FBC Eternal Issues Bible Conference

Good evening.

I Apologize for locking you out tonight.

That's got distracted coming in and then just forgot to unlock the door so

Some somebody suggested could add service outside.

If you're any takers on that, you know, okay.

Yeah one.

Okay.

All right.

Well, welcome this evening.

Let's take our supplement book.

Turn to number 56.

Number 56 now that you've gotten yourself situated.

We'll get you standing again.

If you would do that, we'll stand and sing him our great God number

56.

About

a

month

or

so

ago.

I

had

the privilege of attending a pastor's fraternal or conference up in Grand Rapids.

And I had to go to Grand Rapids to meet a pastor who's just about what 25 miles from here.

Steve Rios is pastoring at the Zion Church up in Freeport and come to find out

he's got got some connections here in Sterling and Kind of grew up here.

All right.

Okay, so good.

Well, I heard his heard his testimony and heard of how the Lord has led him to the ministry there in Freeport.

I've asked him if he would come and lead us in prayer tonight Steve.

Come on ahead.

You.

Please bow with me in prayer.

Heavenly Father is so good to be in your house and it is so good to be with your people Lord.

We thank you for your word that you have preserved for us father and you communicate through us To a book

and you intend that book to be read father.

And as we gather around to hear your word open up and preached we're reminded of the words of Peter.

We have no place else to turn you are the Christ and Lord.

We just want to thank you for the love that you've shown to us Undeserved unmerited but by a way of your

sovereign grace father.

You've reached down to us.

You've enabled us to understand who you are that you are a holy sovereign God.

Your word in a Sense is a mirror and it was reflects to us how unholy

and how unworthy we are father.

But in your kindness and your goodness, you've helped us to see these things in your word and your spirit.

You've drawn us into a redemptive relationship with you and we're so thankful for that father Lord.

We pray that any portions of your word that are opened up here tonight that they would command our our full attention that we be not

Merely hearers of your word, but that we would be doers father and that we never leave the same.

When we hear you speak through your word, but that we continue to be changed conformed to the image of Christ.

To be salt and light to be saints who are equipped for the work of ministry to advance your church To

advance your kingdom to continue to grow and conform to the image of your son Christ.

And you do good things for you father.

We love you tonight.

We thank you again for allowing us to be here for it's in Christ's name that we pray and all the people of God said.

Amen.

Thank you, and you may be seated.

Appreciate that Steve.

Would turn to Genesis chapter 5.

We'll read this passage tonight.

After how Hoke is going to Speak to us from

this genealogy.

Genesis chapter 5.

Courage you to follow as I read.

This is the book of the genealogy of Adam and the day that God created man.

He made him in the likeness of God he created them male and female and blessed them and called them

mankind in the day they were created.

And Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after

his image and named him Seth.

After he begot Seth the days of Adam were 800 years and he had sons and daughters.

So all the days of that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years and he

died.

Seth lived 105 years and he begot Enos and he begot Enos after he begot Enos.

Seth lived 807 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years and he died.

Enos lived 90 years and begot Canaan after he begot Canaan.

Canaan.

Enos lived 815 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years and he died.

Canaan lived 70 years and begot Mahalalel after he begot Mahalalel.

Canaan lived 840 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Canaan were nine hundred and ten years and he died.

Mahalalel lived 65 years and begot Jared after he begot Jared.

Mahalalel lived 830 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years and he died.

Jared lived 162 years and begot Enoch.

After he begot Enoch.

Jared lived 800 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty -two years and he died.

Enoch lived 65 years and begot Methuselah after he begot Methuselah.

Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Enoch were 365 years and Enoch walked with God

and he was not for God took him.

Methuselah lived 187 years and begot Lamech after he begot Lamech.

Methuselah lived 782 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty -nine years and he died.

Lamech lived 182 years and had a son.

And he called his name Noah saying this one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands.

Because of the ground which the Lord is cursed.

After he begot Noah Lamech lived five five hundred and ninety -five years and had sons and

daughters.

So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy -seven years and he died.

And Noah was five hundred years old and Noah begot Shem Ham and Japheth.

The Lord had his blessing to the reading of his word and the message to follow.

Just a note of encouraged encouraging you to continue to pray for Priscilla.

But Tom could come tonight with Clyde, but we want to pray for Priscilla.

She had a Tough day today and a lot more pain.

She was had a good day yesterday.

A lot of family visiting and she was pretty cheerful and glad to see all the family but

today was in much more pain and they had to increase the pain medication

and Just just pray for her in these waning days of life pray for Tom and

Jean and their family and these difficult difficult days.

But that does give some poignancy to the next song.

