Genesis 5, What’s the Price?, Dr. John Carpenter

Genesis 5 and the Price of Sin

Genesis chapter 5 of the entire chapter here. The Word of the Lord. This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man. He made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them and he blessed them and named him man when they were created.

When Adam had lived 130 years He fathered a son in his own likeness after his own image and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died.

When Seth had lived 105 years He fathered Enosh. Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years and he died. When Enosh had lived 90 years He fathered Kenan.

Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and another sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years and he died. When Kenan had lived 70 years he fathered Mahalaleel. Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalaleel 40 years and had other sons and daughters.

Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years and he died. When Mahalaleel had lived 65 years He fathered Jared. Mahalaleel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Mahalaleel were 895 years and he died.

When Jared had lived 162 years He fathered Enoch. Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and that other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died. When Enoch had lived 65 years he fathered Methuselah.

Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and that other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. When Methuselah had lived 187 years he fathered Lamech.

Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years and he died. When Lamech had lived 182 years he fathered a son and called his name Noah.

Saying out of the ground that the Lord has cursed. This one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands. Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and other sons and daughters.

Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years and he died. After Noah was 500 years old Noah fathered Shem ham in Japheth. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. Well, do you think there's no price to be paid?

Now you think some things come for free. Free young big letters. Great way of getting our attention. It's good bait, but if you bite you'll find out there are strings attached. Maybe it will be free to you.

Maybe. But there's a gimmick somehow. We gave away just last in August away water bottles to local kids mark specially made to publicize Jim jr. It was free to them. But it cost us something. Everything costs something.

One of the misleading claims we've heard a lot about Recently over the past couple months is that some debts can be canceled. Now the debts are canceled or debts are not canceled. They're paid. They're paid by somebody as they say.

There is no free lunch. Michael Barone vote hard America soft America in which he said that our society is divided into the hard and the soft in the soft. People believe that there are there are no cost that they are shielded from the consequences of their actions.

They can say whatever they feel like saying Inflammatory insulting and whatever and not gonna get hurt back for it. They can think they can rack up student debt and then get their debt magically canceled as though no one has to pay.

Or they could refuse to do schoolwork and yet get passing grades. Scores are not kept in sports. So I'll be no losers. When I was substitute teaching once in Tennessee, I sent a girl to the office for misbehaving and she wasn't intimidated.

She just shrugged her shoulders said she's gonna be sent right back to class with no consequences. No price to her. She was right. Soft institutions. Distort our view of reality when schools don't punish misbehavior or give an F to a failing grade.

They teach that there are no consequences for misbehaving or not studying. When parents don't discipline their kids those kids grow up to be surprised when they're fired from their job or When they're convicted in court when people are told that their debts are quote canceled.

They think that no one had to pay even in church when discipline and standards for membership are considered, you know unloving. Some people think the idea of church disciplines is totally contrary. Church is a soft institution.

They think even though historically Quote church discipline used to be considered one of the three essential marks of a true church any institution. They did not have church discipline. They would say like the Reformers and say that's not a church.

Whatever else it is. It's not a church if it's not practicing discipline. But when churches do not practice whatever they really are these institutions they call themselves churches. When they do not practice Discipline they teach people this sin comes with no cost.

It's just canceled. Barone argued in his book that soft institutions are actually hurting the people in them. They're not preparing them for the real world where they can get fired for being late or for being lazy for doing shoddy work.

I have a cousin who was raised soft a little discipline. The kind of kid didn't have to eat his dinner because mother wouldn't make him so it could skip right to dessert. Plopped in front of the TV when he joined the Air Force.

He was kicked out. We're not paying attention. We're paying attention to his orders and guess what? Yeah. His mom let him get away from that the Air Force didn't. The hard institutions are like the military where you can get demoted or dishonorably discharged like my cousin or in combat and Get killed in business.

You can lose your job. You can go bankrupt. Sports are popular. I think because in this soft world It's hard if you lose you lose and you have to earn your victory. It's not just handed to you. As you know, there's a consolation prize.

Hard institutions. Everyone knows there are severe consequences for failure. There's a price to be paid. Genesis chapter 5 teaches us that God has arranged the world after the fall. As a hard Institution there's a price as a steep price to be paid.

