Transcription downloaded from https://sermon-library.fbcmustang.org/sermons/103652/the-serpent-and-the-serpent-crusher/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] All right, you can open with me to Genesis chapter 3. And as we've been going through the book of Genesis, so the serpent and the one who crushes the head of the serpent.

[0:36] So if you look with me at Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, God is speaking to the serpent, giving these curses because of the deception that he brought to the woman.

[0:48] He says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring or seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

[1:04] A lot of our movies that we love, a lot of stories that we love, whether they're ancient or more modern, involve a dragon and a hero.

[1:18] And the hero in that story slays the dragon or does away with the evildoer, the antagonist, overcoming his evil. And in the end, the good wins out.

[1:31] So many of our stories that we have, whether they're old or new, revolve around this kind of theme. Example would be Lord of the Rings. I haven't read the books because I'm not a nerd, but I'm nerdy enough to enjoy the movies.

[1:44] So if you've read the books, more power to you. Those are long. But Lord of the Rings, they're fighting against this dragon-like, this serpent-like enemy, and they overcome him in the end.

[1:55] Or if you've read or watched Harry Potter, because you enjoy a little bit of paganism in your life. I'm just kidding. They are fighting against Lord Voldemort, and he's this kind of snake-like, reptilian source of evil.

[2:09] Or the Chronicles of Narnia, a personal favorite of mine, because I'm not a nerd, but I am a child. And they're fighting against the white witch, and Aslan overcomes her with righteousness and power.

[2:22] And even in movies or stories that don't have an actual dragon or serpent, the main antagonist is serpentine. He's snake-like in his character.

[2:34] He's so evil, or she, that they make your skin crawl. And there are two things that make a good villain in a movie or a story.

[2:47] And by good, I mean bad. You know what I mean. They deceive, and they devour. They deceive, and they devour. And all of those stories are really just echoes of the ultimate story, echoes of the true story we find in the Bible, which begins with a serpent in the garden who is deceiving.

[3:08] He's lying. He's tricking. And ultimately, it leads to him devouring. And so when the Bible describes Satan, it uses a lot of different imagery to describe him, primarily as a snake who deceives and tricks, or as a dragon who devours, or as a lion who's prowling around seeking someone to devour.

[3:32] And so this serpent and dragon imagery is very fitting when we think about Satan and when we think about evil. Or if you think about my favorite movie, Frozen.

[3:44] Deal with it, Kagan. Who is the snake? Who is the serpent in that story? Hans. That snake. It's not Elsa. You know, she's got some dramatic moments.

[3:55] But Hans is the one who deceives and then tries to devour, right? The one who tricks and is cunning and the one who tries to kill in the end. So there's this theologian that put out a challenge, a contest for who can be the top nerd.

[4:11] Who can summarize the Bible in one sentence? And the winning submission was this. Kill the dragon. Kill the dragon. Get the girl. Kill the dragon.

[4:23] Get the girl. And that doesn't encapsulate every facet of the Bible, but I think it's a good summary. That's what Adam should have done in the garden. He should have killed this serpent and saved his wife.

[4:35] And ultimately, this is what Jesus does. The ultimate marriage. He slays the dragon. He slays the serpent. And saves his bride, the church. And so, like we said last week with Genesis 3.15, this single verse forms the backbone for the rest of the storyline of Scripture.

[4:56] God will destroy this serpent through a son who is born of the woman. Through a son who comes from the line of Eve.

[5:07] The serpent will wound this son, will kill this seed, but ultimately, this son will crush the serpent's head. This victory will come through suffering, but it will be an ultimate victory.

[5:21] And I said last week, this is the seedbed of the gospel, the first pronouncement of the good news that Jesus will save his people. And this verse are the glasses through which we should see the rest of Scripture.

[5:35] And this is really like a summary statement of the Bible. We're getting a picture of what will happen in the end right here in the very beginning of it all.

[5:46] And so, one of my favorite movies actually uses a similar philosophy. One of my favorite military movies, it's pretty gruesome, so parental consent is needed. But it's Saving Private Ryan.

[5:58] And it begins with the end. It begins with this old man in a cemetery who falls down before a particular grave and he's crying. And then it takes us back in time to tell us the story of what happened.

[6:13] And we get to the actual end. It all makes sense. It all fits together. We see who that man was in the beginning. And Genesis 3.15 is functioning a very similar way. We're getting a glimpse of the end here at the very beginning of it all.