We want to sing in our supplement number 68 number 68 will

sing before Pastor Hoke comes to speak to us from Genesis 5.

There is a hope.

It's burns

within

our

hearts

our

Father

and

our God.

We thank you for the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.

Hope for that eternal home that hope that that gets us

through our days hope that Helps us endure the hardest heartache and

deepest suffering.

Thank you for that.

Hope Bless now your word to our hearts.

We pray in Jesus name.

You've got a copy of your Bible with you.

Please turn with me to the passage that pastor vice read a few moments ago in Genesis

chapter 5.

Again, thankful for the opportunity to be with you and to get to open God's Word.

Together with you tonight this evening.

We are jumping from Genesis 3 where we were last night considering the Serpent and the

serpent crusher the seed of the woman Tonight to look at a genealogy

together in chapter 5 and believe it or not.

I'm excited about it.

You might not share my enthusiasm.

I understand that yesterday we had a cursed snake today.

We have a genealogy and you are perhaps beginning to question the wisdom of your pastor who invited this

guy to preach about a Genealogy.

Be honest.

You don't have to answer this out loud or raise your hand or anything like that.

What do you do when you come to a genealogy in your Bible?

You're reading along in your Bible.

There's a genealogy.

What do you do.

Skip it?

You know, you shouldn't do that because you know, all of Scripture is inspired by God and it's profitable.

So maybe skim it really fast because what are all these names?

Anyway, who are they and I don't.

I don't know who they are.

I can't even pronounce most of them.

Well done Pastor Brian by the way for reading that and I gave him a challenge when I asked him to read that.

Yeah, maybe skim over it and just kind of hope for the best and maybe you'll recognize the name in

there.

But probably not and we're just gonna get on to whatever's in the next chapter.

Anybody ever do that again?

Don't raise your hand.

Don't.

You can answer that in your heart.

Have you ever taken a little time to dig through a genealogy.

Let's see if I recognize any of the names.

Oh, I do recognize that name.

Is that the same guy that's mentioned over here in that passage?

And maybe try to work some of that out and see who's.

Who's dad and and mother Matthew.

Matthew one is a fascinating genealogy.

There's five women in the genealogy in Matthew one.

Got a sermon about that genealogy too, and I'm better not start preaching it.

We don't have time for sermons on two genealogies tonight, but they really are some interesting things

and some genealogies and I hope that you'll see that tonight that they can actually be really interesting and Profitable

and so if you're reading your Bible when you come to a genealogy I want to encourage you today to not just skip it or skim over it

really fast because I believe that God wants us to learn from and benefit from

records of Descendants in the Bible.

That's what a genealogy is.

It's a record of Descendants who came after who came after who?

Sometimes they go like the one here in Genesis does it starts with the the Oldest and works

down to the most recent some of the genealogies in the New Testament

genealogy.

Genealogy of Jesus and Luke 3 works the other direction it starts with Jesus the most recent and works all the way back.

So so just pay attention to stuff like that.

There's some neat things that you can observe and learn as you work your way through and I trust you'll see tonight.

There are some lessons some things that we can draw from a genealogy as well.

So in this in this conference on eternal issues we are drawing some we're doing some

snapshots from Genesis to see some eternal truths like the fact that God is and That he

created and that he promised to send His son to crush the head of the

serpent and that he did do that.

Those are eternal realities that are matter for our eternity.

For where we will spend Eternity and we want to consider some more of those eternal issues and truths

tonight.

So a few snapshots from Genesis.

We've looked at Genesis 1 1 Genesis 3 14 15 and now we're coming to Genesis 5

tonight.

Genesis is really a book of generations.

It's a book of genealogies.

I think maybe I mentioned that yesterday and and that interest in Generations goes right back to what we saw

last night the promise of one who would be descended from the woman.

Who would come and crush the serpent's head?

And so right away there's this interest in descent.

It's the seed of the offspring of the woman that we're watching for and Genesis is

interested in tracing out those generations especially that family line that

genealogy which will lead to that seed of The woman the one that we know is the

Christ the Son of God.

We'll find some of that here in Genesis 5 some of that line that leads to the Christ here.

And so tonight we're just gonna do some observations.

I'm gonna walk you through the genealogy a little bit and make some notes about it some things that I think are interesting.

That come to us from this genealogy and then draw some lessons from it.

Alright, so we're just gonna observe some things and then we're gonna try to learn some things from what we've observed.

So some observations, what is this genealogy about?

Well, you look at verse 1.

This is the book of the generations of Adam.

I think the the New King James reads the genealogy of Adam as pastor read it there.

I'm using the ESV here.

So it says generations and I'll just make a note of this as well.

This uses the language of fathered instead of the language of begot.

