The Enoch Walk (Genesis 5, Jeff Kliewer)

Cornerstone Church

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April 8, 2024

Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org The Resurrected King

05:20: Not just those who are leading the singing, but each of us would sing in spirit and in truth.
05:26: Lord, we thank you for the Lord's table that we could take of this bread and cup and remember the body and blood of Jesus.
05:33: Help us to truly confess our sins and to be right and get right with you this morning.
05:39: And then Lord, help us to hear your word. Give us ears to hear and hearts that are attentive to your word.
05:45: In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, let's all stand. So this song that we're gonna do first, this was big on Caleb about 15 years ago or something.
05:58: This is made to worship, but just in going through Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve and the beginnings, just brought to my mind about how we are made, we are created in the image of God to be worshipers of God.
06:17: And so Lord, let's just pray. God, we pray that we would come to you as true worshipers.
06:24: Lord, that we would come to you without hypocrisy in our hearts, Lord, just as like the
06:30: Pharisees, they were praying to the right God, but in the wrong way with hypocrisy in their heart,
06:35: Lord God, and we pray that you would cleanse us of that, that you would put in us that clean heart of worship,
06:42: Lord, so that we can sing your praises. And that is what we'll do for all eternity as we're before your throne, singing praises to you,
06:48: Lord. And we give you all the praise and all the glory, Lord. ♪
07:07: Before the day, before the light ♪ ♪
07:13: Before the world revolves around the sun ♪ ♪
07:19: God on high stepped down into town ♪ ♪
07:25: And wrote the story of his love for everyone ♪ ♪
07:31: And he has filled our hearts with wonder ♪ ♪
07:40: So that we always remember ♪ ♪ You and I are made to worship ♪ ♪
07:48: You and I are called to love ♪ ♪ You and I are forgiven and free ♪ ♪
07:56: With you and I in grace surrender ♪ ♪ You and I choose to believe ♪ ♪
08:02: That you and I will see who we were meant to be ♪ ♪
08:12: All we are and all we have ♪ ♪
08:20: Is all the gift from God that we receive ♪ ♪
08:26: We were brought to life and we opened up our eyes ♪ ♪
08:31: To see the majesty and glory of the King ♪ ♪
08:38: And he has filled our hearts with wonder ♪ ♪
08:46: So that we always remember ♪ ♪ You and I are made to worship ♪ ♪
08:53: You and I are called to love ♪ ♪ You and I are forgiven and free ♪ ♪
09:00: With you and I in grace surrender ♪ ♪ You and I choose to believe ♪ ♪
09:08: That you and I will see who we were meant to be ♪ ♪
09:15: And even the rocks cry out ♪ ♪ And even the heavens shout ♪ ♪
09:21: The sound of his holy name ♪ ♪
09:27: So let every voice sing out ♪ ♪ And let every knee bow down ♪ ♪
09:33: Each worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ You and I are made to worship ♪ ♪
09:41: You and I are called to love ♪ ♪ You and I are forgiven and free ♪ ♪
09:50: With you and I in grace surrender ♪ ♪ You and I choose to believe ♪ ♪
10:02: You and I are made to worship ♪ ♪ You and I are called to love ♪ ♪
10:07: You and I are forgiven and free ♪ ♪
10:13: With you and I in grace surrender ♪ ♪ You and I choose to believe ♪ ♪
10:19: That you and I will see who we were meant to be ♪ ♪
10:31: You and I are called to love ♪
10:41: Lord you are worthy of all of our praise. Look up on the wall,
10:50: I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted, Lord. You are powerful, you reign almighty,
10:57: Lord God. And we bless your holy name. Blessed be your name, in the land that is plentiful, where dreams of abundance flow, blessed be your name.
11:37: Blessed be your name, when it's found in the desert plains, or walked through the wilderness, blessed be your name.
11:53: Every blessing you pour out, I'll turn back to praise.
12:00: When the darkness closes in, Lord, still
12:06: I will sing. Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your name.
12:15: Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your glory
12:22: I sing. Blessed be your name, when the sun is shining down on me, when the world is all as it should be, blessed be your name.
12:43: Blessed be your name, on the road marked with suffering, for there's pain in the offering, blessed be your name.
12:58: Every blessing you pour out, I'll turn back to praise.
13:06: When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will sing.
13:13: Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your name.
13:20: Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your glory
13:27: I sing. Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your name.
13:36: Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your glory
13:43: I sing. You give and take away, you give and take away, my heart will choose to say, blessed be your name.
14:03: You give and take away, you give and take away, my heart will choose to say, blessed be your name.
14:18: Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your name.
14:26: Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your glory
14:32: I sing. Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your name.
14:41: Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your glory
14:48: I sing. You give and take away, you give and take away, my heart will choose to say,
15:05: Lord blessed be your name. You give and take away, you give and take away, my heart will choose to say,
15:22: Lord blessed be your name. And I hear the
16:05: Savior say, Thy strength indeed is small,
16:11: Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in me
16:17: Thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe,
16:28: Sin had locked the crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
16:43: Lord now indeed I find, Thy power in that alone,
16:52: Can change the life of smalls, And melt the heart of strong.
17:01: Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe,
17:10: Sin had locked the crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
17:24: And when before the throne, I stand in Him complete,
17:34: Jesus died my soul to save, My lips shall still repeat.