[6:27] And the Bible continues to tell its story in terms of these two kingdoms. The kingdom of the serpent and the kingdom of the seed of the woman or the serpent crusher.

[6:41] And it's throughout, it's these two categories that people fit into throughout all of history. You're either in the kingdom of Satan or you're in the kingdom of God's beloved son.

[6:51] You're either a descendant of your father, the devil, or you belong to Christ. Those are the only two categories of people that exist. And the Bible continues to show us that throughout the breadth and details of its story.

[7:07] And so when Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, these men who lie and try to trap Jesus and deceive him and ultimately kill him, they say, our father is Abraham.

[7:22] We possess the promises of God. And Jesus says in John 8.44, you are of your father, the devil. He was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. You belong to that kingdom.

[7:35] And the serpent throughout the Bible's storyline continually seeks to deceive and devour the seed of the woman. And so you think of Herod. He deceives and then tries to devour.

[7:46] The wise men come to him and he's like, hey, tell me where this king is so I can go worship him too. He's deceiving them. And then when they don't cooperate with him, he turns to devouring to kill all of the baby boys throughout the region.

[8:03] The serpent is constantly trying to kill the seed of the woman. Constantly trying to kill babies in particular. You think of Pharaoh in Egypt trying to kill all the baby boys.

[8:16] You think of all of the ancient people groups who have sacrificed their children to their false gods. And even the child sacrifice that takes place today. And so if anyone throughout any time in history is wanting to kill children, you know ultimately who they work for.

[8:34] They're belonging to the kingdom of the serpent and doing his bidding of destroying and devouring. And ultimately this lens is how Adam and Eve start to view their own story.

[8:48] If you flip over to chapter 4 with me in verse 25, next week we'll see Cain and Abel, these two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain kills Abel, as brothers do.

[8:58] And hopefully not in general. And Adam and Eve are interpreting their story through this lens. And so if you look at chapter 4 verse 25, it says, She bore a son and called his name Seth.

[9:13] For she said, God has appointed for me another offspring or another seed. Instead of Abel, for Cain killed him. And so they're looking for who is this one going to be who will deliver us.

[9:28] And there's also a pattern that develops in the biblical storyline of unlikely births. Unlikely births. There are many women in the Old Testament who are barren, who cannot get pregnant.

[9:44] And anytime God intervenes and steps in, the male child that they deliver ends up being a hero. And so you can think through all of the examples.

[9:55] Rebecca is barren and she gives birth to a son who carries on the promises of God. You think of Elizabeth with John the Baptist.

[10:06] She was unable to get pregnant and she gives birth to the forerunner of the Messiah. So that's another pattern. But this line of descent gets tracked down Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and ultimately to David.

[10:22] And so we'll be all over the Bible tonight. So get your fingies ready to turn. Let's go to 1 Samuel 17 first. 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel 17 is familiar to you.

[10:42] The story at least is. Maybe all the details are not. But this is where the story of David and Goliath is found. I'm sure you all know the story or at least have heard it referenced.

[10:54] Maybe in a bad way. Maybe you've heard it said like, oh, this underdog football team beat their Goliath. Or maybe you've got giants in your life that you need to kill like David. Don't listen to people that talk like that.

[11:05] But in 1 Samuel 17, we get the true story of David and Goliath. David is the one who will carry on this line of descent. And he is here put on full display as a hero because of his faith.

[11:21] And so in 1 Samuel 17, the Philistines are fighting against the Israelites. And how it would work is they'd stand on two mountains across from each other, two hills. In between them would be a valley.

[11:32] And at this time, there was something called champion warfare. So if we were going to have champion warfare of nine square, we would send forward David Pritz. And it's fitting because his name is David. Nice, because he won.

[11:44] So you just choose a representative who can fight for you or dominate in nine square. And they send forward one of their representatives. And it saves bloodshed, saves time. Everyone can get home for dinner except the people that lose.

[11:56] And it just makes things more quick. And this is what the Philistines were doing. They had a champion. They were sending forward. But everyone in Israel was terrified of him.

[12:08] And so we pick up the story. We won't go through all of this, obviously. But in chapter 17, verse 4, there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

[12:26] And you're like, what in the world is a cubit? It sounds small. Well, a cubit was about 18 inches, so a foot and a half. And a span, so just a little insight. The way they measured that was roughly from the tip of your middle finger to your elbow.

