent is cursed. The serpent is cursed above all livestock. And some of us kind of stop there a little bit and we get a bit hung up saying, well, it's Satan that committed this sin. Why should all the snakes, you know, be forever, ever guilty? It doesn't really seem, you know, that fair to snakes. Unless we're with Indiana Jones and we don't want to know why snakes, because we have this great fear of snakes. Some of us might not be bothered by this, but others of us might. Well, before we get lost in those weeds, we have some help here on, you know, this cursing of snakes above all livestock, also a curse on Satan from our ancient friend, Theodoret of Cyrus. This is not a new question if some of you had this question. He asks, why was the serpent punished when it was the devil who was responsible for the deception? And part of his answer is, The animal itself also became the object of the curse for the benefit of humanity. When we see the serpent crawling and slithering on the ground, we remember the original curse and understand the extent of the evil caused by sin, not only to those who commit it, but also to those who assist them. So this might be fun. There's a lot of fun things to kind of speculate in Genesis. Some of the rabbis want to talk about the serpent having feet and whatnot and these kinds of things before. But there are much more important questions for us to explore here. For example, what's the significance of the serpent slithering on his belly and eating dust? Why is that important here? Well, living an entire existence crawling and living in the dirt and eating dirt, so to speak, this speaks to the humiliation, subjugation, and future defeat of Satan. The life of a snake is a picture of Satan's existence. He was crafty, but now he's cursed. He tempted Eve to eat of the fruit, and now he is going to eat the dust. And ultimately, the second Adam, a man also made from dust, will conquer Satan. This would be humiliating for him. but where the conquering is more in verse 15, getting ahead of ourselves just a bit. In his Genesis study, Mark Vander Hart, our friend that fills our pulpit at times, he points out that by crawling and eating dust, that the devil is a lowlife. He says that eating dust is not a description of a snake's diet, rather it's a biblical idiom for death. like the expression, to bite the dust. So to eat dust, this is defeat, this is death. And the Scriptures refer to defeat and conquering as licking the dust, just a couple places. Psalm 72 verse 9, we read of the King, which ultimately is Christ, of His victory. May desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust. It's defeat. One more place, Micah chapter seven, when the Lord pronounces judgment against all the nations that are oppressing Israel. He says, they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like crawling things on the earth. They shall come trembling out of their strongholds. They shall turn in dread to the Lord our God and they shall be in fear of you. So eating dust, this is a pronouncement of defeat and death at the hands of the Lord's anointed and mighty warrior king. Satan the serpent, that ancient dragon, this is his defeat prophesized, and it's made even more sure as we go on to verse 15, as the curse continues upon the serpent. I, being God, will put enmity between you, the serpent, and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. So when Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the Garden of Eden, they switched sides. They went over to Satan's side. They aligned themselves with the evil one. They became the devil's children. but God quickly rescues them. It's God himself that puts enmity, enmity means hostility, conflict between the serpent and the woman. God himself breaks this unholy alliance and draws Adam and Eve to himself. He declares by making this war and declaring this war that Adam and Eve are his and they are now again enemies against Satan. And this new reality, this new situation is a work of God alone. It is by grace alone. Because Adam and Eve, they run from their sin. They don't own their sin. They don't see their sin, see their need for a Savior and ask for forgiveness. They're dead in their trespasses and sins. But the Lord takes them to Himself and immediately declares that their relationship has been reestablished with Him. And now they are at war with the serpent. See, God has created and established a new order, and he's managing history to his own end and purpose. And it's a glorious purpose. It's a blessed end where we, as God's people, will glorify God and enjoy him forever and ever. The evil one is not in charge here. The Lord our God is in charge. And the Lord our God clearly identifies the two parties that are at war with each other. The serpent is the you. And part one of the conflict actually began in the garden as Satan tempted Eve. Satan launched the first attack and Adam and Eve temporarily joined forces with the evil one. But now God has put enmity between the serpent and the woman. Now, Adam is included here, but Eve is addressed because this uniquely applies to her. The Lord explains that the second stage of this conflict is between the offspring of Satan and the offspring of Eve. The word offspring here is also translated a seed, and it's a singular noun. When we read this, we tend to think of plural, and there is a sense where there's the children of God and the children of Satan in the plural here, but here in this passage, it's the singular offspring of the evil one against the offspring of Eve. And we know that Satan's seed or his descendant, that this can't be a physical descendant because Satan cannot have children. This must be a spiritual descendant. Satan cannot procreate. Remember that when we get to Genesis 6, by the way. Makes it way easier when we get there. So a child of Satan is someone who's still dead in their sins, who serves the evil one, and their father is the devil, who's a murderer and a liar from the beginning. And we're gonna have