Our scripture reading is Genesis chapter five. Coming to Genesis five, we come to a very lengthy genealogy. I decided as we continue in our Genesis series, rather than selecting certain names from this genealogy and preaching sermons on them, I decided to take the genealogy as a whole. and look at this genealogy of the sons of Adam through Seth as one whole unit in contrast to the genealogy of Cain, which we looked at last time. So we read the entirety of Genesis five and the entirety of the chapter is our text. This is the word of God. This is the book of the generations of Adam, In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female created he them and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they were created. And Adam lived 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness after his image and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred years, and he begat sons and daughters. And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos. And Seth lived, after he begat Enos, eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Seth were 912 years. And he died. And Enos lived 90 years and begat Cainan. And Enos lived after he begat Cainan 815 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enos were 905 years. And he died. And Cainan lived 70 years and begat Mahelaliel. And Cainan lived after he begat Mahelaliel 840 years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Cainan were 910 years, and he died. And Mahelaliel lived 60 and 5 years and begat Jared. And Mahelaliel lived after he begat Jared 830 years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Mehe-Laliel were eight hundred ninety and five years. And he died. And Jared lived in a hundred sixty and two years, and begat Enoch. And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years, And he died. And Enoch lived sixty and five years and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred, sixty, and five years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years and begat Lamech. And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech 780 and two years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Methuselah were 960 and nine years, and he died. And Lamech lived 180 and two years, and begat a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. And Lamech lived after he begat Noah 590 and five years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Lamech were 770 and seven years, and he died. And Noah was 500 years old, and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth." Thus far, we read God's inspired word. Again, we take the entire chapter as our text tonight. God has providentially determined that the Holy Scriptures should be one unified and yet very diverse book. The Scripture is one unified book because it has one author, the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Scriptures are unified around that great theme of the establishment and realization of God's covenant. And the Holy Scriptures are unified around the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the content of the entire Bible. And yet the scriptures are very diverse. The Bible is a book that is composed of many different kinds of writings written by many different men whom the Spirit inspired and written throughout many different ages of history. And tonight we come to one of perhaps the more puzzling kinds of writings that appear within the Holy Scriptures. We come to a lengthy genealogy A genealogy is simply a record of ancestry. It is the record of descendants that descend and are born in succeeding generations from one important father. A genealogy is a record that traces a family's lineage. Now, in our Bible reading when we come across Texts, passages such as Genesis 5 easily were puzzled as to why such passages as these occur in the Word of God. What does a passage like Genesis 5 reveal to us? What is its purpose? What is its spiritual and devotional value for the Christian living in this day and age? Is there any other point to reading a genealogy than to struggle through a long list of names that are difficult for us to pronounce? Is there any point in reading these passages in our family devotions? We want to see that although these passages such as Genesis 5 are challenging, and though they are perhaps more difficult to understand, than many of the other passages we might read in our devotions, yet they are important. They're important. Important enough to be included in the Word of God and nothing got into the Word of God accidentally. This is the inspired Word of God that is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. All scripture is profitable in that way, including the genealogies, including the passage before us tonight. And these genealogies then, they are important as the inspired word of God, not simply because they present a historically accurate record of ancient saints, though they do, Nor are they simply important because they show us, they chronicle for us the passage of time so that we can understand, roughly speaking, how many years have passed since creation to now. Though, the genealogies do help us in that area. But, the importance of the genealogies center in this. They show us that our God is a covenant God. Meaning He is a God of relationship. A God who loves His people. Who calls His people into relationship with Him. And gathers His people in the line of generations. That cherished truth that we hold so dear in the Reformed faith. God is a covenant God. Who saves generationally. Who works in the line of generations. But also, and connected to that, these genealogies