"5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."
Good Morning my beloved,
Unfortunately, there are a great many pastors, who try to sit on the fence in an attempt to please the congregation with their sermon messages, rather than pleasing God. And, there is a proper sense, in which we should seek to please people, by not being needlessly offensive. Though we must correct those who are in error, we should always strive to be kind and gracious.
That said, however, for the man of God, there is a much more important priority than pleasing people, namely, pleasing the Holy God, who examines our hearts. Pleasing God, however, inevitably means displeasing people that are opposed to God. If we seek to please the crowds of people but God is displeased with our lives, heaven help us!
If we please God and inadvertently offend others, we will enter into His eternal joy. First and foremost we are commanded to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. It is impossible to obey that commandment without seeking to please God.
In this life, we can fool most people just by being nice, speaking kindly and using flattering words, while in our hearts
we really may not care about them. However, God knows our every thought, and so we are unable to fool Him. Even if we fulfill a list of religious duties or
live outwardly moral lives, God judges the thoughts and true intentions of
our hearts. God condemns those who honor Him with their lips, while their hearts are far from Him.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank for You for Your Word, for this marvelous book of faith, it is such a joy and privilege for us to be together, to be able to study Your Word. Thank You for revealing so much to us, may be so consumed with worshiping You and loving You that we eagerly keep Your commandments. Lord, remind us that sin is always the result of dethroning You and usurping Your sovereignty for ourselves.
Help us to carry out the things that we are about to learn. Bind these truths to our hearts, that we would make the necessary application, so that the watching world might see our testimony and come to Christ.
We pray this in His precious name,
Amen
Today's Message: Walking With God
Drawing near to God and seeking Him is always a deliberate action, it is intentional. You do not accidentally draw near to God. No one
ever seeks God apart from Him first choosing and calling you, however, once God has called you to salvation and you have responded in faith to
His call, you must exert deliberate effort and intention to seek the
Lord. You must choose to make it your priority and goal in life! We are to seek God Himself, not just what He can give us. Knowing the One True Living God is indeed our reward. To have God is to have all we need.
How much it must displease God, when we fail to keep His commands, when we doubt His promises, when we fail to believe His word! What could be more insulting to a Holy God, than to invent a friendlier, more accepting god ? What could be more arrogant than to deny His truth, imply that we know more than He does?For He is the God, Who cannot lie!
How easy it has become for the church to deny the God of the Bible! True faith takes a stand against the temptation to believe that we can create for ourselves a god, who is more suitable to our lusts and desires, believing that God will grade us on the curve, and since we’re better than average, surely, we will pass the test.
You either believe God is Who He says He in His Word, that His Word is true or you do not. God
offers grace, mercy and full pardon to the one who trusts in the merits of His Son, Jesus Christ. Our salvation and everything that we have is from God as a gift by His grace. We must therefore remember that the rewards of faith are in eternity, not necessarily in this life. I encourage each of you to search and examine your hearts, to make sure that you’re believing and trusting in the One True Living God, the God of the Bible.
offers grace, mercy and full pardon to the one who trusts in the merits of His Son, Jesus Christ. Our salvation and everything that we have is from God as a gift by His grace. We must therefore remember that the rewards of faith are in eternity, not necessarily in this life. I encourage each of you to search and examine your hearts, to make sure that you’re believing and trusting in the One True Living God, the God of the Bible.
Open with me your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, the eleventh chapter. Today, we come to verses 5 and 6, and in our text, we’re going to be looking at a man named Enoch, Enoch, a name that is perhaps familiar to many of you. He is one the great heroes of the faith. You will remember the design of this chapter, is loaded with the heroes of faith, it is my hope and prayer, that by examining these great characters, both in name and in reference, we will make the necessary applications to our own lives, that we too, may be found faithful to God.
I invite you to following along with me as I read, to set the text in our minds, as we prepare our hearts, for a Word from our Lord. Hebrews 11:5-6.
"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."
