Life From Death - Genesis 5

Introduction

Recap:

We saw the events of Cain and Abel and the terrible direction Cain is headed in. We see the spread of sin in Cain and his descendants and their utter rejection of God and their worship of self.

Then we see a new line of humans begin with Seth. We see the spiritual descendants of the serpent in the line of Cain and the spiritual descendants of the seed of the woman with Seth. But even this more godly line is infected with the curse of sin.

The world has been thrown into darkness. We see that even from the earliest times, men loved the darkness rather than the light, as Patrick talked with us about last week.

This is where we pick up now in chapter 5. We are going to turn from the line of Cain to the line of Seth, the new line of the seed of the woman.

Read Genesis 5:1-5

Genesis 5:1–5 (ESV)

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.

Genesis 5:18–24 (ESV)

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 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.

Original Sin

We have talked about how we as humans have been created in the image of God. We have inherent value and worth because of who we are created by and for the purpose for which we are created, which is to reflect the glory of God.

However, there is a new phrase we will see as we open up chapter 5. “When Adam lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image.” Now this does not mean that we are no longer created in the image of God. But what we are seeing is that the image of God has been distorted and marred by sin so now we are born in the likeness of our father Adam.

Adam as our representative has introduced sin into our our makeup. We still have the value God has created us with, but we are also born with the natural desire and inclination to live in rebellion against God.

Death

The other thing we see as we read through this genealogy is the fulfillment of God’s warning and promise that as soon as Adam and Eve rebelled against Him, they would surely die. Well, over and over we see the repeated phrase, “and he died, and he died.” God was faithful and reliable to His Word. Sin has brought in death.

As a result, we continue to experience the constancy of death among us. As it stands right now, there’s a 100% chance that everyone in here will die at some point in the future.

Not a cheery thought, but one that we must comes to term with.

Of course, we try to find ways to delay and put off the inevitable. But no matter what we do, we cannot escape the fact that we are all going to die, unless Jesus comes back first.

Enoch

But we see an interruption here in the narrative, and it should grab our attention.

While everyone in this list lives a certain amount of years and then “he died,” there is one man whose life does not end with that same phrase.

We get to a man named Enoch, who lived 65 years and fathered a son named Methuselah. And then he walked with God for 300 years, incredibly short for the other life spans we’ve read about, and then instead of saying “he died,” it says “he was not for God took him.”

Enoch did not experience the physical death that everyone else was experiencing and would continue to experience even unto today.

We have a man that God is working through to demonstrate that in spite of the death and the darkness and sin, God is still wanting to bring life and light into death and darkness.

The Miracle

So we do see here a miracle unlike any other. A man is physically taken to God before he dies.

This could be seen as the first rapture. We also know that Elijah was taken to heaven before he experienced physical death.

And we know there’s coming a day when Jesus returns when those who are alive will be taken to be with Him. We are all going to experience physical death unless we are alive when Jesus comes to take us home.

But what we are seeing here is God giving us the first gospel that all those who walk with Him will not actually experience death, but will find true life. Even those who do physically die, will not actually die but will continue to experience life. God is giving the people during Enoch’s time and beyond that life is still able to be found even in this world of death.

Luther - It was, he says, to show that death is not the end but rather “that there has been prepared and set aside for men another and also a better life than this present life which is replete with so many misfortunes and evils.” Enoch was God’s testimony to the fact that those who walk with God in this life will also walk with God in a better life hereafter, thanks to the future work “of the promised Seed.”1

How do we experience this kind of life? How do we have the true life that will never end?

True Life is Walking with God

Genesis 5:21–23 (ESV)

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years.

First, we see that Enoch walked with God.

It is great that we are following up last week’s sermon where Patrick talked with us about walking in the light.

To walk with God is to walk in the light because God is light!

There was something that happened to Enoch at the birth of his son, Methuselah. We don’t know exactly what happened, but we can maybe assume he had received a message about a coming judgment, which we know will be the flood. And that message changed how he lived and walked.

After the birth of his son, we see that Enoch walked with God.

And when we look at the genealogy, we see that Methuselah died the same year that the flood came to destroy the earth.

It is like God used Methuselah’s life as a countdown timer to His judgment against sin.

Enoch, being faced with the reality of judgment, took seriously the dark situation he and all his fellow humans were in. They were headed for a worse death than simply physically dying. They were headed for an eternity of judgment separated from the grace and mercy of their Creator.

So what does it mean and look like to walk with God? Without completely rehashing what Patrick talked about last week, we can remind ourselves what he looked at from 1 John last week.

Being honest about sin

To walk with God means being honest about our sin.

We cannot walk with God as long as we continue to think that we are alright as we are.

There was a change in how Enoch is described after the birth of his son. He would have had to come to a realization of his own sinful condition before God.