[12:40] That's about a foot and a half on most people, unless you've got long eight forearms. And so that's about 18 inches. And then a span was the distance from your pinky to your thumb, which is about nine inches.

[12:50] So six cubits and a span. We're talking nine feet, nine inches. This guy was a giant. Has anyone ever seen a seven-footer before?

[13:02] Someone seven feet tall? Yeah. Have you stood next to them? Okay. You feel like a little grasshopper. It's just insane how tall those guys are.

[13:12] So add another almost three feet to that. And then by contrast, David was the youngest of his father's sons. He had like seven older brothers.

[13:24] He was the youngest one, probably about 15 or 16. And probably an average of, you know, five, six, five, seven, something like that. So standing next to Goliath and you're like, hey, who are you going to pick to win in a fight?

[13:36] No one's going with David, unless you know the story. Spoiler alert. And so Goliath was this massive, massive guy. He was a giant from the ancient world.

[13:48] But look at verse five. He had a helmet of bronze on his head and he was armed with a coat of mail. Now a coat of mail is a nice British translation of that.

[14:02] What the Hebrew says is he wore a coat of scales. Scales. And the only things said to have scales in the Bible are fish, dragons, dragon-like creatures, and snakes.

[14:18] And so the way the biblical author describes what Goliath is wearing, he describes him as this giant serpent-looking creature. This giant evil being.

[14:30] And the way he speaks is very much in line with who the serpent is. He lies and deceives and seeks to destroy. The helicopter is coming to get us right now.

[14:43] Landing on the roof as we speak. Okay, it's gone. It missed us. All right, verse 12. Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah.

[14:58] And we know the seed that will ultimately deliver comes from Judah. So our attention is piqued by David being from Judah. And he's just a young man who was back.

[15:08] He couldn't even participate in this battle. He was too young. He was back taking care of his father's sheep. But he's sent by his father to take supplies to the front lines and come back and give a report to his father of how the battle was going.

[15:24] And every day Goliath would come out and give a challenge to the Israelites. And they failed to meet the challenge. And in verse 26, David hears this.

[15:35] And David said to the men who stood by him, What shall be done for the man who kills the Philistine and takes away their reproach from Israel? And look at how he talks about Goliath.

[15:45] For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? David has a divine perspective on this situation.

[15:58] He is looking through eyes of faith, seeing not this giant before him that seems undefeatable, but he is seeing an ungodly person who is cursing the true and living God.

[16:13] He says, who is this? Who is this that thinks he can stand up against God? Now, the Israelites had a very external, humanly, worldly way of evaluating things.

[16:25] They chose Saul as their king. Do you know why? He was tall and handsome. That was it. That was the only qualifications they had. Like, he is our leader. Look at him. And Saul was a decent leader until he comes up against another nation who has someone who is taller.

[16:44] And he was a giant, so probably not handsomer, but taller at least. Bigger. Goliath. But David sees this from a divine perspective and calls it what it is.

[16:55] But someone defies David in the camp of Israel. Verse 28 now. Eliab, his eldest brother. That's David's eldest brother. Heard when David spoke to the men.

[17:05] And Eliab's anger was kindled against David. And he said, why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart.

[17:16] Typical older brother, am I right? He's just hating on David, saying, I know that you're sinning by doing this. But if you look over to verse 36, David says, your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them.

[17:34] For he has defied the armies of the living God. And David said, Yahweh, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.

[17:45] Again, David's viewing this with eyes of faith. And we go down to verse 41. When the battle actually takes place and is described. Verse 41, the Philistine moved forward and came near to David with his shield bearer in front of him.

[17:58] And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?

[18:10] And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.

[18:21] So he's making fun of David because David enters this battle with only a slingshot. Verse 45, David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

[18:37] This day, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the hosts of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

[18:57] Verse 48, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead.

[19:10] The stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground. Okay, very graphic description. David just slingshots this stone and it's traveling like the speed of a bullet.

[19:22] Like it penetrates this dude's forehead, sinks into his skull, and notice what happens to Goliath. He fell on his face to the ground. Now he was described as a serpent, right?

[19:34] This massive guy wearing scale armor. And now on his belly he goes and his face is in the dust. What happens to the serpent is what happens to Goliath.

[19:47] He gets a crushed head from the seed of the woman. And then this part probably got left out of your children's Sunday school lesson. But 51, David ran and stood over the Philistine, took Goliath's sword, drew it out of its sheath, and killed him and cut off his head with it.

