Genesis: The Flood is Inevitable

I want to welcome you to Venture Church. If you

don't know who I am, I'm Brandon. I'm the lead

pastor of the church. Want to take a moment welcome

all of those that are watching online and any that

may be listening to this podcast and months to come.

Appreciate you coming. You've joined us smack dab in the

middle of a series through the Book of Genesis. Now

I tell you that for two reasons. Number one, not

so that you're anxious and think, oh no, I miss

the other ones.

I'm going to be behind.

Every message stands on its own, but that is not

an excuse for you to not go back and listen

to the other messages in the podcast. Here's the thing

I'll promise you. You will learn the Bible and you

will be reminded how much God loves you, because you'll

be reminded that God's story of redemption began at creation,

that God had a plan for my redemption, your redemption,

all of ours from the very beginning.

It is a story of.

God's depth of great love that He has for you

and I and encourage you to go back listen to

those messages, grab your bibles, turn to Genesis chapter four.

I'm actually gonna study chapter five today, and I want

to warn you up front. I'm taking off my preacher hat,

taking off my evangelist hat, and I'm putting on my

doctor Brandon hat today. So today you better come with

your brains fully engaged, because I am going to teach

you a passage of scripture that most ministers skip when

they teach through Genesis. So Genesis chapter four, verse twenty

five says Adam made love to his wife again, and

she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying,

God has granted me another child in place of Abel

since Cain killed him. He also had a son, and

he named him Enosh. At that time, people begin to

call on the name of the Lord. I want to

ask everyone to buy your heads, close your eyes. I

want you to repeat this prayer after me. Everyone say,

Dear Jesus, speak to my heart, change my life in

Jesus' name.

Amen.

So to remind you where we are in the story,

Adam and Eve commit the original sin. They follow up

the original sin with the original blame shifting. Adam blames

his wife, his wife blames the devil. As a result,

there was a curse that was on the land, and

then they had sons, canaan Abel. So we follow up

the original sin now with the very first murder that

takes place. And I talk to you about this last week,

and I said, the story of Cain and Abel is

more than just about sin and its consequences.

If you really.

Study the story of Cain and Abel, it's actually about

God's mercy, God's patience.

That you will see that God goes to extraordinary extent.

To wait for you and I to get to the

point where we will confess and eventually repent, because He

doesn't desire that any parish, but everybody come to eternal life,

like he.

Wants a relationship with you.

But as a result, Cain's punishment was the ground that

he worked on. And Cain was a farmer, it was cursed.

Could you imagine being a farmer and every time you

plow land and you harvest land, it's cursed. It doesn't

produce a crop. Then Cain was banished away from his family.

The Bible says that for the rest of his life

he would live as a restless wanderer, away from his

friend's family.

He eventually ends up in the land of Nod.

The Bible tells us that Cain started having children and

eventually he establishes a city there and he names the

city after one of his kids, Enoch. So you got

to get this impression. So you have Adam and Eve,

and you have the line of Cain. And now we're

told that Adam and Eve, after Cain and Abel Abel dies,

Cain is banished, they finally have another son and his

name is Seth. And then this text tells us that

Seth had a son whose name was Enosh. So again

you're going this way for Cain, and then you're going

this way for the lineage of Seth. Seth has Enosh.

What we're told at the time of Enosh this that

at that time people began to call on the name

of the Lord. Now, when you first hear that, it

sounds good. It sounds like, all right, people are calling

on the name of the Lord. So my question for

you is this, if that is truly the moment when

people are calling on the name of the Lord, Well,

what about Adam. Did Adam not call.

On the name of the Lord?

What about Abel? Did Abel not call in the name

of the Lord? Did Seth not call on the.

Name of the Lord?

You see, this particular passage is problematic because of a

translation issue, a translation from Hebrew to English. If you

were to actually study this from a Jewish perspective, many

Jewish scholars, in fact, most Jewish scholars believe that that

is a translation error, that it should actually be translator

not called on the name of the Lord, but the

people actually began to profane the name of the Lord.