17:44: Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe,
17:53: Sin had locked the crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
18:02: Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe,
18:12: Sin had locked the crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
18:44: Oh praise the one who paid my debt, And raised this life up from the dead.
18:54: Oh praise the one who paid my debt, And raised this life up from the dead.
19:03: Oh praise the one who paid my debt, And raised this life up from the dead.
19:12: Oh praise the one who paid my debt, And raised this life up from the dead.
19:20: Oh praise the one who paid my debt, And raised this life up from the dead.
19:31: Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe,
19:38: Sin had locked the crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
19:49: Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe,
19:58: Sin had locked the crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
20:51: And I firmly believe that when we get the opportunity to sing a refrain like that before the throne of God, that when our heart is engaged, this pleases the
21:03: Lord. When our worship and our adoration and our expressions to God come from a heart that is genuine, even as Phil already spoke to this morning, when our praise is genuine, it is really pleasing to God.
21:20: We are at the end of perhaps 10 days of the church calendar, where understanding and reflecting and responding to who
21:31: God is and what He has done, when it comes from the depths of our heart, is life changing.
21:39: You think about 10 days ago as Jesus sent His followers into the village to prepare a room where they could celebrate the
21:47: Passover feast. And then as they went up and shared what we now would call the
21:53: Last Supper, how Jesus did so many things, this was like a master's course in theology.
22:00: He washed their feet. He told them that He would be going. He broke bread.
22:07: He shared the cup. And then He even told Judas, what you must do, go do. And that time up there had to have been an incredible time of warm fellowship with their
22:20: Messiah, with their Rabbi. And then Jesus praised what we know in John 17 as the great priestly high prayer.
22:30: And how Jesus prays for those that the Father has given to Him. And then they go to the garden.
22:37: Jesus says, pray with me a while. He goes into the inner garden. And in anguish He prays and He sweats drops of blood.
22:47: We know that Jesus knew what was coming down the pike. And we can reflect on and we can even consider the pain that He would have gone through and the scourgings and the crown of thorns, the cross, the nails.
23:07: But I believe that what really caused Him to sweat drops of blood was knowing that while on that cross, for the only instant of all eternity, the
23:16: Father and the Son would not be in direct fellowship with one another because Jesus took my sins.
23:23: The Father can't look at sin. And it drove Jesus to say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
23:33: But then He says to Telestai, it's finished. My sins have gone to the cross.
23:38: His blood has washed away my sins. It's taken away as far as the east is from the west.
23:45: And so then He does die. The body does die. And there's a tomb and there's a boulder and there's a
23:52: Roman guard and a seal on that boulder. And Saturday had to have been a very lonely, confusing day.
24:01: And then Sunday morning, Mary and Mary, before the break of dawn, head out to anoint the body.
24:08: Why do you search for the living among the dead? Don't you know that He has risen just as He said?
24:15: And eventually Jesus comes to them and He says, go tell my disciples that He has risen just as He said, and tell
24:24: Peter. And so the news starts to spread, but there still is a little bit of uncertainty.
24:30: And they're in a room by themselves and Jesus just shows up in the room. But Thomas wasn't there and he said, unless I can put my hands in his side.
24:41: So Jesus comes back again. And for 40 days, Jesus appears to the followers.
24:50: And then there is Pentecost and they're in a room again. And all of a sudden the
24:59: Holy Spirit comes down in tongues of flame. And they're given the power of the
25:05: Holy Spirit. And Peter, who at one time cowered back from a little servant girl, no, I don't know the man, now stands with the power and the courage and the strength that can only come from God.
25:16: And he proclaims the gospel message to the crowds. And everybody hears in their own voice.
25:24: See the message that we have. I get delivered unto you for first importance that which I also received.
25:30: Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and was raised on the third day according to the scriptures is given.
25:38: But what is also given to us is laid out on this table in front of us. It's given for us as a remembrance, as a reality, as a celebration.
25:51: I needed, I needed, I couldn't do on my own.
25:56: And so God the Father sent his son who willingly went to the cross.
26:03: And on the table represents his broken body and his blood shed. And we are encouraged to do this in remembrance of him.
26:12: I'm going to ask the service to come forward, please. It's recorded for us in 1
26:32: Corinthians 11. And I want to start with an important passage. They're all important. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the
26:41: Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
26:46: Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
26:52: For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.
26:59: And so we are encouraged and we're going to take a moment in prayer within our hearts.
27:05: We know that as believers we are made whole. We are justified by the blood.
27:12: But we also know that we do make mistakes. It's called sin. I want each of us in our hearts before the
27:20: Lord to confess those things that we may be holding on to. So as we come to this table, we come prepared.
27:26: Let's pray. Lord, you know all things.
27:46: You know my hearts. You know all things. You know that I am prone to wander.
27:55: Lord, you know all things. And I pray, Father, that what you know is that my desire is to follow after you, but my flesh is weak.
28:05: Lord, I confess to you not the generality of sin, but times when I have fallen away,
28:11: I seek you, Lord, lesser than the pure part, for this day we'll seek
28:16: God. And so we come to this table confessing to you, anticipating in the great hope of the kingdom to come.
28:26: We pray in Jesus' name. It is written, for I received from the Lord what
28:31: I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread.
28:39: And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
29:09: Jesus' body on the cross, broken because of my sin.
31:17: Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he also took the cup.
