The Chosen Line Genesis 5

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God's people are known for one thing above all else. They are known as his followers.
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What we saw last week is the wicked line of Cain. Cain murdered his brother
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Abel. From Cain came a line of people who lived their lives apart from God, and the sin in their lives abounded.
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The one man that was highlighted in Genesis 4 was Lamech. You might remember him from last week.
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He broke God's good design in marriage by taking a second wife and became the world's first polygamist.
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Then he did something even worse than that. He murdered a young man and then arrogantly thought that he could do whatever he wanted without any consequences.
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Once we concluded looking at this wicked line, we saw a preview of the good line that God would establish through Seth.
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At the end of chapter 4, Moses wrote that at that time, people began to call upon the name of the
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Lord. Seth replaced Abel. The name Seth means appointed or substitute, appointed to replace
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Abel. The line of Seth was specifically known for people who walked with God. Remember last week what
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Cain's line was known for? They were not only known for their immorality, but they were also known for building.
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They built cities, tents, gathered cattle, played music, and discovered and used natural resources such as bronze and iron.
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I was thinking about this this week. Do you think Seth's line was involved in any of the advancements of civilization?
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My guess would be yes. They lived around the same time, but they were not known for what they did.
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They were not known for their trade. They were known as people who called upon the name of the Lord. That's why the author wrote that.
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At this time, these people called upon the name of the Lord. They were known as people who walked with God.
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So my question is, how about you? What are you known for? Are you known for your trade? Are you known for your skills?
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Are you known for your accomplishments? Or are you known as one who walks with God? Before I became your pastor, one thing that I did kind of on the side was
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I was a runner. I ran in high school, I ran in college, and I ran post -college, and the
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Lord blessed me to be a fast runner, to have some accomplishments. But those accomplishments that the
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Lord enabled me to achieve, I don't want to be known for those things. And actually, at my old college, they have different plaques of different athletes who have come through there, and my face is on the wall.
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But I don't want to be known for that. I want to be known as someone who follows Jesus Christ, as one who calls upon the name of the
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Lord. And my prayer is that you would be known as one who follows God. You may accomplish much in your life, in your profession, or some other avenue, but be known as a follower of the
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Lord like the line of Seth, and not for the skill that you have like those in the line of Cain.
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Now let's take a look at this line of Seth in chapter 5. And so, in a
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Bible, whether it's your own or the Red Bible in the pews, Genesis chapter 5 is where we're going to be looking at this morning.
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And what we're going to see is the line of Seth stands in great contrast to the wicked line of Cain.
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The line of Seth stands in great contrast to the wicked line of Cain.
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And what we're going to see is, we're going to see three reasons why this is the case. And the first reason is, this line is known for longevity and blessedness, even though death still happens.
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This line is known for longevity and blessedness, even though death still happens.
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As we look at this sermon today, good and bad are highlighted in this passage.
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In one sense, the good is highlighted. Specifically, this line is painted in a positive light.
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And in another sense, we will see a bad side. That being the presence of death. So even though God establishes this good line, these people still sin.
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These people still need a savior. And because they sin, they also die.
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But in verses 1 and 2, the author Moses previews this line of Seth, pointing us back to what
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God said about mankind in chapter 1. In verse 1, he writes,
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This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.
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So in this verse, we are reminded that they are created in the image of God. Out of all of God's creation, only mankind is created in the image of God.
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And this is highlighted in the line of Seth. In verse 2 says, male and female, he created them.
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And he blessed them and named them man when they were created. This verse reminds us that God created two genders when he created humans.
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He created them male and female. And this should really end the debate about the transgender movement.
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God created people, created humans to be male and female.
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Women have an XX chromosome. Men have an XY chromosome. They're distinct from each other.
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And it's God's good design. And we should celebrate that. And we see that right here at the beginning of Genesis.
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Now, the human race started with Adam. Eve is the first woman. Cain was their firstborn.
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Abel was their second. And Seth was their third. Now, none of Adam and Eve's daughters are mentioned by name.
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But verse 4 mentions that he had daughters. Marriage would have happened between brother and sister at this time.
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And that might sound strange to you. Because of course, in the present day, brothers and sisters don't get married.
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And if that were to happen in the present day, and it has happened, the children have defects.
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But that's because we're at such a late point in history, where all these diseases have come about, that that happens.
