For those on the CDs and tapes,
Genesis chapter 3, 1 through 13. Now the serpent was more
subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had
made. And he, that is the serpent,
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto 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, ye shall not surely die, For God doth know that in the
day you eat thereof, that 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, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, She
took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also 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 of the
garden. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard
thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked,
and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree,
whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman which
thou gavest 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 this, well, no, that's enough. Verse 13, we'll look at some
of the other later. Now, I'd like to speak on the
subject today, if I had a title, Adam, where art thou? That would be our subject. Now,
if one would search out the origin, that is the beginning, and the
consequences of sin, then there are two chapters in the Bible
that are very, very important concerning that subject and the
fall of the race. The one chapter is our present
text. In Genesis chapter 3, here we
have an inspired record and an account of the sin and of the
fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve. Then secondly, the other
chapter, or the other passage is found in Romans chapter five
and verse 12 through verse 19, where Paul establishes a definite
connection between Adam and the race, but another connection
is made, and that is also between sin and death, that death has
passed upon all For death reigns, or rather sin reigns under death,
and death reigns over the entire human family. Death reigns under
condemnation and reigns even under death. Now before we go
any further, let's say a few words about the things that are
contained here. in the third chapter of the book
of Genesis. I would like to raise the question
for us to consider. Do you believe these things are
true and are the word of God? Do you accept what we have read
as evident truth regarding man and the fall? Do you accept the
truth that Adam and Eve both aid of the forbidden tree, of
the knowledge of good and of evil, corruption came upon them,
and they were driven out of the garden upon a earth that was
to be cursed. Now for that matter, do you accept
the biblical account of creation in the first two chapters of
Genesis? That God created the universe
and the earth out of absolutely nothing. that he spoke it into
existence by the very word of his power. Now, if you don't
accept these two things, the creation of the world and the
fall and sin of Adam and of Eve, then I bid you farewell. You
have had your entertainment. You might as well go to the tents
of Pelagia or make friends with a humanist who would accept you
with their open arms, if you do not accept the biblical account
of these things. Let's take a look at the man,
Adam, who is very important. For he was unique, Adam was,
in that Adam was not born of a woman like all others are,
but that he was not the product of evolution, but that God made
him out of the dust of the earth by his very own hand. And the scripture said, God breathed
into him the breath of life and man became a living soul. What's more God created man in
his own image and in his own likeness and he gave him dominion
over all of of the other lower creatures that God had created. And God planted a garden eastward
in Eden, we read, and he put the man in that garden to dress
it and to keep it. Genesis chapter 2 verse 8, chapter
2 in verse 15. Now in that garden, God made
to grow all manner of trees, the scripture said, bearing edible
fruit for the couple that they might eat. And a river went out
of that garden that might water it, chapter 2 and verse 10. And in that garden of all the
trees, There were two very unique trees that were planted by God
in the garden. Chapter 2 and verse 9, the tree
of life in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge
of good and of evil. And God bound Adam to a very
strict law or commandment that he might eat freely. of every
tree of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good
and of evil. Chapter 2, verse 16 and 17. For if he did so, God said he
would surely die in the very day that he ate. Eating, he would
die. Eating would bring death upon
him. Eating, of course the death,
is not confined only to the body or to the moral part of Adam,
but in all of Adam's being, death would enter in and begin its
work in him. We know Adam did not die physically
the very day that he ate that fruit. In fact, the scripture
said He lived 930 years before death overcame him, Genesis chapter
5 and verse 5. And of course we know that God
provided for Adam a wife, a helpmate, a woman, a female of the species,
one taken out of man, out of the rib of a man, and he made
him a woman. And if we might, let's drop back
into the end of the second chapter, and I'd like to read verse 22
to the end of the second chapter. because she was taken out of
man. And Moses writes, therefore shall
a man leave his father and his mother, cleave unto his wife,
and they shall be one flesh. And look at verse 25, and they
were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Now we'll come back to that thought
more later. But one thing more before we
settle in to chapter three, and that from the first two chapters.
