Dr Greg Bahnsen - God Sent His Son (Christmas): The Seed of Woman (Luke 1:67-79) (Part 1)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. This morning we're going to begin a new series interrupting our exposition of First Peter temporarily, in light of the fact that the 25th of December, this particular year, is going to fall on the Lord's Day morning. And that means that this would be an appropriate time perhaps to do a series on the Incarnation and to preach about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into the world. And I'm hoping that we can do that looking forward every Lord's Day between now and then, through that day when we'll declare the Incarnation. Now, I want to make it clear that in our particular church, we don't believe that Christmas is a holiday. That is to say, we don't believe it's a holy day. It's not a day set apart by God as anything special. And it's important for us to remember that because God is the one who declares his own worship. God is the one who tells us how we are to approach him and what is appropriate in our worship. And therefore we don't have the authority to declare a day that set apart that God Himself has not done so. Nevertheless, the Church has throughout the ages acknowledged a particular time when it is to be remembered that Christ did come into this world. And so the Advent has been remembered by the Church at different times. And December 25, and the English speaking world has come to be the time to do that. And I think we can make as big a deal of avoiding celebrating Christmas as we can making a deal of celebrating Christmas. And we don't want to go either way on that. We want to make it completely adiaphora, the Greek word that means indifferent. There's nothing religiously significant about 25 December. On the other hand, there's nothing at all inappropriate about remembering the Incarnation. We're going to be doing that as we worship together in a few weeks on the 25th, on the day that God has set apart for worship, which is the Lord's Day. And this is a good time, as good as any, to remind you that as that day approaches, you should remember that not only has Christmas not been sanctified by God as some special holiday, but that every Sunday, the first day of the week when the Lord rose from the dead, has been set apart by God as the day to worship him. And he set apart the entire day for that. You know, it's a great joy to have Sunday come around, not just because you can now take a nap on, you know, Sunday afternoon. Something you can't do during the work week, perhaps. But it's a great joy because we're able to get together with God's people and not just talk about, oh, wouldn't it be great if we could see each other? But now we can see each other and spend time together. And today, as we have small group fellowship meals, get to extend our time together with God's people. That shouldn't be something that we see as a religious duty. And, oh, no, we have to go through this, but something, well, this is great. Now we have the freedom to do what we want to do, or at least we say we want to do. And God enables us to do that, to worship together and to continue our fellowship together. And that takes precedent over all other things, that takes precedence over our daily work, takes precedence over repairing the house, takes precedence over all the other mundane affairs of life that God gives us six days to attend to. And he's given us the Lord's Day to be with him in a special fashion, to walk with him more closely, to read our Bibles and pray, to fellowship with each other and to corporately worship his name. Please remember as the 25th of December comes around, that that is what you as Christians are called to do. I know that we have a lot of cultural things and a lot of trappings that may get in the way of that, but I would expect you have been educated in God's Word, and I know you have hearts that want to please him. Remember that 25th December may be called Christmas by a lot of people in this world, but it's the Lord's Day, and it's a day for you to corporately worship God and not feel pressed by opening of gifts and getting home to the turkey or ham or whatever it may be, any more than you are any other week when we come together to worship. Anyway, the 25th is coming up and I'd like to begin a series here until that day on the incarnation, which I'm going to be calling preparation for Christmas. And toward that end, please open with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke this morning. Luke, chapter one and beginning at the 67th verse, a word of explanation before I read this. This is the portion of God's word that is often called the Benedictus of Zacharias. Zacharias was the father of John the Baptist. You may remember that Elizabeth, his wife, was visited by an angel. She was going to give birth to a child. She was not able to do so. And Zacharias, for his doubts about this matter, became dumb, could not speak, and he wouldn't be able to speak until the child was born. And when Zacharias is now filled with the Spirit and speaks and glorifies God about the birth of his son, John. It's called the Benedictus, his blessing of God. This is what we're going to be reading together. John, of course, is the one who would be known as the baptizer, the one that the Lord prepared to go the way before Jesus to prepare the Jews for the coming of their anointed One, their Savior. Now let's hear God's word in Luke the first chapter and the 67th verse. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he hath visited and wrought redemption for his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets than have been from of old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, to show mercy towards our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he sware unto Abraham our Father, to grant unto us, that being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, we should serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. Yea, and thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Most High, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to make ready his ways to give knowledge of salvation unto his people in the remission of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high shall visit us to shine upon them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And thus far the reading of God's word. I was preparing to go to London and I had to go to the pharmacy a couple of times to get an extra supply of my daily medications, which are too numerous to mention for you. And as you know, if you're on any kind of insurance plan, they have measured out for you how many of your pills you can pick up at any one time. But when I have to go out of town, I need extra pills because I can't go to the pharmacy from London very easily and get the supply that would be needed. And so I had to go a couple of times. I wasn't in a very good mood anyway, for that reason, as I'm going to the pharmacy now, I want to remind you this is before Thanksgiving. We haven't even reached the Turkey Day here in America. And there in the pharmacy, we have two entire rows dedicated to Christmas decorations. I thought to myself, as many of you probably think every year about this time, how early will it get? I actually saw some Christmas decorations, believe it or not, in one particular restaurant before Halloween. So our culture wants to get ready for the big day earlier and earlier and earlier. I told you I wasn't in a good mood anyway, and so I just kind of pooh poohed that whole thing as commercialism and people wanting to take advantage of religious celebration to make money and so forth. Well, when I got out of that bad mood about having to go to the pharmacy a couple of times, and running into that, I got to thinking about this and I said, you know, maybe there's something unintentionally divine about what the pharmacy was doing, because, you know, God made preparations long in advance for the day in which the Anointed One would finally come into the world. God beat all of the pharmacies and restaurants and department stores by years and years and years because his preparation for what we call Christmas Day, his preparation began all the way back at the beginning of the human race. And so I'd like to take the next few Lord's Day mornings to talk about the divine preparation for Christmas so that we might have a better understanding of what God has done in laying the scenery and setting the situation up for His Son to come into this world, that he might die for the sins of his people. I hope many of you have an interest in history. You might not read books on history, but probably you've watched series on the TV about historical accounts and so forth. If you have any kind of interest in history and you stop and reflect on it, you know that it's very difficult to decide how history should be written and presented. In a day where the Christian worldview has ceased to dominate scholarly studies, historians are really in a quandary, because what is important in history? In order to answer that question, which must be answered before you can write a textbook on history, in order to answer the question, what is important in history, you have to know what history is all about. You have to know, if you will, the meaning of history, or to use a metaphor that is sometimes misleading, you have to know the direction of history. Where are things going? Why are things happening? You see, if there are no boundaries, if there is no importance and unimportance, if everything is equally meaningless, then why write the particular kind of history book that is written. When I was in school, the history books that I read tended to organize the development of events around socio political affairs. What happens with kings and princes and kingdoms, what happens in terms of social relationships and legislation and so forth. But now that tells you something about the writer of that history doesn't tells you that he sees the meaning of history as somehow tied up primarily with what happens in terms of the interpersonal relationships of people as they are organized under authority. That is to say, he has a statist view of history. It's the state that should dominate and our account of history. But then I read other books in history, not so much my textbooks when I was in college and so forth, but other books on history tend to look at the way people are organized economically. They look at economic affairs and what pushes history in terms of the means of production or who's wealthy or how they become wealthy and how wealth is used and so forth. Such a person who writes a book like that has something of an economic interest and therefore writes history from that standpoint. But if history has no meaning, if there is no direction to history, if there's no boundaries, then of course any kind of history could be written. We sometimes say, well, who cares about the price of tea in China, right? That's supposed to be something so irrelevant that expression