Good morning. How are y'all doing today? Awesome. We're here.
You know, sometimes that is the prayer, right? God, just let me
get there. And I amen when He does. So, we like to start our
Sunday services by saying welcome to anybody that is here
in our sanctuary for the first time, if you're joining us for
the first time, awesome. Or if you're joining us online for the
first time, we want to say welcome. We're so glad you guys
are here to worship with us today. I am Pastor Nathan, and
this morning we're going to be learning about walking with God
in the midst of a godless culture. That doesn't apply to
us today, does it? Yeah. You know, as we've been studying
through Genesis, we just finished last time our look at
Genesis 4, which was a record of human degeneration. That
chapter started first with Cain's murder of his brother
Abel. And we saw in that story how even in the midst of that
sin, God, I believe, gave an opportunity for Cain to repent.
But unfortunately, Cain just stood firm in his rebellion,
lied to God about his part in it. And so, God ended up cursing
Cain. And that curse carried down through his line because
then we looked at the account of growing degeneration amongst
mankind in Cain's descendants, ultimately capping with his
descendant, Lamech, and his kids, Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal
Cain, who were the fathers of agribusiness and the arts and
technology. And we looked at that story where Lamech ends up
giving us this thing called the sword song, where he boasts
about his extreme violence, where he boasts about killing a
young man because that man just wounded him slightly. And
really, it was a picture of the degradation of morality in
Cain's line. That Lamech would boast that his violence was much
more than his famous ancestor, Cain. But even in the midst of
that, we saw that God allowed advances in civilization as
Lamech's three sons, I said, were the father of agribusiness
and arts and technology. They pushed the envelope of the
development of civilization, even though they were a sinful
line. And, you know, it just shows us a picture that despite
the advances of civilization, despite the things we
discovered, despite all of it, it has nothing to do with our
morality, that our mortal soul is one that is born into sin.
We are born with the nature of sin. And mankind, with his own
discoveries and advances, is never going to solve the problem
of his sinful and fallen heart. And that's simply just true
through all ages, that no matter what mankind's inventor comes
up with, it does not change the moral issue of the heart. And
instead, the advances of mankind are often used to further pursue
sin and debauchery. And so it was a very bleak picture of the
development of mankind there, but it's not without hope.
Because at the very end of chapter four, we saw that the
contrast to the degrading line of Cain and the great sin and
violence that his line was known for came the line of Seth. And
the line of Seth was a line of people who recognized their need
for God, who recognized and understood that there is ultimate
salvation in no one and nothing else, that it was God and God
alone who is the important one. And so that line, the Bible
tells us, began to be known for calling upon the name of the
Lord. Now chapter five is then going to give us the genealogy
of Seth. Now it is a list of names. And some people go, how
interesting can that be? I promise you it's very interesting
as we get to it, and I'll show you that later. But the line of
Seth is a line that ultimately ends up with Moses and
ultimately ends up with Jesus Christ, God himself, being born
in the flesh. Now here in Genesis five, it's going to take
us from Adam all the way up to Noah, who is the last patriarch
before the great flood that wiped out all of humanity except
for Noah and his family. And so Seth's line as we look at it
today, it's very, very different than the line of Cain. See in
Cain's genealogy, it's just the names. There's no mention of how
long they lived. There's no mention of when their first born
was born. There's none of the details like that that are
included in Seth's line. And I believe because Cain's line was
not meant to be eternally remembered in any way but the
bad way, that it was the cursed line. It was the line of the
curse down from Cain, and it was ultimately the line that was
wiped out in the flood. But in Seth's genealogy, we see the
ages of each patriarch at the time of the birth of their first
born. We see the number of years they lived after that birth. We
see the total number of years they lived upon the earth. And
what we see in contrast to Lamech in Cain's line is what
walking with God looks like in a man named Enoch. But first,
we're going to praise God and worship Him. Because as God's
people made in the image of God, who know God, who've received
salvation in God, we're so thankful. We just want to praise
Him, right? He is almighty. He is everything. And despite our
failures and despite our sins and mistakes, God's promises
stand, don't they? Amen. Let's pray. Father, we love you so
much. We thank you, God, that today, Lord, we get to celebrate
communion as the body of Christ, Lord. To remember what you did
for us. How, Lord, you came and you died on the cross. Your body
was given to suffer the full wrath of God for us, and then
your blood was shed, establishing a new covenant of
faith. That we would be able to walk with you. Because it's not
based upon our strength and our effort, but it's based upon your
spirit and your power. So God, as we look at Genesis 5 and we
look at the line of Seth, Lord, may we be encouraged, God, that
Lord, despite what mankind does, evilly, if that's even a real
word, Lord, but God, that you would work through and still
have your promises come to fruition, God, as we see in
Seth's line that your promise and your blessing on mankind was
carried through. And Lord, may we be encouraged to know that we
can walk with you, God, despite the sin in our flesh, despite the
challenges of our culture, that God, we are able to walk with
you. Because you are God. You are who you say you are, and
therefore everything you say is true and faithful. Your promises
are true and faithful, Lord. And as your people, we trust in
nothing else but you for everything. We love you. We
praise you, God. It's in the name of Jesus Christ we pray.
Amen.
All right, guys, we are in Genesis chapter 5 this morning,
and we're going to be covering the entire chapter. But in the
first couple verses of this chapter where we're introduced to
the Sethite genealogy, it takes us all the way back to Adam. But
these first two verses start out by reminding us about a very,
very important aspect of the creation of mankind,
specifically that we are all made in the image of God or the
likeness of God. And so read with me in verse 1. It says,
This is the document containing the family records of Adam. On
the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.
He created them male and female. When they were created, he
blessed them and called them mankind. So these opening verses
to this genealogy are meant to remind the readers, the original
readers, and us today that the fall of mankind didn't destroy
the image of God that we were created in, right? Oftentimes,
when we stumble into sin, we go, Oh, I'm a terrible Christian,
and I can't be a Christian. And of course, the devil is right
there, right? Shame on you. You call yourself a Christian. How
dare you? You don't represent God. And that's a lie from the
devil, right? We don't want to sin, but when we do, it doesn't
destroy the image of God that we were created in. And so we're
being reminded here of that very thing. It takes us all the way
back to the beginning in Genesis chapter 1 verse 27, where it
says, He created man in his own image. He created him in the
image of God. He created them male and female. And so the
reminder of these opening two verses in this chapter is
reminding us that not only are we the image bearers of God, but
because we are the image bearers of God, we have an incredible
potential, and we have an incredible calling. As image
bearers of God, we have the capability as humans to hear
God's word, to understand God's word, and to apply God's word.