And so as I read along you'll hear some of those differences if you're working with a different translation.

But this is the book of the generations of the genealogy of Adam and this

is just for free tonight, but The like it you don't need to know this to

understand Genesis 5.

But if as you're reading through Genesis and you want to watch for something that expression.

This is the genealogy of or these are the generations of that occurs about ten times in

Genesis.

It's almost like a headache.

All these different times these are the generations of and here it's a little different.

This is the book of the generations and then it gives a name.

Actually in Genesis 2 it gives something different in a it's it's not a person.

These are the generations of the heavens in the earth.

Here's the generations of Adam and then usually follows something that comes after that person and here.

It's this Genealogy of Adam so watch for that expression these are the generations of

or this is the genealogy of and You'll find that about ten times in the book of Genesis sort of a

divider marker that you can watch for as you read.

Here, it's the generations of Adam.

So who is it that comes after?

Adam well this genealogy covers the time span from creation to the

flood.

We saw a creation back in Genesis 1 on Sunday morning.

And now we are going to see that the time span covered here goes from that point from creation.

All the way down to the flood and if you want to hear more about the flood come back.

And we will talk about a little bit about Noah and the flood and the ark but

this covers the period between creation and that flood.

Starts with a quick recap of creation and verses 1 2 when God created man He made him in the

likeness of God male and female.

He created them and he blessed them and named them man when they were created and so

a Reminder that creatures are made in the likeness of God the Creator don't confuse the

Creator and the creature we talked about that yesterday that's really important to not get those mixed up

and God reminds us of that here through a servant Moses who is recording this for us

that God made man in his image.

But he didn't make him to be God.

He made him to be a creature.

And so there's a distinction there.

Moses is just reminding us of that.

That's where it begins.

It ends with Noah and then the flood account follows.

And did you notice as we read that man people before the flood lived a really long

time?

What in the world.

People live most of them over 900 years.

When you read something like that, don't just read over that and keep going on hundred years.

Oh, yeah, the people were old before the flood think about it for a second if you were Methuselah

the oldest man that ever lived 969 years old if

you go back 969 years from today.

Do you know where you land?

But good at math in your head 1054.

You know what happened in 1054?

Great schism of the church between East and West.

So let's say you're born in 1054.

You're born in the day that there's this great schism in the church.

You know what you're gonna experience in your 969 year life.

Well, you probably know a little history.

Great schism and then you're gonna live through the middle or the dark ages into the time of the Renaissance

and you're gonna get to experience the.

Reformation.

That we only read about in our history books and Then the age after the Reformation

with with Puritans.

You're gonna read about the settling of the New World the American Revolution.

You're not gonna read about it.

You're gonna live through it the American Revolution the Civil War World War two World War three all the way down through today.

And those are just a few of the kind of big things that happen.

I've left out huge swaths of history.

You're gonna live through all of that if you're nine hundred and sixty nine years old today.

So think think about stuff like that as you read.

Don't just let nine hundred year lifespans roll off without thinking about what that might look like.

That really happened.

This is not just like fantasy or fiction or somebody didn't do their math very well this

and.

And I'm not gonna get into explanations for why people live longer back then than they do today.

Gradually that lifespan after the flood would start to shorten and shorten and shorten down to where Moses can say

in Psalm 90 our years.

Are 80 or maybe 90 kind of to the lifespans that we see typically today.

You want to you want to have a conversation about why that was or whatever we can do that afterwards but but 900

year lifespans pretty remarkable assuming there's there's no gaps in this genealogy occasionally in Bible

genealogies.

And don't be troubled by this it will.

It calls it will go from one generation and skip a generation or two and and name a further

Descendant as a son that's common language common usage in the Bible.

I Don't think this one skips any generations just because of how precisely the years are counted out for us here.

So assuming that there's no gaps in the genealogy Adam would still have been alive

when most of the people in this genealogy were born.

Again, do some of the math have a little fun with this as you're reading through a genealogy read through it.

Hang on.

Adam was still living when Lamech was born one generation before Noah.

Methuselah would have died in the year of the flood.

Whether before the flood or in the flood.

We don't know.

Some interesting things you can learn if you take a little time in some of these Genealogies and then as this

genealogy goes from creation to flood it follows a very consistent pattern.

And there's things that you can learn from the pattern and there's things that you can learn from the variations in the pattern.

Notice the pattern first of all, we'll use Seth as an example in verses 6 through 8.

I didn't want to use my Hillel because it's too many syllables to say Seth is easier.

So.

Alright, so we're gonna go with Seth and and he's in verses 6 through 8.

The pattern is this so -and -so in this instance It's Seth lived for X number of

years hundred and five for Seth and fathered begot a son.

