God's Promise Through People

[0:00] I am not always encouraged to say what's on my mind, but I'm going to now. I love you.

[0:12] And that's what I thought about when I hear you singing, and I want to stop and listen to you. It is a beautiful, beautiful thing to be in the Lord together, to have His Word and His heart and His love, His kindness, teaching us how to live this life to His honor and glory.

[0:37] We don't deserve that. So you are such a blessing to your pastors. And one of those blessings that you allow for Greg and I is you sit and you allow us to teach you, to bring you God's Word.

[0:53] And so trying to get Jeff and Greg out of it so you hear from Jesus is the hardest work we do in sermon preparation or teaching. Let's get us out of it and get Jesus forward so that you can be blessed by your Lord.

[1:07] And we will endeavor to do that with you this morning. Well, beloved, landmark day. We're back in Genesis. I don't even know how long we've been out.

[1:18] These breaks I take some time from the verse by verse in a certain book. Jump over and do verse by verse in sections. I don't know. The Lord leads us in that.

[1:31] The title of... Did I get the wand of power? I knew something was wrong up here. I felt unclothed. Thank you, brother.

[1:43] These guys take care of me. Alright, here we go. God's promise through people. I'm going to explain what that title means as we move through this chapter together. Genesis chapter 5.

[1:55] I need to give you some introductory comments to bring us into chapter 5 since it's been some time since we were last in the book of Genesis. When we left off Genesis chapter 4, Moses was giving us the rundown on Cain's family line.

[2:14] So we have two contrasting lineages being outlined for us in these early chapters of Genesis. Cain's line and the line of Adam through Seth.

[2:26] That's what we're dealing with. When it comes to Cain's family line, what a drama-filled soap opera that has turned out to be as we have read through it in chapter 4.

[2:40] Moses focused our attention on evil, murderous Cain and his equally evil and murderous offspring. They threw themselves into living without God.

[2:55] They focused on worldly sinful pursuits. This is the lineage of the seed of Satan that the Lord spoke of in Genesis 3.15.

[3:07] So remember now, many, many sermons brought us into chapter 4. And then I don't even remember how many I did in chapter 4 as we move through this issue of Cain and his murderous family line.

[3:23] The point of all of this was to show us that this entire line was living their lives in willful rebellion against God and His ways. Now think about it with me.

[3:34] We're only a couple of generations into the human race. This is right on the heels of Adam and Eve and creation and God founding everything and teaching them.

[3:46] And we're already in a mess with Cain and Abel and all that Cain's line's doing. Now, we can see and have seen all of this from Genesis chapter 4 beginning in verse 16 and moving through verse 24.

[4:06] I'm not going to read all of that right now. But Moses is describing how Cain and his line are, for example, building cities in honor of themselves.

[4:17] They are practicing polygamy already. They are focusing their lives on being godless people. In chapter 4, verses 23 and 24, look at this with me.

[4:32] And Lamech said to his wives, Ada and Zillah, hear my voice, you wives of Lamech. Now, I wish I, you know, he's just, he's bragging so hard and so big that it would be hard to even look at this guy while he was saying this.

[4:48] He's so full of himself. Give ear to my word. You see that? For I have killed a man for striking me and a boy for wounding me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.

[5:04] What in the world? What in the world? In these two verses alone, their godlessness is epitomized in Lamech. Five generations down the line from his grandfather Cain, Lamech brags about Cain's murderous ways, and then he proudly begins to crow about how his own masculine prowess exceeds that of Cain.

[5:31] Then he stands up to dare anyone to defy him by threatening them with their murder. You might remember when we looked at this that commentators were split about how to deal with the Hebrew here, and it could be taken as not I have actually done this, but if anybody messes with me, this is what will happen.

[5:55] Either way you take it, the context helps us to understand that Lamech brags about Cain's murderous ways, and then he wants to proudly display himself as, you think granddaddy was bad, you haven't dealt with me yet.