The Unclists translation, which is the preferred Jewish translation of

the Old Testament into English, says man desisted.

From praying in the name of the Lord.

The Targamum of Jonathan, which is another rabbinical source, says

that they surnamed their idols in the name of the Lord.

In other words, at this moment when in the period

of Enosh, this is the moment.

That apostasy began.

This is the moment where people turned their backs on God.

Up until now, they were still sinners, but they observed

the Lord. It was the time of Enosh where idolatry.

And apostasy began.

Apostasy is the or renunciation of a belief.

This is when things get bad.

It gets so bad that we're told about it in

Genesis chapter six, verse five, it said the Lord saw

how great the wickedness of the human race had become

on the earth, that every inclination of the thoughts of

the human heart was evil all the time. In other words,

every human impulse was bad. That this is when things

got rough. Goes on, and it says the Lord regretted

that he'd ever made human beings on the earth, and

his heart was deeply troubled. Other translations say his heart

was saddened. If you go to the end of that passage,

it actually says that God regrets make looking human beings.

We know what happens next. The end result of this

is the flood. The flood is coming. You may be

here and you have zero church experience at all. You

know the story of the flood like you might have

been raised in church.

You've heard the story of the flood.

We all know Noah in the arc, and the flood

is coming. This passage reminds us that God is about

to destroy the world, but he's not going to do

it out of anger.

He's actually doing it out of sadness.

The interesting thing is pigeonholed in there between the end

of Genesis four and kind of this revelation about how

bad the world had become. In Genesis six is Genesis five.

It is seen as the genealogy of Adam. It's ten generations.

It goes from Adam all the way to Noah.

I have a question for you.

I'm gonna ask a question that I bet you've never

thought before. But when I ask you this question, you're

gonna think.

That's a really good question. I wonder why. Here's the question.

Why did God give us the genealogy? If he was

inevitably gonna send a flood. If God is gonna wipe

out everyone other than Noah and his kids, why give

us the genealogy?

Why does that matter?

There's a verse in Proverbs that says it is the

glory of God to conceal a matter, to search out

a matter is the glory of kings. In other words,

sometimes in scripture you.

Need to ask why.

Because God did not put anything, allow anything in the

Bible that he didn't have a purpose for. So even

though He's gonna wipe out the world and start again

at the end of the flood, this genealogy in Genesis

five has a purpose. There's something that you and I

should be looking for and trying to find in this genealogy.

In fact, I believe there is a.

Hint to something in this genealogy, that there is something vital,

very important that is concealed in this genealogy. And if

you look closely at this genealogy, you will see God's

plan of redemption was not a knee jerk reaction to

Adam's sin, that God had carefully thought this out. That

this genealogy is another reminder of God's mercy.

And I shared with you last week what is mercy.

God's mercy is he is patience in action. It's not

that God is slow in keeping his promises.

Some understand slowness. No, he's patient with you.

And I not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to

come to repentance.

I believe that.

This genealogy is a full illustration of God's patience and action.

Have you put on your thinking caps? Now? Are you

with me? I said, are you with me? All right?

So let's look at this genealogy.

Thankfully, I have an amazing media team and they're helping me.

So pop it up.

This is the genealogy of the descendants of Adam.

Some of you are like, oh no, So we start with.

Adam, So we know that Adam and Eve had Canaan Abel.

Abel was killed, Caine was banished. But eventually, when Adam

was one hundred and thirty years old, he had another son,

a guy by the name of Seth. Adam then lived

to be nine hundred and thirty whoa.

Well.

Eventually, Seth, when he's one hundred and five years old,

he has Enosh.

Now we already read about Enosh.

We know that it was the time of Enosh when

apostasy came into the world. Seth lived to be nine

hundred and twelve, not quite as old as Dad, but

he lived a long way. Enosh when he was ninety

had keenan Enosh. The Tible tells us had lots of

sons and daughters. So up and down this genealogy, they're

having lots of sons and daughters. They're having kids, their

kids are having kids, so they're having grandkids, great grandkids,

great great grandkids.

They are populating the world.