I am sure you will remember that in our last message, the first example of faith, was Abel. Abel showed us how one enters the life of faith, by recognition of sin and the admission that you need a
sacrifice for your sin. I believe that Abel was the very clear testimony, when
he offered a blood sacrifice on the altar before God as God had
instructed him to do. Abel, the son of Adam and Eve, who demonstrated that he would come to God by
faith, not by works, by confessing his own sin and realizing that he was
unworthy and needed a sacrifice before he could approach God.
Today, our second example is a man named Enoch. And so, if Abel tells us how we are enter the life of faith, Enoch tells us how we are to walk by faith.
To give you a little background on Enoch, we need to go back to Genesis chapter 5, it is, I believe, a truly remarkable story, Enoch is identified as a man, living three hundred and sixty-five years and having walked with God. Enoch had a son named Methuselah who, outlived him by many years, nearly seven hundred years, in fact. Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah and he had other sons and daughters.Then, in verse 24, it says "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him."
We read in Hebrews chapter 11, verses 5 and 6, that Enoch did not die. His son, Methuselah’s name in the Hebrew means, "Man of the sending forth," or "Man, shot out." It was a God-given name for a God-given
prophecy. What God was saying in the name given to Methuselah was that
he would not die until judgment was sent out. That’s what his name
indicated. Therefore, Methuselah would live until judgment came. Now, Methuselah lived longer than anyone. He
lived 969 years. And, from his birth, his name was a prophecy of judgment. The wicked were
warned of a coming judgment. They were also warned by Enoch of coming
judgment, and Jude refers to that.
So, in the name of Methuselah, you have this prophecy that judgment is coming.
However, you also see the grace of God, because Methuselah lived longer
than anyone else on earth and so his warning extended for all 969 years. God allowed him live longer than anybody else in order that the message of warning against judgment might come. Then, in the year that the flood came, Methuselah died.
Enoch lived in a very corrupt world. It was so corrupt, in fact, that God chose to drown the entire civilization. I believe it was much like the world we are living in today. In fact, it says in Genesis chapter 6, that the corruption was so great, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."
And, we know it had to be corrupt, because it wasn't long after the fall and there to be murder, there was adultery, and soon after, it went into every
other imaginable sin until sin ravaged the entire planet. And in just
about a thousand years of history, God decided to flood the entire earth, to destroy what He had created. I find it interesting, that some of us find it difficult to be faithful for a short period time, let alone, over three hundred years.
So we see, that spirituality, even in the very earliest years was a matter of walking with God. God was not some far off distant deity. God was a companion. Before the fall in the garden, Adam and Eve walked and talked with God, in the cool of the day. They had an intimate communion with God. And, then came the
fall, and they were thrown out of the Garden of Eden. And now, all of a sudden, we find Enoch, a man whom has been reconciled with God, who is now walking in communion
with God, a communion that was restored.
As an interesting footnote, if you were to look at Genesis 5 in the Septuagint, it is translated not that he walked with God, but that he pleased God. He pleased God and therefore he did not die.To say that he walked with God is the same as to say he pleased God, God
was well-pleased with him. He is introduced to us then as a man who
pleased God. Perhaps that because that is why it says that in Hebrews 11, "before his being taken up he was pleasing to God."
Like Abel, he must have been a man who recognized his sin. He must have been a man who acknowledged the need for sacrifice, a man who offered a fitting sacrifice, a man who trusted in God in the purest and truest sense for his salvation, his forgiveness and his life. Because he walked with God and he pleased God. I, for one, love the fact, that here we are in the earliest era of human history and it’s all about
intimacy, it’s all about personal fellowship with God and communion with God. He walked with God.
Allow me to point out, that the term "walk" is a very important concept. It’s all about
step-by-step fellowship, a daily communion. And it’s a way,even in the early chapters of Scripture that we have someone
identified as being reconciled to God. After all, that's what salvation means. And so, because Enoch walked with God, he escaped death. He was given the
privilege of being an illustration for all us, that by walking with God, pleasing God, we can escape death.
