Whare Art Thou — Peter Orasuk

Genesis chapter 3, and we'll look at verse 9,. Genesis chapter 3, verse 9,. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, or saying unto him, Where art thou? And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

Verse 13,. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Now just for a few more passages, turn with me please to the gospel of Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew chapter 7, verse 13,. Enter ye in, or you all enter in, out the straight gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate, narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Luke's gospel please, and chapter 16, Luke chapter 16, and in verse 23,. And in hell he left off his eyes being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, or Lazarus being in his bosom.

In particular, in hell he left off his eyes being in torment. And a final reading in 1 Peter 2 and 24. 1 Peter 2 and verse 24,. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live, or should thereby live, unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed.

The Two Questions God Asked in Eden

Now that is all we're going to read. No apologies for the amount we read. I think it's always good to read scripture. Let me just simply put it this way. I want to look this evening, a man and a woman.

The first two questions. By God. The first question is asked to the man, and it is asked to the man as the federal head. And the question is simply this. Where art thou? Or in today's English, where are you?

Where are you? The second question, there are four questions there, is asked to the woman. And it is this. What is this? Very interesting because it's a totally different term than in Genesis 4 where Cain is asked, What hast thou done?

Here it is, what is this? And it is an item word. What is this that thou hast done? So I want to look at God's questions. Two questions that God commenced his dealings with man, with. And I want to look at them in four ways.

I want to look at them first of all when it comes to the corridors of time. We're going to find that these questions aren't just relevant to the very first man and the very first woman. They will move through the corridors of time, and they are relevant to every individual that has ever lived in this world.

Secondly, I want to take it and take it very gravely to the caverns of the damned. In Luke chapter 16 we have an individual lift up their eyes in hell. And I want to look at those two questions again.

Then God helping me, I would like to look at the cross of Christ and take these two questions and relate them to the experience of the cross. And finally I would like to just simply use them to address this congregation in the tent tonight.

The congregation that is before me. The two questions that are this, Where art thou? What is this that thou hast done? You know the first thing a person should ask sensibly is this, Why would a God who knows everything, and that's the principle of omniscience, that means all-knowing, ever have to ask a question?

Why would he ask a question? I think really we learn that simply in our education systems. For example, the teacher that teaches, what is the earliest form in school? P1 or something like that, I'm not sure what they call it here.

At home it is grade 1. And the teacher who teaches grade 1 turns around and asks the children, What is 2 and 2? She doesn't ask the question because she doesn't know the answer. She knows the answer. That's what qualifies her to ask the question.

She is asking the question for the benefit, for the education, for the informing of the individual to whom the question is asked. That is the principle for God's questions in the Bible. And we'll find that these first two questions seem to represent the dealings of God with humanity through the corridors of time.

The Two Roads of Humanity

You know, when it comes to the truth of these questions, let me say this. The Lord Jesus carefully taught, these are the words of the Christ. He taught in Matthew 7, verse 13, when he said this, This chart we have over here, he simply taught this truth.

There are only two roads. Two roads. There is a broad road that we are all on by nature. And there is a narrow road that a person enters into or onto the moment they trust Christ. That's what he meant when he said, I am the door.

By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. And the Lord Jesus simply broke down humanity into two categories. Those that were traveling a broad road to destruction. And those who had trusted him and were on a narrow road that irreversibly lent to heaven and blessing.

And you'll find today that individuals are so offended by being confronted with this truth, they've even made up a middle road. A purgatorial place where individuals are not on one road and they're not on the other.

They're somewhere in between. A kind of a state of limbo. There is no other road. There is just two roads. There are just two places. There are just two kinds of people. Those that are saved and those that are lost.

God doesn't have all the religious fractions that this world does. God doesn't look at individuals relative to culture and background. His dealings with the nation of Israel are very distinct. But when it comes to the salvation of mankind, God brings it down to the simplest terminology.

He says this, Where are you? Which road are you on tonight? Which road? The amazing thing is I have met people that turn around and they tell me this, Well, I know I'm not going to heaven, so I guess I'm on the road to hell.

And they say it just like they'd say, Well, tomorrow is Tuesday. And you know something? They don't believe that at all. They really don't believe it. They remind me of a man I read about one time. I'm not big on magazines, but this particular magazine caught my eye.

