REFORMED CHURCH, BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 3 FEBRUARY 2002: MORNING SERVICE

Our help is in the Name of the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.

AMEN.

Psalm of praise: 84:1,2.

Apostolic Creed

1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

2. And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord;

3. Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary;

4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell;

5. The third day He rose again from the dead;

6. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

7. From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

8. I believe in the Holy Spirit.

9. I believe a holy catholic Church, the communion of saints;

10. The forgiveness of sins;

11. The resurrection of the body;

12. And the life everlasting. AMEN

The Law : Ex. 20:1-17

Psalm 94:6.

Prayer

Psalm 68:1.

Scripture reading: Genesis 3:1-19.

Text: Genesis 3: 15

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.

Brothers and sisters, with all our heart we yearn for peace and stability in our land. Indeed, all the world is intent on promoting world-wide peace. But there will never be peace before the Lord appears on the clouds. This world is foreordained to suffer a continuous and exhausting state of warfare. Everything undertaken in our land, and indeed world-wide, to accomplish world peace, will end in failure.

Perhaps this statement sounds very negative and disturbing and disparaging. After all, we look for encouragement and consolation in these depressing times. We would prefer to hear words of peace from the pulpit and not talk of war. We hear quite enough of war and violence through the media.

Brothers and sisters, the Lord wants us to view the world situation in the right perspective. His Word proclaims not only peace, but also war - a tremen­dous war. Indeed, Jesus Himself said, "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father... (Matt.10:34ff, Luke 12:51ff).

Whether we wish to know this or not, we are all involved in this war. The Lord Himself declared this war when He said to Satan after the Fall:

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.

Brothers and sisters, it is necessary for us to know the nature of this war so that we can become involved positively. This war affects us personally. It touches us as church here and over all the world.

For that reason we must begin by considering the causes of the war. After all, no war begins without causes, and this is true also of the war which the Lord declared against Satan.

But why?

In Genesis 1 and 2 we read of the Creation. The Lord created all things. And He did it very well. His purpose was that He, as the Eternal and Almighty God and King of all, should be glorified and served with praisegiving.

But one of His created beings - an angel - rebelled against his Creator. Because he wished to usurp for himself the honour and glory which is due to God alone, he devoted himself to a ruthless and insidious attack on the Lord's creation. He concentrated his attack on mankind, because mankind was the most excellent, the crown of Creation. He knew where he could deal the kingdom of God the most telling blow.

The Lord created man after His own image in order to project His sovereignty. In and through mankind God would reign over the earth as Lord and King. If Satan could destroy this image, this profound and intimate relationship between God and man, then he would also destroy God's dominion on earth.

In Paradise he succeeded in making an end to this very special relationship. Man, who had been created so well, became disobedient to his Creator.
 
The Lord could, of course, have destroyed everything He had made so wonderfully in a flash, but He did not do so. On the contrary, He declared war. Henceforth the course of world history would be characterised by a lengthy and protracted war. This war would be a conflict between God and Satan; between light and darkness; between good and evil; between justice and injustice, between love and hate; between truth and falsehood.

"I will put enmity betweeen..." said the Lord. However, He did not merely declare war. In this declaration of war He also determined who would be waging war on whom.

Secondly we need to deduce this from our text. In the declaration of war He brought about a separation between the snake and the woman. He broke the unholy alliance which came into being between Satan and mankind in Paradise.

"And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman..."

He set them in two parties hostile to each other. With this declaration of war He made it impossible for there to be any possibility ever again of any peace settlement between them. Never again would there be peace - not in the history of this world. Because it is not merely a war between the snake and the woman, but war between the seed of the snake and the seed of the woman. It would thus be a continuous war between the descendants of the devil and the descendants of the woman.

In this way and by this declaration of war the Lord divided mankind on earth into two opposing groups.

There are the descendants of the snake. They are those who persist in faith­lessness and godlessness by being obedient to Satan: the selfish, selfrighteous and conceited people who themselves wish to be God - the worldly ones.

Then there are those whom the Lord has seized from the hands of Satan to be His allies in the war. The woman to whom this declaration of war refers is the church on earth. The Bible often refers to the church as a woman (e.g. Rev.21).