is used to dismiss something as utterly irrelevant. But why shouldn't you write a history around the price of tea in China? Why not? If everything is equally unimportant, then everything is equally important. If there is no meaning, there is no direction. From a Christian standpoint, we don't have this difficulty in organizing history. We know where history is going, we know what history is about. I don't know if we always reflect on that and appreciate that fact. But the Bible gives us an understanding of where man came from, what the basic problem with man is, what God is going to do about it, how he brings it about, and then how he's going to consummate history. We have in the Bible an outline of human history. And I don't mean because the Bible contains history. It does contain history, very important history, the history of God's redemptive work for his people. But I'm not simply talking about the specific history in the Bible. I'm talking about the biblical view of history. And if we want to understand history in a Christian perspective, we need to understand that Jesus Christ is the center of history. That this world began with God creating man for his own glory. And man decided to live for himself. He defiled his own purpose. He defiled his own character. He rebelled against his Maker. And for that reason, all the misery that is in this world, all the sin and unkindness and violence and lack of integrity and impurity, and all the things that make this world a lousy place to live in were because man decided to live for himself rather than for God. And what is God going to do about that? You know what God could have done and injustice should have done? He should have said, well then, wipe man off from the face of the earth. He's not worthy to live in this paradise that I've created. He is not worthy to breathe. He is not worthy to walk and to talk. He is not worthy to enjoy anything. And least of all is he worthy to know me. But the Bible tells us God did not do that. And I'd like you to turn with me in your Bibles and back to Genesis, the third chapter. Because in Genesis 3 we begin to see God's outline of history. As this fits in with the theme of my messages, I want to make it clear that what we are going to find is that the outline of history centers on Christmas Day, that Jesus is the center of history, that everything before Jesus looks forward to what he is going to do, and everything subsequent to the life of Jesus is an application of what he came to do. Looking to him coming again, we do not, as Christians, see every event as equally important or unimportant. We believe that there is a particular direction God is taking the human race, and it's all in the direction of preparing for Christmas Day. In the Benedictus of Zacharias, which we read in our Scripture lesson, you will notice that Zacharias claimed that this redemption that God is sending was prophesied from the beginning of the world. So he said in verse 70 of our reading, he emphasized that it is a fulfillment of the oath that was sworn through to Abraham. As he says in verse 73 of our reading, he says that it is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant and that it is all that the mouth of the prophets look forward to. Verse 70 put it very simply. Zacharias, in blessing God for the birth of John the Baptist, says, all the Old Testaments look forward to this. Everything was about this. And of all things, Zechariah has been blessed and that his Son will go before the face of the Lord and prepare his people to receive him. What a grand day that is. But it all began at the beginning, as was prophesied from days of old. Zechariah said, and so we'll go back to the beginning today, as we look today at the seed of the woman. The seed of the woman as prophesied by God from the very beginning. We're in Genesis, the third chapter, which is the account of man's rebellion against God and his fall. And beginning at the ninth verse, we read Jehovah. God called unto man and said unto him, where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Before we read on, do you feel the devastation of those words? Adam says, God, I was afraid. Why? Adam had no reason to be afraid, did he? Well, we know the story. It so happens that he did. But in terms of what God had intended for Adam and where God placed Adam, Adam had nothing to fear at all. Not only that, Adam said, and I was naked. That didn't bother Adam. Previously, the Bible tells us that God made man and woman, and they were not clothed and they were not ashamed. But now, somehow, something has happened in the relationship between Adam and Eve that has made them not only ashamed of their nakedness, but afraid of God. And so Adam says, I hid. Well, I think this is a historical account. I don't want to miss that fact. This actually happened in calendar time. But in addition to being a historical account, I think it's an insight to human nature as well. This is the human story right here. Men hide from God, even though God made them for fellowship with himself. God made us to walk and talk with him. Can you imagine how glorious that must have been when God would come in the evening of the day and discuss with Adam and Eve what they've done that day and how they're enjoying life and what they should be doing to have that kind of intimate communion. But a day came when Adam hid from his Maker and said, God, I was afraid of you. And I was ashamed of my wife's nakedness and my own. We went and took care of matters in our own way. Verse 