Word of Salvation – Vol.24 No.12 – December 1977

 

Where Are You?

 

Sermon by Rev. P. G. Van Dam, M.Sc., B.D. on Genesis 3:9

Scripture reading: Genesis 3

Psalter Hymnal: 139:1,3,4; 275; 410; 378

 

Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,

In his fall in paradise, man, in his forefather Adam, surrendered himself to his own misery and powerlessness.

Upon the instigation of Satan, who had made Adam and Eve believe that if they would disobey God they would be like Him, the desire to be like God and to have divine status and power for themselves made them eat of the fruit of which God had forbidden that they should eat.

Satan succeeded in making them desire to have more and to be more than what God had wanted them to have and to be.

It was in His great love that God created all things and man.

God did not need His creation; He did not need man.  Neither does He need anyone of us, whoever we might think we are.  For to think that we are something is the thinking that Satan managed to get into us: ‘You shall be like God, a god yourself, knowing everything.”  But we must confess that those who claim to know everything are not usually the ones who are a blessing to the church.

God did not need man, He does not need us.  Perhaps we should remember this a bit more often.

The only reason for His creation to have come into existence is His love.  That is also the only reason why He created man.  It is also the only reason why I should be here: that man – that I – should share in His love for him and for me.  And to know the peace of that love of God for him and for me.

Indeed, our lack of peace is in our failure to really grasp the greatness, the immensity, of God’s love for us!  Yet, in Ephesians 3:14-21 we read that this is why His people received His Spirit: that they might again know that love.

But just as a child will know the love which its parents have for it only in the way of obedience, so would Adam truly know the love of his God only if he would obey Him; if in his loving obedience he would commit himself to his God.

But then Adam said: ‘No’.  And this ‘No’ has echoed throughout creation ever since.  It is there also in my heart: ‘No!”

It was his and my ‘No’ to God.
To be sure: ‘No’ to His holiness, and ‘No’ to His love.

First a word about man’s ‘No’ to God’s holiness.
We need to remember that ‘No’ for the purpose of understanding clearly the words God speaks to Adam in our text: “Man, where are you?”

God is a holy God, Who, therefore just cannot and never will tolerate sin in His creation.  Never, even if we are naive enough to think that our sins are not so serious.  Anyone who would continue thinking that way will one day become very disappointed and frightened!  Just like Adam and Eve in the garden when they heard the Lord God walking in the garden, after they had disobeyed Him.

After they had committed the sin of disobedience they saw that they were naked, we read in verse 7.  Obviously, their sin discovered them to their own shame and nothingness.  Their fig leaves are our best clothes, make-up, pride, possessions etc., behind which we try to hide; try to hide our own nakedness, our own unworthiness and the shame we might know on account of some of our sins.  There are many people in the church who live that way at the moment; while they try to find satisfaction in what they have or in what they try to believe they are, they prefer not to be reminded of – or to be confronted with – the Word of God.
That is to say: with God Himself!

Yet, they know too well that that question of God: “Where are you?” is there for them too.  Now we might want to ignore that question, or refuse to answer, but it is there, nevertheless.

Yes, indeed, it is the question of our guilt and failure; of our nothingness.  Before God there is nothing we could hope to be able to cover ourselves with.

Meantime, the question still stands: “Where are you?”  Through Adam that question has come to all of us without exception.

And God does demand an answer.  For we read in Isaiah 55 verse 11 that the Word which goes forth from the mouth of the Lord shall not return to Him empty, but “It shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it”, says God.  ‘It shall serve the purpose for which I sent it.  The purpose for which I also came to you; with that same question!  And I want and I will have an answer!

Well, what is your answer?
Is it a frightful question?
Because we do know that in the end we will not be able to escape it?

Well, let us have no illusions: it is a frightful question!  Adam and Eve, they can only do one thing when they hear the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day: flee and hide.

