Where Art Thou

ANSWERS TO LIFE’S GREATEST QUESTIONS

“WHERE ART THOU”

TEXT: Genesis 3:

INTRODUCTION:

1. Many of the most profound questions ever proposed and answered are found in the Bible.

2. Cain Asked the famous question,

Genesis 4:9 (ESV) Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?"

3. Job asked,

Job 14:14 (ESV) If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come.

4. Elijah,

1 Kings 18:21 (ESV) And Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." And the people did not answer him a word.

5. Jesus Asked

Matthew 16:26 (ESV) For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

6. Philippian jailer,

Acts 16:30 (ESV) Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

7. The apostle Peter asked,

1 Peter 4:17 (ESV) For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

8. The Bible answers every one of these questions.

a) Cain was his brother's keeper

b) There is life after death.

c) Elijah's people halted until they died and their nation was taken away.

d) There is nothing a man can give in exchange for his soul.

e) To be saved one must HBRB

f) Those who obey not the gospel will be lost

DISCUSSION:

I. The First Great Question

A. Today I want to discuss the first great question posed by God to man.

B. In addressing Adam God said,

C. Where art thou?

D. Somehow it has a more majestic ring to it than modern translations but at the same time somehow it is less ominous than it sounds in the modern vernacular.

“Where are you?”

E. Not where are you sitting, where are you living, or where are you working

F. But where are you in the eternal scheme of things? Where you spiritually?

G. Are you saved or are you lost?

H. Many good people will die and go to hell because they have failed to answer the question, where am I?

II. The context

A. In the words of D. L. Moody

“THE very first thing that happened after the news reached heaven of the fall of man, was that God came straight down to seek out the lost one. As He walks through the garden in the cool of the day, you can hear Him calling “Adam! Adam! Where art thou?” It was the voice of grace, of mercy, and of love. Adam ought to have taken the seeker’s place, for he was the transgressor. He had fallen, and he ought to have gone up and down Eden crying, “My God! My God! Where art Thou?” But God left heaven to seek through the dark world for the rebel who had fallen—not to hurl him from the face of the earth, but to plan him an escape from the misery of his sin. And he finds him—where? Hiding from his Creator among the bushes of the garden.

B. The moment a man sins, he has, of his own free will, separated himself from the Fellowship of God

Isaiah 59:1-2 (ESV) 1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

C. It was not God's choice, it was man's choice.

D. God wanted to have eternal fellowship with him, but he wanted that fellowship to be motivated by Adam’s love and appreciation for his Creator.

E. So he gave Adam and Eve a choice. He made the choice as easy as he possibly could. In a paradise of trees, he placed a single tree – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

F. He told them they could eat any of the innumerable trees of the garden except the one. But they ate that one tree.

G. Until then they had an incredible fellowship with Creator God. He walked with them in the garden and cool of the day on a regular basis.

H. The terrible news reached heaven instantly. God in his omniscience knew that Adam and Eve could sinned. And so he came reaching out to them.

I. When he came did he find them seeking his help?