11. And God said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? We begin to see the disintegration of human personality and interpersonal harmony. And Adam's first answer. Adam was not the man. Adam did not own up to what he did. Adam should have said straight out, you put me in charge here. I sinned against you. Punish me. I deserve it. I did not watch over my wife. I did not protect the garden. I let the tempter come in and we listened to him rather than to you. Instead we have Adam dreadfully answering the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. So Adam blames someone else. And again, this is a historical account, but also a real insight into human nature. It comes natural for people to avoid guilt and to try to put it on someone else or some other circumstance. And so Adam did. And then Jehovah God said unto the woman, what is it that thou hast done? What did I just tell you about human nature? How we don't want to own up to the things we've done. We know that we've done what is wrong. We knew better. We willfully went against the word of God. And yet we looked for some other explanation, some other excuse. And so Eve did as well. And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all the cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly thou shalt go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. Now, you have read this account before, so I think you know what is coming. Or maybe your eyes are looking over it right now. So you know what's coming. But. But if you did not know what is coming, what would you expect to come at this point? God has found out the sin of Adam and Eve. He has found them hiding in the garden, not even owning up to their guilt in a straightforward and honest way. And as God begins to declare his response and reaction to this, his is a word of curse, the serpent. And what would you expect? I would expect the next word is and cursed. Are you Adam and Eve? I've had it with you again. You don't deserve to be in this garden. You don't deserve to walk with me. What did I say? What happened in the day that you eat thereof? And you will know death, unremitted, eternal death from this point on. That's why I want you to appreciate the 15th verse of Genesis 3. It's what theologians call the protoevangelium. That's just a big fancy word for the first Gospel, the first good word that God gave of salvation at the very point that we would expect God to pronounce a curse upon the human race because he's cursed Satan. Instead, he gives good news. He gives the gospel, he evangelizes. And this is the very opening of the Bible, the very beginning of human history. We have to understand that history is formed around this word of Promise from God. Here's what he and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Satan had brought forth enmity between man and God. Satan had brought forth enmity between man and his wife. But it's now God who comes, and he says, as a matter of curse, I will establish enmity. I will make it such that this hostility will exist forever now. And God pronounces three forms of hostility. You see that in the change of language in Genesis 3:15. Let me read it again. See if you can pick up on this. There are three couplets here. Enmity between A and B, between C and D, E and F. And I will put enmity between the. And the woman and between thy seed and her seed. He shall bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise his heel. The first place. God says that he establishes enmity between Satan and Eve, the woman. I will put enmity between thee and the woman. There's a particular hostility that exists because Eve first listened to the tempter. Eve first succumbed to his temptation. She listened to the beguiling words. And God said, you must learn your lesson. There shall be enmity between you, Eve and Satan. And then secondly, and more particularly, God says, and there will be enmity between the seed of the woman and. And the seed of the serpent, between the woman's seed and Satan's seed. Now, this does not mean that God has established hostility between snakes and humans. You know, some liberal readers of the Bible think this is an early primitive account of why human beings don't like snakes. Because God's put hostility between the seed of the snake and the seed of the woman. I know it's rather ridiculous when you think about it, but that's what people do who don't have any spiritual enlightenment or people who have some axe to grind against God and want to make his word out sound ridiculous. Nor does it mean that all of the woman's seed are human beings in general. Stop and think about it. In Genesis, the fourth chapter, Cain was born to Eve. And yet Cain showed himself not to be a child of God, but rather to be the seed of Satan. He was a murderer from the beginning. If we read our Bibles, we would know that from the very outset physical descendancy does not automatically qualify a person as the seed of the woman. Keep your finger in Genesis 3, but turn back to Luke now, chapter 3, Luke 37. Here John the Baptist is preaching. He said therefore to the multitudes that went out to be baptized of him, you offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Kind of a significant figure of speech, isn't it? He says, you children of snakes, you're not the seed of the woman, you're the seed of Satan. And Jesus is even more pointed. In John 8:44, John 8:44, Jesus says, you are of your father, the devil. And the lust of your father, it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and