There are members of the church who do nothing else but that: flee and hide.  And indeed, many who will hear the Lord come again will say to the mountains: ‘cover us’, and to the hills: ‘fall upon us’, rather than meet the Lord in person.

No, there is no way of taking that question lightly; no hope in ignoring it.  Even if we would want to cry: peace, for there is no peace.

“Where are you?” – no one will escape that question with which God Himself, through Adam, has come to us all.

Yet, at the same time, it is the question of His grace!  Yes, of His righteousness, for no one will escape from it.  But it is also the question of His love!  Yes, it is!

You know in which way God is truly God?  In this: that He does not change!  In Malachi 3:6 we read: “For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”

Especially in a time in which – as in the days of the Judges of Israel – everyone does what is right in his own eyes, no one can ignore God’s holiness and righteousness, and live.  That is quite clear from that command: “…in the day that you shall eat of it (that fruit) you shall die”; that is to say: ‘in the day you disobey Me, you shall die, for I, the Lord God have spoken!’ (2:16)

Adam and Eve knew that that word was true (they repeated it to the serpent, 3:3).  They knew that it was true, for why else would they have fled.  We know it is true, for why else do we flee God all the time?  We know too well it is true, that we cannot ‘play’ with God, or tell Him stories.

But once we start escaping Him, as we like to think we can, (but know we cannot) we will then also lose sight of the full truth.  This one: that God does not change: His holiness and righteousness do not and never will; but neither does His love and never will.

Too often we are like the children we mentioned before.  If they do not want to obey their parents, or to stay close to them, they become more ready to criticise them.  They consider them to some extent to be their enemies, especially when they (the children) know they are not right.  Then they might want to escape them but know they cannot, or cannot as yet.  But at least they could try, and may try, to break the communication.  But the more they do this, the less they think of the love their parents have for them, and always will have for them.

We do the same in our relationship with God.  We know that we are not right; Oh, yes, we do!  But then we want to escape Him, break the communication.

The result is that our fear of Him will increase while at the same time we might not remember His love anymore!

That is the misery of a life not really lived with God.  Of a life we want to live for our own sake, even if God has forbidden us to do that.  For without God, and away from God, there is no life.  To say ‘No’ to God and His Word is death.  But we don’t like to think that way, even if it is a fact; more fact than anything else!  Again, what do we think is the use of all those fig leaves we use?  Are we really that naive?

“Man, where are you?”  Yes, God is speaking to you!
Where are you?  Do you know?

And God does not withdraw that question.   As we already said (quoting Isaiah 55) He is asking you that question with a purpose.  Not in a casual ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ way.  He has a very definite purpose asking you that question!  What do you think that purpose is?

“Man, where are you?”

Now, how and why do you think God is asking you that question?

No, God does not change.  His holiness and His righteousness don’t, neither does His love.  Again, why and how do you think God is asking you that question?

One thing is sure: in calling Adam and Eve to Himself – for they could not have escaped Him anyway (no more than you or I could, either – God does show them their sin.  Quite plainly: “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

That, indeed, is the first purpose for which He asks us, too, that same question: ‘how come you want to flee from Me, hide from Me?  Have you disobeyed Me?’

And God will tell us exactly how, where and when!

He will verify every sin with us, and ask us: ‘Is that why you are hiding from Me?’

And as silly as Adam’s and Eve’s excuses sound to us, so are ours.  Never would God accept the excuse: ‘I could not help it.’

Yes, if we hear God ask us that question: “Where are you?”, then He surely does it for the purpose of exposing all our sinfulness and sins.

But if God is a God of righteousness, Whose holiness and judgment do not change, should not then that question lead to the verdict: ‘Guilty unto death!’  For that was the warning, was it not?  “In the day you eat of it you shall die”.  Is not that the reality of His Word, however much we might like to avoid thinking too much about it?

What else could the outcome be, if God does not change, and after He had already spoken the warning?

How, exactly then, could we think of this question as the question of His love?  How would that fit in here: His love?

And let us be honest, we could not see this, if we were to read not much further than just Genesis 3.