That is a very, very high privilege that we have. Nothing
else in all of creation except angels can hear God's word,
understand God's word, and then live according to God's word.
The animal kingdom can hear it maybe, but doesn't understand
the teachings and the morality of it. Plants don't. Nothing
else in God's creation has this privilege that we have because
we are made in the image of God. Now, also as image bearers of
God, we were commissioned to rule over the earth on behalf of
God. And as image bearers, what that meant is that we as
humanity, we as people, God's special creation, we have the
possibility of having an intimate relationship with our
Creator, that we would know Him and that He would know us. It is
a very special and beautiful thing. And so when we're
reminded that the image of God was not destroyed by Adam and
Eve's sin in the garden, that the image of God was not
destroyed by the fall, we're also reminded here that neither
was the blessing that God pronounced upon humanity. In
these verses, it tells us when they were created, He blessed
them. We can't forget that we are blessed by God. Now, in this
genealogy as we're about to go through it, this phrase, this
reminder that He blessed them was meant to bring us back to
again the creation and really the context of the blessing. You
see in Genesis chapter 1 verse 28, it says God blessed them and
then He said to them, start your career and become a CEO. Climb
the corporate ladder. Have the biggest house, the nicest car.
Right? Does it say any of that? No, it says what was the
blessing that God laid on humanity? It was be fruitful.
Multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule the fish of the
sea and the birds of the sky and every creature that crawls on
the earth. Humans do a lot of things. We do a lot of things.
We have a lot of goals and a lot of purposes, but really the
original image of what mankind was blessed to do was as
God's creation, to bring image bearers of God to come together
as one flesh, procreate, creating more image bearers of
God and then raising them to know God and to worship Him and
to praise Him. Then the next generation would do the same
thing and the same thing. On and on as God's creation, His
special creation, mankind covered the entire earth, ruled
over it on behalf of Him and that was the intent. That is the
high calling that God has placed on man. It's one of the
reasons, incidentally, I believe Satan has worked so hard,
especially in our modern culture, to diminish parenthood
and to diminish motherhood and to, no, don't have kids and no,
no, that's going to ruin your life and kids are going to mess
you up and it was really the pinnacle of God's blessing. Now
this doesn't mean having a career is bad or, you know,
having a nice car is bad. None of that's bad. Those are good
things, but to diminish what God blessed us specifically to
do and to be, to raise up people who know and love and
worship God, it shouldn't be diminished. And so here in these
verse two verses, we're reminded, we're reminded of what
God had commissioned mankind to do and the genealogy of Genesis
five shows us that they did exactly that. The Sethite Lydon
did exactly that. It also suggests that they did it quite
well, right? Massive multiplication as we'll look at
and what we see here in these verses is that as each
generation birthed a son, that's what this generosity
tells us, this person birthed this person and then it also
says, and other sons and daughters, right? That phrase
follows each patriarch through this genealogy and so what
we're seeing here is that the patriarchs in Seth's line are
living, actively living out God's blessing upon their lives,
multiplying, spreading the image of God throughout humanity
and being people who called on the name of the Lord. See,
that's the difference from Cain's line in chapter four.
Chapter four, we saw Cain defy God's order and start
building cities as when he was supposed to be a nomadic
wanderer. We see Lamech, the seventh generation from Adam
boasting that his violence, his, his just murderous intent was
greater than his famous ancestor Cain's. But here in
Seth's line, it told us at the end of chapter four that Seth's
line is when people started to call upon the name of the
Lord and so that's what we're gonna see through the line
here. Now, I'm gonna read the whole chapter, okay, and then
we'll come back to the parts that I wanna focus on. So, but
pay attention to phrases that repeat, right? That's what I
want you to pay attention to. Genesis chapter five verse
three. Adam was 130 years old when he fathered a son in his
likeness. There's that image passing on, right? According to
his image and named him Seth. Adam lived 800 years after he
fathered Seth and he fathered other sons and daughters. So
Adam's life lasted 930 years, then he died. Seth was 105
years old when he fathered Enosh. Seth lived 807 years
after he fathered Enosh and he fathered other sons and
daughters. So Seth's life lasted 912 years, then he died.
Enosh was 90 years old when he fathered Canaan. Enosh lived
815 years after he fathered Canaan and he fathered other
sons and daughters. So Enosh's life lasted 905 years, then he
died. Canaan was 70 years old when he fathered Mahalalel.
Canaan lived 840 years after he fathered Mahalalel and he
fathered other sons and daughters. So Canaan's life
lasted 910 years, then he died. Mahalalel was 65 years old
when he fathered Jared. Mahalalel lived 830 years after
he fathered Jared and he fathered other sons and
daughters. So Mahalalel's life lasted 895 years, then he died.
Enoch or Jared was 162 years old when he fathered Enoch. Jared
lived 800 years after he fathered Enoch and he fathered
other sons and daughters. So Jared's life lasted 962 years,
then he died. Enoch was 65 years old when he fathered
Methuselah. After he fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with
God 300 years and fathered other sons and daughters. So
Enoch's life lasted 365 years. Enoch walked with God, then he
was not there because God took him. Methuselah was 187 years
old when he fathered Lamech. Methuselah lived 782 years after
he fathered Lamech and he fathered other sons and
daughters. So Methuselah's life lasted 969 years, then he died.