more to say about the offspring, the seed of Eve, which we know is Jesus Christ in a moment. But for a minute, let's see how this war is going to go. At the end of verse 15, we read, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Now the word here for bruise can also be translated strike or crush. That's probably better for us, because when we think of a bruise, we're not usually thinking of a fatal blow. So strike or crush is probably a better translation for us. So a descendant of Eve will crush the head of the serpent, and the serpent will crush or perhaps strike the heel of Eve's son. This is describing a war. And in this war, the devil will do damage. But the promised son of Eve will be victorious and ultimately that head of the serpent will be crushed. See, Adam failed to crush the head of the serpent in the garden. but another son of Eve would be successful and smash the head of the serpent. And this is the first promise of the gospel that we have in the scriptures. This is the beginning of a new covenant, the covenant of grace, and all who trust in the work of Eve's serpent-crushing son will be saved. War has been declared, victory has been promised, and what is cursed for Satan is consolation for Adam and Eve and for all who believe in Eve's serpent-crushing son. The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes this gospel promise, this new arrangement of hope here in question 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery? The answer, God, having out of his mere good pleasure from all eternity elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of that estate of sin and misery and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer. Salvation by a Redeemer. Salvation by Jesus Christ is what's promised here. This also teaches us how to read the rest of the story, the rest of the Old Testament and into the New Testament. The rest of the Old Testament is histories of the great battles of this cosmic war. It's a promised son who would come destroy the works of the devil. And with each son that Eve has who loves the Lord, with each even godly son of Abraham and the kings of Israel, we're left wondering all along the way Is this the one? Is it Him? Or is it still another, and these are pointing and preparing the way for Him? See, this theme of war, of a coming Savior, and serpent crushing is woven throughout the whole Old Testament. You can hear these themes throughout Israel's history as she does battle against evil and her enemies. Now at home, we're reading through Judges right now, in our family time, and in Judges chapter five, in the song of Deborah, she recounts and praises God for deliverance over evil king Caesara. And she recounts his demise, and as she does, you can hear Genesis three, 14 and 15. You can hear how this is another battle in this great cosmic war, and how it's pointing forward to Jesus Christ. In Judges chapter 5, verses 24 through 27, here's what we read. Most blessed of women, B.J.L., the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. He, being evil king Cicera, asked for water, and she gave him milk. She brought him curds in a noble's bowl, and then she set her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workman's mallet, and she struck Cicera. She crushed his head. She shattered and pierced his temple. Between her feet he sank. He fell. He lay still. Between her feet he sank. He fell where he sank. There he fell dead. Sisera caused great pain to God's son Israel. He bruised Israel's heel, but God sent Deborah and Jael to secure victory. Now Jael is not the promised son of Eve, but she points the way forward to the promised son. as this is a preview of Christ's work of crushing the head of the serpent. Every time we see the enemies of God's people gaining ground and then the Lord divinely coming to their aid, we're meant to think back to this first promise of deliverance in Genesis 3, 15. The Old Testament saints look back to this promise and they look forward to a greater deliverance through the Christ to come. Now, we also look back not just to that promise, but we also look back as Christ has accomplished this work and crushed the head of the serpent for us. Now, we've been talking about our Lord Jesus quite a bit already, showing how this points to Christ, but we want to do this a little more explicitly for just a moment here. So first of all, God promises Eve a son that will crush the serpent. Now the serpent crusher then will be a true man born of Eve. And this is why our Lord's genealogy in Luke goes all the way back to Adam. This is a connection. This is the Savior promised, the Son of Eve in Genesis chapter 3. And in 1 John 3.8, we're reminded of the purpose that Jesus came for. The reason, it says the, singular. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. In Revelation 12, we also read of this promised seed that came. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. This is the offspring of Eve, and then later the son of Mary. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the God-man, our Savior. He's promised here in Genesis 3, 15. And Genesis 3 also tells us something about what this war will be like for Christ. When we read, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. as the seed of the serpent who is the devil. He bruises Christ's heel. We see hints of Christ's humiliation, suffering, crucifixion, and death in these words. But in the crushing of the serpent's head, we also see the victory of Christ through his resurrection and his ascension. Through his resurrection, he crushed Satan and the power of death as he rose from the grave and sits at the right hand of God where he rules and reigns even now. This seed of Eve is Christ, born of a virgin. He's the God-man. His humiliation and exaltation, it's all here in this first gospel promise in Genesis chapter three, verses 14 and 15. And later on, perhaps this afternoon, a good Lord's Day activity, if you've heard this sermon, and you think again of Revelation 12, think of these things again, and read Revelation 12 again, and you'll see with fresh and new eyes this war and this victory. Now as we continue on and we think about how this blessed truth applies to us, we can see clearly our situation, we can see our promised Savior, and as those who are united to Christ, we remember that we also share in Christ's victory, but we're also united to Him in His sufferings. Christ's life pattern is now our life pattern. where first comes suffering, then comes glory. We are at war with the serpent. Our heel will be bruised, but the serpent will also be crushed once and for all. But for a time, that evil serpent, that ancient dragon is allowed to continue to wage war against the saints. That's what is happening now. Revelation 12, 17, we read of it. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. So this tells us, all who belong to Jesus Christ, we are at war with the devil. But we might think, well I don't want to be at war. Well, no one wants to be at war. But praise God that He has drawn these battle lines for us and taken us to be His on His side. We praise Him that we are on God's side, the side of goodness, the side of truth, and the side of victory over all evil. We can rejoice, as it says in the kid's song, I am in the Lord's army. Yes, sir. Maybe kids, one of you can tell me how some of that song goes a little bit after the service. But I know that line. And we praise God that we are in the Lord's army. Because there are only two sides in this war. There is no neutrality. There is no spiritual Switzerland. You're either on the side of Eve's seed, which is Christ, or you're on the side of the evil one, the devil. And hear this, if you're not sure what side you're on, if you don't know, then you are on the side of the serpent and you will share in his judgment and destruction and be thrown into the lake of fire. For some of you this might be jarring as if you just woke up and realized I'm on the side of the serpent because I'm not on the side of Christ. Because I'm lukewarm. I'm in the middle. I say I just don't know. I'm neutral. There is no neutrality. Neutrality is you're on the side of the serpent. If you just woke up and figured this out, confess your sins. See your need for a serpent-crushing Savior and come to Christ. He joyously welcomes and receives all defectors from the evil one's army. He receives you. He is pleased to enlist you in the army of the Lord. All must choose this day whose side they are on. And to choose nothing and to not know is to be on the side of the devil. Choose to be on the side of Jesus Christ. Now, before we do bring this to an end, usually when I say that, the end is a minute or two away, it's not, so be prepared, okay? There's one very practical topic that I want to talk about, and that's how do we view our part in this war? So if you could indulge me and settle in just for a little bit, I think I have an illustration that will help us to better understand the church's part in this war and our part in this war. Many of you know, I don't need to tell you, that in World War II, there were three main theaters. Now kids, these aren't movie theaters. This means that there were many different geographic areas where fighting occurred. There was the Mediterranean or the North African theater, where there's some famous tank battles and some good historical fiction there. There's the Pacific theater, which was primarily against fighting against Japan. And then there was the European theater. And then even within these different areas or theaters, there were several fronts where the war was being fought. Well, we're also at war, but it's a cosmic war and there are many theaters or multiple fronts on which we're called to fight. All of us are called to fight on the front against our own flesh, to fight against the indwelling sin that remains in us. We fight against the evil that tries to invade our own minds and our hearts. All of us also fight against the evil that tries to invade our homes and our relationships. We all are called to fight on these fronts. But there are many other fronts or theaters in this battle. There's the doctrinal theater where the church fights against heresy. There's even the cultural theater which has many fronts and places of battle. That's also a battle against evil. And evil fronts in this theater includes things like fighting against sex trafficking, and we think of the Ambroses. The fight for life, January is pro-life month. There's a fight for biblical values of marriage and family. There's fights on political fronts. We do want true and just laws. We certainly want these things. There are dozens of theaters, hundreds of fronts that Christians fight on. All Christians are called to fight on certain fronts, but not all Christians are called to fight on every front. In the church, there's a lot of confusion. What is the church's role in this cosmic war? What is my role as an individual Christian in this cosmic war? And this confusion does create a lot of conflict in the church regarding the church's mission. And it also, frankly, can create a lot of guilt in believers thinking, I'm not doing enough. So I think we can use our World War II analogy to help us understand the church's role and the individual Christian's role. especially the individual Christian's role. But in World War II, an American soldier would fight in one theater and often on one front. He was not expected to fight Hitler in Europe and Japan in the Pacific at the same time. He was not expected to be able to drive a tank and to be a paratrooper. And those at home, they had their own responsibilities to sacrifice and to keep supply chains going throughout the war. And if one of these theaters would have been emphasized over the other, say we only concentrated on the European theater, if we only concentrated on the war in Europe and said this is the great cause and mission of World War II is just Europe, well then the West Coast would probably become part, it would have become