in chapter 4 verse 26. And then read through 5 and then we'll go through and make some connections. To Seth also a son was born and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord. This is the book the generations of Adam when God created man he made him in his 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 and 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. Some of your versions may say Canaan. Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years and he died. When Kenan lived 70 years, He fathered Mahalil. Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalil 840 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Kenan were 910 years and he died. When Mahalil had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared. Mahalil lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Mahalil 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 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. 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 the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from the 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. Okay, you got all that memorized? I did some math and I I kind of did myself like a List like you would be looking at born here died here, right? So Adams 0 to 930 Seth 130 to 1042 Enoch 622 to 987 So here's the big number you need to keep in mind 1656 1656. You know what 1656 was? The year of the flood. The year of the flood. 1656 was the year the flood happened. So it was 1656 years from the time that God made Adam to the time the flood occurred. 1,656 years. Now in that 1,656 years, you have multi-generations that lived long periods of time. That needed to happen. For the Earth to get populated quickly, you know, one of God's commands to Adam was be fruitful and multiply, right? So by the time the flood occurred, we don't know. I mean, we really don't know. But there was likely a million people on the face of the earth. There was at least 100,000. And some people said there were 7 million, which is like the population today. I don't know if it was that much. But it was a lot. It wasn't just this tiny village of people any longer. It was a big place. And so you have multi-generations here. Adam lived to the year 930. Seth lived to the year 1042. And Enoch lived to the year 987. Now, why is that a big deal? Let me tell you. Noah was born in 1056. Now, I know some of you are thrown off by my numbers, because we're like, is that BC? No, I'm talking about from the day the world was created, OK? That's how many years from the day the world was created. So Noah was born in 1056. Do you know what that means? Of all those people in that list, there were only three individuals who had died by the time Noah came around. Adam had gone, Seth had gone, and Enoch had gone. That was it. So, you had Enosh, Kenan, Mahaliel, Jared, Methuselah, and Lamech. All of those men were around to actually talk to Adam. Right? How many of you have ever sat down with somebody who was really old and heard their story about something happened when they were young? Right? You know, like when I was a boy, there were still World War I vets around. There was a number, there were still a lot of World War I vets around when I was a boy. And so I'm sure that I had met some. I wish I would have heard some of their stories. It's amazing. Can you imagine sitting down and saying, okay Adam, what was it like to walk with God in the cool of the day? Adam, one of the questions that any good interviewer that's going to interview somebody would ask somebody that's had a long life, a long career, different interests and things, they would say, do you have any regrets? Yeah. I sinned. I disobeyed God. I ate of the fruit that I was told not to. We had it so good. You should have seen it! Oh, it's beautiful. You think this place is good looking? You should have seen the garden. Never got stung by a mosquito. They heard first hand what it was like to actually experience God face-to-face. That's why it's important that we remember here Genesis 4 26 where it says at that time people began to call on the name of the Lord. That's Enosh. Remember I said Enosh, Kenan, Mahaliel, Jared, Methuselah, Lamech all were around Why do you think they called on the name of the Lord? Because they read their Bible? No. They heard first hand from Adam how important it was. They heard from the proverbial horse's mouth, there is no truth other than this. Trust Him. Listen to Him. He's good. And not only did we sin, but then you know what happened next? He covered us. There was no death until He covered us. He gave us clothes. And then we had these kids. Cain and Abel. And apparently we didn't do a very good job teaching our kids how to love one another because there's no more Abel. Now, this is interesting from chapter four. Let's walk back just a little bit here. This is important. So, let's go to verse 17. chapter four because this is important to a connection to chapter five. Cain knew his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city he called the name of the city after his name of his son Enoch. To Enoch was born Erod and Erod fathered Mahujel and Mahujel fathered Methushael and Methushael fathered Lamech, different Lamech is in the line that we're talking about with Noah. And Lamech took two wives, the name of one was Ada, the name of the other was Zillah, Ada bore Jabal, He was the father of all those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the