The name Adam and the name man are one and the same word when
we trace it out. Adam is a man, and the man is
Adam. Adam a man. Adam meaning a human
being, an individual of the species Some also say that the word means
ruddy, or ruddy, R-U-D-D-Y, or it means to show blood, as it
were, in the face, red. A healthy reddish complexion,
they say, is the meaning of that word. And the couple are called
the man and the woman. They're called Adam and Eve,
and they are called husband and wife in this section of the scripture. Now coming to the third chapter
and the details of their sin and of their fall, it was after
this fashion as we read. The serpent was more subtle and
the word meaning cunning. The serpent was more cunning
and that in a bad sense, by the way, than any beast of the field
that the Lord had made. He was crafty, he was prudent,
he was shrewd, as the word might indicate, though we believe that
it was Satan that was working through the serpent there in
the garden. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians
11 and verse 3 that the serpent beguiled Eve, quote, through
his subtlety," unquote. He says in 2 Corinthians 11 and
verse 14, and no marvel, he said, for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light, meaning he does not always come as a
roaring lion. We do not always meet him in
the way as a roaring lion, or under his true character, and
we might say sometimes he comes as an angel of light, and we
might quote, the better to deceive you, my dear. Now the serpent
beguiled the woman. She is not called Eve until chapter
3, and verse 20 the word eve meaning to bear or to conceive
or to sow and such like the mother of all living she is called the
woman the first woman and in genesis 3 and verse 13, she said,
the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. She deceived me, in other
words, and this agrees with Paul in 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse
14. How he did so, you will find
In Genesis chapter 3 verse 1 through 6, let's sum it up very quickly
so we can be on our way. The serpent came to the woman,
finding her perhaps in the area or near under that forbidden
tree. And what did he do? He planted
in her mind question about the word or the command or the law
of God. He said to her, yea, has God
really forbidden you to eat of every tree in of the garden. After all, verse 6, the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to
the eye and desirous to make one wise. It was not an ugly,
hideous, ominous tree at all, but a very pleasant one. The
serpent contradicted the threat of God being death for eating
of the tree. Verse 4, look at it, you shall
not surely die. Eating that tree would not produce
death in you. as Calvin wrote on the fifth
verse of this chapter, quote, I have no doubt that Satan promised
her and her husband divinity, unquote. Ye shall be as gods. Your eyes shall be open, knowing
good and evil. So he would appeal to her envy,
to her weakness, to her fear of the command of God, and question
whether God had their best interest at heart in making that commandment. Now, to be sure, this is a little
bit off of the subject, but to be sure, Satan, the devil, still
has his imps in this world telling all that will hear and all that
will listen. that the Bible contains a collection
of myths, that these things are not real and true, but that they
are myths that are written by men, that there is no hell, and
that education will drive out the superstitions about religion
out of the heart and mind of the people. And we hear that
religion is for the weak-minded, that there is no God in heaven
that is to be answered unto. But back to our text. The sixth
verse tells the sad story, the evil insinuation of the serpent
and the lies and the misrepresentations of God. They begin to bear their
fruit in the heart and the mind of the woman. And it is here
that her defection actually began, even before she ever puts forth
her hand and touches of the fruit. I'm using some comments now from
Calvin again when I say that the woman now perceived that
the fruit of the tree was good for food. She considered it very
beautiful to look at and to behold. And to quote Calvin, persuades
herself that it is desirable for the sake of acquiring wisdom,
unquote. And having become of such a mind,
her mind having become of that persuasion, we read, she took
of the fruit of the tree thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto
her husband with her, and he did eat. Now the results were,
if we look at them, twofold. Number one, the results were
immediate. There were immediate results
when they ate. And then number two, the results
were totally opposite of what the serpent had promised unto
her and what she had imagined. They were not as gods at all. There was not an advancement
to attain the knowledge of good and of evil, chapter 322. And they did not pass immediately
under the sentence of physical death, but they did pass under
a sentence of death. Death sees them, then and there,
exactly as God warned in chapter 2 and verse 17. In the day that
you eat thereof, you will surely die. And you might notice that
the margin or an alternate reading has it, dying thou shalt die. Death began, moral and spiritual
coming first, and later, physical death as well. And whereas their
consciences had been at perfect peace before God, it now became
a strong tormentor and an accuser against them. It had turned to
be their enemy. And in verse 7, we see the results
of their eating. The eyes of them both were opened. And this is not to insinuate
that before that they were blind like a mole and could not see. This is not to say that before
they could not see with the eyes in their head. that it does not
