Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Guest (Male): Over a half century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's Word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the radio ministry which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.

The application of God's Word as taught by Dr. Barnhouse is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago. The message we'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled, "The Bruising of Satan." After mankind's fall in the Garden of Eden, God declared to the serpent, "He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

Satan indeed struck the Messiah's heel at Calvary, but in His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus dealt Satan a crushing blow that sealed his eventual defeat and destruction. Do you rejoice in the triumph of Christ over the evil one? The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is Romans, chapter 16 and verse 20. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled, "The Bruising of Satan."

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto Thee, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. We thank Thee for the victory that we have in Christ. We thank Thee that because of what He did, Thou dost look upon us as being in Him and that all that He accomplished in Himself has become peculiarly ours, so that we may claim the very triumph of the throne of God. Bless each listening heart in this hour that we may know the present victory that should be ours and not be among those Christians who walk laggingly, waiting for the triumph in the future that should be ours now. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Near the close of the epistle to the Romans in chapter 16 and verse 20, we come to this magnificent text: "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." Now, there can be no true explanation of this text without going back to the Garden of Eden, where the Lord God Almighty made the first announcement that Satan would be bruised under the heel of Christ.

We're familiar with the story of the fall. Man sinned and became aware of the loss of his garments of light, which were the sign of his holiness. Immediately on discovering this spiritual nudity, he sought to clothe himself with fig leaves, a magnificent symbol for human works of any sort. It was then that the voice of the Lord sought Adam, and the loving question came: "Adam, where are you?" And he said, "I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself."

God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman." God didn't discuss it with him, but said to the woman, "What is this that thou hast done?" The woman said, "The serpent." The Lord did not discuss it with the woman, but turned to the serpent and said, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle and above all wild animals. Upon your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life."

At this point, God looked beyond the serpent and spoke to Satan, who animated him. We will frequently find Satan addressed through a third person. And here is an amazing thing: the gospel is about to be outlined in a grand prophetic statement, and it is first directed to Satan. Men first heard the gospel by overhearing it spoken to Satan. But in this curse upon Satan, there is implied all victory and deliverance for man and the glory and the triumph of God. "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

Pertinent to our study are the two facts concerning the bruising of Satan's head and the bruising of Christ's heel. This study of the English word "bruise" and its use to translate two different Hebrew words will give us a little light. The word used in the Garden of Eden, the Hebrew word is *shuf*, and it comes from a primitive root that conveys the idea of being on the alert in order to attack. And as men use the word for an animal leaping on its prey to crush its skull or to tear at its fleeing paw, the word took on the meaning of bruising, crushing power. This is the sense in which it is used in the Garden of Eden.

How interesting in passing that these words of doom spoken to Satan include words of great promise for man. The first time that a human being ever heard the gospel, the good news about redemption, he heard it as an eavesdropper. But that word of promise heard second-hand was nonetheless glorious. By what follows, we can see Adam taking in the meaning of what was being said. A moment before, he had been a fugitive from the terror which he imagined was in the heart of the Creator toward a rebellious creature. And now he learns that he is not to be destroyed, but that somehow there is to be a warfare that will be ending in triumph.

Hostility was in that moment created by God, a hatred that ran from the heart of Adam against the devil who had deceived him and that ran from the heart of the devil against the man who was to take his place as the ruler of the world. This hatred was to continue between the seed of Satan and the seed of the woman.

But the woman had no seed. Adam knew enough to know the biology of life. He knew that Eve had borne no children and that she was not pregnant at that time. Most certainly we must reject with all scholarship the idea that sex was the forbidden fruit. The only persons who could hold such an idea are sex addicts with an inward fixation on the lusts of their flesh. God had said, "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth." So certainly the replenishing of the earth would not have been a sin, and the sex acts could never have therefore been the forbidden fruit.

So when there were no children and no hope of a child, Adam believed the promise of deliverance and turning to his wife, gave her the title, not name, of Eve mother, saying that she was the mother of all the living at a time when she was the mother of no one. It was then that God gave them garments made of the skins of animals. May we use what we hope is a sanctified imagination to suggest that they could well have been the skins of lambs? For it was as the Lamb of God that the seed of the woman would be crushed. And it was from the Lamb of God that they would receive their deliverance. And it is from the Lamb of God that you and I have received our salvation and our deliverance.

So from the first pages of the Bible, the double bruising was announced. Now we come down to the prophecy of Isaiah, where we are given additional brushstrokes for the great masterpiece. "Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we're healed."

Now here we see the Messiah bruised. The hostility of the enemy has pursued Him through the years. The unremitting warfare which had been waged against all the line of Adam through Noah and Abraham and had been intensified when God let it be known that the Messiah would come through Isaac and Jacob. Everything that we know as anti-Semitism may be traced to this source. Satan was seeking to destroy the line of the Messiah, even as he now seeks to supplant the Jewish people to whom God has pledged rule and authority upon this earth.

