Okay. Genesis chapter three and
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, this is the serpent. Yay. Half God
said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman
said unto the serpent, we may not 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 knows that
in the day that you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open
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, 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 both of them
were opened and they knew that they were naked. Here it is. This is the beginning of it all.
This is what we call the fall of man. Adam is being the representative
of the whole human race. When this happened, when Eve
did this and gave it to her husband, the both of them did eat and
their eyes were opened. They plummeted the whole human
race, every person born after this until the end, when God
comes and finishes this, wraps this whole thing up, born in
sin. This is what we call total depravity, born in sin, original
sin, it's been called. Well, the eyes of them both were
open, verse seven, and they knew that they were naked, and they
sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. That's
what we try to do. When God begins to point the
finger at the heart, through the preaching, or the reading
of his word, first thing our natural reaction is, is to get
his works. Try to cover ourselves. Try to
cover ourselves. It's just not going to work.
It doesn't work that way. God sees through it, and later
on, we know the rest of the story, God had to slay an innocent lamb,
an innocent animal, whatever it was, and covered them. That's
a picture of salvation. Christ just died for the unjust. That's us. There's a picture.
But there's an earlier phrase that I want to look at that we
see the gospel declared. Verse eight, and they heard the
voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the
day. And Adam and his wife hid, hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. Now God is omnipresent. That means he's everywhere. He
knows everything and they're hiding. That's again, shows what
man's religion, what man is worth. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, where art thou? Or where are you? Now he didn't ask this because
he didn't know where they were at. And Adam said, I heard your voice
in the garden and I was afraid. He was never afraid before. Never
afraid before. Because I was naked and I hid
myself. And we know the rest of the story.
He says, who told you you were naked? First thing Adam does
is blame his wife. Well, the woman that you gave
me. And that's been going on since the beginning of time.
Blame the woman. They're both wrong. Adam and
Eve are both wrong. They both fell. And God, in verse
21, and unto eight of them, let's see, Verse 21, unto Adam also
did, to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe
them. That's the, we need to have this
clothing. We need to have the righteousness of Christ or we're
doomed. All is lost. But there's the
gospel, I think, in three words. In verse nine, where art thou? Or where are you? You see it? I didn't see it till the other
day. But I say this is my thought, what a joy and what a thrill
it is to find hidden redemptive lessons in this book. And of
course, from John chapter five, from Christ's own words, we know
that the scriptures is all about Christ. And Christ said, you
think you have eternal life, search the scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life. And they, the scriptures,
are they which testify of me. So as I've said this many times,
my responsibility as a called person, whatever you wanna say,
pastor, elder, is to find Christ in the scripture and not waste
our time with politics, not waste our time with stuff that's going,
no, that's, you leave here and you get enough of that. My responsibility
is to feed the sheep of God. My responsibility says in Isaiah
is comfort ye, comfort ye my people. And how do you do that?
By preaching the gospel. It's not complicated. Now there's
more in here, and many people have used this Bible to trivialize
and to play games and this and that. No, the main purpose of
the preacher, the people, if we speak to someone, is to tell
them about Christ. Tell them about Christ. Well,
these three words, where art thou? is such a phrase. Let's look at verse nine and
see such good news presented for our use of edification this
morning, and if not, perhaps our salvation. You may use this
word to light a flame under us and to trust Christ and his righteousness. Where art thou? This question
proves two things, two things. It may prove more. This is what
I see. Man was lost. Where are you? God's asking Adam. The second
thing is perhaps one of the most astonishing things. God had come
to seek. To seek the sinner. Or, this
points to two things. Man's sin and God's grace. man's
sin in God's grace. How does God save? He saves by
grace. He doesn't save by works. He
doesn't save by your works, my works, anybody's works. He saves
by His sovereign free grace. It's unmerited We didn't ask
for it, and if we did ask for it, it's because he made us ask
him for it. As he says in Psalms 110 verse
three, thy people shall be willing in the day of his power. Until
his power comes on us, we're like Corinthians, I think it's
1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man receives not the things of
the spirit of God, they're foolishness. They're foolishness. But to the
believer, It's life. In plain display, and this is
in Genesis chapter three and prior, in plain display, Jehovah's,
we saw Jehovah's power. He created man out of the dust. That's astonishing enough. But to seek fallen and corrupt
men, women, boys and girls, this is pure, free, sovereign grace. Adam, Eve, where are you? Where are you? We find this example
of God seeking sinners in all scripture, everywhere in scripture.
