SPEAKER_00: We study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel, and it's my delight this week to be leading us through Genesis chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: As you may know already, we're calling our study of the book of Genesis in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's a book about the beginnings, many beginnings actually, and the beginner that began all the beginnings.
SPEAKER_00: And so we've gone all the way back to Genesis chapter 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And we began there.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: What a great way to open up the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Those words read by astronauts on their way back from the moon, those words have echoed down through the centuries and kind of divides people because there are some people that don't think that the universe had a beginning or that there's such a being as God or a creator.
SPEAKER_00: But we find that the Bible begins to answer all of the really big questions of life right there in verse 1, the very first verse, and from Genesis all the way through to Revelation, the story is of a God who's in pursuit of a people he can call his own.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here and you're reading through and studying through Genesis with us, as well as the other books of the Bible that we've uh studied, uh you know, you sense that he's been calling you.
SPEAKER_00: You sense as well this hunger and this longing to know your creator.
SPEAKER_00: So where did everything come from?
SPEAKER_00: Is there a God?
SPEAKER_00: If there is a God, who is God?
SPEAKER_00: What's God like?
SPEAKER_00: Does human life have any meaning?
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything unique about human life?
SPEAKER_00: Is there something special about it or not?
SPEAKER_00: Uh how do we tell the difference between right and wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Is this world going somewhere, or is it just fade to black and disappear?
SPEAKER_00: Uh these are great questions that have been asked for a long, long time.
SPEAKER_00: And I love it that our Bible begins to help us with all of those.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're gonna read a text that describes uh today, anyway, that describes some of the generations from Adam down through a person named Noah that most of you have probably heard of.
SPEAKER_00: And uh this will be uh filled with some uh of what they call a genealogical record.
SPEAKER_00: There are ten different names, ten different fathers that we'll read about here.
SPEAKER_00: And uh some of the stories are just really amazing and fantastic, although we're not told a lot about a lot of them.
SPEAKER_00: But I just want to remind you that when we read a text like this, as old as it is, and if Moses indeed is the author of much of the book of uh Genesis, uh, we should expect, uh, just as old as it is, with all the gaps that we've got to jump to understand it here in our, you know, sort of modern contemporary world, uh contemporary that is of this time and this day, we should expect to struggle a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Uh there are gonna be some cultural issues, there are gonna be some uh uh time gaps, there's gonna be some references that are gonna sound strange and wild to us, and that's okay, that's normal when we're reading literature that's this old.
SPEAKER_00: Um, as well, I think we should uh be prepared as we read it to understand what Jesus thought of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Not only did he quote it often, but he believed every bit of it.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm even gonna tell you that in John's Gospel, Jesus himself is called the Word.
SPEAKER_00: John's Gospel opens up within the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
SPEAKER_00: And John goes on, John, one of Jesus' closest friends, goes on to describe Jesus as the living word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so I side with Jesus on his view of Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament as well.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I think we also, when we approach a text like this, we not only should struggle with some of it just because of all the gaps, and not only should we consider it the way Jesus considered it, but I think I think as we read it, we ought to decide that we're gonna let God be God in this book as we study this book.
SPEAKER_00: That is, if God is doing things like creating everything out of nothing, then all of the rest of the miraculous deeds of God that we'll read about throughout the Bible actually are just a cakewalk for him.
SPEAKER_00: There's no big deal to him at all.
SPEAKER_00: So he who created everything out of nothing, he who formed the stars and the universe and set them all in place and uh designed you and designed me, fearfully and wonderfully made, as we're told in the book of Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: That if that one is the he's the only one really qualified to be God, right?
SPEAKER_00: So let's go to Genesis chapter five and see what we can learn here as we study the lineage or the descendants of uh Adam.
SPEAKER_00: Here it goes.
SPEAKER_00: This is the book of the generations of Adam.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1, chapter 5 says, In the day when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now we've been told that before, but he's driving it home over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I need to be told something more than once to really let it sink in.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're that way or not.
SPEAKER_00: But in the world in which we live right now, um we're real quickly told that you are, I, we're each our own little g God, and we can create our own selves and design our own selves the way that we want to.