This declaration of war thus indicates the irreconcilable enmity between the church and the world. It will be a war to the bitter end. There will never be any possibility of a peace settlement between them.

Because the Lord Himself declared war, He is the Commander-in-Chief of His church against Satan, the prince of the world.

This war is not limited to the earth. It is not just a conflict between church and world, but one which transcends the worldly dimension. It is a war between God and Satan. It is a war from which nobody can flee. Nobody can remain neutral in this war, including us. All are involved in this war. For that reason we may never underestimate its deadly seriousness.

Thirdly, it is not a war concerning which we as church need to wonder about how it will proceed and what the end will be. The Lord also indicates that to us when He declares:

He (who is born of the woman) shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.

More correctly, the Hebrew word translated as "bruise" also has the connotation of "overwhelm".

This indicates how intense the war will be. No quarter will be asked or given. There will be no question of an armistice or of parleys and compromises to try to make an end to the war. The two parties will attempt to destroy each other in this war. Their aim will be to utterly annihilate the other.

The Lord also tells us in this text who will eventually be victorious. He whose head will eventually be bruised, Satan and his forces, will eventually lose. He will be utterly destroyed.

On the other hand it will not be an easy victory for the Lord and for the church on earth. The Victor will Himself have to endure much pain and suffering as a result of His bruised heel. In this war we as church will not be spared suffering. We shall have to be prepared to suffer greatly and to endure hard­ships. In fact, according to the formulation of the declaration, it will at first go very badly with the church of the Lord.

In the first part of the declaration the snake enjoys precedence. He is men­tioned first. It is a war "between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed". In the first phase of the war it will seem as if the snake and his followers have the upper hand. It will appear that the Lord is losing.

But then the second phase will begin. The order is changed. Then the seed of the woman is mentioned first: "He shall bruise you on the head..." The war turns in favour of the church. The church is assured of victory over the world.

The Lord thus informs us that there will be two dispensations in the war. They are the old dispensation and the new dispensation - the dispensation of the Old Testament times, and the dispensation of the New Testament times, which began with the first coming of Christ.

The two dispensations are not, however, completely separate from each other, because the war still continues in the new dispensation. Although we are already in the new dispensation, we still find ourselves in the old dispensa­tion.

But let us first see how this tremendous conflict has proceeded to the present, as the Lord reveals it to us in His Word.
 
With regard to the war in the old dispensation before the coming of Christ, it seemed as if Satan time and again had the upper hand. All the worldly powers were mobilized to prevent the coming of Christ (cf. Rev. 12).

The first people had hardly left Paradise, when the war began. Satan gained the first victory when Cain, of the seed of the snake, murdered his brother Abel, of the seed of the woman. But the Lord intervened when Seth was born.

Then the number of Cain's descendants increased until the seventh generation, the time of Lamech. In the other branch the church of the Lord grew in the descendants of Seth until the seventh generation, the time of Enosh.

In Genesis 4 and 5 the church and the world stand directly opposed. But Genesis 6 tells a sad tale of the sons of God and the daughters of men: here the church concluded a compact with the world. This very nearly led to the total annihila­tion of mankind, for mankind had become godless. Satan wished it to be so, but the Lord intervened with Noah and his family so that the war could continue.

Satan again almost gained a victory in the case of the godless Babel. Again the Lord intervened by scattering them. It then appeared that the Lord had to start again from the beginning with the calling of Abraham. Out of Abraham He gene­rated one people - His model people, His chosen allies in this tremendous conflict against Satan and a godless world.

Satan's attacks were then directed specifically at Israel. In Egypt he tried to have all the male infants killed to prevent the birth of Christ. But Moses was miraculously spared to lead the covenant people out of Egypt to Canaan.

Israel's sojourn in Canaan as allies of the Lord was, however, a sad tale. They were to have eliminated the heathen, but did not do so. They fell into idolatry and then split apart into two kingdoms. The ten northern tribes were carried off into exile and disappeared as a separate kingdom. Only two tribes remained, viz. the kingdom of Judah. Then followed the exile of the kingdom of Judah from which Christ would be born.

In the time of Esther, Satan, through Haman's godless plans, wished to have all Jews killed, but the Lord provided miraculous deliverance. Judah experienced deliverance from exile. A small group returned as God's covenant people to continue the war. But they also failed in the end.

