Please turn to Genesis 5 for our scripture reading. Genesis 5, verses 1-32. Let's give our attention to this reading of this 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 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." 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 Canaan. Enosh lived after he fathered Canaan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died. When Canaan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalal. Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and 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 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he had fathered Methuselah 300 years, and he 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. 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. 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. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. You may be seated. Let's pray. Gracious Lord, grant us Your Spirit, Your Spirit, that very one that inspired the writers to give us this piece of sacred Scripture. We ask that You would open our minds to understand the things of Your Word. Lord, we ask that You would give to him who speaks wisdom and truth And Lord, we ask that You would grant to us faith and repentance and godliness of life as a result. Lord, we know that Your Word can never fail. So we ask that You would now send the preaching of Your Word out, and we ask, O Lord, that it would accomplish all that You have purposed for it. We pray it in Christ's name. Amen. Well, it's usually the case at some point in a new believer's early life as a Christian that they determine, you know, it would probably be a good idea to read the Bible cover to cover. Genesis to Revelation. So they begin in Genesis, and they get to chapters 4 and 5, and well, there are these lists of names, and you're not quite sure what to do with them, but you keep on going. And then you get to chapter 10, And you find 70 more hard-to-pronounce names, and you're not really sure what's going on there, and then you get the suspicion that there's something else looming, and so you turn the page, and after that interesting story of Babel, there are more names for you to try and master. What are they doing here? But you muscle through it, you keep on going, you keep with your determination, I'm gonna read through the Bible. And then you get to 1 Chronicles, chapter 1, another list of names. And there are 8 more chapters that follow, giving the longest genealogy in the Bible. And you do what every Christian does, you skim it, right? You get through and you get to the next chapter. And so you're reading through the Bible, and you get close to the end of the Old Testament, and you think, great, I'm on to the New Testament, it's going to be refreshing, it's going to be different, it's going to be Christ. You turn to Matthew 1, and oops, another genealogy, another list of names, 42 of them to be exact. So the Christian has to wonder at some point, What on earth are all these names doing here, right? As our culture would tell us, as the literary experts would say, you know... Why would anyone put this stuff in the Bible? If you're looking to engage your audience, there's probably better material. Literary critics would say if you want to keep your audience, if you don't want to lose them either from boredom and falling asleep or just moving on to a different book, you certainly would not want to frustrate them by putting names that they would never be able to figure out. And so the question we want to ask ourselves, at least as we start off now, and we're going to run into a number of genealogies in the book of Genesis, is we're going to have to ask the question, why are they here in the first place? What's the point? So we want to answer the big question first, what's the point of this genealogy? And then we'll look at some of the particulars of this genealogy. I freely confess, I cannot tell you much about a good number of the names here. And it's only going to get worse as we go because the genealogies get longer and there's less information about the people that are there. But we can discern a few things and gain some insight into what God would have us know about these individuals who are listed in chapter 5. So to our first question then is the big question. Why do we have genealogies in the Bible, particularly these early genealogies of Genesis? And some have looked at this and said, well, it's obvious, isn't it? This is the way that an ancient oral culture keeps track of the family. And we would say, yes, of course. If you want to know who's in your family, you consult the genealogy. The genealogy is passed on from parent to child to let the kids know in an oral culture who grandma and grandpa and great-grandma and great-grandpa were and so on and so forth. And that's all fine and good. We would say, yes, of course, genealogies in the Bible are often used to trace those lineages and to do so with some precision. But that's not quite what we have here. I wonder if you noticed the refrain. Nine times in this chapter, and he had other sons and daughters. Clearly, if this is meant to simply be a genealogy, tracing your family tree, there's a few branches missing. Quite a lot. So it can't simply be that this genealogy is for the sole purpose of tracing our family units one to another. There are family members who are missing. Well, others have come to this section of Genesis and said this genealogy actually is used so that we can tabulate the age of the earth. Oh yes, it gets interesting. In the 17th century, Archbishop James Usher formulated a chronology of the world using these early chapters of Genesis. You say, how on earth would he do something like that? But James Usher ascertain that the first day of creation began at nightfall preceding Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC." Isn't that good to know? That's when it all got started. Well, how did he do that? Working with the chronology, you have in the Bible from the time of Adam until the flood, roughly about 1600 years. And then from the time of the flood to