If I miss it, that was it. Wonderful. Just mesmerized with
Christ, with the message, his ambassador. I just want to thank you all
for having me again. I was shocked when Jim said,
come back. I'm like, that surprised me. I'm thankful. And I hope that
we get to know one another better as this conference goes on. Lance,
thank you, Nancy, for taking good care of him. I, too, called Tim James. I called
him Wednesday mid-morning, and he didn't sound real good. But
I didn't let him off the hook. I said, I'm really disappointed
in you. Because Jim texted me and said, you've got to preach
three messages. And when I woke up after that,
the next Tuesday, and then I woke up Wednesday, and I was congested,
and I couldn't talk real well. And my wife goes, are you going
to have to cancel too? And the first thing I thought
of was, poor Lance, six messages. So I'm like, no, I'm going to
try to make it. I'm going to try to make it.
And I hope the Lord blesses. I thank the hospitality, the
crafts, for opening up their home to us once again. And coal for just being coal.
Turn with me, if you would, to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. I'm going to read the first 21
verses, if you'll bear with me. I pray I have something the Lord
laid on my heart. I just got all excited, and I
pray you do too. I'm not a complex preacher. will
not detract you, deter you from the simplicity that's in Christ.
Because that's, I don't, you know, deep thinkers and all that
kind of stuff. I've told Brandon years ago, one of favorite quotes
of mine, George Whitefield, he said, I dare not preach an unfelt
Christ. And I know people get all weird
with feelings, but when God saves a sinner, he saves the whole
man, the mind, the thoughts, and thank God the emotions. That
woman, you tell me there's no emotion in that? There's no feelings
in that? Sure there is. We don't trust
these things, but we are human, and he meets us where we are,
and we'll see that in this text. Genesis chapter three, starting
in verse one, now the serpent was more subtle than any beast
of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the
woman, yea, hath God said you shall not eat of every tree of
the garden? And the woman said to the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
has said you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it,
lest you die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, you shall not surely die, for God does know that in the
day that you eat thereof, Then your eyes shall be opened, and
you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to
the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took the
fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave unto her husband with her,
and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig
leaves together, and made themselves aprons, And they heard the voice
of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord, God
amongst the trees in the garden, of the garden. And the Lord called
unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden and was afraid because I was
naked and hid myself. And he said, who told thee that
thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee, thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the
woman that thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree,
and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the
woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,
the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said
unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed
above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy
belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of
thy life. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, and it
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And unto
the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception,
In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall
be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam
he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou
shalt not eat of it, curse it. It is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb, the field,
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return
to the ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's
name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And unto
Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins
and clothe them. Now we know of a truth, cannot
be denied, that the gospel is plainly seen and declared in
both verse 15, which I've read many times, different commentators,
this is the first instance of where the gospel is. Well, we're
going to see I disagree with that. So we know in verse 15
that's speaking about Christ. And in verse 21, we see in type
and picture, The Lord Jesus Christ is our coat, of our coat of righteousness. So we know in verse 15 and in
verse 21 for this evening's text, but I wish to observe God's gospel,
the free grace of Jesus Christ found in verse nine, found in
verse nine, three words. I've got this entitled, The Gospel
in Three Words. Like I said, this is simple.
It's gotta be. The Lord God called unto Adam
and said unto him, where art thou? This question proves two
things. It proved man was lost and that
God had come to seek. It proved man's sin and God's
grace. Where art thou? to create man
out of the dust, or the ground was power, but to seek man in
his lost estate. That's grace. Now we heard the
message. I hope we heard the message.
Well, the woman, the Syrophoenician, she was seeking Christ. No, that's if you start in verse
22. Go up. And as our brother stated,
He was seeking her before she ever sought him. Look at this. May we behold this evening the
glory of God for our use and edification, if not for our salvation
tonight. As stated, two points. One, two,
man's sin, this probing question, Where art thou, man's sin, or
man's lost condition, and God's grace, or his fetching grace?
The first point, Adam, as our representative, as our representative. See, it's not fair. If it's not
fair, if you don't take responsibility for what Adam did in the garden,
you've got no need to take responsibility for what Christ did on Calvary.