I am very confident, that early in the
chapters of Genesis, early in the recorded history in Genesis, God was
revealing truth. And part of the truth that God was revealing was that
there was eternal life, that men could leave this world, if in a right
relationship to Him and enter into His eternal presence. I believe that this clearly demonstrates that. I believe that Enoch knew, that you could leave this world and go and be in the presence of God, and be with God and God chose
Enoch to be the illustration of that. He is the illustration of
salvation’s great promise. That's the promise of salvation, leaving this veil of tears, this world of sin and entering into the presence of the Lord.
When it says God took him, in the Hebrew, the word describes a sudden
inexplicable disappearance and the explanation for his disappearance is
given here, "God took him." Therefore, he is a model of faith that walks with God,
being rewarded with eternal life because he walked with God.
So, let's go back to our text, Hebrews chapter 11, which by the way, is a new concept, of walking with God. Enoch, the true destiny of man is restored and the true destiny of man is a personal, intimate, communion with God.After all, this is what God has desired, what He has always provided for. God has
never been some distant, far off God, He has never been a demanding transcendent
God. God is an eminent personal God.
Verse 5, "By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God."
I'll just quickly point out a few things here that I hope will give us an insight into what it means to walk with God. Notice it says "He was not found." Enoch He found because God took him up, for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. Can you just imagine that? The conversation must've been "Has anyone seen Enoch, where is he? He didn't come home for dinner!"
Then, in verse 6, comes an important lesson as to what it means to walk with God, to please God. "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." The only way to walk with God, the only way to please God is by faith, which is the dynamic lesson of this chapter. In other words, you cannot please God, you cannot be reconciled to God, you cannot walk with
God, you will not enter into the glories of eternal life apart from
faith. That is the clear message here. Without faith it is impossible to please God. That is a statement that ought to be underlined in our minds. We cannot please God with faith.
We know from Scripture, that the the Jews who were very religious. In Romans 2, the Apostle Paul says, "But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God." And, in Galatians 5, he says "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love."
That takes us back to Ephesians 2, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." The only way to come to God is to believe. And, that's what Abel and Enoch both did. Abel believed what God said, he
responded to the command that God had given for a proper sacrifice. He brought that sacrifice and therefore, exhibited his faith and entered
the life of faith. Then, Enoch picks the story up and walked that walk of
faith, continuing to put his trust in God.
In Romans 8:8, Paul says "and those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Enoch believed God because he put his trust in God as his savior, his God and so he was reconciled to and received by God. Faith pleases God.Notice in verse 6, he says "For he who comes to God must believe that He is," that's a wonderful statement, very simple and profound statement of truth.
In other words, "He who comes to God must believe that He is who He is, the One True Living God." I want for you to understand, that's very different from saying "I believe in God." Not just any god, that will never do, it's not sufficient. It's not enough to believe in the idea of God, the notion of God, the reality of God. You must believe that He is the God whom He is, the One and Only God.
You must believe in the God, Who has revealed Himself in His Word. Early on, in human history, God revealed Himself. People knew who He claimed to be and Enoch believed. You must, therefore, believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the One who
is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You must believe in the
true and living God who has revealed Himself incarnate in Christ. He is a trinitarian God ,in the fullness of His revelation, who manifests Himself in Jesus Christ. The God who required a sacrifice, death for sin, the God who had made it clear that men cannot earn salvation.
The Apostle Paul makes it clear in Acts 17:23-28, when he said "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children."
As the Paul says, I’d like to introduce you to the unknown God, "the God who made the world and all things in it." Enoch would have known that God. He would have known that God was the Creator of the universe, God was the one who not only created everything but sustained everything. He would have known the righteous and holy God, the source of morality and right. He would have known that God was a God of vengeance and judgment.
Then, the Apostle Paul sums is all up, in Acts 17:30-31, "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." You cannot come to God if you do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who
is God in human flesh and whose deity was manifest and validated by the
resurrection from the dead. The revelation of God is progressive, the full revelation comes in Christ in the New Testament.
We see the completion of the full revelation in Hebrews 1:1-2, "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world." Enoch believed what God had revealed to be true about Himself.
