Live Faithfully In This Dark World (Genesis 5)
Here is a video of the sermon. If you’d like to read it, then scroll on past the video.
Life can be difficult in a dark world. We are living in that reality right now. Life’s decisions are more difficult. The society we live in is becoming more dangerous even as it becomes more prosperous. And the reason is simple. Wickedness is growing within our society. And we, as God’s people are figuring out how to live faithfully in a society that is growing increasingly dark.
A genealogy isn’t the first place we think of to consider how to live in this dark world, but this genealogy is incredibly informative. The genealogy of Genesis 5 is much different than the genealogy of Genesis 4. Though they lived during the same time period, the people we discuss today were faithful in an increasingly dark world.
We are told that wickedness continued to grow upon the earth (Genesis 6:5). And it had more time to grow than first meets the eye. It seems that over 1,600 years have passed since the Fall. The typical number listed for the antediluvian time period is 1,656 years. For comparison’s sake, 1,656 years ago it was the year 365 and The Roman Empire was still 55 years from collapsing. This genealogy covers an incredibly vast amount of time. And throughout this time the world was growing in unholiness. That was evident in the lineage of Cain and in Genesis 6:5.
Since we know that their was an immense growth in wickedness over a long period of time, we also know that the faithfulness of these people took place in an increasingly wicked world. This lineage of faithfulness took place in rather tumultuous times.
I probably don’t have to work hard to apply this to our day and time. So, I will just say this. The people we discuss today were faithful in an increasingly dark time period. I don’t know how it compares to our own day, but I do know that sin is running rampant in our day. And I do know that there will be the challenge of living lives of faithfulness are ever increasing in our day.
Gratefully trust God and walk with the Lord in this dark world.
Live Gratefully In This Blessed Existence (Genesis 5:1-3)
We begin with a recounting of events dating back to the creation of Adam. As was seen in Genesis 1-2, God created man in His image. This includes both men and women, and that again is restated here (Genesis 5:1-2). We also see that God’s blessing was upon them. In this statement all sorts of things are encompassed, but certainly it is about Adam and Eve’s marriage and the blessing of fruitfulness that will be outlined in Genesis 5. And the image of God was passed down to Adam and Eve’s offspring.
One has to give Genesis 5:3 a little thought to really understand it. What does it mean that Adam, “fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image” (Genesis 5:3 ESV). Anyone who has had children can understand this phrase. My son looks like me and my daughter looks like my wife. So, in one sense it is immediately understood. But Genesis 5:1 states that Adam and Eve were created in God’s image. What does it mean that Seth was in Adam’s image? Genesis 9:6 is the key to understanding what is going on here.
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (Genesis 9:6 ESV)
A person who kills another human being has killed a person who was made in God’s image. When Adam had children and they were created in his likeness, they were created in the image of God. Sure, there were characteristics of Adam in that child. But that child was created in the image of God just as children today are created in the image of God.
This means that human beings are still created in the image of God. The Fall brought a lot of damage to the human race. Disordered desires are now part and parcel of humanity, but that does not mean that the image of God was completely obliterated in us. The image of God, though marred, remains in human beings. And it is one of the things that we can call a blessing of being alive today.
Gender is still a part of human existence and is still part of that blessing as well. As our society grows dark with sin, it is also seeming to forget that gender is part of what it means to be human and is a blessing. Men and women are different. They serve different roles and function differently. But it is a blessing to be a man or a woman. Manhood is a blessing. Womanhood is a blessing.
Marriage is part of the blessing mentioned here at the beginning of Genesis 5. This blessed union that brings man and woman together was ordained and blessed by God. I know that I feel the blessing of marriage daily. And I hope that you do as well. God brought my wife and I together and, by His help, we created a family. We work together to accomplish many things in this life, and hopefully much of it has eternal significance.
Out of the blessing of marriage comes children. We discussed this blessing from Genesis 1:28 a few weeks ago.
“And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28 ESV)
This was both an announcement of blessing and a command from God. And we see the fulfillment of this blessing as Adam has children and then child after child is born in Genesis 5. In fact, every child that is born today is a fulfillment of that blessing that God pronounced over Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28.
Even with the growth of sin and the prevalence of death in this world, life is still a blessing. One of the things that we need to be in the habit of doing is seeing that the chaos of an unbelieving world does not eliminate the blessedness of life. It also should not overshadow the blessedness of this life.
It is incredibly easy in our day to dwell constantly on the news. And it is impossible for some of you to avoid it. For a few people in our congregation, their place of employment is in the middle of the discussion about forced vaccinations. And veterans who fought in Afghanistan can’t help but have that all over their minds in a time like ours. And this means that it can cast a dark shadow over everything that we do and think about. Don’t do that. Understand that we live an incredibly blessed existence. Yes, there are struggles and sometimes it is hard to see because of the incredible sin and darkness of this world. But there are incredible blessings to be found in this life and we should walk in those.
We are still those created in God’s image. What a blessed existence that is! We are God’s image bearers! We have been blessed with incredible dignity by our Creator. And given the honorable task of working and filling the Earth.