SPEAKER_00: We're ultimately the ones with the last word, the first word and the last word, actually.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I don't think that's true.
SPEAKER_00: I that has not proven to be true.
SPEAKER_00: I saw a church sign uh here in Nashville uh this week uh that said, looking into myself is where I'll find the true answers.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think the Bible agrees with that at all.
SPEAKER_00: And I know I don't agree with that because I look into myself and I see all kinds of crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_00: So I need outside help, I need redemption, I need rescue, and I'm so glad there's a God who isn't me and isn't you, and has uh set his love on me and has decided to call me uh to be in relationship with him, and he's I hope calling you uh as well, and that you'll respond to him.
SPEAKER_00: But here he is.
SPEAKER_00: This is the book of the generations of Adam in the day that God created man.
SPEAKER_00: He made him in the likeness of God.
SPEAKER_00: So there we have that Imago Day, the image of God, such a beautiful, unique thing about human persons.
SPEAKER_00: He created the male and female, and he blessed them, and he named them man or Adam.
SPEAKER_00: And so Adam is not only the personal name of the first male, but Adam is actually uh the it's humankind.
SPEAKER_00: It's the uh it's the kind of uh being that male and female both are.
SPEAKER_00: And so he named them man in the day when they were created.
SPEAKER_00: And when Adam had lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness according to his image, and named him Seth.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's already had, he and Eve have together already had Cain and Abel, and we studied that passage last week, and Abel has now died at the hands of Cain.
SPEAKER_00: But Seth has come along, as we studied in the end of chapter four, and we were told at the end of chapter four uh that Seth also had a son.
SPEAKER_00: His name was uh Enosh.
SPEAKER_00: And then we were told that that beautiful last line of chapter four that I just love.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And this is when uh a great turning point happens, and even though humanity has fallen into sin and begun to unravel in a lot of ways, through the line of Seth will come, and Seth's name means appointed, through the line of Seth will come the true, the ultimate appointed one, Messiah, Jesus himself, God's Redeemer, the one who's come to rescue us from uh the our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And this is just a wonderful bit of good news that goes all the way back to the book of Genesis, like we said.
SPEAKER_00: So when Adam had lived 130 years, that's when he fathered Seth according to his image, and he named him Seth.
SPEAKER_00: Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: And so, uh, how many other sons and daughters did Adam and Eve have?
SPEAKER_00: Could not tell you that wasn't what was kept in the record here.
SPEAKER_00: Just that they had other sons and daughters, that's told to us.
SPEAKER_00: And that's great.
SPEAKER_00: If Adam and Eve are sort of the fountainhead of humanity, if uh they are the uh uniquely uh created by fiat design, you know, fiat creation as God just spoke and uh created the universe, created everything that exists, including creating humanity, uh scooped up the dust of the earth and created the first and formed the first human being, breathed life into them, uh, took the rib from Adam, uh, created and fashioned this beautiful um um uh partner for Adam, and Adam, her partner as well.
SPEAKER_00: And there they are together, the first couple having the first children.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just a fountain head of humanity.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great story, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: But here he's gonna live, it says, literally uh 800 years.
SPEAKER_00: The days of Adam were after he uh became the father of Seth.
SPEAKER_00: And he had other sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died.
SPEAKER_00: 930 years, folks, that's a long time.
SPEAKER_00: Um Wow.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we'll talk about that in a little bit because there's some other astonishing numbers that we'll read about in this chapter as well.
SPEAKER_00: Seth lived 105 years and he became the father of Enosh.
SPEAKER_00: Seth lived 807 years after he became the father of Enosh, and he had other sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so this is a pattern that the writer of Genesis is going to use here, at least in chapter five, as we go through these uh this record of generations.
SPEAKER_00: Um verse eight, so all the days of Seth were 912 years and he died.
SPEAKER_00: And Enosh lived 90 years and became the father of Canaan.
SPEAKER_00: So he started having children early, you know, at 90 years, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And uh, whereas, you know, Adam had Seth when he was like 130, I think we just read.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then Seth had Enosh uh when he had been already 105 years old.
