Welcome back to this ongoing course on Spiritual Warfare.

Today, we're going to look at the subject of how, in the world, the battle moved from the heavenly realms—where Michael was fighting Satan—to the earth. We saw that the angels were thrown down in that powerful passage from Revelation. The battle is here now, and it’s a very real one.

Let me introduce you to a couple of people.

Hillary, for instance, is an undergraduate English major at a university here in the United States. When someone presented the story of Jesus Christ to her and invited her to accept Him into her life, this was her response:

"I just don't believe the God of Christianity exists. God allows terrible suffering in the world, so He might be either all-powerful but not good enough to end evil and suffering—or else, He might be all-good but not powerful enough to end evil and suffering. Either way, the all-good, all-powerful God of the Bible couldn't exist."

Then her friend Rob—my friend—entered the conversation and said:

"This isn't a philosophical issue to me. This is personal. I won't believe in a God who allows suffering, even if He—or she or it—exists. Maybe God exists, maybe not, but if He does, He can't be trusted."

Those quotes are from a book by Tim Keller called The Reason for God.

But it's a good question, isn't it? If there is a good God—a loving God—who created this world, what happened? What happened that today, in this world, there are millions of people on the verge of extinction who are starving?

Right now, as I speak, there's a war going on in Ukraine. And every once in a while, some of the atrocities of that war slip out—families being killed, women being raped, children being stolen and brought back to Russia.

How could such evil enter this world?

What happened in this world that there is so much evil?

And that’s just one part of evil.

But what happens when evil hits you?

Ted Turner, the founder of CNN—as well as other television stations like ESPN—is someone who, as a child, was planning to become a Catholic priest. But then his sister got sick. He prayed for her healing—and she died. And he said, “I can't believe in God anymore. I can't believe in a God that allows this kind of thing to happen.”

So what happened?

Well, the Bible puts it in terms of an ongoing battle—or more specifically, the beginning of the battle here on earth.

What happened?

You've got to go back to Genesis chapters 1 and 2. When you go there, you find the story of creation. And I'm going to read you some of those statements about creation.

Now, it’s interesting—I'm reading a book right now by Francis Collins, who is both a scientist and a doctor. He talks about how he moved from atheism to faith as he considered the creation.

I just finished the chapter on the Big Bang—about how it all started—and how that’s one piece of evidence for a creating God.

But when the Bible describes creation, it describes a being so powerful—God is so powerful—that with just a word, He says, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Now notice some of the things it says about this creation:

“God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness He called ‘night.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”

Then it continues:

“And God said, ‘Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.’ So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault ‘sky.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.”

“And God said, ‘Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry ground ‘land,’ and the gathered waters He called ‘seas.’ And God saw that it was good.”

“Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so. The land produced vegetation—plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it, according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.”

“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days, and years. Let them be lights in the sky to give light on the earth.’ And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.”

“And God said, ‘Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.’ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.”

“And God said, ‘Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.’ And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.”

Then comes the crowning point of creation:

“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”

“So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.”

“God saw all that He had made, and behold—it was very good.”

Creating humanity in His own image, in His own likeness.

Now, theologians have discussed for centuries what it truly means that we are made in the image of God. But somehow, in a way that is profound and mysterious—we are like God.

Some find the image of God in the idea that we are able to will, that we are able to plan, that we are able to rule over creation, and that we are able to create. These are things that make us like God. But God made a creature and said, "That's very good."

Now, the painting that’s shown here is from the Sistine Chapel. In the Sistine Chapel in Rome—which is the chapel where the Pope of the Catholic Church worships—there are frescoes. That means Michelangelo lay on his back for a long, long time painting these magnificent images. There are thousands of pictures. I had the privilege of being there once, and you almost can't take it all in.

This panel here is the one that depicts the creation of man—this creature made in the image of God. And I love some of the commentary from those who have studied this painting. Some of those thoughts are shared by John Ortberg in his book God Is Closer Than You Think. In this image, God is shown moving toward this created being—Adam, the first man—and He's eagerly reaching out, reaching forward to touch him and breathe life into him.

But man? Man is just kind of leaning back, lazily reaching out his finger to receive that touch. God created man and said, "Look at this world I've created. It's very, very good."

But then, all you have to do is jump to Genesis chapter 3, and things begin to change. Something happens. We read that the serpent comes to Eve.

Now, in chapter 2, God created Eve, saying, "It is not good for man to be alone," and so He made a creature like him—someone taken out of man. Adam called her "woman" because she was taken out of man. She was created to rule with him over this beautiful creation, to develop it, and to expand it.

And into that beautiful story enters the serpent—who, throughout Scripture, is identified as Satan. He comes to the woman and whispers to her:

“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Now, did God say that? You see, most sin, some people reflect, begins with a doubt—a doubt of the absolute beauty, wonder, and goodness of God. So Satan comes in and introduces doubt into the woman’s mind.

“Did God say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?”

The woman replies to the serpent:

“We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

Now the woman is starting to enter into the spirit of the temptation here—because when God gave that command, He said not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

He didn’t say, “If you touch it, you’ll die.” He didn’t say that. So she’s kind of expanded on God’s command—she’s buying into the idea that maybe God isn’t as good as she thought He was. And as a result, she eats the fruit.

Here’s how the enemy puts it:

“You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye—and also desirable for gaining wisdom—she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Later, they are cast out. When God comes seeking them in the cool of the day—which, apparently, was His custom, to come and walk with these creatures made in His image—He finds that they are nowhere to be found. They're hiding.

