1. "Standing on the brink of a new year, a new situation. Perhaps you just got married or you've got a new job, or you're in a new city. Now you all of a sudden are forced to rethink some basic parts of your own identity. You get a fresh chance to begin again, relationships with those around you."

2. "Friends, this is wonderful news today. We need to say things which 10 or 20 years ago may have seen too obvious to comment on. Oh, there's daylight. It's day. But friends, for some people this news is not obvious. And therefore we need to say this and say it clearly, confidently, gladly, as part of the goodness of God's creation."

3. "If the most fundamental truth about us is that we're made in God's image, then that means what? That if you want to know yourself, you've got to come to know God because he's the one in whose image you're made. There's all kinds of things you won't understand about yourself if you don't understand this God."

4. "How strange it must have seemed to them that Adam died. He wasn't killed as Abel had been, but still he died. I mean, he who was there had just always been there and talked to them and knew this had given them life. How strange would the first natural death have appeared. How ghastly, how unnerving."

5. "Long years may make me old, but they don't necessarily make me holy."

6. "I wonder if some of you here today have ever even considered that you could walk with God. I wonder if your view of your life has been so constricted that you thought maybe God could help you at that doctor's office report, or maybe at the office for a promotion, or maybe give you some money that you needed or answer a certain prayer. But have you ever considered that your whole life could actually be characterized by walking with God?"

7. "Friends, often we can think of religion too externally, merely about appearances. When the truth is what we see Enoch being summarized as here, the truth is about his walking with God, knowing God yourself, walking with him in the even truer beauty of holiness."

8. "Year after year, Enoch enjoyed more faithfulness, more understanding, more love. He received more as his perception of God's faithfulness grew. Year by year, decade by decade, day by day, year in and year out, God walked with Enoch."

9. "Don't just let it be in your mind or with a friend at school. Talk to your parents. Person who's not a kid. Do you ever feel desperate? Speak honestly to others about it. Maybe they can help you see how the Lord could help you."

10. "If you're not a Christian friend, this is the way for you to be forgiven for your sins, to have restored fellowship and relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ. Believe in Him."

Observation Questions

1. Genesis 5:1-2 - What specific language does Moses use to describe how God created humanity, and what implications does this have for understanding our identity?

2. Genesis 5:3 - How does the description of Seth being born "in Adam's own likeness, after his image" contrast with how humans were originally created?

3. Genesis 5:5-31 - What repeated phrase appears throughout this genealogy, and what theological point does this repetition emphasize?

4. Genesis 5:21-24 - What unique description is given about Enoch that sets him apart from the other people mentioned in this genealogy?

5. Genesis 5:29 - What prophecy does Lamech make about his son Noah, and how does it relate back to God's curse in Genesis 3?

6. Genesis 5:32 - How does Noah's age when he fathers his sons compare to the previous generations, and what might this suggest about God's timing?

Interpretation Questions

1. In what ways does the "image of God" (Genesis 5:1-2) differ from the "likeness of Adam" (Genesis 5:3), and what does this teach us about the effects of the Fall on human nature?

2. The repeated phrase "and he died" appears throughout the genealogy. How does this connect to God's warning in Genesis 2:17, and what does Paul teach about this connection in Romans 5:12-17?

3. What does it mean that "Enoch walked with God" (Genesis 5:24), and how does Hebrews 11:5-6 help us understand the nature of his relationship with God?

4. According to Jude 14-15, Enoch was a prophet who warned of coming judgment. How does this prophetic role fit with the description of him "walking with God" in a world headed toward judgment?

5. Lamech prophesied that Noah would "bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands" (Genesis 5:29). In what ways did Noah partially fulfill this, and how does this point forward to Christ's ultimate fulfillment?

Application Questions

1. When was the last time you experienced a major life transition that forced you to rethink aspects of your identity? How did your understanding of being made in God's image shape that process?

2. The sermon suggested that "to know yourself, you've got to come to know God." What specific step could you take this week to deepen your knowledge of God's character and thus understand yourself better?

