Back to the Beginning No.10 The Man who didn't die

We're now going to have a reading by Vicki and Wayne, Genesis 5. This is the written account of Adam's line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created the male and female and blessed them, and when they were created, he called them man.

When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image, and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Adam lived 930 years.

And then he died. When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. And after he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters.

Altogether, Seth lived 912 years. And then he died. When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan.

And after he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enosh lived 905 years. And then he died.

When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalal. And after he became the father of Mahalalal, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Kenan lived 910 years.

And then he died. When Mahalalal had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. And after he became the father of Jared, Mahalalal lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters.

Altogether, Mahalalal lived 895 years. And then he died. When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch.

And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Jared lived 962 years. And then he died.

When Enoch lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years.

Enoch walked with God. And then he was no more, because God took him away. When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech.

And after he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Methuselah lived 969 years. And then he died.

When Lamech lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, he will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of his hands, caused by the ground the Lord has cursed. After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters.

Altogether, Lamech lived 777 years. And then he died. After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Well, I guess that's one lesson you'll have learned. Check the passage before you say yes. But thanks anyway.

That's what I should have done. Well, we're looking at Genesis chapter 5. When Tony originally asked me to preach this morning, because he was away, he asked me to look at Genesis chapter 6. And I thought that was a much, well, it's fairly difficult, but some interesting things come out of it. And then when the syllabus slipped by one week and we were back in chapter 5, my heart really went into despair mode, really, because as you got from Wayne and Vicki, they really worked hard to make that sound interesting.

And well, as I've struggled with this passage and read other people's work on it and thought about it and prayed over it, quite a lot has come out. So don't despair yet. There was a Swedish business consultant called Ulf Aftralla, I think, and he worked for 13 years on a book about Swedish economic solutions.

And one day he took his 250-page manuscript to be copied. But the worker confused the copier with the shredder, and 250 pages soon turned into 50,000 strips of paper. I wonder if that's how God felt, really, at the stage where we've got to in the story of the world, where God spent all these energies and all this time making this planet and populating it and making things grow on it, making Adam and Eve.

And then finally, Adam and Eve decided to do the one thing God asked them not to do. They were banished from the Garden of Eden. Their way to the Tree of Life was barred.

It reads how Cain and Abel were born to Adam and Eve, and then we are totally shocked by reading of Cain murdering his brother Abel, the first death after the fall. A vivid lesson about the true nature of sin, about sin and its consequences. And Chapter 5 is a fairly gloomy reading as well.

And the reason I split those sentences was to emphasize those four words which we heard so often in that chapter, and then he died. Because God promised death to Adam in Chapter 3, and we see a murder in Chapter 4, which was man's choice. But finally, we have a whole list here of people dying, and that is the consequence of sin, of God's speaking to Adam and to his descendants, as we'll find out.

But it's not all gloom, because the chapter begins before this great list of people, and it reminds us, first of all, that man has great value to God, it seems to me. And the first reason is that we bear God's likeness together, and we read that in verses 1 and 2. God created man, it says in the NIV. I guess we ought to make it more politically correct and say that God created humankind.

As the old wag said, in this instance, man embraces woman. But what I mean is that here, when God made man, he made mankind, he made human beings. All my life I've read about the battle of the sexes and seen a few skirmishes myself.

And to read some modern writers, you'd think that there were actually two races on the planet, a race of women and a race of men. But the Bible is quite clear that this just is not the case. There is one human race, and it is bearing the image and likeness of God.

And it takes both women and men together to show that image and likeness of God. And that's a word to us, to our families, to our marriages, yes, even in our church, that we need both men and women together to show the image and the likeness of God. It's fairly gloomy, isn't it? I mean, you read the newspapers and watch TV and listen to the news on radio, and I don't know if you're like me, you get a little bit depressed, it's really bad.

But occasionally there are little glimmers that come out. Do you remember reading about the woman who learned that she had cancer, but she refused to have treatment because she was pregnant, she was carrying a baby, and to save the life of her child, the mother eventually died. I think that's wonderful.

Amazing choice that woman made. Dave Ashcroft, I don't know anything about him apart from he won a lot of money on the national lottery, 12.3 million pounds to be precise. His father apparently was crippled after being mugged, and Dave Ashcroft, this lottery winner, this multi-millionaire, said of his crippled father, his life is my life now, I don't want to leave home, and I don't want to get married.