[20:01] And so David just gruesomely chops off his head. And my favorite part of the story is he just like carries the head around for the rest of the story. Like he appears a couple different times and he's just like, hey, what's up?

[20:13] And he's got Goliath's head, no big deal, asserting his dominance. But in the Bible, bad guys get crushed heads. This is what's promised to the serpent.

[20:24] Anyone that aligns himself with the serpent has the same destiny that he does, including Goliath. And so the lesson we get from this is this king, this king-to-be from Judah's line was victorious over this monstrous dragon-like creature named Goliath.

[20:44] And one day there's someone coming even from David's line who will deliver his people, who will be victorious over their enemy. And I mentioned the miraculous births earlier, the unexpected births.

[20:59] And so we expect that when this guy shows up, he'll have an unexpected birth. And so go with me to Matthew chapter 1. In Matthew 1, we're told the birth story of Jesus.

[21:23] And what we find in Jesus is the most unexpected birth of all, the most miraculous birth at all. Jesus is born of a virgin, which makes sense of why Genesis 3 says that he would be the seed of the woman.

[21:40] It's almost as if he would be born of a woman without the involvement of a man. And that's exactly what we see in Matthew chapter 1. Verse 20, Because of this virgin birth, Jesus was born without sin.

[22:16] Just like Adam was in the garden without sin in the beginning, so Jesus began without sin. And so the only way he would be put to death is if someone else's sin was put on top of him, which is exactly what took place when he died on the cross.

[22:32] God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, as 2 Corinthians 5 says. Now let's go to the book of John.

[22:44] We'll be there for a little bit. John chapter 3. As we get these four gospel accounts that give a detailed description of who Jesus is, the Bible continues to present Jesus in light of this cosmic war, this battle that's been raging from the Garden of Eden until now.

[23:10] And before we read from John 3, there's a significant event in the Old Testament that took place. Israel had escaped from Egypt through God parting the Red Sea, and when they were in the wilderness, what did they start doing?

[23:24] Like, it's hot. We're thirsty. Where's our food? Like, take us back to Egypt, Moses. Don't let us die here. And God says, you want to go back to Egypt? Egypt, I'll bring Egypt to you.

[23:35] The symbol of Egypt, one of the primary goddesses of Egypt, was a serpent. And so he sends serpents into the wilderness, and they bite them, and the Israelites start dying. And God says to Moses, in order to cure them, you need to make a bronze serpent, put it up on a pole, and anyone that's bitten by this snake can look to that pole and be healed.

[24:00] And it's possible that he would have depicted the snake as being impaled on this pole. But we pick up in John 3, verse 14. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

[24:21] For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

[24:33] Jesus is saying that Moses made an image of the thing that was afflicting God's people. And Jesus would become what his people's problem was.

[24:49] What is our problem? What has always been humanity's problem? Sin. What is it that's killing us? Sin. And so Jesus became what was afflicting us, what was killing us.

[25:02] He became sin. He did not sin. He did not commit sin, but God made him to be sin, so that he could set us free, that anyone who looks to Jesus, anyone that believes in him, will be saved, and will be set free from sin.

[25:21] And then in John chapter 19, Jesus is on the cross, and he says, it is finished. He has paid the price for that sin.

[25:32] This war is won. The battle is still being fought, but the war has been won by our King, Jesus, who triumphantly died on the cross for our sins, so that through believing in him, we could be set free.

[25:48] And our last place we'll go for tonight is the book of Revelation. So turn with me all the way to the end of your Bible, and go to Revelation chapter 20. Jesus not only died on the cross, but he triumphantly rose from the grave, defeating death, defeating the devil, defeating his demons, and Colossians 2 says he disarmed the rulers and authorities.

[26:15] He took away our sin, and so he rose again, and one day he will completely crush Satan. So in chapter 20, he's describing the end of time, verse 20, I'm sorry, verse 1 of chapter 20.

[26:30] John says, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit, and a great chain. And he seized, listen to how this creature is described, the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

[26:50] And so maybe you've been skeptical of, like, Genesis 3, the snake, is it really the devil? Here's our proof of that. John describes this dragon as the ancient serpent, the devil, and Satan.

[27:04] And so this ruler, this false god of this world, Satan, the deceiver, the tricker, the serpent from the beginning, is bound for a thousand years, which will happen in the future, and it's temporary.

