Please stand for the reading of God's word. Our New Testament lesson comes from Paul's letter to the Galatians, chapter four, beginning in verse one. Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out Abba, Father, therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. This is the word of the Lord. We'll turn now to our sermon text in the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter five, beginning in verse 28. Pay careful attention to God's word. And Lamech lived 182 years and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, this one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord has cursed. After he begot Noah, Lamech lived 595 years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died. And Noah was 500 years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. May the Lord bless the reading and proclamation of his holy word. Amen. You may be seated. Our brother, Greg Babb, prayed in his intercessory prayer for hope. And that's what I wanna talk about this morning. There is something about the birth of a child, in particular, that communicates hope. However wretched the sins of the fathers, perhaps this child can break the cycle of generational sins. However tense the relationship, perhaps this child can bring estranged family members together. However dark the past, perhaps this child can build a brighter future. There's just something about the birth of a child that changes things, that forces you to imagine what could change, that communicates a message of hope. When a child is born, it's a reminder that today doesn't have to be like yesterday, that yesterday doesn't have to be like today, that tomorrow doesn't have to be like today, that with the birth of a child, there is hope, the hope of comfort and joy, all because a child is born. And this morning, I want to focus our attention on two children, both of whom communicate a message of hope. One child whose birth was a picture of comfort and joy, and another child whose birth is the reality of comfort and joy. So that'll be our division this morning, looking first at a picture, could say a shadow, and then looking at the reality, the substance. First, the birth and the naming of Noah. was a picture of comfort and joy. Look again at verse 29. Speaking of Lamech, and he called his name Noah, saying this one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord has cursed. Now in the ancient world, Names were significant. Often they were even symbolic. To an ancient person, a rose by any other name would not smell as sweet. Names were significant. And this child, born to Lamech, is named Noah. Now, in the Hebrew, there's actually a play on words here. And he called his name Noah, saying this one will comfort. Really, in the Hebrew, it's Noach, Naham. So it's Noah, which means rest, and Naham, which means relief or comfort. His name has built into it a message of hope, of comfort, of relief, of rest. He's a child of hope. He's a child of promise. Now why would Lamech, the ninth from Adam, Why would he name his son as a pledge of hope, of comfort, of rest, and relief? What did Lamech need comfort from? Well, if you keep reading the rest of verse 29, it says, this one will comfort us concerning our work. and the toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord has cursed. Comfort from the toil, the labor, the misery of this life because of the ground, the adamah that the Lord has cursed. And this language of the curse upon the ground takes us all the way back to Genesis chapter three and the fall of Adam. where God said, cursed is the ground for your sake, in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field, in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return. That's what Lamech and his children are laboring under. God's curse upon the ground. A curse repeated and indeed intensified to Cain. In Genesis 4, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. Now this ground curse pronounced toward Adam and Eve, repeated to Cain, is still operative in the days of Lamech. He's living in an estate of sin and misery. As one of your own poets has said, where do we begin? the rubble or our sins, sin and misery. And in the midst of this misery, Lamech, by faith, names his son Noah to communicate a message of hope. Now one question you might wonder about is did Noah live up to his name? Did Noah live up to his name? Did he bring, did he usher in rest, relief, comfort, consolation? And the answer, congregation of the Lord Jesus, is yes and no. On the one hand, yes, as a righteous man, blameless in his generation, Noah walked with God. He, in the face of great mockery, built an ark that passed through the flood, a flood which cleansed the world of evil. And at the end of those days, the ark rested. atop Mount Ararat where Noah built an altar and he offered burnt or ascension offerings to heaven. And we read of God's posture towards this man and his sacrifices in Genesis chapter 8, 21, and the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground. Same language. that Lamech was talking about in his prophecy concerning his son. I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although as the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. cease. In accepting Noah's sacrifices, God removed the threat of further cursing upon the ground insofar as he promised never again. Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood. Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And then to authenticate, to confirm, to seal that promise, God placed his battle bow in the sky, a rainbow above the earth. So clearly, this child did bring some kind of rest, relief, comfort from the curse. And another commentator, Bruce Waltke, also argues that Noah at least partially fulfilled his father's prophecy later on in Genesis 9.20, where we read, and Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Why is this significant? Well, the curse, though it affected everything, was focused on the ground. That's true when God spoke to Adam. It's true when he spoke to Cain. It's also true when Lamech talks about the curse. It's an effect on the ground. And here we have Noah stepping off the ark, offering sacrifices, and then planting a vineyard, tilling the ground, like his forefather, Adam, Before him, here we find the advent of viticulture, the science of growing grapes, and viniculture, the science of making wine, where the ground, though it still is infested with thorns, is bringing forth fruits. that can be turned into wine. This is the blessing of God. Wine that makes glad the heart of man. Wine is a kingly beverage in the scriptures. In drinking the wine, Noah enters symbolically into Sabbath rest. So yes, This man is at least partially a fulfillment of these promises. Certain changes took place in the days after the flood. Peter speaks of the world that then existed in contrast to the heavens and the earth, which are now. In the line of demarcation, the watershed is the flood, and so Noah stands at the tectonic plates of two worlds. He brings in a whole new world. So yes, To some degree, Noah lived up to his name by God's grace. But I also say the answer is no. He did not live up to his name. He failed to bring a full and final rest to the ground. Why do I say that? Two reasons. First, look around you. Turn on the news. Look in your garden. Look in the streets and what you will find is that the curse pronounced by God in Genesis 3 is clearly still in effect. People suffer, people die. Even this past week, Mihi's father passing away, departing this life. Romans 8 says that the whole creation groans. Even the wild beasts in the animal kingdom groan under the effects of the fall, that things tend toward decay and entropy and chaos. That's one reason you know that this was not a full and final arrest, but second, and this is already clear in the book of Genesis itself, that despite the great expectations of Genesis 5, 29, how does Noah's story end? Well, it ends with great disappointment. Noah was drunk and became uncovered in his tent while his son Ham saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Ham dishonored his father, perhaps sought to seize his robe of authority, to usurp him. Think about this. This family, these eight souls, they built an ark together when all the world mocked them. They survived the flood together. We're lone survivors on this planet. And yet, this family is so dysfunctional. This family, this home is broken. This father and son become estranged. Indeed, this story, it ends. in tragedy, despite Lamech's hope. It ends, in many ways, with a curse, a curse pronounced on Noah's own grandson. The man who was supposed to bring comfort from the curse, in response to sin, pronounces a curse. Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, he shall be to his brethren. A congregation, although the birth and the naming of Noah was a picture of comfort and joy. Clearly, this is not the child we're looking for. But Noah had children. Perhaps one of them will be the child we're looking for. We just read it in verse 32. The Bible says, Noah was 500 years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Maybe Shem is the one we're looking for. Is it Shem? Well, no, his descendants helped build the Tower of Babel. Is it Abraham, friend of God? Well, no, he took Sarah's maidservant, Hagar. He took matters into his own hands. Is it Isaac, perhaps, the child of promise? Well, no, he favored Esau and brought disruption to his home. Is it Jacob? Is it Jacob? No. He used deception and manipulation. Was it Judah? No, he sinned with Tamar. Was it David? No, he committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed Uriah, her husband. Was it Solomon? No, his pagan wife stole his heart away from God. One generation passeth away, another generation cometh over and over again throughout human history, and every time they're thinking, this birth, this child is communicating a message of hope, but every time it becomes equally clear, this is not the child we're looking for. It's only a picture. It's only a shadow. It's not the reality. It's not the substance. We must, by faith, seek a child to come. And that brings us to a second child. The second child, almost 3,000 years after the birth of Noah, 2,948 years to be precise, another child was born. A greater than Noah is here. Beloved congregation, the birth and naming of Jesus is the reality of comfort and joy. Not just another picture, but the reality to which all the pictures in the Old Testament point. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful. Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And you shall call His name Jesus, which means the Lord saves, because He will save His people from their sins. Not just a Noah. bringing a household through temporal judgment aboard the ark, not just Moses bringing God's people through the Red Sea, but a greater savior who can save his people from their sins, which was always the root problem, a sin problem. Although sinless, Jesus endured the miseries and indignities of a fallen world. He knew what it was like to grow tired, to grow weary. He knew blood, sweat, and tears. Although innocent, although blameless, although perfect in a way that no one else in human history was, not even the righteous man Noah, this Jesus stood in the place of sinners. He took the ground curse upon himself. His head crowned with the emblems of the curse, thorns. His hands and feet pierced with nails. His side thrust through with a spear. And congregation, this is the amazing thing. Christ brought comfort from the curse, how? Christ brought comfort from the curse by bringing the curse down upon his own head. On the cross, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Truly this one, this Jesus, this child of promise, this child of hope has comforted us concerning our work and the toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord has cursed. As our Shorter Catechism teaches, this Jesus In addition to justification, adoption and sanctification also has given us assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace and perseverance therein to the end. Among other things, Jesus has brought rest. Jesus has brought rest. What Calvin calls redemptive repose. Some of you are desperately in need of rest. Not just physical rest, but spiritually you're running from God. Spiritually you're distracted by the cares of this world. And you need rest. A resting from all attempts to justify ourselves. That's what Jesus brings. You can forget trying to justify yourself. You can rest from that impossible attempt, for you are accepted in God's eyes by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. That's comfort, that's relief, that's joy, that's hope, that's rest. A resting from our labors, our work, the toil of our hands. For we enjoy a weekly Sabbath rest every Lord's Day. That's what this day is. It's God's gift to his people where he says one day out of seven, you lay aside worldly employments, occupations, recreations, you lay them aside and you enter into Sabbath rest. Now it's true, we still experience suffering and death, the effects of the fall, but for believers, death has lost its sting. Although a consequence of the curse, it is no longer a curse to you as a believer, but rather, death becomes, for the believer, a gateway to heaven, a portal into the fatherland above, where Christ is. Oh death, where is your sting? Oh Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God. who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works. Follow them. And you say, how does this all work? This is the reality of comfort and joy. This is the one who has removed the sting of death. And yet, there's still the consequences of the curse around us. The creation is still groaning. People, including Christians, are still dying. The heavens and the earth, which are now preserved, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. And so, whatever rest we find in Christ, there remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God in the future. So how do we explain This sense of tension, has Jesus brought rest or not? The best way I can come up with to explain this is to say two things. First, in Christ's first coming, the curse has been removed in principle, nailed to the cross, We bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. In Christ's first coming, rest and relief are inaugurated. In Christ's second coming. The curse will be removed fully, finally, and forever. In Christ's second coming, it will be rest and relief consummated. As the carol says, no more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. In his second coming, on the clouds of glory, when Jesus comes back to judge the living and the dead, he will make all things new. He will wipe away every tear. Christ, in his first coming, Christ in his second coming that we look for by faith, is the reality of all our hopes. His gospel is tidings of comfort and joy. Well, in response to these things, men and brethren, what shall we do? Well, to those of you who perhaps this morning do not believe what I've been proclaiming, and you have no hope, you're without God in the world, then my application for you is quite simple. You need to come to Christ. You need to come to Christ and find rest and relief Comfort and consolation for your sin-sick and world-weary soul. You're tired of running from God, so stop, lay down your arms, and bow the knee to King Jesus. Kiss the son, lest he be angry in the way. If you receive and rest upon Jesus alone for salvation, then you shall enter into his rest. Second application, to those of you who do belief, the good tidings of great joy, who know the hope of salvation and the hope of your calling. My application is actually the same. You need to come to Christ. We never get over our need to keep coming back to Jesus. because the one who saved us is saving us and will save us and he will raise us up in the last day in glory. The right, the title deed to heaven is secured by his blood and righteousness and we have We have received that by faith now, and then God's grace carries you all the way home, and so keep coming to Christ. According to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. As you meet, Lord's Day by Lord's Day, this is in anticipation of an eternal Sabbath rest to come, where all our tears are removed, wiped away, all of our sorrows are erased, There is no more death, there is no more suffering, there is eternal rest in God's presence. On that day, there will be comfort, and there will be joy, fully, finally, and forever. Let us pray.