3. We all face the reality of death as highlighted in this passage. How has confronting your own mortality affected your priorities and daily choices?

4. Enoch's epitaph could be summarized as "he walked with God." If someone were to summarize your life in a brief statement, what would you want it to be, and what changes might you need to make for that to become reality?

5. When have you most recently felt the "painful toil" that resulted from the curse, and how has Christ given you rest in the midst of that burden?

Additional Bible Reading

1. 2 Peter 2:4-10 - This passage refers to the "ancient world" that Noah lived in and describes God's judgment on it while preserving the righteous. It shows God's pattern of judgment on wickedness while rescuing the godly, parallel to the Genesis 5 narrative.

2. Hebrews 11:1-7 - This section on faith highlights both Enoch and Noah as examples of those who pleased God through faith. It expands on what it means to "walk with God" as described in Genesis 5 and connects faith to pleasing God.

3. Romans 5:12-21 - Paul contrasts Adam and Christ, showing how death came through one man's disobedience and life comes through Christ's obedience. This passage provides theological depth to understanding the repeated phrase "and he died" in Genesis 5.

4. Matthew 11:25-30 - Jesus' invitation to "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" fulfills Lamech's prophecy about Noah bringing "relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands."

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Ancient World and Its Relevance to New Beginnings

II. Who Am I? (Genesis 5:1-3)

III. What’s Wrong? (Genesis 5:6-32)

IV. Is There Any Hope? (Genesis 5:21-24)

V. How Can I Fix This? (Genesis 5:28-32)

VI. The Call to Walk with God and Find Rest in Christ

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Standing on the brink of a new year, a new situation, perhaps you just got married, or you've got a new job, or you're in a new city now.

You all of a sudden are forced to rethink some basic parts of your own identity. You get a fresh chance To begin again relationships with those around you, for all that we lose in transitions that time and circumstance force upon us, we do gain an ability to have a fresh start.

Over these next few months, we're looking at the part of the Bible that Moses wrote for the children of Israel as they stood poised to take the land of Canaan, the very land that their parents, a generation before, had refused to enter because they were scared of the inhabitants. They had acted like God's promises were only as good as their own abilities. And so they had literally turned around and marched out into the wilderness to nowhere. Now, a generation later, that generation gone, their children, led by Moses, were being prepared to trust God, where their fathers and mothers had refused to go. Now he knew that in order to go forward, they would be helped by looking back.

So he reminds them of the history of God's deliverance of them in the books of Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. But Moses didn't just start with what God had done with them. He first taught them who they were in the book of Genesis by reminding them where they had come from. They needed to know what was wrong and what they could hope for. And how they could get that.

So in this series, we're looking at a crucial part of this story. We often remember the creation of Adam and Eve in the fall, and then certainly Abraham, the father of the faithful. You remember those things? Those are familiar. But what about what happened in between Adam and Abraham?

You remember? There's the Tower of Babel. Of course, there's Noah and the flood. There's a lot that goes on in those centuries.

One picture that may escape our notice is the time after Adam in chapter 3 and his son Cain in Genesis chapter 4, but before the flood comes in Genesis chapter 6. Though it's mainly described only in this passage, the end of chapter 3 and then chapters 4 and 5, this period covers many centuries. Peter, in describing it later, the world that Noah was born into and that was destroyed by the flood, calls it in 2 Peter 2:5, the ancient world. Thus the title of this series, the Ancient World. I don't know what that phrase does for you.

But for me as a history type, it just lights my imagination up. The ancient world? What's that? Is this like fantasy-like Tolkien kind of images or Narnia? Is this Atlantis only for real?

Or is this like the Hudson River School of iridescent painting with that strange sunset glow throughout all the views of the day in the majestic mountains? What's going on in these centuries in this ancient world? Fascinating daydream scenes of a world that then was, buildings and towns and cities and whole kingdoms and even empires whose names and even whose very memories are now lost to us, the ancient world.

