Turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 5 and we will read Genesis 5 through chapter 6 verse 8. Give attention to God's 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. Then 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 Kenan. 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 had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalaleel. Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalaleel 840 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died. When Mahalaleel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared. Mahalaleel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Mahalaleel 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 he called his name Noah, saying, Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one will 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. When men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were attractive, And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh. His days shall be a hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals, and creepy things, and birds of the heavens. For I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Now most of our text here this morning is made up in chapter 5 of what we call a genealogy. A list of relatives. Here it's father, son, grandson, great-grandson, on, on, down. Ten generations from Adam to Noah. And last week when I told my kids that I was going to preach this Sunday, one of my children, they asked what I was going to preach on. I said, oh, the genealogy in chapter 5. And I won't mention her name, so she won't be embarrassed. But she said, Dad, that will be really boring. You've got to love children and their encouragement. But we must remember that genealogies in the Bible, they are used as one way of telling history. And so we can look at it here and see what it is telling us. about this history, and then also continue into chapter 6. And as we look at chapter 5, one thing it's telling us is there is continuity. It starts, as you see, at creation. It talks about God creating man. And there's some sort of continuity, even despite Adam's sin, despite the fall. And the continuity it brings out here is God created man in his image, in his likeness. And then what do we find with Adam's son, Seth? We see verse 3, that he fathered a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. That image of God continues on in this line, even after the fall, even after the sin that Adam committed and the curses brought about that. Men and women are still made in the image. And that image, as we talked about a long time ago, looking in chapter 1, It's best to not see it as a reference to physical likeness, certainly not, but even not mental abilities. But it's more so an office that men and women are called to, given the role to be the sub-ruler on the earth, God's sub-ruler, ruling over this earth as God rules over heaven. And thus, that call way back in Genesis 1 to mankind, be fruitful, multiply, subdue, and rule, right? It carries through. There is continuity in that. And in chapter 4, when we looked at that, we saw that even in the line of Cain, the sinful line of Cain, that they were fulfilling that to some degree. What did the line of Cain come up with? Well, they have children. They're being fruitful. But not only that, they're building cities. They are working metal. There's technology. They're creating music, art. And here in chapter 5, we see the line of Seth as they continue with this calling. Here focusing on being fruitful and multiplying. And yet in chapter 5, I would argue the focus isn't so much on what they are doing. It's what God is doing. And we can see that when we remember Seth. Who is Seth? Well, we look back in chapter 4, verse 25, and we have Seth born, and Eve gives him the name Seth. And she says there, why is that? Because God has appointed for me another offspring. Instead of Abel, for Cain killed him. Seth is the provision of God. Seth is the one that God had provided. Seth was the way that God was preserving for himself in that world a people. A people for himself. A people who, as verse 26 tells us of chapter 4, began to call on the name of the Lord. Thus, as we read chapter 5, we're not told a lot about these people, but it's probably right to say this as the line that remained faithful to God, that continued to call upon him, that the faith was passed down from father to son, father to son. But in chapter 5, we find not only this continuity, but it very much highlights discontinuity. What has changed? What has changed because of the fall? And the genealogy here in chapter 5 and then later in chapter 11, they're somewhat unique in what they contain. They contain numbers of years. We see that here. There are all these years listed that we read through. The years when they had children, the years that they lived after that, the total number of years. And then that they died. Well, why are those years there? What is the point? Some have taken them and they've said, well, we can add them up. We can use this as a chronology. We can figure out from this and later in chapter 11, the time when there was the flood, the time when creation happened. And I would say that that would be to misuse God's word. You might say, why not? It seems like an easy enough thing to do. But the problem is that genealogies in the Bible are often selective. That is the way that they form genealogies. That they don't always include every generation. That they don't always go from father to son. Sometimes they go from father to grandson, father to great-grandson, or even greater. Because these genealogies, they're telling a story, but they don't have to tell everything in between. They're hitting what we could say often are the highlights, the high points. And