are important because, like all of Scripture, they point us and direct us to one man. One man. Jesus Christ. The Son of God. In the flesh. And the genealogy before us tonight points us toward that coming Savior. Indeed, the genealogy before us tonight is the beginning of the lineage of our Lord, and its purpose is to direct our attention toward He who is to come, and for us, He who has come, Christ. The fulfillment of the promise of Genesis 3.15. This genealogy illustrates for us God's covenant faithfulness. And thus, it is a profitable word of God for us to consider. Genesis chapter 5 then is an important transitional chapter. It's an important transitional chapter that forms a historical bridge between what we have studied in Genesis 4 and what we will soon study in Genesis 6. It is the historical bridge between the history of Cain and Abel and the history of Noah and the flood. And this historical bridge that is Genesis 5 covers about 1,600 years of history. All contained in the 30 some verses of Genesis 5. This genealogy which covers such a wide span of time shows us the continuity, the continuation of God's covenant from the early years after the fall all the way to Noah. And thus we see how rich this passage is. Specifically, it is interested in showing us, giving us a snapshot of the growth and the development of God's covenant people alongside the growth and development of the seed of the serpent that we saw last week in the genealogy of Cain. That genealogy runs roughly parallel to the genealogy that we have before us tonight in Genesis 5. As the seed of the serpent grows and becomes mighty in the world, We see sons and daughters of God also growing, also developing. Not in worldly pomp, but in faith, in worship, in walking with God, in the hope of the coming Savior. So let us consider then this genealogy under the theme, The Book of the Generations of Adam. Notice in the first place its growth, secondly its height, and finally its hope. The genealogy of Genesis 5 serves a similar purpose in the Word of God to the genealogy that we looked at in Genesis 4, 16 through 26. This genealogy is meant to reveal to us the growth and development of the seed of the woman in contrast to the descendants of Cain. To reveal their spiritual character and to give us a snapshot of some of the high points throughout that 1,600 year period between Canaan and Abel and Noah and the flood. And so in considering this genealogy we want to see some of the main features that come out in the text. And so in our first point we're going to focus mainly on the genealogy itself. And what it shows us about the growth of God's people during this time period. And so we are going to notice four main features of the genealogy in Genesis 5. The first feature that we notice is simply the point we made in the introduction. That the focus is Jesus Christ. This genealogy is a genealogy of the covenant line. It records the development of God's people. And in particular, it records the development of the core, the heart, the very center of God's covenant people. Verse one states the title really of this chapter, which we took as the theme for the sermon, the book of the generations of Adam. Book. Genesis 5 is a book. And that means it's a complete document in and of itself. It is an unbroken record of the descendants of Adam all the way to Noah. And so that designation in verse 1 of our text as the book of the generations of Adam informs us that there's no gaps here. There's no way to inflate this time period and add billions of years. No, this is an unbroken record of descent from Adam to Noah. This genealogy, as we've said, covers 1,600 years of time. That's nearly a third of the history of our world, all packed into these few verses. And this genealogy is traced from Adam through Seth. It does not record all of the descendants of Adam. Of course, we saw that the descendants of Cain or a branch that are cut off from the tree of Adam. This genealogy records only those descendants of Adam that proceed through Seth. Seth, who is the God-ordained son to stand in the place of Abel who Cain slew. Seth, who God appointed. That's what his name means. Appointed. to be at the head of this genealogy, this development of the covenant line. Seth, the appointed one. And so there's an implied teaching here of God's election. God's election governs His covenant and governs the generational development of His people. God appointed Seth. And God appointed the seed that followed Seth. And God appoints every one of His people. And places them in the line of His covenant. The election. God governs the development of His covenant line. But we want to see that this genealogy especially focuses on the very center. The very center. of the covenant line, the heart. The genealogy mentions, as we've seen as we read through it, it mentions only a few names. It mentions one son born to each of these ancient fathers. It mentions the name of one prominent son. But it also says that each of these fathers had many other children, many sons, many daughters. But only one of them is named in this genealogy. And the intention of the text is not to teach us that only one son of each of these ancient fathers was a child of God. And that the rest of them turned away from the faith, apostatized, and joined the line of Cain. That's not the idea. Of those many sons and daughters that were born to Seth and to Enos and down the line, many of them were undoubtedly God's covenant people. In the line of the covenant. The point of this genealogy is to trace the very center of the line. The very heart of the line. That