Lamech was 182 years old when he fathered a son and he named
him Noah, saying, this one will bring us relief from the
agonizing labor of our hands caused by the ground that the
Lord has cursed. Lamech lived 595 years after he fathered
Noah and he fathered other sons and daughters. So Lamech's
life lasted 777 years, then he died. Noah was 500 years old
and he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth. So did you guys
notice repeating phrases through that chapter? Yeah,
there's a few here. Now, you can imagine after all these
years of multiplying, right? Because the years listed here
for their lifespans, they're not metaphorical. They're real
years. They're 969, 365 day years, right? It's real time
that's being recorded here and people go, well, how did
mankind live that long back then? Well, we're that close to
creation, right? The earth is still good. You know, all the
pollution and chemicals and corruption of sin and all that
is just barely in the beginning here and so I think it was easy
for man to live a long time. I mean, if we didn't have all the
stuff today that wrecks our body and on top of that, God
reduced the lifespan as we got past the flood, I think we
would live a long time. In fact, in the original design in
the garden, weren't we meant to live forever? Yeah, so think
with all those hundreds of years of multiplying, probably
thousands, thousands of offspring, all who passed on or
received the likeness of God, the image of God as their
parents came together as one flesh and gave birth to their
children and on and on and on. Now, these people in Seth's
line were all people who despite the fall and despite
sin, were people that could hear God's word, were people
that could rule and subdue the earth, that people who could
have relationship with God and that's the picture we see in
this line. Now, surely not every single person in Seth's
line followed the Lord perfectly. Some probably
didn't, you know, because when you look at Kane's line,
you're like, well, weren't they procreating and weren't they?
Yes, the image of God was going through their line too, but
the focus, the contrast between the two chapters really
highlight what took place as those lines developed and as
we've talked about before, Kane's line degenerated into
just ever increasing sinfulness, but we're going to
see something different here in Seth's line. Now, despite the
encouraging picture, right, that God's blessing them and
they're multiplying and wow, look at how God's promise is
still going through this line because again, this is the line
that ultimately Jesus Christ, the Savior comes from. There
was still a depressing reminder of the results of the garden.
Did you guys hear it mentioned over and over and over? This
person gave birth to this person and then they lived this
many years after and so the total of their years were this
many. They gave birth to other sons and daughters and then
they died and then they died and then they died and then
they died, right? Except Enoch. Now, it's been that way
since the fall. We weren't supposed to die, but we sinned
against God. We disobeyed him. In an instant, our spirits
died, our spiritual connection to God and then the decay of
creation began and so then humanity would start to
physically die as well and you know, death is a present
reality for all of us. You know the most sure statistic in
all statistics ever created, right? Ten out of ten people
will die. None of us are gonna make it out of here. Now, of
course, we look through the Bible and we're like, well,
some did, but that's rare movements of God. For the most
part, we are going to face death one day. Now, all of us,
all of us have a day before us should the Lord not return yet
that our time here will be over, that the life we live
here will be over, that the things we're accomplishing and
doing here on this earth will be over and we will not be
able to accomplish anything else here. Now, there's a lot
of people that have told stories or witnessed that when
someone's at the threshold of death, often time as they're
reflecting back on their entire life, it could seem like
that. It could seem like such a short amount of time and then
what happens is people close to death or on their deathbed are
like, where did my life go and what happened? It seems like
yesterday I was doing that. Two seconds ago I was doing that
and that's an idea or something that people experience
when they're on their deathbed. It even happens as people are
getting older and aging, right? When we start to reflect on,
oh, I wanted to do this or I had that goal or this and that
and as time marches forward, we wonder what happened. Yes, I'm
gonna be 50 years old in a couple weeks and it's like, you
know, that is half a century. Now, of course, I've had some
lovely congregants here that are older than me and go, you're
just a kid still, you know, so but I don't feel like a kid
still, right? Or at least my body doesn't feel like a kid
still, you know, and I'm like, you know, two seconds ago I was
snowboarding and playing paintball and starting
businesses and now I pull my calf getting up from a chair,
right? And it's like, what happened? And I reflect back on
my life and I feel like it's gone so fast but when I look
back to, well, when did this happen? I realized, gosh,
there's been a lot of time and then I look forward in the
future and I'm like, that's gonna come fast too and pretty
soon, well, Nathan was not there because he went to be
with the Lord, right? And we don't look forward to that type
of thing. We all have things we want to accomplish and, you
know, again, many people that when they're at the end of life
and on their deathbed, sometimes they have a lot of
regrets. I should have done more of this. I should have done
more of that, less of this, you know? I should have spent more
time with my family and less building my business. I should
have spent more time with my kids and less at the office,
right? I should have spent more time with my spouse than, you
know, and those types of things people will voice at the end
and, you know, I think even with the peace of knowing God,
you know, sometimes Christians could have regrets about what
they maybe didn't get to do, you know? Even though we're
like, I can go into heaven and it's great. As they're
approaching that, they're like, oh, but, you know, a lot of
young people, I used to do young adults ministry and I
would hear a common theme amongst young people. They're
like, God's coming back. Heaven. Awesome. But can you
wait until I get married? I really want to get married. I
really want to start my family. Like, God, hold on, God. I
mean, yes, yes, I want nothing more than to be with you, but
but I want to do this first, right? And then, you know, some
people, as they miss those things, they'll even have
regrets, you know? Now, I think for a believer, the closer you
get to the end, and I've witnessed this over and over, the
more the believer who has a piece of Jesus Christ is simply
like, I can't wait to get there. You know, I'm done with
this nonsense. Take me home, Lord, you know? And God takes
us in his time according to his will and his plan. But as we
see here in this generational story of Seth Sline, as each
generation of patriarchs came and went, you know, the the
excitement of life, the bright hopes and dreams eventually all
came to an end as a predictable dark cloud of death descended
on all of them. But right in the middle of this, right? Right
in the middle of then he died, then he died, then he died. We
come to the seventh generation after Adam, a man named Enoch.