lyre and the pipe. Zillah also bore Tubalcain. He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubalcain was Nama. So what is going on there in that list? That list is a list of accomplishments. That's a list of, hey, look at what Cain's line did. Smart people. They invented music. They invented blacksmithing, metallurgy. They invented ranching, right? Herdsmen. I mean, look at all they accomplished. Men, I don't care what generation, what society, where on earth, men want to make a name for themselves. They want to leave a legacy. Anytime they interview somebody who is a former or a current president and they're coming to the end of their term, they'll always say to them, a reporter will say, so what do you want your legacy to be? Those of you who are alive and old enough, even president's wives have a legacy. They take up a cause, right? So what was Nancy Reagan's cause? Say no to drugs, right? That was her cause. What about Michelle Obama? School lunch program, right? I mean, they always have a cause. There's something. I don't know about Doug. Does Doug have a cause? Kamala's husband? I don't even know. But Jill Biden, it's reading in schools, right? Supposedly. Right? So they all have a cause. Because they want to make a name for themselves. They want history to record, look at what we did. That's what's going on here. Now, get this. Lamech is the seventh in the line here from Adam. Adam, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun Lamech, look at what you did. You had kids that did this and this and this. Wow! On this side, Seth, Seth's side, look at what your descendant did. He walked with God. He walked with God. This is not on accident. This is on purpose, the way that this is set up to show us what really matters. The one side, probably wealth and fame. What do we call a big musical celebration today? We call it a jubilee, right? That's from the name Jubal. I mean there's some continuation of the use of the names even, right? Enoch walked with God and God took him. He had fellowship with God. Now for those of you who've already raised your children, Let me ask you something. If you were to be able to sit down with one of the younger parents here, or anywhere, and they said to you, can you give me some perspective in life? What should my goal be with my kids? Some people would say, give them the best education possible because that's really important so they can do great things in life. And essentially, what you're saying is so they can make a name for themselves, so they can accumulate riches. Or you might say, teach them to walk with God. Not that you shouldn't educate them at all. Not that you shouldn't teach them anything. I don't think that was the case here in this line. Obviously, Noah was a pretty smart dude. He knew how to build an ark. Right? That took quite a bit of math and carpentry skills. Actually, animal skills, all kinds of things it took, right? He had to figure out ventilation. He had to figure out all kinds of things, right? Where are we going to put the hot tub on the boat? No, not really. It's not Carnival Cruise Line. But that's not what the emphasis of their line is. That's not what the emphasis of their life is. It's not on the accumulation of stuff. It's not on making a name for yourself. It's about walking with God. You see all these different characters. Let's back up a little bit here to the beginning of chapter 5. This is the book of the generations. We've already talked about Toledot before. This is setting this up. This is getting us somewhere, right? From a point A to a point B. That's what all genealogies do. when God created man he made him in his likeness of God male and female he created them and he blessed them and named them man that word man right there is the word Adam so Adam is the word for man but it also was his name the very first man's name was man it'd be like calling your dog dog Right? I had a friend once. He said, I just got a cat. I said, oh, what did you name your cat? He said, Diogee. It was a joke. dog, right, D-O-G. So Adam is the man's name, it's also what he is. When Adam had lived 130, he fathered a son to his own likeness and image and named him Seth. Now pause there for a second, I mentioned it already, but remember he had already had two kids. 130 years had passed from the time he was born till now. We don't know exactly how long they were in the garden. We don't know exactly what year the other children were born. But it seems from the flow of this that there was a pause. That maybe they had their children when they were, who knows, 20. Whatever. We don't know. I'm just pulling a date out. Don't hold my feet to the fire. Do not post that. I said that. But there's time that lapses. I think, I think, this is speculation, this isn't right from the text, that maybe that's the reason why is there was, they needed to grieve. There was a time that God gave them a pause so they could grieve about their loss. So then the emphasis now is on Seth. It's not on Cain. We don't see in Cain's line in chapter 4 any dates. when they were born, when they died, because in God's eyes, for the purposes of communicating the message of Jesus from the fall to the book of Revelation, it's irrelevant. Because these people's lives were like a vapor. They didn't last. They didn't endure. They were, if they didn't die before, they died in the flood and they were no more. And other than this little bit of record