We bought into sin. We bought into the notion that we could have something for nothing. God had told us that when we eat of the forbidden fruit We will die. Satan said you will not surely die that we could have what we want.

We could do what we want against what God had said and there would be no cost Satan said. In other words, it's a soft world. There's no price to be paid. Don't worry about it. But Genesis 5 shows us the price.

And what a price. We see that here in three parts first the reality of death then the genealogy of death and finally the mortality of death. That is that death itself has an end. The earlier chapters have already revealed the high price of sin.

Which is first spiritual death or what the Apostle Paul called in Ephesians being dead in trespasses and sins. But the deceitful thing about spiritual death. Is that it doesn't upset us? Doesn't upset those who are victims of it.

That is we're dead to God. We're just unresponsive to the Word of God to the Holy Spirit as a corpse is to heat or to cold. Like being hot or cold doesn't hurt a corpse. Don't care. Being spiritually dead is like is being as unmoved by the Lord Jesus as a dead body is to being poked.

Just don't care. Being spiritually dead makes us dead to life. We don't care about it that death does not upset those who are the victims of it. In fact, we rather like it. Using a different metaphor Jesus said in John chapter 3 verse 19 that sinners love actually love darkness rather than light.

Because their deeds are evil. We do not count spiritual death as a high price. Unless we're brought out of it, but then death exerts a price that we know with every fiber of our being. Is hard and it's high.

Genesis 5 paints a stark picture of that dreaded price. Death devours our bodies. Genesis 5 has a refrain and he died and he died and He died. Eight times we hear that refrain. Today when we read these verses we tend to get distracted.

By the length of years how long the patriarchs lives that way you were thinking when you're walking through it. Wow, he lived so long 900 and something years. But the chapter is written to emphasize that those lives no matter how long they were.

They have an end. It appears originally that there was something about the earth. It was healthier or bodies that were hardier or both. It was closer to the way God originally intended for us to live but even they died.

That's the surprising thing here. Not the length of their years. Normally when we see a genealogy We don't think of commenting after every life and he died. We just take that for granted. Now we assume it we say Queen Elizabeth the second live from 1926 to 2022.

We don't ask what happened then. Well, we know she died. We've grown accustomed to the fact of death. But originally it was a shock it was a can you believe it he died. Now first Adam in verse 5 died.

Second and verse 8 Seth died. Third verse 11 Enos died. Fourth and verse 14 Kenan died. Fifth and verse 17 Mahalaleel died. Six in verse 20 Jared died and here God said look You will die. Everyone is dying.

Even these long-lived patriarchs died. Get the message. The statistics are overwhelming. 100 of people die freshly dug graves the world over still open wide their mouths. There's the reality of death.

Now we might know that intellectually. In our hearts we feel and we live is that there will be no death. We both assume the reality of death. So we don't even mention it and we ignore it at the same time.

We dread even the topic. Death is one of the main sources of euphemisms. It's one thing that we make up these nice sounding phrases to keep from having to look at what it really is. Pass away rest in peace.

Deceased departed. Succumbed went to a better place. We put it away in nursing homes or hospices. So we never have to watch anyone die. We often want to avoid even thinking about it even shield ourselves or our children from the reality of death.

Parents or children give me with terminal cancer rather than getting closer to the children as they die. Distance themselves from them. We hate death. We don't want to be reminded that there's a price to be paid.

But here in this chapter God says look after every one of them. There is death here. God rubs our noses in it he repeats it over and over again. Let's we forget died died died eight times died. If we prefer to stay away from funerals and graveyards is eloquent testimony to the truth of this chapter.

If we were made to die if it were just an evolutionary part of our nature, then wouldn't we have as a race? Adjusted to the reality of it by now. Why are there so many people who are heartbroken sometimes for the rest of their lives by the death of a loved one?

Why is death so hard for us to handle if it's just you know. Part of our nature something we expect. Well death is painful to us our own or that of others. Something we want to avoid at all costs. Something we ignore until we can't when we can't avoid it to turn away from it to cover it up.

Because we were made for something more the English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote to God Thou will not leave us in the dust. Thou made us man. He knows not why he thinks he was not made to die. And thou has made him.