[27:18] He'll be let out again, at the end of a thousand years. But look at verse 10. One day the serpent's head will be completely shattered.

[27:30] And the devil who had deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they'll be tormented day and night, forever, and ever.

[27:43] Satan will one day be thrown into hell. No more to deceive. No more to devour. And Jesus won this victory through his death on the cross, and his resurrection.

[27:59] And if you have questions about whether hell is forever or not, look at the description of hell. They'll be tormented day and night, forever, and ever. There is no end to God's wrath. His wrath is eternal.

[28:10] And anyone who aligns themselves with the serpent will suffer this same destiny, being thrown into the lake of fire for all eternity, forever and ever, suffering the consequences of sin.

[28:25] Now look at Revelation 22, finally. The Bible began with humanity and the presence of God in the garden, with access to the tree of life, and we see that's exactly where it ends too.

[28:44] Revelation 22, verse 1, Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city.

[28:54] Also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

[29:06] So the tree of life is there. Verse 3, No longer will there be anything accursed, no more serpents, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

[29:20] Kill the dragon, get the girl. Jesus has conquered the serpent. Jesus has slayed this dragon in order to purchase his people, the church, to bring them back into the presence of God, to give them access back to this tree of life.

[29:41] And we will be in the presence of God for all eternity as believers. So to wrap up, I usually don't end my sermons like this, but I'm going to tonight, because it's been a little bit academic, a little bit school-like, and you've been in school all day.

[29:57] So here are five applications to take. I think I've got five. One, two, three, four, five. Yes, five. So what? So what? So we've seen this theme of the serpent and the serpent crusher throughout Scripture.

[30:13] What do we do? How do we live in light of this? What do we need to take away from this? So here are five applications, five hopefully helpful and practical applications for us to walk away with in light of the things we've seen in God's word tonight.

[30:29] Number one, don't be like the serpent. Don't be like the serpent. That seems straightforward. That seems obvious.

[30:39] But we're far more like the serpent at times than we would care to admit. And Jesus describes what the serpent does. He's a murderer, and he is a liar.

[30:52] He devours, he rejects the truth, and he's false in his speech. And Jesus says, you've heard it said, you shall not murder.

[31:06] But I say to you that whoever hates his brother has committed murder in his heart. So don't be like the serpent. We should not have hatred in our hearts towards each other.

[31:18] We shouldn't, if someone hurts us or wrongs us, we shouldn't just mull it over in our head over and over and over again. That will lead to hatred and bitterness. We should not deceive others.

[31:29] We should not trick others or be deceived. We should not be false in our speech. We should not tell lies. We should not gossip about people. We should not slander them behind their backs.

[31:41] We need to not be like the serpent in any way. Number two, be watchful. Be watchful.

[31:54] 1 Peter 5.8 tells us to be sober-minded, be watchful. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

[32:07] Satan is not your friend. Satan is hunting you. Satan is hunting down people like you and like me.

[32:19] So do not flirt with him. Do not flirt with his temptations. And I think when it comes to thinking about Satan, we can make one of two errors. Error number one is that Satan is all-powerful.

[32:34] We can think way too highly of what Satan is capable of, as if he'd been around forever. And we can blame everything on him. We can pin every sin on him.

[32:47] But the second error, that I think we're far more likely to make in our culture, is that Satan isn't powerful at all. We can tend to think that he's got no power, he's got no force in this world, but the New Testament calls him the God of this world.

[33:05] He has influence. He's the ruler over this present age. He has influenced and blinded the minds of so many in this world. And so don't fall off the horse either way.

[33:17] Don't think he is all-powerful and should be feared above all else, but also don't just think that he's not powerful at all. Peter says to be watchful because he is our enemy and he's seeking to devour us.

[33:35] He wants you to think that sin is no big deal. He wants you to think that your life would be easier or happier or better without God and his word. He wants you to think that God is against your joy or against what's best for you.

[33:52] He wants you to think that you can have more joy and a better life without God. This was his temptation to Eve. You'll know so much more.

[34:06] You'll be like God. You'll have freedom. You'll have power if you don't listen to him. Satan's temptations have not changed today.

[34:17] Number three, fight. Fight. Now I don't mean literally throwing fists with people. I was at Horizon this morning and I was like, is there anything we can pray for regarding school or the teachers?

[34:35] And someone said, there's going to be a fight today. And Reese said it and it was a threat. She was going to beat someone up. No, just kidding. She didn't. Reese, did you fight today? Where are you? Did you fight anyone?

