The Men Of God Before The Flood

THE MEN OF GOD BEFORE THE FLOOD

TEXT - Gen. 5: 1 - 8, 19 - 32

INTRO. - God has had his men in every age. God will not leave

this world without a witness to himself. Here in Gen. 5 we

see the history of those who loved God from Adam to the

flood. The flood came when the godly line of Seth found here

in Gen. 5 began to mix with the ungodly line of Cain found in

Gen. 4: 16 - 24. The cause of the flood is given in Gen. 6: 1

- 3. God’s people, the salt of the earth who were the moral

and spiritual preservative against sin, began to mix with the

world and lost their power and purpose. God says "as it was

in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the coming

of the Son of Man" so we will see this mixing repeated in the

last days.

As God’s people begin to allow the world to set their

standards of what is right and wrong, dress, habits, and

morals rather than allow the Word of God to set them we step

a little closer to the same conditions that brought the

flood.

Thank God that there are still a few people who love and

serve Him. Gen. 5 lists the names of ten men from Adam to the

flood who got right with God and lived for him during those

dark days. The men list in Gen. 5 were godly for several

reasons.

1. They are separated from those listed in Gen.4 where

we find the godless line of Cain.

2. The names of these ten men have godly meanings.

3. Five of these men are mentioned with a bit of detail

and all said of them says they were godly.

LET US LOOK BRIEFLY AT FIVE OF THESE MEN AND SEE THE MESSAGE

THAT GOD HAS FOR US.

I. ADAM -- WHEN I THINK OF ADAM I THINK OF DEATH - Gen. 5:1-2

I Cor. 15:22 says,"...in Adam all die". Gen. 5 is one

of the saddest chapters in the Bible. It is like walking

through a cemetery and reading the names on the tombstones.

Death is the end of the sad story of sin. God told Adam that

in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Adam ate and Adam died. His family died. We are by birth and

by nature children of Adam. Seth was born in the image and

likeness of his father Adam and Adam died (5:5), and Seth

died (5:8), and we will die.

This chapter teaches me the great truth that no matter

how long you live you are going to die. This chapter also

teaches the truth that no matter how long you live. you will

be in eternity a lot longer than you were here in time.

Notice vs. 5, 8, 11, 14, ... 27. Here we find people who

lived many years and yet they died. The oldest lived almost a

thousand years and yet he has been in eternity for at least

five thousand years and will be there forever.

The one sin of Adam (they both had the same name

according to Gen.5:2 until Adam the man called Adam the

female Eve) led to the deaths of all these others. See James

1:15. When I think of Adam I think of death.

II. SETH -- WHEN I THINK OF SETH I THINK OF THE INFLUENCE OF

A GODLY MAN - Gen. 5: 3 - 7

Gen. 4:26 shows the influence of Seth upon his son. We often

fail to realize the influence of a man upon his family for

God or against God. We see a genealogy here that is like a

iron chain with one link influencing the next. One break

would have affected the whole chain. Because of the godliness

of Seth he influenced his descendents who influenced their

descendents. If Seth had become like Cain his brother, there

would not have been men like Enoch and Noah years later.

ILL.- I had the privilege to pastor a rural church that was

over 120 years old. This church was unique in that it

had several generations of families attending. I was

surprised to realize that families where the parents

were faithful to all the services of the church had an

influence over the years on their children’s families

and their grandchildren’s families to do likewise.

Families who attended only Sunday morning services or

were irregular in their attendance seemed to reproduce

these habits in the families of their children and

grandchildren. There were exceptions to the rule but

they were few. When I think of Seth I think of the

influence of a man upon his family.