We have been given the gift of gender and, as Christians, we embrace it. We embrace manhood and womanhood and the incredible differences to be found there. We don’t treat men as women or women as men. We don’t teach people to value one over the other. We embrace them as a gift from God.
We have been given the gift of marriage. And what a blessed thing that is. And as a local church we get to celebrate two extremes this week. One couple just got married yesterday. And another couple is celebrating 55 years together this week. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman that lasts a lifetime, and God’s blessing is upon it.
We have been given the gift of children. God promised and commanded the blessing of children in Genesis 1 and 2. And we see in this text the fulfillment of that great blessing in this text as generation after generation is shown in this lineage. But we also see it among us. Those baskets full of bulletins and crayons that I place activities in every week speak to me of the tremendous way that God has blessed our congregation. The fruitfulness and multiplication of children is a tremendous blessing from the Lord.
So, even though we see the darkness that surrounds us daily we need to be people who understand that we live a blessed existence. We have much to be grateful and thankful for even as sin grows in this dark world. Let us praise God for what He has done for us and what He has given us.
Consider our many blessings this side of Heaven. We have been given families, loved ones, homes, a church family. We can count our blessings and live in those.
And teach your children to do the same. Teach that as you pray over your meal. Teach it as you pray at the beginning of the day. And don’t walk around griping about everything that’s going on today, because the kids pick up on that too. Live gratefully and thankfully for the many things we have been given and let that rub off on your children.
But we do still have to live in this life understanding certain realities. One of those is death.
Live Ready to Die (Genesis 5)
Throughout Genesis 5 there is a phrase repeated over and over. It is “and he died”. Though the lives were extremely long in the antediluvian period, they still died. Death was still something that happened to everyone, with he exception of Enoch.
On a few occasions we have already discussed death in Genesis 1-4. Adam was told that death was the penalty for breaking God’s command
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree 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.”” (Genesis 2:16-17 ESV)
So, it is no surprise that we find in the genealogy the phrase “and he died”.
Death is a part of the human existence. We see both in Scripture and in life that death is something that will most likely happen to you. We believe that Jesus will return and that there are some people who will not have to taste death but barring His return before your death, you will die. Be prepared for it.
Live in the blessings of life but live this life with the understanding that it won’t last forever. I believe that one implication of this that we should remember is that we don’t know when we will die and will want to ensure that our family is taken care of when we pass away. My wife and I got life insurance a few years after we got married. And we need to live our life with as few financial entanglements as possible in case something were to happen to us. I also want to leave something for my family to have after I am gone.
“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.” (Proverbs 13:22 ESV)
But this is not the only consideration that we should have concerning the certainty of death. The Judgment to come should be something we consider. If death is so certain then what happens at death should matter to us greatly.
“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27 ESV)
Are you prepared to die?
Are you prepared to face God and be judged by Him?
God is holy, righteous, and good. And He does not tolerate sin. Sin is disobedience against God’s command. It is failure to do what God commands or doing what God forbids. And God does not tolerate sin.
“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” – Acts 17:30-31 ESV
This should be cause for concern. This should be something that you think about. It should be something that we consider.
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28 ESV)
Death is coming. Are you prepared to die?
One of the few exceptions to this rule of death was Enoch. And his life teaches us a lesson as well.
Live In Fellowship With God By Faith (Genesis 5:18-24, Hebrews 11:5-6)
Enoch is the only person in the antediluvian period to have escaped death. After the Flood Elijah did not taste death. Here is what we read about Elijah.
“Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” (Genesis 5:24 ESV)
Life was growing darker and darker. In the midst of growing sin and wickedness Enoch walked with the Lord. As much of the rest of the world was growing in debauchery Enoch went another way. Enoch walked with the Lord. And if you’ll notice how old everyone else was when they died, it was about halfway through the typical life of these faithful believers that Enoch was taken to be with the Lord.
God spared Enoch from tasting death. Why? By faith Enoch pleased God.
“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.” (Hebrews 11:5-6 ESV)
As the world grew in darkness and sin Enoch drew near to God by faith. He trusted the Lord and He abandoned the world.
If you’re going to walk with God in a dark then it will be necessary for you to abandon the ways of this world. That is what Enoch did. By faith he trusted the Lord. He trusted God’s promises. And He walked according to God’s ways on this Earth. As the world grew increasingly dark, Enoch walked with God. He followed the Lord’s ways. He sought the Lord in all that He did.
Though it could be said of many people that they walked with God throughout the ages and even within this family. The walking with God that Enoch did was special. And Enoch is here, in a short statement commended to us as an example of how to live. We are to live separated from the world and in fellowship with God.
This will mean a lot of things to us here today and the application could be all over the place. And I will sum it up by saying this. Do not live according to the patterns of this world. Trust God. Walk with God. Follow His Word. Walk in His ways. Make decisions about life, not according to the ways of this world, but according to God’s design for life. Live a life of godliness. Separate yourself to Him.