31:30: After supper, saying, This cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
31:40: For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the
31:45: Lord's death until he comes. The blood of the lamb shed is a perfect sacrifice for my sins, for our sins.
34:57: Drink, do this in remembrance of him. Let's pray.
35:32: Father, we wait for the coming of your son, who the first time came to pay for sins in his own blood.
35:45: And the second time will come to trample underfoot in the winepress the wrath of the fury of God.
35:54: We look for him because we know that he will come and rescue us to be with him.
36:00: He has gone to prepare a place for us that where he is, there we may also be. So Lord, when the son of God comes, will he find faith on earth?
36:09: We pray that in this people, in this church, we would be filled with faith. And that we would be walking in a way that pleases you.
36:21: Help us, Lord, this morning to correct the way we walk.
36:29: Help us to think rightly. Help us to repent and to have faith.
36:39: Stir in us devotion that we would be fully consecrated unto thee.
36:44: In Jesus name we pray, amen. Dwight dropped out of school after fifth grade because he needed to go help his family make money.
36:56: He moved to Boston. This was the mid 1800s. And in Boston, he became a shoe seller.
37:02: He worked for his uncle in a retail shoe store. On April 21st, 1885, he had a visitor in the shoe store.
37:13: It was his Sunday school teacher named Edward Kimble. Edward Kimble came to Dwight Moody and told him more and more about the love of Jesus Christ.
37:25: And called him to repent of sin and believe in Christ. And on that day, and shortly thereafter, on April 21st, 1855,
37:36: Dwight Moody became a Christian. And he continued to sell shoes and continued to work as a retail shoe salesman.
37:45: But now he was living for Christ. He got involved with his church and the Sunday school movement there.
37:52: Until finally he moved out to Chicago to open a shoe store of his own. But he found that fitting people with shoes for their earthly walk.
38:02: Paled in comparison to fitting people with the gospel of peace.
38:10: We're told in Ephesians that our feet ought to be fitted with the gospel of peace.
38:15: And so Dwight Moody began to evangelize working for the YMCA. And in the
38:20: Sunday school movement, many kids became Christians. They were coming from families that often didn't have loving
38:30: Christian instruction. And so he became their instructor and he taught them. He became their spiritual father.
38:36: And more and more kids came to the Sunday schools to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1864, he founded his own church called the
38:47: Illinois Street Church. Which is now called the Moody Church in Chicago.
38:54: And more and more people came to Saving Faith. After the great Chicago fire, he realized the urgency of the moment.
39:01: And so he went out preaching the gospel across England and all across America.
39:07: Wherever he went, thousands upon thousands of people came to hear this man with a 5th grade education.
39:16: Where did that power come from? The Holy Spirit of God. And his preaching was blessed of God.
39:22: He had imagination to paint a picture for people about the gospel of Jesus. He told about how when
39:29: Jesus sent the disciples back to the very place where he was crucified.
39:35: Peter must have said, Lord, do you want us to go preach to the very people who killed you?
39:42: And Jesus would have said, yes. And find the man who spat on me and tell him that he too can have a seat at the table.
39:52: And find the man who pressed a crown of thorns on my head and tell him that I have a crown for him.
39:59: Only it has no thorns. And find the man who struck me with a reed on the head and tell him
40:07: I have a scepter for him. For he can rule with me in the everlasting kingdom. If only he repents.
40:13: Find the man who pierced my side with a spear and tell him there is a nearer way to my heart.
40:26: D .L. Moody had a way with words. He had a way of preaching the gospel such that thousands of people would come to hear him burn for God.
40:37: And many of them came to saving faith. But do you want to know the secret ingredient in D .L.
40:43: Moody's ministry? It was not how he spoke. It was not that he could talk so well.
40:50: Again, he was not an educated man. The power came from the
40:56: Holy Spirit because God blessed his ministry with the hand of his favor.
41:02: In 2 Chronicles, the king Asa had relied on Syria to bring deliverance.
41:09: And so a prophet came and rebuked that king and said, The eyes of the
41:14: Lord search to and fro throughout the earth to strongly support the ones whose hearts are fully committed to him.
41:21: God was looking for a heart that was fully consecrated. And the turning point in Moody's ministry came when he heard an evangelist say,
41:30: The world has never seen what God can do with one man whose heart is fully committed to him.
41:40: D .L. Moody, when he heard that saying, The world has never seen what God can do with one heart that is fully committed to him.
41:49: D .L. Moody resolved in his heart, I will be that man. I will walk with God.
41:55: I will do whatever God tells me to do. Go wherever he sends me. Start Sunday schools.
42:02: The student missionary movement that sent 5 ,000 missionaries to the ends of the earth began in Moody's church.
42:09: The power of God was in his ministry, but it did not come from him. You see, D .L.
42:15: Moody was a man who walked the walk. It's not just that he knew how to preach.
42:21: It wasn't that he knew how to talk. It's that he walked with God. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 5 to learn about a man named
42:31: Enoch. Enoch who walked with God. We're going to learn the Enoch walk today.
42:38: Three things about it. One, it's something that's learned and taught. Secondly, it makes you rapture ready.
42:48: And thirdly, it will be vindicated and rewarded. To understand the
42:54: Enoch walk and what's happening in Genesis 5 requires context. Some people set out to read the
43:01: Bible in the year. Has anybody ever set out to read the Bible in the year and you stop reading when it gets to the genealogies?