[6:11] This is where we've come to. Five generations removed, and we're already there. And it's going to get much, much worse.

[6:23] The question that I have so quickly on the heels of all that God has made himself known in as creator and sustainer and provider is this, where is their worship of God as creator and provider?

[6:38] Where's their gratitude? Where's the thankfulness of their hearts for God and His blessings as they live and as they prosper?

[6:49] Do you remember me telling you the world wants to do all of this craziness with archaeology as they move back into time and unearth these different things and then try to extrapolate from what they're seeing in the layers and all.

[7:06] Where were these people in their lives? How were they living? How were they functioning? And they've come up with the most bizarre and crazy and weird thing. Do you realize that there is literature out there that is legitimately looked at saying that aliens from space, and it's legitimate.

[7:29] There are people who believe that. Journals are being written about how all of these things point to a higher intelligence, hello, that made all of this possible.

[7:42] You and I understand that intelligence, don't we? It's the Lord. Where did these people get their ability to build these... I'm going to share some of this with you as we go along in future sermons.

[7:56] I'm going to show you how sophisticated ancient peoples were. Right now, in archaeology, they are being astounded and having to rewrite their understanding of quote-unquote primitive peoples.

[8:11] They weren't so primitive. I'm going to show you something from Pompeii. And I think it's going to blow your mind.

[8:22] It did mine when I saw it. How sophisticated these people were as they set up these civilizations. Even back to Old Testament times, the way that they lived and these renditions that artists have made based on solid archaeological evidence about what Jerusalem would have looked like during the time of the prophets.

[8:44] It's astounding, people. Where did they get this knowledge? Where did they get this ability? God hardwired it into human beings. Their DNA. They knew how to do this. God taught them about music.

[8:55] He taught them about how to take rocks and melt them down and do things with them in a metallurgic way and come out with bronze tools. It's amazing.

[9:08] God gets the glory for all of that. God gets the glory for all of that. But were they grateful for that? No. Did they thank the Lord? Did they worship the Lord?

[9:19] No. God wasn't even an afterthought in the minds of these people. That's the point. This is where we see the power of sin at work in the hearts of these first generations of humans.

[9:32] Moses wants the Israelites, he's writing to, the original readers, to see this. If something isn't done by the Lord and done soon, the world is going to tear itself apart pursuing sinful desires.

[9:47] But God gives us hope. If you look at chapter 4, verses 25 and 26, I'm just walking you into the text this morning. Then Adam knew his wife again and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth.

[10:02] Now this is interesting why she did this. God has set for me another seed in place of Abel for Cain killed him. She sees that the promise that God made in 315 to continue a godly line, a godly seed through her is coming true in Seth.

[10:21] And to Seth, to him also a son was born and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of Yahweh.

[10:34] So this is the godly line. This is the chosen lineage. This is the line that Messiah will come from. And so Moses continues to hold before his original readers the contrast between these two peoples, the lineage of Cain and the lineage that will be from Seth.

[10:52] And how the Bible will trace those lineages all the way up to Jesus and show us all of the different ways that Satan was combating against this godly line to break it up, do away with it.

[11:05] This is, when you read the Old Testament, knowing this now, if you didn't know this before, it will help you. It will possibly alter the way that you understand some of these events.

[11:17] You need to see that these events are happening on a cosmic level as well as on an everyday human level. There is a spiritual reality to all these events that are happening in the Old Testament.

[11:31] Everything. And this will continue on just as it is for us today. There is a spiritual element to all that we live in and all that happens to us.

[11:44] There is a sovereign God controlling, designing, purposing these events, trials, challenges for you, for me. This is what God does.

[11:56] So these verses here at the end of chapter 4 clearly tell us that thankfulness toward God and godly worship is going to come from this different line of people.

[12:06] It will begin with Adam and Seth and then it will move forward. Let's read chapter 5. At least I'll read it for us and then we'll come back into the sermon.