stands not in the truth because there is no truth in him. Satan was a murderer and a liar from the very beginning. And Jesus says to the Jewish opponents who have come to him, you are of your father the devil. You're not the seed of the woman, you're the seed of the serpent, and the devil is your father. So we know that from the way the Bible plays out this figure of speech that the seed of the woman is not the human race in general, because physical descendancy doesn't qualify a person to belong to the woman. There are human beings that are the seed of Satan. The woman seed referred to here in Genesis 3 are those human beings who have been selected by God to belong to him. They are those who are part of the kingdom of God. They are the children of God. They belong to him. And the seed of the serpent does not. The great church, Father Augustine understood the significance of this prophecy and he wrote a history book, by the way, one of the first philosophies of history, and it was structured along the lines of Christian theology. Augustine saw that all of human history is a matter of the conflict between the city of God and the city of man. Those who are born of the serpent and do not belong to God, and those who are the elect of God, born of the woman, in the saving sense that is intended here. So all the human race is divided into two seeds, and they will never get along. There will never be detente between them. They'll never be able to say, well, let's put aside our religious differences and just be neutral, okay? Let's just be uncommitted when it comes to religion. And we'll take care of the things that really are important or that we can know scientifically, those things that we can see with our eyes, hear with our ears all those observational truths that we share in common. And then religion will be something that comes in later, but that cannot be accomplished. God has put enmity between these seeds, the city of God. Those who belong to the kingdom of God and, and the city of man will never Be at peace. And anytime we think that we're at peace, we are the ones who are being duped. We are the ones who are being taken in by the beguiling lies of Satan. Satan hates the people of God. Satan persecutes the people of God, and if he had his way, would destroy the people of God. And those who are children of Satan, who are murderers and liars, as well as do not love the children of God. God is the one who said this. You could have the greatest ambassador, the most golden tongued speaker in the world come before you and say, oh, no, we can get along. Here's the convenient articles of peace, and so forth. But God has said there is enmity between these two. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. But then there's another antithesis, another coupling here that's very important because we have to understand that in the end, those of us who are the seed of the woman are not so because of natural descendancy. We're not the seed of the woman. Just because we were born into this world isn't as though God said, well, part of the human race will be born as my children. Part of the human race will be born as the children of the evil one. We qualify as the seed of the woman for only one reason. And that's because by faith we have been joined to the one and only who qualified to be the seed of the woman. And so in the next couplet, in Genesis 3:15, even though God has spoken of the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, he now uses singular pronouns. And he says, he shall bruise thy head. There's now going to be a clash between a he and a you. And God says, there is one particular seed of this woman who is coming, and he is going to crush your head. Satan. That is, there is an antithesis, a hostility, an enmity between Satan as an individual and another individual who is going to be born of the woman. Some human being is going to be used by God to crush the head of the tempter. Here we find an important crucial promise at the outset of the Bible, at the outset of the human race, that some representative person, one seed of all the seed, one individual, a single descendant from Eve, is going to destroy the enemy of God's people. Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 17:8, 10. 1 Samuel 17:8. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine? And ye servants to Saul, choose you a man for you to let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me and kill me, then will we be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and serve us. And the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. Here's a perfect illustration of that representative principle that I'm referring to here. Goliath, the Philistine, the great enemy of God's people, comes out and he says, send a representative to deal with me. And whatever happens in terms of our encounter, we will account to be what happens to the armies that we represent. So that if he kills me, we become your servants. But if I kill him, you become our servants. Back in the garden. This principle, call it the Goliath principle, if you will. God said to the evil one, I will send out a representative. He, the seed of the woman is going to deal with you, and you are going to lose in this encounter. He is going to crush your head. I don't want to go into grisly details, but I think you all realize that if you stop on a snake's head, that's the end of it for the snake, right? You pull its tail off, it can still bite you. In some snakes, you can cut them in