This is how the Old Testament narrates the tragic story of how the seed of the woman, the church folk of the Lord, failed. The circle enclosing the seed of the woman became ever more tightly drawn until eventually there was nobody left.

By this, brothers and sisters, the Lord demonstrates the inability of mankind both to live and to fight for Him. We have nothing in ourselves to pride our­selves on, and yet the Lord did not abandon this struggle. The victory will be won. The Lord will take care of that, as He so often did in the time of the Old Testament.

When there was eventually no person left through whom the Lord could gain the victory over Satan, the miracle occurred. Someone was born into this world of a woman, but also of God. Through this Someone born of a woman the Lord would conquer Satan. He and He alone would join in final battle with Satan in defence of the citadel. Eventually Satan suffered defeat, bcause he could not prevent the birth of the One to be born of woman, and therefore the war which God declared was now reduced to a confrontation between
God's war developed into a war in which Christ all by Himself won the victory for the seed of the woman (He shall bruise you on the head,...). Satan's power is broken. He can no longer, as in the past, mislead completely the peoples and the nations of the world.

But this was also a war in which Satan bruised Him on the heel. A war which grew enormously in intensity from Christ's birth until the final battle was decided that Friday on Golgotha - a war in which the snake attacked continually to prevent the battle of Golgotha from taking place:
And then on the cross: when He was mocked and challenged to come down from the cross if He was truly the Christ.

The worst was when He was abandoned by God to battle alone in the darkness against the forces of evil.

But He conquered when He called out after this: "It is finished!" The head of the snake was crushed!

And then He gave Himself over to death in order to conquer death as the punish­ment for our sins by His resurrection. Sin, the sting of death, has been drawn. Jesus has fully atoned for all our sins. Satan can no longer accuse us. Nor can he utterly mislead all the nations any longer.

And in this manner, brothers and sisters, the new dispensation in the war came to pass. It is the dispensation which was characterised by tremendous growth among the seed of the woman. Shortly after Pentecost the first 3000 were baptized. After that, 5000. Then Judea fell into the hands of the Lord. And then Samaria. And then Galilee. And then the armies of the Lord spread abroad through the activities of the apostles, bearing the sword of the Spirit, that is the Word.

Churches were established all over. First in Asia - then in Europe. Acts describes this victorious march throughout the known world.

There was, of course, resistance everywhere. Satan's power was broken, but he nevertheless still caused great tragedies. We see this in the persecution of the first Christians, and in the proclamation of false doctrines. But the redeemed people of the Lord remained faithful unto death. They persevered in the true faith. Satan knows that it is for him merely a matter of time. At the second coming of Jesus the final battle will be fought. It will be the end of the devil and his forces for ever. But for the woman, the church of the Lord, that day will bring eternal peace in all its glory on the new earth.

And now, brothers and sisters, we find ourselves already in the new dispensa­tion of peace with the Lord. But we also find ourselves still in the old dis­pensation in respect of the tremendous war with Satan and the godless world. We are, however, certain of victory. We are victorious in Christ. For that very reason we may not remain passive. We must continue the struggle and fight the good fight to the very end. The closer the end, the more violent the attacks of the devil will be. This we are already experiencing. As a church we will have to continue the war hand in hand with all the churches here and in our country. We dare not rest on our laurels as if there were no more war, because we are living in perilous times in which godlessness is increasing at a frightening rate.

Under the new education policy a tremendous attack will be launched upon our children. We as parents and as church will have to prepare the young people within the covenant timeously to withstand these attacks.

The pressure on our Christian churches will grow. We will be forced to surren­der our exclusivity, our otherness. The masses will be less tolerant of us. From the government we will enjoy no support. All laws protecting Christian values and norms have disappeared. New laws are promulgated which legalise what is sinful and wrongful.

We will only be truly Christian if we want to be so.

But we are not alone in the struggle. Christ stands firm in the struggle with us so that we can win the war together. For that reason we as believers must everywhere become involved in the struggle wholeheartedly and with conviction. We are, after all, assured of final victory at the second coming of Christ.

Closing prayer.

Closing Psalm: 68:2

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. AMEN.

Rev. H.P.Prinsloo,
Reformed Church, Bellville,
3 February 2002.
Scripture quoted from NASB.