As preached by Timothy O'Day.
How can you have hope outside of the garden?
1) By faith
2) By grasping God's mercy in the midst of God's judgment
3) By looking to God's righteous servant
Hope Outside of the Garden
Genesis 5:1-6:8
June 18, 2023
As we look at Genesis 5:1-6:8, we see a broken world. We see a world that is not as it is supposed to be. These verses shows us a world in which death and sin reign, but it also shows us that we need not despair. Genesis 5:1-6:8 paints a horrid picture of the world but also lays out the reason how you can have unshakable hope of joy, peace, and life in the midst of that world. As you consider our world, you see death and sin everywhere and, at times, perhaps you even fall into despair. Genesis 5:1-6:8 is a passage that you need to cling to in order to see how and why you should not despair but have hope.
You can have hope in a broken world
1. By faith. Genesis 5:1-32 shows us the faith in God means…
• Experiencing future blessings in the present (5:21-24).
๏ Enoch walks with God and escapes death
๏ As the 7th in genealogy, he is a sign that the line of faith does not ultimately end in death but life.
• Looking beyond present circumstances to God’s promise (5:29).
๏ Lamech remembered the promise of Gen 3:15
๏ Lamech trusted and did not demand; he saw himself as part of a community and not just an individual.
2. By grasping God’s mercy in the midst of his judgment.
• Genesis 1-8 tells us what is happening in the world as the genealogies of Genesis 4 and 5 unfold: sin is spreading
• The sin of Adam and Eve is now universal: God’s boundaries are being disregarded and creation destroyed.
• 6:1-8 backtracks and summarizes what is happening while the genealogies at the end of chapter four and all that are in chapter 5 are taking place.
๏ Population is growing, 6:1 (men began to multiply)
๏ As population grows, so does sin (ref to Gen 3:6, saw, attracted, took), breaking God’s patterns in creation.
• God rightly brings judge and provides a period of mercy (6:3)
• This mercy is surprising because sin is intense, located in man, and spreading (6:5)
• God is more grieved by your sin than you are; he is more committed to justice than you are.
3. By looking to his righteous servant
• We are helpless in our sin (6:1-7)
• But God provides a righteous servant through whom mercy for the whole world will be provided (6:8)
• Noah was not sinless, as we will see. But he stands out in his generation as a righteous man. Like Enoch, “Noah walked with God” (6:9).
• When those in Noah’s generation gathered to him, they were preserved through God’s judgment.
• Noah is a foreshadow of the true promised seed of the woman, Jesus. One the cross, Jesus passed through the judgment of God. The flood of God’s wrath was poured on him. And now, if you unite with him by faith, you will be preserved through that judgment.