43:10: You just give up? Well, hopefully that happens maybe in Deuteronomy and not
43:16: Genesis chapter 5. But here we have a genealogy and you hear about names and how long people lived.
43:22: And you think, well, why do I need to know this information? Is it supposed to conform me in some way?
43:28: Or is it just knowledge? The answer is the Bible is delivering a message and it's cohesive.
43:38: It flows from one point to the next. By the time you get to Genesis 5, you should be looking for the seed of the woman.
43:46: Genesis 3 .15, a seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.
43:52: And there's going to be this enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman.
43:59: Conflict between the righteous and the unrighteous. The serpent, of course, is
44:04: Satan and he has the seed. There are people that follow him. We see this in Genesis chapter 4.
44:12: Eve was hopeful when Cain was born. I have begotten a man child. She celebrates.
44:20: But little does she know that this seed is not the promised seed of the woman, the one to crush the serpent's head.
44:27: But Cain is actually a seed of the serpent. And so in a fit of jealous rage, he takes out that rage on his own brother
44:37: Abel. He murders his brother. And the blood of Abel cries out to God from the ground for justice and vindication.
44:47: It's the struggle between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Righteous Abel prefigures
44:54: Christ, whose blood speaks a better message than the blood of Abel. And then we see unfold from Cain comes an ungodly line.
45:07: Descendants from Cain who are just like their father. They learn from him. They do like him.
45:12: And before long, lame Lamek is boasting to his two wives.
45:18: He's married two women now instead of one against God's created order. And he's boasting how he murdered a young guy for striking him.
45:30: And he goes on and on in his unrighteous deliverance.
45:38: Here you have a city being built. Unrighteous people who are worse and worse one generation after the next.
45:47: The world is descending, not evolving, but devolving. Meanwhile, Adam does have another son.
45:56: His name is Seth and Seth's son is Enosh. And here people begin to call on the name of the
46:01: Lord. They're waiting on the seed of the woman. But meanwhile, they're walking with God. In the
46:07: Garden of Eden, it was easy to walk with God. Remember, Adam walked with God in the coolness of the day.
46:13: Remember that saying in Genesis? Because everything was perfect and God was visible to him.
46:21: Adam, I think, was seeing the second member of the Trinity. He was walking with Jesus. But now,
46:27: God is invisible. They're out of Eden. Sin is in the world. How do you walk with God? Well, men begin to call upon the name of the
46:36: Lord. They learn to pray. They learn to encourage one another and to worship. The first worship services are beginning to happen.
46:45: And so in one city, you have the seed of the woman, a righteous, godly line, who's learning to worship and to pray.
46:53: In the other city, east of Eden, you have the ungodly seed of Cain. And it's going from bad to worse.
47:02: Wickedness increasing. And so we pick up in Chapter 5. These are not just facts to remember, but follow that train of thought.
47:11: This is the godly line of Seth. This is the book of the generations of Adam.
47:20: When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. When it says the generations of Adam there, this is that godly line.
47:30: Those righteous ones who are generated from Adam and they bear his likeness. Male and female, he created them.
47:37: And he blessed them and named them man when they were created. This is
47:42: God's design of maleness and femaleness. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness.
47:53: After his image is the point. And named him Seth. And so Seth bears the image of God.
48:00: As all humanity does, the image of God was defaced, not erased when sin came into the world.
48:08: All people have intellect, rationality. People are made in the image of God.
48:18: But what's indicated here is that there's a spiritual likeness to Adam.
48:24: Seth is like Adam as this godly line. He's learning to pray. Adam was covered with the righteousness of animal sacrifice.
48:34: Obediently wearing this covering for their sin and shame.
48:40: That prefigures Christ. Adam's a believer and so is Seth. That's the idea.
48:45: He's following in the likeness, the image of Adam. Unlike Cain and the godless ones, here you have a righteous people.
48:53: Verse four. The days of Adam, after he fathered Seth, were 800 years.
49:01: And he had other sons and daughters, which indicates with this much procreation, there's a multiplier effect.
49:08: John MacArthur estimates that by the end of this chapter, there are seven billion people on the planet, just as we have today, because of the length of life and the multiplier.
49:19: Verse five. Thus, all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died.
49:26: When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. Does that mean it takes 105 years to grow up?
49:38: Some of the parents in the room are thinking, that sounds about right. Yeah, we're on about that pace. Well, when he grew here, it says
49:46: Seth had lived 105 years and he fathered Enosh. Did it take Seth 100 years to reach maturity to be able to procreate?
49:56: I mean, if you're going to live 900 years, maybe you're a child for the first 100. I don't think that's the idea here.
50:03: I think adolescence would be the same amount of time. And then a person just doesn't decay as quickly.
50:10: The aging process doesn't take over. Death hasn't had such a strong grip yet.
50:16: So people live longer. Here's what I think is happening. Notice in verse four, the days of Adam after he fathered
50:26: Seth were 800 years. Was Seth the firstborn of Adam?
50:32: No, Cain was. So this is not a list of the firstborn. This is a list of when the godly seed, ultimately it's pointing to Noah, who will allow humanity to go on and the seed of the woman, the
50:48: Messiah, will come from Noah. So we're tracing the Messiah's line. We're tracing the godly seed.
50:54: The godly one who was like his father was born 105 years after Seth.
51:03: And then verse seven, Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters.