It was the experiences of G .I .s in the Second World War. The most traumatic experiences. It related in one of them. I've forgotten all the others. But one of them stayed in my mind. Of a soldier. An American soldier who had somehow become separated from his now my military terminology is not good, please forgive me, from his division or his platoon, whatever it is.

The Soldier in the Minefield

And in a war-torn country as France was, he found himself walking through what he described as a utopian field. He said there wasn't the smell of cordite. There were no craters. There wasn't the charring and the blackening of the landscape.

He said there were birds singing in the hedges. The grass was growing. The grains seemed to be getting gold. To the point it's almost like he found a little piece of utopia in the midst of a war-torn land.

He got so disenchanted or so affected by it that he literally put his gun on his shoulder and started walking along and humming and whistling to himself. Until all of a sudden a voice, an Allied voice cried this out.

Stop! Don't move! Don't move! The first thing he said was what? What's the matter? What's the problem? The voice then said this. You are standing in the middle of a minefield. Don't move! Do I have to tell you that carefree attitude was gone?

Do I have to tell you the individual that was kind of taking a scroll and the humming and the whistling stopped? And there was one very distraught man. You know what he said? Get me out of here! Get me out of here!

Finally using individuals they call sappers that use an instrument for the uncovering of limpid mines. They came and searched the area and they found had he kept the path he was following and it was easy to see by the grass that had been trampled down behind him.

Had he stayed on that course he would either have stepped on or come close enough to a limpid mine that was big enough to destroy a tank. It would have blown him to pieces. You know what he said? He said I still wake up in the middle of the night in a sweat thinking to myself where I was and I didn't realize it.

I didn't realize it. And I am so thankful for the voice that stopped me. I am speaking to people who I thank God that are saved but there are others who are not. And you don't realize tonight that you're on a broad road leading to destruction.

And God comes in and He simply addresses individuals like this. He says where are you? Where art thou? In this meeting tonight let's bring it right down to this. Right now. In light of the truth there are just two roads.

One that men are on and women are on by nature. A broad road that leads to destruction. And a narrow road that a person is entered on to the moment they trust in Christ. Which road are you on? Which road?

The Personal Question of Salvation

Don't say I hope. That's not good enough. You wouldn't go to a bus stop hoping you had enough to get on the bus. You'd make sure you had what it took to get on that bus to go where you wanted to go. So I hope I've got the right.

That's no good. Which road? And God says where are you? You know I preach with an individual a good friend of mine. His name is Murray McCandless and I remember one time there was a lady coming to meetings and she got rather offended when Murray said to her as she came in he says well ma 'am are you saved or are you lost?

There's a good one for you. Are you saved or are you lost? She turned around and she said I find that a very personal and impertinent question Mr. McCandless. He kind of smiled and he said yeah it is isn't it?

A very personal question. Well he said and Murray's not one to give up he turned around and he said this well suppose in this meeting tonight there were seats and on the back of some of the seats that had this saved going to heaven and on the back of other seats that had lost on the road to hell where would you sit?

Where would you sit? Hold on a minute let's just take that one. Saved? Going to heaven. Lost? Going to hell. There's only the two. Where would you sit? You know what she said? She just turned around she looked at him and she said Sir I would stand.

I would stand. You know what she was really saying is you're not going to put me into a spot I am not going to answer that question because I don't want to answer that question. There are people that come to gospel meetings and they will sit and listen to the gospel but when the gospel starts to get near them and it starts to confront them with the truth of their need and the reality of how they stand before God and brings the issue down of heaven and hell there are some thank God and they capitulate they surrender to it they just simply say this I'm on the wrong road but I need to get on the right road.

That's sane thinking but there are others and they are like this you know they say nobody's going to make me answer that I'm not going to face it and I won't answer God's questions. The second question is this and what is this that thou hast done?

Sin, Judgment, and the Need for Forgiveness

You know I read an article one time and it was this it said nine sins committed in the garden of Eden. That was eight too many eight too many. There was only one there was only one the term this simply means what is this one thing that thou hast done?

The only thing they were forbidden to do was not act independently. There's nothing about that not the man not the out of place or the woman acting without him. There's nothing at that point that God has said about that.