But this was no dream. And in Genesis chapter 5, we get to peer into this otherwise forever lost valley. And in these few memories that God preserved through Moses and that Moses gave the Israelites, this is what the Lord gives through His Word here in Genesis chapter 5, knowledge that the Israelites needed to know to face what was before them, and knowledge that I think we need to know to face what's ahead. We want to ask four simple questions as we go through Genesis chapter 5, four simple questions.

Who am I? What's wrong? Is there any hope? And how can I fix this? Who am I?

What's wrong? Is there any hope? And how can I fix this? And I pray that God will use these questions in your own heart and soul as we think about it together now. First, who am I?

Well, turn to page 4 in the Bible's provided. If you've not opened them, grab your Bible, go to Genesis, turn to page 4. It's right after page 3. Turn the Bible cover open. It's not hard to find this passage of Scripture.

Look at Genesis chapter 5. If you're not used to looking at a Bible, the chapter numbers are the large numbers, the verse numbers are the small numbers afterwards. Genesis chapter 5. Beginning with verse 1.

This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. Male and female He created them, and He blessed them and named them man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters.

Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

You know, we often think that self-knowledge comes from looking inside, from studying ourselves, from reflecting on our own desires, our own predilections. Our identity, fundamentally, is self-expression. But by the very way we're made, God lets us know that there's more going on with us than what we can figure out just by looking inside ourselves.

We'll only understand ourselves if we find the key, and that's the one in whose image we're made. We have to look beyond ourselves. I think he leaves us with feelings of loneliness exactly to draw us out of ourselves. Here in these verses we see some fundamental truths that we need to understand if we're going to understand ourselves accurately. Number one, God made us.

We didn't make ourselves. We didn't at first and we don't now. There is someone, a being who has always existed, who began our world and who designed and created the human race. Again, Moses writes or finishes writing these books as he simply stands there as an old man with the people of Israel about to cross over into Canaan and he reaches back to these accounts to position the people in their faith in God. You've got to remember that they need to be reminded what God has done in their generation, but also in generations before then.

They need to be assured and taught that they are not Mesopotamian idolaters. They are not Egyptian polytheists. They are people who know that there is one true, everlasting, eternal God. He is the one who has made them. He is the Creator and Lord of all.

God made us in His image. Number two, God made us male and female. Now all of this is true of the men here and the women, of the boys and the girls. Part of God's good plan for His creation is the way He had us participate, or He has us participate in procreation. Therefore even among the animals there are male and female.

Both genders have been established by God. Both are good. They are more basic to us than race.

Or social standing. So Paul said to the Athenians in Acts 17, He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods in the boundaries of their dwelling place. Male and female are complementary. They're quite literally made to fit together. They are made to be able to do things, to design, God designed us so that we could continue on physically by producing sons and daughters.

These two genders share overlapping and paired duties. Together we rear the next generation.

Friends, this is wonderful news. Today it is news. Today we need to say things which 10 or 20 years ago may have seemed too obvious to comment on. Oh, there's daylight, it's day.

But friends, for some people, this news is not obvious, and therefore we need to say this and say it clearly, confidently, gladly, as part of the goodness of God's creation. We're not self-made. We don't construct our own identities. We are not alone in this universe. This world is not random, this life is not pointless.

The purpose of our life is not something that we make up, but it's what we discover. The early chapters of Genesis and the early verses of chapter five let us know that we are part of a larger story, and we will not understand that story or ourselves without understanding that story. Friends, that's one of the reasons that at weddings, like the wedding here yesterday, as a church, We don't tend to do the thing that's in vogue these days and let husbands and wives write their own vows. We have vows, not in the Bible, but ancient vows that have been used by Christians for centuries. And we use those vows as a simple sign to ourselves that we are stepping into an institution larger than ourselves.

We are becoming part of something older and deeper than merely what we might want. Or what me and my wife might choose. So it is with our whole lives. We are made in God's image. We are made male and female.

If the most fundamental truth about us is that we're made in God's image, then that means what? That if you want to know yourself, you've got to come to know God, because he's the one in whose image you're made. There's all kinds of things you won't understand about yourself if you don't understand this God.

