We saw it in our last study that
in Cain and Abel we see the beginning
of two streams which end up in the
book of Revelation as Babylon and Jerusalem, both
are religious streams.
Cain was not an atheist.
Cain did not approach a false God.
He approached the true God, but he approached
the true God in a wrong way.
Abel came with blood in his sacrifice, he
came with faith in his heart, and he
came with righteousness in his life.
And that's the thing that made the difference.
There was blood in his sacrifice, faith in
his heart, and righteousness in his life.
And I think above everything else, he had
what the Bible says are the acceptable sacrifices
of God, a broken and a contrite spirit.
And we can say that essentially the difference
between Jerusalem and Babylon is this.
Jerusalem comprises of those who have a broken
and a contrite spirit.
That is the sacrifice that God accepts.
We need to compare this verse in Psalm
51 with the sacrifices that these two brothers
brought.
It says in Psalm 51, verse 17, the
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a
broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou
is not despised.
And if the word of God says that
God had respect unto Abel and to his
sacrifice, it must mean that Abel had a
broken spirit.
Because behind that sacrifice was a broken spirit.
That's what made it acceptable.
Whereas behind the offering of Cain was an
arrogant spirit, one who was self-confident and
capable, and God rejected it.
It's the same today.
There are those who come to God in
faith with a broken spirit, and they are
accepted.
There are others who come in pride and
self-sufficiency, and who are rejected no matter
what they bring.
And we must never forget it, because we
live in the midst of a Christendom that
does not place the emphasis on the heart
behind the offering.
Always the emphasis is on the offering.
If a man gives one lakh to a
Christian work, so much is made of that.
Oh, one lakh.
It may be Cain giving that one lakh.
That doesn't seem to disturb a lot of
Christians.
It does disturb God.
Or someone gives something for the Lord's work,
his full time, he gives up his job
or something.
That's not the thing.
The point is what's behind that sacrifice.
Is it a broken spirit?
Otherwise we can never build a church.
And it is those who do not have
a broken spirit who end up persecuting those
who do have a broken spirit, calling them
heretics, etc.
There's a very interesting word we see in
Revelation chapter 18, concerning Babylon, verse 24.
Revelation 18 is all about Babylon.
And in the last verse of this chapter
on Babylon, Revelation 18, 24, it says, And
in Babylon was found the blood of prophets
and of saints, and listen to this, and
of all who have been slain on the
earth.
Who was the first?
Abel.
The blood of Abel, it says here, was
found in Babylon.
So we have New Testament confirmation of the
fact that the religion Cain started was the
religion of Babylon.
Revelation 18, 24 proves that beyond doubt.
And that's why it's very important for us
to study Cain.
Because then we have an understanding of Babylon
today.
Now we move on to Genesis chapter 4.
We saw that Cain was also a picture
of the Jews who crucified Christ.
Abel was a picture of Christ and Cain
was a picture of the Jews.
And we can say that the Jews had
a Babylonian religion and Jesus had the religion
of Jerusalem from above.
And one persecuted the other.
It's the same thing happening today.
When we proclaim the truth of Jerusalem in
the true church, there is always the Babylonians
who are there to persecute.
But we read here that God had mercy
on Cain like He's had mercy on the
Jews and He spared him, He spared the
Jews.
But it says here finally, verse 16, Cain
went out from the presence of the Lord.
This is hell.
Hell means no presence of the Lord.
There's a phrase in English called a God
-forsaken place.
The only truly God-forsaken place is hell.
That's really a God-forsaken place.
What is the fire of hell?
The fire of hell is the fact that
God is not there.
Mercy is not there.
God's mercy is removed.
And that is what makes hell, hell.
So we see here, Cain went out from
the presence of the Lord and settled in
the land of Nod, which means wandering, east
of Eden.
Which means there was some manifestation of the
Lord's presence, probably at the gate of Eden.
When he went out from the presence of
the Lord means he went away from there.
Maybe that was the place where they offered
these sacrifices, at the gate of Eden.
And then, Cain had relations with his wife
and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch.
Now, this is not the Enoch who walked
with God.
This is quite a contrast to that Enoch
who comes later on in chapter 5.
This is another man who was the son
of Cain, the first son of Cain.
And it's very interesting to see what Cain
did.
He built a city.
And there we have, as we go through
this chapter, you'll see the rise of five
things that begin with Cain's descendants.
And the first thing that begins is the
beginning of city life.
God made man to live in a garden.
God made man to live by the sweat
of his ground, but Cain was the first
person who built a city.
And we know that there is a lot
of evil that has come through city life.
But Cain was the one who began that.
And he called the name of the city
Enoch, after the name of his son.
This desire to perpetuate one's name is there
began with Cain.
He wanted to glorify the name of his
son.
This city will be called Enoch, so that
for generations people will remember my son.