At the same time that is happening, the lineage of

Cain is also populating the world.

I shared with you.

Last week that when Cain and Abel that story took place.

Many scholars believe that there is already about one hundred

thousand people in the world at the time of Keenan.

There's now close to a million people that are living

in the world. Enosh, well, he lives to be a

nine hundred and five. This is getting scared. Life expectancy

is getting shorter. They're only living to be nine hundred

and five.

Uh, Keenan has a kid at seventy. Something's going on.

This is like the equivalent of like a teen pregnancy

here in medieval times.

Keenan has a son at the age of seventy whose

name is Mahaliel.

Keenan lives to be nine hundred and ten.

Well, Mahaliel, he has a kid when he's sixty five,

shame on him.

And his son's name was Jared.

I don't know why that's funny, but people always laugh

every service. Mahaliel he lives to be eight hundred and

ninety five. Interesting thing about Jared Ish Jared decided he

wanted to enjoy his hundreds, you know, with his wife,

so they don't have a son until they're one hundred

and sixty two. And his son's name is Enoch. Interesting

thing about Jared. He lived to be nine hundred and

sixty two years old.

He is set the Guinness Book.

Of World Records for living the longest life.

He outlived his great great great great grandpa.

Adam nine one hundred and sixty two years old.

He was this close to one thousand, almost.

But he has a son by the name of Enoch.

This is when it gets interesting.

Enoch is sixty five years old when he has a

son whose name is Methuselah. Something happened to Enoch when

he gave When he and his wife gave birth to Methuselah,

he had an encounter with God. He had a revival.

If apostasy started with Enosh, by the time it got

to Enoch, the world was bad. But something happened to

Enoch that changed everything.

Here's what the Bible tells us about Enoch.

It says when Enoch was sixty five, he became the

father of Methuselah.

Then it goes down and.

It said Enoch walked faithfully with God for three hundred years,

and he had other sons and daughters. Enoch has this

personal revival when his son is born.

He has this encounter with God.

We're told later on that Enoch walked faithfully with God.

Then he was no more because God took him away.

So here's a Bible trivia question. Who was the first

person to never experience death?

It was Enoch. Enoch was raptured.

Enoch was taken away at the ripe old age of

three hundred and sixty five. The New Testament talks about Enoch.

The author of Hebrews says 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.

Listen to this, for before he was taken he was

commended as one who pleased God. Oh that that would

be our testimony. I mean, if there's anything that's put

on your tombstone, would it be that he pleased God?

That she please God. The King James describes.

It this way. It says he had a testimony that

he pleased God.

Some of you are like, I always feel bad that

I don't have like a Dave liam cr testimony. Man,

I just got born, start going to church, started faithfully

serving Jesus, and that's been that way my whole life.

I don't have that testimony. You're like Enoch, Your testimony

is I just please God with my life. I just

walked faithfully with God. I didn't have to learn all

the mistakes to figure out what was the right way.

I just faithfully served God. That was Enoch's testimony. The

interesting thing about Enoch is the oldest prophetic words in

the Bible come from Enoch. There is an apocalyptic book

called the Book of Enoch. No, this book was ultimately

determined not to be in the Bible, but most scholars

believe there's lots of good information in the Book of Enoch.

There's lots of historical information shares with us a lot

about what was taking place at this point in history,

and there's lots of good that comes from it. And

it is quoted. The Book of Enoch is quoted in

the New Testament. It's quoted by Jude. Jude is the

second to the last book in the Bible.

It's one chapter. It's right before Revelation.

Jude was the brother of Jesus and he was His

epistle is about this period. And he starts off in

verse eleven of his epistle by saying evil people have

taken the way of Cain, so he's reflecting on this timeline.

And then in verse fourteen he quotes Enoch. Remember at

sixty five, Enoch has this encounter with God. He gets

visions and dreams and words from.

God, and he begins to write them down.