The Hebrew word for "bruised" in Isaiah is *daka*, which comes from a root meaning to be broken in pieces. Whenever I have come face to face with the fact of the cross of Jesus Christ, I have found myself strangely dumb. I know that the Lord Jesus was wounded for my transgressions and bruised for my iniquity, but I find it hard to contemplate that bruising. My mind seeks to push away the details even while I freely and gladly accept the accomplished results. My mind is like an oyster which covers over the grit and turns it into a pearl.

The heart of that pearl is still the grit, though the mind scarcely ever thinks of anything but the beautiful luster of the jewel. So when I look upon Jesus Christ as the pearl of greatest price, I see Him in His resurrection glory. The light that shines from the throne of God shines backwards in history through the open tomb of the risen Savior and the cross, so terrible for Him. And thus it becomes the object of our joy. We sing it: "My sinful self, my only shame, my glory all the cross." And this, I believe, is what Paul meant when he wrote to the Galatians, "Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world."

He was broken in pieces for my iniquity. Let it stand at that. He was bruised. But there is more here. The great chapter in Isaiah goes on to say in verse 10, "Yet it was the will of the Lord Jehovah to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief." Now here, the same terrible word for bruise is used. We go beyond the hatred of Satan for Christ and we come to the greater hatred of God for sin. For we will never understand the death of Jesus Christ if we do not understand that it was the fulfillment of a covenant made between God, God and God, in the heart of the Trinity, making a covenant for our salvation before there was such a thing as time or the world.

We will never understand the death of the Lord Jesus Christ until we realize that He was struck, bruised by God the Father. The fact that the Jews gave Him over for trial is relatively unimportant. The fact that the Gentiles did the actual crucifying is relatively unimportant. The only factor of eternal significance is that Christ was put to death by the Father. It was God dealing with Himself. It was the love of God incarnate in Christ paying the debt of sin to the justice of God, so that without sullying itself, it could reach through to touch us, that He might Himself be just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Christ.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ, my God. In passing, let us note how God, who has told us elsewhere that He makes the wrath of man to praise Him, reveals here that He also makes the wrath of Satan to praise Him. For the bruising which Satan thought that he instigated turned out to be no more than a part of the eternal plan. All Satan could reach was the heel of Christ, but God bruised His very being in order that the propitiation might be accomplished and the reconciliation made possible.

How terrible was that spiritual bruising, which caused the mild Son of God to cry out, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Now, before we go on to the results of this bruising as they are recorded in the New Testament, it's interesting to note how the translators of the Greek Septuagint rendered this word "bruise" in their translation, which was made in the century before Christ came to earth. Though it is the same Hebrew word in both the fifth and the tenth verses, describing both the body bruising by man and the spirit bruising by God, the translators rendered the same word by two different words in Greek.

The word for man's part is a verb whose root is "trauma," which has come into our language for a wound, whether of the body or the mind. And the word for God's part is a verb whose root has given us the medical term for "catharsis," a purging. It is as though the translators took the idea to be that God had, in the first place, put all of man's sins on Christ and had there crushed Him under the weight of that load. And in the second place, that God cleansed Him from every part of the contamination with sin by purging it completely and raising Him from the dead as the proof that this contamination was gone forever. We do not press the idea too far, but it's interesting to see little glimpses into all that the bruising of the Savior can really mean.

But let us look now at what the bruising can be for the head of the serpent, for Satan. Let us boldly proclaim that which the scripture teaches concerning the utter degradation which came to Satan because of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The principal passage of scripture on this subject is found in the second chapter of Colossians. We read: "And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having cancelled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in Him."

For it is Christ on the cross that makes possible that which is set forth here. The Greek text is such that it might be translated "triumphing over them in Him" or "in it." If it is the latter, the "it" is the cross. If it is the former, it is Christ on the cross. In all events, we have the truth strongly presented that the Lord Jesus Christ did something to Satan and his power when He died on the cross.

The first thing that Christ did to Satan as stated in the King James Version is that He spoiled principalities and powers. Now, we can understand this in terms of modern warfare. When the Russians crushed the armies of Hitler at Stalingrad, it was stated that they took a spoil that ran somewhere in figures like these: armored tanks 1,800, pieces of major artillery 87,000, trucks and other vehicles 120,000, rifles 2,800,000, rounds of ammunition 200 million, and so on. This was the spoil.

Well, when Christ died on the cross, He took from Satan everything that had been invested in Satan by God at his creation and establishment. He had been the prince of this world. When Christ died, this principality was taken from him, though he still claims its sovereignty as a usurper. We do not know all that was involved in this. We take it simply that Satan and all those who followed him in his fall were destitute of all power and might that they may have had and that they continue in their activities only with the waning fury of their rebellion.

In the sight of God's true angels, they are completely defeated, and in the life and experience of all true believers, they may be so accounted if we take our true position by faith. The fact that any believer is ever defeated by Satan comes solely from the fact that such a believer has not been willing to reach out and take the power that is available to us, to see the enemy as vanquished. For the resources that were taken from Satan as a spoil, as a booty, were given to the true church, the hidden church, the secret number of all who are truly born again, to us believers. The fact that a believer may not avail himself of the power and authority that has been made available does not negate the reality of that power and authority.