[12:19] This is the book of the generations then of Adam. Now there is so much that could be said there. You will see this formula several times through the book of Genesis and each time it is marking out a very significant segment, a transition in the way the Hebrews would have understood this.

[12:37] This now is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and he blessed them and named them man in the day when they were created.

[12:55] Now when Adam had lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness according to his image and he named him Seth. Then, the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were 800 years.

[13:12] That's not a typo and that's not an allegory. He literally lived this long. He became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died.

[13:30] Seth lived 105 years and became the father of Enosh. Then Seth lived 807 years after he became the father of Enosh and he had other sons and daughters.

[13:42] So all the days of Seth were 912 years and he died. And Enosh lived 90 years and became the father of Kenan. Then Enosh lived 815 years after he became the father of Kenan.

[13:56] He became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enosh were 905 years and he died. Kenan lived 70 years and became the father of Mahalelel.

[14:11] Then Kenan lived 840 years after he became the father of Mahalelel and he became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Kenan were 910 years and he died.

[14:27] Mahalelel lived 65 years and became the father of Jared. I'll be 63 in another month. I cannot imagine fathering kids starting at 65.

[14:43] Things were very different then, weren't they? Then Mahalelel lived 830 years after he became the father of Jared and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

[14:54] So all the days of Mahalelel were 895 years and then he died. Jared lived 162 years and became the father of Enoch.

[15:07] Then Jared lived 800 years after he became the father of Enoch and he became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died.

[15:21] You notice on all of these so far, none of them got to 1000. I thought, why not? Why not? Why is all of this happening and he's cutting them off at 900 years or so?

[15:37] Then Enoch lived 65 years and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

[15:51] So all the days of Enoch were 365 years and he died. No? No. No.

[16:02] Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. And Methuselah lived 187 years and became the father of Lamech.

[16:14] So this is a different Lamech from the Lamech and Cain's line. Then Methuselah lived 782 years after he became the father of Lamech and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

[16:27] So all the days of Methuselah were 969 years and he died. Lamech lived 182 years and became the father of a son.

[16:40] Now he called his name Noah saying, This one will give us rest from our work and from the pain of our hands arising from the ground which Yahweh has cursed.

[16:51] Then Lamech lived 595 years after he became the father of Noah and he became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Lamech were 777 years and he died.

[17:06] And Noah was 500 years old and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Jacob. Wow! Now I believe along with many conservative scholars and commentators that this is literal.

[17:24] These people were historical figures. They lived this long. If we start messing with those facts we start messing with the point that Moses is making in this passage.

[17:38] So we accept this as it's written just like we did the Genesis account. We believe that there were 24 hour days that God created for six and then rested on the seventh.

[17:52] And that's what we're doing here. We're applying the same hermeneutical principles here of interpretation as we look into chapter 5. So these were real people. Now the Israelites, the original readers of this particular chapter were being shown that this lineage of people is about God keeping His promise.

[18:14] What promise? To save them through a special future deliverer. Now they didn't know when that deliverer would come. It could have been in their lifetime or their sons or daughters' lifetime.

[18:30] They didn't know. They just knew that God had promised the deliverer in Genesis 3.15 and she would come through the lineage or seed of the woman. Moses records then that there are ten generations.

[18:44] These are the first ten generations of the line of promise. Now what does he do with this? I'm going to put it up here for us. Moses uses this genealogy to reaffirm God's control and His faithfulness in establishing His special progression of people.

[19:05] Another way to say that is His lineage. The godly seed group of people, family of people that He would bring His Messiah from.

[19:18] Look at this. The encouragement to us in these truths is that God is faithful and that He is more powerful to save and sustain human souls than sin's power to sour and seduce human souls.

[19:37] Amen. God is in control. This lineage and all that's happening in the lineage of Cain, none of this is beyond God's control, design, and purpose in bringing His promise to fruition.