Thou art just we think we were not made to die because We weren't made to die. But here we're told over and over that death is now the steep price. We all have to pay for our sin. Death is a hard Reality as hard and as cold as diamonds with none of the beauty.

Second the genealogy of death this chapter isn't simply another genealogy. It's very unique. There's no genealogy like it elsewhere in the Bible. It is more like a set of tombstones. It's a walk through a graveyard.

It's the genealogy of death. It brings us from Adam to Noah now. There were a lot of other people that could be listed here from that all that time. You could have a lot of children in 900 years. I would assume if for each one of them is isn't he had other sons or daughters could have been a whole lot of them.

But these are the ones listed here. They're listed here. But there's the important ones because they lead us to Noah the man through whom humanity was saved. His birth is celebrated in verse 29 and by his father.

He said he will give us relief. His father Lamech said they've discovered the price of sin is very high. Noah will give them relief from it. Now, of course at the time When his father Lamech said that he may have only been thinking, you know, this this is hard work on these fields.

We need another helping hand need another son. It can be out there with us and crops. But his words turned out to be a prophecy. Noah gives relief first by relieving those suffering under painful toil taking away their painful toil by washing them away and Then by being the one through whom Comes the one later through whom the high price for our sins can be paid.

Genesis 5 begins with a pause in the story. The first three verses review the major landmarks of where we've been. We're recapping now the first four chapters of Genesis. I like a hike of a mountain or hiked up a mountain.

Maybe you stop for a break and at some Vista take a look at the valley below. Where you've come where you've been you're not to your destination yet, but you stop for a little bit to look and here. That's what Genesis 5 and do it and is doing it repeats that statement from chapter 1 repeats it in verses 1 and 2 here that God may preach it almost word for word that God made man man the word same as Adam.

Could be in chapter 5 verse 1 here. God called him man. God called him Adam. It's the same word. And that were made in the image of God. The most important thing about us our most unique important quality is not that we're the most Intelligent animal on earth or the best at communicating or whatever using tools or whatever else people try to say.

Why is unique about humanity? It's that were made in the image of God. This is why our spiritual nature. It's not some added extra to our life. You know now that we take a care of food and shelter now that I have enough money in the bank.

The business is okay. I got the house paid off now. I can start thinking about spiritual things. No, it is essential to who we are. The reason we were made was to glorify and enjoy God. That's why the spiritual death we've been made to pay for our sins is the highest price.

We could be made to pay. Verse 3 says Seth Adam's son Was created in Adams image. Adam was created in God's image. Seth and Adams by the time Adam to get Seth he was just a Creature. Adam was in God's image.

He wasn't not just a creature in God's image. He was also a sinner and so his ancestors Seth and us are both in the image of God and Sinners by nature. That's the purpose for that there Created in the image of God reviewing that that's still last.

But now he's a sinner and that's passed on. Seth passed on to us and the words of the old Puritan New England Primer Adams fall. This is a for children to learn their alphabet and Adams. There's a fall we send all.

That's why every generation after Adam dies. He died he died. It's the genealogy of death the third part it's actually in the midst of This walk among the tombstones from verses 21 to 24 before we get back to the genealogy of death.

One was we're going through this died. He died. He died and then there's a there's an interruption there in the middle of it. Reverses from verse 3 we follow the line from Noah from Seth to Noah and along the way.

There's this drumbeat died died. Died always reminding us of the price to be paid for sand eight times in Genesis 5 God gave humanity over to death yet in the midst of this. There's this peculiar exception the beat changes.

Beat changes suddenly, you know music if there's an interruption, there's a sudden change of the rhythm. You notice it it just stands out. It's probably a term for that in music study, but whatever it just you get your attention immediately the rhythms changed.

Here our attention is drawn to the fact of the mortality of death that death itself is mortal. Right in the mirror in the middle of the graveyard of the Patriarchs is Enoch taken not died and so this is the hard world with the price to be paid for our sins and that price is Death and yet there is also a soft God.

He says a soft side soft to some. Who will take some away from death? So in the seventh generation, there is a man who walks with God in the seventh generation from from Adam. That's the seventh. Seven being the number of completeness is in the seven days of creation a full a complete a perfect creation.