So while you have time, while you have the ability mentally, while you have the curiosity, the resources around you in terms of friends or mental acuity or even a book like the Bible, a copy of it, learn about God. Because in learning about God, you will learn more about the one in whose image you are made. Who am I? Well, you need to figure out who is God.

Second question here. If you're honest, all this sounds better than what many of us have experienced this last year. Maybe even this last week. And so the second question, what's wrong? What's wrong?

Look at our passage beginning in verse 6.

Genesis 5 beginning in verse 6.

When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years. And had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years. And he died.

When Enosh had lived ninety years, he fathered Kenan. Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan eight hundred and fifteen years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years. And he died. When Kenan had lived seventy years, he fathered Mahalalel.

Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel eight hundred and forty years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years. And he died. When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared. Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters.

Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died. When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch. Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years. And he died.

Then skipping down to verse 25, When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died. Two things strike us about this list. The first is, these numbers, what are we to think about them?

Are they intended to be taken literally?

I think that they are. I think the Lord was allowing them to live these long lives in order to populate the earth. He left a consistent witness among those who were there to teach not only one or two generations below them, but four and five and six truths about God.

I don't think, though, this genealogy is to be read exhaustively. What I mean is Moses artfully recounts ten generations to take the reader from one point in his larger story to another. Thus he counts ten generations, he names, ten generations from Adam to Noah. He's not saying that these are all of the generations between Adam and Noah. He'll show ten generations again if you look over in chapter 11, the second half of that, to take us from Noah to Abraham, just like in the last paragraph of Ruth.

There are ten generations in the genealogy that take us from Judah and Perez down to David to show that David is of the line of Judah. The word here translated fathered or begat in some translations is rendered became the father of, in the sense it was the progenitor of, the ancestor of. So it specifies origin. So in verse 6 we learn that Enosh comes from Seth's line. What's important about that?

Well, that it's not from Cain's line. That's the significant thing that's being communicated. We're not meant to know from that that Seth was Enosh's immediate father, though he could have been. Clearly some of these people were having kids at far older ages than we do. But it may have been, there could have been Harold in between, you know, that simply is not named.

But we simply learn how old Seth is, whether he was Enosh's father or grandfather, and how old he was when Enosh was born. This is different than in Genesis 18 where Abraham and Sarah's advanced ages are presented as part of the miraculous nature of Isaac's birth. This example I'm using of Enosh being the son of Seth is more like the expression we frequently run across in the Old and New Testaments of someone being the son of Judah or in this case Jesus being the son of David. No one thought that they were communicating by that that David was his immediate father, but they were understanding that he was claiming that David was literally physically descended from David. He was of the line of David.

Such genealogies in the Bible are not meant to be year by year chronicles. Rather they are about identifying someone now by linking them to someone in the past. Just like people today, we'll go to ancestry.com to learn more about who they really are. Am I really 15% Irish?

Another example of this in Scripture would be Matthew's genealogy, Matthew chapter 1, where he compresses the genealogy from Abraham to Jesus into three sets of fourteen generations, each highlighting a major section of Israel's history. But we know from the Old Testament, if you look at Matthew chapter 1 verse 8, that he omits three kings: Ahaziah, Jehohash, Amaziah. We know about them from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. Matthew wasn't being deceptive, he was being artful. He was showing that Jesus was he's a son of Abraham.

He's showing origin and relationship and not intending to point out a complete history. His point was to link Jesus to Abraham. So that's what Moses is doing here. In chapter four Moses considered this sort of dead end line of Cain. And now in chapter five he turns to the main story of Genesis, the line of Seth.

Moses continues to do this as a device throughout Genesis. A little later on you'll notice he'll turn to the story of Esau. And look at the story of Esau, which is the kind of dead end story. And then he'll turn to the story of his brother Jacob, which then takes us the rest of the way through Genesis. That's the way Moses has compiled this.