All of God said is the day that you eat thereof you shall die. That was the sin they were guilty of more than that when it came to God saying what has thou done or this that thou hast done both of them simply said this I did eat and that's all God required of them didn't have to say any more.

They weren't guilty of any more. Hold on a minute. One sin of disobedience. One sin took those individuals out of that utopian garden placed them in the world. And apart from the intervention of God enclosing them and delivering them would have caused them to be shut away from God's presence forever and suffer the judgment of God for one sin.

You know something I'll tell you this in this world sin may be people may have a different view on sin. But only heaven has only one view on sin. And there won't be one sin in heaven not one. And there won't be one unforgiven individual in heaven not one.

And the forgiveness of sins takes place here and now in this world. It's not something you experience after you die. And it's not something you do gradually. It's kind of a work through a procedure. It takes place the moment you trust Christ through Him the remission of sins is preached.

The forgiveness of sins. And so those first two questions and they're not only with the first man and the first woman they relate to people in this meeting tonight in light of a heaven to be gained and a hell to be shunned.

Where are you? When it comes to your sin you got more than one of this. There's more than one. One sin would keep you out of heaven. One sin would shut you in hell under the judgment of God forever. One sin.

And what is this that thou hast done? I want to just carefully take this other portion. Can I just follow these two questions? Can I go to the experience of a man in Luke chapter 16 and be very very careful and to some degree compassionate.

The Reality of Hell in Luke 16

There is an individual there who will never come out of those circumstances. I don't want to sound hard. A man that died in his sin and it says this in hell. These are the two most hopeless words in the Bible.

Hopeless in hell in you say I don't believe in a real hell. You will. The second after you're there I know a girl. Her name was Wendy Jones. She is now called Wendy Rayner. She's a very good friend of mine.

I have asked her permission to tell you what I'm going to tell you. Wendy had come to one of the meetings myself and Mr. McCandless had in her hometown of Sussex and she just came out enough to keep her parents pleased.

She said that she would say she knew she wasn't. So did everybody else for that matter. But I don't know who she was fooling. She sure wasn't fooling anybody. And she knew herself. She wasn't. She came to those meetings just enough to kind of keep the preachers off her back and you'd be surprised the people would do that.

And more than that she came and she would be very friendly not only leave in the meetings. As soon as the meetings were over for the very first time she did two things. She went to her first rock concert.

She was at that time 17 years old. Went to a rock concert with some friends. They rented a motel where they would stay afterwards two rooms in a motel. There would be a group of six or eight of them. The other thing she did was for the first time she took a drug called LSD a hallucinogenic mind altering drug often known as acid while the others began to go into an induced euphoria because of the drugs they'd taken.

Wendy Jones had a far different experience. She began to imagine at first then to hallucinate that she was in hell. Her brother was actually called to the place by some of the kids before they left. They couldn't stand her screams.

She kept on screaming. I'm really in hell. It's really happened to me and I'll never get out and it's so dark and I'm in hell and I'm in hell and I'll never get out. She kept saying it over and over and over again.

The other kids for want of a better term freaked out and they just all left. Her brother came to help her he said. And he's not safe to this day. Randy what a soul can take as far as the bombardment of experience without turning to Christ.

He sat and saw his sister sitting there writhing in agony both physical mental spiritual. And she just kept crying over and over again. It's so dark and I'm lost wherever I'm in hell. I've lost my soul.

I'm in hell. Finally got her to a got her to a hospital where they got some valium that somehow induced a bringing down and it took them about 45 minutes before they had it to the point that she was calmed down.

She was that upset. Finally when they got to the point she was no longer experiencing the hallucination. You know what she did? She went to a man's home that she had never gone to before. His name was Mr. Bill Gresh.

He was a Christian in the Sussex Assembly and she always despised him because he always would talk to her and try to talk to her about her soul. And Wendy as soon as she got out of that place said to her brother I've got somewhere I've got to go right away Randy.

Randy drove her up to the door of Bill Gresh's office and she went in and she said here's what she said. Mr. Gresh please tell me how to get saved. I don't want to go to hell. If a hallucination about hell is so terrible so terrible what must it be to be in hell where there's no hope.

