We turn in the scriptures to Genesis 5. Genesis 5, and we're going to read verses 1 through 32 as we continue our sermon series through the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. This is on page four of your pew Bibles. And I do invite you to stand out of respect for the reading of God's inspired word. 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 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. 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 912 years, and he died. When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. Enosh lived, after he fathered Kenan, 815 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died. When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel. Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Kenan were 910 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, eight hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died. When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God, after he fathered Methuselah, three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years, Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years. He had other sons and daughters, thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died. When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son, and he 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. He 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. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. Amen. You may be seated. I have a confession to make. At the beginning of my reading of the Bible, for a very long time, I used to skip over the long list of names in my Bible reading. And so if you're with me in that this morning, you're not alone. I did that for many, many, many, many years until a pastor sat down next to me and helped me to understand how very important the genealogies of the Bible are. In fact, I'm looking at the kids here. Kids, when I was your age, when I was maybe even 10 or 11, I got so excited about reading the Bible. And there was this little project in our church where every Bible book we read, we told the pastor and he had an artist paint a leaf on a big tree in our church. It was a painted tree, of course, but it was really neat. And I got, I was so excited to read the Bible, but I felt guilty because when I told him I'd read the book of Genesis, I didn't tell him that I had pretty much skipped over the genealogy sections. And if you notice, the genealogies in Genesis are actually a tremendous length of the book itself. A big part of it, we can't just skip over this because The Bible tells us in 2nd Timothy 316 that all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for many things for the Christian life. This genealogy section was put here by God to teach us something, and I dare say, in fact, I do say that when we see it this morning, we will be so encouraged in our faith that we will not want to skip it anymore. We will want to lean in and see it again and again and say, yes, God, thank you for saying this. Thank you for putting this genealogy in the book of Genesis. What the genealogy teaches us is that there is hope for a better life for everyone who walks with God. Hope for a better life, hope for a better future for all who walk with God. One of the important ways to read a genealogy is to see what's there, what's in common, what keeps popping up over and over and over and over again, and then to also keep an eye out for what's different, what stands out. We're gonna see both of those things this morning. Those are going to be our key lessons for making sense of this genealogy and seeing all that God would have us to understand from it. Now, the first thing you see is something that that is consistent throughout the entire genealogy from beginning to end. There is the reality of what the reality of death. It's like a dark cloud that looms over history. We turn to this passage and right away we're seeing that there's hope because we're seeing the genealogy of Seth. Remember that. Cain killed Abel. God gives another offspring to Adam and Eve so that there might be the hope of an offspring who might crush in time the serpent's head. And that offspring is Seth. But Seth, with all the hope that Eve must have put in him, here he is. Here's the head crusher. He's arrived. But yet what happened? He died. Such long lines in this genealogy. There are people who live hundreds of years, some nearing even a thousand years. Can you imagine? Some of you say, is this real? Yes. Yes. This is what the scripture tells us. Seth and Methuselah living into their nine hundreds. I wonder what they saw in their lifetime. But then we hear the same depressing phrase ring out like a church bell seven times. And he died. And he died. And he died. Some of the patriarchs are like sturdy oaks who look like they'll never die. Methuselah is one of them. He's got a cool name, Methuselah, but look at his age. He lives to 969 years old. Oh, the things that Methuselah saw in his lifetime. But 31 years shy of his thousandth birthday, mortality strikes, the tall oak falls, Methuselah's dead. And if we look at this genealogy and we're honest with ourselves, this is what life is like for all of us after the fall. First Corinthians says it just very plain and simple, in Adam all die. At the start of our lives, we feel invincible. Oh, the things we can do. We can do anything we put our mind to. Nothing can stop us. And that youthful energy just propels us forward. But then somewhere halfway through the journey, the hopes of youth hit a brick wall. And we realize that we're running out of time. Our lives are so short. Soon we will all be gone. And there's no one I haven't talked to in their 90s that hasn't said to me, it just felt like yesterday. It just felt like yesterday that I was celebrating my sixth birthday. It felt like yesterday that I was in my mom's arms. It felt like yesterday when I met my wife. It felt like yesterday