We see it today also, so-and-so
memorial building.
You know where it began?
With Cain's son.
So-and-so memorial church.
You see, Babylon is there right from there,
naming something after a person.
This room was donated by so-and-so.
It's there.
Cain began that type of stuff.
This fan was donated by so-and-so.
I've seen it.
It's amazing.
This chair was donated by so-and-so
in some church building.
It started with Cain, who put a name
to that city to perpetuate one's name.
It's a terrific lust.
Grandfathers who are very eager that their grandchildren
should be named after them.
Cain started this business.
This name must be perpetuated.
Why can't we just live and die, and
let it be forgotten?
Why this great lust, this spirit of Babylon?
It's permeated all over.
It began with Cain.
And yet, what about Abel?
No city was named after him.
But do you know what the word of
God says about Abel?
Turn to Hebrews chapter 11, and you'll see
a contrast.
There you see the difference between Abel and
Cain.
The difference between Jerusalem and Babylon.
Hebrews 11.4 By faith, Abel offered to
God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which
he obtained the testimony that he was righteous.
God testifying about his gifts.
And through faith, listen to this.
Though no city was built after his name,
though he is dead, 4,000 years later,
and now 6,000 years later, he's still
speaking.
He's still speaking more than that other son
of Cain's called Enoch.
That city which Cain built for his son
is destroyed long ago.
In fact, most people don't even know about
it.
But Abel, his life still speaks.
What do we see the contrast in these
two things?
Abel speaks by his life.
Whereas Cain wanted his son's name to be
exalted.
And that is the difference.
Do you want people to know your name?
Your name should be well known.
Or are you more concerned that your life
should bless others?
This is the difference between Jerusalem and Babylon.
And we need to see it.
Never mind if nobody knows our name.
Never mind if people forget all about our
name.
But if our life can make an impression
on them that even after we are dead
and gone, even if no grandchild of mine
is ever named after my name, I'm not
interested in that.
But that the influence of my life should
carry on to generations.
That's much more important than having a silly
name carried on.
That's something we need to be gripped by.
It's not a small thing.
Because we all love our own names.
There's a book written by a world famous
man in America called Dale Carnegie who wrote
a book called How to Win Friends and
Influence People.
It's written for businessmen how to promote your
business and how to be a good speaker
and all.
One of the things he says in that
book is the sweetest word in the English
language to any human being is his own
name.
You see, he studied human character and he
said that.
And so when you speak to a man
he says, frequently use his name and he'll
really be happy with you.
It's really, he studied human character.
We love our own name.
And when people speak about our name, it
means something to us.
Unless we have cleansed ourselves from this spirit
of Cain and of Babylon, that it means
nothing.
That we are only interested in our life.
Think of that, my brothers and sisters.
The rise of city life and promoting one's
own name.
There's a verse in Proverbs 10.7 which
says, The memory of the righteous is blessed.
That is Abel.
This contrast actually in Proverbs 10.7 is
between Abel and Cain.
Son, the memory of the righteous is blessed,
but the name of the wicked will rot.
It's not a name.
It's a memory of a righteous, God-fearing,
humble, kind, pure, upright man.
We don't know what his name was, but
the influence of his life really blessed me.
Covet that, my brothers and sisters, that we
leave that impression when we leave the earth
like Abel, instead of having some room donated
by us or some fan donated by us,
which informs everybody about our name.
That'll rot.
So that's the first thing we see here.
The next thing we see in Genesis 4
is, in verse 18, Now Enoch was born
Erad, and Erad became the father of Mehujael,
and Mehujael became the father of Methuselah.
Methuselah became the father of Lamech, in Genesis
4.19, and Lamech took to himself two
wives.
The name of the one was Adah, and
the name of the other, Silah.
Once you begin to move away from God,
you begin to perpetuate your own name, and
you begin to move into immorality.
Two wives, one is not enough.
Coveting another woman, after being married to one.
Maybe society does not permit people to have
two wives now.
People are scared to do that.
There was no rules those days.
But the spirit can still be there in
a man today.
Though he's married to one, he's not happy
with that one.
And sometimes he wishes he had married somebody
else.
What spirit does he have?
He has the spirit of Lamech, who wants
another wife.
But he won't take one, because society does
not permit it.
If he were living in Lamech's day, he
would have had two wives.
Lots of people living today, even so-called
believers, if they were living in Lamech's day,
they'd have had two wives.
Because they're not happy with the one they
have.
My dear brothers, if you're not happy with
the wife you had, you've got the spirit
of Lamech.
You're wishing you're married to somebody else.
And the chances are, if you were living
there, you'd have married another one.
That is Babylon.
Unfaithfulness in married life is the essence of
Babylon.
The essence of Babylon.
And there's a lot of this marital unfaithfulness
in the thought life of lots of so
-called believers.
God's not fooled just because some of them
talk about the new and living ways.