core of the covenant line from which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the fullness of time would be born. And that's clear when we compare this genealogy to the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we find in the New Testament, particularly in Luke 3. Now recall, there's two genealogies in the Gospels. Matthew has a genealogy that traces the lineage of Jesus, but he doesn't go all the way back. Matthew traces the lineage of Jesus back to Abraham. He connects Jesus to David, to identify Jesus as a member of that royal line of David, and he connects Jesus to David and then to Abraham. But Luke goes farther. We turn to Luke 3 and we look at the end of the chapter, we see this. Luke, rather than starting at the beginning, begins with Jesus and starts going back generation by generation by generation. Luke 3 verses 23 through 38 is the complete genealogy of Jesus' ancestry. But what's striking is when we look at the last few verses of Luke 3. Verses 36-38. Compare these verses to what we read in Genesis 5. Starting at verse 36 of Luke 3. Which was the son of Canaan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Shem, and here is where we pay attention, which was the son of Noah, which was the son of Lamech, which was the son of Methuselah, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Malachi, which was the son of Canaan, which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God. Luke basically lifts our text out of Genesis 5 and puts it right here. What we have in Genesis 5 is the first part of Jesus' genealogy. The very heart, the very core of God's covenant line. out of which God promised would spring that Savior who would crush the head of the serpent. And so Luke, as he writes this Gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, draws upon this very chapter to illustrate to the people of his day how God's promise in Genesis 3.15 is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. How God has faithfully maintained that covenant line all the way from the very beginning. There is a direct line from Adam through Seth to Jesus Christ. So we see the application then of this first main feature of the genealogy is that it underscores for us the marvelous covenant faithfulness of our God. In Genesis 4 we just saw how the seed of the woman was almost crushed. Cain killed Abel. It seemed as though the seed, the covenant line, was broken. Had come to a dead end. It seemed like God's promise had been thwarted. But God appointed another seed in the place instead of Abel. God worked powerfully and sovereignly to continue the line of His covenant. Genesis 5 shows us how that line continues. And continues for 1,600 years. We have here in Genesis 5 a record of 1,600 years of covenant faithfulness of God to His people. The Old Testament people of God. The Israelites. Wandering in the wilderness. The first ones to hear this book after Moses composed it. Under the Spirit's inspiration. They would have heard this genealogy. And they would have responded with awe and worship and reverence and thankfulness. The God who has delivered us from the bondage of Egypt. He's been our God throughout the generations of our race. All the way back to Adam. Though we live on the other side of Christ's first advent. And as we wait for His second, this genealogy can evoke in us the very same response. The God who was faithful for thousands of years in the past, He's going to be faithful to us for however many thousand years there might be in the future. Our God is faithful to His people. That's the first main feature of this genealogy to notice. We move to the second. This second main feature of the genealogy is perhaps the one that strikes us the most when we read it. It's the incredible longevity, the incredibly long lives that these ancient saints lived. The ancient saints that are mentioned in the text, they lived very long lives. Lives that spanned centuries. Indeed, if you do the numbers in the text, the average age of these generations is around 900 years. Enoch lived the shortest. He lived 365 years and that's because God took him when he was, by those standards, a fairly young man yet. Most lived over 900 years. Mahalaliel fell just short with 895 years. Incredibly long lives. And the long lifespans then of these early saints, well, it invites the criticism and the mockery of the unbelieving world when they read this passage and say, this is ridiculous. Who lives 900 years old? Who even lives 365 years old? You don't have history here in Genesis, you have mythology, they say. Of course, these objections are rooted in their lack of faith. Without faith, they cannot understand. And their darkened minds, enslaved to sin, reject the truth of God's word. That's the deepest reason for the critics of this passage and their objections. But it's also based on faulty reasoning. On what basis can we say lives of this length are impossible? Well, men today say this is impossible because we look around us today and we don't see anyone living that long today. And say, in fact, it's impossible given the constitution of our bodies, given the environment of the world in which we live. But things weren't always the way they are today. Man's constitution wasn't always the way it is today. The environment in which we live wasn't always the way it is today. Things have changed. And so there's nothing in and of itself unreasonable about the Bible's teaching that these early saints, shortly after the fall, lived such long lives. We believe it by faith, which is reasonable. God tells us in his word. We need no other proof. But