Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Genesis chapter 5, and reading
for our text, verse 24. And Enoch walked with God, and
he was not, for God took him. So especially the words, Enoch
walked with God. When we commence to read the
holy word of God, then immediately we are faced with things that
for man it is impossible and hard for men to grasp. We read first, of course, of
the creation. The Lord spake and it was done
and the world was formed. Then we read of the creation
of man, the fall of man, and then we have the accounts here,
where we have a list of the generations right from Adam right through
to Noah and the flood, some 640 years. And then we're faced with Lives that are lived much, much
longer than our own life expectancy. Adam, 930 years. Seth, 912. Enos, 905. And I've
heard of those who have begun to read the Word of God, and
this is as far as they've got. When they've read such large
numbers, such years of life, they've said, ridiculous. And
they've closed the book and they haven't read any further. And yet when we read in this
chapter, we read one thing that every one of us knows is very,
very true and very relevant for us today. However long Adam lived,
however long these eight saints lived, they all died. They didn't continue here below. The Word of God explains the
reason for death, why it is that death entered Now the Lord created
man perfect and upright and really there was no reason why he wouldn't
have lived forever, eternal. There was no death when God created
man and pronounced everything to be perfect, everything to
be good. And it was true. Our first parents,
Adam, disobeying God, transgressing the command of God, which God
said, that thou mayest eat of every tree of the fruit of the
garden of Eden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it. In the day that thou dost eat
of it, thou shalt surely die. And Adam did eat of it. And Adam
did die. Not immediately, but as recorded
in this chapter, even though he lived 930 years, he did die. And so did his descendants. He
died also spiritually. Incapable a natural man is of
receiving the things of God, neither can he know them, they
are spiritually disowned. And all men that are born into
this world, they are born spiritually dead, incapable of themselves
of receiving and believing the things of God. They may receive
it in a natural way, but no man by seeking can find out God. They cannot know God, except
He reveal Himself to them and give them new life, spiritual
life. So here, in this chapter, reinforced
again and again and again is, and he died. One thing that is
interesting to note, Enoch, of whom is our text, his son Methuselah
lived 969 years, the longest any man has lived. When you calculate it, he died
the year of the flood. His son Lamech, he died five
years before the flood. Noah was 600 when the flood was
upon the earth and he lived another 350 years. We're told in the
next chapter that all his days were 950 years. But in our text we have Enoch,
and in relation to him we do not read, and he died. With Enoch there is a difference. Our text reads, and Enoch walked
with God and he was not. for God took him. He did not
die. He was, as we read in Hebrews,
translated that he should not see death. So I want to begin
there this morning with the Lord's help. I want to look first at
the manner of Enoch's passing because it is so So different,
so unique. And then secondly, the importance
of his walk. And not just his walk, our walk. And then thirdly, walking with
God. What is it? To walk with God. Verse 22, and Enoch walked with
God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years and begat
sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were
three hundred sixty and five years, and Enoch walked with
God, and he was not, for God took him. What happened to Enoch? when God took him. We read in
the Hebrews that Enoch was one that walked by faith, and in
Hebrews 11, chapter 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. He did not see death, but instead
was translated. We have in Enoch, and we may
say another, Elijah, An example of how it shall be when the Lord
returns the second time. The Apostle, when he writes to
the Thessalonians in his first epistle and chapter four, he
speaks of the Lord's coming. And he says in verse 15, For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent
or go before them which are asleep, or those that have died, those
in the grave. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. And so he says that we shall
be changed. Instead of death, like Elijah
who was walking with Elisha, when the chariot and horses of
fire came down, separated between them, and Elijah was taken up
by whirlwind into heaven, changed, did not see death, did not die,
And this is what we have as a illustration of with Enoch as well. Not continuing here, we know,
and Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians, that this
corruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. We shall not all die, but we
shall be changed. That change must happen. And with those that have died,
they are laid in the grave, and God shall raise their dust again
and give them a body that shall be identified as the same body. Job, he says, though after my
skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I seek
God for myself, and not another. He shall still be Job, not another
person. Some have said, how shall we
be? Raised what likeness? What age shall we be? Well, our
Lord laid down his life in his 33rd year in the fullness of
strength. And we know that God's children
shall be as the angels in heaven. How it shall be with us? where
it has not entered into the heart of man, what God hath prepared
for them that love Him. But we know that we shall be
like Him, for we shall see Him, that is the Lord Jesus Christ
as He is. So with Enoch we have really
a type of how all of God's dear children shall be when the Lord
comes that second time. the manner of Enoch's passing,
the manner of Elijah's passing, the manner of those of the Lord's
people, when the Lord comes with power and in great glory at the
end of this world, then it shall be like Enoch, we shall be taken
by the Lord straight into heaven and change. Want to then look secondly at
the importance of walk. Our text says, He not walked
with God, and he was not, for God took him. We know at the end of the world
that no man knows the day nor of the hour. There shall be signs
but they shall come so quickly at the end that we shall not
have time to change what we are doing. We're told that those
that are out in the field will not have time to go into the
house, or those on the housetop won't have time to come down
into the house. The Lord's coming shall be sudden,
and we're warned of that in many, many parts of the Word of God.