SPEAKER_00: So here's here's old Enosh, you know, having a kid at uh literally 90 years of age.
SPEAKER_00: He becomes the father of Kenan.
SPEAKER_00: That's really powerful.
SPEAKER_00: All right, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Then Enosh lived 815 years after he became the father of Canaan, and he had other sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: So all the days of Enosh were 905 years and he died.
SPEAKER_00: And Kenan lived 70 years and he became the father of Mahalalel.
SPEAKER_00: Then Kenan lived 840 years after he became the father of Mahalalel, and he had other sons and daughters, and all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died.
SPEAKER_00: Mahalalel lived 65 years and became the father of Jared.
SPEAKER_00: Then Mahalalel lived 830 years after he had become the father of Jared, and he had other sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: So all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years and he died.
SPEAKER_00: Are you tracking with me on this?
SPEAKER_00: This is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: You watch the numbers, and they kind of fluctuate a little bit, undial a little bit, and I think that's telling us something, which we'll point out a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: But Jared lived 162 years and became the father of Enoch.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jared lived 800 years after he became the father of Enoch, and he had other sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: So all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died.
SPEAKER_00: Now something different is gonna happen next.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, with the uh uh uh appearance of Enoch.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this pattern that we've been seeing is gonna be broken a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Watch this.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: And Enoch lived 65 years and became the father of Methuselah.
SPEAKER_00: Then Enoch walked with God, that's interesting, 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: So all the days of Enoch were 365 years, and then verse 24 says, And Enoch walked with God, and he was not.
SPEAKER_00: For God took him.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's a very unique thing to be said by anybody.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't experience physical death, God took him, which is amazing when you think about it.
SPEAKER_00: It suggests there's something more than this world that we can perceive, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: It gives me great hope.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it gives you great hope.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you're going through, I don't know what you're thinking about, I don't know what you know.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us have experienced loss, great loss.
SPEAKER_00: Is this life all there is?
SPEAKER_00: Is a question.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the big ones.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says, no, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: And here we have in this first kind of you know pretty serious genealogy, a reiteration of that fact, that he walked with God, and he lived for a certain number of years, and then God took him.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is really awesome, right?
SPEAKER_00: All the days of Enoch, 365 years, he walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25, Methuselah lived 187 years and became the father of Lamech.
SPEAKER_00: And this isn't the same Lamech that we learned about in chapter four, which was a descendant of Cain.
SPEAKER_00: This one is a descendant of Seth.
SPEAKER_00: Just like now, we will have many friends that have the same name, first name.
SPEAKER_00: And uh here, this is just two different guys named Lemech.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting to contrast them.
SPEAKER_00: Seemed like the one in chapter four was given to arrogance and threats.
SPEAKER_00: And it'll seem like this one here in chapter five, completely different spiritual dynamic going on in his life.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it for you here instead of just telling you.
SPEAKER_00: So uh Methuselah, who lived 800 and uh uh 782 years after he became the father of Lamech, uh, and he had other sons and daughters all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he'll be the oldest recorded, you know, human person uh in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Uh 969 years.
SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a long time, and then he died.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so for Methuselah, you know, his midlife crisis didn't hit till like man, like 620 or something.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, just think about this.
SPEAKER_00: This is an amazing thing for this kind of stretch of time to be on the planet.
SPEAKER_00: And but remember a different planet back then.
SPEAKER_00: And uh if you just try to imagine that a little bit, and and and how how clean, how pure everything was, how the air, how the the water, how the the land, everything different, quite different back then.
SPEAKER_00: Um and the Hebrews, the Israelites, not the only ones from the ancient Near East uh to have a record kept that describes persons living this long.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, we'll read about that in just a little bit too.
SPEAKER_00: I'll show you some some writings uh from the ancient Near East a little bit, but watch this.
SPEAKER_00: So Methuselah, 969 years, and then he died.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 28, Lamech lived 182 years and became the father of a son.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love this.
SPEAKER_00: And now he called his name Noah, saying, and see, we get a little more about Lamech than we have these other ones, right?