we also don't make the mistake of unbelievers who say that all things have gone on in the exact same way since the very beginning of the world. Things have changed since these ancient times. So what accounts then for these incredibly long lives of the ancient saints? Well, there's a number of reasons, not all of which are known to us today, but we can imagine a couple of them. First, of course, is the fact that God simply determined that these men would live this long. His purpose was for the world to quickly be populated. For man to increase and spread throughout the world. And so the long lives of these early saints made it possible for an explosion of population. And indeed, that's what we find. in these early years of history. By the time of Noah, it's very likely that there were millions of people on the world. And the long lives of these early saints, and we can reasonably infer the Cainites also lived this long. These long lives enabled many children to be born to each couple. It extended the length of time in which a couple could have children. It enabled God's purpose for man to fill the world, it enabled that purpose to be accomplished rapidly. So that's one reason, one reason why these saints lived so long. There's also this, the effects of the curse were simply not as progressed not as advanced as they are today. Of course, the sinful natures of fallen human beings were the same back then as they are today. But God's curse in the creation was not as progressed, not as advanced as it is today. All of the diseases all of the viruses, and so many other things that shorten our lives in our day and age. Many of those things likely did not exist back then. They developed over time. The environment was not the same. It was more habitable back then. And so many reasons, we can come up with many reasons that are reasonable and biblical for why these ancient saints lived such a long time. So that is a striking feature of this genealogy. Now we come to the third feature. The third striking feature of the genealogy is that it reveals that the problem of sin and the problem of death have not been resolved. Genealogy reveals that Christ needs to come. We've already seen how this genealogy points us to Christ. It is the record of Christ's ancient lineage. But this genealogy also points out to us how desperately we need that coming Christ. How so? Well, this genealogy emphasizes two things. It emphasizes in the first place, that as generations develop, we develop in the midst of death. We bring forth death. And then in the second place, we die. That's the development of the human race. We bring forth death and then we die. Let's see how that comes out of the text. In the first place, the genealogy begins by reminding us where we came from and what we were, but are no longer. Verses 1 and 2. This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female created he them. And blessed them and called their name Adam in the day that they were created. That's who we were. That's who Adam was. God made Adam and Eve. There in the garden. Perfect and upright before him. In his own image. to be the creaturely reflection of His glory and of His attributes. Adam and Eve were created in perfect knowledge of God. In righteousness and holiness. That beautiful, glorious, divine image. But they fell. They fell into sin. And their fall into sin stripped them of that image. So that by nature, they don't have that image. It's gone. There's not even a remnant of it left. The image of God is lost. Only to be restored by God's saving grace in Jesus Christ. That's what we were. Verses 1 and 2 remind us. Now verse 3. shows us what we are now. Adam lived 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness and after his image and called his name Seth. You notice the striking difference. In the beginning, God made Adam and Eve in His image, in His likeness. But now, fallen man, He begets a son in His own likeness, after His image. Adam begets Seth. But in begetting Seth, He did not bring forth the image of God. He brought forth the image of Himself. He brought forth his own spiritual likeness. Adam and Eve brought forth children, but they were not by nature spiritually like God. They did not reflect God, but spiritually they were like Adam and Eve. They reflected Adam and Eve. Fallen man brings forth fallen children. And so what we have here in the text is the awful reality That as man develops in his generations, all he does is produce more death. He brings forth children that are spiritually dead. That bear not God's image, but the image of their parents. They receive the image of the devil from their parents. Adam begat Seth. and he was born in trespasses and sins. Seth begat Enos. In sin did his mother conceive him. And so on. Only the grace of God restores the image of God. Sin and death reigns. This teaches us a humbling truth that we can apply to us, especially those of us who are called to be parents. We can't give regeneration, new birth to our children. We bring them into this world And by natural birth, they're dead in trespasses and sins. Now we believe, we believe by faith on God's promise that He regenerates our children and indeed He regenerates many of them. That's His normal way of working in the line of the covenant. He regenerates them even in infancy. Even in their earliest days. Yes, even in the womb. But the reality remains, by nature, they are born dead in sin. We can't give anything to our children but our sinful flesh. And we got that sinful flesh from our parents, and they got it from their parents, going all the way back to Adam