Now, this is not Cain's son, Enoch, in chapter four. This is
a different Enoch, a different man of a different line with a
different heart and different spirit altogether. Now, in three
short verses, this almost depressing story that death is
ever present, in three short verses, Enoch's story shines a
bright light on that rhythm of death in mankind. Now, Enoch's
place in the genealogy is also very, very interesting because
if you count from Adam in Cain's genealogy and Seth's
genealogy, you'll notice that Enoch is the seventh generation
from Adam. In Enoch, or in Cain's line, Lamech, the evil
dude, was the seventh generation from Adam. Now, I
don't believe anybody was having kids and going, okay,
hey, you know, seven generations now, make sure you
name them Enoch because we want to create this contrast. I
think God created the contrast for us to learn from. That is,
you take the seventh generation in both lines, the evil line
and the godly line, and you line up Enoch against Lamech. It
just creates an eternal contrast of the choice, the
choice mankind has, that it's gonna be heaven or hell. It's
gonna be death or life. It's gonna be despair or hope. And
so, I believe God orchestrated this, that we would learn from
Enoch's life and choose what is right and good. And so, look
again with me at verse 21. It says, Enoch was 65 years old
when he fathered Methuselah. And after he fathered
Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and fathered
other sons and daughters. So, Enoch's life lasted 365 years.
Enoch walked with God and then he was not there because God
took him. See, as you read through this genealogy, that the
detail of how long he lived should stick out to you right
away. Everybody's living hundreds of years, like 900
years, 900 years. And then you get to Enoch and it says he
only lived 365. Like the people that were older than him there
were going, 365, you're still a kid, right? But the detail is
here, so we go, whoa, what is it about this man's life that's
different? And so, it tells us that he walked with God. It's
specifically telling us that, right? It doesn't say that about
all the others in the line specifically, but it stops here
to say, in contrast to this man who was boasting about even
greater violence and murder than his ancestor Cain, in
contrast to that, we had a guy in the Sethite line who was
walking with God. Now, you might think, okay, yeah, walk with
God. I know what that means. Well, do you? We're gonna look
at that right now because this phrase that he walked with God
is only used of two people in the Old Testament, Enoch and
Noah. Now, it's a special phrase. It doesn't just mean
walking with God. It's referring to the closest, deepest, most
intimate personal communion with God. It's the picture as
if you're walking with him on the same path side by side, but
you're the little kid reaching up and holding his hand, and he,
the father, is just walking along with you. That's the
picture of this, this beautiful, just innocence and purity of
childlike faith. Childlike faith is a beautiful thing. Childlike
faith doesn't doubt. Childlike faith doesn't, you know, like,
wait, what a second, there must be an explanation. They're
just like wowed by things, right? Like my grandson James,
you know, we do things in his life or playing with him and
stuff and make sounds and noises, and he's just like, oh,
you're a magician, right? And it's just, he's innocent. It's
just that childlike faith. Everything is new and fresh and
exciting, and of course, you know, as the older we get, we
start to get cynical and all these things, and walking with
God is walking with him in that childlike faith. There's not a
whole lot of argument and debate. It's just like, you're
dad. You can do anything. Like, if anybody picks on me, I'm
going to say, I'm going to tell my dad, and I have absolute
faith and confidence that my dad's going to kick your butt,
right? That's that kind of faith that kids have, and so it's
different from other Old Testament phrases, because as
you read through the Old Testament and you see other
godly men or godly people that were referenced, you'll see
phrases like they walked before God or they walked after God,
right? But you only see in Enoch and Noah that they walked
with God. Now, those other phrases are referring to blame
and endless moral and ethical behavior, right? They walked
before God, right? They were being obedient. They walked
after God. They were following his precepts in their behavior,
but walking with God is something very specially,
uniquely intimate, very intimate, and it indicates that
deepest commitment and dependence and faith and trust,
and again, like I said, it's that idea of continuing the
same direction with him, not on your own, but holding his
hands. How many of you remember that poem, Footsteps,
right? I just thought of it now, so I don't remember the
whole thing, but yeah, you know, God, I looked back and
there was only one set of footprints. What's up with that?
Why did you leave me? I didn't leave you. That was when I was
carrying you, right? And so what walking with God looked
like in Enoch's life, we get details of it through the New
Testament, especially in the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews,
chapter 11, verse 5, it tells us this. By faith, Enoch was
taken away, and so he did not experience death. He was not
to be found because God took him away, for before he was
taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God. So it
tells us some things about there, about what his walk with
God was like. One, it was by faith. It was by faith. And
we're gonna see in the next verse, Hebrews 11, 6, what
that's defined as, but he had faith, he walked with God by
faith, and then it tells us that he was approved as one who
pleased God. So he had a pleasing faith to the Lord, and
you go, well, what does a pleasing faith look like? Verse
6 of Hebrews 11. Now without faith, it is impossible to
please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe
that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Now
contextually, this is tied to Enoch, so what we can presume
about Enoch's pleasing faith is that it had these two major
characteristics, that his faith was such that he lived in a way
that demonstrated he believed that God exists and that he
believed that God rewards those who seek him. Now that idea of
believing that he exists is, yeah, I believe he's real,
right? I believe God is real, but it also means that I believe
he is who he says he is, that I believe his words, that I
believe his promises, and I believe his warnings, and I
believe them to such a degree that my life is changed and
transformed by those beliefs. And so the idea here is this
Enoch, who is made in the likeness of God, who was able to
hear God's word, and he responded to God's word, believed
that God was real in all his heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Where do we hear that? In the New Testament. That God is who
he says he is, and it says this pleased God. It pleased God
then, it pleases God today. You see, when God's people simply
completely believe in him, what his word says about him, God
is pleased by that. You see, I think it bums God out sometimes
when we say, I believe you, God, I believe in your promises,
and then we face a situation that's difficult, and we
instantly start going, oh no, is God here? Is God with me? I
think that bums him out, because he's like, you say you
believe me, but then when you get into the difficult
situation, now you're doubting me? Like, do you really believe
if you're having that, you know? And it's a weakness of our
flesh. It's a real challenge in our life that we want to
trust God, to have that faith in him, in who he is and what
he's done, and just, that's true, right? I mean, how many
of you believe in gravity? Do any of you doubt gravity?
Right? Is anybody like, I mean, I've read about it in science,
and I learned it in school, and you know, I believe it's
there because nothing flies off the earth. But do any of you
find yourself going on top of a tall building and going, well,
maybe if I jump off, I'll fly? Kids do that. Childlike faith.