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But these are the first humans. And those diseases weren't around at that time. And so it's perfectly fine.
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And obviously, we know that the human race could not be populated unless it was brother and sister at this time.
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Now, let's get to the actual line here. One thing you're going to notice is that males are highlighted in these genealogies.
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That would have been customary at this time. That only the males as the heads would be mentioned. But let's look at verse 3 here.
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When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness after his image and named him
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Seth. So at the young age of 130, Adam has his third son,
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Seth. Then it describes that Adam lived much longer than this. Verses 4 and 5.
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The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years. And he had other sons and daughters.
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Thus, all the days that Adam lived were 930 years. And he died. Now, the length of years that is mentioned here might be surprising to you.
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And actually, it's surprising to everybody who reads it in the 21st century. Because nobody lives this long today.
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In the 21st century, when people live longer than 100 years, it's a big deal. It's a big accomplishment.
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The question people have asked is, are these numbers literal? Did Adam and those we are about to read about almost live a millennium?
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Did they almost live a thousand years? Do you know what's interesting? There's actually a
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Sumerian king list. Now, the Sumerians were an early people. There's a Sumerian king list that has their kings living about 25 ,000 years.
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Now, when you look at that, what you're going to say is that there's no way that's true. 25 ,000 years?
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Well, and you'd be right. That's mythological. They were just exaggerating these numbers.
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But when you put the 25 ,000 from the Sumerian account next to the 900 years in the biblical account, it makes the biblical account much more credible, does it not?
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What also makes the biblical account credible is the fact that another source recorded that men lived long lives.
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That, of course, is the Sumerian account. Only they exaggerated the numbers to say that they lived about 25 ,000 years.
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Now, these are all humans who have the same origins. Of course, everybody goes back to Adam and Eve. And the long lives of these people would have been known by everyone.
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So it is no surprise that the Sumerians said their kings lived that long. And they exaggerated it, of course, but it still points to life being much longer at this early point in history.
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So everyone would have known the first humans lived a very long time. The Bible is written to be understood.
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God is not trying to fool you when you read the 66 books of the Bible. Sometimes people make the
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Bible much more complicated than it needs to be. It's not, I mean, there are difficult passages, but as a whole, the
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Bible is very readable, very easy to understand. So when the
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Bible says 900, it means 900. There is no reason to take these numbers as symbolic.
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Adam and those we will see in this line actually lived this long. And you might ask, how?
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How is that possible? Well, we don't know. We don't have an answer as to how they were able to live this long.
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But God either did something to the human body to make life shorter, to where we only live to be about, you know, 100 years old, or something changed on earth that made life shorter.
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So something in planet Earth with maybe how the sun hits the earth, something changed that made life shorter.
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It is clear when the Bible writes something as literal, and it is clear when the Bible writes something as figurative.
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And we should never make the mistake, this is a Bible tip, we should never make the mistake of making something figurative when it is meant to be literal.
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And some people have made that mistake, and we should not do that. Now, notice too that only
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Seth's line is mentioned as having this longevity of almost a millennium of life.
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Only the 10 people in this chapter are mentioned as living this long.
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So people automatically assume, well, everybody must live this long early on in history. But only 10 names are mentioned here of people who lived this long.
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Now, this is an argument from silence, but I'm going to propose to you that only these men live this long. This is so as a mark of blessing from God as this line was inaugurated in these 10 men.
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And if this interpretation is right, the men of renown that is mentioned in chapter 6, verse 5, these are the men that are in mind when it says the men of renown.
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And we're going to look at that next week, actually, that passage. But these 10 men, to demonstrate
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God's blessing, are the only ones who live this long. So this is, one thing is clear, though, this is a blessed line and these people lived a long time.
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Now, let's continue with the line. Seth fathers a child, verses 6 through 8.
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When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. Seth lived after he fathered
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Enosh 807 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Seth were 912 years.
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And he died. One thing that I've asked Brianna is, if we have a son, can we name him
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Enosh? And she has shot that down. So that's not going to happen. And also, too,
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I can guarantee you I will not live that long. 912 years, that's a hard age to catch up to.
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Now, we know very little about Seth. All we know is that his line is good and he lived a very long time.
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That's all we know. What you see in this line is that only one man is mentioned.
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It is probably the firstborn. It mentions that other sons and daughters were born to them, but they are not mentioned by name.