Abraham, you've got roughly another 400 years. From Adam to the flood, 1600. From the flood to Abraham, 400. And then it's pretty well thought to be a given that Abraham is basically 2,000 years before the time of Christ. Add those numbers up, what do you have? 4,000. And so people have said the earth is roughly 4,000 years old. Well, that might be the case. But when we look in other places in the Bible and consult other genealogies, we find that some of them have gaps. Some of them are not strictly person to person, just like we can have some families who had children who were born whose names are not recorded. So there are places in the Bible where a generation or two can be passed over. There are gaps in the genealogy. And clearly the idea of tabulating the age of the earth was not the interest of the ancients. The translators of the Hebrew Bible into Greek 200 years before the time of Christ, it's known as the Septuagint, they translated Genesis 5 and they did not quite do it in a way that would make sense to us. When you do the addition, The flood occurs when Methuselah, now this is according to the Greek translation, when Methuselah is 955 years old. Now as Gordon Hugenberger has pointed out, Methuselah not only holds the world's record for the longest longevity of years, 969, he also holds the world's record for treading water the longest because he was not in the ark. 955 years, the flood comes, but he lives another 14? You see, for the translators of the Hebrew into the Greek, the very translations that the New Testament writers use, that was not their interest, to figure out the age of the earth. So if genealogies are not for keeping track in every detail of family members, if it's not for tabulating the age of the earth, what are these genealogies doing? And I should add a side note. For our kids, they're going to grow up and some of them are going to go to college and university and professors are going to say, how simple-minded are these Christians? Clearly the earth is hundreds of thousands or millions of years old and you believe in an earth that's 4,000 years old. How ridiculous. And this is one way that we can formulate an answer. You may be convinced of a young earth, that's okay. We like young earthers, you might be convinced of an old earth, that's okay too. But we could at least give an intelligible defense and say, well, maybe the genealogies are not as complete as you think and therefore there are gaps that would give us more spans of time. Right? The issues that the church wrestled with, the ancient church and our confessions today, are not interested in the age of the earth, they're interested in teaching the church that God created the earth. That's the point. Okay, so back to our question. If it's not about families per se, in its strictest form, and if it's not about the age of the earth, what are genealogies about? And here's the answer. They're about a promise. The genealogies are about a promise that God made. Back in chapter 3 and verse 15. God said to the serpent, I'm going to put enmity, hostility against you and the woman between your offspring and hers. He's going to crush your head. You're going to bruise his heel." And so what we find then is genealogies are the outworking of this mother promise of the Bible. The Genesis 3.15 promise raises all sorts of questions. Who is the offspring? Where is he coming from? What is he going to do? What will he be like? The line of the serpent and the line of the woman, I believe, are given to us in these early chapters of Genesis. In chapter 4, you have the line of Cain, who acts very much like the devil. He is a liar, Jesus and John says. He is a liar and a murderer, and the truth does not abide in him. What was it that Cain did? He lied. Where is your brother? I don't know. Oh, yes, you do. And he was a murderer. He killed him. He is of the line of the serpent. And now here in chapter 5 we have another line, the line of Seth. The line of Seth is a line of life. And the line of Cain is a line of death. One for the serpent, one for the woman. You see these things are beginning to move out as Genesis 3.15 marches on as God has promised. So congregation, just by way of application then, what can you do when you get to 1 Chronicles? What can you do when you get to some of those less interesting spots in the Bible where you have lists of names? You might not be able to figure out anything about the people and what they have done, but one thing you can do is look at those lists of names and remind yourself God is faithful. God is preserving an offspring for Himself. God is preserving a line for Adam from which the second Adam will come and faithfully do all that the first Adam failed to do. So the genealogies are teaching us really, I guess this is a long explanation of simply this, they're teaching us about Christ. They're teaching us about God's promises in Christ. Now, setting Genesis 4 and 5 side by side, Moses, I think, is inviting us to make a comparison. It's not coincidental that he runs two genealogies together in the same place. Some of the names are identical, some sound similar. Start with Cain. His name is quite similar to verse 9 of our text, Canaan. Cain has a son named Enoch, the seventh from Adam. Verse 21 is named Enoch. In the line of Cain there is an Irad, and in the line of Adam, verse 18, there is a Yarad. In the line of Cain there is Methuselah. In the line of Adam, verse 25, there is a Methuselah. In the line of Cain there is a Lamech. Do you suppose it's coincidental that in the line of Adam there stands a Lamech, verse 28? Moses is inviting us to compare these two groups of people. What were they like? What were they doing? And clearly Cain's line is more interesting. They are the ones that are getting wealthy, they have lots of cattle. They are the ones that are making musical instruments and the world is dancing to the tunes that they sing. They are the ones that are making things out of metal and iron. They're progressing. Oh, and they're killing people. How about Adam's line? What are they doing? Not much. They're born, they have kids, and