half, and they're still going after you crush their head. And that's what God said to Satan. He said, the day is coming when my seed will crush your head in the process. Of course, that will bruise the heel of my representative. He is going to be hurt, but not mortally so. You will be hurt and destroyed. God started preparing for Christmas a long time ago. He said, there's going to be a day when someone who is born a human being, a seed of the woman who is standing for all the seed that belong to me. My representative seed is going to put an end to you, Satan. He's going to come into this world to destroy you. And that explains, by the way, why the people of God placed so much stress upon genealogies. Ever stop to think about that? That's not just Jewish pride in family. There is pride of family, to be sure. But the reason why an emphasis was placed on genealogies is because the very first Gospel declaration, the Proto Evangelion, was a declaration about a seed that would come to the woman. And so they paid attention to who was born and who was born to whom, and so forth. Genesis, the fifth chapter, is very likely the first scripture that we have, that the people of God kept carefully documenting births to women because God had promised. Now, of course, if they had the advantage that we do from our perspective, they wouldn't have to keep track of all births to women, because we know the particular line. But remember, we're seeing things from the end of the story. Back in those days, all they knew is that God had promised someone was going to be born who would be the Savior and destroy Satan. And as an act of faith, they kept track then of their family lives. Let's move ahead in the Bible, in Genesis to the 12th chapter, verses 2 and 3. Now Jehovah is speaking to Abram and telling him to leave his country and his father's house and to go into a land that God would show him. And verse two says, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and be thou a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee. And him that curseth thee will I. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Abraham is promised a family. And Abraham's name will be so great that all those who bless Abraham will be blessed of God. And those who curse Abraham will be cursed of God. This will be the dividing between the city of God and the city of man, between the seed of the woman and the seed of serpent. Who will bless Abraham, who is the father of the faithful? Genesis 13:15. God sends Abraham into a land, and he says, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it. And now listen. And to thy seed forever. Abraham has promised a seed that will last forever. And yet Abraham has already been told to be the father of many nations. If you only had this much scripture in your hand without the advantage of later explanations, even at this point, you should understand that the promise is not exclusively to the Jews. Is it not exclusively to those who are biological children of Abraham? Because Abraham's promised the seed that will be blessed. But he'll be the father of many nations. Where one man can't be the father of many nations, he could be the father of the Jewish nation. But the point is, those who bless Abraham will be the seed of Abraham, his children and heirs, according to the promise originally made in the garden and renewed now with Abraham, that a seed is coming who will save God's people. Genesis 15, 5, 6. And he brought him forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven and number the stars, if thou be able to number them. And they said unto him, so shall thy seed be. And he believed Jehovah, and he reckoned it to him for righteousness. Isn't that amazing? An innumerable seed will come to belong to Abraham, to be the children of God. Genesis 17:1. And when Abraham was 90 years old and 9, Jehovah appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee. And will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face. And God talked with him, saying, as for me, behold, my covenant is with thee. And thou shalt be the father of a multitude of nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham. For the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceedingly fruitful. And I will make nations of thee. And kings shall come of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee. Throughout their generations. For an everlasting covenant to be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee. And then jump ahead for a moment to the 22nd chapter. We're going to come back to chapter 18. But chapter 22, verse 17. That in blessing I will bless thee. And in multiplying I will multiply thy seed. As the stars of the heavens. And as the sand which is upon the seashore. And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Because Thou has obeyed my voice. And now the promise of a seed, a seed of the woman takes on greater complexity, greater coloring, greater characteristic. We now see that it's the seed of Abraham. And that in this seed the enemies of God will be destroyed. And even kings and nations will come out of him. There's going to be a whole civilization that develops from the seed of the woman. And from the Savior. And God makes this particular covenantal promise to Abraham. There's only one detail wrong here. Abraham doesn't have a child. And Abraham can't have a child. He's too old. And on top of that, his wife is barren. God's plan for the ages has been destroyed. God made a bad choice, right? He chose Abraham. But