I think that's brilliant. And I think that's the image of God, a remnant image of God in the human race. The context may not be so wonderful, but occasionally we see these wonderful little jewel things shining out.

Noble, pure, faithful, unselfish, loyal things that people do that help us to see the likeness of God despite our sinfulness. The second thing that tells me that God places value on us is that in this chapter God names and remembers individuals. You see, we're not brought into existence purely for God's amusement until finally he loses interest and forgets all about us.

In this chapter God remembers individuals by name. It's called the written account of Adam's line in verse 1. And from Adam via Seth, the list moves on to Noah and ends with his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, in this chapter anyway. But if you move on to Genesis chapter 11, the line continues from Noah's son, Shem, right the way through to Abraham.

And then if you turn again to the first chapter of Matthew, you'll see the list carrying on from Abraham right down to Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So even though Joseph is not Jesus's natural father, God impresses on us how truly human Jesus is. He is son of man.

And the line of human history is from Adam through Seth down to Abraham and Jesus. And that line is there because God had planned his counter move to the fall before he even began making the world. His plan of salvation was there.

The purposes of God were being worked out so that our names too might be written down. Because of Jesus Christ our names can be written in the book of life of the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Revelation 13 verse 8. So you see we have the likeness of God in men and women together.

We see God remembering individuals by name. And there's a third evidence too that God values people in this chapter. And that's in the numbers.

You may have noticed that some of these people lived rather a long time. I worked out that the average age from Adam to Noah, excluding Enoch who is a special case, the average age was 912 years. That's tremendous news to me.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to say to your teenager that you weren't middle-aged until you were 456 years old? Well what do we make of it? Were the years particularly short? What was going on in those days? Lots of explanations. But I remember reading in the last month that there are scientists out there somewhere trying to locate what they call the aging gene. Because it's still a bit of a mystery why our bodies get old and wear out.

So when I think of these huge ages I think of a human race that was very small in number. It started off with two people, Adam and Eve. And what happened was that God wanted these people to have children and their children have children and the whole human race to grow and to multiply and to be established on this earth because God had plans for this human race.

And one way of doing it was to let people live a long time so that they could have lots of children, so that they'd be around a long time to teach their children, so that the grandparents would be around to teach the grandchildren and so on. So if there is one little evidence that God cares for us and God values the human race that in these early days these people lived a very long time so that the human race might live and establish itself on this planet. But quite soon we move on to the gloomy part of this chapter.

I tried to do a very clever alliteration as Tony is good at doing and I totally failed. So we've got man's value to God and then, well I did try but I'm almost ashamed of it, man's vanity without God. Awful.

But death is inevitable. That's the point of this chapter. You see, not only do we bear God's likeness together as men and women living on this planet, we also bear Adam's likeness together and we see that in verse three.

And there's a sense of inevitability about things then. I read just the other day of a service station, petrol station we would call it, in Ionia in Michigan. Never heard of that before.

But there were two people on duty there and up wandered this rather drunken would-be robber and he stood there and asked them to hand over the cash. They refused and he said, well if you don't I'm going to call the police. Well they refused, he did call the police and he was arrested.

And there's this sense of inevitability about it isn't there? I mean what a... And likewise through this chapter two there's this sense of inevitability that in chapter three we read that God said to Adam that he was made from the dust and to the dust he will return. And then we had this murder in chapter four and chapter five just shows the effect that because we are born in the likeness of Adam because his sinful nature is transmitted down through the generations to the present day, so we too are all subject to death. But death is the last taboo of our western culture isn't it? We don't really like the idea.

In fact we don't even like saying that anybody has died. I spent a few minutes in this last week with a friend and a thesaurus and a piece of paper and we managed to write down 28 different ways of saying what we don't really want to say. It wasn't all that long ago that my mum who's 82 said, well in case anything happens to me, it is going to happen mum.

I'm going to hate it when it does but it is and it's going to happen to me too. We talk about being called home, going home, kicking the bucket, passing away, passing on, promoting to glory, gone before, gone home, is no more, expired, breathes his last and so on until I got to pop this clogs. Steve Turner bless him as a Christian poet and he can say things that we can't get away with saying.