when we had our first child. Time moves so fast. Don't ever take it for granted. I wonder if Noah talked with Grandpa Methuselah on his ninety nine hundred and sixty ninth birthday. I wonder if he sat down and said, what's it like to live in nine hundred and sixty nine years? I wonder if Methuselah said to him, it seems like it was just yesterday that I was a little boy. It all goes by so fast. The reality of death, the vanity of life after the fall, hangs over us all, does it not? Mortality strikes. But we find hope in this genealogy with something that's different, something that stands out. It's the hope of a godly walk. And we see it with Enoch. Notice, remember, it's important to count seven generations from the start of a line. And that's where you'll see something that epitomizes what God is doing with that line of people. We saw that last week. We'll see it again. Because if you count seven generations in from Adam, Who do you find? Enoch. And with Enoch, there's something that's missing. There's something that you don't hear. You don't hear that phrase. And he died. And there's something that is mentioned about him that's not mentioned about anyone else. What is that? Kids, did you notice it? Yeah, he walked with God. That's right. He walked with God. What does this mean? that in a world of death, in a world of disease and mortality and time that slips away, that we might walk with God. What does that mean? Why is it so hopeful? When someone walks with God, they enjoy a lifestyle of intimate fellowship with their creator. We know this because we see other people in the scriptures who walk with God. Noah, David, Abraham. And these people who walk with God are not just doing it once in their life. It's a lifestyle. In fact, the text makes clear this is an ongoing thing, walking with God, walking with him in this intimate style of fellowship and friendship. In fact, this is what Adam and Eve could have enjoyed, did enjoy before sin. Do you remember what God does when he comes into the garden after their sin? He comes walking in the cool of the day. God comes walking into their living space, their living room. This is apparently something that God would do with His friends, Adam and Eve, all the time. And yet, when He comes walking, what happens? They go hiding. They go running. Because that's what sin does. It separates us from God. But in the hope of Genesis 5, when God comes walking, Enoch no longer hides, he no longer runs. He can once again walk with God, and so can we. Kids, I want you to imagine walking with a friend down a country road. Your best friend, what's it like? You talk, you listen, you laugh. You share your heart with each other and it's like everything else that's happening, all the scenery just kind of fades into the background. And your friend, you just love time with them so much that you just want to know them and talk with them and enjoy them. And this is what it's like, brothers and sisters, to walk with God, to know him, to enjoy him forever. The goal of every Christian should be to live in a state of unbroken worship. Knowing God, hearing His voice, living to please Him, sharing our hearts with Him. This is more than knowing that God exists. Do you see it? When we listen to Him and share our hearts with Him and offer obedience to Him, we're doing more than knowing that God exists. We're actually living and walking and enjoying life with God. Personal fellowship. If Enoch had a song track to his life, it would be just a closer walk with thee. I am weak, but thou art strong. Jesus, keep me from all wrong. I'll be satisfied as long as I walk. Let me walk close to thee. Just a closer walk with thee. Granted, Jesus is my plea. Daily walking close to thee. Let it be, dear Lord. Let it be. Enoch walked with God. What about you? Does your life stand out to others because you follow Jesus? Is there a style to your walking in life? People would say, wow, he or she, he walks different. She walks different. I don't mean literally. I mean, I mean, in terms of the ebb and flow of your life, the way you do life, the way you live life, the way you spend your time, the way you talk about things, the way you react to tragedy. Is there something that people would notice and say, he walks different, she walks different. And it must be because they walk with God. That's Enoch. And it can be you, too. Perhaps it is you. If you want to walk with God, we must put away sin. We must be continually repenting, turning from sin, because what is sin if not a walking away from God? What is sin if it's not a setting our own pace and walking off a cliff rather than walking down that country road with God? Sin is insisting on our own walk, in fact, our own running pace straight into disaster. And God says, no, no, no, no, no. Don't go your own way. Keep in step with me. Amos 3 3 says this. How can two people walk together unless they agree, unless they agree? And so the whole of the Christian life, Enoch's life and our life is one of saying when where I do not agree with God, I must come into agreement with him. Our whole lives, are they not, are figuring this out. Sometimes while reading the scriptures, God puts a spotlight on something and we say, I've been living my whole life wrong. I've been pushing down this sin and now it's right to the surface and I see it. I gotta change the way I walk. What is it this morning that you need to change so that you are walking in step with God. What is it that you need to submit to in God's word so that you are walking in agreement with Him? It feels funny to start to walk different, doesn't it? I have this problem, it's called heel striking, and it wears out my shoes, and it makes my back hurt because I'm constantly walking and hitting my heels, and you have no idea how hard it is to start to walk normal. I've kind of given up. But we must not give up the difficult process of walking in step with God. We can never