Enosh, all right, that's the first part of the pattern this person lived

This many years X number of years and he fathered a son then you'll find this so -and -so Seth lived

after he fathered a son in this case Enosh.

Why number of years here?

It's eight hundred and seven years and fathered sons and daughters they're being fruitful multiplying filling the earth

fulfilling God's creation mandate that he gave and All the days of so -and -so Seth

were X plus Y Years, so 105 plus 107 and you get nine hundred and

twelve years.

And he died.

Don't forget that.

All right, so that's the pattern and There's ten entries in the genealogy six of them

follow that pattern more or less exactly.

Others have some variation to them.

So let's think about some of these variations.

Why do that why draw our attention to some of the variations?

Well, the variations are kind of like signs flashing and drawing our attention.

This one is not like the other ones.

And when scripture does that sit up and take notice.

Now the pattern is important.

We see the steady march of history in the pattern.

We see God fulfilling his promise to bring the deliverer from the seed of the woman in the pattern.

This one was born and then this one was born and then this one was born.

We see the inevitability of death in The pattern and he died and he

died.

We see the line down to the Christ the serpent crusher the seed of the woman will be unbroken

there's a comfort in the rhythm and the pattern.

God kept giving people the capacity to be fruitful and multiply and they kept doing that very thing for his purpose to

bring his son.

But the variations give us a little jolt it's like a little hey wake up and maybe maybe you've been like you're

starting to drift off to sleep and Something snaps you out of it the variations and the pattern should do that.

So for me, that's a little bit like driving through northern, Indiana.

I live in northern, Indiana and northern, Indiana is about as flat as it gets.

I Mean, I mean, this is how flat northern, Indiana is that I live in Warsaw now before that I

lived in Bremen, Indiana, and it's so flat that they had to build a sledding hill in our town.

So that kids could go sledding literally they built a sledding hill in one of the parks so kids go so that's how flat it is

and that makes for great farmland and so you drive through, Indiana and Flat and I mean you can drive in a straight

line for a long way in, Indiana.

And what you're gonna see is corn field.

Soybean field so you're gonna go to corn soybeans corn soybeans.

That's the pattern corn soybeans corn Soybeans, are you sleepy yet starting to

fall asleep a little bit and then boom.

There's a small town and all of a sudden it's not corn and soybeans and that small town is your variation.

There's something different.

There's there's probably a gas station probably a Dollar General.

There's an ice cream store.

Maybe a bank some homes.

Maybe a flashing light maybe a traffic light.

It's a big town like Bremen was a two traffic light town.

That was exciting.

And then all of a sudden you're back in the rhythm corn.

Soybeans.

That's what this genealogy is like pattern pattern pattern and then every now and then boom

there's a little town.

There's something different and when you see something different you should sit up and Pay attention

when the Old Testament authors give you something like that take notice.

So let's look at some of these variations.

The first one is with Adam and that's before the pattern is established.

So you might not notice it on a first tree, but but you're not one of those people that skims a genealogy.

You've read it carefully.

And so by the time you get to the end you go.

That first entry Adam that one was different than the other one.

So you go back and take a look and this is what you find.

Adam fathered a son begot a son in his own likeness.

After his image none of the other ones say that this one does

Adam remember was created in the image and likeness of God and that image was not

lost as Adam passed it on to his son, but that image has been Marred it's

been messed up.

And so the likeness and image inherited by Seth.

Do you see that?

Make sure you see it there in verse 3 when Adam had lived 130 years.

He fathered a son in his own likeness after his image just like he's made in the image of

God.

He fathers a son in his image.

But that image and likeness inherited by Seth are not the same as when Adam was created by God.

It's now a fallen and corrupted humanity born in sin the image of God is still there, but it's

been defaced and so Seth bears the image of God and The image of

fallen Adam and that continues through every generation down

through today.

You are made in the image of God.

No other part of creation can say that only man.

Mankind man and woman he made the male and female.

You're made in the image of God and you're born in the image of

Adam to.

Fallen and.

Dead in your sin.

Now Moses doesn't spell that out for each generation.

But this first entry in the genealogy shows the normal process of being fruitful and multiplying.

Passes on the likeness and image of the parent to the offspring.

Thousands of years later here we are still born in the image of God and in the sin of Adam.

It is inescapable.

That's true for everyone that's born.

You're made in the image of God and you're born in the image and likeness of your father.

And so you're born in sin.

That's one of the variations.

Another one comes with Enoch in verses 21 through 24.

It starts out like the other ones when Enoch had lived 65 years he fathered Methuselah and

Then verse 22 Enoch walked with God.