and Eve. God must give new birth. God must give spiritual life. In all of our generations, we just produce more death. We need Christ. We need Christ, the one to whom this genealogy points us. We need him to give us life. This genealogy points out that we produce death. Then we come to the second part of this third main feature. After we produce death, we die. Genealogy emphasizes the vanity of this life. The vanity of life in the face of death. And really the insignificance of our own lives apart from God's grace. Apart from God reaching into this world of death and plucking us out and saving us and giving us hope. Apart from God's grace, it's vanity. It ends in death. As striking as the long lives of the saints are, perhaps the most striking thing of the text is the repetition. The end of the genealogy's report of each one of these men. He lived. He begat sons and daughters. He lived some more. And he died. And the text plods on, using the same form of expression, marching monotonously, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. It's like the tolling of a funeral bell. As one Presbyterian theologian put it, constantly tolling, he died. He died. He died. And the regularity and the repetition of this phrase emphasizes that to us. No matter how long these men lived, and they lived very long, 900 years, Methuselah almost made a millennium. No matter how long they lived, they died. Because the wages of sin is death. And that is what life is in this incursed world. We are in the midst of death, and it cannot be escaped. We bring forth death, and then we die. And with the birth of each child, that problem of sin and death, it continues. We need, we need the seed of the woman promised. And that was driven home to the Old Testament audience who first heard. This passage of Scripture. We need that seed. That Savior. Who will crush the head of the serpent. Who will restore to us the image of God. Who will redeem us from sin. Save us from death. And give us life. The Savior. Who will come into this vain life. To give us purpose. To give us joy. To give us hope. And that's what Christ did. He came into this vanity. Into this endless march of generations dying, dying, dying. And Christ came and He died. To deliver us from this death. This cycle of death. This death that apart from Him, would end up landing us in eternal hell. We are pointed to Christ and as those who live after Christ's coming let us bow and worship before him. And so that brings us briefly to the fourth and final feature, main feature of this genealogy. And it's very closely connected to the third that we have just seen. And that is that this genealogy, which shows us God's covenant faithfulness, which shows us our need for Christ, this genealogy underscores that it is only by God's sovereign grace that the covenant continues. in the line of generations. It's only by grace that any of us are members of this covenant. Think back on what we just talked about. We produce death, then we die. It's impossible, utterly impossible for us men to continue the covenant by our own power. We bring forth a child and without God's grace that child is dead. Every time we bring forth children, if it were left up to us, the covenant would stop right there. It would be a dead end. God through Christ works. He regenerates each one of his elect children. He gives them spiritual life. He continues this covenant line. The only reason we can read of anyone after Adam, anyone after Seth, is because God is gracious. God regenerated Enos. And God regenerated Canaan. And God regenerated and gave new birth all down the line. God's covenant is a covenant of grace. It depends exclusively on His grace. And we are members of it by grace alone. And so that is the genealogy looked at from a bird's eye view as it were. As we see the development of the line of God's people, its growth. But now let's look at the height of this genealogy. And by height we mean its mountain peak, its apex, its culmination. Just as Cain's genealogy that we looked at last week came to its culmination in Lamech, so too this genealogy of the sons and daughters of God comes to its culmination in Enoch. And very interestingly, both of these culminating points are the seventh generation from Adam. Lamech, the father of Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain. He was the seventh from Adam through Cain. Enoch, when we look at the text, is the seventh from Adam through Seth. And so as both of these seeds, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, as they develop together in antithesis from one another, as they develop in the same world, they reach their culmination at around the same time, at around the same generation, the seventh generation. So the height of Genesis 5 is Enoch. And the text draws our attention to Enoch very strikingly. And it does so by departing from that regular style and that repetitive form that's used throughout the entire chapter. And we see that departure in verse 22. And Enoch walked with God. after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters." Here is what defines Enoch. Here is what the Scriptures set before us as representative not only of Enoch, but as representative of the entire line of God's people descending from Seth throughout this 1,600 year period. They were godly people. They were those who walked by faith. But Enoch is especially singled out as a man who walked with God. That's a striking description. Who else walked with God? Adam and Eve did. In the cool of the day. Back in the Garden of Eden before the fall. Walking with God describes the most intimate