WHERE ARE YOU?
God asks us questions in the gospel. His earliest communications with a man and a woman were in the form of a question, “Where art thou?”. He will require an answer to that question by and by and it behoves every one of us to have an answer to it. Now is the well accepted time to answer that question. The question that God raised here with Adam and Eve was very penetrating, very searching. God, in one sense, did not need to ask the question because He knew very well where Adam and Eve were. In Hebrews, it tells us that “there is not a creature unapparent before him”, Heb.4:13. Think of that! Wherever you go, wherever you may be, during the day, every waking hour, every sleeping hour, God knows your whereabouts. God is vigilant and watchful in relation to the activities and actions of men and women, boys and girls everywhere.
You may try to hide, and sometimes we try to hide in the gospel preaching. We may seek to shut out the word by some means or another as it is proclaimed, thinking about something else, thinking about what we might do tomorrow, but somehow something evades your defences and registers, perhaps in your subconsciousness, stirs your conscience, perhaps raises a doubt about your current state, your current position in relation to God Himself. You cannot hide from Him, that is for sure. Adam and Eve tried to hide in the midst of the garden. I suppose that was the first misuse of creation, because when God planted these trees in Eden, they were pleasant to the sight – they were to be looked at, not to be hidden amongst, and they were good for food. But the moral sensibilities of Adam and Eve had been so corrupted by sin that they sought to hide themselves in an area which God in His favour had provided and where He desired to commune with them. It says, “Jehovah Elohim planted a garden in Eden” (Gen.2:8); think of the particular care of the Creator in planting even the trees and man used them as a hiding place! But the voice of Jehovah penetrated into the midst of the trees and posed this question which every one will at some point have to answer.
So you may try to hide, but the psalm says, “The voice of Jehovah breaketh cedars”, Ps.29:5. If you read Psalm 29, it gives you a whole spectrum of things that the voice of Jehovah does. One of the things it does is it “breaketh the cedars of Lebanon”. Cedars speak of man in all his pride and aloofness, man in his selfishness and in all his spurious and ambitious intents, but God breaks the cedars and brings man down in his pride. It goes on to say that He “maketh the hinds to calve” (v.9), and there is something very precious about that. Out of sorrow, out of pain, out of conflict, He makes the hinds to calve. It suggests something that is alive, that is living, emerging from the most painful circumstances. It is like new birth beginning in a sin-darkened soul, a soul labouring under the burden of sin, with conscience biting at their innermost being, causing not a minute’s peace. I wonder if there is a soul here like that? God is speaking. “The wind blows where it will” (John 3:8) and maybe it is blowing here tonight in this room, stirring by the Holy Spirit yearnings in your heart for relief and peace, and the realisation that this can only be secured by repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Saviour of sinners.
Well, what did God do? He asked Adam and Eve what they had done. He knew full well what their position was, their disobedience and their attempts to conceal their nakedness. Yet He acted in a way which He alone could do; He made them “coats of skin”, Gen.3:21. And not only did He do that, He clothed them. You think of the graciousness of God to a man and woman who had disobeyed His word. He made coats of skin and He actually clothed them. How near to sinners God has come in the Lord Jesus! He came in the person of His Son, He ”who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God; but emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form, taking his place in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”, Phil.2:6-8. In principle, before these coats could be provided for Adam and Eve, the precious life of the Lord Jesus which He had lived, sin apart – that flawless, untainted life in this scene of distress and sorrow and pain and suffering – had to be laid down. He had to die. Adam and Eve had sewn fig leaves together in a futile endeavour to make themselves acceptable to God. They realised they were naked, without one plea and they sought to obscure their nakedness by sewing together these fig leaves. Think of them improvising a needle to sew these fig leaves together, a temporary solution, but in the coats of skin which God provided for them, they were clothed impeccably to withstand the blast of winter and whatever exigencies their life might throw up or they might encounter after they were expelled from the garden. But they were expelled wearing the coats of skin. I suppose, in principle, these coats of skin would never be discarded, and would never lose their effectiveness; they would always give warmth. That is what redemption gives the believer. It gives you assurance, that inner feeling of warmth, that the cold that lies in this world’s systems can never affect. Are you aware of that? I do not think that they would ever discard the coats of skin; what they represent is a lifelong remedy enduring for eternity itself. The Lord Jesus in virtue of His work, in virtue of the shedding of His blood, “has entered in once for all into the holy of holies, having found an eternal redemption”, Heb.9:12. Oh, the efficacy of the work of Jesus – an eternal redemption! Could anyone in this world ever offer you something, the efficacy of which could endure not only for time but for the whole of eternity? God offers you that in the glad tidings – what these coats of skin speak of. How blessed that is.