Verse fourteen from Jude in the New Testament, Enoch the

seventh from Adam prophesied about them. See the Lord is

coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to

judge everyone. Who is Enoch talking about. Enoch is talking

about Jesus. Enoch is literally prophesying not the first time

Jesus comes, but the second coming of Jesus. He is

prophesying the second coming of Jesus before Jesus was born.

He is prophesying the second coming of Jesus before the

plow talk about somebody who had an encounter with God.

So Enoch has this incredible encounter with God. It's believed

that Enoch knew.

God's judgment was coming.

Scholars believe, like this is rabbinical history here, that Enoch

believed that as long as his son was alive, God

would hold off his judgment. Remember, I said, this is

an example of God's mercy. In God's mercy is his

patience and action. That God is waiting.

He's not slow in passing judgment.

He's stopping it for a while because he wants you

and I to have every possible opportunity to confess and

repent and beat right with him. And Enoch believe that

as long as my son Methuselah is alive, God is

gonna hold off judgment. Mathusel eventually has a son at

one hundred and eighty seven years old. His name is

lamec Laimack eventually has a son.

He is how many years old? One hundred and eighty two.

In.

His son's name is Noah. Methuselah lives to.

Be nine hundred and sixty nine years old. He breaks

his great great Grandpa's record. He is now the longest

living person ever. That is a Bible trivia question. Who

lived longer than anyone else? Mathuselah nine hundred and sixty

nine years old. For those of you that are good

at math, you add these two numbers together, it equals

three hundred and sixty nine. You will notice Matthuselah, after

Noah was born, lived six hundred more years and then

he died. You know what happened the year Matthuselah died.

The flood came Enoch believed that God would hold off

judgment as long as my son was alive. Methuselah's life

is literally a prophecy that the flood is coming. Interestingly,

let me explain to you what the name Methuselah means.

So back then Hebrew names had meaning.

They would pray through and fast and wait before they

named their sons. Nowadays, our parents name us because the

name sounds good with.

The last name.

It's not a lot of extraordinary thought put into it.

I always pick on my parents about my name Brandon.

I mean, my dad is basically Italian, my mom grew

up in Montana, and my name is Brandon.

Try to figure that one out.

I think my parents just put a bunch of names

in a hat, close their eyes, picked it out, and

there came Brandon. And Uh, so I have an Irish

first name, an English last name, and I look, Italian.

World is confusing. Uh.

When I finally got saved in high school, people begin

to tell me what my name meant. They said, your

name Brandon means light on a hill. It's like your

parents knew you were gonna be a preacher someday, A

light on a hill.

And I like my parents did not name me Brandon

because it meant light on a hill when I was born.

Me being a preacher, what's the furthest thing from anyone's mind.

Trust me.

But back then your name meant something. Here's what the

name Methuselah means. The first half, the meth portion, means death.

It's a word that's used over and over again in

the Old Testament. The last half of Methuselah's name slock.

It means to bring.

That word is also used over and over again in

the Old Testament. In other words, Methuselah's name means his

death shall bring.

Enoch believed that God would hold off.

Judgment as long as Methuselah was alive. Methuselah's life was

a prophecy, a prophecy of God's mercy. His mercy is

God withholding judgment because He gives every possible opportunity for

you and I to confess and repent. Nine hundred and

sixty nine years old, he dies, and the flood comes,

judgment comes. Enoch prophesied the second coming of Jesus. But

I think there's another message inside the genealogy that I

want to point out. So let's talk about what all

these Hebrew names mean. The name Adam very simply means man.

The name Seth in Hebrew means appointed. Makes a lot

of sense if you had just lost your two sons

Canaan Abel, when you eventually had a son, you would

name him something like appointed, because it would have great

significance to you because there was still hope. But remember

I told you when Enosh came, apostasy was in the world,

and Enosh's name means mortal. I mean, this is when

you realize we're just humans, and as humans, we are

capable of really stupid things.

By the time Keenan was born, the world was hurting,

and so Keenan's name means sorrow.

When Keenan had his son, Mahalalel, I believe maybe there's

a hint of hope. Mahalialel's name means the blessed One. Uh.

Scholars will actually say it means.

