From v.16 to v.24 of chapter 4 we have a list of the descendants of Cain. They were very clever.
They developed into farmers, musicians, craftsman in iron and bronze, and built a city. They also were polygamists.
They were numerous but ungodly. They shut God out of their lives.
Their wickedness so increased that God sent the judgment of the flood and destroyed them.
In 4:25 we are introduced to the line of Seth.
This was the godly seed and took the place of Abel, whom Cain murdered.
After the birth of Seth’s first son (v.26) says that “men began to call on the name of the Lord.”
Two sentences in the opening verses of chapter 5 need to be carefully compared and contrasted.
v.1—“In the likeness of God made/created He him.”
By sin Adam lost the image of God and became corrupt in His nature—therefore, a fallen parent could only produce a fallen child.
See v.3—Seth was born in the likeness of his sinful father, Adam. Noah was the direct descendent of Seth and really is the father of us all. Since he was able to transmit to us only the fallen nature he had himself received from Seth, we have here authenticated the doctrines of universal depravity.
Every living person in the world is a fallen creature. We are the fallen offspring of a fallen parent, we were all born in the image and likeness of a corrupt and sinful father. The Psalmist says, “Born in sin.”
“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death has passed upon all men, for all have sinned”—Romans 3:23; 6:23.
Death is the result of sin.
Notice how this solemn truth is verified in chapter 5.
Eight times we read “And he died.”
In verses 21-24 we have a notable exception.
Enoch, the seventh from Adam did not die. He was translated without seeing death.
Let us study the character of this man Enoch.
“He walked with God”—v.24. “He pleased God”—Hebrews 11:5.
He commenced to walk with God after the birth of Methuselah. Why?
This is a remarkable testimony—Enoch lived in a very wicked age, yet he was in accord with God’s will in thought, word, and deed.
Enoch walked with God for 300 years. He lived a normal life. This walk was consistent—the fellowship and communion with God was constant and he lived in the immediate presence of God.
The first thing implied in Enoch’s walk with God is reconciliation. Amos 3:3—“How can two walk together except they be agreed?”
Secondly, correspondency of nature. Light has no communion with darkness.
Thirdly, to walk with God implies moral fitness.
Fourthly, to walk with God implies a surrendered will.
Fifthly, to walk with God implies spiritual communion.
Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah.
Why did the birth of his son cause him to walk with God?
1. The revelation of judgment to come.
2. The promise of his translation.
It was exceedingly difficult for Enoch to walk with God.
Describe some of the conditions—wickedness, evil, filth, corruption; eating, drinking, marrying, given in marriage. It was so evil that “God was sorry he had made man.”
It is difficult for anyone today to walk with God, but not an impossibility.
This is an age of compromise, apostasy, departing from the truth. Today, the bars are down, the “old paths” are despised; separation from the world in as outdated doctrine.
“Standing for the faith” is branded as bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
The spirit of ecumenicism and compromise, with the inevitable surrender of the precious fundamental doctrines, is gaining momentum every day.
To be an Enoch in these circumstances is difficult indeed.
Walking means progress and as Enoch walked and communed with God, He revealed His plan of judgment.
The expectation of imminent judgment so stirred the heart of Enoch that he began to preach.
Jude tells us that he preached against this wickedness, and that judgment was coming.
His was a message of judgment.
He told them of the coming flood—his prophecies went far beyond that “Behold the Lord cometh”—Jude 14.
He will come with ten thousand of His angels to execute judgment.
It would seem also that at the birth of Methuselah God revealed to Enoch the fact of his translation.
“By faith Enoch was translated”—Hebrews 11:5.
Faith in what? Surely the Word of God!
Enoch’s translation is a type of the rapture of the Church.
The most spectacular of all interplanetary journeys is yet to come. There will be a mass launching of millions of believers. 1 Thessalonians 16:17.
Free from the limitation of our mortal bodies, born again believers, billions of them will rise in a vast cloud to meet the Lord.
Oh what joy for those who will participate in the great event.
Beloved friends it is later than we think—the “countdown” is approaching zero.
One cannot possibly describe the thrill of suddenly being transformed and being made free from earthly limitations ad in perfect, redeemed, deathless, painless, sinless bodies rising to meet our precious Savior in the air.