Sermons

One of the cherubim, whom God had fashioned with great care and loved, grew proud, coveted the throne and rose in rebellion, and together with a third of the angels he was cast out from the mountain of God. The one who had been driven out then appeared in the form of a serpent and led man to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and from that day he set about hunting down the woman’s offspring to destroy them.

The murder of Abel, the children born to the daughters of men to corrupt the human line, and the attempts to kill the Hebrew baby boys and the infants of Jesus’ day all served this one purpose. When he tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he was trying to learn whether this really was the offspring of the woman. He believed that putting Jesus to death on a cross would make him one who is cursed, but the resurrection had no place in his calculations. Even now Satan draws people into pleasure and entertainment, and he borrows the language of human rights and public health to stop worship and keep the church from gathering.

Satan’s plan to destroy the woman’s offspring failed then, and it is failing still. Unless God permits it, Satan can do nothing. When God’s people live by faith, unshaken and unafraid, the victory is theirs.

On the cross Jesus poured out both water and blood, and having overcome death, he rose again on the third day. Because he could not save anyone without giving himself up completely, he did not waver amid the temptation and mockery of Satan, but followed that road to the very end.

In Ezekiel’s day, leaders who fed only themselves left the sheep without a shepherd, and the flock was scattered and carried off into captivity. This nation, too, is now rotting from the root, as its spiritual and political leaders greedily exploit the people for their own gain. That is a sign of collapse from within, more frightening than North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Yet God would not let his name be profaned by Israel’s sin, and he restored them.

When God’s people receive a new spirit, when their hardened hearts are made tender and they keep and follow God’s statutes, this nation can be restored just as Israel was. Christians cannot overcome the wicked in their own strength. To rely on the risen Jesus Christ and pray for this nation and its people is the believer’s duty and the way to victory.