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Another observation to make is the continued mention of death. Now, this is significant in genealogies throughout the
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Bible. Death is not mentioned in the genealogy, but the author specifically highlights that here.
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And so we need to ask, well, why does he mention the presence of death in these verses? Now, as I mentioned earlier, while this is a good line, these are still sinners who die and are in need of a savior.
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Everyone dies because everyone sins. Romans 5, 12, we looked at that verse last week, that death happens because sin happens.
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But the death of believers is different from the death of unbelievers. As the blessed line of Seth dies, there is still hope for them.
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And actually the psalmist writes, how precious is the death of one of his saints. So when a believer dies, it's precious in God's sight.
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They still die because they sin in the presence of the fall and the effects of living in this cursed world.
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But there's hope. There's great hope for the believer. John chapter 11, verses 25 and 26 highlight this hope for a believer.
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Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
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And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? That is the hope for the believer.
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Jesus is acknowledging here. People who belong to me die, but they never die because they have eternal life.
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And they will be raised from the dead one day. And that's the hope for believers is the resurrection of the dead.
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So death is highlighted here in Genesis 5 because they sin. But for God's blessed, there is great hope.
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The promise of the resurrection. This is the first reason why the line of Seth stands in great contrast to the wicked line of Cain.
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They are known for longevity and blessedness, even though death still happens.
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The second reason why the line of Seth stands in great contrast to the wicked line of Cain is this line of godly people is highlighted by the righteous life of one man.
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This line of godly people is highlighted by the righteous life of one man. Before we look at this godly man, we are going to see four men mentioned who have no details about them besides their long life, their offspring and their death.
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And I'm going to read about these men in verses 9 through 20. So this is a little bit of an extended reading here, but follow along here.
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Verses 9 through 20. When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. Enosh lived after he fathered
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Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Enosh were 905 years and he died.
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When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel. Kenan lived after he fathered
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Mahalalel 840 years and he had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Kenan were 910 years and he died.
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When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared. Mahalalel lived after he fathered
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Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years and he died.
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When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch. Jared lived after he fathered
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Enoch 800 years And he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty -two years, and he died.
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So from Enosh came Kenan, from Kenan came Mahaloel, from Mahaloel came
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Jared. So in the present day, sometimes you see the name Kenan, that comes out.
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You see the name Jared, that's a fairly common name. I've never heard anybody named their child Mahaloel, have you?
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There's a reason for that. Now each of these men lived eight hundred or nine hundred years and then died.
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Their sinful acts are not highlighted like Cain's line, but the effect of sin is highlighted from the fact that they die.
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Now what we're going to see is that Moses highlights something significant about the man Enoch. Enoch is a very significant figure here.
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And Enoch is mentioned, and here's what we read. So the people I just mentioned, not much is mentioned about them, but Enoch, we're going to see something mentioned about him.
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When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered
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Methuselah, three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty -five years.
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Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
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There are a few very important observations we need to make here about Enoch.
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The first observation is what number Enoch is from Adam. If you count here, Enoch is the seventh from Adam.
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Remember the number seven last week? Very significant number. The seventh from the seventh in a line.
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Do you remember who was the seventh in the line of Cain? Lamech was the seventh in the line of Cain.
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This was the guy who would be in America's most wanted list if he was alive today. The man who took more than one wife and murdered a man and was very arrogant about it.
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Now we see in Seth's line, Enoch is the seventh. There were probably good things to highlight about the previous men in Seth's line, but Moses picked the seventh person to specifically highlight.
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He does this to show that this line from Seth was a blessed line. This line from Seth was a blessed line.
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When you compare the two lines, you see the evil of one and the good of the other. The seventh from the line of Cain represents the evil of his line, and the seventh from the line of Seth represents the blessedness of his line.
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What Moses says about Enoch in verse 24 is that he walked with God. You notice that?
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If you're just skimming through this genealogy, you might miss that, but it says that Enoch walked with God.
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This is very significant. What does it mean to walk with God? It is a way of saying that a person followed
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God. The author of Hebrews says in chapter 11 verse 5, he says that Enoch pleased
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God with his life. When I read that this week,
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I was sitting at my desk and I was like, wow. Can you imagine God saying that? The story about your life being written, and then someone comments on your life and says
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God was pleased with this man. The creator of the universe was pleased with this man.