51:10: Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years and he died. There could have been other godly, righteous ones among the sons, but what
51:18: Moses is doing in recording this is giving us a line of faithfulness. And the big idea here is that this walk with God, knowing how to pray, knowing how to hear from God, knowing how to worship, it's taught.
51:34: Fathers teaching sons, sons teaching their sons. And likewise, like D .L.
51:41: Moody with the Sunday school kids, there are spiritual offspring. Those who would hear this teaching and learn it are following in that, in the footsteps of the one who walks with God.
51:53: Verse nine, when Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. Enosh lived after he fathered
52:00: Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years and he died.
52:09: Are you noticing the refrain? Each one ends with, and he died. Because death entered the world when sin came in,
52:18: Adam and Eve disobeyed. As God said, you will surely die. Now each generation dies.
52:26: We're waiting for one who can reverse that curse, who can take the death penalty in his body on a tree and then conquer it on the third day.
52:35: We're waiting on Messiah, but until he comes, each one dies. And until he comes the second time, even
52:42: Christians die. The godly, the righteous are dying. Except for one,
52:49: Enoch is coming. Verse 12, when Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel.
52:55: Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters.
53:01: Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years and he died. When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered
53:09: Jared. Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters.
53:17: Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years and he died. When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered
53:26: Enoch. Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters.
53:34: Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died. So pause right there.
53:40: What's happening in this text? They're living righteous in their generation.
53:46: Do you guys remember when the icky shuffle came out? You young fans of football, you won't remember this.
53:55: It was when I was growing up. It was a certain dance that this guy would do after he scored a touchdown.
54:00: It was called the icky shuffle. And when he started doing that, everybody in the country, you could be playing in your backyard, you score a touchdown, you're doing the icky shuffle.
54:11: And then there was the dab. Remember when the kids were doing the flossing? The certain dance they called flossing?
54:18: I was glad when that fad ended. There's always these fads that come in.
54:24: It's these different moves that people do. How does it just sweep the nation that way? Because when people see someone do something, they emulate it.
54:34: It catches on. It's taught, it's learned. Godlessness is taught.
54:43: The cultural craze of transitioning gender, that's not some new thing.
54:50: What it is is bad behavior modeled and then taught and caught and passed on.
54:58: It's a cultural contagion. It's learned just like the icky shuffle. Godlessness can be modeled, right?
55:06: So it is with godliness. Fathers, take this seriously. Your children will hear what you say and they'll listen.
55:16: But what you do will speak much more loudly than what you say.
55:22: How you walk, how we walk as Christians, we're being watched all the time.
55:28: In school, young people, they see you. Whether you go to a Christian school or not.
55:34: In a Christian school, they're not all saved. And those who aren't so sure, they're walking on the fence. They see you.
55:40: How you walk teaches others how to live. So now let's talk about a new walk.
55:48: The Enoch walk. The Enoch walk is remarkable. You wanna know what this thing does?
55:54: It's not just like the dab or whatever. The Enoch walk is going along with God and then like climbing a stairway to heaven, it just walks right into heaven.
56:05: Isn't that cool? Remember the refrain? And he died, and he died, and he died.
56:12: Now watch what happens to Enoch, 21 to 24. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered
56:20: Methuselah. Enoch walked with God.
56:26: That's the key, you should pick up on it because it's gonna be repeated in verse 24. Enoch walked with God after he fathered
56:33: Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years.
56:42: Enoch walked with God and he was not, it doesn't say and he died, it says and he was not for God took him.
56:54: He didn't die. He just was taken straight up into heaven.
57:00: That is absolutely remarkable. There's a word for this. The word for being caught up into heaven without having to die is called rapture.
57:13: Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 17. I want you to see this here.
57:20: I've actually heard it said quite often recently that the rapture is a modern invention, a theological novum, a newcomer to the theological scene, but I see it right here in 1
57:33: Thessalonians 4, verse 17. After talking about how the dead in Christ will rise when
57:41: Christ calls them to meet him in the air, it says of us who are alive, and I'm hoping we live to the rapture, it says in verse 17, then we who are alive who are left will be caught up.
57:55: Harpazo in the Greek and the Latin rapturo, where we get this term rapture. The rapture is taught right here.
58:03: We will be caught up together with them in the clouds. We're not going to meet Jesus in Jerusalem. Where are we going to meet him?
58:10: In the clouds because we're going to be raptured. We're going to be caught up. Now, there's some debate about how this unfolds, and I think it's a debatable issue.
58:19: It's okay to hold a difference here. Some people believe that the rapture is the very same moment as the second coming, which
58:28: I call the reverse yo -yo effect. A yo -yo, you send it down, it comes right back up.
58:33: This is an upward yo -yo where the church goes up and meets Jesus in the air as he's coming to Jerusalem, and he plants his foot on the
58:42: Mount of Olives. So the church is just a reverse yo -yo. We go up to heaven, but boom, we're right back down in his wake.
58:49: I don't hold that view. If he pauses in heaven to greet us at all, to spend some time with us, welcome us, then there's a gap.
59:01: I think that gap is seven years long, actually. I think Christ comes to meet us in the air.
59:08: Revelation 19 describes the wedding supper of the lamb in heaven before the glorious appearing of the
59:15: Lord. When Jesus comes in his glorious appearing, his robe is dipped in blood. He comes to trample the winepress of the wrath of the fury of God.
