In trying to describe the great Scheme of Redemption, I have presented three major characters (God, man and Satan); four major events (the Fall, the Call of Abraham, the Law of Moses, and the Cross). Today note with me some major conflicts in this effort to reconcile lost man to God. God’s will is that all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. 2:4, 2 Peter 3:9, John 3:16.) But there are some obstacles to seeing this realized. There are some major conflicts that must be overcome. In the seven letters of John to the churches of Asia Minor, he often said, He that overcomes. . . . (Rev. 2 & 3.)

God said to the serpent, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Gen. 3:15.) This statement is believed by Bible students and scholars to be the opening announcement of conflict between Jesus Christ, the seed of woman, and Satan. "Bruising the serpent’s head" means a fatal blow will be delivered to Satan. "Bruising his heel" refers to a constant effort to trip and interfere with God’s plan to redeem man. At the end of this conflict at the cross, Satan bruised Jesus’ heel but Jesus delivered a final deathblow to the head of Satan when Jesus arose from the dead.

This major conflict is between Satan and the Christ. Man has nothing to do with winning this battle. God and God alone must do this work. Satan is not equal to the Christ. There is only one God. Satan does not have unlimited power; he is not omniscient; he is not omnipresent. He was soundly defeated and bound. But before we reach the end too quickly, from the Garden to Calvary, Satan tried to disrupt the plan of God to redeem man. He tried to accomplish that in many different ways, but chief among them was to stop the lineage, the seed of woman, so that the Savior could not be born.

Here is a brief list of some examples where the lineage was almost broken.

1. After Cain murdered Abel, the descendants of Seth through which the lineage continued were so wicked that God said that he would destroy man whom he had created. (Gen. 6:5-8.) If so, then the seed of woman would never be born. The generations of men almost came to an early end after only ten generations had lived. (1 Chron. 1:1.) If not for Noah finding grace in the eyes of the Lord, perhaps the whole plan would have been stopped. Peter wrote, "And God spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." (2 Peter. 2:5.)
2. God promised Abraham that he would bless all nations through his seed. But Abraham and Sarah were getting too old to have children, and Saran was barren. They tried to help God by having a son by the bondwoman, Hagar. Abraham cried out, "O that Ishmael might live before thee." (Gen. 17:18.) Early we learn something that should put us at ease. God is in charge of his plan to redeem man. No problem is too large for God. It would be his work, not man’s. Paul wrote, "It is not of him that wills or of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy." (Rom. 9:16.) But even after the son of promise was born, God told Abraham to go offer him as a sacrifice. If so, the lineage would cease. Really? Do we not have a greater faith in God than that? Abraham did. Even if the lineage ceases by death, can not God raise the dead? That is the very point made by the command of God to Abraham. Justification would be based upon the central element---that God raised his Son from the dead. But Satan apparently believed that death would end the lineage.
3. Exodus 32 records another incident when the generations of men and the promise of God to save man could have been stopped. While Moses was in the Mount with God, Aaron was making a golden calf for the children of Israel to worship. God was so filled with anger at them that he told Moses to stand back. He was prepared to destroy them. Moses interceded and pleaded with God to spare them because he had made a promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Exodus 32:13.) Moses was the greater mediator of the Old Testament, a type of the coming Mediator of the New. Moses pleaded with God to blot him out, but to spare the children of Israel. God did spare them. Years later in writing about justification, Paul wrote the following, "What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?" (Rom. 9:22-24.)
4. Athaliah, daughter of wicked Ahab and Jezebel, tried to kill all the royal seed in her day. (2 Kings 8:18, 26.) The Bible records, "She arose and destroyed all the royal seed." (2 Kings 11:1.) If so, then the lineage of Christ would have been stopped. But then we read, "But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons which were slain, and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain." (2 Kings 11:2.)
5. Remember wicked Haman in the book of Esther? He tried to have all the Jews slain. The King’s order once made could not be altered. Only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, remained after the ten were defeated and carried into captivity to Assyria. Now only two tribes remained and they are under the King’s order to be exterminated. If so, the lineage would cease. Through the encouragement of Mordecai, Esther pleaded for her people (and herself). Mordecai said those immortal words, "Who knows but thou art come to the Kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14.) The King allowed the Jews to defend themselves. They were spared and from that day the Jews celebrated the occasion with the feast of Purim.
6. Wicked Herod, through Satan, tried to destroy Jesus when he was only a child. Herod pretended that he wanted to go worship the child, but his intent was to kill him. After he saw that the wise men mocked him, he had all the children in Bethlehem two years and under slain. (Matthew 2.) Throughout the life of Jesus, Satan through wicked men tried to kill Jesus before the right time. This was a deliberate but misguided effort of Satan to stop the lineage so man could not be saved. Satan did not know that by Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead that salvation would come to all men.

