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

 Adam and Eve had sinned. They had eaten of the forbidden fruit, and the immediate result of sin was that, "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," GEN 3:8.

In our human reasoning we might ask why Adam would not have gone crying through the garden-- "Lord where art thou?" Adam should have fallen before the Lord crying out, "I have sinned. Oh, Lord, forgive me; I have sinned!" Adam should have confessed God's justice, and pleaded for mercy, but Adam fled from God.

One would have expected to hear Adam cry out like Job, "Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him," JOB 23:3-9.

Even though Adam fled from the Lord, the Lord called unto Adam, "Where art thou?" In our fall in Adam, we would never return unto the Lord. The first cry is the voice of the Holy Spirit, through grace--"Sinner, where art thou?" A lost sheep will never return to the fold unless sought out by The Great Shepherd.

We are taught this by David where he cried unto the Lord, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments," PSA 119:176. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way," ISA 53:6. Man can commit iniquity, but it takes grace to know it is iniquity, or to feel the guilt of it.

Sin poisons the conscience putting it painlessly to sleep, as drugs do the mind. Sinners sleep painlessly into death as a man freezing to death, until God arouses the conscience saying, "Adam, where art thou?" "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light," EPH 5:14. It is not until God calls, "Sinner, where art thou," that we feel pain from sin.

The prodigal son felt no pain from his sin until he came to himself. "And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!" LUK 15:17. As with the prodigal son, "the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance," ROM 2:4. The goodness of God convinces of sin, 2 SA 12:7-10; 13.

The Lord is calling to you saying, "Sinner, where art thou?" I have so often spared you when you were in danger, and in sickness, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me," REV 3:20.

Today, is the Lord saying to you, "Sinner, where art thou?" I have given you a godly mother who cared for you, and prayed for you. I gave you a God-fearing father who has so earnestly prayed for your conversion. Does not this "goodness of God" lead thee to repentance, which is a change of mind? Amen.