The spirit of Lamech.
You see what began to rise when Cain
went out from the presence of the Lord?
God's grace left him.
And then all the spirit of Babylon developed
so quickly.
Marital unfaithfulness, the development of city life, and
the man naming the city after his own
son.
Then, verse 20, had I give birth to
Jebel, he was the father of those who
dwell in tents and have livestock.
His brother's name was Jubal.
He was the father of all those who
play the lyre and the pipe.
Then we see the rise of musical instruments.
Very interesting to note that musical instruments were
not invented by the descendants of Abel or
set after him.
They were invented by the descendants of Cain
after he went out from the presence of
the Lord.
I'm not saying, therefore, musical instruments are sinful,
just like I'm not saying that living in
a city is sinful, even though the first
city was built by Cain.
We're all living in a city now.
But we must remember that city life began
with Cain.
There are dangers, we need to beware of
that.
Musical instruments began with Cain's children.
Never forget that.
Then you've got to keep that in mind
even when we have music in the church,
or so-called Christian music.
The spirit of the word can easily come
in, just because the words are Christian.
So much of so-called Christian music today
is absolutely godless.
I can't imagine Jesus Christ sitting and listening
to any of that rubbish.
It's called Christian because it puts the name
of Jesus in it.
I'm sure Jubal would have been glad to
put such names also in it if it
made his music more popular.
It's the spirit, not the words.
We've often said in the church, when you
listen to a man preach, don't listen to
the words.
Listen to the spirit of the man.
Gauge the spirit of the man.
Remember this, my brothers and sisters, wherever you
listen to people speaking.
If you just listen to the words, I've
heard believers, even so-called new and living
way believers, as they call themselves, saying, oh,
so-and-so is all right, he's speaking
the right thing.
Nil discernment.
Nil.
They can't discern his spirit.
They can't discern the way he begs for
money.
They can't discern the way he violates scriptural
principles.
If you, oh, but he says so many
nice things, he's so kind, he's so good.
When will they have discernment?
Listen to the spirit of a man.
The same thing in music.
It is not the words.
It's the spirit behind it.
It can never be justified by words.
Just like preaching cannot be justified by words.
It's the spirit.
And there we have to judge ourselves to
be able to get discernment.
When man or a woman doesn't have discernment,
can be pretty sure they are not judging
themselves in their private lives.
That's why God doesn't give them discernment.
They remain undiscerning, only listening to words.
Undiscerning about music, undiscerning about so many so
-called Christian preachers.
So there's the rise of musical instruments, string
instruments, breath instruments, lyre and pipe.
Verse 22.
As for Zillah, she also gave birth to
Tubal Cain.
Here's the, one of the grandchildren being named
after the grandfather, Cain.
I'm sure Cain would have been quite delighted
that this chap named his son Tubal Cain.
He was a big shot, Cain.
Think of that.
Godless, rejected by God.
And they honored him.
Man had drifted away, that whole generation of
people.
The forger of all implements of bronze and
iron.
The rise of industry.
That's another thing that began with Cain's children.
Industry.
Implements of bronze and iron.
I think mostly for fighting.
Fighting with one another.
The beginning of all these instruments of war.
Began with Cain's children.
And, for other purposes.
Cain was obviously admired for his, this chap
to name his son Tubal Cain.
And the sister of Tubal Cain was Neema.
And Lennox said to his wife, here's another
thing.
We've seen the rise of city life, the
rise of bigamy, marital unfaithfulness, the rise of
musical instruments, rise of industry.
And now one more thing.
The rise of false grace.
False grace began here.
And watch it.
Lamech said to his wife, Adon Zillah, listen
to my voice.
You wives of Lamech, give heed to my
speech.
For I have killed a man for wounding
me, and a boy for striking me.
But do you think God will judge me
for that?
No.
If Cain is avenged sevenfold, like God said
in verse 15, Lamech, me, 77-fold God
will protect me.
Even though I've killed somebody.
What is that?
The beginning of false grace.
Quoting, what?
Quoting God's word.
Because you read in verse 15, it was
God who said to Cain, if anybody kills
Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.
And here is Lamech, who's got a hold
of one word of God, and he says,
God has said, vengeance will be taken sevenfold,
much more on me, 77-fold.
The beginning of misquoting God's word, the perversion
of God's word, to justify and protect oneself
even though one is a murderer.
Think of that.
That's Babylon.
God, He will protect you brother.
Even though you've sinned.
And we see here why this man murdered.
It's quite amazing.
I killed a man for wounding me and
a boy for striking me.
Can you imagine?
This grown up man, that some boy came
and hit him and he killed him just
for that.
Can you imagine how man, when they go
away from the presence of the Lord, he,
his children, grandchildren, they just become more and
more evil.
What are the sins we see in this
chapter?