So chapter 4, Cain, chapter 5, now we move on with the line of Seth. So that's about the numbers, how we're to understand them. The second striking thing about these verses is that repeated drumbeat that Jamie already pointed out to us. That ends every paragraph and ends every life. And he died.

And he died. I'm not a doctor, but I don't know of any reason to think that even in a fallen world, by nature, our bodies have to age and decay. If you're a doctor and you have long comments for that, just send them by email, please.

When we were just in, say, the end of Luke's Gospel, do you remember that Jesus, he was raised bodily? When they went to look in the tomb, there was no body there. Christianity is not a Gnostic religion. It is not merely about the immaterial soul. It's about our bodies.

God was incarnate, took on flesh in Jesus. Jesus became visible and audible and tangible. To His disciples in the resurrection and He ascended, we read in Acts 1:9, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, a cloud took Him out of their sight. Christ's body exists glorified forever. So will all of those in Christ when we are raised on the last day.

Our bodies themselves shall become incorruptible.

Sin is moral corruption. It is any disobeying or disregarding God and His word to us. Degeneration of our bodies in the Bible is given the theological explanation of resulting from our sins, and particularly from Adam's sin. Though in one sense, as Moses taught later in Deuteronomy, each one shall perish for his own sin, there is another sense in which we all died in Adam when he sinned.

We all died in Adam when he sinned. As Paul wrote in Romans 5:17, as verses we read earlier today. Because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man. Well, it's Adam's family. It says here in verse 1, the generations of Adam that we're reading about this morning.

God had warned Adam back in chapter 2 when he was in the garden, verse 17, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Well, when Adam and Eve disobeyed that, they died. They died immediately spiritually, and their physical death then became certain.

As I meditated on this passage, I was struck by how strange Adam's death there in verse 5 may well have been to those around him.

Adam was the first man.

The family was all his. They all came from him. They were all made in his image. It was in his image, divine yet fallen. It says in verse 3 that they had all been made, a son in his own likeness.

Adam had always been there. There was never a day the sun rose that Adam wasn't there. Adam could recount to them the very beginning. He could recount to them that God made them, that God walked in the garden with them. He could recount the self-condemning words that he would have to speak to tell the truth, that God had told them clearly what not to do and that the serpent came along and deceived them and then they sinned.

Adam would have to own that. There was a curse that came. Then things changed in the world. They were cast out of the garden. But God didn't leave them without hope.

Words that seemed little to us were huge to them. In Genesis 3:15 when he mentions to the serpent that the seed of the woman, a strange phrase, will crush his head.

Friends, all of that Adam had always been a first-hand witness for, but here Adam died. The first nonviolent death we have recorded. There could have been some earlier, but they're not recorded. How strange it must have seemed to them that Adam died. He wasn't killed as Abel had been up in chapter 4 verse 8, or as Lamech's victims were, chapter 4 verse 25, or 23 rather.

But still he died. I mean, he who was there had just always been there and talked to them and knew this, had given them life. How strange would the first natural death have appeared? How ghastly, how unnatural, how unnerving.

But this is the refrain that would echo down this chapter. Again, look at the end of each paragraph.

Down Adam's line throughout human history and he died and he died and he died. The warning God gave back in chapter 2 verse 17 was coming true. You must not eat from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat of it, you will surely die.

Even these long ages of life would decline. I mean we read in chapter 6 that we'll look at next week, verse 3, the Lord saying, My Spirit will not contend with man for he is mortal, his days will be 120 years. God changed something that accounted for the long lives. And so the average of these lives given before the flood, 858 years, falls to the average of those after the flood, which we see in chapter 11 recounted of 307 years. And though it's not explicit in chapter 11, the and then he died is implied there too in Genesis chapter 11 as it will be for the rest of human history.

Noah died as would Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, and on and on it goes. How is it Paul put it in Romans? We read it earlier. The many died by the trespass of the one man, one man, and the results of one trespass was condemnation for all men.

Let me just say, some people have wondered if it is fair of God to punish us for Adam's sin. A few comments, four in particular. Number one, God sets the rules. He made Adam. He made Adam to fulfill this particular representative role that's uniquely his in a way it's not yours or mine.