that we be found watching and waiting and found walking in
the ways of the Lord. Now what a solemn thing if the
Lord should come and find us not watching or find us in a
place that we would not be found in. Really in all that we do
in our lives We should ask ourselves, what if the Lord was to come
when I was doing this? When I was with this people,
or with this person, or looking at this thing, or engaging in
this practice, or using my time in this way, what if the Lord
should come at such a time? It is true that it is vital that
there is a mouth-profession of faith. With the heart man believeth,
but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. But it is also true and vital
that the Lord has joined repentance with believing. Repentance is
a change, a change not at death, not a translation at death, but
while we are living, that we be new creatures in Christ, that
we be no longer walking and conformed to this world, but transformed
by the renewing of our mind. It's a most solemn thing that
today there are many so-called churches that just say to people,
well, all you've got to do is to just read this set of instructions
or pray this prayer, and you're a child of God, you're saved.
You've just got to raise your hand and accept Christ in an
assembly, and thousands do so, and are deceived into thinking
that they're saved and safe for eternity, by the blind leaders
of the blind. But in those cases there is no
change. The life is not changed. The
heart is not changed. And it doesn't affect how they
live or what they do. Repentance is a vital thing. The Lord directed that repentance
and remission of sin should be preached in His name throughout
all of the world. and it is vital that repentance
be joined with believing. We might be able to speak of
many things that we may call and might rightly be blessings,
words the Lord has given us, tokens for good and reasons why
we believe that we are the Lord's people or hope that we are. But
if our lives do not give answer to that, then those things are
but an empty thing. Some of those dear people are
very, very tried whether they are the people of God, because
they cannot speak of great things. They cannot speak of wonderful
blessings that they have had. But their lives have been changed. And we may say that with Enoch,
they do walk with God. And that is a vital thing, the
importance of our walk and our conduct. Not just what we say,
but what we do and what we don't do. The effect, the change that
has been wrought in our hearts and in our lives. The Lord says,
In John 17, I have given them thy word, and the world hath
hated them. Because it is through the word
of God that that change is wrought. And the world, they see it, and
they notice it. They don't understand it. They
hate the change. And many of the people of God
have suffered because of that change. But the Lord has pronounced
a blessing on all those when men shall cast you out of their
company, separate from you, speak evil of you for his own namesake
and for the cause of the gospel and the hope that is in us through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Our walk then is important. It is vital. Enoch walked with
God. So I want to look then thirdly
at what it is to walk with God. We are told very little of Enoch's
life. The verses here and what we have
in Hebrews, are really the sum of it, of what it is with an
Enoch walked to, so to walk with God. We say that very reasonable
was because that not only is there external death but there
is spiritual death. And the first thing that must
be before any could walk with God is that there is the new
birth. and that is a gift of God's free
and sovereign grace. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2
that by grace you are saved through faith that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. And he tells those Ephesians
that what had been wrought in them had been the same power
that was wrought in Christ. when God raised him from the
dead and set him at his own right hand. It is a miracle of grace
that any should be given eternal life. Our Lord says, I give unto
them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of mine hand. They pass by thee
when thou wast in thy blood, and when thou wast in thy blood,
I bid thee live. It is the Lord that first begins
and instigates a work of His sovereign grace and gives the
new birth, gives eternal life, gives the knowledge of Himself,
gives faith. He is the author and finisher
of faith. All men have not faith, and faith,
saving faith, is given at the new birth. It is not what brings
about the new birth, it is the result of the new birth. Many
will teach that man, every man, has faith and has the ability
of himself to respond to the Word of God and virtually make
himself spiritually alive. But that is contrary to the scriptures. Faith is what is given by God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of the Lord. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
the author and finisher of faith. When we die, we have no more
need of faith because faith changes to sight. And we are told then
very clearly a second evidence then of what it is to walk with
God. Not only is it to have the new
birth, but it is to have faith. We've already mentioned that
in Hebrews 11, by faith Enoch was translated that he should
not see death, was not found because God had translated him
for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased
God. Now Hebrews 11 is a long list
of those that walked and died by faith and we're told that
the end of it and these all having obtained a good report through
faith received not the promise God having provided some better
thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. What it was, that they looked
for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what it means,
they received not the promise. They saw that promise afar off,
we read that in verse 13, and they embraced that promise. They
embraced the coming of the Lord. They believed He would come.