And what does it mean? How was it accomplished? There was another question asked and it was by the blessed Sin-bearer Himself: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matt.27:46. Before these coats of skin could, by application, be provided, before the work of redemption could be accomplished in all its blessedness, the Lord Jesus had to suffer and He had to die. Before He died, He had to bear the wrath and judgment of a righteous, sin-hating God and He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”. Was it possible that He, who in His life down here had served God in perfection in such a blessed way, should have to take these words on His lips, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”. The answer is in the verse in the psalm; “And thou art holy, thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel”, Ps.22:3. Sin was introduced into this world; “even as by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death; and thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”, Rom.5:12. All have sinned without exception “and come short of the glory of God”, Rom.3:23. Because of the misdemeanour of one man, death passed upon all in consequence of the effects of sin because “the wages of sin is death”, Rom.6:23. Solemn fact!
The righteousness of God, the holiness of God, the majesty of His throne had been attacked and assailed by the intrusion of sin, but the work of righteousness which Jesus accomplished on the cross glorified God. In His work, in all He did to resolve the whole question of sin and sins, in His dying, Jesus glorified God. The glory and majesty of God were upheld in His work, but in doing so, He was made sin for us. As God made these coats of skin for Adam and Eve, He surely would be thinking of a time when His own Son would come to die. How solemn a matter that was to be. God made coats of skin for Adam and Eve but He would make His own Son sin, “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us”, 2 Cor.5:21. The Lord Jesus was “made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him”. Does that affect you? The One who was sinless, that spotless Lamb of God, the holy Sufferer, was made sin for you and for me. Our sins were laid upon Him. God, who knew every one of our sins, laid them on Jesus. It says, “Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all” (Isa.53:6); that is, the sins of everyone who puts their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. They were actually laid upon Jesus and He bore them. Where? – “in his body on the tree”, 1 Pet.2:24. In that precious body, our sins were borne, a body that was sin apart, that could never be corrupted: “neither wilt thou allow thy Holy One to see corruption”, Ps.16:10. In that precious body of Jesus, my sins were borne. Can you say it?
Not only did Jesus die but His precious blood was shed as a perfect remedy for sin. That blood is capable of cleansing the vilest, crimson-tainted sins: the “blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”, 1 John 1:7. Then He went into the grave; all that pertained to man after the flesh having been terminated and He was raised in a new condition of flesh and bone. God is glorified by virtue of all that Jesus has done. Now He lives, ascended at God’s right hand, but still a precious Saviour.
Can you answer that question; “What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?”. The first question in Genesis was an individual one, “Where art thou?”, not ‘where are ye’. These questions are peculiarly individual. Everyone will have to give an account of himself or herself by and by, and this is another one that Pilate himself poses; “What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?”. For us, it is not so much what you can do with Him, but can you do without Him? We sang in our hymn:
‘Why will you do without Him?
The word of God is true:
The world to doom is passing,
And you are passing too.’ (Hymn 220).
That is the awful reality for the sinner, for the unbeliever – that this world’s day will soon be over. Then what will await those who are Christ’s rejectors or who have not had a personal transaction with the blessed Saviour, is judgment. It says of such, “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom.6.23), and “it is the portion of men once to die, and after this judgment”, Heb.9:27. For the believer, it will be entirely different. When the Lord comes or when the believer dies, an eternity of bliss will begin into which sin or darkness or sorrow or distress can never intrude. What a contrast to judgment and being consigned to the lake of fire! If any name is not found written in the book of life, that will be the terrible consequence, but then God in His grace is appealing to each of us today.
First of all; “Where art thou?”. Can you give an answer to that? There is no hiding place. Then, “What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?”. Why will you do without Him? Everyone who knows Him will say that you cannot do without Jesus, that He satisfies every longing of the heart, fills your heart with peace and joy and satisfaction. Glorious Saviour, glorious Redeemer! We await His coming to take us to be with Himself for ever into the unclouded bliss of eternity. We will enjoy His holy presence, and what is the basis of it all? His precious blood which, as we had in the reading, was “poured out for you”, Luke 22:20. For you – that is a wonderful thing – for you and for me! Jesus wants you to be included in the ‘you’, to believe in faith that His blood was poured out for you. When the soldier pierced His side, “immediately there came out blood and water”, John 19:34. It was heaven’s delight to provide the eternal remedy for the guilty sinner, and that “immediately”. The blood is as available now as it has ever been; as efficacious, as blessed, as curative as when first it was shed all those years ago at Calvary.
May our hearts be freshly enthused by the glory of God’s grace as extended to us in the glad tidings during this long day of grace. Paul says in Ephesians 2, “ye are saved by grace” (v.5); that is the grace which has reached us. Mercy found us, grace set us up and equipped us for acceptance into the divine presence. Then the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit has been given too. There was a question asked in the Acts, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed?”, Acts 19:2. That is another question for each of us. The Holy Spirit is available to the believer; ask for the Holy Spirit. How gracious God is, how benevolent God is, how generous He is. He has given all these glorious things, glad tidings of good things! That is what the glad tidings involve.
May we further enjoy them, for His name’s sake.
Preaching of the gospel, Glasgow
3 July 2022
Jim T Brown (Edinburgh)