59:25: He's coming as the judge, but there's first a wedding supper for those for whom he comes.
59:33: We meet him in the air. I think that there is a seven -year period where the church is with Christ, and then we follow him to the earth in that judgment.
59:45: It's my view. It's okay to differ over the eschaton, what's gonna happen in eschatology, but here's what we all need to understand and take to heart.
59:57: We need to be rapture ready. Whether you think that the rapture is going to be one and the same with the coming of Christ and the glorious appearing, or whether you think we're going to go to heaven for some time and then come back with Christ, that part doesn't matter much compared to this, that when he comes, will he find faith on earth?
01:00:22: Who will be walking with him? Enoch walked with God.
01:00:28: Enoch walked with God. It's repeated twice in these few verses. Back to Genesis 5.
01:00:34: Enoch walked with God so he was ready for the rapture. And I think Enoch pictures the church in that, that just like this one man in a pre -figure was caught up to heaven, so we as the anti -type, the one to whom that points, the church will also be caught up like Enoch was.
01:00:57: And what distinguished Enoch from the sons of Cain? He had made a break with the world.
01:01:06: He saw what they did. Now use your imagination. The way that Moody imagined the sending of the 12.
01:01:15: When they had to go preach to the very people that crucified Jesus. Imagine what it was like for Enoch.
01:01:23: If there's only this small remnant on the straight and narrow path and everybody else is indulging in all manner of sin.
01:01:30: We'll see next week how weird and crazy it had gotten. You think it's bad now? The 7 billion people on earth at the time of Noah, there were demonic beings producing demonic spirits of some sort.
01:01:48: We'll learn about that next week. Genesis 6. The sons of God who saw the daughters of men were beautiful and they came into them and the giants were in the land.
01:01:56: It's crazy. But the thoughts of their heart were nothing but wickedness all the time. Enoch is part of the small remnant who made a break from the world.
01:02:05: Now, don't you wish you could know what he was saying? We can know that.
01:02:13: Turn with me to where the New Testament reveals what he said. It's in the book of Jude, second to last book of our
01:02:23: Bible, of the Bible. Jude verses 14 and 15. If you want to be rapture ready, you have to make a break with this godless world.
01:02:37: If you're all entangled in the ways of the world, walking as they walk, plunging in the same flood of dissipation, you're not ready for the rapture.
01:02:47: How do you know that you're genuinely saved? Those who are born again are children of light and walk in the light.
01:02:55: In Jude verses 14 and 15, we see that Enoch was the first prophet.
01:03:02: And he was preaching against godlessness in the world. Jude 14 and 15.
01:03:07: It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam.
01:03:13: Notice these are literal generations. The New Testament, it's not eons or ages. So the time can be calculated from Genesis from Adam to Noah is 1 ,656 years.
01:03:26: Do the math on your own in Genesis later. But the point is these are seven literal generations.
01:03:33: It's not ages. This is how old the earth is at that point in time.
01:03:39: The seventh generation from Adam, verse 14, prophesied. He was preaching.
01:03:47: He was talking to the sons, the line of Cain, to those who had rejected
01:03:53: God. And here's what he said. Spoiler, it's not a feel -good, shiny, smiley, white teeth,
01:04:03: God wants your best life now. You want to hear what it says? Here's how
01:04:09: Enoch preached. 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 deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
01:04:35: That was his sermon. It's a snippet of it. I'm sure he goes on and on.
01:04:41: But can you pick up the theme? He said it four times, ungodly. The ungodly who do ungodly things in ungodly ways.
01:04:51: And they shake their fists at God and they hate God. And here's Enoch who loves
01:04:56: God. And he's pleading with them. And he's warning them, God will come in judgment.
01:05:02: There is a God. He's invisible to you. And you reject him. But he preached.
01:05:08: He didn't have the gospel yet. Only in seed form. There will be a sin breaker.
01:05:16: A serpent crusher. And I'm sure that Enoch preached about the coming
01:05:21: Christ as best as he could see him. As through a glass darkly.
01:05:28: But the point of Enoch's sermon should hit us right between the eyes. We live in a godless world.
01:05:36: Godliness, very few follow that path. Godlessness, it's rampant, it's everywhere.
01:05:44: And it's conforming us. It would push us into its mold. But the
01:05:50: Enoch walk says, I will reject that world and choose
01:05:56: God. I will reject the godlessness of this culture.
01:06:01: I will make a break from it. And so the one who makes a break from the world is ready for the rapture.
01:06:07: When the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth? He's looking to and fro throughout the earth for a heart that's fully committed to him.
01:06:16: That's the Enoch walk. Next, back to Genesis 5.
01:06:22: Notice also, this is very important. The world rejects
01:06:28: Enoch. But Enoch and those who walk like him will be vindicated and rewarded.
01:06:38: In Genesis 5, it says, He was not, for God took him.
01:06:47: His reward for walking with God was heaven. In this world, he was hated, he was persecuted.
01:06:55: Nobody likes a preacher telling them what they're doing wrong. He was the least popular man on earth.
01:07:03: The first prophet, the first person willing to say no. The first person willing to say repent and come back to God.
01:07:14: So the world hated him and he lost it all. Sure, his business suffered, whatever he was making.
01:07:23: Rejected and hated in the world. But he will be rewarded. There is another place where the
01:07:28: New Testament makes a point about Enoch. You guys know where it is? Some of you Bible students know.