[19:51] I will send a deliverer for you all. And so what we'll do as we look at Genesis 5 together, we'll realize that in the first case, Moses is using chapter 5 to do this, to reaffirm God's image at work in mankind.

[20:07] Reaffirm God's image. You see this particularly in chapters 1 and 2, but there are other ways that it comes out. This is the book of the generations of Adam and the day when God created man.

[20:20] And look, He made mankind in the likeness of God. He created them male and female. That was God's design from the beginning. And He blessed them and named them man or mankind in the day that they were created.

[20:36] This is the authoritative author of life naming His creation as the author. Adam is where we start.

[20:48] Adam then is not being set aside or forgotten. They were expelled from the garden. But God's not done with Adam and Eve. So God's image in human beings while being diminished by sin isn't destroyed by it.

[21:03] Adam returns front and center to God's history and plan. In verses 1 and 2, the Lord is reaffirming for the Israelites and then for all of us as believers, His plan for creating mankind, His plan for setting mankind apart from the rest of creation, His unique aspect of creation, for fellowship with the Lord is unthreatened and intact.

[21:28] All these events with the line of Cain, they are not having any impact at all on God's purpose and plan for this seed or this promised one to come and that to be fulfilled.

[21:43] Nothing's in jeopardy here. Now it's going to get even crazier for us in just a little while because we're going to get into the next few chapters and we're going to see God do something that is worldwide catastrophic.

[21:56] It changed the face of our planet forever. I mean big time. And we have to ask ourselves, man, is God still in control and is this lineage thing going to work out here?

[22:08] I mean, come on, eight people? Ew, he's narrowing the odds here. What if they get sick or whatever and start dying off? God's in control.

[22:21] He's got all of this in control. We are God's special creation, uniquely made in His likeness, established in God's wise plan as, listen now, male and female.

[22:36] That is God's perfect design, male and female. And as our creator, we have God to thank for all the blessings of life which we enjoy from His hand.

[22:47] true believers then are thankful for God and grateful to God. Not so with unbelievers. It's true, we all begin life in Adam as unbelievers.

[22:58] That's true, we're born in sin. So that we share in both of Adam's sin nature and in the culpability of what we might call the blame worthiness of Adam's sin.

[23:10] We share in all of that. His nature and his blame worthiness. Yes, we do. But we also share in the saving grace and abundant mercies God showed to Adam.

[23:22] We are heirs of all of that. I don't want you to forget that. The fact that Adam was made in God's image means that he also passes on that likeness to his offspring and so forth and so on.

[23:36] In other words, it's also our nature to bear God's image. Coming all the way down from Adam. So that we pass that image to our children as well.

[23:48] As our kids are born, they're born in the image of the Lord. Are they born with a sin nature? Yes. Are they born in rebellion to God? Yes. But they're also born in the likeness of God. So you and I can say about all the unbelievers out in the world, they are precious to God in the sense that they're made in his image.

[24:04] Amen? So we need to be careful not to disparage unbelievers. And I know that's hard because sometimes they can be really mean. Just downright nasty. But they're made in the image of the Lord.

[24:18] The creation narrative tells you and I that God gave us life. Genesis 5 echoes that truth in this godly line of people.

[24:32] That God is the giver of life. Now how does he do that? Well in his wonderful mercy I want you to look. God provides, preserves, and God blesses life as men and women obey God's mandate to do what?

[24:46] To marry and multiply. So that as the text tells us repeatedly through each of these generations, other sons and daughters were born. That's a way of recounting the blessing of God.

[24:59] Other sons and daughters were born. Do you know what? The same thing's going on in the line of Cain. They're having kids too. The difference is in the other line they're not honoring God and worshiping God in gratitude for that.

[25:15] Nothing about their lives say thank you God. They don't bow to the Lord. But in this line we see people that are recognizing that all of these blessings are coming from the hand of the Lord.