SPEAKER_00: Saying, This one shall give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground, which the Lord has cursed.
SPEAKER_00: And we know the Lord had cursed the land all the way back, especially in chapter four, we read about that because Cain was one who worked the land, and uh as a result of him being the first murderer, as a result of his sin and all that sort of thing, we we discovered that his uh land, his job, his work was going to be very difficult.
SPEAKER_00: But even before that, back in Genesis chapter three, uh, we learned with the fall, uh, all of creation is cursed because of the entrance of sin into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And a part of that is that the land itself, um, the physical universe itself, which we're told much later uh in the New Testament that all of creation groans for the redemption that is on offer, and that is that is part of God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's leaning forward, looking for that, just as we are.
SPEAKER_00: But here's Lamech, and uh he calls this this uh son Noah uh because his uh his he'll give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands, or rising from the ground, which the Lord is cursed.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 30.
SPEAKER_00: Lamech lived 59 and 95 years after he became the father of Noah, and he had other sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the same formula is used.
SPEAKER_00: So all the days of Lamech were 777 years and he died.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then this final verse, verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll learn more about Noah in the coming weeks.
SPEAKER_00: But man, this is just an amazing chapter.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you might be thinking to yourself, well, what in the world are we gonna get out of the reading of just these names?
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'll I'll I'll tell you a couple things.
SPEAKER_00: I really I really think there are some fascinating lessons in a text like this, and they're they're timeless, and they are the kinds of things that apply to you and apply to me, and impact us in a way that uh, again, begin to help us with some of the big questions of life.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just throw a few things up on the screen for you here in Genesis 5.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us, first of all, these names, especially, the significance of every human life.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we've made the point that we're created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis makes that point more than once here in these first five chapters.
SPEAKER_00: And it's again driving it home that for the all the way back to the beginning of the Bible and running throughout, you will find lots of names.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and we're we're gonna get into some passages where they're gonna be very difficult to pronounce.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and yet, the beauty of these lists, these genealogies, at least that it begins to tell us that each and every human person has a name, and that person is important in some way, significant in some way to God.
SPEAKER_00: From Adam to Noah, we've got these ten fathers listed here, and certainly tons of other human persons on the planet during the course of their life.
SPEAKER_00: And if they, you know, if Adam indeed lived as long as we're told here, if each one of these uh men, these fathers lived as long as we're told, they overlapped quite a bit.
SPEAKER_00: And likely were sitting around in the tent together, having a meal together for a long, long time.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, there are those who have done some of the math that think it's likely that Adam may indeed have been sitting in the tent and eating a meal with Lamech.
SPEAKER_00: Just when you start adding up how many years they each lived and how much that overlaps.
SPEAKER_00: But these names are important if you want to think biblically about other persons and about yourself as well.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you to do that, especially in a day and time when human life is uh uh discarded easily at both ends of uh of lifespan.
SPEAKER_00: Uh at uh you know, and so here's the Bible coming along and saying each human life is created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: And from the womb to womb to the tomb, each and every human life matters.
SPEAKER_00: And that's so important, I think, when you start to think about how you think about and how I think about other persons.
SPEAKER_00: Um and and by the way, that shouldn't be shaped and molded first and foremost by cultural trends.
SPEAKER_00: That should be shaped and molded and influenced more and more and more uh by the word of God, by the scriptures, as God speaks to us and reveals himself to us and teaches us what we need to know.
SPEAKER_00: And so here we have again the importance of the significance of every person, because these names are listed, and I think you can deduce that from this.
SPEAKER_00: They bear the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: And even as they begin to make moral and social choices, and even as you make moral and social choices, even as I do, we are reminded of the fact that we're supposed to be reflecting this image of God, bearing it and reflecting it.
SPEAKER_00: So that when I see others, I should think how God thinks about others.
SPEAKER_00: That is, I should see them the way that God sees them, no matter who they are.
SPEAKER_00: Human persons are all created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so we want to make certain that we are caring for others, that we are loving others, that we allow no room whatsoever for the kind of uh uh prejudice or racism that takes root in our hearts so easily and so quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Um uh and you and you you you don't want to leave room for fear, you don't want to leave room for anger.