they die. They're breeders, right? What is the one thing that stands out in these two lines that grabs our attention? And it's simply this. The one line is the line of promise. These people belong to the promises of God. And again, it's striking that in chapter 4, at the very end, we are told that at this time, the time of Adam's son's birth, Seth, men and women begin to call upon the name of the Lord. And then we have this list of people who stand in the line of promise. Were all of these members of this list believers in Yahweh's promises? We don't know. But we could ask that question of ourselves this morning. Do I belong to Christ? Am I one who is claimed by Him and claim Him as my Lord? The promises that God made, are they for me? Do I want them? There are men in the list of Cain who are remembered by their great things that they have done. How do you want to be remembered? I hope it's the burning desire of everyone here. I want to be remembered as a follower of Christ. Whatever my vocation, I might make lots of money, I might do very little, but what would be most valuable to you, I pray that it would be that people would know I am a follower of Christ, that I belong to Him. So let's look at this genealogy and look at these people and see what it can tell us about Christ and ourselves. 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 he 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. Chapter 5 begins with the Book of Generations, and we know now that this is the start of a new section. Remember, they didn't have verses and chapter headings, but this is a heading for the next major section. These are the Generations, or the Book of Generations. And this chapter is reaffirming God's sovereignty over everything. He is Creator and He is Lord. Mankind did not evolve out of some lower species and mankind did not just come into being on its own. God created man and therefore God is King. And God creates man, we're told here, in a specific way. Man is made in his likeness. Or, if you want to use the language of Genesis 1-27, he's made in God's image. And Moses is setting the stage here. Nothing is made of the image of God in Cain's line. Not once does it mention it. It is true all human beings bear the image of God, but the image of God, that phrase, is not said in Cain's line, it's said in Adam's line. I believe that is the case because God is saying, this is the line by which I am going to send one who will restore that image. that image that has been marred and disfigured by sin and evil, I'm going to restore it through one who is coming from this line. He will restore that knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. I want you to look carefully at verse 3 and what it says about Adam's son. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness after his image. As far as genealogies go, this is the only place in the Bible where a son is said to be made in the image of his father. Now, think of what Moses is doing here to make his point. If Adam is made in the likeness and image of God, And Seth is in the image and likeness of Adam. What does that say about Seth and his relationship to God? If you follow the link through, if Adam is made in the likeness of God and Seth is made in the likeness of Adam, what does that say about Seth and his relationship to God? It says that he too is made in the image of God. He too bears the image of the Lord. All people are made in that image and that image may be hard to see at times. But you know, I wonder if this would help us. You're probably going to run into people who don't really act like the image of God. They don't really use their knowledge for good purposes. They don't really live righteous and holy lives. Fact of the matter is, they annoy you. Right? You have a hard time being in the room with these people, let alone loving these people. What do you do with people like that? How do you respond to people who say things and do things that you don't like? Well, perhaps before you pour out your scorn and your sarcasm on the individual, what if we first took a step back and said, I'm talking to an image of God. God made human beings in His own image. What if you thought to yourself, this God whom I love, has presented me with this image of this one that I love. Would I cast scorn upon it? Would I be sarcastic then with this person? Because you love God, could you show grace to the person who bears that image that you love? That one that you love? And isn't this what Christ did for us? He came to a broken-down, wrecked image that was not seeking after God, did not want anything to do with God, and He showed mercy and compassion. Could we do the same? Do you suppose it's possible if Christians stopped treating their enemies as enemies and started treating them as the very image of God that the world might take notice and say, there's something different about you? I haven't quite figured out what it is. The image of God is a precious thing. Mankind, we're told, they're made in this image of God and that's reaffirmed later on in Genesis 9.6. But in the second place, I would say there's not only a positive, there's probably a negative connotation as well. Moses could have said, an Adam fathered a son who was also in God's image, but he doesn't say that, does he? What exactly does Moses write? that Adam fathers a son in his own likeness, in his own image. And what is Adam like now? He's fallen, he's sinful, he has a divided will, and his heart is not fully set on God and pleasing Him. He's a falling creature. The consequences of Adam's fall affect us all, as it's said, and Seth did not escape it. receives the image of God passed on to him and the fallen nature of Adam. He is born alienated and estranged from God. Theologians have a word for this. It's an important word. It's called imputation. God imputes to Adam's descendants, every one of us, every child that is born, the guilt of Adam's sin. We are imputed with the guilt of Adam's sin and we are sinners. because God held us in Adam. Adam becomes accountable for us. We are in Adam, therefore we fall in Adam