Number two, We wouldn't have done any better.

I don't think God rigged the whole thing bad for us. I don't think if the Lord put Welton or Dick or me in Adam's place, we would have done better. No offense, brothers. I think the Lord put a good one in there, you know? And I think Adam was a good one.

He was perfect, more than any of us can say. And yet here is what Adam did. We would have done no better. Number three, well then why didn't God make us unable to sin at all?

I don't know. C.S. Lewis will tell you that contrary choice power is essential to human nature. I think that's a facile and false answer. No offense.

But I don't know. But that's not the answer.

I do think it must have something to do with God displaying the fullness of His glory in both His justice and His mercy through Christ.

And number four, the substitution of Adam is the pattern in Romans 5 as we've read, for Christ's substitution for us as our Savior. As surely as Adam had known what was right and didn't do it, so, friend, you and me have both been instructed by our own consciences, by our parents, by God's Word, by sermons right here. And yet we have, as we regularly confess at the Lord's Supper, followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have offended against your holy laws.

We have left undone those things which we ought to have done. And we have done those things which we ought not to have done.

What's wrong?

We've sinned.

Number three. So then, is there any hope? Is there any hope into centuries of dark night shines a ray of hope? Look at verse 21, those four verses I skipped over when I read a moment ago, verse 21. When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he fathered Methuselah.

Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Enoch is one of the most enigmatic figures in the Bible. I don't know about you, but there is so much that we don't know that I would love to know.

I mean, could we please see a YouTube comparing Christ's ascension with Elijah's fiery chariot, maybe Moses' death on the mountain alone, and then Enoch's walking with God and he took him and he was not. It seems to be that what he means here by God took him, it was some kind of personal bodily translation into the presence of God without experiencing the death, which is the is the common lot of fallen mankind, a personal rapture. Paul described the change which believers will experience at the return of Christ. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. He says in 1 Thessalonians 4, Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

That sounds a little bit like that expression here in Genesis 5 that he walked with God. It's an interesting expression, a very visual, practical expression, walking with God. Now, when I say walking with God, you realize this is not so much a way to describe what Enoch experienced transitioning from this life to the next. It would include that. But no, basically it's describing every day of his life.

It's describing what was common of his days and weeks and months. It wasn't an exceptional time. It was what was normal during his life. It was his practice. God would later appear to Enoch's descendant, Abram, and say, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless.

I can't imagine that Enoch was accepted from the corruption that Adam had made in the image of God, but Hebrews tells us that Enoch had acted by faith. Hebrews 11:5-6, By faith, in the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent, in faith of that coming seed, Enoch lived as he did, whether through revelation, through Adam, something that Adam had said or some other source, God's Spirit took the truth that God Himself had revealed to Enoch and gave him faith to believe God's promises, and so inspired a sincere fellowship with God which pleased the Lord. The exact words there in Hebrews 11 are worth hearing. Hebrews 11 verse 5, By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken, he was commanded as having pleased God.

And 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. Now if you keep reading, you'll find that in chapter 6, verse 9, Noah also is said to walk with God. But that clearly ended poorly in the incident at the end of chapter 9, we'll come to in a few weeks. But not so with Enoch.

While any fallen son of Adam will have sin, by God's grace, Enoch's life was marked by desiring to be with God and acting like it. His obedience to God would mean justice for others. The kindness Enoch must have shown to others came from his own humility before the Lord, realizing what he deserved and yet what he'd been given. What would the prophet Micah say? He has told you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

How do we do that? In our church's statement of faith, we refer to the means of our being made holy or our sanctification as the Word of God, self-examination, self-denial, watchfulness, and prayer. What promises would Enoch have known to exercise his faith on? Maybe as I've suggested, this promise of the seed of the woman. Given in Genesis 3:15 about bruising the serpent's head, whatever God had revealed to him.