Where art thou? I could ask all of us this question
tonight. Where are you? Where am I? How many times have you heard
this gospel? How many times will you? Can you answer this? Can I answer this honestly from
the scriptures? Where are you? Where art thou? Adam is now, he's out of the
way. He's fallen. He's totally and
completely not seeking God. He, like us, totally depraved,
no longer seeking God, but hiding from the presence, now get this,
he's hiding from the presence of omnipotence. That's us, that's
us. Once, all joy. Now, misery and sorrow. Once, sweet communion. Now, separation and condemnation. Once, tender fellowship. Now,
a broken and divided reality. Pleasant waters have all turned
to bitterness, gall and wormwood. Oh, how far we've fallen. how
far we've dropped, how low we've sunk. We're nigh slipping into
the darkness. Romans 3, Romans chapter 3, our
throat is an open sepulcher. We're altogether unprofitable,
altogether unprofitable. No peace, no hope, none righteous,
no not one. Do we understand this? Do we
understand this? Do we know this? And I say again,
do we feel this? Where are you? Where am I? But, but, herein
is also lies the hope of good news, nay, the best news. Where art thou? This is God speaking. He's seeking. You look at the whole scriptures,
that's always the case. We love him and a lot of times
we like to boast, but we have to admit as the scripture says,
because he first loved us. This is the truth of these three
words. It's just, I was reading this
and it just stopped me. I wanted to get to verse 15,
I wanted to get to verse 21 and talk about, no, I want to stop
right here and speak of the simplicity of
God-seeking sinners. Who's ever heard of it? What
religion? Islam? Confucius? Joseph Smith? No, they're all
doing something for God, or you've got to do something for Him,
and then He'll react, and this and that. No, this is the gospel. There's not another. What we
have here, and in all the scriptures, because Christ says in John 5
that they all testify of Him. Here, Genesis, Jeremiah, Isaiah,
they all testify of Christ. So here what we have is God seeking
the center. I hope I don't ever get over
that. I hope I don't ever get over that. And I've said this
to our folks and I haven't said in a long time and I'm making
no excuses and I'm not making fun of anybody. But when I'm
old, as the Lord allows liberty and I'm in a wheelchair in spittles
coming down and I don't know who I am. It's not my hold of
Christ. It's his hold of me. That's my
hope. And we heard that. That's our
hope. In Matthew 121, he shall, oh
yes, he shall save his people from their sins. Why? Because
he's fetching them. The grand and glorious shepherd
is seeking and finding the lost sheep. I ask myself this and
I ask us, it doesn't make any difference what state you're
in or what country you're in. What value, what worth is a dead
dog sinner? What use, what estimate is a
thief on the cross cursing and hating God? What price, what
esteem can we place upon a bankrupt son or daughter of Adam's race? Yet, we have God in Christ. He's not going to deal with us
apart from what Christ has done for us, seeking sinners. He, God the Father, through God
the Son, with God the Holy Spirit, has promised to seek out, to
heal, and to recover the lost, the diseased, and the wavered.
to birth us again by the Holy Spirit of grace and supplication,
as he says in Zechariah, and belief of the truth, confession
of our iniquity, and repentance that doesn't have to be repented
of. These are all what he has done. And all this he does through
the declaration that this is what's amazing. He does this
through the declaration of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. How important is hearing the
gospel? He does, as ambassadors for Christ,
we beseech you, be ye reconciled. And he can take us down in a
minute. He's allowed this work to go on, you know, several generations. That's, there's a lot of churches,
they start and they're done. Let us not take this for granted.
That scares me is that I would get up here and not study and
not prepare and shoot from the hip. No. May the pastor, the
preacher be thankful, ever thankful that there's people to preach
to, to listen to, to listen to this wonderful message. Oh my,
oh my. Where art thou? Where art thou? Isn't this wonderful news? Isn't
this wonderful news? Well, let's just ask Mephibosheth
in 2 Samuel chapter 9. You know, Turner, just let's
ask him, who was lame on both feet. He couldn't go anywhere.