Even if you're skimming a genealogy this one should make you sit up.

Well, none of the other ones have said that none of the other people in this genealogy.

Are we told walked with God?

We are told that about Enoch and then it's repeated in verse 24

but also.

Did you notice that the concluding refrain with each one and he died and he died and he died

that steady?

Drumbeat the rhythm of inescapability of death is interrupted by this.

For Enoch and he was not.

For God took him.

What?

You should that should catch your attention and he died and he died and He

was not for God took him.

That's different.

Paying attention Enoch didn't die Hebrews

11 5 by faith Enoch was taken up so that he should 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.

You'll find a similar account of Elijah the prophet in second Kings 2.

Don't read it right now.

But if you want to read something similar, the only other guy that never died was Elijah.

So Enoch walked with God and was taken by God seems Enoch was a godly man who God in mercy

Removed from the wicked earth to be with him in glory before he reached the end of what would have been a much

longer life in a deeply wicked world and

He was not for God took him.

There's another variation when you get to Lamech down in verses 28 to 31.

Lamech called the name of his son Noah now that's a little bit different.

The other ones don't say he called the name of his son or he named him.

We are told name it called lame it called the name of his son Noah or told that about Adam.

He called the name of his son Seth and God did that.

He named them.

He called the name called his name man in verse 2.

The other ones don't say that it just gives the name.

It doesn't say who named them.

Three instances.

God Adam and Lamech.

It tells who named them.

There's another variation something else you can watch for as you read through it, but he names his son

Noah, and he says something about his son Noah.

He talks about his son.

None of these other guys.

Their words about their sons aren't recorded but Lamech's are.

Called his name Noah verse 29 saying out of the ground that the Lord is cursed.

This one shall bring relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.

He acknowledges the curse God pronounced on the ground.

Maybe remember Lamech.

Adam is still around when Lamech is born.

It looks like and so maybe Adam had reminded subsequent generations of the curse.

Look back with me for a moment.

Generate Genesis chapter 3.

We saw last night God cursed the serpent.

He had a word of judgment for the woman and a word of judgment for the man and here it is for the man in Genesis 3 17.

And Adam he said because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I

commanded you shall Not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground because of you.

That's what Lamech is talking about.

Cursed is the ground because of you and pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

Thorns and thistles that shall Bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your

face.

You shall eat bread till you return to the ground.

Remember this till you return to the ground for out of it.

You were taken for you were dust and to dust you shall return

Lamech.

Lamech says I'm gonna call my son Noah and that name Noah sounds like the Hebrew

word for rest and He's gonna give us relief from

our work and from the painful toil of our hands.

Lamech sounds weary to me.

He's weary of the cursed ground.

He's weary of the labor the painful toil and he's looking for rest and he's hopeful that his son

Noah will be the one that provides it.

And and and.

Did you notice when we read the the cursed ground and the judgment pronounced and Adam there in Genesis 3

just a moment ago.

That death is gonna be part of this.

You were taken from the ground and you're gonna return to the ground.

And what do we?

See in Genesis 5 they live a really long time, but They still die and

they return to the dust.

That rhythm of death is a reminder of the truth of the judgment.

God Pronounced the pain of working the ground is a reminder of its truth.

Lamech hopes that Noah will give them rest.

And so the words of Lamech accompanying his son Noah's birth set this entry apart.

One other variation is the last entry Noah in verse 32.

After Noah was 500 years old.

Noah fathered Shem Ham and Japheth.

This one is different because it's so short and There's three sons that are named instead of

just one.

There's another another variation now.

This one does get finished later.

Moses just inserts the flood narrative if you want to see the end of this entry.

You can look over just for a second at Genesis 9.

This is after the flood after after some other things after the flood.

And we read this Genesis 9 28 and 29 after the flood.

Noah lived 350 years all the days of Noah were 950 years.

And he died.

So the genealogy gets wrapped up after the flood narrative.

So this last entry is really different.

It's it's got this huge flood narrative stuck in the middle of it.

So there are some observations about the genealogy and let me just encourage you next time you come across a

genealogy.

Spend a little time with it.

Hang out with it.

Don't be afraid of the names.

You can you can look up some Bible software online it'll read the text for you and maybe pronounce some of those names

for you get an idea of what they sound like and and Do it do it spend a little time with it now.

Every genealogy does not have this much information and if you try to do what we've just done with some of the other genealogy be like.

You can't do that's just names name name name name name name you can grab those names and see where else

they occur in Scripture you won't be able to do everything that we've just done with every genealogy, but some have more

information that you might think and Give it a go next time you come across a genealogy.

See if you don't observe some of those things now.

This is not all me and my smart brain looking at this stuff.