Notice the sins that come forth first, after
Cain has gone away from the presence of
the Lord.
Marital unfaithfulness, sexual sin, and the second is
anger.
Anger, making a man violent.
Keep that in mind.
These were the two sins that come forth
in the descendants of Cain.
Sexual sin and violent anger.
That's why we say, in Jerusalem we speak
about total victory in these two areas.
A man who doesn't seek victory, complete victory
in the sexual area, complete victory over his
outbursts of temper, he can sit here, as
I've often said for 25 years, he'll be
a pillar in Babylon in the final days.
Sure.
Without a doubt.
Doesn't matter where he sits.
We need to see the development of Babylon
here.
And Adam had relations with his wife again.
She gave birth to a son and named
him Seth.
For she said, God has appointed me another
offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed
him.
And to Seth, to him also was a
son born, and he called his name Enosh.
And then men began to call upon the
name of the Lord.
This is a contrast to all these other
children, that on the other side, another generation
of people were calling on the name of
God.
They were not naming cities after their sons,
they were calling on the name of God.
It was a God-fearing seed.
It's interesting to see there, something, a principle
that comes very often in Scripture of God
choosing the younger son.
Very often.
We see that in the case of Cain
and Abel.
We see that in the case of Ishmael
and Isaac.
In the case of Esau and Jacob.
And in the case of the ten older
children of Jacob and Joseph.
The younger.
In the case of Aaron and Moses.
Moses was younger to Aaron.
In the case of David, who was younger
to his seven brothers.
The first will be last.
The last will be first.
And we can't understand that in the day
in which we live.
Because in our day, in our generation, there's
not so much difference between the older son
and the younger son.
Nowadays all our children sort of call each
other by their first names and grow up.
But in the older generations, the older son
was like a real big shot.
He was fierce.
He was like the big brother, the boss
in the family, who ruled everybody.
And all the other brothers were like small
little punes running around to do his errands
for him.
There are a few people like that today,
also remnants of that stone age still living
in these days.
But God bypasses all this.
These big shots who think they are the
head of the family, you know, big brother,
and chooses the one who is despised and
being pushed around by everyone.
And if you're one of those who's being
pushed around by others, you can take hope,
take heart from these examples, that God picks
up the weak and the despised and the
rejected.
Not the ones who are big and pushed
their way around.
The point is not where you were born
in the family.
It's not your fault if you were born
first, second or third.
The point is an attitude.
God despises all those who have a big
brother attitude towards others, whether it's in a
family or in a church or anywhere.
He bypasses them completely.
And I think Cain was like that, probably
fostered by his parents, foolishly.
But there was another seed, a younger seed,
they began to call on the name of
the Lord.
Now we come to chapter 5 and verse
1.
This is the book of the generations of
Adam.
It's a very interesting contrast.
In Matthew 1.1 we read this is
the book of the generations of Jesus Christ.
In the King James Version, that's how it's
translated.
We can say the Bible has got two
books.
The book of the generations of Adam, what
Adam produced, and the book of the generations
of Jesus Christ, Matthew 1.1, what Jesus
Christ produced.
The old creation and the new creation.
In the day when God created him, he
made him in the likeness of God.
Now see this.
He created them male and female.
That is man and woman.
And he blessed them.
And to both of them he gave one
name.
It's very interesting that the word of God
says he named them the margin Adam.
And that is why a woman takes the
name of her husband when she gets married.
Because God named both of them Adam.
Even though her name was Eve.
It meant that she had to leave her
old connection to her father and mother.
That's the meaning of cutting off that name
of the father in order to take on
the name of the husband.
Some people do it, but they don't do
it in spirit.
When you take on the name of your
husband you mean you have to cut off
the name of your father.
That's how it was.
That's how God intended it, so that you
can be totally united to your husband.
And when Adam had lived 130 years he
became the father of a son in his
own likeness.
You saw the contrast there?
God made Adam in his likeness and Adam
produced a son in his own likeness.
Quite different from the way he was made
by God.
Teaching us right from the beginning of scripture
that we produce children with the same nature
as when you see a stubbornness in your
child you see yourself.
You're looking into a mirror.
When you see disobedience in your child, you're
looking into a mirror.
Yeah.
Think of that parent when you see something
in your child.
Remember this verse.
You have produced a son in your own
likeness.
You have done a wonderful job of producing
a stubborn disobedient creature just like yourself.
So don't blame that one.
You've got to discipline him of course.
But never forget that he got all that
from you.
He got all that from you.
That will teach us to be a little
more merciful to our children and to judge
ourselves a little more.
And named him Seth.
Now here it says he was 130 years
and as far as we know Seth was
born immediately after Abel was killed or soon
after.
That's how we know that Cain and Abel
must have been around 130 years old when
Cain killed Abel.
Both crossed 100 years.
They were not small boys.