Don’t waver on moral issues because of social pressures. Trust the Lord. Walk in His ways. Walk in fellowship with the Lord. Trust Him. Abandon the world and its ways and trust the Lord.
God is holy, righteous, and just and He does not tolerate sin. Be He has made a way for us to be made right with Him and brought into fellowship with Him. It is through the perfect life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. God the Son took on human flesh and dwelt among us. He perfectly kept God’s Law. And He paid the punishment for sin that we owed. We disobeyed God’s command and have earned for ourselves God’s wrath and judgment. Those who trust in Christ are forgiven of their sins and brought into fellowship with God. And, by faith, we can walk with God and be in fellowship with Him.
Abandon the ways of this world. Abandon attempting to be right with God on your own. Trust the Lord and be brought into fellowship with Him through the finished work of Christ.
Teach your children the importance of walking with the Lord. Teach them God’s Word. Hold forth to them the great and glorious standard of God’s Word and show them that it is ultimately better than the ways of the world.
When you are in fellowship with God, you understand that fullness of joy and eternal pleasure are found in the Lord.
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11 ESV)
Enoch’s great hope was in the Lord and by grace God brought Enoch to be with Him where there is fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore.
The Christian’s resurrection hope pictured here in Enoch. Our great hope in this life is to be with the Lord. And our great hope is fulfilled when we go to be with the Lord. The person whose hope is in the Lord and not the things of this world will live as if that is the case. Their hopes are tied with the Lord and not this world.
There is a real sense in which Heaven and Hell are, in the end, getting what we desire.
The man in Hell receives the separation from God that his hatred of God always desired and walked in. And his hatred of God will be with him throughout all eternity. There is no indication that a lost person is made righteous after his death, he will be in darkness for all eternity as he pays the punishment for his sin. But the Christian receives the love and grace of God that they desired and walked in. They trusted the Lord and walked by faith in this life and they receive what they always longed for. And here, Enoch received his heart’s desire and did not have to taste death to get it.
Live Trusting God’s Promises (Genesis 5:28-32)
Noah was not Jesus. He was not the ultimate Savior, but it is evident that something special was going on with the birth of Noah.
“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.” (Genesis 5:28-29 ESV)
Life was growing worse and worse. And Lamech, a different Lamech than in Genesis 4, had a child that he thought would bring relief from the pain of this life.
This hope is not misplaced. All Lamech knew of God’s promise was that a child would come that would rescue them from the work of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). One day a child would come that would crush the head of the serpent. Lamech believed that his son Noah would bring them back to Paradise.
While Noah was not the One true Messiah that would bring them back to Eden, Noah did preserve his family. God did rescue this lineage from the wrath of God that was to be poured out upon the world. Through Noah the family was rescued from the wickedness of this world.
I do believe there is something to be learned here that we should pay close attention to. God has given us tremendous promises and the greatest of those is our rescue from the wickedness of this world and the judgment to come through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Our great hope is in this rescue from sin and death. It’s a rescue that is found in Christ alone.
This world is fading away. One day it will again be judged, and all the wickedness will be destroyed. And those who have trusted in Christ will be in the New Heavens and Earth. Those who have trusted in Christ will be rescued from the power of sin and death.
Do you believe the promise of God that is made possible through Jesus Christ? Have you trusted the Savior?
Now, live in that rescue. And go, deliver that message to a lost and dying world.
Live In A Way That Passes Down The Faith (Genesis 5)
There is one more thing that doesn’t immediately pop out to us as we consider the text. It is that these faithful followers of the Lord passed down the faith from one generation to the next. We see generation after generation of faithfulness passed down in this text.
Don’t get overwhelmed by this. Eat together. Talk. Pray together. Read the Bible together. Discuss the teaching of Scripture together.
I’m going to tell you something right now that might sound strange. You will search long and hard to find a passage of Scripture that commands you to read your Bible every day. We say that it is good to read it every day because of the many benefits of God’s Word for us. But I’ll tell you what the Bible does command, and that is the teaching of the faith to our children.
Look at these two passages of Scripture.
“”Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ESV)
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4 ESV)
Notice the diligence commanded in Deuteronomy 6 that is to be given to passing down the faith to our children. Then notice in Ephesians 6 what the Father is supposed to be doing. The word translated “discipline” in Ephesians 6:4 is the word “παιδείᾳ”. It means education or tutorage and the context helps us to see that it is about bringing people up with an education of the faith. The word translated “instruction” is the word νουθεσίᾳ, it means admonition.
Both of these passages are commands to pass the faith down to our children. We are commanded to raise our children in the faith and to bring them up educated in the ways of Christ. Teach your children the word and teach them to live according to it.
Conclusion
We are living in an increasingly dark world. This is very true. But God has given us tremendous blessings in this life. We should not be swallowed up by the darkness of this world and forget the many blessings of this life, but our great hope is not in this life. Our faith and trust is in the Lord and the salvation that He has given us. So we walk with the Lord in this dark world and pass that down to our children. Gratefully trust God and walk with the Lord in this dark world.
R. Dwain Minor