covenant fellowship that a man can have with his God. Now Enoch, a fallen sinful man, is said to walk with God. Now of course we understand that that can't mean the same thing as what Adam and Eve enjoyed in paradise. Sin puts a barrier between us and God. And we will not have that full enjoyment of God's fellowship until we are free of sin and arrive in glory. But the use of this phrase underscores for us the closeness of Enoch's life of faith. with God. As it were, he walked through life on his pilgrim path, side by side with God. God was the all-consuming desire of his heart. He lived all of life consciously before the face of his God. He strove daily to fight against his sin, to mortify it, and to consecrate himself to God. In fact, that's what his name means. Consecration. Dedication. Remember we looked at the other Enoch last week. The name Enoch can mean beginning or consecration. It has two possible meanings and we saw how Cain's son Enoch was named beginning. The beginning of this world kingdom. The beginning of the ambitions of this sinful man. Well this Enoch, he is consecration. Devotion to God. Walking with God. That's who Enoch was. And as the brightest light of this genealogy, of these generations of the godly, what characterizes him, characterizes the rest of God's people that we see in this genealogy. That's Enoch. We note then the striking contrast between Enoch and his contemporary, Lamech. The wicked Lamech. Lamech, the descendant of Cain. Lamech, the man who married two wives. Lamech, the man who sang the song of the sword. Lamech, the man who mocked God. Lamech, that wicked descendant of Cain. Contrasted here. Enoch, the man who walked with God. That's all we're told of his life. He walked with God. He walked with God his whole life. But another passage of Scripture gives us a few more details about Enoch and his walk with God during this time. And that other passage is Jude verses 14-15. Jude 14-15. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. That's a picture of what Enoch's days were like. And we see how that reflects what we saw when we studied Lamech and his sons. Lamech, that man of hard speeches. That ungodly sinner. As Enoch lived and walked with God. His walk with God meant that he walked against the wicked world. He drew the line of the antithesis. That spiritual separation. He drew that line very sharply in his life. And in the life of his family. As he consecrated himself to God, he separated himself from sin. Separated himself from the ungodly culture that was being produced by the Canaanites at that time. And especially Jude 14 and 15 emphasizes that Enoch as he walked with God was a preacher of righteousness. He was a prophet who testified against the ungodliness of his generation. And especially warned of the coming judgment of God. And that's quite striking what Jude 14 and 15 tells us. Enoch prophesied of the final judgment. He speaks of God coming with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment. He was given by God, as the Old Testament prophets were, to see ahead, to prophesy of coming events. That great judgment that he prophesied. It would have a typical fulfillment in the flood. A flood that is soon coming. So Enoch was a preacher of righteousness. He condemned the kingdom building enterprise of Cain's descendants. He condemned the awful wickedness of Cain's descendants. He called them to repentance. He warned them of coming judgment. We can well imagine how persecution erupted against him. A man like Lamech, singing his song of the sword would have nothing to do with a man like Enoch. You can well imagine the men of that day persecuting, chasing, hounding Enoch. Seeking even to kill him. Enoch was a preacher of righteousness. A man who walked with God. And that meant persecution and suffering for the name of God. Jude mentions Enoch's prophecy of judgment in a way that's quite fascinating. We find a part of that prophecy of judgment in our genealogy here in Genesis 5. And that prophecy, that part of Enoch's prophecy is found in the very name that he gives his son. He names his son Methuselah. Methuselah. And what comes to mind when we think of Methuselah is his long life. He's the man who lived the longest of any man ever. He lived 969 years, but that's not what's most important about Methuselah. What's most important about Methuselah is the name Enoch gave him. The name Enoch gave him as a prophet. Methuselah's name literally means, when he is dead, it shall come. Or, his death will bring it. When he is dead, it shall come. And that's a prophetic name given to his son. Because Methuselah dies the very same year that God brings the great flood. to destroy the wicked, that flood by which eight souls, the church, are saved. That comes out when you look at the numbers as they work themselves out in the genealogy. A prophet who prophesied judgment. He's the shining star among this generation of the righteous. God's covenant line. The text draws our attention to that. He walked with God. The text also draws our attention to his striking departure from this world. Instead of the usual phrase, and he died, we read of Enoch in verse 24, and Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. The question is, what does that mean? What does it mean that he was not? In order to understand this, we look to Hebrews 11 verse 5, which explains what it means that God took Enoch. Hebrews 11 verse 5. By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death. and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God." That word translation or translate in Hebrews 11 verse 5 means