Cain was over 100 and Abel was over
100 when they killed each other.
When one killed the other rather.
When Cain killed Abel.
And generally speaking in the Old Testament the
daughters are not mentioned.
It doesn't mean that Adam didn't have any
daughters.
As we said the other day, by this
time, by the time Seth was born the
population of the earth must have been around
50,000 people at least.
That's why Cain says if somebody sees me
he may kill me.
So Seth was not just the third human
being born into the world.
He was born after Adam and Eve had
lived 130 years and they had children and
the children got married and they had grandchildren
and the grandchildren got married.
They probably spread all over that part of
the earth.
And then the days of Adam after he
became the father of Seth were 800 years
and he had other sons and he died.
And Seth lived 105 years and became the
father of Enosh.
And Seth lived 807 years after he became
the father of Enosh and he had other
sons and daughters.
All the days of Seth were 912 and
he died.
And Enosh lived 90 years and became the
father of Canaan.
Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons
and daughters.
He lived up to 905 and he died.
And so on it speaks about Canaan's son
Mahalil verse 12 he had other sons and
daughters and then he died verse 14.
And then Mahalil's son Jared verse 15 and
then verse 17 Mahalil died.
And Jared verse 18 here we come to
the one we want to think about.
He lived 100 verse 18 162 years and
became the father of Enoch.
This was the 6th generation after Adam.
Enoch is called the 7th from Adam and
you can total it up here.
Adam was 1st, Seth was 2nd.
You come down the line Enoch was number
7, the 7th generation counting Adam as the
1st.
Then Jared lived 800 years after he became
the father of Enoch and then he died.
Now an Enoch lived 65 years.
Now I want you to notice one thing
here.
Have you noticed that none of these people
crossed 1000 years?
Very interesting.
Adam lived to 930 verse 5.
Seth 912 verse 8.
Enoch 905 verse 11.
Kenan 910 verse 14.
Mahalel 895 verse 17.
And Jared verse 2962.
That's something very interesting.
But all of them it says they nearly
reached 1000 and they died.
Nearly reached 1000 and they died.
God told Adam in Genesis 2 17.
In the day you eat thereof you shall
surely die.
That means in the same day that you
eat, you will die.
The Bible says in 2 Peter 3 one
day is with the Lord as a thousand
years.
So within a thousand years you're going to
die.
You won't live beyond a thousand.
And we see that never in the human
race has anyone lived beyond one day in
God's eyes.
In the day that Adam ate he died
spiritually immediately and he died physically within a
thousand years.
And all his descendants God is very faithful
and exact to His word.
What He says will come true exactly in
generation after generation after generation after generation.
That's something interesting that we need to take
note of.
Then we come to Enoch.
It says here Enoch lived 65 years and
became the father of Methuselah.
And Methuselah means at, the meaning of that
word is at His death it will come.
What will come?
The judgment will come.
At His death it will come.
And we see something.
Then verse 22, then means from the birth
of His son after the birth of His
son Enoch walked with God.
He didn't walk with God for the first
65 years but something happened when His son
was being born.
When His son was born some crisis came
into His life when His son was born.
That can happen sometimes.
People who don't think about God, suddenly their
wife is going in for their first delivery
and the doctor says she might die and
suddenly they begin to think about God.
People who were never interested in God until
then, they suddenly, there's a crisis.
But usually what happens is, after the child
is born, they forget all about it and
go back to their old way of life.
But not Enoch.
Not Enoch.
That's the difference.
He had a crisis that changed the whole
direction of his life from that time.
He meant business.
He said, Oh God you've given me a
revelation of the birth of the son and
I'll be true to you.
And he kept that vow for 300 years.
What an example.
We have so-called crises in our life
here and there and we forget about it
so quickly.
Not Enoch.
He took it seriously.
And after that he walked with God for
300 years and he had other sons and
daughters.
There's a number of things that we can
learn here.
It means that at the birth of this
son God gave Enoch some revelation.
That I'm going to judge this world and
when this little child, whom you've got, dies
that time the world will be judged.
And if you calculate it you know that
Methuselah lived for 969 years.
He was the longest person to live.
And the ages are all written here.
You can calculate it.
In the year when Methuselah died Noah was
600 years old.
Noah was, by the way, Methuselah's grandson.
And that year the flood came.
The year Methuselah died, the flood came.
That was in his name.
Methuselah, when he dies, the judgment will come.
Now the thing is we know that he
lived up to 969, but when Enoch took
that little baby, he didn't realize he was
going to live up to 969 years of
age.
When you hold a baby in your hand,
you don't know how long he's going to
live.
Every time Enoch looked at that baby he
would have realized, when this baby dies, this
world is going to be judged.
When this, and he saw that maybe that
boy growing up and getting hurt one day,
got fever, and again Enoch realized when this
baby dies, that's the end of the world.
You can imagine how this man lived.