[25:28] And God is making that possible in their lives. What I have up here, life is what God is and life is what God gives. He is the giver of life.

[25:40] Now Seth, it's important that we distinguish this, Seth is the product of procreating. Not creating, procreating.

[25:53] But Adam and Eve were the unique products of God creating. There's a difference, right? Something as basic to life then as having children is evidence of God's mercy and blessing on all of mankind.

[26:07] But you and I know there are many people out in the world who are blessed with children. They're blessed with jobs. They have nice houses. They have plenty of food and clothing.

[26:19] They enjoy all kinds of wonderful blessings in their lives, but they don't give God any glory or credit for it. He might get lip service at best, but most of them don't live with God in mind.

[26:32] I used to live like that. As an unbeliever, so did you to some extent. Right? This is where the world is.

[26:44] The fact that societies around the world cheapen and degrade this blessing of family and children, the fact that they dishonor God through abortion and abuse is because of the sinful hardness of heart characterizing all unbelievers.

[27:08] It's a tragic reality, folks, but it's true. Now, what we will follow now is a description of fathers bearing children in their likeness so that in each family God's image will be passed to them.

[27:25] But so also, at the same time, will the consequences of sin and sin nature in each of us be brought forward in their lives?

[27:36] That is, death. Death will eventually come to them all. That's because you and I reproduce what we are as sinners so that only God can overcome the evil about us.

[27:53] So, I'm saying this. This reproductive reality concerning sin and death being passed on to our children, that is a major theme of this chapter.

[28:05] And so, Moses will do something else in chapter 5 in the way of this emphasis. And here's what it is. He will reaffirm sin at work in mankind. He reaffirms God's image, but he also is reaffirming the fact that sin is at work in mankind.

[28:21] And we can't get away from that. Here's how he does it. And he died. That's because of sin. What this is doing is it's linking us with the theological themes of sin, death, and depravity from chapters 3 and 4.

[28:38] Moses is bringing that over. With one notable exception that I highlighted when I was reading, each of these people died even though they live in the chosen line.

[28:51] They still died. So their physical deaths we could say were in consequence of their fallen nature. You remember we spent a lot of time talking about the fallen nature that happened as a result of Adam and Eve moving into choosing sin in their lives.

[29:15] The dying that these people are experiencing points to the source of death and that is sin. sin brings death. Now one of the reasons the Israelites needed to know this is the same reason we need to understand it and it's this.

[29:31] The world, our world, doesn't understand or accept this truth about sin and death. They don't. When was the last time that you talked to an unbeliever of any level of learning at all, education at all, and they define the main problems of life and of our world in terms of calling it sin.

[29:58] Maybe every once in a while, but do they even know what they're talking about? But that's exactly the way that God finds the nucleus. The root of the issue of human suffering in this world is sin.

[30:13] That is God's definition and diagnosis. That's not the world's. The world doesn't understand it. Our world is at a complete loss to diagnose the cause or the cure for sin because they don't recognize sin for what it is.

[30:32] They don't. They find all other kinds of excuses and reasons and objects to blame and they continue to tell themselves, we're going to be able to psychologize or science our way out of all these problems eventually.

[30:48] Give us another few thousand years and we will get to utopia. That's what they think. You know, I'd point them to what's going on on the political scene in America right now to say, really?

[31:04] Are you serious? Are you telling me that just on the political scene alone in our country we've gone from good to better and we're moving toward best?

[31:15] You have got to be kidding me. We don't have a clue. But, but, here's who does have a clue.

[31:30] God's Word clarifies our sinful dilemma and God's cure for it. I want you to consider a few passages that I'll throw up here just for the sake of time.

[31:41] For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's God's diagnosis. Everybody. Every human being. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

[31:52] He goes on to say this about that sin. The wages of it is death. Sin produces death. Physical death and spiritual death.

[32:03] But, this is the hope, the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. So, we all sin.