The blessed God, because the last two letters of Mahalalel's

name El means God. But I'm for the sake of

this conversation using the blessed one. And then he has Jared,

and Jared's name means shall come down.

Then Enoch is born. And Enoch's name means.

Teaching, actually means like proclaiming, but it's an educational name.

It's someone that would exhort. I'm using the word teaching.

And we already know that Mathusela's name means his.

Death shall bring Lamic's name.

You'll probably notice the beginning portion, and you can think

of the book lamin Hatians.

Lammik's name means despairing.

We're actually told in Genesis what Noah's name means. In

verse twenty nine of chapter five. It says he named

him Noah and said he will comfort us in the

labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the

ground the Lord has cursed. So Noah's name, very clearly

from the text, means comfort and rest. Let's put this together.

Maybe there's a hint to something. Possibly man is appointed

mortal sorrow, but the blessed.

One shall come down, teaching that his death shall bring

the despairing comfort and re Yes, why.

Why would God.

Stick the genealogy in chapter five to give us a

hint Hope was coming?

Jesus is coming.

You want an example of God's patience and action. Ten

generations of mercy before he sends the flood, and in

these ten generations there is a prophecy of the second

coming of Jesus, the Messiah, coming to our rescue. But

the genealogy itself is another prophetic word that the Messiah

is coming. The genealogy of Genesis five gives us a.

Clue to Jesus.

Do you know how long God has been planning your redemption?

Did you know that you are not here by accident?

This might be the very first time that you've ever

been to church. Did you know that.

God knew you would be here on this Sunday?

Before creation?

He had you in mind from the moment all of

this began. God was planning your redemption because he knew

there had come a moment.

Where Jesus would cross your path.

And when Jesus crosses your path, everything can change. Paul

said in Epiate Ephesians won four. He said, God chose

us in him before the creation of the world. When

did God start coming to your rescue at the very beginning?

If you need a hint at how much God loves you,

there it is. I want to ask everyone to buy

your heads and close your eyes. It's not an accident

that you were here. God knew you'd be here. He

knew since the creation of the world, that you would

be here, and that I would describe this genealogy and

how it describes Jesus coming. If you were here and

you do not know Jesus, I want to give you

an opportunity to make the greatest decision I'll ever.

Make in your life, and that is surrendering your life

to Jesus.

So what I'm gonna do is, I'm just going to

count to three, and when I say three, I want

you to raise your hand.

But there's some of you here. You've gone to church,

you've prayed prayers.

But if you were completely honest to this question, are

you in a right.

Relationship with Jesus? You'd answer that.

Maybe some of you would say I'm not man, I

am not living the way that I should, and others

of you might say I'm not sure. But if you

were here today and you want to leave this place

knowing you are right with Jesus, when I count to three,

I want you to raise your hand two. So if

you hear you do not know Jesus, but you want

to or you want to leave this place, knowing Brandon,

I want to be right with Jesus.

When I say three, I want you to raise your hand.

Here I go one, two, raise your hands. Now three. Awesome,

you can put them down. Can I have everybody stand up?

Everybody stand up. I'm going to ask everyone in this

place to repeat a prayer after me. If you're new

to venture many of our services, this is how we

end our service, and all this is is a prayer

of repentance. This is your opportunity to confess who you were,

who you are and invite Jesus to forgive you come

into your life. This is literally your opportunity to confess

and repent. And I ask everyone to pray this prayer

because I want those that are praying it for the

first time to know they're not alone. That when you

pray this prayer, you are praying this with family. That

we are all in this together, every one of us.

There's been a point in our life where we've had

this surrender our life to Jesus and pray this prayer.

So we do this together. So if you pray.

This and you mean this, you can leave this place

knowing I'm right with Jesus. So I want to ask

everyone to buy your heads. I want you to repeat

this prayer after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus, I stand

before you today.

I admit I've messed up. I've made mistakes.

But today I ask you to forgive me, and I

invite you to come into my life and to change me.

I choose from this day forward to serve you with

my life.

Thank you for forgiving me and for saving me. In

Jesus' name