here, nobody would ever remember them. Because there's no godly heritage here. The interesting thing is when it talks about Lamech's kids and how one of them, for instance, did metallurgy, I'm sure that Seth's godly line benefited from that. Right? There had to be some use for that, for instance, in the building of the Ark. So God sometimes takes worldly things and blesses his people with it too. All right, so notice here, he fathered a son in his own likeness and his image. So it says of Adam that Adam was created in the image of God, but it says of Seth's line, it was created in the image of Seth. Now, I don't believe for a second that people aren't created in the image of God. All people are created in the image of God. However, when Adam was created, it was a perfect reflection. When Seth was born, that reflection was marred. It was marred by the fall. It was marred by sin. And so where Adam was created in perfection, Seth was created with that stamp on him of having a sinful nature. And that sinful nature is that nature that from him all the way on down that everyone bears. Where sinners both by nature and by choice. That's important to note, though, that, again, God doesn't write things on accident here. He was created in His likeness and His image. And the His points back to Adam, not to God. Now normally, if you've studied this before, if you've looked at this before, what you probably tend to do is glaze over the whole thing and make a couple exceptional notes. The exceptional notes, likely, are the note of Enoch, which we already talked about. That Enoch walked with God. And that is an amazing thing that Enoch walked with God. Turn to Jude with me, right before Revelation. It doesn't say much about Enoch in Genesis. It doesn't say much about him here either, but we learn a little bit more. Jude chapter, well there's no chapters, but verse 14. 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. So Enoch wasn't just a passive person. He was somebody who we'd call a prophet. He was somebody that put his mouth where his faith was and proclaimed the things of God. And he warned people. He warned people of judgment. He warned people of ungodliness. Now, there's lots of ways to do that, right? There's a way to do that in one-on-one conversation with somebody. In one-on-one conversation with somebody, you don't yell at them. You don't get in their face. You graciously go to them and you say, my friend, I'm concerned about you because of what could happen or what will happen if you don't change, if you don't repent, if you don't believe. That's one way. The way Enoch is described, it sounds more like he's a street preacher, right? And he's out and he's proclaiming a message. We don't know exactly how he did that, but we do know this. Hebrews chapter 11 he is made much of he's in the book of faith the hall of faith he's one of those that's mentioned by name that he had great faith take note of that take note of the fact that God uses people who are willing to be used He didn't keep his faith to himself. He didn't keep it locked up. He was willing to step out there and say something. So Enoch walked with God. He was no more. We don't know exactly what that looked like, but we know that he wasn't just killed. He didn't just die. He was gone. The other person in the Old Testament that you can note that that happened to was who? Do you know? Elijah. Yeah, Elijah. We're not going to go down that path today, but that's the other notable exception to the rule. Well, what's the rule? Sin causes death. Sin causes death. The wages of sin is death. We see that here as a warning in Genesis chapter 2. Right? God says that they should not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." That is God's promise. That is God's warning. Now, while it didn't happen immediately, and the first death we see, right, occurs in Genesis chapter 4. a person. The first death of a person we see is in Genesis chapter 4 and that is when Cain kills his brother Abel. So here we see people that are dying not because they're murdered but because they're old. because they get sick, because of the consequences of the fall. That was never supposed to be the case. God had this garden that he created as a perfect place without death. But because of the consequences of the fall, because of God's promise, on the day you eat of it you shall surely die. He didn't drop over dead that day. He did die spiritually that day. He fell. It took some time to play out, but it happened. So, as we see Genesis chapter 5 play out, the other thing I want you to note is this. God keeps His promises. Sometimes there are promises you don't want Him to keep, but He keeps His promises. God is faithful always. God does not lie. And so, These men, it says they walked with God, right? Or they lived. It doesn't say they all walked with God. But it says, thus all the days of them were blank. It gives them a timeline. And he died. And he died. And he died. And he died. And he died. That is to show God's faithful promise. And God means what he says. Okay, so the exceptions here, right, we have this Enoch fella, right, that we tend to look at when we look at this because that's weird, that's neat, this guy walked with God. The other exception that we tend to make in Genesis chapter 5 or the thing that we tend to focus on is what? Age. How long did people live? People lived longer. And we're not going to get into the weeds about this, but the