He wrote a poem called Death Lib. The liberating thing about death is in its fairness to women, its acceptance of blacks, its special consideration for the sick. And I like the way that children aren't excluded, homosexuals are welcomed and militants aren't banned.

The really wonderful thing about death is that all major religions agree on it. All beliefs take you there, all philosophy bows to it, all arguments end there. Con men can't con it, thieves can't nick it, bullies can't scare it, magicians can't trick it, boxers can't punch it, not even Tyson, nor critics dismiss it, don't knows can't not know, the lazy can't miss it, governments can't ban it or the army diffuse it, judges can't jail it, lawyers can't sue it, capitalists can't bribe it, socialists can't share it, terrorists can't jump it, the third world aren't spared it, scientists can't quell it, nor can they disprove it, doctors can't cure it, surgeons can't move it, Einstein can't have it, Guevara can't free it.

The thing about dead is we're all gonna be it. And that's because Adam had a son in his own likeness and so did Seth and so did every human father and mother down through the generations. Thus we were and to dust we shall return.

But it's not all gloom is it because death is a reminder of God's mercy. Remember this in our group four discussion on this chapter three. If Adam and Eve had had the access to the tree of life they would have been sinners and they would never have died.

What prospect of release when they got fed up with being sinners, fed up with the failure and the consequences and there was no release. How awful to be trapped like that. Well let's move on to the bright bit and the title for today's sermon, Enoch.

One book said that Enoch represents God's pledge that death will be defeated. The commentator described this single little paragraph as a single brilliant star above the earthy record of this chapter. And another one spoke of Enoch as a glittering jewel in a pile of otherwise rather dull stones.

You see Enoch walked with God then he was no more because God took him away. We don't read of Enoch and then he died. The writers of the Hebrews says that by faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death.

He could not be found because God had taken him away for before he was taken he was commended as one who pleased God. It's interesting to speculate what actually happened. I suppose it's the way my mind works.

All we know is that Enoch was not found. Maybe he'd gone out for a walk. Maybe he was working in the fields and he didn't come home.

Perhaps his wife began to worry about him and maybe some of the sons were sent out to find dad. But finally they determined that Enoch was gone. They couldn't find him.

So then what? How do they conclude that God had taken him? There must have been something in Enoch's life and in his life with the family particularly that made them come to that conclusion. And I'm purely guessing and your guess is as good as mine and if you've got a better guess I'd love to hear it later on. But maybe at the end of the day Enoch and his sons and his wife would sit around and they'd chat over the day's events.

And Enoch who was in the habit of living in close communion with God would somehow or other relate to his family, to his wife and his sons and his daughters the kind of things that had gone on. The things that he'd said to God. The things he'd heard from God.

The way in which God had been a part of his life through that day. And maybe there was the expectation that he was beginning to phrase the words that were beginning to come out that he'd rather glad if this particular life down here was over and if he could be beyond the barriers of frustration that he felt and actually have a communion with God that was 100% perfect. And maybe it was that kind of thinking and that kind of memory and the fact that they couldn't actually find Enoch that eventually led the family to understand that God had taken this man.

What had happened was that as far as we're concerned we know now if we read the scriptures and if we're in Christ we will probably face death. A few of us will be lucky enough, blessed enough not to face death and to be caught up into the air and to be with the Lord forever. But most of us and most believers will actually have to die.

And after death comes resurrection. And then we'll be with our Lord. We'll be in the presence of God and great all the barriers will be gone.

But for Enoch the dying bit and the resurrection bit were taken away. And something amazing happened. He was living with God down here on this planet.

And then the next thing happened he was living with God in heaven. And the dark bit, the painful bit was just taken out by God's grace and God's mercy. I guess you know the name of Trevor McDonald and I guess you know his face as well.

And I applaud his work for better English. There's some awfully slovenly speech around these days. I sympathize too with his view of life.

I remember hearing him say some years ago we are born, we struggle and we die. And that's the way that it seems sometimes isn't it? We're born and life is pretty grim and then at the end of it we just die. And lots of people wonder is that all? What was all that for? But Enoch's experience tells us something else.