It's very interesting, Jude 14 and 15 lets us know one thing Enoch did. Do you know what it says Enoch did? Enoch prophesied. That is, he preached. And it's amazing, we actually have a summary of his sermon in Jude 14 and 15.

And when you hear it and you remember the world that's so bad that in the next chapter we'll look at next week, God decides to end the whole thing.

It's really bad. This is the message Jude, I mean, Enoch preached to that generation that we can read about in Jude. Behold, the Lord comes with tens of thousands 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. That is against the Lord. What an appropriate message for someone to give to that generation that was so wicked that it would cause God to regret having made man.

What does that mean? That's next week. But it was a dark time, and Enoch brought an appropriate message to this group of people who were sinning so directly they were speaking harshly against God. Enoch must have lived not a perfect, but yet a very distinctly godly life, especially compared to all of the people around him who lived in that ancient world between the fall and the flood. Friends, in Enoch's walking with God, God gave encouragement that there was not only the judgment of death in their future, but that there could also be this hope.

That you could walk with God, restored fellowship where we understand ourselves to be the creatures and God to be our creator. And as our only maker, God should be our only master. God's patience was showing itself every year that final judgment was delayed. How much more so than someone who seemed to know and understand and admire and desire God and his holy judgments. And his merciful patience.

I wonder if some of you here today have ever even considered that you could walk with God. I wonder if your view of your life has been so constricted that you thought maybe God could help you at that doctor's office report or maybe at the office for a promotion or maybe give you some money that you needed or answer a certain prayer. But have you ever considered that your whole life could actually be characterized by walking with God.

If you're a Christian, you probably take that for granted. If you're not, you may never even considered something like that. You know when you take a walk with a friend, you have a long conversation, there's a satisfying interchange of ideas, anecdotes, affection. Can you imagine for real having a relationship like that with God? We sang about it earlier.

Did you notice that in the first line of Christ is Mine Forevermore? Mine are days that God has numbered. I was made to walk with Him. Yet I look for worldly treasure and forsake the King of kings. Friends, God consorts with surprising types.

You'll note here that in this long list, who is the one who said to walk with God? The one who has the shortest life. It's not Methuselah with his seniority that gets in. Length of years doesn't confer divine fellowship. Long years may make me old, but they don't necessarily make me holy.

Now brothers and sisters, it's hard to follow God in a fallen world. But it's literally what we've been created to do. It's why we're alive. If you're 50 or if you're 15, you'll never have that 15th year back again. Why not spend it walking with God?

That's why you were given each year that you have. I love this summary of walking with God. When I thought of that being the only thing that's left to us about Enoch, I thought of epitaphs. And being the sort of historian dude I am, I thought of Thomas Jefferson's grave at Monticello. Jefferson designed his epitaph and all he wanted on it was, Here lies buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia.

Because by these I wish to be most remembered.

I wonder what your epitaph would be.

It bears thinking about. For Enoch, he walked with God.

What a summary, what a life that's possible for any of us in Christ. When my family and I lived in Cambridge, England, the practice of religion in the college chapels with the choirs was part of the beauty of religion. But this was a beauty of external form, the sound, the robes. But underneath those choir robes, what were those kids wearing? And furthermore, how were they living through the week?

What were they doing with their lives? Were they following God? Were any of them following God? Friends, often we can think of religion too externally, merely about appearances. When the truth is what we see Enoch being summarized as here, the truth is about walking with God, knowing God yourself, walking with him.

In the even truer beauty of holiness.

What characterizes true fellowship with God? Loving him entirely and being loved by him, an internal, inmost, sincere fellowship with God, a nearness and closeness which is more than just the outward appearance of a choir robe. It's a familiar friendship year after year, Enoch enjoyed more faithfulness, more understanding, more love. He received more as his perception of God's faithfulness grew year by year, decade by decade, day by day, year in and year out. God walked with Enoch.

And by Enoch's example, a ray of hope shone into a very dark world. Maybe it's shown into your dark world this morning. Friend, there is hope for you. Our last question, number four, how can I walk with God?