What has the power of Satan become since Christ has died? I once saw a small child occupied with a little toy balloon. When it had no air in it, it was a small thing that could be hidden in the palm of the hand. When it was blown up, it was a frightening thing with a devilish face painted on the side. This face could be made extremely large by blowing more air into the balloon. The child had blown and blown until the balloon was quite large. The child did not know the technique, and a great deal of spittle went into the balloon. And suddenly the thing exploded, and all that the child had in his hand was a messy little bit of rubber with a distorted face reduced to its lowest dimensions. The child attempted to stretch this out, but it had lost its power to frighten.

When I thought of this in retrospect, it reminded me of what had happened to Satan when Christ died. The devil and his principalities had been filled with pretensions. But Christ disarmed them and made a show of them, a public example. It is the same word used with a prefix to describe the purpose which Joseph might have had to expose Mary to public disgrace when he learned that she was with child and from which he was dissuaded by the divine vision. It's also the same terrible word which is applied to those false believers who finally crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.

Oh, we can thank God that Satan was effectively put to an open shame, exposed publicly. His overblown balloon was burst, leaving him nothing but the messy remains of his grinning pretensions. It's for this reason that we can face him squarely and require him to be gone. In James 4:7, we read, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." There we have been strictly commanded by the Holy Spirit. Now, the one who tries to do this in his own strength will soon feel the force of the flaming darts of the evil one.

But the one who recognizes that God's whole purpose for today is that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places understands that the strategy of victory has been drawn up by God and that He greatly desires us to take the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And that, above all, we are to take the shield of faith with which we can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one.

With this, we come back to our text in Romans and learn that the God of peace will bruise Satan under our feet shortly. This has two applications, both for the Romans and for us. Whatever our problems and whatever the force of the battle which opposes us, we are assured of the victory if we understand how to remain in Christ. The revision links this text with the previous one in a way that brings out another great link with the third of Genesis. For in the Garden of Eden, Satan came offering the knowledge of good and evil.

Here, the believers are told, "I would have you wise as to what is good and guileless as to what is evil, and then—get the importance of that word—then the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." The crushing has to do with our victory in the sphere of the knowledge of good and evil, the same sphere in which sin first came to Adam and Eve.

Oh, let us then be wise concerning that which is good. That is, let us cleave to the written Word of God, that through it we may come ever closer to the living Word of God. Here is all our knowledge of good. We need no other knowledge of good except the knowledge of Christ in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Having Christ, we have all knowledge. This does not mean that we turn away from science, history, literature, and other branches of knowledge. This means that in the spiritual realm, all questions are answered in Jesus Christ. And without Him, there is no answer to any spiritual question.

And the converse is also true. If we have Christ, we do not need any of the knowledge on spiritual matters that could come from any other source. In fact, any spiritual knowledge from any source other than Christ and the Bible is sure to be counterfeit.

Finally, our text is a great announcement of what is to take place at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him, we are in the heavenlies now for present victory. And at His return, we shall be in Him when the kingdoms of this earth shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

Years ago, a speaker had a slip of the tongue in which he spoke of battles that are won and fought. Well, the cliché speaks of battles that are fought and won. But in his lapsus, he was closer to Christian truth than in the chronological expression. For our battles are not to be fought and won; our battles have all been won for us by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. They are now to be fought day by day as we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against these principalities and powers. And may our hearts' prayer be, "O God, may we so live in Christ that Satan may have from us that mouthful of dust." And we pray Thee, our God and Father, that Thou shalt bless the truth to each believer, that we may enter into the knowledge of good and evil, to be wise concerning that which is good and simple concerning that which is evil, so that Thou mayest bruise Satan under our feet now. And even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Guest (Male): The God of peace shall crush Satan under his feet, and through faith in Jesus Christ, we can share in His victory and overcome the evil one. We hope you have benefited from today's message, "The Bruising of Satan." To listen to additional Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse, visit us online at alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today's teaching is also available by calling us toll-free: 1-800-488-1888. Today's message, again, is entitled "The Bruising of Satan," or simply request message number R16-6.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled, "When Believers Sin." Many believers become discouraged and defeated in the ongoing struggle with sin in the Christian life. Sin can rob us of our joy, breed insecurity in our spiritual lives, and hinder our fellowship with the Lord. This free booklet will help you understand why genuine believers still struggle with sin and how to effectively and biblically deal with sin in your life. Ask for your free copy of "When Believers Sin" when you call or write.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is a radio ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We exist to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of Reformation theologians from decades and even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching which will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place.

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Be sure to ask for a free resource catalog featuring books, audio teachings, commentaries, booklets, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding reformed teachers and theologians, including Doctors Donald Grey Barnhouse, James Montgomery Boice, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken. Thank you for listening. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.