But the reality is, is for us, the point is, is we believe
that gravity exists so much that you don't see any of us
jumping off of tall things. It's not a question in our mind.
We don't ponder that. We're just like, no, that's reality.
Therefore, I don't jump off of tall things. You live in
according to the belief, right? Well, do you do that with all
of God's promises in his word? Do you do that with all of God's
warnings in his word? Right? This is the idea of Enoch's
faith, and then that pleasing faith, it says that they must
believe that he rewards those who seek him. That's really
believing in his promises. That because Jesus died for me and
I put my faith in him, I am going to heaven. Not I might. Not
maybe. I am. Because the Holy Spirit lives within me, I have
the ability to say no to the temptations that come at me. Not
I might have the ability. I do. Now, whether we use it or not,
different Bibles study, okay? But sometimes people are like,
hey, can you pray that God would give me strength? And
that's a good prayer, but the thought hit me one day where I
was like, do you believe that God lives within you? Yes. Do
you believe God created the universe out of nothing? Yes. Is
there any more strength he can give you? No. So the prayer
should be God help me use the strength you've already given
me. Right? It's a subtle shift in ideology, but it's there.
And so now when it says that Enoch's faith, he believed that
he rewards those who seek him, it also implies that he believed
the opposite of that, right? That he judges those who reject
them and continue to go their own way. How do we know that?
Well, in Jude verse 14 and 15, it tells us this about Enoch.
Now it says, it was about these that Enoch in the seventh
generation from Adam prophesied. Now, these he's talking
about in Jude prior to verse 14, he's talking about
apostates. He's talking about people that say, oh, yeah, no, I
think I believe in God, but they change it. They don't rely
on it. They do their own thing. They live their own way, which
is probably very common in Enoch's day. This is what he
prophesied. This is what Enoch was preaching in his 365 years
or 300 years after Methuselah. Look, the Lord comes with tens
of thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and
to convict all the ungodly concerning all the ungodly acts
that they have done in an ungodly way and concerning all
the harsh things ungodly sinners have said against him.
Now to quote the character of Ray Comfort, the great
evangelist, do you see there God, Enoch saying, hey, God
loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
Now, God does love us and God does have a plan for our life
and his plan is wonderful. But so often we want to soften
the truth of the gospel and not preach sin and not warn
people that a holy righteous judgment is coming on those who
reject Jesus. We don't want to do any of that because, wow,
that creates conflict. And yet this man, Enoch, who God says
was approved as one who pleased God, who lived his life by
faith, described as walking with God, the only quote we have
that he ever said in his life of ministry was a warning of
judgment on those who reject God, a warning of judgment on
those who are ungodly. Now you don't just preach that either
because God is love and you want to tell people that he's
made a way. But you can't leave out the fact that if you
reject God, even if you say, oh yeah, I know God, but you're
living your own way constantly and consistently, you're in
danger because God is going to judge those who aren't saved.
And so what this tells me about Enoch is that he had full
belief in who God was, his character, full belief in the
fact that God is perfectly fair and perfectly impartial and
perfectly right in all of his decisions. If God said this is
bad, Enoch wasn't going, well, I mean, come on, some people,
and you don't know how they were raised. He's just like, no,
God said it was bad, it's bad. So I'm going to walk you through
that. So I'm going to warn people, hey, if you're doing
that, that's not a good thing. You know what? You need to give
your life over to the Lord because he did, you know, and
all that stuff. Enoch believed that God will indeed reward
those who seek him and judge those who don't. And so the
picture we get of this walk with God is one of a man named
Enoch who was completely saturated with God. His whole
life was just defined by his relationship with God. His
decisions were guided by God's will and what God wanted. He
didn't have this ongoing, well, God, I say I love you, but I'm
going to live this way. It was just, I'm sure he wasn't a
perfect man. None of us are. But just like many imperfect
people throughout the Bible, especially in Hebrews chapter
11, we don't see God focusing on what they did wrong. We see
God focusing on the fact that they had faith in Jesus Christ.
They had faith in God. They had faith in the one who would
save them. And so Enoch's walk was rooted down in this
deepest intimacy he had with God. The idea is that he knew
God and God knew him. He knew God. He knew God's character.
He knew God's will. He knew what God wanted from his life.
He knew what God wanted him to do, how he wanted him to live.
And then God knew him because he gave himself fully over to
his Lord. What he was doing in his walk with God and what a
walk with God looks like is he believed God with all his
heart, mind, soul, and strength. He had great faith in
the Lord and because of his great faith in God and his
promises and his truths, it caused him to not only live a
life that was pleasing to God, but then also to preach the
righteousness of God and the judgment of God. You see, this
wasn't just a season of Enoch's life, right? It doesn't
tell us here that, hey, Enoch lived 365 years and you know
what, between year 282 and 283, man, he had a thriving
ministry. It tells us in the verses about Enoch that at 65
he gave birth to Methuselah and then it says after that he
walked with God for 300 years. What that tells us is that for
three centuries of his life, he continually, daily pursued God,
sought the Lord, tried to live a life pleasing to him, tried
to tell people about him and warn those who reject him. For
three centuries, can you imagine that? I know a lot of
us, you know, we'll do great ministry for a month. They're
like, whew, I'm worn out. I'm gonna back off. You know, I
passed out 10 tracks this month. Whoa, man, I'm done. Now,
again, passing out 10 tracks is great. Please do that, right?
But we'll find ourselves backing off of ministry
sometimes because maybe we're in a difficult season of life.
Maybe, you know, there's other things we need to attend to or
maybe we're just lazy and we back off and we say, well, I'm
a Christian, but that's it. I don't need to serve. I know the
church keeps announcing that they need volunteers, but I'm
good. I know the, you know, and we just, oh no, it's just me
and my faith and that's it. And as we read through the whole
New Testament, our faith was never meant to be about us and
us alone. We're part of a community. We're a part of
family. We're part of a kingdom. And that kingdom is at
war with the kingdom of this world and we're all called to
be a part of that battle. Now, again, as Enoch was living and
depending on God, pursuing the Lord for three centuries,
every day, progressively getting closer and closer to
him, he was doing it by faith. He wasn't doing it because
Enoch was great. He was doing it by faith. That tells us that
there was this daily moment to moment like, God, I can't,
please help. God, I'm weak, please help. God, I can't say
no to my sin, please help. Right? That's the walk of faith.