I've read all sorts of commentaries and they point out all sorts of things and and I'm sharing some of what I've learned with

you tonight.

But what can we learn from it?

What are some lessons we can draw from it?

And I want to see three lessons from the genealogy.

The first one is walking with God.

This is a lesson from one of the variations from one of the differences in the genealogy the one

about Enoch.

We don't know exactly what walking with God looked like for Enoch men called on the name of the Lord back in that day.

They worshiped in some way we expect Enoch did those things.

There's a clue in the New Testament when Hebrews 5 we are.

Hebrews 11 verse 5 We read it earlier speaks of Enoch as having been as having pleased

God.

He was well pleasing to God and if we trace walking with God and being well pleasing to

God.

That's what Enoch was.

He walked with God.

He was well pleasing to God.

You trace those ideas through the Old Testament and The New Testament we begin to get an idea of what the life of

Enoch might have been.

Like what it might have looked like and how we?

Ought to walk before God.

Again, you're reading along in the genealogy thing.

You know walk with God.

I wonder what look like and then you can chase down what walking with God look like in your body.

And here's some of the things that you'll find.

In the Old Testament, you'll find that those who walk with God are blameless.

Like Noah we find it in the next chapter.

We find God covenants with those who walk with him.

God walks with them.

God delivers those who walk with him and I've got a bunch of references here.

I got a pile of references on walking with God and being well pleasing to God from the old in the New Testament if you'd Like

to do any more work on any of that.

We just don't have time tonight.

So in the Old Testament those who walk with God are blameless.

God covenants and God walks with them.

He delivers them.

In the New Testament walking is a metaphor for the Christian life.

Colossians 1 in verse 10.

So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to him.

They're both of them are together there.

Walking and fully pleasing to God.

That's what walking with God is.

It's pleasing to him bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

We're walking with God.

We're pleasing to him.

We are bearing fruit.

We are increasing in the knowledge of God.

When Hebrews 11 5 also tells us that Enoch was commended as having pleased God by faith

by faith.

Whatever God revealed to himself of Enoch Enoch believed he

trusted him.

Let me ask you tonight.

Are you walking by faith?

Pleasing God you can't do that in your own strength.

It has to be by faith.

Which is looking away from yourself to the one who is enabled to you who can enable you to walk with him

it has to be by faith because right after the the verse about Enoch in Hebrews 11 5 we read this.

And Without faith it is impossible to please him.

Enoch was well pleasing to him by faith without faith.

It's impossible to please him or we could say to walk with him.

For whoever would draw near to God must believe.

That he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

You can't walk with God without faith.

You must believe.

The question is for us.

Are we living that kind of life.

Some of you here tonight profess faith.

You profess to be a believer in God when you trust in the Lord you're trusting in Christ.

Does your walk show?

Does it demonstrate that you are a believer.

Are you walking with him?

Are you listening to God?

Are you talking to him?

Are you telling others about him?

Do you believe that he exists and rewards those who seek him?

Are you seeking him?

Are you following him walking according to the truth of his word?

Are you reveling in the reality of his love?

Into sovereign care for you is Your every thought and word

indeed oriented toward and around and for him.

Is he the central theme and goal and hope of your life?

That is what it is to walk with God.

But does your walk or my walk look like that?

Somebody was gonna say a few words about us.

Tell us about

Neighbors and They were gonna talk about you.

Would there be anything in what they say about your walk with God.

Would that be a defining?

Characteristic that they identify you by or me.

I hope so it should be the case for all of us people all of the time.

Listen, and you can't and we can't Compartmentalize this like okay, like I took a few minutes this morning I

read my Bible and I prayed for a second and then I went to church on Sunday.

So I've done the walk with God things.

All right, so I've done those and I got to do everything else.

I've walked with God.

That's not a walk with God.

We must walk with God at home and at work and at school and at play and everywhere

in between.

In fact all of those places and things are part of our walk with God.

Walking with God is not something we add to the different parts of our life.

It is our life.

Everything that you do is part of your walk with God.

And Friends it ought not be drudgery and difficulty.

Is it joy.

It is joy.

It should be you know, it's hard make no mistake.

It is hard to do.

But it's a deeply wonderful peacegiving joy -filling contentment producing life.

God rewards those who seek him.

It's a blessing to be able to walk with him.

It's what you ought to be doing every moment of every day.

Not just one of the parts of your day.

If you're not living a life of walking with God, why not I Imagine that some of you here

are not walking with God.

If that's you it should be very troubling to you.

If you are walking with God praise him for that reality.

It's him.

It's not you.

That's why it has to be by faith.

So praise him for that and that you would have grace to walk with him all the way home to glory.