Yet, it is there!  Yes, it is!

Thank God, it is!  For what if it were not there?

But how, then, can we get this righteousness of God which does not change (after God had spoken the warning), and His love which does not change; how can we get those two together?

But we should know the answer, shouldn’t we?

Yes, we should, because we know why it was that the Father sent the Son!

That for the sake of His love for us His Son should die in bearing the punishment which was ours!  It was for the sake of His love for us that Jesus Christ suffered the suffering we should have suffered, and that He died the death we should have died – everlastingly!

The death for which He had warned Adam!

Sometimes the question is asked: ‘But Adam did not die after all, did he?’  Yet, God did keep His Word.  He will remain faithful to His Word, we read in 2Timothy 2:13.  (True, in that verse we read: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful…!”  That might sound comforting.  And it is.  As long as we remember that God will before all things remain faithful to His Word!)

Yes, God did keep His Word!  Through Adam’s sin death came into the world!  But because God loved man so much, He sent His Son to die for him.  And because God loved me so much, He sent His Son to die in my place.  In my place, for I, too, have sinned and deserved to die (Rom.5:12).

But because God so loved the world, so loved me, He forsook His Son and let Him suffer the hellish agony of a life without God which Adam had chosen and deserved.  And did He reject His Son so that He (if we may put it that way for a moment) could go after me, and call me back: ‘Man, where are you?’

Only if we let the light – yes, the light – of the cross shine on Genesis 3 can we begin to understand it!  And that is how we must read it: by that light.  For all of the Word is the Word of Christ.  He is the content, the explanation of that Word.

Without the account of Genesis 3 we cannot understand the cross of Christ; why it had to be there and what our Lord suffered and for whom.

At the same time, it is only by the light of the cross that we can understand Genesis 3…!

Only then can we understand Genesis 3:9 and the question: “Man, where are you?”

Only then can we understand that while God calls Adam and Eve, and exposes them to their guilt, “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat,” – He nevertheless does not let Satan, who tempted man, have the victory.

How God, while facing Adam and Eve with their guilt, could say to Satan, “I will put hatred between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed – Christ, His Son! – and He shall bruise your head your power – and you shall bruise His heel” (3:15).

Yes, you shall bruise His heel.  The church of the Lord Jesus Christ in this world is a limping church, on account of the damage sin has done.

For while the Father took away the guilt of our sins in His Son, our Saviour, the results of sin are there.  The damage of sin often cannot be repaired or undone.  Suffering and death are with us.  The forgiveness of sin does not restore paradise in this world!  Adam and Eve were to know this, too, as we read of it further in Genesis 3.

But for those who know the love of the Father, their suffering and death point to the cross where the Lord, crucified in their place, points them to their salvation.  Their suffering and death are to prepare them for an eternal life of glory!  To also teach and assure them that their suffering and death are preparations for them to depart from this vale of tears, in which life is nothing but a constant dying, to be with their Lord.

For our victory is secure already, in Christ Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Yes, it is!

But this brings us once more to that same question of our God: ‘Man, where are you?’

Yes, the question of the God Whom we disobeyed, denied, rejected, ignored.  Because we wanted to be ourselves, go our way, be our own God, wanting to have our say.  To be our own god over against the one true God Who is jealous for His own Name.  We could not have offended Him more.  Yet, what did God do?

Could you grasp the meaning of His question to you: ‘Where are you?’

Yes, it is the question of your guilt, most surely!
But it is at the same time the question of His love.
For He forsook His Son, as He should have forsaken me,..
in order that He could call out to me, ‘Where are you?’
That I should come, come to the Saviour!  …and LIVE!!

That makes the question so very meaningful and beautiful!
But also so very urgent!

For now to be with that question God confronts you with the cross!  Your answer is the answer to His Son.  Are you aware of that?  “Man, where are you?”  There is no mistake as to Who asks the question and why.

But where are you?

“Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt.3:2)

AMEN.