In the seventh generation God decides not to let death have its prey. There will be no Seventh no capstone of death no completion to its hunt. No perfection to death. God shows us that that by taking away the seventh man Enoch.

Rather than making him pay. But the Bible tells us twice about Enoch in verses 22 and 24. There's really all we need to know. He walked with God. But just those few words says a lot. We can see here four points on walking with God.

Walking with God requires four qualities for first fellowship second faith. Then faithfulness and finally friendship or first follow ship. Enoch walked with God in verse 24. Now think about the order of that phrase he walked with God.

It doesn't say God walked with Enoch. That is that You know as if to suggest that God went in each way. No, God didn't go in its way. Neither does it say Enoch and God walk together. It could say that but as I doesn't that would be implying that is of God and and Enoch had compromised on how and when they would walk.

He's kind of giving a little. I'll go your way today. You go my way tomorrow like that. This is how we creatures relate to each other if we want a companion. We had better walk with the other person some to you.

We give a little go with their pace go to the restaurant. They want to go to sometimes see the movie. They want to watch sometimes the TV show they like sometimes but with God there is no compromise. There's no give-and-take we walk with him.

We go God's way. We take God's directions and step at God's pace. Enoch walked with God. Because he learned to be a follower the discipline of following the art of follow ship. Second walking with God requires faith.

We must believe him. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 5 says by faith Enoch was taken up so that it would not see death and he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.

Now in that era here of chapter 5 Humanity's experiencing the death that they shouldn't have had to experience when it said about every person after another He died he died he died all because at the beginning Adam and Eve would not believe God.

God had said don't eat of this in the day that you eat of it. You will die, but Satan said you won't die and They believe Satan instead of God and so death came on us. Because we would not believe. But Enoch believed and not even though he was a son of Adam God graciously decided to spare him the death that came because of unbelief.

Enoch pleased God because he had faith. The next verse in Hebrew says and without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and That he rewards those who earnestly seek him and we can be moral.

We can even be religious without faith. Without pleasing God without really believing he's rewarding those who earnestly seek him. But when we walk with God, we believe him and that shows itself that trust shows itself in Trusting his word what he said and so we live according to his word.

By what he's taught how he's told us to live. We're at the garden. He tells us not to eat that tree. We believe him and we don't we believe that he rewards those who seek him. So we seek him. We believe that walking his way is more rewarding.

It makes us happier Than walking our own way. So we walk with him. That meant that even he had to pay the price. Because faith determines how you live. He paid some price. We're not we don't know the details.

But he paid some price for his faith if you really believe God. If you really believe what he says is true. Then that faith will lead you to submit to what he says. Sometimes to give up things that otherwise you would have liked.

True faith produces obedience. Your flesh may tell you that sexual immorality is the way to live. Your greed may tell you not to give because you want to keep that money for yourself or to work instead of worship.

Do you want to make more money for yourself? Your ego may tell you that you don't really need accountability. You can stay home by yourself, but God says differently you'll walk in. The way you believe.

This is part of the price you have to pay to be a Christian. You now believe you're Christian that sin has consequences. And that obedience is rewarded and that'll show in how you live. You'll obey you'll seek him.

You'll walk according to where your faith is. Third walking with God requires Faithfulness, that is a continuous steady Integrated life a life of integrity in which what you say you believe in church.

You consistently live out at work at play and you're dating or a married life everywhere. You know, he walked. I was continuously Living for God to walk here. It's not just kind of literally took a walk like an hour a day with God and then he went back and did his own Thing the rest of the time.

No, it's a way of saying it was his lifestyle. He put it into daily practice. He lived it all his life. His life all the time was characterized by his relationship his faith his obedience to the Lord.

He lived it as a service of worship to God. Now if you just walk with God a few hours on Sunday morning. Well, you'll find out that he's traveled quite a bit down the road. Without you by next week. He may not he may allow you to repent and to Catch up to him join up him again.

But one day you may find that you walk so far away from him that you can't get back. There will be a price to pay for not walking with God faithfully. People think they can play with sin for a while and Then come back to God later and maybe when they feel like it when the when they've satisfied this urge for sin.