insinuate that until now they were without any kind of physical
sight. Because in verse 6, the woman
saw the tree, that it was good for food and that it was beautiful. But the serpent had promised
them in verse 5, eat and your eyes will be opened and you will
be like Elohim, knowing good and evil. Now their eyes being
open, that is, the eyes of their understanding, or of their mind,
or of their heart, and shame came upon them and seized upon
them. And in verse 7, the last part,
they knew that they were naked. They stood unclothed. They stood
stripped before the holy eyes of Almighty God. Now recall chapter
2 and verse 25, when they both were naked, the man and his wife,
and were not ashamed. Both of them unclothed, and yet
were not ashamed. This was their original state,
while yet upright, and before having seen, unclothed, as far
as clothes go, and yet without shame. Their being unclothed
did not stir up in either of them either shame or lust that
they were unclothed did neither. They were completely free of
any guilt, of any shame, of any conviction, or of any lust. As one expressed it, their nakedness
is without shame, is an expression of their innocence at that particular
time. But the entrance of sin changed
that and gave birth to both shame and lust. So that closing a mother,
among other things, is a partial check upon lust from then until
now. So being aware of their nakedness,
what did they do? They sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves coverings, or aprons, the word might be,
a clothing, not completely, but a clothing. Perhaps selecting
the fig leaves because of their size, that they might better
suit what they were to do. And they sewed them together.
and they bound them about them or upon them in some way and
went about then wearing fig leaf aprons or whatever we might call
them. One said that Adam said at this
point, listen Eve, I wear the plants in this family from now
on. I don't know about that. But
they gird them about. Now we ask ourselves the question,
what part of their body did you think they might have covered? What part did they cover? Not
their face or their hand. but they covered those parts.
And when next they heard the voice of the Lord God in the
cool, the margin has it in the wind of the evening or the day,
they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the
trees of the garden. They fled in two. the clump of
the many trees of the garden that they might seek a hiding
place as God drew near in some kind of special present. And
in verse 9, the Lord called unto Adam. And I want to call this
to your attention. No, he called not the woman,
and not the both of them, but he called unto the man, called
him by name, Adam, where art thou? Adam, where are you? Now, before we go any further,
Let's consider what is said of the guilty pair, that they hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of
the garden. This would be some special manifestation
of the presence of the Lord. But do we not read in other places
in the scripture, Jeremiah 23, verse 23 and 24, God asking this
question, am I God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar
off? Can any hide himself in secret
places that I should not see him? Do not I feel heaven and
earth? Useless to try to flee from the
presence of the Lord. Or that great passage in Psalm
139, and the seventh verse particularly, whither shall I flee from thy
presence? Where could I go? The wings of
the morning, the depths of the sea, that I might escape the
presence of the Lord, for God's eye is ever upon us in any place. So the Lord does not ask Adam
this question because he does not know where he is. It is not
that God can't see him or find him or know where he is. He knows the exact location of
Adam. It's not because he can't see
Adam that he calls out, or as Matthew Henry wrote, It is less
about location and more about condition that the question is
asked. Adam, where art thou? As soon as his confession, I
heard your voice, I was afraid, I was naked, I hid myself, is
how Adam answered. Now Adam and Eve, had not been
nakedly ashamed, they had not been afraid, they had not hidden
themselves, except they had eaten of the fruit of the forbidden
tree. Nothing else, nothing else could
have brought them to their present state and condition. And the
Lord God immediately makes that connection for them. Verse 11,
Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree that
I commanded you not to eat of? Adam's confession, I was afraid
when I heard thy voice. I hid myself because I was naked,
yet falls short. This is not a good and a full
confession, and it falls short when we consider, number one,
prior to eating of the tree, he had no fear of the voice of
God or the manifestation of God or of the presence of God. And number two, prior to eating
of the tree, they had both been naked and they were not ashamed. They felt no indecency and no
immodesty about it at all until they ate. So the conclusion is,
it was neither the voice of God or the lack of covering that
was the first cause of putting them in their hiding and cowering
among the trees of the garden, it was their eating of the forbidden
fruit, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the transgression
of the law and commandment of God. And then comes the question,
why did the eating of the fruit of this particular tree, which
was not ugly, it was not deformed, and it was not filled with thorns,
and it was not poisoned, but it appeared to Eve as good for
food, desirous to the eyes, and desirous to make one wise? Why did eating of this fruit
cause such a widespread disaster among the human family? Is it
because the fruit was spoiled? Is it because it was unhealthy?