and we bear the sin and the guilt and the shame of Adam. It's kind of striking, isn't it, then, at the very start of this genealogy, in the first verse, we have this lofty announcement, Adam in the likeness of God, And then by the time you get to verse 4, you realize things have gone horribly wrong. It's said that he dies. It's said that he dies. The son of Adam lived an extremely long life, as did Adam. But the epitaph of all of Adam's descendants now bears these words, and he dies. Adam dies, his children die eight times in this genealogy. It is like a funeral bell tolling for the dead. And he dies, and he dies, and he dies. God said, the day, Adam, you eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will die. So it might not have been surprising when Adam's sons stood around him as he gasped and took his final breath. But lo and behold, Adam, representing them, becomes for them what they will be. He lives a long life. I mean, let's face it. He lives 930 years. If you met a person who was 100 years old, you'd say, well done. If you met a person who was 200 years old, you'd say, that's kind of scary. I don't know if I want to live that long. How about 300? 400? How about 500 years old? Our culture would say, that person's never going to die. Adam lives to be 930 years old. And then he gasps, and he clutches his chest, and it sinks in, never to rise. And he dies. What do we learn from this? Well, we learn quite plainly, God keeps his promises. You don't ever have to worry. Is God crossing his fingers behind his back? Is he winking as he is speaking? God said, you eat the fruit, you die, and Adam's dead. That's not the end of the matter, though. I mean, the reality is, yes, we're all going to die, but there's another reality, and like I said, this is the line of life. The Lord sent the second Adam into this world and Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. John 5, 24. A little later in John's gospel in chapter 11, the funeral bell is tolling for dead Lazarus. And Jesus comes and Martha meets him, weeping her eyes out. Her brother is dead. And Jesus says to her, everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Will you take your final breath? Yes, if the Lord doesn't return before then. Will you die an eternal death? No, Christ has already overcome that on the cross. And Jesus is the one person who says, yes, death is unavoidable, but clinging to me, believing in me, you have life and that more abundantly. We all die. No one likes to be reminded of that. You're thinking, why did I come to church this morning? I'm just talking about death and gloom. Nobody likes to hear about death, especially their own. But it's going to happen, kids, adults. It's going to happen. We're all going to die. We're reminded of this in so many different ways, strange ways, some of them. Once I was driving down the freeway and there was a billboard for an advertisement for a new form of chemotherapy and the gentleman was smiling down at everyone as they drove under the sign. I mean, do you think of smiling and joy when you think chemotherapy? I don't. I don't ever want to take chemotherapy because that means something is inside of me and it's trying to kill me, but the world tries to couch it. Oh yeah, you have something that might kill you, but look at him. He's okay. We build walls around graveyards so we don't have to be confronted with our own mortality, and yet, it's good for us. It's good for us to be reminded our days are short. See, the ancients didn't have a problem with this. The medieval church didn't have a problem with this. Scholars in the medieval age typically had a human skull sitting on their desk. And kids say, cool, why would you have a human skull staring back at you without the eyes on your desk? And the answer was it reminded them that the fate that this guy is going to get me to It reminded them that life was short. James Montgomery Boyce said the Latin name for such a skull was memento mori, which means a reminder of death. It was a reminder of the shortness of life and of the certainty that however long or short it might be, everyone must succumb to death and face God. Chapter 5 then is God's memento mori. There was a man in London who was not a believer. His name was Henry Goodyear. And his believing niece tried and tried and tried to get him to come to church. And he wouldn't do it. And finally one day he said, all right, honey, I'll go with you. So they walked to church. They sat down and the preacher, he opens his Bible to Genesis chapter 5. And I'm sure she just sunk deeper and deeper into her seat as she heard those names being read. I mean, of all the days when uncle would come with me to church, the preacher had to choose a genealogy to preach on. And little did she know that as he began to expand and explain the text, those words, and he died, and he died, were like a hammer on a nail. As he walked home every step, and he died, and he died, and he realized, I'm going to die. And he found a copy of the Bible, and he read it, and he gave his life to the Lord and giver of life. And he died. Are you ready to die this morning? Are you ready to end this worship service and then begin that eternal glorifying of God that the saints are enjoying now and will for the rest of eternity? Are you ready to die or are you not ready? And the only way you will be ready is knowing, I belong to the Lord of life. What would being ready look like? And this is our final point. We see an example of what it would mean to be ready by Enoch. We're going to skip down to verse 21. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he had 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. So, we hear that refrain, and he died, and he died, and he died, and then you come to Enoch, and it stops. Evidently, Enoch went out to work one day, and he didn't come home. Where's Enoch? I don't know, I thought he was with you. No, I thought he was out in the field with you. Enoch, we go looking for him, we can't find him, he's gone. Our text says that the Lord took him, and our text also says that he walked with God. This phrase is only applied to Enoch and to Noah, and perhaps it reminds you of an earlier time in Genesis when God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day. Here is God's image walking with the Creator. This seems to be the point of Enoch's life. It's repeated in verse 24, he walks with God. Genesis 5 doesn't tell us what that walk looked like in so many details, but in our New Testament reading, we have the core of the matter. 