just say, I guess this is who I am and I'm not gonna change and I'm this many years old, I guess I'm just setting my ways. No, God says to you right now, wherever you're at, you are not too far gone to change your walk. Come on, walk with me. Read the scripture. See how I'd have you walk? Walk in step with me. That's what the Lord says. He sets the pace and we follow. When we persist in sin, we should not be surprised at all to find ourselves walking further and further and further from God and into loneliness and misery. This means something else. When we open the scripture, when we go through the process of the spiritual disciplines of our life. We are not just going through this bare process of checking off boxes and going through motions. We are actually meeting and communing and walking with God. And this this is important, if you are spending a considerable time reading the scriptures and you're saying, I don't understand. But I am not communing with God much in my time in his word. What you need to understand is perhaps you need to read the scriptures differently. Perhaps you need to turn to another place, turn to the Psalms, where you see this is not merely a a checking of a box. I got my reading done today. It's a how can I get close to God? Where can I meet him in his word? And his whole word is speaking to you. Any place is a good place. But you have to understand that sometimes we get in these ingrained habits of just reading to to read. And the question you should be asking as soon as you sit down and open the Bible is, Lord, how would you have me walk with you today? What are you saying to me? not just letters on a page, but a love letter from God to you. He wants to meet with you. He wants to walk with you. Enoch walked with God. So can you. And the hope in all this is that not even death, not even death, can disrupt such fellowship with God. This is what we see with Enoch. He's the only person in the genealogy who did not die. As Hebrews 11 5 helps us to understand, he was suddenly beamed up by God into eternal life. It's mysterious, it's wild, but it's true. Listen to Hebrews 11 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 up, he was commended as having pleased God. Friends, this example ought to encourage us. It ought to encourage you if you are walking with Christ. Because what you see here is this picture, this example, that awakens us to the exciting realities of what will happen when Jesus comes back. When Christ returns, those who are still living will be translated into incorruptible life, just like Enoch. And we see this in First Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18, this picture of that we heard it read by Mr. Jones of what's going to happen when Christ returns. Those who are living are beamed up to heaven, beamed up to where Christ is in the air, raptured, as it were. On the last day, when Jesus returns for good. This is the hope of everyone who knows Jesus, when we see Enoch in this passage, when we see that he was taken up by God, we get this picture. Jesus is going to come and those who are still living are going to meet him as Enoch did. But there's more. More than that, Enoch's example confirms the power of God to raise us from the dead. So you say, I hope Jesus comes back soon, but what about my loved ones who have died before Christ came? What about me? What if I breathe my last breath before Jesus returns? Well, the hope of Enoch still comes to you because the same God who overruled death by translating Enoch into eternal life, he is the same God that we trust to raise us from the dead because he is the resurrection and the life. Right in the middle of this genealogy that most of us are probably prone to skip over. is buried this beautiful promise of eternal life, resurrection life. There it is with Enoch. So how do we walk with God today? How do we walk with God if this walk is not only going to begin now, but continue after death into all eternity? we draw close to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we walk with God. Colossians 2.6 says this, therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him. How do you know if you're walking with God? You're walking with God if you're trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. If you trust him to save you from yourselves and from your sins by his work on the cross, if you risk it all to follow him, I don't care what my family says. I don't care what the world says. Give me Jesus. If you start to become more and more like Him day after day, conform to Him and His suffering, conform to Him and His virtues, then you'll find yourself walking in step with the Savior, becoming more like Him, being like Him when He was here on earth, being like Him as He is now in heaven. You'll find yourself walking in such deep intimacy with Jesus that not even death can separate you from Him, for He will take you to Himself. Just a closer walk with thee. Granted, Jesus is my plea. Daily walking close to thee. Let it be, dear Lord. Let it be. Let's pray. Heavenly Father. What a profound beauty it is to see in this genealogy in your word instruction for us in our living today. Lord, The cloud of death still persists around us and threatens to discourage us so much, Lord. This world is not what it was created to be. It is broken. It is brutal. And yet you are not done with us. You are not done with a sinful race for you sinned You sent your son to save us from death, to save us from the depressing words, and he died. And he did this through his own death on the cross. Lord, praise be to you. We ask that we would be found walking in Christ, so full of gratitude for his death for us and his resurrection for us, that we would not taste death, but even if we go through death, it would be but an entrance into glory. You overruled death with Enoch. We believe you will do the same for us, for all who know Jesus. And we pray this faithful in you. Amen.