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It says that about Enoch. God was pleased with him. We want to be people known for following God.
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When I was in seminary, the president of the seminary, he was preaching in chapel one time, and his mom had cancer, and she received the news that she was going to pass away.
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She probably had six months to live. And so they were talking about how does she want to be remembered?
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And one thing I remember from what he said is, he said she wanted to be remembered as someone who walked with God.
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And they were talking about putting that on her gravestone. She walked with God. Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing to have on your gravestone?
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This person walked with God as Enoch walked with God. So that's the first observation about Enoch.
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The second observation to make is what Moses writes at the end of verse 24. In the
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Septuagint, which was the Greek translation of the Old Testament, what we're going to see is that it says that he was not found.
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Let's look at verse 24 here. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
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Or he was not found, for God took him. What happened to Enoch?
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He vanished. He's gone. Can you imagine that one day? One of us is walking around, follower of the
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Lord, and all of a sudden, gone. But everyone else is still here. And this isn't the rapture.
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This is something different from the rapture. You're just gone. And we'd say, okay, what happened to that person?
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Well, God took him. And it doesn't mean the person didn't die. God just took him. Now, Enoch is only one of two people in the
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Bible, or in human history, who has never died. Anybody else know the other one?
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The other one, since this is a sermon, I'll answer it. The other one is Elijah. Elijah was taken up to heaven.
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So Enoch is actually taken without dying. After 300 years, before the midlife crisis would come upon him, he was taken up to heaven, and he didn't die.
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And so was Elijah, later on in the Old Testament. Enoch, the seventh man in this line, represents very well the kind of people that made up the line of Seth.
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These were people of God. They weren't perfect people. They weren't perfect people, and we're going to see that next week.
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These were not perfect people. But there's a stark contrast between these people and the line of Cain.
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These are people who called upon the name of the Lord. And this raises a good application for your life.
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What's your family history? Are you passing the torch of being Christ's followers from generation to generation?
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And if you don't have a rich family history, and I know many of you do, but even if you don't have a rich family history of following Jesus, you can be the one to start it.
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On my mom's side, we have a strong Christian legacy. My great -grandfather, it even goes back before him, these were all followers of Jesus.
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And my great -grandfather is someone who I really want to meet one day, and I look forward to meeting him in heaven. And the reason is, is because I've heard wonderful things about him.
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He actually came over from Sweden during World War I, and actually fought for America, went back to Europe, fighting for America in the military.
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And I don't know much about him beyond a few details, but I do know him because I know his son.
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His son was my grandfather, who I have a tremendous amount of respect for. So I know how well he raised him.
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And I know his granddaughter, my mom. And I look forward to meeting him one day for those very reasons.
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Now, my dad's side is a completely different story. My dad has a long line of unbelievers in his family.
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In fact, my dad was the only person plucked out of his family who became a believer. And so he joined my mom's rich legacy when he entered marriage.
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And he set a great example to be someone to start that legacy. And actually,
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Brickleys are not known as Christians until my dad became a
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Christian and started this line. And so we rejoice over that, to know that our family is now known for that.
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And so what's your story? Are you setting that example in your line? And I know many of you are, and it's wonderful to see.
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I remember the funeral of Beatrice. I've seen Elvin and Susan's family.
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I've seen grandchildren. I've seen all these people who are walking with the Lord. And what a wonderful legacy that not only them, but many of you have in this church, of people who follow
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Jesus. And so pass that torch on to the next generation. And what we also see is the eighth person in this line,
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Enoch's son, Methuselah, verses 25 through 27. When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered
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Lamech, a different Lamech, a good Lamech. Methuselah lived after he fathered
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Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.
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Methuselah is known as the one who lived the longest in this line. What we just looked at was the second reason why there is a great contrast between the line of Seth and the line of Cain.
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Then the genealogy concludes by transitioning to a very significant figure in the Bible, and that is
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Noah. And this is the third reason why there's this great contrast between the line of Cain and the line of Seth.
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The third reason is this line offers hope for the human race of a final comforter. This line offers hope for the human race of a final comforter, verses 28 through 32.
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When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name
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Noah, saying, Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.
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Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters.
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Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years and he died. After Noah was 500 years old,
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Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the good Lamech from the line of Seth says this about his son when he was born.
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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.