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 commended 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." Enoch's faith pleased God. And what is it that is pleasing to God? He believed that God exists and that He is a rewarder, the text says, of those who seek Him. There are many people in this world who say they're seeking after God. I'm a religious person. I'm a spiritual person. Of course I believe in God. Well, if they were believing in God and seeking God, don't you think they'd find Him? Isn't that the case? Doesn't the Bible say repeatedly, seek and you shall find? God's not lost. He's not inactive. See, seeking after God is coming to Him and not just saying, I wonder where you might be. It's confessing, this is who you've declared yourself to be and I am yours. That's the life of faith. We also see that a walk with God necessarily separates us from the crowd. I want you to turn to Jude 14. We have one more indicator of Enoch's walk. It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of 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. See, walking with God is not only believing who God is and who He's revealed Himself to be, but then it's also taking stock of the fact that we are not what we are supposed to be. We are not what we should be. And so Enoch called those who would listen to account. He called them to repent if God is our Maker and He is holy. then a holy person is just and a just person must execute justice or judgment. And so Enoch called to his generation, this God who is holy is just and He will judge. That doesn't make you the most popular guy in the land. says over and over again that his generation was ungodly. And I think as Christians we can often look at the sins of others and we justify ourselves. This isn't a moment to say, look how good we are and how good Enoch is and look at how bad everyone else is. We see people living lifestyles that are like what is described here, ungodly, and we can feel the urge to pat ourselves on the back. I'm just not that bad. I don't do those things. And a person, if you say those kinds of things, look at that lifestyle, look at that mess, I'm so glad I'm not that bad. We haven't realized how awful the situation really is. In 1722, Jonathan Edwards sat down and wrote out some resolutions. Here's one that he wrote for himself. When he was confronted with the sins of others, Edwards resolved to, quote, let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God. End of quote. Everybody needs grace. The person who's trapped in a God-dishonoring, self-destructive lifestyle, or the person who thinks themselves just a little bit better than the rest. We all need grace. We all need the grace of God to see that we are no less sinful. The sins are different, but the offense is the same. God is offended. The good news is that the grace that God gives is sufficient for both kinds of sinners. And so Enoch walks with his God. He confesses this God to the world. Now back to Genesis 5, we find a third aspect, and that is that Enoch walked. He didn't run. He didn't skip. He walked. It's not a short walk. It's not a long sprint. It is just a walk. In verse 22, it says that he walked with God 300 years. He just kept putting his foot of faith one in front of the other. On the day that he left home, on that 300th year, He didn't return. God took him and what a way to go out. Not a fiery chariot like Elijah, not a thick cloud and a booming voice, you come up here now, Enoch. No, it says he just walked with God and God took him. We use that phrase to walk with God as descriptive of our relationship, of our Christian life. I kind of wonder if the Apostle Paul was thinking about Enoch when he wrote to the Corinthians. In chapter 5 of his second letter, for we walk by faith, not by sight. And then he says this in the very next verse, we are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Doesn't that sound like Enoch? Walking with God and then no longer present in the body, but present with the Lord. Genesis 5 then teaches us in a shadowy form how walking in this hope of being absent from the body will be presence and a secured reality for God's people. The genealogy whispers the name of Christ. In Adam's line, one man is put to death, that's Abel. But also in this one line, one man is unable to die, that's Enoch. One man is appointed by God, that is Seth, and one man saves his family, that is Noah. This chapter begins with the creation of Adam and it ends with the birth of Noah, whose very name means rest. All of these men are types of Christ. Christ was appointed. Christ died. Christ was snatched away from death, never to die. And Christ gives His people rest. The picture of Christ is here in Genesis. And the promise for weak, struggling Christians in the church of Sardis is true for weak Christians living in and around Seattle today. In Revelation 3 and verse 4, God speaks these words to His church, to you, Yet you still have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy." Right now we walk by faith. but God is promising you that the day will come when you will exchange all of those soiled garments and you will be clothed with the white, clean linen robes of Christ and you will walk with Him in joy forever. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for reminding us of your faithfulness. And now we ask, Lord, that you would strengthen us by this sacrament, that you would seal your word to us, that we might walk before you in a manner that's worthy of the calling that you have called us to, holiness of life. Father, we ask that you would do these things for Christ's sake so that he might be honored and glorified. Amen.