Enoch: walking with God

I'd like to look at the little epistle of Jude for a few moments. The remainder of this morning meeting. I'm thankful to be here.

Let's see all that have come along. I'm thankful for what we've heard already and I trust what's on my heart this morning is certainly in keeping with what we've heard already. The epistle of Jude and we'll read it verse 14.

And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying, behold the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints. Before I go any farther what is on my heart today, three simple points about this man named Enoch that I've been appreciating enjoying and trust that it will affect my life anyway more and more. But I want to speak about Job's manner of life.

I want to speak about his message that he had and I also would like to speak about his mysterious disappearance. We can certainly draw some parallels and appreciate some of these truths from these this very precious Old Testament Saint. He speaks about behold the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Hebrews chapter 11. Three times Enoch is mentioned in the New Testament only looking at the two of them. The other one is in Luke chapter 3 and you can look that up for yourself.

I think it was Luke chapter 3 anyway. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 5. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. We're hearing about fruit bearing this morning and a lack of hearing about the coming of the Lord Jesus.

You know it's kind of touched me because when I was early on in my Christian experience every conference I go to it ended at the end of the conference you always heard a word on the coming of the Lord Jesus and sad to say I just don't hear it as much as we used to. Of course I don't get to conferences like I used to either but what a precious truth to be able to be occupied with the coming of the Lord Jesus. Enoch is certainly a picture of that.

So he had this testimony that he pleased God that but without faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those them that diligently seek him. Now back to Genesis chapter 5 please. Our final lived on hundred and sixty and two years and he begat Enoch and Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years and begat sons and daughters and all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty and two years and he died and Enoch lived sixty and five years and begat Methuselah and Enoch walked with God.

I want to speak about walking with God and pleasing God and his manner of life. Walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years and begat sons and daughters and all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty five years and Enoch walked with God and he was not been suggested in any way in Hebrews 11 was not found for God took him. Lovely picture once again that day when every one of us is a child of God are going to be caught up snatched up to be forever with our Lord in the air sometimes I think nothing else seems worth a thought but it's precious as a precious picture here and there's some precious truths that I've been appreciating about Enoch that has struck me very much.

We get started here and I noticed here that he walked with God. I want to just express something here that when it comes to God revealing himself he reveals himself many times in his name and he tells us many precious truths. In Genesis 1 and 1 we start right out for in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

That word God is Elohim. It's simply telling us about his existence and he is triune in person and power. We come to Genesis chapter 2 and 4 we get a little different term of God.

We have the Lord God or Jehovah God and that's telling us a little bit more about God and that's very interesting because he tells us in his title there that he is the one that was and is and always shall be. We learn a little bit more of his character as it develops on through the scriptures. But it was a very interesting thing to my heart as I was looking at the word of God that when we come here to Genesis chapter 5 and where we have that he walked with God, that's the first time that is Mr. Newberry points out that he walked with the God.

Now that what touched me about that is that he was living in a day when things were deteriorating very quickly and he was going to get a message from God about a coming judgment and when things were deteriorating I thought it was very interesting that God chose here to put in his word the first time that article that points out he is the God. I thought no, isn't that interesting. I thought look around the way the world is today and I think it's very important that we understand that if we're going to walk with God we want to walk with the God, the God of heaven, the God of this Bible.

We want to walk with harmony with the one that has revealed himself to us in salvation in and through the work and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You say now why do I say that? Because I'm afraid today that we are surrounded with a lot of people that have a God of their own imagination. That's not the God of the Bible, a God of their own devisings, a God of their own desires rather than the God of the Bible.

But one thing that touched me about Enoch in his day, he walked with the God. Now I want to notice several times in the scriptures because that's pointed out as our God is a true God. If you look back in 2nd Chronicles you have Azariah and he spoke about how that Israel had departed from the true God.

If we come to Jeremiah chapter 10, Jeremiah speaks about the true God as a living God, living and true God. Even the Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 17 when he addresses the Father in heaven and he speaks about when he was praying for his own, he speaks about how that they may know thee the true and the living God. And when we come to 1st Thessalonians, we also read about the Thessalonians when they were saved and they were taking the message out, they had turned to God to serve the true and the living God.

And then again in 1st John chapter 5 verse 20, John speaks about knowing the true God in eternal life and his son Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Now there's something precious about knowing the true God and every one of us have been saved by the matchless grace of God to be able to live in an appreciation and in harmony with the revealed will of God in our lives such as Enoch did. Now something else I wanted to notice here that spoke to my soul because also Mr. Newberry has in his margin that he walked habitually with God.

It was a habit of his life. It was a manner of his life. I thought that was very interesting because as you go down through chapter 5, it says that so-and-so lived so long and they died and they lived so long and they died.

And I'm sure they all served God in some matter, shape, way or form in their experience before God. But I also was appreciating the fact that Enoch was pointed out as one that was walking habitually with God. Kind of suggests something very much to my own heart.

Am I always walking with God or sometimes am I deviating from the course that maybe God has to set out for me? You know, our hearts get challenged when we see a man that had walked habitually with God for 300 years and it doesn't appear that he ever deviated from walking habitually with God. It's not just one where it's convenient. Sometimes today it just seems like it doesn't take anything that we're easy to move the things of God to the side and we can be occupied with other things.