And He says:

“Who told you? Who told you that you were naked?”

Then they are pushed out of the Garden—so that they might not eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in this fallen condition.

Now, Genesis chapter 3—if you're not familiar with that—is titled The Fall. It's the fall of the crown of creation. Human beings, who were supposed to be the caretakers of all creation, were supposed to multiply and fill the earth with other image-bearers of God—filling a beautiful, very good creation. But instead, they are cast out.

We’re told that an angel is placed at the entrance to the Garden of Eden so they can't re-enter and live forever in that fallen condition.

There was an impact to this. The crown of creation had now fallen—and it impacted creation itself.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 8 (earlier I said chapter 1, but it’s actually chapter 8):

“For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship—the redemption of our bodies.”

“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”

That’s Romans chapter 8.

What happened is that creation itself has been corrupted.

Now, there’s a Christian doctrine called total depravity, which refers to the condition of human beings—that our tendency is toward evil.

Our tendency as fallen creatures is to listen more to the enemy than to the good God who created us in His image.

Now, total depravity doesn’t mean that everything in us is bad or that everything in creation is bad. The creation remains beautiful, and we still bear something of the image of God in us—something that makes us respect others as fellow image-bearers. But what it does mean is that everything is tainted.

I love the way one theologian put it: If you have a beaker of pure water and dump some sewage into it, it doesn’t mean that every single molecule is corrupted. But it does mean the entire beaker is no longer pure—it’s now dangerous. In a sense, that’s what happened with creation when evil was introduced into the garden.

First, there’s the cover-up. Adam and Eve realize they no longer look the same to each other—they recognize their nakedness, and they’re ashamed. Some theologians—and I’ve said this in sermons—suggest this is one of the reasons we wear clothes. We don’t want people to see what we’re really like, because they might reject us. So we wear clothes. Many of us—men and women—wear makeup. We cover ourselves up because we don’t want others to see or experience who we really are. Deep down, we sense that something is wrong within us.

And then—they hide from God.

God introduces many disciplines at that point. If you read the rest of Genesis chapter 3, you’ll see it. The man and the woman now have to work for their food. Before, they could walk through the garden and simply pick what they wanted. Now, they must toil. They’ll eat from the sweat of their brow.

But even in that moment, God gives a marvelous promise in Genesis 3:15—a promise that they won’t have to hide from God forever. As God curses the serpent—the enemy—He says:

“Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

God is speaking here to the enemy—and also to the woman. He tells her that childbirth will now involve pain:

“With painful labor, you will give birth to children.”

And to Adam, He says:

“Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.”

But that one line in verse 15 is a promise—that one day, they will no longer have to hide from God.

God says to Satan:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.”

Now, who is the offspring of the woman? There’s only one person in Scripture described as the offspring of a woman but not of a man: Jesus, through the virgin birth. Jesus is going to come and crush the serpent’s head, even as the serpent strikes His heel.

In The Passion of the Christ, there’s a powerful visual image of this. Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, agonizing. One of the Gospel accounts says He’s sweating drops of blood. In the film, Satan comes to tempt Him, whispering, “It’s too much for you. No one can bear the weight of all the sin of mankind.” Then Satan releases a serpent, which slithers toward Jesus.

Jesus stands up, recognizing that the time has come, and crushes the serpent’s head with His heel.

It’s a powerful moment. I remember seeing it in the theater when the movie was released—people in the audience applauded at that moment. It was a declaration: “Yes, it’s happening—even now.”

That fulfillment ultimately happens on the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ crushes the head of Satan.

So that’s how the battle came to Earth—and how it continues to this day.

Now, one of the videos I wanted to show you features a song by Don Francisco. When I was learning to play the guitar, I loved many of his songs. His style is mostly storytelling—ballads based on Bible stories. One of them tells the story of what happened in the Garden.

Since I can’t play the video here, I brought my speakers so I can play the audio for you.

Take a listen to “Adam, Where Are You?”

In a garden that has never seen the rain, rulers of a kingdom full of joy, never marred by any pain,
The morning all around them seems to celebrate the life they've just begun.
And in the majesty of innocence, the king and queen come walking in the sun.

But the master of deception now begins with his dissection of the word,
And with all his craft and subtlety, the serpent twists the simple truth they heard.

While hanging in the balance is a world that has been placed at their command,
And all their unborn children die as both of them bow down to Satan's hand.

Just before the evening, in the cool of the day, they hear the voice of God as He is walking.
And they can’t abide His presence, so they try to hide away,
But still, they hear the sound as He is calling out.

In the stifling heat of summer now, the gardener and his wife are in the field,
And it seems that thorns and thistles are the only crop his struggles ever yield.
He eats his meals in sorrow till he sinks into the dust whence he came,
But all down through the ages, he can hear his Maker calling out his name...

Adam.
Adam, where are you?

Where are you?
Though the curse has long been broken, Adam’s sons are still the prisoners of their fears,
Rushing headlong to destruction with their fingers in their ears,
While the Father’s voice is calling with an urgency I’ve never heard before:
“Come in from the darkness, now, before it’s time to finally close the door.”

Adam...

Thank you. I know this class went a couple minutes over, and we’ll make that up another time. But don’t forget—the call of God still echoes:

He continues to seek the lost.

See you next time.

Modifié le: jeudi 29 mai 2025, 08:14