SPEAKER_00: Uh why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because each and every person that you are interacting with on the planet is an image bearer, whether they believe in God or not.
SPEAKER_00: They have this stamp inside of them.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I agree.
SPEAKER_00: We all uh unfortunately have this thing called sin in our lives that that has sort of distorted the image of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: But nonetheless, uh we carry the image of God and we should view others that way.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we also should view ourselves that way.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope this sets you free to think about that.
SPEAKER_00: But when you look in the mirror, you're looking at an image bearer of God.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let Anybody tell you anything different?
SPEAKER_00: I know there are billions of dollars spent every year to tell you that something's missing in your life, that you need to have this toy or this this uh bit of clothing or this kind of car or live in this condo, whatever it is, uh, for your life to have any kind of meaning.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want you, the Bible says no to all of that.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says the deepest, most profound meaning can be found in the fact that you were created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: That just blows my mind.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, not only are we reminded here of the significance of each human life, but we're reminded of the progress of time and procreation.
SPEAKER_00: As a result of God's good design and the human response to God's command, male and female come together, the earth now is being filled.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but we might miss that time is also rushing forward.
SPEAKER_00: We, you know, literally covered hundreds and about 1,556 years are mentioned here in chapter five.
SPEAKER_00: That's a long time.
SPEAKER_00: So time is rushing forward in the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of things are happening.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the progress of time and procreation is uh is something God has designed.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that created space-time history.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that the continuum itself is all a part of God's creation.
SPEAKER_00: And he's the one that designed our capacity to procreate.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it takes that complementarity of a male and a female to come together to create a human person.
SPEAKER_00: Um, again, I we we certainly leave room as uh my own experience, uh, raised in a single-parent uh home.
SPEAKER_00: And and uh but it's not Genesis here isn't speaking about the raising of children.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis here is talking about how they're created.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that remains the case.
SPEAKER_00: It takes something from the male, something from the female to create another human, to procreate.
SPEAKER_00: But this is happening, is the point.
SPEAKER_00: And God's mandate to the human beings to fill the earth.
SPEAKER_00: That's happening here, and we're seeing it uh listed here just with these ten fathers and their other sons and daughters, many of them that they have.
SPEAKER_00: What are we to make, though, of the lifespan claims here in Genesis chapter 5?
SPEAKER_00: Pretty fantastic, right?
SPEAKER_00: And time is moving, that's right, but it's also 1,556 years, and there's only 10 names of fathers listed here.
SPEAKER_00: What are we to make of the claim that that some of them lived over 900 years?
SPEAKER_00: Well, all of them, first I'll start with, they all lived under a thousand years.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's that that's one of the limitations.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and those same kinds of claims, though I want you to know, were made in not just biblical records, but in ancient Near Eastern literature.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you go back to, and I'll put up on the screen here for you some uh some cuneiform uh tablets, which is really writing from Sumer, S-U-M-E-R.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Sumerian peoples, uh, which was really what we call modern day uh Iraq over in that uh area of the Middle East, but there are some records that have been dug up, and here are, as I say, some images of this cuneiform writing, two different ones.
SPEAKER_00: And then here's an image even of a of a woman's purse.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I suspect maybe, you know, maybe that means uh there was a uh a Nordstrom's insumer.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but I mean I know it looks like a woman's purse to me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it looks like to you, but it's fascinating to me that there's culture happening back then, all the way back then, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So we're talking, you know, thousands of years ago.
SPEAKER_00: And so in your own mind, as you've thought about the Bible and you've thought about how old how old it is and the record that it, you know, how far back it goes, I just want you to know, man, writing and and the idea of images that we can understand, all of that is quite ancient.
SPEAKER_00: And record keeping and genealogies, and even with the the uh uh the Sumerian records, we've got we've got poetry, we've got recipes that have been figured out.
SPEAKER_00: All of this has been figured out by those experts of those ancient languages, and it's quite fantastic.