Why should it be troubling to you if you're not walking with God?

Well, it's the second lesson.

I want us to think about.

That first lesson is about walking with God.

It comes from one of the variations in the pattern.

The second lesson comes from the pattern.

Remember the pattern so and so lived this many years.

Begot so -and -so had sons and daughters lived this many more years and he died.

And he died.

And he died.

That's the inevitability of our mortality.

That's what you see in the pattern of this genealogy.

You are going to die.

It is the end of every man.

I'm gonna give you one little exception up front here if Jesus comes back.

You're still gonna stand before him as judge and we don't know when Jesus is coming back.

So we're gonna assume that you're not gonna escape death.

No exceptions.

Everybody dies, right?

So I've given you a little qualifier up front.

I'm just gonna go with.

You're gonna die because that's what the Bible teaches us.

Uncomfortable as that may be to think about it.

And you may not like to think about it.

But this passage calls you to think about it and he died and he died and

he died.

Hebrews 9 27 and just as it is appointed for a man to die once and after that

comes judgment the day of.

Your death.

If you don't want to hear this, I'm gonna ask you to do me a favor.

That's what Genesis 5 teaches us.

Psalm 139 16 your eyes saw my unformed substance.

In your book were written.

Every one of them the days that were formed for me.

When as yet there was none of them every one of your days written in God's book and it's a finite number of things.

The time of your death is known to God, but not to you except you do know that it's inevitably coming.

Man is mortal and the rhythm of death in this passage goes to show that.

God's warning about death in Genesis 2.

You eat from the tree.

You're gonna die.

Adam died.

Everybody after that you're from ground you were taken to the dust the ground you're gonna return and he died

and he died and he Died back to the dust they go.

God's warning about death.

Entering the world with sin was not an idle threat.

Death did end of the world.

His promised judgment to Adam came true.

Adam died.

Chapter 5 in verse 5 thus all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred thirty years and

He died.

God promised it would be so for him and it was he's promised.

It will be so for you and it will it will be.

Romans 5 12 therefore just as sin came into the world through one man Adam and Death

through sin.

So death spread to all Men.

Because all sin and you can worry about it all you want and it won't add one second to your appointed lifespan.

Matthew 6 27 and which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to a span of life.

You're going to die and so am I.

But you say one.

Enoch didn't die neither did Elijah.

But those exceptions are no comfort to the unbeliever who fears death.

These were two men who walked with God Enoch and Elijah.

Not against God.

And if you.

Walking against God are trying to find comfort somehow in the fact that there have been a couple of guys out of the billions that Have lived on the earth

That have not died.

You're looking for comfort in the wrong place.

I mean, let's do the do the math.

Now you take you take two guys out of all the billions that have lived On the earth if you if you

take your calculator and you plug in two and you divide it by one.

Billion.

Your calculator will go haywire.

It doesn't have enough zeros after the decimal place.

And so it will say 2 times 10 to the negative 9.

And that's just with 1 billion people.

So that's those two we would say that's statistically

Insignificant as 1 billion right now on the planet.

There are about 7 billion people living.

So that that percentage of people that have not died just got smaller and then all the billions

that have been I have no idea how many.

Two guys who walked with God.

Are no comfort to you if you're hoping to somehow avoid death or not think about it.

They provide no comfort in your unbelieving futile.

Hope against death.

Don't pretend like it's not coming.

Don't pretend that you can find life somehow on your own terms.

Don't drown out those thoughts and mortality.

So many people do this.

I I know.

Someone that does this they feel every waking moment with input.

They got music going in their ears.

Because this is all they know and that's going to come to an end.

The last thing.

You cannot think about it all you want.

It doesn't make it any less inevitable.

And I'm begging you tonight.

Think about it.

Don't drown it out.

Get the headphones out put the phone away.

Turn the TV off for a minute.

Think about the reality that your life is going to come to an end.

Period.

Instead of drowning it out pray with the psalmist psalm 39 four and five.

Oh Lord.

Make me know my end.

And what is the measure of my days?

Let me know how fleeting I am.

Behold you have made my days a few hand breaths and my life is as nothing before you.

Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath.

Moses wrote this for us here in Genesis 5.

You know what else he said in Psalm 90.

Moses wrote Psalm 90.

So teach us to number our days.

That we may get a heart of wisdom.

You know what Moses is doing in this genealogy is numbering all these guys days.

And they all came to an end.

Suffering.

Live your life in the light of death your own death.

It is certainly coming.

How do you do that?

Well?

Enoch you walk with God by faith trusting him alone.

You will die.

It's inescapable.

Genesis 5 testifies to it the health care industry that passes you from the hospital to the nursing home to the funeral home.