01:07:34: Hebrews 11, 5 and 6. Let's jump there. We're almost ready to land the plane, but we've got to drive this point.
01:07:45: Hebrews 11, 5 and 6. I'm going to tell you this. There has never been a
01:07:51: Christian on his deathbed who's looked back on his life and said,
01:07:56: I really wish I had experienced more of this world. I really wish
01:08:04: I had indulged more and had an opportunity to do what the world does.
01:08:10: There's never been a Christian who feels like they missed out on all this world has to offer.
01:08:16: But there have been many Christians on their deathbed laying there thinking to themselves and even saying,
01:08:23: I wasted it. I had one chance, one life to live, and I got entangled in the world.
01:08:34: You will never regret making a break from the world. In fact, there are great rewards in heaven, crowns of righteousness for soul winning, for obedience, for patience, for looking for the appearing of the
01:08:48: Lord, for looking for the return of Christ to rapture the church. There are rewards for these things.
01:08:53: And listen, this is one of the key points about Enoch. Hebrews 11 verses five and six.
01:09:01: It says of him, by faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death.
01:09:07: Isn't that cool? He didn't have to die. That's a great reward. I'm hoping that we get that reward, that we're the last generation.
01:09:16: And he was not found because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased
01:09:25: God. Now listen, without faith, it is impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
01:09:38: Do you believe that? That your faith will be rewarded? That breaking from the world, you're not losing anything, you're gaining eternal things.
01:09:50: This is the lesson of Enoch. Now I have another suspicion about Enoch. First prophet, right?
01:09:58: It says in this verse, he was not found, verse five, the second phrase, which means they're all out there looking for him, right?
01:10:09: Where's Enoch? And they look everywhere, then they finally give up, surely weeks, months later. Something similar happened to Elijah.
01:10:19: He went off with Elisha and only Elisha saw him taken by a chariot of fire.
01:10:26: The other 50 prophets spent days looking for him. They even said, well, maybe God picked him up and then dropped him on a mountain or dropped him in a valley.
01:10:33: Let's go look. And they looked and they looked, but they couldn't find him. Why? Because Enoch and Elijah were both raptured.
01:10:41: They were both caught up to heaven. You're not gonna find him on earth as much as you look for him.
01:10:47: I wonder if part of Enoch and Elijah's reward is to also be the last two prophets.
01:10:57: The reason that they didn't die is perhaps, and this is just a theory,
01:11:03: I'll tell you when I'm speculating, this is one of those times, that the two witnesses of Revelation 11 could be
01:11:10: Enoch and Elijah. They go out and they prophesy for a certain number of days.
01:11:19: They preach and they preach and then they're killed and then they're resurrected.
01:11:25: So maybe it was appointed for man to live but once and after that face judgment. Maybe Enoch and Elijah were raptured so that they could die their death during the tribulation as two of the last witnesses.
01:11:39: It's also possible that it was Moses and Elijah because some of the signs look like ones that Moses did.
01:11:46: But God does these signs. Only Enoch and Elijah were raptured. But they picture for us the rapture of the church.
01:11:57: There will be one generation of Christians and there's been about 75 generations so far. If you take the average span of a generation in their 20s, before the next generation is born.
01:12:10: For 2 ,000 years we've been preaching the gospel. One generation after another.
01:12:16: And still the gospel is not to the ends of the earth. Matthew 24, 14. This gospel shall be preached to the ends of the earth and then the end will come.
01:12:26: One generation will finish the task. One generation will hasten the day.
01:12:33: And that generation, not just one believer, but all genuine believers in that generation will be raptured up to heaven.
01:12:42: Wouldn't it be great if we're that generation? And we can hasten the day from our perspective.
01:12:48: It's set from God's perspective. We don't know the day or the hour. Which is, by the way, why
01:12:54: I think the rapture needs to be before the tribulation. The two witnesses of Revelation 11, they prophesy for 1 ,260 days.
01:13:07: So if the second coming of Christ can't be until after that, I don't know about you, but I don't see anybody on TV breathing out fireballs and incinerating people in Jerusalem for 42 months.
01:13:20: I haven't seen, we're gonna see an eclipse in a couple days, but I haven't seen the moon turn to blood and darkness cover the earth and one third of all the fish die and then more and more plagues and trumpets and bulls so that by the end of Revelation, the earth is just chaos and darkness and people are grinding their teeth and cursing
01:13:41: God and going to Jerusalem to kill all the Jewish people. What Jesus said about his return, the rapture, people will be eating and drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, going on about their days, and it'll hit them like a flood.
01:14:00: The unrighteous will be taken into the tribulation for judgment and the church, I think, will be raptured to meet the
01:14:06: Lord in the air. This is the point of imminency. If the rapture is imminent, then these things don't have to happen before it can happen.
01:14:15: The temple rebuilt in Jerusalem, it doesn't have to happen before the rapture because that can be done during the tribulation.
01:14:23: Point being, are you rapture ready? Because I believe the rapture could happen before I'm done preaching.
01:14:32: And some of you are thinking that's likely because of how long you preach. But the point is, the rapture could happen any second.
01:14:41: It's imminent. Are you ready? And listen, if you make this break with the world, you count it all loss and you go all in for Christ.
01:14:51: Like Moody said, the world has not seen what God could do with one man whose heart is fully committed to him.