And then after three centuries of that, one day at the age of
365 years, still a young man in light of the days he lived in,
it says in verse 24 of Genesis 5 that he was not there because
God took him. And before you go, well, what does that mean?
Hebrews told us, right? It means he didn't die. He didn't
experience death. Now, we can only speculate how God did this,
right? It doesn't tell us. And I don't think it's an important
detail. But there are other examples in Scripture when God
took Elijah. It was in a chariot of horses, right, of fire
and whirlwind. You're like, ooh, that's exciting. And then it
might be just maybe he vanished because that's how the Bible
describes the rapture, that in a twinkling of the eye will just
be caught up to be with the Lord in the air. The only thing
we know for sure is that his wonderful walk with God went
straight from living this life for God to poof, eternity
forever with God. Just how awesome was that, right? He
didn't experience physical death. Mom.
Alright, back to the study. Enoch didn't experience physical
death, right? He was exempted by God from the law of death, the
law of decay, the corruption that would lead to this
physical body dying. He was exempted from that. Instead of
experiencing that, right? Instead of experiencing the age
and the slowing down and instead of experiencing all that
stuff that's part of that, he was just changed in a moment.
Now, why does God include this Bible or include this in the
Bible? Why is it here in this genealogy of Seth? Because I
believe Enoch's example to his contemporaries, his example to
the people of his day was a great encouragement and a
consolation for those. You see at the time, right, there's
these these two lines of civilization developing. This
line over here is evil and sinful, but man, they're coming
up with all these great inventions of civilization and
then you have this other line over here that that maybe was
doing some of that too, but what they were known for is
calling upon the name of the Lord and then God says, look,
look as these generations went on, horrible violence and
look over here, this man who believed in God, believed in
his promises and then experienced the promise right
in the middle of his life. He believed and he was a
testimony to all the people of his time that God does indeed
reward those who seek him and because that's true, it also
means he will judge those who reject him. He was translated
up into eternal life with God. That's just too cool and I
believe it happened and it's recorded to encourage and
awaken the hope of life after death in humanity. You see,
every human today and every human that has ever lived has
the choice. Reject God, accept God. Do it your own way, do it
God's way and what the Bible tells us over and over is man
has tried and tried and tried to do it his own way, to make
up his own religions, to create his own moral code, to do
everything and over and over and over again, nothing changes
in the degenerate heart of man and then you have in this
other line, the same exact thing except people who said,
God, I have faith in you and in that line, eventually came the
savior of the world and then and today we're told you have
faith in him you're saved. It's not by your own works. It's
not by anything you've done. It's simply by the grace of God
but all that forgiveness, all that grace, all that mercy is
given through faith. I believe you God. I believe you are God
that you exist and I believe you're the rewarder of those
who seek you and by extension, I believe that you're gonna
judge those who reject you so God, please forgive me of my
sin.
Now, if you look at the timeline of the Sethite genealogy
of his pick that's gonna go up on the screen, hopefully you
can read it. This is a graph of the ages of all the
patriarchs and some of you have seen this before but if you
haven't, you're gonna be intrigued. What you see there is
that middle red line is that God took Enoch at just over
halfway from creation to the flood, right? Now again, these
years that the patriarchs lived, these are real years.
So, Enoch was taken. Now, every patriarch before Enoch except
Adam was still alive when Enoch was taken. You get that? Seth,
the direct offspring of Adam and Eve was still alive for
another 55 years. It's very possible that in Enoch's early
life, he got to sit down with Adam and go, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
Adam, grandpa Adam. What was it like to walk with God in the
garden? What was it like to be there with him? And I'm just
speculating here but I imagine Adam going, oh man, let me tell
you because I've never forgotten it because we lost it
and it has been hard ever since. Wow. But God made a
promise and he gave us a prophecy and he's gonna fix it
and Enoch, wow, I believe that. I believe that. See, Enoch's
dad lived for 597 years after Enoch was taken. All these
patriarchs except for Adam, of course, and then Noah who was
born 69 years after Enoch was taken, they all had hundreds of
years to ponder Enoch's translation, to talk about it, to
share the story, to wow, what was his life like? What did he
do? Yeah, he was just taken. People possibly right there
that say I saw it or I didn't see it because he was there in
the not there. And hundreds of years of talking about this
truth that it happened, that you know that stuff where we're
always being told that God is gonna fix it and there's an
afterlife and there's a paradise with God if you live for him
and Enoch went straight there. Imagine how encouraged they
were as they faithfully awaited their own reward for following
God. To see God one day again. To know that this physical
death was not the end. And this great hope I believe surely
led to many calling upon the name of the Lord in his time and
the time before the flood. Now by the time the flood came,
obviously we're gonna read that the degeneration continued and
it's gonna continue to the place where the only man who is
faithful on the earth is Noah. Noah's dad prophesied, hey,
he's gonna be the one that's gonna bring some relief. Now
this hope that those who walk with God will see God as their
reward. It was voiced by many great men in the Old
Testament. We see it in people like Job. Job chapter 19 he
said, I know that my Redeemer lives. Many people think the
book of Job was actually a story of Job pre-flood. We don't
know that for sure but think about it. If Job was alive
pre-flood and we're hearing these words from Job where he
says, I know that my Redeemer lives. It could possibly be
because he'd heard about the story of Enoch. Speculation. But
he goes on to say at the end, he will stand on the dust. Even
after my skin has been destroyed yet I will see God in
my flesh. I will see him myself. My eyes will look at
him and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me. Job
believed in the reality that I can have a relationship with
God. God can know me and I can know him. Daniel chapter 12 he
says, many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake,
some to eternal life and some to disgrace and eternal
contempt. Those who have insight will shine like the
bright expanse of the heaven and those who lead many to
righteousness like the stars forever and ever. Even years
later, even though Enoch didn't die and he was translated, the
hope that the message that when you die, if you know God,
you're gonna be with him forever. That hope still existed
in Daniel's time. And the reality that all who die are