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Now does that sound familiar? Remember we looked at that in Genesis 3, the curse, that their labor is going to be cursed, that the ground itself is going to be cursed?
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Noah's name means comfort and relief. And so all these people are named in Genesis 5, but we get the specific mention here of what
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Lamech named his son and why he named his son Noah. Because Noah, his hope was that Noah would be one who would bring comfort and relief.
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Because Lamech has already seen the effects of sin. He's seen all these people die. He's seen the wicked line of Cain.
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He's seen the suffering all over the world and he's saying we need help. We need a blessed man whom
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God is going to look upon and he is going to be the comfort for the world. Noah's father
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Lamech knew that his line was the blessed line and he knew that the world needed a man to bring relief and comfort to a cursed world.
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When he references the curse of the ground, he is referencing the fall of man in the garden when God cursed the ground because of their sin.
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And this also anticipates the future flood that God would bring upon the world because of the wickedness of mankind.
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This man who will bring comfort and relief is hoped for by his father. Lamech sees the cursed world and is looking ahead to a future redeemer.
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His son, now he probably put too much expectation on his son because he he's not the hope of the world, but he would be used as an instrument to be hope for the world.
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God uses him in his plan. Through Noah, the Lord would preserve the human race by saving him and his family, only eight people, from the destruction of this flood.
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And he makes a covenant with him that he would never again destroy the earth. And eventually, one would come from this line who would provide eternal comfort.
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Noah would be used to lead to the comfort, but he himself would not be the comfort.
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Okay, so he's used, he's in this line of comfort, but he himself is not the comfort.
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And this leads us to why the line of Seth is so significant. The line of Seth would lead to this final comfort.
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What I hope you can see this morning is that genealogies are not boring. They're actually very exciting.
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If you look at this line, we see the story of the Bible. We see the story of life here.
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As we read this line, the line of Seth, the line of Seth is where the
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Messiah would come from. I'm going to close this morning by reading the beginning and end of the genealogy of Luke.
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And you don't have to turn there with me. I'll just read this here. Luke chapter three,
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Luke lays out this genealogy because he wants to show the line from whom, from which this
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Messiah came. And I'm just going to read the beginning of the line and then the end of the line. It said,
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Jesus, when he began his ministry was about 30 years of age, being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph, the son of Heli.
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And then I'm going to go down to verse 37 and 38. The son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahaloel, the son of Canaan or Kenan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
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You see what Luke does there? He actually starts his genealogy and works backward. Eventually you get to Adam.
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So we see here this line, this wonderful line of blessedness that the savior of the world would come from this very line.
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Now, we are not in this line biologically, but through this line comes Jesus Christ, whom anyone in the world can believe in.
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The offer is there. If we believe in Christ, we are Abraham's offspring.
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Abraham, by the way, is also in this line. Galatians 3 .29 says that those who belong to Jesus are
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Abraham's offspring, and you belong to Jesus then. So as a follower of Jesus Christ, you belong to this spiritual line.
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And many of you here today belong to Jesus, and now you know how important this blessed line is as Christ descended from it.
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And what we saw this morning is that the line of Seth stands in great contrast to the line of Cain. And we saw three reasons why this line is known for longevity and blessedness, even though death still happens.
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This line of godly people is highlighted by the righteous life of one man. That was Enoch. This line offers hope for the human race of a final comforter.
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Next week, we're going to see how horrible mankind became from when
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Adam and Eve sinned to probably over a thousand years later. And what we're going to see is that mankind's great corruption leads to God bringing judgment upon the earth.
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And so that's going to set the table for the flood in a few weeks down the road. But next week, we're going to look at who are these men of renown of Genesis 6, and why did this corruption become so bad on planet earth?
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Let's pray. Father, as we close here,
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I pray, Lord, that we would see the glory of what your word is showing here.
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Lord, we do not worship the Bible. We worship you, but we see your glory shine through in the
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Bible. And so I pray that everyone here today would see that. Lord, I have nothing that I can say here on my own authority.
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Everything I say here is on the authority of Scripture. And the Bible changes lives.
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And I pray, Lord, that everyone in here would week by week become more like Christ as a result of us meditating on the word of God, understanding what it says, and see how this applies to our life.
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I ask, Lord, that you would do the work that none of us can do. You're the only one who gives the growth.
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And so as we look at this, I pray that the Holy Spirit would give growth to each person here.