Is it because it was poison? Nay, to all of those. The simple
answer is this. Why are they in this condition? They're eating the transgression
of their eating of the tree that God had forbidden. Again, Genesis
2 and 17, thou shall not eat of it lest you die. Now we know
that Eve was familiar with this commandment or this law of God. We know that from Genesis chapter
3 and verse 3. She said God had told us not
to eat of it or to touch it. Now this puts this law given
in Eden on a par with the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not,
thou shalt not, thou shalt not, again and again God said. Thou shalt not eat of it lest
you die. Let's jump to the New Testament
a minute. John defines sin for us, 1 John chapter 3 and verse
4. Whoso commits sin transgresses
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And here's something interesting
connecting Genesis 3 and Romans 5. Interesting, in Romans chapter
5, Paul in speaking of sin entering into the world by one man named
Adam, he calls it, now listen to all these descriptions. In
verse 14, Adam's transgression. In verse 15, The offense. Verse 17, one man's offense. Again in verse 18, the offense. In verse 19, one man's disobedience. And in verse 20, the offense. All of those referring to Adam's
eating of the tree that God had forbidden. And what's more, the
sovereign God who gave the law, that is, to Adam, Fix the penalty
of the transgression of that law and what was it but death? Saying in the day you eat you
will surely die again in Romans 5 and 12 Paul validates or confirms
this when he writes by one man sin entered into the world and
death by sin Eve was deceived and ate, and gave unto the man,
and he did eat as well. Then, and only then, not until
then were the eyes of them both opened in that sin, for the law
was given to Adam directly. And when he ate, the eyes of
them both were opened. And God called unto the man,
Adam, where art thou? Adam, where are you? Adam, when they hid, and the
woman is not mentioned in Romans chapter 5 at all. But here is
a matter. We will not give it much time,
but it is the contention of some who answer to reformed or to
sovereign grace that Adam, had he passed a certain period of
time of probation, set by God would have been confirmed in
life, confirmed in that condition, and I've read some of them who
say would be transported into heaven. That if he passed a period
of probation set by God, he would be confirmed in that position
or that condition or state. Now these are not ragtag theologians
either. These are theological heavyweights
that hold to this position. They're men of learning, men
of reputation, mighty in the scripture as we read in another
place. But for what it is worth on that
position, I agree with one of my favorite writers and commentators,
John Gill, who said plainly, quote, I cannot be of that mind,
unquote. I cannot be of that mind. And
then he reasons it out, that eternal life is only to be had
in and through Jesus Christ and the grace of God and the everlasting
covenant that God has made. No doubt Adam would continue
in that state until he ate or had he not eaten, but God put
him under a law and transgressing that law, it brought down the
consequences of that law. Still, their actual eating of
the fruit of the tree, of the knowledge of good and of evil,
was not the beginning of sin in them. They did not sin first
when they took the tree and took the fruit and ate it. The principle
of sin was at work in them before they reached out and they ate
of that tree. culminated, or rather their sin
culminated, in the act of eating. Now the sin that they committed
brought forth two changes, moral and physical. Sin made Adam a
moral coward, if we might say that. hiding, saying, I was afraid,
afraid of the voice of God, afraid of the presence of God. He feared. He was frightened. He felt dread. He went in, so he thought, hiding
from God. I was reading R.S. Candlish in
his commentary on Genesis, and he wrote this, and I liked it
and give it as a quote. Shame, fear, and falsehood are
the bitter fruits of sin. Guilt is felt, death is dreaded,
guile is practiced." Thus Adam fled, but how piercing the words
of God, Adam, where art thou? Adam, where are you? The fact that Adam is hiding
speaks volumes and the question does not refer to location only
or the particular spot in the garden. Adam is not forthright
with the Lord God. He is evasive and we might call
it very evasive. Look, yeah, he says in verse
10. I heard thy voice. I was afraid. I was naked. I hid myself. as if this would be the end of
the matter. But he is not like that prodigal
that we read about in the New Testament to say, I have sinned,
I have transgressed by law, and I'm not worthy of your goodness
or your presence. He's not outright, forthright,
and say, I have eaten of the fruit of the tree that you forbid. I'm wretched. I am undone. My sin is great. before your
very eyes. Adam, where are you? Adam, where are you now? Naked, you say? God says unto
him, who told you that you were naked? The Lord makes the connection
that there can be, but that one cause, have you eaten of that
tree that I forbid you to eat? Adam confesses that he had, but
quickly shifts the blame, saying, the woman, the woman you gave
me, the woman you took out of my side, the woman that you made
for me, the woman that you gave me, she gave unto me, and I did
eat. Likewise, when it came to the
woman, when asked, what have you done? Her reply is, the serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat. Matthew Henry wrote here something
quaint, I thought. He said, sin is a brat that nobody
wants to own, unquote. Sin is a brat that nobody wants
to claim as their own. Very, very hard to get people
to own their sin. Some extenuating circumstances. Well, he did this, she did that.