He was lame on both feet through a fall. When he was younger,
his nurse dropped him, and that's appropriate, the gospel. We all
fell in at him. Is there any left of the household
of Saul that I may show compassion for Jonathan's sake? Ask him. Ask him who sought who. Ask Lot
as he was sought out of Sodom. He was there. He was fine. And
believers, we struggle. We go up and down. He sought us. If he doesn't seek
us, we're in trouble. That's in Genesis 19. Ask David,
as he was called by Samuel. Did he have anything to do with
that? No, with all these sons. You got any more sons? Fetch
him. Fetch him. What about Samuel
when he was called under Eli in 1 Samuel 3? Same thing. Here am I, Lord. Are you talking
to me? Are you calling me? No. Go back. Go back. Listen again. If you could ask that bloody
baby in its own polluted blood in Ezekiel 16 when he heard the
word, I pass by you in a time of love, live. Ezekiel 16, I love that story. He was sought. He was sought
out and every one of us are in our own blood. We can't blame
anybody else. We have come short of the glory
of God. Yes, we ourselves. Where are
you? Where are you? Where am I? What about, this is amazing,
what about each one of the Lord's disciples as they heard, follow
me? They were doing their own thing.
And the Lord said, follow me. Now I got to thinking about this
after I read some other stuff, Phil Potter, somebody about this,
and he's still seeking us, his disciples. But you look at the
disciples in the New Testament, they didn't half know who he
was, They had seen him, they had been with him, what, three
years or so, and they still didn't fully comprehend who he was,
and they're still arguing who's going to be greatest. That sounds
like us. He still seeks them. He still
reveals them. He's walking with those two on
the road to Emmaus, and they didn't know him until he revealed
himself. And then they said, oh, didn't
our hearts burn within us? Well, he spoke. When we open
the scriptures, that's what we do. We don't, us preachers, and
people who, I've got several people covering for me this week,
weekend, but they know to tell what's in the book. This book
is done. It's fully canonized, it's done.
You don't add to this, don't take it away. The scriptures
is done. The author's completed it. All's we do is retell it. Not with a Baptist twist, not
with a sovereign grace twist, not any conditions, this. This unerring, pure word of God. I believe that. If there's air
in here, how do I know that the air is not, as it refers to,
on Christ on the cross? I had a gentleman tell me that
I work for. He goes, ah, that's just a bunch
of, written by men, under inspiration of God. Now whose God do you
serve? Whose God do you worship? Our
God is able. And how do I know if there's
error in here if it's not the error on the redemption, on substitution? It had no answer for that. So
all these examples and more of God seeking, where art thou? And for me, one of the most wonderful
passages in the whole Word of God in Proverbs chapter eight,
where the Trinity's talking amongst themselves. And in there they
say, my delights were with the sons of men. I think it's 8, no it's not 8-5, I've got it
written down and we can look at it when you get home. Where
are you? You just get done with the message,
close the book, go home and eat and drink and be merry? Let's
go home and be like the Bereans, let's search the scripture. And
just the three words. Where art thou? And then look
at Proverbs 8 and he was there when the worlds were created
and the mountains were and ever was and all these different things
and then it's just like it's inserted. And my delights are
with the sons of men. How much did he delight? How
much did God delight and seek us? He sent his only begotten
son, full of grace and truth to suffer and bleed and die for his people's sins. Where art thou? You know, if
there was no other scripture but this right here, It's like
you said, in eternity, there's so much that we're gonna see
and there's so much we're not, we're gonna be learning. Where
art thou? Where art thou? So I ask each
of us here again tonight, where art thou? Where art thou? Well,
in verse 21, and unto Adam and to his wife, and to everyone
for whom he became a propitiation, the Lord God, again seeking the
sinner, made coats of skin and clothed them." Well, we know
this is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ in his perfect robe
of righteousness. It's like, I love that prodigal,
that story of the prodigal. The boy came back, the son came
back, and he gets that ring, And he puts the best, the best
robe to hide what he's been, what he is. And the thing is,
once the believer sees who he is and sees Christ, we never
forget two things. We never forget what we are,
and we never forget him. Never forget him. Oh, to be clothed
and covered and comforted in the perfect righteousness of
the great martyr lamb, Jesus the Christ. Who can tell out all that is
wrapped up in the idea of God being a seeker, God seeking
a sinner and why the sinner is valuable to God, eternity only
knows. May the Lord bless you. Thank
you.