Because he believed God's word.
He believed that revelation that God gave at
the birth of his son, that when your
son dies it will come, and he believed
it.
He believed that that judgment will come, and
therefore Enoch lost all interest in this world.
And he said, Lord, I want to live
for you then.
I want to live my life on this
earth in a worthwhile way.
And he walked with God.
You know, when Enoch was alive, Adam was
just about 600 years old.
Adam was still alive.
Adam died only when Enoch was about 308.
All the ages are here, you can calculate
it.
So, Enoch must have met Adam, and Adam
must have told him how it was in
Eden.
How glorious it was there, and how he
got thrown out.
And Enoch must have longed, and said, Lord,
I can't go back to Eden, but is
it possible here on this earth, outside of
Eden, to walk with you like Adam walked
with you inside Eden?
Is it possible?
And God saw the longing of that man's
heart, and he said, it's possible, even though
you're not in Eden.
And he walked with God.
We see there of a man in the
midst of all these other ungodly people, groping
after God, and getting a revelation.
Why do I say the others were ungodly?
Turn to the book of Jude, in the
New Testament.
Jude and verse 14.
And about these, also, whom is he talking
about?
Verse 11, Woe to them, they've gone the
way of Cain, away from the presence of
the Lord, building Babylon.
They've rushed into the error of Balaam, who
was also a religious fellow, who went after
money.
And they've perished in the rebellion of Korah,
who was another religious fellow, who went after
position in the church.
All three religious people, various aspects of Babylon.
And about such people, it says in verse
14, Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam,
prophesied.
Saying, the Lord came, he prophesied about the
second coming of Christ.
Think what a revelation God gave him.
Not only about the flood, but about the
second coming of Christ.
Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of
His holy ones, to execute judgment on all,
to convict all the ungodly of all their
ungodly deeds, which they have done in an
ungodly way, of all the harsh things which
ungodly sinners have spoken against them.
Enoch was a prophet of judgment in his
generation.
That's why I say the others were evil
around him.
Think!
Adam did not have what Enoch had.
He could have had it.
He lived for 300 years.
And during those 300 years, at least 240
of those years, Enoch was walking with God
and Adam was watching him.
But it couldn't be said about Adam, but
it was said about Enoch.
And there was Enoch, one lone man, standing
against a generation of ungodly people, saying that
God's going to come in judgment.
Enoch is the first preacher mentioned in the
word of God.
And what did he preach?
He preached judgment against sin.
The first preacher in the world didn't preach
comforting messages.
He preached judgment against sinners for their ungodly
words.
For their ungodly actions.
For their ungodly attitude towards God.
Read that in Jude 14 and see.
And he spoke about the second coming of
Christ.
The judgment would come.
The Lord would come with 10,000 of
His saints and judge the world.
That's good for us to remember.
That when we walk with God, we stand
against all the ungodliness of people around us.
Now you can imagine Enoch was not popular.
He didn't have time to sit around with
all his ungodly relatives and crack dirty jokes
and all the filthy things they were in.
I think Enoch must have been a very
lonely man.
Very lonely man.
Because he couldn't have fellowship with his own
relatives.
And they were all his cousins in those
days.
He was only the seventh generation from Adam.
Everybody on earth was a cousin of his.
And he couldn't have fellowship with them.
He walked with God in loneliness.
And he preached.
He didn't just keep quiet.
He didn't live like a hermit in a
mountain.
He preached to the people around him about
God coming to judge them for their ungodliness.
He was preparing the way for Noah, his
great grandson, who would later on take the
bait from him and carry on that relay
race.
God's always had a witness.
When Abel died, there was Enoch.
And when Enoch died, there would be a
Noah.
When Noah died, there'd be an Abraham and
so on.
So there's been, there was a witness for
God.
And I can imagine that the presence of
Methuselah, as I said, played a great part.
And it says here in Genesis 5.22,
something else about Enoch, that he was a
family man.
It says he had other sons and daughters.
You can walk with God and have sons
and daughters.
There's a false teaching which is called the
Doctrine of the Devils by Paul in 1
Timothy 4 which says if you want to
be holy, you must not get married.
And some people even have the idea that
if you want to be holy, you must
have maybe just one or two children, because
then you can spend more time reading the
Bible and praying.
It's a lot of garbage, all these human
ideas.
Enoch had many sons and daughters, and he
walked with God.
There's the first example of a man who
had a large family, and he walked with
God.
It didn't disturb his walking with God.
Walking with God is not by going around
Bible teaching and going house visiting and sitting
with long hours of the Bible.
It's a question of an attitude of heart.
Enoch didn't have a Bible.
He had a family, and he walked with
God.
And there he was a father to his
sons and daughters.
He didn't just leave his family and run
off to the mountain to walk with God.
He lived with his wife!
And he had sons and daughters, and he
walked with God!