01:14:58: I resolve to be that man, says Moody. If you'll be like that, if you'll walk the
01:15:05: Enoch walk, you will be rewarded. Do you think Moody ever regretted leaving his shoe store to go work with Sunday school kids?
01:15:17: Giving up the things of this earth for the things of God, you will be rewarded.
01:15:24: So that's it. In closing, turn back with me.
01:15:29: Oh, good. Four minutes for the last point. Genesis 5, 25 to 32.
01:15:40: Were you wondering what happened to Methuselah? Sunday school answer. You guys know. How old was this guy before he died?
01:15:47: 969 years. But I'll make the point here that if he lived 777 years, his son lives 777, and we're told in Genesis 5, verse 26, that Methuselah lived 782 years after Lamech was born.
01:16:08: What does that mean? He had to bury his own son. He had to bury his son.
01:16:16: Five years later, he died. And that happens to be the year of the flood. So is the point that Methuselah was unrighteous and didn't get to go on the boat?
01:16:26: No, I think the point is precisely the opposite. The flood came the year that Methuselah died because he then was the last of the righteous ones living on earth.
01:16:38: He died so that the flood could come. Once Methuselah died, it's only
01:16:44: Noah and his wife and their children. You see them in verse 32, born Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
01:16:51: Out of all these billions of people, it's down to eight. Methuselah dies.
01:16:57: And what are they waiting for? And here's the point about Noah. We'll get into this next week, but look at verse 29. They name him
01:17:03: Noah because 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.
01:17:12: Why does work cause thorns to get in your hands? Why is work painful? Why is the ground as unyielding as it is?
01:17:20: Why isn't it easy like it was in the garden? Answer, the Genesis 3 curse. So what are they hoping that Noah will be?
01:17:29: The seed of the woman who reverses the curse, who crushes the serpent. They're waiting for that seed of the woman.
01:17:37: Now, of course, Noah provides temporary relief from the work. They float around on a boat for some time, but when they get off of the ark, the ground is still cursed.
01:17:49: Noah is not the one. He's not the sin crusher, defeater, but they're looking for him.
01:18:01: Are you looking for him, for his second coming? What can we learn from Enoch?
01:18:10: First, teach the younger generation the way Adam taught
01:18:15: Seth and Enosh and all the way down Methuselah. Teach your children, but more than what you say, walk the walk that they can see you do it.
01:18:25: It doesn't only have to be your physical offspring. There are spiritual offspring that you teach, that you model this for.
01:18:35: That's what Enoch received from his father and then gave to his son. It's learned and it's taught.
01:18:42: That's the first thing to learn from Enoch. The second is be rapture ready. Make your break from the world now that you would be ready.
01:18:49: Second, be like Enoch and recognize the godlessness done in ungodly ways and the
01:18:57: God -hating nature of this world and say, I want nothing to do with that world. I'm all in with God.
01:19:04: And then thirdly, remember that there is a reward for this. This faith will be rewarded.
01:19:11: Hebrews 11, five and six. This is the message of Enoch.
01:19:16: Let's pray. Father, we pray that we would be found faithful, walking like Enoch did.
01:19:25: We pray for the young people in this church that they would make a break from the world.
01:19:30: We pray for us, each one of us listening, that this world would not hold sway over us, would not appeal to us, but like Enoch, we would break from the world.
01:19:44: We ask, Lord, that you would show us in our mind's eye the reward of heaven, that we would look for the rapture, that we would hope to be caught up before we ever have to die, that this would be the generation to finish the great commission.
01:20:01: We want to go out preaching like D .L. Moody, proclaiming the gospel to thousands upon thousands.
01:20:09: But most importantly, Lord, help us to walk like Moody did, like Enoch did.
01:20:16: Let our faith be authentic, real, down to earth, feet on the ground, and let others follow in our footsteps,
01:20:25: Lord. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you,
01:20:46: Lord. Oh, your mercy never fails me.
01:20:53: All my days I've been held in your hands.
01:21:01: From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head, oh,
01:21:11: I will sing of the goodness of God.
01:21:21: All my life you have been faithful.
01:21:30: And all my life you have been so, so good.
01:21:38: With every breath that I am made, oh,
01:21:45: I will sing of the goodness of God.
01:21:52: Oh, boy, you have led me through the fire and the darkest night.
01:22:05: You are close, I know, I know. I knew you as a father.
01:22:14: I knew you as a friend. Oh, I have lived in the goodness of God.
01:22:27: With all my life you have been faithful. And all my life you have been so, so good.
01:22:43: With every breath that I am made, oh,
01:22:49: I will sing of the goodness of God.
01:22:58: Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.
01:23:06: Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.
01:23:12: With my life laid down, I'll surrender now. I give you everything.
01:23:22: Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.
01:23:29: Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.
01:23:36: Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.
01:23:43: With my life laid down, I'll surrender now. I give you everything.
01:23:51: Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.
01:23:59: With all my life you have been faithful. And all my life you have been so, so good.
01:24:14: With every breath that I am made, oh,
01:24:20: I will sing of the goodness of God.
01:24:30: With all my life you have been faithful. And all my life you have been so, so good.
01:24:44: With every breath that I am made, oh,
01:24:50: I will sing of the goodness of God.
01:24:56: Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God.
01:25:12: Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
01:25:22: In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall all be changed.