Maybe just one affair. Maybe just a few wild nights at some club is maybe some cheating on the taxes. Maybe some pornography on the internet. No one knows about maybe just one slanderous exclamation when you're angry.

You add your own weakness here, whatever it is. You're tempted to walk away from God for but these sins have a high cost. It's easier to stay with God than to try to get back to him after wandering away.

Walking with God is a 24 -7 occupation Church. What we're doing here now exists to encourage you to walk even closer. Walk with the Lord. Sometimes we have to tell you to pick up the pace. Or to remind you to walk God's way not your own.

That's your way. That's not God's. To remind you. It's our church covenant says to walk together and Christian love. We're here to encourage you To do that. That's what we're doing right now. But the real test of who you are walking with comes When you walk out those doors.

Fourth walking with God Means being a friend of God. Amos chapter 3 verse 3 ask can to walk together. Unless they are agreed. You cannot walk with God unless you agree with him. You agree with his priorities like worship over money-making.

Seeking first the kingdom of God. You can't walk with God unless he's your friend and. So you are not a friend of the world the Apostle James tells us. Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?

Anyone chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. You have to make a choice who will be your friend the world or God who you're gonna walk with. You can't have both. Enoch chose God and gave up friendship with the world.

The book of Jude in verse 14 quotes Enoch denouncing ungodly Ungodliness in the world. Here's the only words of Enoch preserved of all places in the book of Jude. But here's what the only thing we know Enoch said.

Quote behold the Lord comes with 10 ,000 of his Holy Ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their all their deeds of ungodliness. That they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners has spoken against him.

He was declaring Coming judgment judgments coming. There's going to be a price to pay for your sins people. He was denouncing their ungodliness before the flood. And that price came didn't it? Because he was walking with God he had to stand in opposition to the sins of the world.

What do you think the response to saying things like that was from his neighbors from his? Former friends. To walk with God means to be walking in the opposite direction is most other people. It's mistaken to think that one can walk with God and be a friend of Jesus and it will be easy.

It will be socially respectable. People will just love you for it. You will be popular for it. Edith didn't have to pay the price of death, but he did pay a price for walking with God. He had to stand out.

He won't come cheap. Walking with God has always been costly. That price might start to go up dramatically. Here and even in this country, what will you do if suddenly offerings to the church aren't tax-deductible?

What if saying what the Bible says about homosexuality or or what verse 2 here says in this chapter about Being created male and female that our sexual identity being male or female is not a social construct.

It's not just something we make up or we can we can make it up ourselves in our whatever we choose. Or saying that Jesus is the only way to salvation. What if that becomes considered hate speech? You get censored for it.

You've oppressed for it. What if walking with God means you lose money because you're in church instead of working? So now you're poor for it. What if walking with God requires you to submit your ways your will to him and that you have to submit to something that cuts?

Against your grain the Word of God the good of the whole body of Christ. You have to give up something. What if it means losing some old friends? Are you prepared for that price? Apparently one day Enoch kept walking with God so far That God invited him to come come to his house to rest.

He was the seventh from Adam. God showed that death's victory was not complete. That God would not forever give us all up to death even though it is the price we should all pay. Enoch's translation into heaven was a promise of a resurrection to come of the mortality of death that Even death the last enemy would die.

Genesis 5 teaches us that sin deserves death. That is the price That must be paid. But it's not the complete story there will be a death of death and The death of death came in the death of Christ. He paid the price.

We all owed that hard Cost he paid it. We owed it that debt wasn't just canceled. It was paid. It was paid by how Jesus walked. He walked perfectly even better than Enoch. He followed he had faith. He faithfully obeyed all his life.

He was a friend of God. He was agreeing with him. He overcame the world but instead of being taken like Enoch He submitted to death even death on a cross. He died because our sins our death our debt Was laid on him to buy us out of death.

Not only physical death. I don't even escape from the from the death that is right at this moment hunting down our mortal bodies. Now don't escape from that Bodily death that we fear so much but most importantly and escape from that spiritual death.

That deadness in our trespasses and sins that makes us dead to God. That death in our hearts Has to be overcome first and that Jesus the last Adam did. When he walked with God perfectly in this godless world when he walked to the cross when he walked out of that tomb so come now and Walk with him.