And that's why we emphasize so much in
the church the importance of family life if
you want to walk with God.
Enoch had it all in proper balance.
He preached the truth, he loved his children,
he loved his wife, he loved his family,
and he walked with God.
What an example.
Contrast that with Lamech.
Contrast that with the other Enoch and the
other fellow, Cain's son, who had a city
named after him.
The two Enochs of Genesis.
The good contrast is Babylon and Jerusalem all
over again.
Same name, but what a difference.
One fellow's got a city named after him.
This man walked with God.
We read here in Hebrews 11, and when
those of us who are family people, married
people, that's a great encouragement to us.
That many sons and daughters need not hinder
you from walking with God.
And the other thing is, we know, those
who are really seeking to walk with God,
parents, haven't you discovered?
It is our children who bring us to
a sense of spiritual need.
Any God-fearing father or mother will testify
to that.
Our children bring us to a spiritual need,
and then it turns us to God.
And I can imagine, it must have been
the same with Enoch.
His children brought him to spiritual need, and
he turned to God, and he walked with
God.
It's a good thing that they bring us
to see our own spiritual need.
Hebrews 11, 5.
By faith, Enoch was taken up so that
he should not see death.
And he was not found because God took
him up, for he obtained the witness, before
his being taken up, that he was pleasing
to God.
Without faith, it is impossible to please him.
For he who comes to God must believe
that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of those who seek him.
Enoch was the first man to demonstrate that
you could walk with God even outside Eden.
And that's a tremendous example for us.
Think of that.
He had no example in front of him.
We have many.
But he walked with God.
And it says he walked by feet.
Not by sight.
By feet.
Way back there.
5,000 years ago.
He walked by feet.
And he had this testimony during those 300
years.
Three words.
He pleased God.
That's all.
I'm sure he displeased most of the human
beings around him.
And most of the human beings must have
thought he was a bit of an eccentric
or a heretic or a hard man, always
preaching about judgment and sin and sinners.
But he pleased God.
That's the point.
What an example for us to follow in
the days in which we're living.
He pleased God.
Without faith it is impossible to please him.
We read back in Genesis 5.
And verse 23.
So all the days of Enoch were 365.
And Enoch walked with God.
That's repeated a second time.
Verse 22 once.
Verse 24 a second time.
It's almost as though the Holy Spirit is
repeating it.
Did you hear it when I said it
the first time?
The Holy Spirit is saying You didn't hear
it?
I'll tell you again.
He walked with God.
And Hebrews 11, 5 we saw.
He pleased God.
And he was not.
He was not mean.
He just disappeared.
Like you can tell the Sunday school children,
one day Enoch and God walked together on
a long walk and God said to him,
I think you better come home with me.
And he just took him up with him.
Because he wanted God's presence so much.
He was so heavenly minded that God said,
I think you deserve to be up here
with me.
You have no interest on the things of
the earth.
My brothers and sisters, he did not know
head or tail about the new covenant.
Or about the new and living way.
Or about the old man and the flesh
and the deeds of the body and all
that.
But he walked with God by faith.
And he was so heavenly minded that he
was raptured.
What are we waiting for today?
Also a rapture.
We are also waiting like Enoch to be
taken up when Jesus comes.
But is he going to take everyone?
Enoch is a picture of the bride.
That's going to be a rapture.
We turn to Luke chapter 17 and we
see something there about the rapture.
Luke chapter 17 verse 31 to 36.
On that day, let not the one who
is on the house top, who is good
there in the house, go down to take
them away.
In other words, in the day when Jesus
comes, speaking about verse 30, the day that
the Son of Man is revealed.
On the day the Son of Man comes,
if you are on the roof of your
house, make sure that your heart is not
attached to something down inside the house.
That's the point.
Now we need to understand this.
Supposing you are on the roof of this
building.
Or the roof of your house, let's say.
And Jesus comes.
I don't think any of us would want
to go downstairs.
We'd be ready to go, of course.
All of us would be ready to go.
Nobody would want to go downstairs.
This world is a rotten place in any
case.
The point is not that.
The point is that wherever you are, is
there in your heart a string or perhaps
a rope or a chain that ties you
down to something on this earth that you
value?
Maybe some material thing, some job, something that
you have got, which is valuable to you.
Some gold, something.
Your heart is tied to where your treasure
is.
There will your heart be also.
Even though your body is on the roof
of the house, your heart is downstairs.
That's the point.
Because, Jesus, if you are like that, remember
Lord's wife was 32.
Lord's wife's body was outside Sodom, but her
heart was in Sodom.
That's the point.
That our heart need not be where our
body is.
Our body can sit inside the church and
our heart may be out in Babylon.
That's the point.
I tell you, if you seek to save
your life, you lose it.
To keep his life in this world.
I tell you on that night, verse 34,
this is the rapture, two will be in
one bed.
