Genesis 3:9

And the Lord God called unto Adam,....

IT will be interesting to the members of this Church to know that it was under a sermon delivered by Mr. William Wallin from this very text, that my honored and venerable predecessor, Dr. Gill, was converted to a knowledge of the Truth of God as it is in Jesus. I looked with some degree of curiosity to his interpretation of this passage. I had half hoped to find there some allusion to his own conversion, but I did not, although I was edified by his clear and methodical comment upon it, to which I am under obligations for suggesting the present discourse. May I hope that, as this text has been the means in the hands of God of conferring upon the Church of Christ a man who valiantly defended the Truth of God, and was the means of expounding the Doctrine of Grace with great clearness, that there may be here present today someone at least who like John Gill may hear the Word with power, and may receive it in its quickening influence into his soul! No, let us pray that not one alone, but that many may hear the enquiry of God as it rings through the multitude, and while it reaches the ear, may it reach the heart, too, and may some be brought before God in answer to the question, "Where are you?" and receive the assurance of pardon, and go on their way in peace! It is not necessary that I should, in expounding this text, enter at all into the circumstances which led to the enquiry. Man had sinned against God. Mark the alienation of heart which sin causes in the sinner. Adam ought to have sought out his Maker. He should have gone through the garden crying for his God, "My God, my God, I have sinned against You! Where are You? Low at Your feet Your creature falls and asks mercy at Your hands.

But if He came to our first parents, in what way would He come? Surely Adam and Eve must have feared that He would be accompanied by the angels of vengeance to destroy them straight away, or, at any rate, to bind them in chains and fetters forever. So they questioned among themselves, "Will He come and if He does, will His coming involve the total destruction of the human race?"

IT will be interesting to the members of this Church to know that it was under a sermon delivered by Mr. William Wallin from this very text, that my honored and venerable predecessor, Dr. Gill, was converted to a knowledge of the Truth of God as it is in Jesus. I looked with some degree of curiosity to his interpretation of this passage.

But if He came to our first parents, in what way would He come? Surely Adam and Eve must have feared that He would be accompanied by the angels of vengeance to destroy them straight away, or, at any rate, to bind them in chains and fetters forever. So they questioned among themselves, "Will He come and if He does, will His coming involve the total destruction of the human race?" Their hearts must have been sorely perplexed within them while they were waiting to see what God would do to them as a punishment for the great sin they had committed. I believe they thought that He would come to them. From their past experience they knew so much of His graciousness that they felt sure that He would come. Yet they also understood so much of His holy anger against sin that they must have been afraid of His coming—so they went and hid themselves among the trees of the garden although every tree must have upbraided them for their disobedience, for everyone of the trees would seem to say, "Why do you come here? You have eaten of the fruit of the tree of which you were forbidden to partake. You have broken your Maker's command and His sentence of death has already gone out against you. When He comes, He will certainly come to deal with you in judgment according to His faithful word—and when He does, what will become of you?" Every leaf, as it rustled, must have startled and alarmed them. The breath of the evening breeze, as it passed through the garden, must have filled them with fear and dread as to the doom awaiting them. Now, "in the cool of the day," or, as the Hebrew has it, "in the wind of the evening," when the evening breeze was blowing through the garden, God came. It is difficult for us to even imagine how He revealed Himself to our first parents. I suppose He condescended to take upon Himself some visible form.