this is especially true, I would argue, with chapter 5 and chapter 11, because the genealogy here is arranged around a nice round number. We find ten generations, ten generations from Adam to Noah, and the same thing in chapter 11. Well, what do these numbers show us then? Well, they show us that they lived and they died. They may have lived a long time, but they still died. And you might say, well, so what? Of course they died. But that's the issue. This is something new. The tree of life in that Garden of Eden, it had put before Adam a hope of life without death. But Adam and Eve, they had disobeyed. And God had responded with the curses of chapter 3 that tell them that they would live in pain until they died. And now we see that fulfilled. It's fulfilled not only of Adam, Adam and Eve, but of all of his descendants. It's not only of that sinful line of Cain, but even this preserved line, this line that called upon the name of the Lord. And so we read, and he lived, and he died, and he lived, and he died, and he lived, and he died, as we go all the way through. But the numbers also help us with one other thing. Because one of the principles as we look at a genealogy, to see what it's teaching us, is to see what doesn't fit the pattern. Where there's something different. That is what's highlighted. So kids, as we read through it, did you notice which person is not like the other? Which of the ones listed here is not according to the pattern? We read, and he lived and he died, and he lived and he died. And then suddenly we come to verse 21. Look at 21. 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. Well, what are we to make of Enoch? He's highlighted here, as he stands out from the pattern. What are we to make of him? Well, we could say, well, poor Enoch, he only lived 365 years. Now, for us, that's a long time. But in the midst of this genealogy, that's not even half the years of anyone else. So should we feel sorry for him? I don't think so. Well, first, what does it mean that he walked with God? That's brought out with him twice there. It's said that he walked with God. What can we say about it? Well, it certainly doesn't mean that he was an ascetic, that he was a monk, because we know he had sons and daughters. So he was living, in many ways, a normal life. Does it mean that he was maybe the one true believer in this list? I don't think that that's the best way to look at it. We said already, with Seth, they were calling out to the Lord. So what does it mean that Enoch walked with God? Well, it's of some help to jump up to chapter 6, verse 9, because there we find another one who walked with God. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. So there's something special about Enoch and Noah. In some way, they had this special intimacy with God. And I think it probably harkens back to the garden, as we think of God walking in the garden. But it's probably best to take it here as a role that God called them to play. The New Testament can help us out in this. Because the New Testament speaks of both Enoch and Noah as prophets. As prophetic figures that called out to their world. God spoke to them, and they spoke to the world around. And it's also good to note that another prophet, Elijah, has something very similar with Enoch. Enoch was taken just as Elijah was taken. Well, what are we to make of his being taken? Why is that highlighted for us? What should we learn from it? Well, John Calvin in his commentary writes, there was in the translation of Enoch an instruction for all the godly that they should not keep their hope confined within the boundaries of this mortal life. In the midst of this record of living, dying, living, dying, This mention of Enoch, it teaches us two things. First, there is more than this earthly life. God took Enoch. Kids, where do you think he took him? Did he go hide him somewhere? Put him in a mountain cave? Well, this is where, again, with Elijah, it's more explicit. 2 Kings 2.1 tells us that God was taking Elijah to heaven. And I think that's the way we should see it here. That he took him to heaven. He took him to himself. And thus we see that there is more beyond what we experience here. as God took Enoch to what is beyond. And God was revealing that already here at this time to these people before the flood. And second, God, he will grant to his people those who have faith in him what was lost through sin. Think about what Enoch experienced, or more so what he didn't experience. Enoch never died. Instead, he continued to live and still lives. God granted him life without death. He granted him eternal life. And so this is a powerful testimony that God places here in the midst of this genealogy. It's a testimony to show his ability to triumph over death as he takes Enoch to himself, to the life that comes next. And yet, most of the names in this genealogy, they had to endure the hardships of this life and then death. And the end of the genealogy brings that out as we have Lamech, the father of Noah, looking for comfort. As he gives birth to a son and as he names him Noah and he says, this one shall give us comfort, comfort in the face of the affliction, in the face of the pain. Now, in what way does Noah do that? Well, that's really, as we read on later, what we'll come to, but we could mention it briefly. One interpretation is that Noah is the first one to plant a vineyard and to make wine. And as Psalm 104, verse 15 says, wine is given by God to gladden the heart of man. But I don't think that's what it's about here. It's not that Noah was going to lessen the pain, going to relieve the work that the cursed ground required, but instead Noah can provide comfort to God's people in the same way that Enoch did. Because what do we read when we read about Noah? We