How can I walk with God? Look at the last five verses of the chapter, beginning in verse 28. Genesis 5:28.

When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son. And called his name Noah, saying, 'Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.' Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years. And he died. After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Again, there's so much we don't know about Enoch. He gives us hope, but no recipe, no instructions. But now Lamech here has hope. He prophesies about Noah, his son. 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.

You know, in the previous chapter, A descendant of Cain has the same name, Lamech. But that Lamech brought only revenge and destruction. Now in Seth's line, there's a Lamech that kind of sums up his line. Only this Lamech has hope. Just as Cain's line had ended in revenge and death, Seth's is pointing forward to life and hope.

So this Lamech looks to the Lord to provide deliverance. This word for painful toil here is only used three times in Scripture. This is one of them, and the It's in Genesis 3 about the painful toil the woman would endure in childbirth and the man in labor. You see, if you go back to Genesis chapter 3 before the curse, God had done all the creating painlessly. So even when God made woman from man's side, it was while man slept.

And whereas before they lived effortlessly from the fruit of the trees that the trees produced, Now their food would come from the painful toiling of the ground all the years of your life, as God told man in Genesis 3:17. It's these pains that are somehow to be redeemed or reduced by one to come, according to Lamech's prophecy. Lamech seems to have thought that the one bringing relief was Noah. I don't know that, but I think that's the plainest reading of the text. Noah means either comfort and consolation or rest.

And certainly Noah was a necessary part of God's rescue plan for this world he had made. We'll hear about Noah a lot in the next couple of sermons. Noah will bring rest and relief as he leads into the ark and on the other side of the flood reintroduces sacrifices in chapter 8. But Noah was not sufficient to explain how God would rescue his people. God may have saved Enoch to give hope.

But it's clear that something more was needed for God to be glorified in the salvation of the lost. The people were in the same situation that Jonah was. When he had been thrown overboard, you remember, and he goes into the belly of the fish, and there when he is submerged and swallowed, what does he cry out in Jonah 2:9? Salvation is of the Lord. He knew that nobody else could get him out of the mess his life was in.

It was beyond anyone else's ability to save him. He was desperate. He knew there would have to be good news coming from someplace else, 'cause he couldn't do it himself. Kids, do you ever feel like that? Do you ever feel desperate?

Talk to your parents about it. Don't just let it be in your mind or with a friend at school. Talk to your parents. Person who's not a kid, do you ever feel desperate?

Speak honestly to others about it. Help them know what you're thinking. Maybe they can help you see how the Lord could help you. Salvation is of the Lord. It was Lamech's most distant descendant, Jesus, who would bring real relief from the painful toil.

That was the penalty of man's sin. Noah in the ark would foreshadow it. He would be a preview. He'd be the first stage even of the rescue. But Noah will not give you rest.

It was Jesus Christ who, as if responding to Lamech's prophecy as a prayer, said, Come to me. All who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

How would He do that?

It would take Christ's suffering once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. God sent his only Son, who lived a life with no sin, sacrificed his own life on the cross as a sacrifice, taking God's judgment for all of us who would ever turn and trust in him. God raised him from the dead. He ascended to heaven where he reigns, and he calls all of us now to turn from our sins, to repent and to trust in him, and he will give us forgiveness. And new life so that we too can walk with God.

If you're not a Christian, friend, this is the way for you to be forgiven for your sins, to have restored fellowship and relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ. Believe in him. If you want to know more about what that means, any of us who are pastors will be standing at the doors afterwards. We'd happily talk to you. Talk to a friend that you came with.

Trust him. Follow him. Walk with him. That's how you too can know relief from the effects of the curse in this life. That's how you can walk with God.

We'll hear more about this just now in two baptismal testimonies by Ethan and Cameron right after we sing together. Let's pray.

Lord God, we thank you for walking with us as a congregation, and as individuals through the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord, for all those here who don't know what it means to have fellowship with youh like that. We pray that by youy Spirit you would make that clear. You would bring them into that sweet fellowship. Do this, we pray, for Jesus' sake.

Amen.