Mother lode (er, seed) of all Christmas messages

Yesterday afternoon I attended a ladies tea party at a friend’s house that reminded me of just the kind I used to pretend to have when I was a kid and by myself, using a toy-like plastic tea pot with tiny cups and saucers. How fun that, all these many years later, this was the real deal!

On the topic of how fortunate we all were to have found our church and be given the truth of the Bible, one friend commented, and I’m paraphrasing, “I for one would never have figured out on my own how Genesis 3:15 revealed God’s plan to defeat Satan through the seed of the woman. Someone had to teach me that.”

Of course, in the passage Eve is asked by God after she’s eaten the forbidden fruit, “What is this that thou hast done?” and she answers, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”

As the passage continues: [14] And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
[15] And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Preacher Richard Jordan explains in an old study, “When God says, ‘Upon thy belly shalt thou go,’ He’s not talking about not having any legs. Down South they would say ‘he’s lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut.’

“When you’re on your belly you’re as low as you can possibly get. Every other creature is above you. God’s saying, ‘Satan, you’re going to be the lowest of the low.’ What did Satan want to be? He wanted to ‘be like the most high.’ Now he’s going to be the most low. And there’s going to be a war going on; a war between the most low and the Most High.

“You see where He says ‘and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life’? You know what you’re made out of? Dust. You’re made out of dirt. ‘For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.’

“This stuff that happened with Adam and Eve, He said, ‘Satan, you’re going to be the lowest of the low and you’re going to consume man. If man’s left to himself, you’re going to eat him alive,’ and Satan’s going to consume man’s body. Can I tell you that sin destroys you?! There is no free sin. There’s a ‘Pay Day Someday.’

“That thing about dust, go back with me to Luke 11: ‘And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.
[12] And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.
[13] And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.’

“When it says she’s bowed together, that means she’s bent over where she can’t lift herself up. When you’re bowed down like that, what are you looking at? Dust was all that woman could see. She couldn’t lift herself up. All she could see herself as was devil’s food. I mean, Satan wants to consume you; devour you.

“That’s where Israel was and Christ was the only one who could relieve her from that dust consciousness that she’d lived with for 18 years and spent all of her money trying to get healed from. Hello?! The only one to redeem her was the Lord Jesus Christ, when virtue went out of Him. You’ll see that in Genesis 3:15.

“The power to destroy Satan right there comes from the birth of a child, the seed of the woman. Isaiah 9:6 says, [6] For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

“That verse is on all kind of Christmas cards. A child is born (the first coming), unto us a son is given (Second Coming). You can’t have the Second Coming without the first, so there’s going to be a child, but He isn’t going to stay a baby.

“Everybody loves a baby but people don’t necessarily like adults. That’s why Christmas is so popular; it’s a little teeny baby. But the baby’s a big boy now and He went to Calvary and He died and He rose again.”

(new article tomorrow)