gonna go somewhere. You're either gonna go the path of the
Sethite line or you're gonna go the path of Cain's line. And
then in that judgment of the flood, that's Cain's line was
completely wiped out. So this of course all foreshadows the
New Testament promises of the promises that are hoped for by
those who trust in Christ, right? Especially the promises
that are written in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, the
promises that we're told that when Christ returns for his
church, that it says that those who are alive at that moment
will be taken, caught up with the Lord or caught up to the
Lord in the clouds. We're looking forward to that. We're
waiting for that day. And then right after that in 1
Thessalonians 418, Paul writes, therefore, encourage one
another with these words. Do you think people were being
encouraged with the words about Enoch's translation? Do you
think people were being encouraged by like, look, all
this stuff we've heard down through the centuries at this
point, it's real. Put faith in it, trust in it. I believe
that Enoch's contemporaries were very comforted by his
testimony, his life, his walk, and his reward. So we who bear
the image of God, who have that past to us through our
natural birth, who are able to hear God's word and to
understand God's word and apply God's word, well, we need
to know that God's word is our foundation for everything,
right? His word front to back is a promise that one day God
will restore all that was lost in the fall. That's the hope
of heaven that we carry. And really it's like if we would
just trust him and put our faith in him and his word and
his faithfulness for our ultimate salvation. Trust in
him and him alone, right? Now we know that when the fall
happened, it was prophesied to Eve that her seed would one
day defeat Satan and then it was also spoken through his
people. What do I mean by that? Well, we all know that names
have meaning, right? I once found a bookmark at Knott's
Berry Farm and it said, Nathan, given of God. I was not
a Christianist this time, so keep that in mind. I took that
bookmark around Knott's the rest of that night and I'd go
up to girls and go, hey, I'm a gift of God. It didn't work
one single time, but names have meaning, alright? Names mean
things. And so in Genesis five, we have Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Kennan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah.
Those are the names in this generational list. Why did God
include it all? Why didn't he just give us Enoch's story?
Well, if we look at the meanings of all the names, this
is what we see. Adam means man, okay? Seth can mean
appointed or granted. Enosh means mortal. Kennan can mean
sorrow or dwelling. Mahalalel means the blessed God. Jared
means shall come down. Enoch could mean teaching or
dedicated. Methuselah means his death shall bring. Lamech
means dedicated or despairing, sorry, despairing. Did I skip
Enoch? Yeah, no, Enoch means teaching or dedicated. Lamech
means despairing and Noah means rest or comfort. Now, if you
put those names in a list, in a left-hand column, and you put
the meanings of their names on the right side, it actually
gives you a prophecy. This is what the prophecy says. Go
ahead and put it up on the screen. Man appointed mortal
sorrow. The blessed God shall come down teaching. His death
shall bring the despairing rest. Isn't that awesome? Now, a
few of those words had a second definition, right? And so I was
like, well, what does it mean if we use the other definition?
And so this is how it reads with the second definition of
the words. Here's what's beautiful. The names of all
these generations over hundreds of years, God however
inspired and spoke to the parents to name the kids, He
even spoke to the ones to name the kids that have two
definitions of words that aren't even the same and it's
still prophetic. This is what the second way says. Man
granted mortal dwelling. That we lost our immortality and
weren't killed for it but God allowed us to continue living.
The blessed God shall come down dedicated. That Jesus Christ
was the sacrifice dedicated for our sin. His death shall
bring the despairing rest. Even in the names of the people
in Seth's line, you have God declaring the gospel, declaring
his hope for mankind and so it's in Christ who is the
blessed God who came down that we find rest. Rest from guilt,
rest from striving, rest from condemnation and ultimate rest
one day. When we're absent from this body and face to face
with God, walking with him hand in hand in heaven forever. For
many, that'll come when these physical bodies perish, right?
The Bible says to be absent from the bodies present with
the Lord. For some, for some it's gonna be when the Lord
comes and you're still alive and you're raptured up in a
twinkling of an eye. Your testimony will be and they
weren't there for they are now taken by God. But until then we
have a mission as the church to call on the name of the Lord
to be people who are known for that, to walk with God. We are
his people in this earth that are called to have a deep,
intimate, close, open, honest life, walk a communion with
him. To live in such a way that people go, whoa, you believe
something radically different from the rest of us. What is
it? To walk side by side with him in this world, holding his
hand, reaching up to Papa and saying, hey, let me walk with
you, keep me safe, completely at peace knowing that he is with
you. Now the question is, is are you walking with God today?
Are you walking with God today? You know, it's through Christ
that we're able to know God intimately and personally. It's
through Christ that the barrier of our sin is dealt with once
and for all. Seeing Christ, we see the Father. Right? Jesus
said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. When we see
Christ and we read and study his life, we're seeing God, God
himself. And when you see God in Christ pouring out his love
for the world, pouring out his love for you, that's when you
begin to understand. When you believe that he is God and that
he died for you and paid the price for your sin. And you
trust in his work to redeem you and to wash away your guilt.
When you get to that place and do that, you know God. You know
him. He already knew you. But you come to the place of knowing
God. Your dead spirit is made alive again. And you're able to
hear and not just hear the words, but comprehend and
understand and apply and live according to. You have a
completely different sense of things because your spirit is
alive. And then when you by faith, you receive Christ,
you're receiving God. And by growing in Christ, your
character becomes more like God. Hey, we're the likeness of
God, right? We're the image of God. And then by being more and
more God's likeness, we just walk closer and closer with
him. And so today we're gonna celebrate communion as a body
because we're talking about this deep close walk with God,
this communion with him in every part of our life. And we
celebrate communion because we are in communion with our
creator. Jesus, God in the flesh, he told his disciples on
the night before his crucifixion as they gathered
upstairs for the Passover feast, which really was a feast
for Israel to celebrate. God delivered us from Egypt. As they
were gathered there, he explained that the bread in the
cup represented him. It represented him and what he was
gonna do for him or do for them and all who trust in him.