part of the empire of the sun. I think some of you hopefully are getting what I'm saying here. So we need some clarity on where the church is to fight and how, and where individual Christians are called to fight. The church has three roles in this cosmic war, three main roles. First is the proclamation of the gospel. Second is to equip the saints to fight on various battlefields to which they're called. And the third role is to be a prophet to the culture by preaching the truth on a regular basis. So the church's roles are preach the gospel, equip the saints for battle on various fronts, and to speak prophetically to the culture. For individual Christians, as we said, all saints are called to fight against indwelling sin for their family and in their areas of immediate influence, work, home, school, et cetera. However, not every Christian is called to be on the front lines of every single fight. Just gonna mention a few examples here. In general, all Christians are called to be knowledgeable about the Bible. But ministers and elders are called to do battle against heresy in a special and more detailed way. Another example, sex trafficking is evil and we must hate it. But God has called some people in a special way to fight against it, thinking about the Ambroses in Cambodia. Now we participate with them, we pray for them, we support them, but this is their special battle and their special call. All of us should not be in Cambodia doing what they do. One last example. I would argue that all Christians are called to vote and to care about politics and those topics that we kind of lump in with the broader term of the cultural war. We all should pray for and want more biblical laws, more justice, more truth, stronger families, godly marriages. We should want those things. We should pray for those things. But not every single Christian is called to go down to the Capitol and to protest or to be involved in politics and to try to pass legislation to do battle against some of these things. The Lord raises up some folks to fight in a special way on that front and praise Him that He does. I hope you're getting my point here. There's some folks and even churches, they seem to take a specific theater or battle or front that they're really passionate about, and rightly so, and then they elevate it to say, this is the great cause of the church. As if the church should only be fighting on this one front. And if your church is not fighting on this one front, and Christian, if you don't make this one extra thing your own battle and your reason for existence, then you're a weak Christian and you're a part of the problem. This is a problem. When some in the church take one front on this war and elevate it to this is the only thing that happens and this is why we exist and everyone must do this with us, What happens when we do that is the church's main purpose of preaching the gospel and equipping the saints to fight on many fronts, it gets blurry and it's not central anymore. And what happens is the church becomes more about an earthly cause rather than the kingdom of God. So brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, the church's role is to equip you, the saints, to fight on all fronts. We all fight on some similar fronts, But some of us are called to some specific fronts. And the church is doing what it's called to do and what it's supposed to do by preaching the gospel and equipping you for battle. And each of you are doing what you're supposed to because so often you get a guilt trip because you're not involved in some extra cause and you're not making it your life purpose. So what are you supposed to do then? Well, here's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to strive to continue to fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil in your own areas, in the fronts where the Lord has you. So take a look where the Lord has you. Look at the skills that he's given you. Look at the areas of battle that you're most passionate about, whether that's raising godly children, which Martin Luther said is the greatest work that parents can do for the Church of Christ, or whether it is doing something more public. Whatever it is, fight against sin and do this well in your own area and you don't have to feel guilty that you're not out there doing more. We must not let one cause become this is the kingdom of God. Now, I've gone on a long time for this, but I know that we struggle here, and I know that we can get sucked into these things, making one cause, the kingdom of God and the mission of the church, because sometimes we listen to various podcasts and teachers, and we like what they're doing, but they tend to elevate their one area higher than everything else, and then we feel guilty because we're not doing enough. When you feel like this, May the promise of the gospel and a victory in Genesis 3.15 redirect your thoughts. redirect it to this, and we'll end with this, thinking about the cosmic war that we're in. For all of us who are on the side of Christ, we must take up our cross daily and follow him. We are called to put on the armor of God and to do battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And above all else, then, let us take comfort that Christ's victory is our victory, and soon the war will be over. Paul encourages us with this message of victory He says, Christian soldiers, remember, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Let's pray. Our God and Father, we do thank you for this great promise of the gospel that right in the midst of Adam's sin and misery and rebellion, you plucked him out, you saved him, you made him your own. You gave Adam and Eve this promise of salvation. This promise is now ours. Lord, let this be our confidence and give us clarity. Give us clarity in the areas that you would like us to fight, Lord, and we thank you that you raise up all kinds of Christians to fight on many, many fronts. We thank you for Jesus, the ultimate serpent crusher. In his name we pray, amen.