[32:15] We all face death from sin. But, from this particular seed lineage that we're looking at in chapter 5, God is going to bring life to us through the life of His promised Savior.

[32:28] These are the people that God will eventually bring Jesus from. And Jesus is going to be the conqueror of sin and death for us. Now, in contrast, as I mentioned earlier, we have the line of Cain and that seed lineage is of the evil one.

[32:47] Satan will make multiple attempts to disrupt and destroy the line of Seth, this godly line as we go through Old Testament history. He wants to break up this line.

[33:01] He wants to disrupt and destroy it because he doesn't want God's Messiah to come forth. He wants to stop that. I gave you an example many months ago.

[33:11] We were talking about this and I brought you to where Herod used his army to try and eradicate all of the children under a certain age in an entire region.

[33:25] Perhaps hundreds of babies were killed because he knew that Messiah had been prophesied to come from these people. God had Joseph do what? Take Mary where?

[33:36] Egypt. So he got out of Dodge literally in order to save Jesus from this evil man. All of that was something that Satan was behind.

[33:47] And he's made many, many, many attempts to do this throughout Old Testament history. But Moses wrote this. I'll put it up here. Moses wrote this for the Israelites in order to reaffirm the issue of God's control.

[34:03] God is sovereign. He is in control over these people. He's in control over these events. Everything's happening according to God's design so that his promise to bring the Messiah from the woman's seed in Genesis 3.15 is guaranteed.

[34:18] Nothing's going to thwart that. This is good news for us. This is us recounting what these people were being hit with in the moment. We're able to look back and say, wow, and God has shown us just how he did that and it's amazing.

[34:33] I mean, come on, think about it. Rahab? Really? In the line of promise? Are you kidding? Well, no, he's not kidding. That's the power of our God. Nothing's going to thwart it.

[34:45] He's going to bring all of this to pass. It's just wonderful and they needed to see this. They needed to see it. Israel needed to see sin and Satan as their enemy, not their friend.

[34:58] All too often we coddle our sin. We don't realize where it comes from. The original origin, the original place. Satan's behind all that. He's behind all the unsound doctrine and lies that we believe.

[35:14] The confusion. But the Israelites needed to see Satan as their enemy. Their own sin is their enemy. So that they would put their faith in God and in His promised one and escape the power and penalty of sin over their hearts.

[35:29] So the problem then and the problem now remains the same. Look at this. God kept His promise, but Satan and sin keep people from seeing and embracing this truth through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

[35:51] Look at these passages. For those who are according to the flesh, that is unbelievers, set their hearts, their minds, on the things of the flesh. But those who are according to the Spirit, that is believers, the things of the Spirit.

[36:07] Now look at this, how it goes on. For the mind set on the flesh, that is on self and sinning, is death. We've seen that. Sin is death. But the mind set on the Holy Spirit, Christ and Savior and Lord, is life.

[36:21] Remember, God is life. And peace. Because the mind or the heart set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject or repent and submit itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.

[36:37] Very important. And those who are in the flesh are not able to please God. Folks, that is the issue. Are not able to please God.

[36:47] That's the greatest barrier to God and the dilemma of every human soul. But God has made good on His promise and offers us His way of life over sin and death.

[37:00] Look at this. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Holy Spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

[37:11] That's a spiritual transaction that only God can bring about. The Holy Spirit living in a human soul. But if anyone does not have the Holy Spirit of Christ, He does not belong to Him.

[37:25] Now notice this next one. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness.

[37:38] But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give you what? Life.

[37:49] Life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. There's the life. The life is Christ in you. That's the life.

[38:00] He is the life. So dear friends, look, as Christians, we don't have some second-rate answer or cure to what all people suffer from most.

[38:13] We don't. They would want to convince us of that as soon as we start talking about Jesus, we sound very unsophisticated. Oh, yes, retreat into religion, retreat into myth.