SPEAKER_00: It goes all the way back to 3400 BC, I think it is.
SPEAKER_00: You can look some of that up online for yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: But um the the Sumerian people, I mean, think about this.
SPEAKER_00: This goes back to them too.
SPEAKER_00: This idea that there would be 60 seconds in a minute goes back to them.
SPEAKER_00: 60 minutes in an hour goes traces all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the other remnants of Sumerian system of counting have survived in the form of spatial measurements as well.
SPEAKER_00: The whole idea of 360 degrees in a circle, the whole idea of 12 segments to what we call a foot, all of that really finds its root all the way back in ancient times like these.
SPEAKER_00: All of that to say this.
SPEAKER_00: Our record of Genesis, if it indeed comes from the pen of Moses inspired by God, because remember, Moses wasn't there in the beginning, but he spent an awful lot of time talking with God up on that mountain and many other times.
SPEAKER_00: And uh for the for the best that we can tell from our uh from the biblical historical record, is that somebody like Moses, if not Moses himself, is indeed the one who kept these records.
SPEAKER_00: And we've got writing records, as I say, that go all the way back past the time of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: So we've got the significance of every human life in this genealogical record here in Genesis chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: We've got the progress of time and procreation.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, we've got the compounding consequences of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Here we do notice a steady decline in human lifespans, and that's that's part of the you know the consequences of sin entering the world.
SPEAKER_00: Um the Lord said that in the day that you sin, that you choose to uh uh go against God's commands, uh, told the first our first parents that that is the day that death would enter into the world.
SPEAKER_00: The result would be that death would enter into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so here we're even seeing that in the lifespans that are uh going down, and eight different times here uh we are told and he died.
SPEAKER_00: And so the length of life is being shortened as we go through chapter five, and then the reality of physical death is also occurring, and uh life spans are shortening, and indeed um uh everybody but Enoch and Noah that are mentioned in this chapter end up dying.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll open chapter six with the sad news that the trajectory of human morality was toward depravity.
SPEAKER_00: As C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis used to say, uh, progress is really only good when one is on the right road, and humanity at this point is on the wrong road.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this compounding consequences of sin.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it just continues to unfold.
SPEAKER_00: And again, we're gonna get really quickly uh to the flood and to Noah, the the story with Noah and everything, and what God does about sin and his righteous judgment against it.
SPEAKER_00: But fourthly, I think what we also see here, especially in this this person, Enoch, this is such a unique person, is that it is possible to walk with God even in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope this gives you some hope, as it gave to me as well.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes do you feel the walls closing in, you not only your own sin that you can't get the victory over, not only your own fears, your own uh doubts, your own struggles with uh uh your own tendencies towards selfishness and arrogance and pride and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, that happens to me, that happens to all of us, I know.
SPEAKER_00: And then the pressures of the world and the brokenness of the world all around us weighs so heavily on us.
SPEAKER_00: And we we sometimes find ourselves asking ourselves, God, where are you, along with the psalmist?
SPEAKER_00: God, how long before you come and rescue us?
SPEAKER_00: And here we have in Genesis chapter 5, yet another, and we've already had it, but here we have another word of hope, this flicker of the hope of faith in this person called Enoch.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, in the entire Bible, the idea of walking with God is really only said of two different people.
SPEAKER_00: Walking, this idea, this metaphor, walking with God, Enoch and Noah, believe it or not.
SPEAKER_00: Enoch is said of twice of him, once of Noah.
SPEAKER_00: And Enoch and Elijah are the only two people that we know of in the Old Testament, anyway, that didn't experience physical death itself.
SPEAKER_00: Enoch here was taken away by God somehow.
SPEAKER_00: And again, a great reminder that the ultimate thing in all of reality is not getting to stay here in this realm.
SPEAKER_00: Um, in other words, this life is not all there is, and also this life is not the best there is.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So, as some people have said, if you're a believer in Jesus, here's what the Bible is basically promising you.
SPEAKER_00: That in this broken world, in this fallen world, this is the closest that the, you know, the closest you'll ever get to hell.