It doesn't mean two men, it means two
human beings, husband and wife, obviously.
One will be taken because he was heavenly
minded like Enoch and the other, like Mrs.
Enoch, will be left behind.
Exactly like that.
Exactly.
One day the husband is gone.
He walked with God.
That's something we need to think of.
People may have thought he was cranky and
crazy and nut, got a screw loose, or
whatever they may say, but God had a
different opinion and he just took him.
Who was the other person taken up?
Elijah.
He was taken up also in a rapture.
And one thing we can see similar about
Enoch and Elijah, they both preach judgment against
sin.
And the world thought they were crazy.
People opposed them.
The prophets of Baal, the prophets of Babylon
opposed them.
But they walked with God.
And God took them.
Follow Enoch and follow Elijah.
And then we'll be taken up like they
were taken up.
You know, that's something for us to think
about.
We can turn now to Genesis in chapter
5 again.
Verse 25.
Interesting that, as I said, Enoch spoke about
the second coming of Christ.
And that's what we also speak about in
the rapture.
And he was raptured.
He's a very beautiful picture of the church.
300 years of walking with God in the
midst of a family life.
Wonderful.
Wonderful example right at the beginning of Scripture.
Not a man who built a city after
his name or donated a fan or a
chair, but one who walked with God.
And Methuselah, verse 25, lived 187 years and
became the father of Lamech.
Verse 26.
Then Methuselah lived 782 years after he became
the father of Lamech.
And he had other sons and daughters.
And all the days of Methuselah were 969
years.
This was the man, we can say, he
carried debt in his name.
What is his name?
When he dies, the judgment will come.
He had debt in his name.
Methuselah.
And he was the man among all the
children of Adam who lived the longest.
What does that teach us?
God's long suffering.
Shall I let Methuselah die when he's a
hundred?
No.
Give the world a little more time.
200?
No.
A little more time.
300?
400?
500?
600?
962?
He's crossed his grandfather's age now.
No, let him live a little longer.
The fact that Methuselah lived longest is an
indication of God's long suffering with a world
that would not listen to Enoch's preaching of
judgment.
That would not believe what Enoch believed.
That even though God placed a witness right
in the midst of that ungodly generation who
walked with God and prophesied judgment, they wouldn't
listen.
Yet God's long suffering made Methuselah live.
They saw this fantastic thing happening of Enoch
disappearing.
They didn't know what happened.
They couldn't find his body.
I think they must have said some wild
animal must have eaten or they've always got
some rational explanation for these things, the people
in his day.
They were not interested in hearing God.
But God's long suffering carried on.
Let me read a verse to you in
the first chapter of Peter, chapter 3,
verse 20.
It says about those who were disobedient when
the patience of God kept waiting in the
days of Noah.
Remember of Methuselah's 969 years, 600 of those
years Noah was alive.
And the last 120 years of Methuselah's life
Noah was preaching there's going to be a
flood.
There's going to be a flood.
It'll come.
And it says here the patience of God
kept waiting and the living proof of that
patience was Methuselah.
When he died, the judgment will come.
God allows him to live the longest of
all human beings.
That's the significance of Methuselah being the longest
who ever lived.
Now Methuselah also had met Adam.
Adam died when Methuselah was 243 years old.
So you see, Methuselah also heard all about
Adam.
In fact, from creation to the flood it
stretches out between just two human beings, Adam
and Methuselah.
That's all.
Between those two human beings he reached the
flood.
Yeah.
Now we come to verse 28.
Methuselah had a son called Lamech.
And Lamech lived 182 years and became the
father of a son he called his name
Noah.
That was Enoch's great grandson and Methuselah's grandson
and said this one shall give us rest
from our work and from the toil of
our hands arising from the ground which the
Lord has cursed.
How did Lamech know that the Lord had
cursed the ground?
Because Adam had told that to Methuselah and
Methuselah had told that to Lamech that when
I was in Eden God said the ground
is cursed.
It's exact quotation of what God said.
These people knew.
Adam told them everything.
They all knew what happened in creation.
They all knew about God.
Then Lamech lived 595 years and he died
just five years before the flood.
After he became the father of Noah and
he had other sons and daughters and he
was 777 when he died and Noah was
500 years old.
Noah became the father of Shem, Ham and
Japheth.
We read about Noah in the next chapter.
What do we see in this chapter?
One significant thing.
And he died, and he died, and he
died, and he died, and he died, and
he died, and he died and then suddenly
all of a sudden one man he didn't
die.
He went up without dying.
It's a wonderful chapter.
I don't think there's another chapter in the
Bible which is full of this phrase, and
he died, and he died, and he died,
and he died, and he died.
In the middle of that one chapter goes
up without dying.
That is the church.
In the midst of a world surrounded by
death.
Our hope is to be taken up if
we walk with God like Enoch.