If it hadn't have been for this, instead of saying outright, I
have sinned. Where are you? Have you eaten? Are you now happy? Do you now
find an advancement by having the knowledge of good and evil?
Are you higher? Are you now in fear of death?
Have you gained by the eating of the tree that I commanded
you not to eat? And of course, then, there is
that question, which is this, applicable to all persons the
world wherever they might be who do not know God through the
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This searching question echoes
out to all people. Where are you? Not where do you live, not where
do you work, not where do you travel, but where are you? Spiritually, where are you this
morning? This is a searching question
to hear in our ears. Where are you? How is it with
you? Is it well with thy soul? One said, this echoes through
the whole human world and to every individual again, where
are you? Are you afraid and uncomfortable
in the hearing of the Word of God? Have you sowed fig leaf,
rotten fig leaves of religion and self-righteousness together
to try to cover yourself, your nakedness in the sight of God?
Are you hiding in some big church in some pew somewhere? Are you
naked before the eyes of God? for the lack of a saving righteousness? Are you running from God and
dread to hear the Bible and about sin and hell and death and those
kind of things? And do you always blame others
for your sin and shift it off on somebody else? Where are you
spiritually this morning? What is your spiritual condition? This is a great question to be
raised and one that East must answer. Now the question, when
God came to the hiding couple, Did he come to them for the express
purpose and on an errand to extend mercy to them and recover them,
call them to repentance, or did God come to call them to the
bar and pass sentence and execute judgment? God asked Cain a question,
a searching question, in Genesis chapter 4 and verse 9. Where
is Abel thy brother? Well, not that God didn't know,
not that God didn't see the murder and know all about it, not that
he didn't know where the corpse of Abel lay. But he asked for
another reason, to drive home the conviction and the guilt. Where is Abel thy brother? Cain answers, I guess, rather
indignantly. I don't know. I'm not my brother's
keeper, am I? Am I responsible to know where
he is at all times? But when God came, he passed
sentence upon Cain in Genesis 4, verse 10 through verse 12. So Adam God, as Gil wrote, summons
Adam to appear before him, the judge of all, and to answer for
his conduct and for his sin. Then God passes sentence upon
all three involved, the man, the woman, and the serpent. He puts them out of the garden.
He barred the way to the tree of life so that they could not
reenter and have access under the tree of life, and curse the
ground of the earth, and multiply the woman's sorrow in childbearing
because of their part in that transgression. What has man become? We know what he was, an Adam
in the garden. What has he become? What is man
now? A sinner. Yes, a sinner, even
born in sin, corrupt in every faculty, a mind at enmity with
God, and yet one who, thank God, can be reconciled to God by Jesus
Christ, who has bruised the serpent's head as it is put in the scripture. This man, so sinful, this man,
so corrupt, these people corrupted by sin yet may be reconciled
unto God by a sacrifice of God's providing, a way of God's desire
to bring some again into fellowship with Christ and with the holy
God of heaven. And then where are you? In Christ, safe and secure. In Christ, saved evermore. Adam, where are you? We ask ourselves
this morning, where are we in our Christian life? Where are
we? Where are we at this point? The voice of God is deep and
it's penetrating. May we hear it?