SPEAKER_00: That what is waiting for you as a believer in Jesus, as one who's trusted Christ, the Christ who came and died on the cross, who rose again from the grave, and promises you eternal life, the closest thing you'll ever get to hell is this life, and most all of your experience, because this life is just a vapor, will be in the presence of God in his kingdom, when, especially after he comes again to set things right, and you'll spend eternity uh with him forever, which is just wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we refer to it as heaven or eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not a believer, conversely, if you're not a believer, if you don't uh trust God, don't believe in God, uh, this life here in this broken world is the closest you'll ever get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Um because what the Bible says is that if you reject God, if you reject God's free offer of salvation by faith in Christ, uh this gracious offer for guilty and deserving sinners like me.
SPEAKER_00: Guilty and deserving, or you know, un we're undeserving of this gift that God has offered to us.
SPEAKER_00: So we're we actually we're sinners who deserve uh uh God's judgment and wrath.
SPEAKER_00: We've chosen that.
SPEAKER_00: We've chosen life without God if we reject God, you see.
SPEAKER_00: And he's just giving us what we want.
SPEAKER_00: What could be more fair than that?
SPEAKER_00: But this is life here in this broken world is the closest thing you'll ever experience to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I I I say that um in a very sober way because I seek to persuade you to receive the gift that God has for you by grace through faith in Christ, the gift of eternal life with him forever.
SPEAKER_00: Ah who wouldn't want that?
SPEAKER_00: What an amazing thing.
SPEAKER_00: So here we have with Enoch, though, this sort of flicker of faith that you can walk with God even in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_00: What would that look like?
SPEAKER_00: It would look like walking in communion with God.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that is walking with God, not walking ahead of God, not walking away from God, not walking behind God 10 gamillion miles.
SPEAKER_00: No, God is his desire is that we he would dwell among his people and with his people.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're invited to walk with him.
SPEAKER_00: And I love it that that's said about Enoch and that we get sort of the challenges for us as well.
SPEAKER_00: Uh taking the same route that God takes, traveling the same speed God travels, heading in the same destination that God is headed for.
SPEAKER_00: As Elton Trueblood has said, the company of Jesus is not people streaming to a shrine.
SPEAKER_00: It is not people making up an audience for a speaker.
SPEAKER_00: It is laborers engaged in the harvesting task of reaching their perplexed and seeking brethren with something so vital that if it is received, it will change their lives.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, I want to say this Genesis 5 reminds us that providentially, of the providentially protected path of redemption history.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that awesome?
SPEAKER_00: So you see it here.
SPEAKER_00: It starts, uh at least this line of it starts with Seth, goes on to Noah, which we'll read about more of that.
SPEAKER_00: And as we go through Genesis, we'll read the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and we've already studied some of the story of King David, and and it runs all the way down into the line where Jesus is born.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the path of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: History finds its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What great news! All the way back in Genesis, hints of this providentially protected path.
SPEAKER_00: Uh even as we approached the flood and God's great judgment meted out on a world that had just gone completely insane and nuts with selfishness and sin and rebellion against God.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I can't wait.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait till we get to those stories.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be comforted by, as we go through Genesis, I want to be comforted by the gospel, the good news that's so uh beautifully and luminously foreshadowed in this ancient text.
SPEAKER_00: I want to close with this quote from David Jackman.
SPEAKER_00: The necessity and provision of redemption is at the very heart of God's plan, and it's the plan of his heart.
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
SPEAKER_00: Would you like to walk with God?
SPEAKER_00: Are you walking with God?
SPEAKER_00: What would it take for you to walk with God?
SPEAKER_00: It begins with that twofold turn, turn away from our selfishness and our sin, turn toward Christ, trust him, believe him, uh, read his word, pray, commune with God, uh, get into a fellowship of believers.
SPEAKER_00: And there's tons of different ways to do that here at the village chapel, even online.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you to do that if you haven't done that.
SPEAKER_00: But here at TBC, we want you to learn how to love God and how to walk with God, how to love your neighbors well.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it begins with the right kind of thinking, that the right kind of answers to those really big questions in life that we're finding here in the book of Genesis.