Jesus was saying, I am the deliverer. I'm the one who
delivers you from the power of sin. I'm the one that delivers
you from the penalty of sin. I'm the one that gives you the
hope of eternal life, not eternal judgment. He told them
by the communion that he established that that he was the
sacrifice and the atonement that would pay the price for
them. He was the hope looked for ever since the beginning. So
Jesus is the blessed God who came down to this earth and he
taught us about God's heart and he taught us about God's will
for us. And at his death, he was indeed dedicated as the
atoning sacrifice. And through what he did, all the despairing
will truly indeed find rest. It's in him that we find peace.
It's in him that we find true hope for that eternal rest. And
that's why we celebrate communion because we never wanna
forget that. And so you guys should all have a communion cup
here in your hands. If you've been here before, you know the
instructions but there's two tabs on the front. There's this
really thin plastic tab. If you pull that back, it'll reveal
the cracker here on the top. And what this represents is the
bread that Jesus took at the supper as he instituted this. It
says that he took this bread and he broke it and he gave it
to them. He said, this is my body which is for you. He said,
do this in remembrance of me. What did he want us to
remember? He wanted us to remember that walking with God
isn't about earning his favor. It's not about a
transactional relationship. Well, if I do this, God is happy
with me. If I don't do this, God is mad at me. Walking with
God is a matter of faith. His body was devastated for our sin.
Like when you read through the gospels, you read through the
crucifixion, you see what he went through, being whipped,
being nailed to the cross, disfigured by being punched in
the face with a bat, all of that. He did that for you. Or to
put it another way, you were supposed to go through that
because you're the sinner. I'm the sinner. But he said, I'll
take the wrath of God for you. What kind of amazing love is
that? How could we ever earn God's favor? We're sinners
through and through. We just simply have to have faith in who
he is, to believe that he is God, that he exists, and to
believe that he rewards those who diligently seek him. And
when we simply trust and have faith in him and hold on to his
hand, walk side by side with him and cling to him for
everything, we find that our despair melts away. We find
that all of that concern and worry just because we're
holding the hand of our God, our creator and our savior, and
there is no other safest place to be. You can realize today
that when you walk with him, that you gain hope, that you
gain hope that one day through physical death or rapture, you
will be taken from this place and stand face to face with God
to walk with him forever. That's what we remember in the
bread. Father God, we thank you so much for who you are. We
praise your name. God, we know that you gave yourself as the
atoning sacrifice. Lord, that the full wrath of God against
sin that should have fallen on us, Lord, you took in our
place. That would be, we would be able to trust that your work
paid the price for our sin. God, that we would be able to
through faith in that know and believe in the promises that
you have for us that we will one day be with you forever. And
God, we're so thankful for that. Help us to never forget
what you did for us by giving yourself on the cross. We thank
you. We love you. Let's partake together.
Now, if you have the cup, if you very delicately pull back
the thicker tab, it'll reveal the the juice here and what
this represents is in that last supper. There was a cup that
they would pass around and Jesus took that cup and he said,
this is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance
of me. What did he want them to remember? Well, one of the
things they would remember is from the very moment in the
very beginning after Adam and Eve sinned, an animal was
slain. Blood was shed to to cover their sin and mankind
knew from that point forward that the penalty of sin was
death. They knew that just as God had said and from the very
earliest point in history, that truth was preached and Enoch
preached that truth that if you don't have God as your
savior, judgment will come. The only way to salvation is to
trust in God and what he's done. If they would just trust
their creator, it wouldn't be their blood shed for their sin
but the blood of someone else, the blood of another. And so
in this part of communion, we remember that walking with God,
it means grace, it means mercy, it means faith and trust. It's
a remembrance that because he shed his blood for our sin, our
fallen and hopeless condition is remedied. That is his blood
was spilt. That was the payment, the final payment. You
are forgiven forever if you trust in that. And that's it,
just faith in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. We remember in
this part of communion that because he hung up on the cross
through faith in him, we will one day be up in heaven with
him forever. Father, we love you so much. We're so grateful
you sent your son to die for us. God, we know in the mystery
of your Trinity that you are three persons and yet one God.
And that the father, Lord, you were pleased with the son as he
came to the earth to clothe himself in frail humanity,
dedicated, appointed to be the sacrifice for all of mankind. To
save us from this life of sorrow and in mortal dwelling that
we could again be restored to the immortality and the eternal
life of blessing and joy that we originally had with you. But
God, you are a holy God. You are a pure and righteous God. And
sin is so just defiling. The only way to atone for it was the
shedding of blood. But God, the blood of animals, it was
corrupted just like all of creation was corrupted by sin.
And so it only covered. But Lord, you came, took the wrath of
our sin and then shed your perfect sinless blood. And that
blood washes us clean of the stain of our own sin. And we
never forget that. That as we strive to be people who walk
with you, we won't do it in our own effort, but we'll do it by
faith. We'll trust and depend on you to help us do what we
cannot do on our own. And that every time we're feeling
tempted, we're feeling discouraged, we're feeling like
the enemy is winning, that we would remember the blood of
Jesus Christ. That when the enemy is condemning us because
we messed up, we would remember the blood of Jesus Christ. And
know that we are forgiven because that's what your word
says. Thank you God for loving us so much. Let's partake
together.
I pray God would bless you guys. I hope that study of a
genealogy was interesting. And there's so many genealogies in
the scripture and God even speaks to these things. So I
encourage you to even read those in your devotional time.
But you know, Enoch was such a great example to all of us, not
only of a man who walked with God, but that it's possible
because he was a sinful person as well. We can walk with God.
Trust in him. God sent the Holy Spirit to live within you. Why
do you think he did that? It's a seal of the promise of
salvation, yes. But the Bible tells us he's our comforter,
he's our counselor, he's all these things. Why? Why does he
dwell within us? So that we can ask him for help. Say, God, I
can't do it by myself. I need you to help me walk with you.
And if you pray that prayer every single day, guess what?
God's gonna answer. God's gonna give you strength and God's
gonna give you power and each day you're gonna progressively
get closer and closer and closer to the Lord. Not perfect,
you're not gonna be perfect till you get to heaven. But we
don't focus on that, we focus on what we can be through the
power of Jesus Christ, amen? Alright, God bless you guys.
Let's worship church.