God Is Not On Trial, You Are

Man has a wicked inclination to find fault with God and to demand that God give him an answer to all his questions. But when God begins to speak to someone, one thing that becomes a reality is that man suddenly realizes that God is not the one that is on trial, he is.

You see what happened to Adam? He and Eve are no longer viewing God as though God is the One to be studied and examined by them. Suddenly, something’s happened. Adam – he’s the one. And you show me a man or woman who’s moving toward becoming a Christian, I’ll show you a man or woman in whom a reversal like this takes place. Something happens. Suddenly, there’s an awareness. Suddenly, there’s a consciousness that we are being looked at. God is looking at us. God sees through us. God knows us. God is calling us out. “Come out! Come out!” Into the open. Expose yourself. You’re hiding back there in the trees. Come on out. And we’re the ones being called out. Where are we? “Where are you, Adam?” Where are you? This comes home.

See, this isn’t just some relic from Genesis 3 – musty and dry and dusty. This is God speaking to every one of us. And it happens today. And God talks. Where are you? Where are you? Adam, come out into the open. Have you realized? Have you realized this? Among all the opinions and all the banter in all the theories and all the talk, have you ever come to the point where you recognize that in this life you are the one on trial? God is not on trial.

When people make those kinds of flippant statements about God, they’re speaking far more about themselves than they’re ever saying about God. We are the ones on trial. And I’ll guarantee you, on judgment day, there’s no longer a bantering about opinions, what you believed about election. It’s “Adam, where are you?” Where are you at? What have you done? Man rises up and says: “My great brain is going to figure God out.” “God, You’re on trial here and I’m going to figure You out, and You better answer to me.” Man, oh, man talks like that all the time. “Well, there’s genocide in the Bible. God, You better explain Yourself.” Have you ever heard people talk like that? “There’s election in the Bible. We don’t like that. God, You better answer for that. You choosing who You want. Who do You think You are?” That’s the way man talks. You know that. Sin. How did sin come into the world if God is sovereign, but God is not the author of it? You see, people want to put God on trial. “Well, God, You better answer for that because I can’t figure it out. And I’ve applied my brain to it and it seems like it’s an inconsistency and if my brain thinks it’s an inconsistency, then it is, and so You better explain Yourself.” And that’s how man is. “God, I want an answer as to why children get terrible diseases.” “You need to answer for that tsumani (or that earthquake or that hurricane or that tornado). But you know what happens when God comes to a soul and He speaks? Adam, Eve, where are you? Suddenly… we thought God was the one being dissected and analyzed. We thought with our great brains we were going to examine the Scriptures and we were going to examine God and we were going to figure it all out, but then God’s voice comes to us and we recognize – I just had this picture in my mind. Sometimes we think we’re spectators in the stands. We’re kind of lost in the crowd. We’re watching the game. We applaud or we boo. We’re the judges. But it’s almost like the referee just spins around and he throws his finger up into the crowd and he says, “You.” You’re no longer a spectator. You are the one on trial. And you can’t just sit there in the crowd like a spectator because you have to do with God. Where are you? God’s not asking us about our opinions. He’s interested in us. Adam, where are you? I’m speaking to you. Adam, where are you? This excerpt is from the full sermon: Where is Adam?