[38:25] No, no. Jesus alone, as our hope for life over sin and death, is God's best and only answer for mankind. Amen.

[38:36] He is. We don't have to be ashamed of that. Our God is the one who saves. And another way that Moses uses chapter 5 is to do this.

[38:47] To reaffirm. Well, I've got to get through these first. What is this? I forgot to put them up. Oh, the scriptures that I wanted to do.

[38:59] Yes. Sorry, let me go back to that because I want you to see this. Hebrews 2.14 tells us that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.

[39:13] So I was telling you a moment ago, the devil is behind all of this, I might say, deathness. What sin brings to our life?

[39:23] The person who stands behind all of the lies, the deception, the seducing, pulling us away from devotion to Jesus is the devil. But Jesus came to render him powerless.

[39:35] Jesus said about himself, I'm the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will, even if he dies, and everyone who lives, and believes in me will never die, ever.

[39:45] That's the legacy standard Bible translation for this. That's what Jesus says about himself. Now we can move to point three, where he reaffirms God's blessings at work in mankind.

[39:59] So not just the sin, but the blessings. Several individuals will stand out in this list for this final point. I'm just hitting some of the high points. The first is the person of, look, Enoch.

[40:13] That's who I want to highlight for you first. You see Enoch in verse 21 down through verse 24. Enoch lived 65 years and became the father of Methuselah.

[40:25] Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah. He became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years.

[40:37] Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. So this is very special. Here is what Hebrews 11 5 tells us about Enoch, or at least this aspect of his life.

[40:52] Look at this. By faith, Enoch was taken up, notice the purpose, so that he would not see death. And he was not found because God took him up.

[41:05] For prior to being taken up, he was approved as, and here's the key, as being pleasing to God. The greatest dilemma in the human soul is that we are not able to please God because of the unforgiveness of sin in our life.

[41:22] We're not forgiven for that. We stand under the wrath of the Lord. We can't please the Lord like that. There is only one way that Enoch could be pleasing to God.

[41:32] The answer comes in the very next verse in Hebrews. Look. And without faith, it is impossible to please him or God.

[41:45] For he who draws near to God must believe, that's faith, that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. And you and I know, no one will ever believe that apart from God granting them the gift of believing, of faith.

[41:59] That's a gift from the Lord, not of works, lest any man she boasts. We could say so much more about Enoch's life, but look, this passage sums up his life by repeating that, notice, Enoch walked with God.

[42:16] Enoch walked with God. And then dramatically, God took Enoch into God's immediate presence without him having to die. He did not suffer physical death.

[42:28] Now, folks, this is a way of emphasizing that Enoch's life was about being with God. And we need to take note of that.

[42:40] His life was about learning to please God in all aspects. In other words, Enoch treasured God. God was his life.

[42:52] Isn't this what the Apostle Paul said? It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. It's his life in me that gives me life.

[43:03] God is life. Jesus Christ is life. He is the hope, the only hope provided by God the Father for us to get past the penalty and power of sin and death.

[43:16] And we know that. We want to live that, but we need to preach it. We need to call people to it. Enoch treasured God.

[43:26] Nothing in life was more important to him. Here's something that one of the commentators said. I wanted to share this with you as I move toward a close here.

[43:36] Enoch is an example of someone who found that life in its fullness was associated with fellowship with God and pleasing God. This is what the world doesn't understand.

[43:48] This is what they rebel against. That only in Christ can we find fullness of life. That's religion. Leave that out of everything. That's what they tell us.

[44:01] He goes on to say this. God is the fountain of life and in his presence is fullness of joy. Psalm 36 and 16. Enoch's translation to heaven was a reminder of God's gracious intention to undo the effects of the curse.

[44:18] So we could say that he's a precursor to what we're going to see in the Lord Jesus Christ as Messiah. Then I can do a couple of more just real quickly for you.