again see God's power to save. God's power to save him from death, though here in that story, it's the death of the flood. Now, the genealogy in chapter 5 is really helpfully read in conjunction with the beginning of chapter 6, as we did. And we can see that because 5.1 begins a section. This is the book of the generations. And then if you look over at chapter 6, verse 9, we get the next one. These are the generations. And so chapter 5 and the beginning of 6 are marked off together. And the beginning of 6, it's necessary because it shows us what the world was like. The world that these men, these men who called upon the name of the Lord, the world they lived in, what they were facing. And we see that in a concrete example, a specific example at the beginning, 1 through 4, and then in a more general way in the later verses. And through this, we can really appreciate how God was preserving his people as we see the perversion of the world all around them. So, verses 1 through 4. We find a story about sons of God, daughters of men, Nephilim, mighty men. It's rather perplexing, to say the least. There's probably a reason this didn't make it into our Sunday school curriculum. And yet it does fit here, as we'll see. And the most important issue is to talk about who are these sons of God. The term used is elsewhere used of angels. We find this especially in the beginning parts of the book of Job. And so some have argued for that. Is that what we're supposed to see here? This is about angels coming down and marrying women. Well, the problem with that is it doesn't fit what we know of angels, though we must admit we don't know a lot about them. But it also doesn't fit our text. Because we have this action, the sons of God coming and taking the daughters of men, and then we have God's judgment in verse 3. And yet in verse 3, notice that the judgment, it isn't against angels. It's against humans. It's against people. And so, a better answer is that in ancient times, the kings, the rulers, they often claimed to be sons of a god. They claimed to be gods themselves. We see this in Egypt. We see it in Mesopotamia. And also, what one thing are kings often famous for? They're famous for many things, but they're often famous for the number of wives they take. This is true even in the Old Testament, but it was very true in ancient times. And so, verses 1 and 2 are best read as describing a time when a line of kings was abusing their power. Their arrogance was shown as they called themselves divine. And their abuse of power, their oppression of their people, is shown as they take from all that they want, usually by force, wives, women, as many as would please them. And so this short story, it shows us government that has gone from being a blessing to becoming bestial. Because we must remember government. Government is by God. He establishes. It's his way of restraining evil in this world. But here we have a government that set itself up as God. A government that itself is a source of much of the evil in the world. And so we come to verse 3. And God says, enough. My spirit will not abide or contend with man forever, for he is flesh, his days shall be 120 years. Contend with is probably the best way to translate this. And we could argue one of the ways God was contending is through his prophets, Enoch and Noah, as we mentioned. But what we find is God, his patience is at an end. Their arrogance, the evil of these men, he will not contend with them forever. They abuse the image of God as it is given, ruling not in justice, ruling not for peace, but with selfishness, with lust. And thus God sets a time for judgment. And in the context, we know what that judgment will be. That judgment will be the flood. God is setting a time in which he will continue that call for repentance through his prophets. But then it will be too late. Now, in many ways, this account ends or seems to end with verse 3. And yet we have verse 4. Verse 4 that's maybe the most difficult. As it mentions Nephilim, and that the sons of God and daughters of men, that they had children, and these mighty men. And it's a little difficult to know how to relate these together. Some identify them all together. But it's probably best to distinguish them. Now, verse 4 is showing us the full range of evils that the people of God faced. There were not only these wicked kings, but there were the children of these wicked kings who were these mighty men. But not only that, there were the Nephilim. Now, kids, you may not be impressed by the Nephilim. It's just a funny word that's somewhat difficult to say. But I think most Israelite children would have been impressed to say that there were Nephilim in the land in those days. Because the other place we find the Nephilim is in the account of the spies. Those 12 spies that were sent into Canaan. And 10 of them come back shaking in their boots, scared to death. And what do they say? Numbers 13, 32 through 33. The land through which we have gone to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak who come from the Nephilim. And we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them. There were giants in the land, fearsome, frightful men. That is what the Nephilim tell us. And we know how they acted as God describes it in verse 5. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Man's heart that only God can see was rotten to the core. Only evil all the day. The world that he had created. Mankind who he had made in his image. He had made it into a place of great evil. God's good gifts of marriage, of justice, they had been perverted in that generation. They now fulfilled their lusts for sex, their lusts for power, their lusts for violence in any way they wanted. There was no restraint to their wickedness. And God was grieved. You must see here how much sin troubles God. How much it's opposed to His perfect justice. God cannot bear it in His sight. And thus, He decrees destruction. To wipe out His good creation, the one that He made good and is now filled with evil. But verse 8 shows us that in the midst of that evil age, there was Noah. Noah who found favor in God's eyes. Noah who remained of those who called upon the name of the Lord. God had yet preserved for himself a people. Even amidst all the evil and the oppression. And now he would deliver him, him and his family, from that evil age. The Apostle Peter, he draws a comparison between the world at that time and our world. We read in 2 Peter 3, 1 through 10. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. Reference to the flood. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowest, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Why does Peter bring up the flood, talk about it in parallel to this present time? Well, it's because we're often discouraged by the rise of evil in the world, aren't we? As we see maybe the church shrinking around us, we wonder what's happening. It rattles our faith. The scoffers, they become louder and louder, don't they? And we wonder why God doesn't respond. Doesn't respond to them right now. How can you let the world get so bad? What is it telling us? In our world, it does bear many similarities, doesn't it? It's full of scoffers, those who raise their hand against God. and those who fulfill their sinful desires. The lust for sex, power, violence. We see it each and every day. We see sex pulled away from the bonds of a loving marriage and instead put up for sale. We see justice perverted. We see the love of money controlling many. And there are certainly those who abuse their power, those in government. Thankfully, our own government, with its problems, is in many ways restrained. But we don't have to look very far to see dictators, those who are more of a curse to their people than a blessing. And there are plenty of those that frighten, giants in our day. Powerful ones who can snuff out God's people. Plenty of those who relish, relish all types of evil. Crooks, thieves, murderers, rapists, terrorists. The list could go on and on. You can be very scared of the world around. And so what is Peter's application as he brings this up? He tells them to know that another judgment is coming. A final judgment is coming. Not with water, but with fire. The final judgment day of God, the day of the Lord. God will respond again as He did at that time. And thus, one thing we must see here is that God in His Word doesn't promise us our best life now. A blessed life here. We have many blessings, and I thank God for that. We have so many things, but we cannot tie our faith to them. The church has been persecuted from the beginning, and it will be until the end. And we cannot have our hopes based on the world around us. We cannot let the world's scoffing shake our faith. We need to continue to look to the Lord, calling out, looking to comfort as Lamech did. Now, that doesn't mean that we give up on this world, that we don't be involved in this world. We are still those image bearers of God, called to subdue, to rule. And thus, we have responsibilities. We have things that we're supposed to do. There's an election going on in our country. We should be concerned. We should be involved in that. We should fight against evil, even give our lives to restrain it in this world. But our hope, our faith, can never be tied to what God will use, what God will do through our efforts. They cannot be tied to the state of this world. Because if our faith depends on how well things are going, we are set up for failure. Instead, we need a sure hope. Enoch. Enoch showed the world at that time God's power over death. But we have something even clearer, don't we? There was a man who came, who was killed, who died on a cross. And yet, he was raised from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and he will never die again. God's promise that really Enoch looks forward to was fulfilled as Jesus, as God himself came and conquered sin and death. Jesus is the one who's made it possible for us to look beyond this present evil age, to have a hope, a hope of eternal life, that right to eat from the tree of life. Our world, it's ripe for judgment, even as it was in Peter's day. And we must admit, and we must be truthful, that the evil isn't only out there, it's in here. that even our hearts are those that are prone to evil. And thus God comes with his good news. Repent, believe, and be saved. As we saw Peter mentioning, why is God waiting? Well, he's waiting because he's patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. God in the world that then was, he set a time. 120 years and then the judgment will come. Well, God in his wisdom has also set a time for that final judgment day. He hasn't revealed it to us. As it says, it will come like a thief in the night for us. But there is that time coming. And thus today, today is the day for salvation. Today is the day to turn from our sins. To begin to live as Peter continues on saying, live lives of holiness and godliness. Today is the day because we don't know if tomorrow will come. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we look to your word to provide for the instruction that we need to encourage us, to give us how we should live lives of faith, lives of gratitude. And may you preserve us in this world as you preserved the people at that time. And we look forward to that day when Christ will return. And may we live in light of it each and every moment as we spur one another on to good works, to proclaiming the gospel in this world that needs it so badly. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.