We may have to struggle our way through life but death is not the end of the story. Here right at the beginning of the human race not many years after God had spoken to Adam and told him that death would follow his sin we can see God showing through Enoch that death can be overcome. By his grace and power it needn't just be struggle and die.

Here is hope of help in that struggle and here is hope of a glorious life after the end of this one no matter how or when the end comes. Enoch is God's pledge of death's defeat. It was thousands of years before Jesus came.

Jesus died, was buried, was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. It was thousands of years before we began to understand what resurrection was all about. But Enoch's experience was something that had a profound effect upon the nation of which he was a part at least the nation of which he was the the forebearer through Abraham and so on.

Because that word God took Enoch occurs in two psalms and they're very lovely verses. In Psalm 49 we read this but God will redeem my life from the grave he will surely take me to himself. An idea of resurrection an idea of life after the grave and in Psalm 73 you guide me with your counsel and afterward you will take me into glory.

Same word there. So that Enoch had a profound effect upon the faith and the religious life of the Israeli nation, the nation of the Israelites and that hope of death's defeat by God was there even though they didn't know how it was going to happen. What kind of man was Enoch? We don't know a lot about him.

We don't know how rich he was. We don't know whether he built houses or cities. We learned in chapter four that Jubal was the father of all who play the harp and the flute and Tubal Cain was one who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron.

But as far as Enoch is concerned we know nothing really apart from he had sons and daughters. Good lesson there. You see first of all we are human beings not human doings.

We're not even human havings either. All we know is that Enoch was a family man and that's interesting too isn't it because family life these days is pretty fraught. I expect it was different then.

I expect Enoch's children always behaved themselves, never answered back. They always did what they were asked to do. They were tidy and quiet.

They never quarreled, never got into a fight or a fix and that's why Enoch was able to pursue this daily walk with God because his children were little angels. I bet. If Enoch could walk with God then we can too even if we're busy mums and dads.

Even if the pressure at work is really horrendous. Even if we feel that we've got to earn more and more every year for those big bills. You know sometimes the pressure is of our own making.

We want the right size house and car. We've got the fees to worry about the holidays and all the household equipment that we want and there's a growing number of people particularly in North America who are opting out of that rat race not because they're Christians just because they've had enough. They've had enough of this pressure to earn more so that they can spend more so they've chosen a simpler life.

Fewer things, smaller income, smaller bills. Maybe that is part of the cross bearing that Jesus expects modern families to take up. That maybe they shouldn't renew the car quite so often or have quite so many bedrooms in the house or have such lovely holidays so that they, mums and dads, and their kids can walk with God.

The second thing we understand about Enoch is that he lived in an evil age. There are only three scriptures talking about Enoch. There's one in Genesis 5, Hebrews 11, there's two verses there, and then in Jude we read this, that Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied about these men, see the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Now I hope you got the impression there that the people were pretty ungodly in those days. Of the ten generations mentioned in Genesis chapter 5, six before Enoch and three after him, and of all of those only Enoch is mentioned as pleasing God. The profiling atmosphere was pretty ungodly, evil days.

And at the beginning of the next chapter, Genesis chapter 6 and verse 6, we read that the Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth and his heart was filled with pain. You see Enoch lived in evil days. He wasn't able to live with God because everybody else was godly and righteous and helpful.

Everybody else around him was ungodly and unhelpful. And the harsh words that the ungodly spoke against God no doubt were directed towards Enoch as at times as well. We live in an evil age today and I don't want to go on a kilt trip with you just reviewing some of the awful things that happen.

We know them, but that's no excuse for us being evil and ungodly ourselves. If Enoch was able to walk with God despite the family pressures, if Enoch was able to walk with God despite the evil age in which he lived, then we can too. But what does it actually mean that Enoch walked with God? And I think here we need to turn to that verse in Hebrews chapter 11 verses 5 and 6 there.

For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. But how did Enoch please God? Enoch was in this long line of people who inherited the likeness of Adam and the sinful nature that Adam had, Enoch had as well. And the kind of things that he had heard about, he would feel within himself too.

He would have heard about the murderous hate of Cain and he would have experienced flutterings of that in his own heart against certain people at certain times as most of us do today. He would have heard about the boastful lust after revenge of Lamech and we too feel like that sometimes, don't we? We're just going to get even with that person somehow. And he would have heard about Lamech pushing at the boundaries that God had placed around the family.