John wrote about the victory obtained in this conflict. "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and night. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death." (Rev. 12:10-11.)

Another major conflict is the tension that exists between man and God due to man’s sins. No matter who the person is in Scripture, whether David or Abraham, Rahab or Esther, all sinned against God by choice. So do we. On several occasions, man’s sins so angered God that he wanted to destroy man completely from the face of the earth. The Psalmist wrote that God is angry with the wicked every day. (Psalm 7:11.)

Isaiah wrote, "Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies; your tongue hath muttered perverseness." (Isaiah 59:1-3.)

There is an enmity that exists between God and man because of the sins, the rebellion, and the ungodliness of man. God defeated Satan in the conflict between the seed of woman and the serpent. Man must repent and change his heart in order to please God. The scheme to redeem man now includes something that is personal with each man and woman. God calls upon all to repent. (Acts 17:30-31, Luke 13:1-5.)

God loves man, but his holiness stands opposed to all sin. There is a spiritual conflict between the nature of God and the nature of man. This conflict must be settled before man can be saved. Man must submit to God. Man’s heart must be changed by the Gospel. God has given the word of reconciliation. (2 Cor. 5:19.)

There is another age-old conflict that exists to confound the effort to redeem man. It is the inner conflict that we all experience between the flesh and the spirit.

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would." (Gal. 5:16-17.)

"For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwells no good thing; for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil that I would not, that I do." (Rom. 7:18-19.)

We all possess the "better-self" which calls and guides us by a conscience to do God’s will. We hear and understand the call of the Gospel to serve others and sacrifice ourselves in God’s service. But the flesh cries out to be fulfilled, pampered, and satisfied. Paul said, "We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." (Rom. 8:12.) Man must choose between the flesh and the spirit. This conflict must be settled.

An Indian once said, I feel like two dogs are inside of me. One is a good dog and the other is a bad dog. Someone asked him, When they snarl and fight with each other, Which one wins. He replied thoughtfully, Whichever one I say, Sic’ em to.

Even though the Lord has defeated and bound Satan, he still continues to pursue individual believers. Listen to John.

"And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Rev. 12:17.) Even after the red dragon’s defeat, Satan still continues some battles. He has lost the war, but he still deceives and tempts.

Peter wrote, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the Devil as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8.)

Man is caught in the middle in the war between God and the devil. Satan seeks to destroy man in his effort to attack God.

With all the problems that we face as human beings, you would think that we would be sympathetic to one another. You would think that man would seek to be his brother’s keeper. Cain asked mockingly, "Am I my brother’s keeper?" (Gen. 4:9.) It is sad to contemplate, but man is often opposed to man. In the first family, one brother killed the other. Man often does not care much about others. He is basically self-centered and self-serving. He must be taught to be otherwise through the Gospel.

Think about all the crimes being committed daily of man against man. Loving lost people is a difficult thing that we are commanded to do. It is easy to love those who love you, and to love those who really try to be a good person. But it is most difficult to sacrifice your life for lost people who hate God and man. Jesus said that the Pharisees (religious leaders among the Jews) kept others from entering the Kingdom of God.

"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the Kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in." (Matt. 23:13.) This is one of the most stinging indictments of our Lord against the Pharisees and scribes. They were really against men. Might it be today that religious people are really self-serving and do not care about lost people around them??? Many simply are preserving their gains and holding to their positions. That is more important to them than serving others.

Jesus told three parables about lost things. Many good truths can be learned from them. But one obvious matter is that the coin, the sheep and the boy were lost in three different ways. The sheep simply strayed; he did not intend to separate himself from the other sheep. The boy decided to leave purposefully. It was his choice. The coin was lost by the carelessness of the owner. Are some people lost due to the indifference and ungodliness of others? Yes, they are!

We must overcome many things in order to obtain redemption. The conflicts and difficulties are many. With God’s help, if we desire salvation and seek it, Jesus promised that we could find it. "Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asks receives, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be opened." (Matt. 7:7-8.)