And we know by the fact that he's given us enlightenment that
every elect sinner is sought out first That's always the case. A lot of preachers preach the
cart moving the horse. They're saying, you've got to
do this, you've got to walk an aisle, you've got to be baptized,
you've got to... No. The horse is properly set
in order when the Gospels preach. The horse is pulling the cart.
God initiates everything in salvation. We didn't choose him, we didn't
seek him. He says, without me you can do nothing. He says in
Hosea, with from me is your fruit found. If we have any fruit,
it's found in him. All glory goes to Christ. It's
got to be that way. It's not the other way. It's
not, would you do something for Jesus? That's a weak, man be,
pan be Jesus. He can't do anything unless you
untie his hands. No, that's the God preached today,
but we know that that's not the God of the Bible. I am the Lord,
there's none else. That's what we see. And that's
why we can live in peace, though the world's chaos, in him we
have peace. In the world, he says, you'll
have trouble. But in me, you have peace. Now, some clear examples of God-seeking
sinners, I've got a few. And you don't have to turn here.
In 2 Samuel chapter 9, You remember David said, is there any left
of the household of Saul, that David is a type of Christ, that
I may show him the kindness for Jonathan's sake. And Ziba the
servant said, there's one, there's one called Mephibosheth. He's
lame on both feet. He can't come to you. He's just
sitting there. He can't do anything. And David
says, fetch him. David says, go get them. That's
what I'm talking about. That's God seeking the sinner. Another example is when Samuel
was called in the place of Eli. He's sitting there, he's in the
room, the same room, or the same house structure as Eli, and the
Lord says, Samuel, he says, here am I, and he gets up and he goes
to Eli, and he goes, did you call me? He goes, no. He goes,
no, I was sleeping. Go back, and then he does it
again. Here am I. The Lord called Samuel. He fetched him. He sought him.
That's another example. What about Samuel anointing David? First Samuel chapter 16. He goes
through all the sons and he says, don't you have any more sons?
Surely this is, these are not, this is not the king. And he
says, yeah, we got one more. He's just a little ruddy guy.
He's out tending the sheep, tending the sheep. Hmm. Interesting.
That's what Christ does. He tends the sheep. He says,
fetch them, go get them. Fourthly, Lot, out of Sodom and
Gomorrah, did Lot escape? Did Lot flee himself? Did Lot
get out? No. He was fetched. Abraham,
go get him. Genesis 19, the parable of the
lost sheep. Let's turn here. I like this
phraseology. Luke chapter 15. There's nothing
in this book that's by accident or by happenstance. This is divinely
inspired. Every word of God, he says, is
pure. I like this. Luke chapter 15.
Look at how this is worded. Luke chapter 15 and verse 3. and he spake this parable Christ
spake this parable unto them saying what man of you having
a hundred sheep if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety
and nine in the wilderness and go after go after that which is lost until
he find it you're telling me that Christ is not a successful
Redeemer if he could die for somebody and they're not saved?
I don't think so. That's not what the scriptures
teach. Christ by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of his
truth will go after every lost sheep until he find it. That's what we're waiting for.
We're waiting for the last of the elect to be saved and in
this whole world's going to burn, it's going to come to an end.
That's what we're waiting for. What's my job? Your job is to
go out and bring people here or talk to them. If you know
the Redeemer, tell them about Christ and His grace and His
salvation. Tell them about their sin. They
don't want to hear that, but they don't want to hear about
God overthrown. They want to brag about their free will, not
God's will. But I love how this is worded,
go after, go after Luke 15. What about Saul of Tarsus? He
was just on his way to persecute other church, other people of
the church. And the Lord called him, knocked him off his horse
in Acts chapter nine. He didn't, he wasn't seeking
the Lord, the Lord sought him. In this passage that I love,
truly love, is Proverbs 8 in verse 30 and 31. It speaks about
the relationship, go back and look at this, the relationship
that the father has with the son. And in verse, Proverbs 8
in verse 30 and 31, He says, his delights, Christ
speaking to his father before time, before the worlds were,
I was, before the waters were formed, I was there. It's the
conversation between the father and the son. And he says, my
delights were with the sons of men. God's delights were with
the sons of men. Oh my soul, the infinite, the
thrice holy Jehovah God seeking the lesser, fetching and having
ultimate success unto his sheep, his bride or his children. Indeed,
Matthew 1 in verse 21 is correct. He, his name shall be called
Jesus and he shall, not maybe, not if you'll let him, not try,
He shall save his people from their sins. See, these are absolutes.