Says that it's coming.

The full cemeteries in every town and city and village say that it is true.

Are you ready?

There's only one way you can be ready and that brings us to the third lesson.

I want us to see from the genealogy.

And that is the rest.

That is our hope.

Remember what Lamech said about Noah his son verse 29.

Called his name Noah saying out of the ground that the Lord cursed this one shall bring us relief.

From our work and from the painful toil of our hands.

It looks like maybe Noah was hopeful that this was the seed of the woman.

The one who was promised.

I think Eve was hopeful that Seth would be that son.

Just look at the end of chapter 4 Verse 25 and Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son

and called his name Seth for she said God has appointed for me another

offspring instead of Abel for Cain killed him.

So she Thinking of God's appointment.

Maybe maybe he's the seed of the one.

Maybe maybe my son Seth is.

He wasn't it.

It feels similar for Lamech here.

Noah's gonna give us rest.

He's gonna give us relief.

From the curse.

Maybe he's hopeful.

This is the seed of the woman the name Noah sounds like rest.

And he was a righteous man.

He was a preacher of righteousness.

He was blameless before God.

He walked with God.

He was preserved by God's salvation in the ark again come tomorrow.

We'll get to talk more about about Noah and how God preserved him and in a sense gave him rest.

He was the prominent figure in a time when there was great wickedness on the earth when God brought judgment on that wickedness.

But it wasn't lasting relief that he provided in the ark and the rest that Noah brought.

It was one who would come from Noah's descendants who had ultimately accomplished that rest.

Didn't come fully and finally with Noah.

It came from one of his descendants.

This is the book of the generations of Adam.

From him would eventually come know at the end of this genealogy.

And then if you jump over to Luke 3, you don't have to turn there, but eventually from Noah would come Jesus

The Savior the seed of the woman the serpent crusher that we talked about last night.

He's descended from Noah.

And you know what he brings.

What Jesus brings the seed of the woman the serpent crusher, you know what he gives.

He brings rest.

He offers it free.

Freely to all who will come he gives salvation and rest.

He earns forgiveness of sins.

He saves from sins power and penalty instead of eternal death.

And and if you are not walking with God and you die you are going to a future of an eternal

death.

That's the penalty of a holy God.

For those who rebel against him for those who sin against him.

But Jesus took that penalty in our place.

He saves his people from that penalty and the power of sin instead of eternal death.

He brings eternal life.

We still physically die.

But we will live with him forever like Enoch.

And so it's Jesus alone who can ultimately say Matthew 11 28 to 30 come.

Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly heart lowly in heart.

And you will find Rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

No, it gives us a beautiful anticipation of rest and Deliverance in the ark.

Jesus doesn't give us just a picture.

He gives us the reality the real thing rest and Deliverance.

He is our hope of rest and life.

Look to him.

And if he saves you from your sin, then you will want to walk with him like Enoch.

Don't get that order confused.

If I walk with him, then he'll give me rest.

No, if he gives you rest, then you walk with him.

And you won't find that rest anywhere other than in Christ, which is why if you're gonna walk with God it must be by faith.

Looking to him and not to yourself.

Don't trust your walk.

For your rest trust the one that you walk with.

It's only by faith in Christ that you can be saved and pleasing to him as you walk with him through this world.

Praise God that he has made that way for us.

Death is coming.

The only way to be ready is resting in Christ, are you.

You're a rebel sinner against God.

You deserve his eternal wrath.

Jesus took that at the cross for all who believe in him.

You ask him to save you from your sin and its penalty and he will.

He will give you rest true rest.

May you find it in him?

Let's pray together.

Father we pray that you would help us to rest in our Savior Christ to walk with you and

To be ready to die and to spend eternity with you.

Make that so for each one here.

We pray in Jesus name.

Would you take your supplement book again and turn to number 45?

Him in Christ alone there it is.

There's where the rest is found.

He's my light my strength my song my saw solid ground.

And then that last stanza no guilt in life.

No fear in death.

In Christ alone, let's stand together and sing that first and last stanzas.

I Trust you're resting in him tonight and you have found rest from him.

If not turn to him turn to him

even

tonight

and I trust you shall.

We shall Come back tomorrow night Forward to hearing about the flood

and all that's involved in that.

So let's pray Our Father in our God, we thank you for this sober

chapter and it can be rattling it can be

fearful cause fear and anxiety.

But then again We come to the end of it and we find hope we find rest

we find comfort for the soul the face of the reality of death.

There is the hope of life in Christ in whom alone we stand.

Dismiss us now with your blessing.

Oh Lord, we pray bring us together again tomorrow night in your will Your providence we

pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.

You are dismissed.