The next things is, he believed that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. That He is the Redeemer, that He is the Savior. Enoch believed that God
rewards those who pursue Him. That's a very critical truth. He believed
that God was a personal, forgiving, loving, gracious God, who would
provide salvation to those who sought Him. Enoch believed that.
The One true and living God, is a rewarder of those who seek Him, even though
they are sinners and even though they cannot commend themselves, they
cannot do anything to achieve reconciliation with Him, they cannot on
their own please Him.
Psalm 58:11 says "And men will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely there is a God who judges on earth!"
Enoch believed in the God who is a Savior by nature. I Timothy 4:10 says "For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers." Simply put, He declares Himself to be a God who withholds judgment by nature. He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. He is a lavish rewarder of those who come on His terms. He grants
forgiveness, and a new heart. He gives us the Holy Spirit, blessing, mercy, grace, peace, joy, love, eternal
life, heaven, power over
evil, it’s all there!
In John 6:37, Jesus said "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out." He will not turn away.
The walk of faith begins with believing that God is who He is and that He is
a personal Savior who will reward those who seek Him. He puts His salvation will on display, temporally to all men by not
giving the sinner what he deserves when he deserves it, by His patience,
common grace. God was pleased
with Enoch. This was the mark of his whole life.That's an incredible statement about ones life. His whole life. Having lived 365 years, what kind of a record of sin would you accumulate? And yet, God was pleased Enoch.
I know at my age, as I get older, I've noticed that I long more and more for heaven. The corruption of the world, the moral decline of the culture, the violence, the hate, its just too much to bear. I cannot begin to imagine living over three hundred years in a increasingly corrupt fallen world. I look at my grandchildren, I don't even know how they will make it 70 years in this world.
So what does it mean to walk with God, let's look at that for a moment. In Amos 3:3 it says "Do two men walk together unless they have made an appointment?" And in Job 2:11, "and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him." How can God have fellowship with Satan? That’s unfathomable! So, in other words, two walking together presupposes agreement, harmony, reconciliation, therefore presupposes salvation. God has not been conformed to him but he has been reconciled to God. He
has by God’s grace met God’s absolute condition, therefore, they walk in
agreement.
That's the reason Paul says in II Corinthians 6:14, "Do not be bound
together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and
lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?"
The next thing that comes to mind, in walking with someone, is a corresponding nature. You cannot walk with God unless you possess some faculty which you share in common. Light has no communion with darkness. No sinner can walk with God, because they have no commonality of life. Let's face it, the concept of walking is not really that impressive, unless of course, you're unable too, that's a whole other issue, but we're attracted to the sensational, but God calls our attention to a man who walked with Him. God doesn't call a man to fly around with Him.He calls man to walk. We must walk by faith with God on earth if we expect to dwell with Him forever in heaven.
Before we close, there’s something else to be said about Enoch, we find it in that little letter tucked under the shadow of the book of Revelation, called Jude. It's in verse 14-15, there's a statement about Enoch, it says he was a preacher. Allow me to read that to you, "It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Did you notice it? He uses the word ungodly four times in that one sentence. That's some prophet. As a footnote, that quote does not appear in the Old Testament. It is something Enoch prophesied.
In Closing...
To walk with God means that our lives are in step with God, yielding in obedience to Him, headed in the direction, on the path that He chooses. Walking with God implies intimacy and fellowship. So, walking with God, is getting to know one another, and to share the things that are happening in
your lives. Walking with God is a daily process of growing more intimate
with God, as you share everything in your life with Him and learn more
of His ways. That's why walking with God is so amazing. The key is, you have to take the initiative, and make the effort that is required to walk with God. God doesn’t just walk with anybody.
If you don’t make an effort to read and study His Word, to apply it to your life, you’re not walking with Him. If you are not memorizing His promises
and applying them to the various situations you face, you’re not
walking by faith. If you have trusted in Christ as Savior, but you have
grown lazy and aren’t taking the initiative to walk with Him, then get up and get yourself back on the
path. Faith is a daily dependence on God, step by step, on a journey that continues throughout a lifetime.
If you walk with God by faith, like Enoch, your life, will also be pleasing to Him.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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