We think we speak in absolutes, but we're frail. Sometimes we
can't perform what we promise. God is not like us. He speaks
in absolutes. He's absolute truth. He's absolute
light. In him is no darkness. He, I
am the Lord, God, change not. He's immutable. He cannot change
like we do. He says he shall save his people
from his sins, and he does that. Just as our merciful Lord sought
out fallen Adam, so he pursues, captures, and reclaims, and redeems,
ransomed his dear children. But let's go back to our text.
Let's just look at this three-word phrase. Where art thou? Where are you? That's the first thought, first
question, or first obvious statement is man's lost condition. He's
asking Adam and Eve, where are you at? Where art thou? Well,
Adam and Eve are out of the way. They're faulty. They're completely
depraved. They're not seeking God. In the
garden before the fall, once it was all joy, now it's misery
and sorrow. Once communion with our maker,
now separated and condemned. Once sweet fellowship, now broken
and divided reality. And how far we have sunk. How
far we have sunk. We're deep in the mire, and this
is our dwelling, and this is our daily diet. Romans chapter
three explains it very clear. Our throat is an open sepulcher.
We are all together become unprofitable. No peace, no hope. Our feet are
swift to shed blood. There's none righteous, no not
one. I ask myself and I ask us again,
where are we? Do we know this? Do we understand
this? Do we feel it? But it doesn't
end there. The gospel never, the gospel
in Hebrew is good news. So I would be remiss if I didn't
tell you the good news. In this statement, where art
thou? Two things are pointed out. Man's sin, but God's grace. God's grace. There's always hope
in the good news, the best news of salvation through Christ.
Where are we? Where art thou? I know we speak
at times of seeking sinners. We love a story regarding a seeking
husband or bride. We rejoice to see our seeking
children running after our mom and dad. But this, this, what
God's seeking A sinner? If you know what the Bible says
about God and who he is, he's supreme, he's majestic, sovereign, holy, of holy rise
and behold iniquity, God's seeking a sinner. There's hope. What value, what worth is a dead
dog sinner? What use, what estimate is a
thief on the cross, hating and cursing God. What price, what
esteem can you place upon a bankrupt son or daughter of Adam's race?
None. But he has promised, he has promised
to seek out his lost sheep to heal his diseased children, to
open the blind eyes, to cure our foul and evil corruptions,
to birth us again, you must be born again, to birth us again
by the Holy Spirit of grace and supplications, belief of the
truth, confession of sin and repentance not to be repented
of. This he does the declaration of the one and
only good news of Christ. This he does through the preaching
of his gospel. That's why when we gather together,
we always have to be reminded of what we are, but we're always
reminded of who he is and what he's done. And he's successful. He's successful, always successful
through the declaration of the good news of the gospel. Where art thou? Three words,
I've never seen it before. Where art thou? When you see
that, you step back and you say, well, what's going on? Well,
we know the rest of the story. God sought them, God clothed
them. He clothed them. I could ask
each of us here today, where are we? Where are we? Just, it's not complicated. Sinner, where are you? Where am I? Because I still have
sin, even though Christ's righteousness is over me, I still am confronted
daily with my sin. Because that old man, two natures,
that old nature is never going to get any better. He does not
convert the old nature. He gives us a new nature. We're
new creatures in Christ. See, that's why salvation is
not reformation. I know a lot of people reform,
they get church, they get religion, they get Jesus or whatever, they
get something and they get better. And you know, if I'm their neighbor,
I'm glad they're better. I'm glad he's a nice neighbor.
But when they take that and tie that in with salvation and say,
oh, I'm saved now. No, no, you're not. No, you're
not. You haven't heard the truth.
You don't know what you're capable of. The believer is capable of
any. If God removes his restraint,
we're fallen. Scripture says we're of all men
most miserable. So I ask myself, where am I?
This is for everyone. Where are you? Oh, to be clothed
and covered. in the perfect white robe of
the blood of the great martyr lamb. And Adam and Eve, also
his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. That what they had wasn't good
enough. It's never good enough. It's never good enough. We need
Christ's righteousness. We need awareness of our sins.
but even that we need, you could be aware of your sins and you've
still got no hope. To have, to be covered by Christ
and his perfections and his righteousness, his grace and his glory. Jesus
Christ, that's God's glory. That's my prayer and that's what
I saw. What am I? Where am I? To God
be the glory. Bruce, would you close us in
prayer?