Abraham can't have any babies. And so how can the promise be fulfilled? Don't you see the beauty of what God is doing? God is preparing us for Christmas Day. He's saying human obstacles are no problem for me. And that everything that stands in human history that you think is the mundane affairs, the most concrete, solid realities and truths, they're overcome by my promise. And so, Abraham, you have to understand that you're going to have this promise fulfilled by my miraculous intervention. The day is coming when a woman who hasn't even had sex with a man will say, how can it be that I will bear the Messiah? Well, of course, if you've read the Old Testament, you'd say, no problem. God's promise is going to structure history, will control the outcome of events. Look at Genesis 18. Now, verse 14. Here's the promise to Abraham that he's going to have a son. Verse 11 says, Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age, and had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women she was past any possibility of bearing. And Sarah laughed within herself, saying, after I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old also? And Jehovah said unto Abraham, wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I of a surety bear a child who am old? Is any word too hard for Jehovah at the set time? I will return unto thee when the season comes round and Sarah will have son. This is a great story. Sarah laughs. You know what the Hebrew word for laughter is? It's zak. And so what will her son be called? Isaac. Laughter she said, how can this be? And Jehovah's response is, now your translation may say, is anything too hard? And the interesting aspect of this enable issue can't capture it. In Hebrew, debar means word or thing equally, and so it's really both. God is saying, is anything too hard for me? But specifically, is any word too hard? Have I uttered something? Is it too hard for me to carry it out? Absolutely not. The promise of a seed made originally to Adam and Eve and now renewed to Abraham, that he will have a seed, it turns out, is going to be a miraculous seed, a seed that will be born according to God's intervention. God promised Abraham a seed and certain blessings thereby. But turn with me in your bibles to Galatians 3:16. Galatians 3:16 makes it clear that the seed is a particular individual seed. Galatians 3:16. Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed he saith, not into seeds as of many, but rather as of one and to thy seed. And Paul says, which is Christ? When God was making this promise of a seed to Abraham, you see both it's going to be a great seed, more numerous than the stars. And on the other hand, it's one particular seed. You have that one in many complex here, even as you do in the Garden of Eden. And it's one particular seed who is going to become the savior of a multitude, who will then be called the seed of Abraham. Whereas Paul says in Galatians 3:29, if you are Christ, then are you Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise? And so Abraham according to Christ, then are the seed of Abraham. And they enjoy the promises that God has given to his people from way back when. So Jehovah's rhetorical question is anything too hard? For Jehovah is a promise from him that the difficulties of bringing about salvation will not be difficulties for God. The obstacles will not keep him from fulfilling his word. And in particular we have in this an anticipation of the virgin birth. Luke 1:37. Luke 1:37. The angel has come to announce the birth of Jesus to Mary. Mary said unto the angel, how shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. Wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God. And behold Elizabeth, thy kinswoman. She also hath conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her that was called barren. For no word from God shall be void of power. It's a reference to what happened in Abraham's day. Shall any word of God be too difficult? No word from God is void of power. And so I'm not so unhappy, really, that people prepare for Christmas months in advance. It seems to me that from a Christian standpoint, we should see that God was preparing for Christmas for years and years and years. And all of history should be from our perspective, which is the true and objective one. All of history should be seen as focusing on that day when the promise made to Adam and Eve and renewed through Abraham would finally come to miraculous fulfillment. And one representative seed of the woman would be born who would finally become the Savior. Men, let's pray. Our Lord and our God, we ask you to fill our hearts with joy. Help us to feel the thrill that you are in control of history and that you are controlling it for our good, that you are determined to save your people, to provide a Messiah, an anointed one who will fulfill all your promises and above all, crush the head of the one who brought us into sin and misery. Lord, we do ask that you would help us to understand the plan of the ages, to understand your sovereignty, and to understand the good news that that represents for all of us who belong to Christ. And therefore are the seed of Abraham and in him the seed of the woman who will enjoy the outcome of total victory in history. Eternal life with you, we pray. In Jesus name. Amen. This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute. Duplication, sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our website, bonseninstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.