[44:30] We have Lamech. Lamech. This is a different Lamech that comes up for us. And Lamech lived 182 years and became the father of a son.

[44:42] He called his name Noah saying this one will give us rest from our work and from the pain of our hands arising from the ground which Yahweh has cursed. A very, very different Lamech from the one in Cain's line.

[44:56] So this, this Lamech is important for what he said about his son Noah. So we're being introduced to what's going to happen in subsequent chapters now.

[45:08] This is the only introduction we're going to get and we're going to move right into the bad news for next time. But what's he saying? Noah means rest. Rest. Rest. But it's also a word that sounds, assonance, it sounds very similar to the word for comfort.

[45:27] So rest or comfort, a play on words that the Hebrews would have heard and immediately grasped. Lamech, Lamech looked to God and his promise to bring rest and comfort from the curse.

[45:44] So everywhere Lamech looked, he saw the effects of the fall, the pain, the suffering, the hardships of life. He lived that. He wasn't above that because he was part of the godly line.

[45:55] He also saw that in his son Noah, God's work of bringing comfort to human suffering and death was a reality. Was Noah the Savior? Was Noah the Savior?

[46:09] No. No. So how do we understand all of that? Yeah. We'll see as that comes up. We're not told how Lamech knew this about his son.

[46:22] But I understand, you understand, only the Lord could have revealed this to him. Why? Because only the Lord knew what was coming in the way of the flood and the ark, right? These people don't know that yet.

[46:34] Noah doesn't even know that yet. The Lord's about to tell him. And then it's going to be all bets are off, man, while he starts working on that thing. Noah wasn't the Savior that God promised in Genesis 3.15.

[46:48] But Noah would become a type. You can think of it this way. A foreshadowing of the salvation mercies that God is going to bring us in Jesus. Verse 32 ends this chapter with the hope of this man Noah.

[47:05] Look. And Noah was 500 years old and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. So it's not going to end with Noah.

[47:16] It's going to continue. And we'll need to keep that in mind as we see God move in to bring judgment. We thank the Lord for Jesus Christ and we thank the Lord for the way that we can read back and look at the Old Testament and understand because of what the New Testament has told us, what kind of things are going on in these events and why these things are so important, how they're connected to God bringing salvation hope in Christ.

[47:44] Isn't that wonderful? People didn't have that. They didn't know it would be Jesus. They knew it would be a promised one. But they didn't know when Jesus was walking on the earth and ministering to all of the Israelites.

[47:59] If God didn't reveal it to them, they would look at Jesus and say, who is this guy? Isn't this the guy that isn't this the little snotty nose brat that grew up in Nazareth? What does he think? Even his family said he's lost his mind.

[48:12] He's embarrassing us. Go get him quick. Hurry. Get him. Get him. He embarrasses us even more. And then what did the rulers say about him in that very moment? He's able to do all these signs and wonders because he has Satan in him.

[48:27] Blaspheming the Holy Spirit. See, the world doesn't get it. They don't get us. They don't get Jesus. We just keep preaching Jesus saves. Jesus saves. And we trust the Lord to do what he's designed for their lives.

[48:42] Let's pray together, beloved, and thank God for these truths. Lord, we do thank you for being our God and our King. And I thank you for the wonderful attention that my brothers and sisters offer Greg and I as we stand to bring the word to them.

[48:58] Thank you for their hearts being riveted to your truth. Thank you for preparing them through the week. Thank you that we celebrate now in this Lord's Day, the first day of this new week, not knowing what's coming, but being able to say that given the teaching of this chapter, you know you are in control and you will always minister to us what is best for us and what will bring you glory.

[49:25] So thank you for our visitors that have come today, Lord. Thank you for ordaining and purposing that they would be with us to hear this message. And thank you, God, that you would help us now by your spirit to take these truths into our new week, that they will encourage us to live for Jesus and make much of him.

[49:43] In his name we pray. Amen. Amen.