to move something to another place. To pick it up and carry it somewhere else. Enoch was picked up and carried somewhere else by God. It's the very same language that's used to describe Elijah being taken up into heaven in the fiery chariot in the whirlwind in 2 Kings 2 verse 10. And so we get the idea here. Enoch was taken by God when he was 365 years old. He was taken by God and translated into heavenly life so that he did not experience death. His body was transfigured marvelously into the kind of body that we shall have after the resurrection when we enter into heavenly life. God took him. Why? But for one reason, God arises to the defense of his people. When we recall what kind of world Enoch was living in, he was living in the world of Lamech, and of Jabal, and Jubal, and Tubal-Cain. He was the object of fierce persecution undoubtedly, and that's even implied in Hebrews 11 verse 5 when it says, he was not found. That implies that men were seeking him, hunting him, chasing him. Perhaps it is even Lamech. He wanted to wet his sword in Enoch's blood. God snatches him out of the hands of the wicked. Translates him into heaven. And that is a sign. A sign to the wicked. A sign to the ungodly. That God arises to the defense of His people. And God has prepared an inheritance for His people. And there's nothing the wicked can do to his people except that which God himself allows and uses for his good purposes. God took Enoch and he was not. A sign to the wicked but also a sign to the other believers living in Enoch's generation. A sign that there is something after death. They knew there was. They knew by faith in the promise. But here is a very tangible sign. Enoch caught up into heaven. Taken so that he was not. A pledge to all of God's people living in those evil days. Their eternal reward stored up for them in glory. Great encouragement. Encouragement then that lifted up God's people in hope. We come to the third thing we want to see about this genealogy tonight, hope. The book of the generations of Adam is a book of those with hope. Adam's generations through Seth had hope. Cain's descendants had no hope. They were banished from God's presence. to wander in the land of Nod. They built their kingdom in the land of Nod. But it had no foundations. And just like we see in this genealogy, he died, he died, he died. The same was true of the Canaanites. The Canaanites in their generations. They died, they died, they died. And all of their great works, all of their great culture, everything they built came crumbling down in the face of death. Vanity. But after death, there awaited for them the God with whom they had to do, the God who is a consuming fire, the God who justly casts them into the destruction of hell that they deserved. The God's covenant people have hope, and that hope That hope that marks each generation as it passes. As they bring forth children, as they die. That hope is given expression in the last couple verses of the text. In the words of Lamech, not the ungodly Lamech, but Lamech the son of Methuselah. Verses 28 and 29. And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, The same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. The same shall comfort us. He called his son Noah. And the name Noah means rest. Rest. And as we've seen is so often the case here in these early days of history. These names are given in faith. Given out of insight that God gave to these fathers. Lamech names Noah. Rest. And he does so because he understands that this child that he has been given is another covenant child. And God is continuing that line of the covenant. And that line of the covenant he knows by faith is going to reach the coming Christ. who will bring rest. He also has prophetic insight into the life that his son Noah will live. For indeed, God will bring rest for his people. In a few centuries, God will send the flood. A flood that destroys the wicked, washes away his church's persecutors. and brings forth a new world cleansed for his people. A picture of the final judgment that will give way to the new heavens and the new earth. Where God's people shall live in perfect peace with God. Lamech gives expression to this hope. This hope that sustained all of these generations in the book of Adam. For rest, true rest, in the coming Christ. And thus, there's comfort. Lamech finds comfort in all of the toil and all of the work in this world that is cursed. He finds comfort in the vain life that he is living. And imagine how much those men would need that comfort. Living centuries. in a sinful world. Christ is coming. That hope is ours. That comfort is ours. Christ has come. Christ is coming again. That means all of your toil, beloved, all of your work, all of your sorrows, all of your tears, this life, They're not for naught! Christ is coming. He's coming for us. He is Alpha. He is Omega. The beginning and the ending. May all praise be to Him. Amen. Lord God and Heavenly Father we thank Thee for Thy Word to us as it is revealed in Thy Word and we thank Thee for Thy faithfulness in the line of generations as we see it in the passage we have studied. Give us comfort in knowing that Thou who has been our God in ages past shall be our God in ages to come. That Thy promise in Christ shall be fulfilled, that He is coming, that He will bring us into a new world, free of all trouble and pain and sorrow and sin, free of death itself. Strengthen us for our earthly pilgrimage, that we may serve Thee with consecration and love Thee with all our hearts. We ask it with the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus' name. Amen.