"WHERE ART THOU?"


A. "AND THE LORD GOD CALLED UNTO ADAM, AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHERE ART THOU?"
  1. Disobedience brings disillusionment:
    1. The serpent's promise, "your eyes shall be opened . . . ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
    2. Opened their eyes to discover their nakedness.
    3. They did learn the difference between good and evil, but only to their sorrow.
  2. Effect of disobedience:
    1. It distorted their concept of God.
    2. God's voice was no longer an invitation to sweet fellowship as before.
    3. They no longer sought refuge with God, but sought to hide from Him.
    4. Sin has made them afraid of God. What a tragedy!
B. "WHERE ART THOU?"
  1. Here we have heaven's first appeal of mercy to a lost sinner:
    1. It is God's first call of mercy, expressing loneliness for our first parents.
    2. This truth is illustrated in our Lord's parables of -
      1. The lost sheep - Luke 15:4-6
      2. The lost coin - Luke 15:8, 9
      3. The prodigal son - Luke 15:11-29
  2. God did not wait for Adam and Even to return to Him but He came first, seeking to save them! "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19:10
  3. The guilty pair's attitude:
    1. They went into hiding from the Lord - Gen. 3:8
    2. That is always a sign of guilt - Gen. 4:16. This is still the attitude of the sinner, indicative of a guilty conscience.
    3. How different is the attitude of the saved? Moses, and the Psalmist - Ex. 3:15; Ps. 31:20. For them it is a pleasure to fellowship with the Lord; it is sweet communion with God.
C. EFFECTS OF A BROKEN RELATION AND GOD'S EFFORT TO HEAL THE RELATIONSHIP
  1. The sinners efforts:
    1. "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked."
    2. "And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons" - Gen. 3:7
  2. Here we have the attempts of sinners to cover their own nakedness:
    1. But that brought no security against sin and shame.
    2. Pilate washed his hands, but not his heart - Rev. 3:14-17; Matt. 23:25; 27:24
  3. A God of mercy calls: "Where art thou?"
    1. He knew where they were - Ps. 139:1-9
    2. But they did not realize their condition. Satan had blinded them against the effects of sin - 2 Cor. 4:4
    3. They were brought to God's judgment seat because there can be no justice without an accounting for sin.
    4. God must enter into judgment with sin, even in the person of His Son - 2 Cor. 5:21
  4. Blaming others for our wrong will not remove the guilt from us:
    1. In blaming Eve, Adam actually blamed God, who had given him Eve.
    2. Eve's blaming the serpent did not excuse her own guilt.
    3. Adam's love for his wife and eating of the forbidden fruit did not lessen his own guilt; he knew better - Acts 5:1-11
  5. Mercy mixed with Judgment:
    1. After pronouncing judgment upon the sin of our first parents, God went to work to save the lost.
    2. He took the life of animals to make aprons for the guilty pair.
    3. He mixed the sentence of guilt with a promise of redemption - Gen. 3:15
    4. This experience of our first parents was the first lesson of God's love for lost sinners.


Design © John Bryant 2011