conditions in the earth were different pre-flood as after flood. There was a canopy that God created of water that surrounded things. The temperature was relatively constant. That's why in the garden Adam and Eve could be naked and not even notice it. Right? And that is why they, part of the reason they lived long is they weren't getting hit probably by the UV rays and the things that we get hit with today. Their diet was pure. There was a lot of different things. We're not going to get in the minutia about that. But we focus on people's age and we particularly say, oh, we focus on Methuselah because he lived 969 years and he died. The most notable thing about Methuselah, other than his age, really, is that he died the same year of the flood. Methuselah died in 1656. We don't know how, where, but he did. I would say the most important thing about Methuselah is that he was Noah's grandpa. and that he probably poured into Noah a lot. Probably poured into Noah knowledge and showed him practice on what it looks like to reach out for God. That's what's important about Methuselah. It's not the 969 years. He was with him until the flood happened. So can you imagine this? He was born in 687. So in 687, I didn't do the math on this. I'll do it real quick. We're talking 57. So 300, 243 years. He had 243 years to spend with Adam, Methuselah. had 243 years to spend with Adam. So you can go from Adam, to Methuselah, to Noah, and then this will blow your mind away. Ready? From Noah, Noah was still alive when Abraham was born. Abraham was born, and we're not going to go too far down this track, but Abraham was born 1948 years after the world was created. 1940 approximately, give or take a month or two. 1948 years and Noah didn't die until 2006, 2006 years after. So from the time of Adam, you have Adam, you have Methuselah, and you have Noah, and you have Abraham. You can make that connection. There's four men that you can make connections to that lived into the year 2123. Now, think about all of the impact that these men had on their generations. talking about God. And the people around them, they'd been foolish not to reach out to them and ask them what they thought. A couple more facts before we get into kind of putting this all together. So if you go down to Abraham, from his father, or excuse me, from Noah's son Shem. So Noah gives birth to Shem, his wife does. Shem is one of his sons. He's listed first in the line. He is not the first son. He's the middle son. But he's listed first because he's the most important. Because he is part of the promised seed in the line of Jesus. So from Shem to Abraham, Shem is Abraham's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. So you want to go back to Noah, it adds one more great. And interesting that God records all of these people. Now if you go to Luke chapter 3, we're not going to look here too closely, but go there real quick. Luke chapter 3, And in verse 23, it lists out the genealogy of Jesus from the time of Adam. That genealogy is really consistent. It also lists a similar genealogy in 1 Chronicles. There's one name different here than we see in Genesis. And I want to point that out to you just so if somebody else does, you're not taken by surprise by that. There's one name here in that list, and that is the name Canaan. And Canaan happens right after Shem. Let's see, where are we at here? Let me find the verse. Sorry about that. I don't have it written down here. Okay, thank you. So in verse 35, the son of Sarug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Sheolah, the son of Canaan, the son of Arphaxad. So in the Genesis account, you'll see Sheolah and you'll see Arphaxad. You will not see Canaan. That's the only name missing from the Genesis account. Why is there a difference? Well, the difference occurs because of the translation that was used to put it into English. Luke would have been using the Subtuagent, which is the Greek translation of Hebrew, and then we've translated now that into English, what Luke wrote. He records Canaan. The Genesis account we're taking from a different text, however, If you really want to research this, you'll find that the original manuscripts list Canaan. So, there you go. So, knowing that, if you look at the list here, between Adam and Jesus, there are 77, 77 generations. 77. Why is that important? Well, first of all, the number seven is the number of perfection. I don't think that's on accident. Perfect, perfect. Imperfect world, full of sinners, send a perfect, perfect Savior, Jesus, to come rescue. OK, enough genealogy right now. So your question might be, OK, Pastor Matt, great. These are nice facts. I'm going to forget all the numbers, right? Probably by the time I have lunch. 1656, you won't forget that one. 1656 is the year of the flood. But what does it mean? Why is it there? Why is it there? Here's why. Ready? Because the whole Bible is about Jesus coming. That's why. From Adam and the fall, once that happens, the rest of the Bible is our need for a Savior. And so God is drawing a line to say, look how faithful I am. Here, here, here, here, here, here, here. I worked through all these people to get you to Jesus. I don't make mistakes, God says. Now, that doesn't mean that everybody in those 77 were perfect people. Because they were not. There's some scoundrels in there. God works even through sinners for his purposes. And think about the fact that he worked through some people that were kind of rebellious. Think about how he could work through you when you're pliable. The whole Bible is to make a connection from Adam to Jesus and then from Jesus here to Jesus reigning in heaven and calling all of us there. Come home. Come home. Don't be a rebel. Don't live like that. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 6. A couple more and we'll wrap up here. It's one of my favorite sections of scripture. It's an important section of scripture. The church that I had pastored before I came here historically had baptized infants and I came on board there and I told them I'm sorry I don't do that. And surprisingly they were okay with it. God worked there and a lot of things turned around. A lot of things changed in a very positive way. But people had been used to going through infant baptism services, and so it was important to their families. So I said, you know what I'll do? I'm happy to have a dedication service. So if you want to do that, we can do that. But I said, understand this. We're not really dedicating the baby. We're dedicating the parents. Because if the parents aren't dedicated, all we're doing here with this baby is saying a bunch of words. The baby don't know what we're saying. you need to be dedicated to the Lord. And so I would go through Deuteronomy 6 with them in our parent dedication service. And the reason I'm bringing this up today is because I want to remind you why genealogies are in the Bible. Verse 20, When your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statues and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you? Then you shall say to your son, We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders great and grievous against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes. And he brought us out from there that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God as he commanded us." Now your story isn't that you were a slave in Egypt, right? But you all, all, all were a slave to sin in some way or another. for the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. My hope for you as a grandma, as a grandpa, as a father, as a mother, as a future father or mother or as an aunt and uncle, for that matter, that you would point and that people in your family would be able to point, not to you as great, like they pointed to Cain's family and said, look, my great-grandpa, or my dad, or my uncle, or my aunt, my mom, she did this or that. Those are cool facts. They walk with God. They were slaves. They got free. Their master was Satan, and now it is God. Listen up, my children. The best thing you can ever say about your father, seriously, in time to come after I die, isn't that I sold things, or that I did this, or that I pastored a church, or none of that. It's that when I was 24 years old, God saved me from the slavery of sin. And that He changed my life. And that because of that, I taught you to change your life. And because of that, you teach your kids. And because of that, until He comes back, that's the best thing. Carnegie, they say, was a pretty horrible employer. He was a guy that was rough on his employees and was fearless and ruthless and didn't pay people very much. Expected them to live on very little. And he amassed great wealth and at the end of his life he said, I'm gonna have a legacy and that's why All over the country there's libraries, the Carnegie Libraries, all over the place. Because he wanted to be something for generations to come. He wanted to make his mark. It means nothing in hell. It means nothing in hell. God wants you to make your mark in Him. In fact, He doesn't want you to make your mark at all. He wants you to point to His mark right here. It's called a cross. And you point to that and you say, that's what I live for. That's my life. It's His. One more passage and we'll wrap up. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Verse 45, Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. And it says the last Adam there, it's referring to Jesus Christ. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." We can't do it in the flesh. Just like Adam, you're just a bunch of dust that God puts together, makes work, gives you this heartbeat, makes your brain function. But what you really are is here. It's the invisible. It's the soul, which you can't see, right? Don't live for what will perish, live for what will last. Inherit the kingdom of God. Trust in Jesus Christ. After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Next time we're together, Lord willing, we're going to talk about what that looked like and what Noah did with his children and how Noah obeyed God. Let's pray. Lord, as we see Noah and the people that led up to him trusting in you in a different line, a different seed, that seed of Seth, the godly line from Adam that you would work through, not because of their own inherent goodness, but because of your mercy, compared to the line of Cain and how they sought just the things in this world and were no more. What a difference. And it's not going to be any difference in this world today. There are people that go around oblivious to you. There are people that throw their nose and their face up at you and rebel. And then there are those that turn themselves in and trust Christ. I pray that your church would trust Christ. all the time in every way that you call us. Let's not be ignorant or foolish or immature. Grow us Lord and use us for your glory in Jesus' name. Amen.