[34:47] Okay, good. All right. So there's rumors of a fight. So that's not how we're called to fight. We're not to throw hands at people. We are called to fight against Satan and the weapons of our warfare aren't physical.

[35:01] Physical. So how is it that we engage in this fight? How is it that we fight back? Well, Romans 16.20 says that God will actually incorporate us into Jesus' treading on the serpent.

[35:13] Romans 16.20 says, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. And so Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.

[35:24] 1 John 3.8, that's what it says. And he will actually incorporate us into this crushing of the serpent. Jesus dealt the death blow on the cross, but the battle is still being waged and we as his people are engaged in the fight.

[35:39] Ephesians 6 calls us to put on the full armor of God so that we'd be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. So how do we fight?

[35:50] We fight by speaking the truth and living righteously. We fight against the kingdom of darkness by speaking the truth and living righteously.

[36:02] Or you could put it another way. We fight by loving what God loves and hating what he hates. We fight by loving what God loves and hating what he hates.

[36:15] He hates sin. He hates unrighteousness. He hates hypocrisy. But he loves true righteousness. Now we need to step back and think because we will not fight if we don't feel right.

[36:30] And let me explain that. If we don't feel the right way about Satan, we won't fight against Satan. And so you can't be fully engaged in this warfare if you're like, you know, Satan has some good points.

[36:45] Like sometimes he has really good insight. He's pretty wise. He's crafty. He's been around a while. Now, maybe we should listen to just a little bit of what they have to say. If we don't feel the evil that he is, we will not be engaged in this fight as we should.

[37:06] And I had mentioned earlier villains that kind of make your skin crawl. That's how I feel when I think about eating cottage cheese, which I don't do. It's ungodly.

[37:19] And so these villains that just kind of give you the creeps, that's the feeling we should have about Satan. He is evil.

[37:30] He is manipulative. We cannot trust him at all. He's seeking to devour us. He's seeking to deceive us. And so we need to feel rightly about Satan.

[37:44] We need to hate him and his schemes and his temptations. And some of those movies we mentioned earlier, like Lord of the Rings-esque movies, are great because they show you the horrors of evil.

[37:57] There's no confusion in your mind as to what is good and what is evil. They show you the true horror and stench of evil. So that leads us to number four. Enjoy good stories.

[38:11] Enjoy good stories. What is a good story? A good story is one that has you rejoicing in what is good and right and true.

[38:24] A bad story is one that tempts you to celebrate sin, to celebrate something that's wrong or ungodly, to get you to feel pity or maybe see the perspective of someone who's doing something wicked and evil.

[38:38] So don't mess around with stories that make you cheer for or be sympathetic towards sin. Good stories make you root for and cheer for the good and despise the bad.

[38:50] And these stories are really just echoes of the true and ultimate story. And fifthly, worship Jesus. Worship Jesus, the serpent crusher.

[39:03] Satan is too great of an enemy for us to fight on our own. The penalty for sin is too costly for us to pay for on our own.

[39:15] And sin is too deep inside of us for us to fight on our own. We need Jesus. We need the salvation that he offers. So look to Jesus and worship him for the victory that he has brought to us through his death.

[39:30] Only Jesus can forgive you. Only Jesus can set you free. Only Jesus can enable us to fight. And so if you're looking to other things, look to Jesus.

[39:46] And Romans 10, 9 says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And John chapter 8, verse 36 says, whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

[40:03] The only chance you have of freedom from sin and Satan and death is through the death of Jesus on the cross. So I would encourage you to worship him. Celebrate his victory while we await the fulfillment of that victory in heaven.

[40:19] And we will suffer with him in the meantime, but it will be worth it as we eat from the tree of life with him in the presence of God. Our Father, we thank you for the story of Scripture.

[40:33] I pray that we would celebrate those stories that echo the ultimate story of your Son who ultimately crushes the serpents and does away with Satan.

[40:47] I pray that we would look to Jesus and these students who have not placed their faith in him that you would convict their hearts and draw them to yourself. I pray for those in this room who are believers that you would remind them not to play around with temptation because it has deadly consequences as the serpent not only deceives but as the dragon seeks to devour.

[41:08]  So Father, pray for these students that you give them wisdom and insight as they discuss some of the things we've talked about in small groups and it's in the name of Christ we pray. Amen.