We get a little bellyache and we don't feel like going to meeting and whatever else. We find it easy to set the things of God aside. But here's a man, his name was Enoch, and he walked habitually with God.

There's something precious about that. I don't know what our habits are. I don't know anybody here as far as individuals, too many anyway, but I know sometimes that it challenges my own heart if I'm really moving habitually in the sense of walking with God.

300 years it certainly shows that his consistency anyway. But I want to speak about when this walk began because this is interesting. Because his walk began with God when he was 65 years old.

I'm 66 so it's never too late I guess. But here is a man and he's 65 years old and all of a sudden his life is marked out by a starting point when he started walking with God. That's a very instructive.

Now what happened at that time? Now I know there's those here and I've preached to myself that maybe he got saved then. Well that could be. That could very well be.

Maybe he did get saved there. I'm not sure. I'll leave that with others but it's certainly a lovely application if it isn't.

There's another reason why he may have started walking with God when he was 65. He had a son then. He begat a son whom he called Methuselah.

And maybe somebody might say well maybe his parental responsibilities came to the forefront and all of a sudden he decides he's going to walk for God. He's got a child now. Well that's a good reason too.

But I think there's something a little different here than that in my own mind anyway. And if you don't agree, I apologize for that. But I was appreciating something else here.

You know see Enoch's name and his message that he had gotten from God when he named his son Methuselah. His son Methuselah means from what I understand that when Methuselah's dead there was going to be a deluge that was going to come. There was going to be a great event that was going to take place and when the judgment was going to fall upon this earth and he named his son Methuselah because he obviously had a message from God.

A message of God that was very important. And there was a judgment that was going to come. And after Methuselah was to be taken off the scene this judgment was going to take place.

And I link two things here because Enoch's name means initiated. It also has another thought too. I can't remember what it was but anyway the idea of what I was linking up was consecration.

It was a day when it became important to him to live for God. Two things. He got a message from God that spoke to him.

It affected him in such a way that he named his son and it changed his ministry. It changed his way of life. And what I would suggest here is it was a day when he was consecrated before God.

You know that's the truth of Romans chapter 12 about laying one's life on the altar. Here's a man that was marked out picture anyway as a man that had his life upon the altar for God. Here's a man that he was not being conformed to this world any longer but he was transformed by the renewing of his mind at this event in his life.

Here's a man that was going to move on now for the God. The God. And his life was going to be a walk with him.

It was going to be in harmony with the God. I look at this here and I see that when he named his name Methuselah he named it in view of that message that he heard. I don't know about you but I can remember back a day when I was sitting in a, it was not quite this large of a conference but it was an all day meeting down in Manchester when God spoke to my heart.

And even in all my failures I knew right then God had spoken to my soul that day and I thought there's really nothing else worth living for in this world other than living for God. Going in for the things of God. Even in our failures in that, that was the heart that I had by hearing this message.

God had affected my life by a message from himself through a brother that had gotten up on the platform and delivered a message such as I have upon my heart this day. But here, not only did his walk began there when he was 65 years but he had this testimony in Hebrews, in the book of Hebrews. We learn a lot here because it says he walked with God, not only did he walk with God but he pleased God.

Isn't that precious? A man that is walking with God can't do anything else but please God. Here's a man now he's walking with God and when he's walking with God he's going to please God. We read there in Hebrews about how the enig by faith.

First of all he believed God and second of all when he walked with God he pleased God. If I'm pleasing God according to the New Testament sense of the word here, it has a thought of Strong says it's entirely. And Newberry has in his margin it's continually.

So when he walked with God it was entirely, his whole life was for God. And it was completely, there wasn't anything hidden in his closet that wasn't for God. It was all for God.

He was laying it all on the altar if you will. It was important to him because God had spoken to his soul. God had a message for him to take unto others.

And it affected his life. Can I make that application today? We have the greatest message in the world. The salvation of souls.

The Lord Jesus Christ, it was a faithful word we've already heard. A faithful word and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. We have a message and there's also a message too that he's coming.

He's coming again for his own and then judgment is going to fall upon the scene. What a message. Shouldn't that within itself cause us to have an exercise of heart, to lay it all out for God and to have a walk with God, to move in harmony with him, to be pleasing continually and completely? Oh, this is so precious of what has happened to Enoch.

I certainly would long to have that impressed upon my heart in such a way as it did with Enoch. Anyway, if I'm going to be walking with God, I'm not going to be taken up with politics and the assembly. If I'm walking with God, I'm not going to be just being a man pleaser.

I'm going to be speaking about the things of God and for God. And if I'm walking with God, I'm not going to be walking ahead of him. You remember Saul? I don't have time to touch on all of these.

But anyway, Saul, he went ahead of God. He wasn't in harmony with God. He wasn't walking with God.

If you look at Jonah, there's an easy one and he lagged behind. He didn't, he didn't, he wasn't walking with God. God still used him and he used him mightily.