And there are temptations and experiences that we have in our lives too that make us wonder about the commitments that we've made and the family life that we live. But despite all of that, despite all the things that he felt inside himself, Enoch believed that God was there. And somehow Enoch believed that he didn't know how God would accept him despite all of this.

You see, Hebrews talks about without faith it is impossible to please God, a double negative. Putting it into a positive, faith is the only way to please God. Faith is the only way to please God.

It's no good looking in books for proofs about the existence of God. It's no good asking God to strike you dead or wet a sheep fleece or whatever it is to prove that he's there. The only way that God accepts you and the only way he accepts me is through faith.

We believe that he's there, first of all. And second, we believe that if we come to him, he will reward us if we earnestly seek him. That's what it says in the book of Hebrews.

That's what faith is about. And for me, faith has two things. It's believing and it's acting.

You believe that God exists. You believe that if you come to God, he won't reject you and push you away. And then you act it out.

You act accordingly. You say, okay, if I'm accepted by God, if God receives me somehow, then I will spend time with God. And this is what Enoch did, no doubt.

We're not told the details and I'm reading into it and imagining what happens or what happened. But Enoch, no doubt, would have spent time with God talking the things that were on his heart, sharing his joy, sharing his hopes, his frustrations, talking about his failures and asking God's forgiveness. He would have spent time listening to God as well, wanting God to speak to him and then wanting to do what God wanted him to do.

They would have shared secrets together. And Enoch, no doubt, would have asked for strength to live in the face of all the evil in the generation in which he lived. Walking with God is one of those lovely biblical phrases that is very rich with meaning.

And I've struggled a bit as to how to end today. And I need to end quickly because we're moving into communion. And the only way I could come to it was through a negative, really.

There's a Psalm, Psalm 55, and the writer says this, if an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it. If a foe were raising himself against me, I would hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God.

You can feel the hurt there, can't you? A really close friend, a good mate, a pal, has turned against the Psalmist, has proved unfaithful, has let him down, has become the enemy. And the hurt is there, so strong and so clear. In Proverbs, we read this, a man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

There are words that Moses spoke to Israel, Moses spoke to Joshua, God spoke to Joshua, and which God speaks to us today. These are the words, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. You see, walking with God is much more than just walking with a human companion who may let us down, whom we may let down.

Walking with God is walking with someone who is closer than a brother, who's never going to leave me, never forsake me. And the details, well, there's nothing special about that, nothing magical that I've got to bring you today. We've got the Bible to hear God speak to us.

We've got prayer in which we can speak to God. And we need to be agreed with this person with whom we're walking as well, because two people can only walk together if they're agreed. That means finding out what God expects of me and doing it, asking him for forgiveness when we fell and let him down.

So let me close with one thing. We've got our church weekend coming up. Some of you have been to Spring Harvest, others no doubt will be going off to Keswick, to missionary conventions, all sorts of special camps and celebrations and great things, and they are extra good times to meet the Lord.

But they are extraordinary times, aren't they? They're not the routine. Let me leave you with this. I would urge you, as you consider your walk with God, to make God the God of the ordinary.

So whether you're changing nappies, changing a light bulb, changing an oil filter, changing a corporate plan, God is there in your day-to-day routine. It was possible for Enoch, the family man, the man who lived in an evil society. It's possible for us as we walk and talk and listen.

So God grant that the ordinary things of our lives are where we meet our God. Amen. We're going to move into communion now.

And while we sing number 494, O for a closer walk with God, we'll bring the elements to you. So we'll sing 494. The Holy One is here We stand on holy ground The Holy One is here He's terrible, the glory of the Lord He's shining all around He burns with holy fire With splendor He is round A radiant beam of light He's terrible, the glory of the Lord He's shining all around He's terrible, the power of the Lord He's moving in His place We come to dance and feel To minister His hand He's terrible, the power of the Lord He's moving in His place Don't forget our special preacher tonight is Ken Ham of the Creation Science Foundation.

Back to the origins again, back to the beginning. May you have a good week. May God be the God of your ordinary.

Let's encourage one another by saying the grace to one another. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.

Thank you. God bless.