The Bible: God's Pursuit Of Man Series

Foundations of the Christian Faith

Series by Matt Black (Message 6)

Genesis 3:9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

Proposition: The Word of God is a result of God’s pursuit of man in redemption.

The Word of God is a history of God’s dealings with man. It is not a book at all about how much man loves God, but how God amazingly and against all human reasoning loves rebellious man. We often wonder as we read the record of the Old Testament how people could be so sinful, stiff-necked and rebellious. The amazing thing is not that man is rebellious, but that God loves the rebel. We come to the New Testament, and we find this same love demonstrating itself in the central event in history. Both Jews and Gentiles rejected the LORD of glory by crucifying Him on the cross. And in man’s greatest rejection of God, we find God’s greatest and strongest love for man. “Father forgive them for they know not what they do!” cried the Lord from the cross. “It is finished!” He said. What was finished? Christ had finished His work of opening the door of God’s love to mankind. Justice was finished. Christ drank every drop from the cup of God’s wrath. God’s anger against man’s sin was satisfied. Even in man’s greatest hatred of God, we find God pursuing after man in the greatest manner.

Now let us look in our Bibles to Genesis 3 and verse 9. We shall find today that God has been the initiator of reconciliation from the very beginning. Here we find that Adam has fallen into sin and separated himself from the LORD. He is hiding; he does not want God. He is not seeking after God. But God is seeking after Adam. Look at verse nine, And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? We often talk about pursuing God and following Him, but truly it is God who has pursued us. We see this principle in many places in the Bible. Christ said it over and over when He walked the earth.

John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.

It is not WE who are pursuing after God. God is calling after us! If it were not for God’s concern for us, we would be forsaken. We would never seek to reconcile with God. God is calling after us today, just as He called Adam. We find that God made man in perfect innocence. When Adam forfeited His relationship with God, we find that God, not Adam was the reconciler. God called after Adam.

In the book of Genesis we find truth in its most potent form: we find it in seed form. In Genesis 3, we find the very first statement of the Gospel and it’s principles. We find man running from God, God calling after man, and God making the covering for sin that is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Let us read the passage now.

GENESIS 3:1-10 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 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. 7 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. 8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God 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. 9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.