That's true. But how much more precious it would have been if, and how much more might have been accomplished for God if he was walking with God continually and completely? What a testimony he might have had. I know God still used him and God can still use us, but there's still something that is so precious here of a walk with God that is in harmony with God and in completeness with God that it might have its desired effect and even adding weight to the message that we have to this world.

If I'm going to be pleasing to God, I'm going to understand what the will of God is. Some people ask me, well, what is the will of God? Well, we have the Bible right here. We have his will for us.

Sometimes our will is not in keeping with what his will is for us. And so we have to ask the question, what is the will of God? Well, we know very clearly most of the time of what the will of God is. If we're exercised about being in the word of God to see what the word of God teaches, what it says, and we respond to it.

One thing I can say about Enoch, he's one that was going to respond and he responded completely. He responded entirely and he responded continually. I look here and here's a man that understood what the will of God was.

If I'm going to be walking and pleasing to God, I'm going to be a man of openness and honesty before God. Too many times we just want to lie to ourselves and we want to make up excuses. But here's a man, he was not like that.

And you know, you say, how do I know that? Because it says he pleased God continually. I look here and here's a man that had to be a man of prayer and a man of study. We're going to please God.

We know from the word of God that we're going to be in the word of God and we're going to be in communion with God. And we're going to know what God's will is for us and we're going to have that desire. Enoch did.

Can we? I remember one time there was a brother who came to visit from across the ocean and I remember when he spoke and I thought, oh, that man enjoys so much from the word of God. Well, no, I can't enjoy all the things that he did. He had a mind far above mine.

But I thought, why can't I even appreciate a few little things from the word of God myself and live in the enjoyment of it and to move according to it? You know, here we have a man that walked with God and he walked continually. All right. One thing about him, he had no hint of self-importance, but he was a man that was marked by humility.

I just have to move on here because I only got a couple of minutes, but I know this is a saying and I hope you'll understand when I quote it, that I'm borrowing it anyway. I remember a preacher once saying about one day speaking about Christians and they're ordinary people doing extraordinary things for God. What did this man do? I wish I had more time here, but here's a man.

What did he do? That says he begets sons and daughters. And when it says there that he begets sons and daughters, it had the idea of continually again. And if he's pleasing God, what was he doing? He was raising them for God.

Can I encourage you today? You're a young family. You've got children and raise them for God. This man was marked out as an ordinary man doing extraordinary things.

He was raising his family for God and he was taking a message, a message of a judgment that was coming and he was faithful to do so. I know that when it comes to a walk, we have that same liberty to walk for God. We have that all the way through the New Testament.

And I'd like to just mention a few of them in Ephesians. It's a worthy walk. You know, it's worthy of the vocation we're with, we're called.

Any kind of walk for God, but we as Christians have a great walk. It's worthy of the vocation or the calling of wherein we've been called. We're children of God.

We're sons of God. We've got a new birth. We've got a heavenly calling.

And we can walk worthy of that. And that's what God's desire is for us. If we're going to be fruit bearers like we heard earlier, we're going to have that desire that we would walk worthy of that calling wherein we've been called.

Also in Ephesians, he speaks about walking not as the Gentiles walked in the vanity of their mind. I'm not going anymore there. Our lives are changed.

We shouldn't be doing the same things that we were doing before. It like Enoch, he was one that walked continually and he walked wholly before God. We've got a heavenly calling.

And we've got a worthy calling. And we've got a walk that is different than what we had before. In Ephesians also, there's the walking in love, walking in fidelity, walking in love to our God.

You know, he loved us. We love him because he first loved us. I know he says, we love the things of God too, because he first loved us.

We walk in love towards one another. And also walking in light, an exercise of separation. If I'm walking in light, I'm going to be separated from this world.

And then also in Ephesians chapter 5, walking circumspectly, accurately before God, being in the Word of God, knowing what God has for us. That was his manner of life. But his message said the Lord's coming.

Not our message today. The Lord's coming. He's coming for us.

We've been hearing about those that need to be prayed for and lived before already in a request for prayer today. Is my life depicting a life like Enoch's that it adds a little reality to it? Well, that adds a little bit of weight to it. It might be effective towards being a witness to others.

Enoch did. And anyway, he spoke about the Lord's coming. It was pleasing to God, the reality of testimony before God.

And then there was that day of his mysterious disappearance. And they looked for him. It suggests anyway that they looked for him because he wasn't found.

You don't find something if you can't find it. It must have been that you've been looking for. Well, one day he wasn't found.

And one day we're not going to be found. He that shall come will come and will not tarry. We looked at, we're hearing about John chapter 14.

That was the plan of his coming. First Thessalonians is a promise of his coming. When it comes to First Corinthians chapter 15, there's a procedure.

He's coming and judgment's coming upon this earth. Oh my God, give us a grace to understand and appreciate something of the truths of Enoch here and the word of God. And it might be affecting not only to my life, but every one of our lives.

And then we might be pleasing to God and then we might know what it is to walk with the God, the God that gave his son on Calvary's cross. Not only that we could be saved, but that we could have a life that would be not only well pleasing to him, but it would be for his glory. God bless this word.