Many people claim to believe in God, while also thinking they are good enough on their own. You cannot truly believe in God and believe in your own goodness at the same time. You can affirm the existence of God, but when you think you are good enough, you are placing your trust in yourself and making yourself God.

To walk with God means we have to admit and acknowledge our helplessness.

1 John 1:8–9 (ESV)

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Headed in the same direction with God

But it’s not just acknowledging our sin. We have to repent of our sin and head in the same direction with God.

To walk with someone means you are staying with them and headed in the same direction.

It is impossible for my wife and I to walk together if she and I head in two different directions. We might both be walking, but we are not walking together.

1 John 1:6–7 (ESV)

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we are going to walk with God, we must be headed in the same direction with Him.

While Jesus, who is God in the flesh, came to live and dwell among us, He did not come to follow us into our sin, but to call us to repent, to turn away from our sin and to follow Him.

We cannot walk with God while continuing to embrace our sin. God is calling us to a life of holiness.

And the life of following Christ in holiness is going to give us the true and better life than anything we think we can experience living life our own way.

Christ has come to give us life and life abundantly. That abundant life can only be experienced as we walk with God in repentance from sin and living in holiness.

True Life is Pleasing God

Hebrews 11:5–6 (ESV)

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.

In Hebrews we see that not only did he walk with God, he pleased God. He lived his life in such a way as to be pleasing unto God rather than pleasing himself or his fellow men and women.

In fact, his lifestyle of walking with God had shed light upon the darkness and wickedness of the ungodly living around him. He will not say or do anything that goes against God’s holy standard in order to please the people around him.

But what do we mean when we say he pleased God? We do not mean that Enoch had somehow earned God’s favor by his own self-righteous living. He was able to walk with God because he was shown to have pleased God.

But again, we think, well if we are good enough, maybe we can please God. If my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds I can make God happy with me.

But that is not what the author of Hebrews has to say about Enoch.

Living by faith in who God is

The author of Hebrews says that Enoch was commended as having pleased God.

And then to clarify what he means by that, he explains that to please God means believing first that God exists.

This is not simply having an intellectual knowledge of God’s existence.

This is having the belief and faith that because God exists, He is supremely and infinitely more valuable than anything else in this life.

It is the faith and trust that leads us to desire God more than we desire anything else this life may have to give us.

Enoch lived life in the knowledge and presence of God Almighty. This belief effected the way he lived and the choices he made.

There are those who believe that God exists, but live as if He does not exist. They are practical atheists.

They live to please themselves or to please men and women around them. They live for the approval of others and ignore the will and desire of God, whether they know He exists or not.

True faith is living in the faith and trust that God Himself is better than anything this world can offer to us. It is living to honor Him and to please Him above all others.

Living by faith in what God has done

But it is not only believing that God exists, it is believing that God rewards those who seek Him.

Seeking God

So Faith is believing that God rewards those who seek Him.

To seek Him means that we understand that we are helpless without Him.

As long as we believe that I am capable of being good on my own, I will not seek God. I might go through acts of worshiping God like Cain, or obeying God like the Rich Young Ruler.

But until I realize that I cannot be good enough on my own to enter into God’s presence, then I will never really come to seek God.

To seek God means to come and cry out to Him and say “I need you!” It is the acknowledgement that God in Christ has done all that is necessary to pay for my sin and to bring me back into His presence.

So I seek for God because I know that He alone is my hope.

The Reward

And then true faith believes that God rewards those who seek Him.

What reward is He talking about?

We might be tempted to think that if we are good enough or seek God hard enough then He will give us material and physical blessings and rewards.

But if we look at this in context of what has come before, we realize that cannot be what is happening. If we truly believe that God Himself is better than anything this world can give us, then what would be the greatest reward we can receive? God Himself.

As we live and walk by faith, we receive the gift of Christ’s presence Himself.

This is why the New Testament disciples and apostles were able to rejoice even in the midst of suffering and persecution. They knew that no matter what hardship they faced, they were assured of Christ’s presence with them and that was the greatest reward they could ever receive.

Enoch experienced this greatest reward by being taken into the presence of God.

So, too, we live by faith as we recognize our need for God and rejoice in the fact that God’s presence goes with us no matter what we might face.

Pleasing God by Sharing His Good News

Jude 14–15 (ESV)

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 all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Finally, pleasing God includes sharing the message of His good news.

Loving by warning of judgment

Here in Jude we see that Enoch lived in this life by warning others of the death they were walking in.

Again, he lived to please God, which meant he did not tell people what they wanted to hear, but what they so desperately needed to hear.

And what they needed to hear is that they too were sinners in danger of God’s holy and righteous judgment and that judgment was quickly approaching.

Preaching the Gospel of salvation