There's no comfort there's no light there's no love. There's just darkness prevailing darkness. And the fury and the wrath of a sin hating God and for that soul to have slipped from time. People just like you who are in this meeting tonight without Christ it isn't always somebody else that will die in their sins.

It could be you young lad. It could be you young girl. It could be you older individual in this meeting that will leave time even tonight and lift up your eyes in hell and to be in that terrible place in that terrible judgment.

And all of a sudden those two questions. They're coming. Where art thou. I'm not going to hell. I'm not on my way to hell. I'm not in peril of hell. Fire. I'm in hell. It's really happened to me. I've missed it forever.

I'm in hell. Where art thou. Now you'll answer the questions. Now there's no evading it. There's no more running away in hell. And what is this that thou hast done. And you won't be able to turn around and say this.

Well it was a wife's fault. It was a preacher's fault. It was an unfaithful minister's fault. It was a dark religious system's fault. You'll have to say this. I've lost my soul and I'm lost forever. God's questions will be answered either in time to blessing or in eternity to the judgment of God forever.

Christ on the Cross at Calvary

But let me just reverently for a moment take us to the place called Calvary. Let me move to a hill outside that city three crosses standing side by side. Oh what a sight sublime. Let me draw near to that middle cross.

And let me just ask this question to the man on the middle cross who is son of God. Not a son of God. Son of God the son of God. Where art thou? Not on a throne. Not in the midst of adoring angels. Not heralded by those who are victorious as he's brought and triumphant to Jerusalem but nailed to a cruel old cross outside the city gates off the place called Golgotha the place of a skull.

Where art thou? On the cross at Calvary dying for sinners. Thank God. Thank God for the answer to that question that Christ ever went to that cross. And if I be lifted up from the earth I'll draw all men unto me.

Let me take this other question. And what is this? That thou has done. Listen to these words. Who has own self. You know what that means? In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 you have the expression the Lord himself shall come.

That means he will come not unheralded not alone. But his presence will be there. It's like the Queen of England walking down the street. If she says she's coming to Manchester. I know you wouldn't expect her to be walking all by herself down the street.

She would come with attendants. That's what it means in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 the Lord himself. But when you come to 1 Peter 2 and 24 four words that tell you the same thing. Who his own self. That means all alone by himself.

Who his own self bear our sin and his own body in the tree. You know something. And I I am not presumptuous. I am just depending on the word of God to be able to say this. He bear my sins my sins on that cross at Calvary and thereby became my savior.

What is this that thou hast done? We sometimes sing that hymn. Oh blessed Lord. What hast thou done? How vast a ransom paid God's only well beloved son upon the altar laid. God gave his son for me. Christ died for my sins according to the scriptures.

The Gospel Appeal and Final Decision

Where art thou? Little gospel tent in a park in Lancashire outside of Manchester or inside wherever we are named. Sure. And in this tent you could hear better preachers. You could hear better. And I would to God we could take it up and have more ability.

And I really do. But you couldn't hear a better message. You couldn't hear a better message. And I simply want to say this. Here you are tonight singing in a gospel meeting. It is no accident that you're here.

It is no accident that you're here. But at the end of it all like you've heard of that question. What will I do then with Jesus which is called Christ as you leave this meeting those of you who have not already trusted Christ you will do one of two things.

You'll leave this meeting without him not receive him as your own savior. Or you'll trust him accept the fact that he died for you at Calvary. And that by virtue of his death your sins are forgiven and be saved on the spot where you stand.

And what is this that thou hast done. What will you do. What will you do then with Jesus which is called the Christ Our Father. We thank Thee for Thy Son the Lord Jesus and pray Thy blessing upon Thy Word.

Prayer for the Salvation of Souls

We pray for every soul in this meeting but especially those without Christ that whatever they're depending on if it is not the finished work in the person of Christ that Thou would snatch from them even what they seem to have and bring them to faith in Thy Son and enable them Father for the first time to lift up their heads and thank Thee for giving Thy Son.

O God we look to Thee to save precious souls. God's delight is in the salvation of the souls of man. And let us find no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Let it please Thee Lord let heaven be stirred tonight for a soul being reached even in this tent as we conclude this meeting in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.