They believed that He would put away sin, their sin, by the sacrifice
of Himself. That is what is spoken of the
faith here of these people. And then Paul is speaking of
us, those that have lived to be able to read of and know of
the coming of the Lord. The gospel as it is recorded
of the life and death and sufferings and rising again of our Lord
Jesus Christ. But may we remember that everyone
from Abel right through to the end of the world, all those that
have died, they have died and died in Christ and died and be
saved, have been saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament saints faith
that He would come, would take their sin, would die in their
place, would pay the debt that they owed. We in the New Testament,
it is by faith that we believe through the Word of God that
the Lord Jesus Christ has come, that He has borne our sin, that
He has suffered in our place, that He has brought in an everlasting
righteousness that is to be ours if we believe on His name. It
is the same faith. And so what is vital then here,
and this is the same with all of those in the list there in
Genesis, all of those that die and are not changed, translated
like Enoch, If we are to walk with God, we are to walk by faith,
not by sight. And that is vital. If you and
I are walking with God, we are to walk by faith. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. By faith in His salvation, in
the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. trusting in what He has
done, not our works, not our good works, not our righteousness,
but Christ as our righteousness, trusting in His precious sin-atoning
blood. Any walk cannot be said a walk
with God if it not be walking in the faith of Jesus Christ,
the faith that He has given and in the faith that what he has
done is our hope, our only hope for heaven, our hope of escape
from the wrath to come. There cannot be a walking of
God in any other way than that. We read in the prophets in Amos
chapter 3 and verse 3, can two walk together except they be
agreed. And if we are walking with God,
then there must be an agreement as to how man can walk with God. How can he be saved? How can
he be right with God? There must be an agreement. And
surely it is not an agreement where man says, I am right in
My own works, my own works are good and righteous, but God says
your works are filthy rags. You are nothing but sin and disgrace,
and that the only way of acceptance is through my beloved Son, and
through His righteousness, and through His blood being shed
for you. There must be an agreement in
that. There must be that oneness with
God. Paul writing to the Romans, he
says of his own people that were ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own. If we walk by faith,
it is totally leaning upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His work,
trusting in Him alone. And so thinking of that word
in Amos, can two walk together except they be agreed? Enoch, he walked with God, so
he must be in agreement with God. And you and I, if we are
to walk with God, we must be in agreement with God. But how
can we know what God believes, what He feels, what is His path? And the answer to that is the
Word of God. The Bible from Genesis to Revelation
is the only revelation from God to man of His mind, of His will,
of what is pleasing to Him, what is displeasing to Him, And so
we must say that if we are to be like Enoch, and we are to
walk with God, then it will be in complete agreement with His
Word. Complete agreement with His Word. It will also be in complete harmony
and agreement with the people of God. as well. You know, we read of this right
through the scriptures. We read the Solomon account before
the flood, where the sons of God talk to them, the women,
the wives of the sons of men, a mingling of those that believe
God with those that did not. We read when the children of
Israel came back from Babylon, then they had to deal with the
situation where the godly seed were mingling with the ungodly
of the land and had taken them strange wives and they had to
separate. We read in Paul's epistles to
the Corinthians that we are to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. that there is to be a taking
of those that fear the Lord and walking with them in agreement. Of course, there are those that
have been called by grace after they have been married, after
they've been joined together, which then makes there to be
a difference. That is covered in Corinthians as well. If they're
happy to remain and stay together, then the unbelieving half is
sanctified by the believing one. Those that are seeking a union
should always seek it in the Lord, to walk one with another
here below together, and to walk with the Lord together. And that
applies then with the people that we are looking for a place
of worship, or those to walk with in the Lord, then we are
to discern, is the Lord in this place? Is a place of worship,
is a flock, a congregation? Do they follow the word of God? Is the spirit of God with them? Can we really walk with them?
Or are they so different that we cannot? When John writes his
second epistle, he writes to those that bring unto you a different
doctrine, not the doctrine of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And we're forbidden even to allow
them to come into our homes. And such is the importance of
walking together in the vital doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we're to be like Enoch, then
there's not to be Strange doctrine, strange teaching. The reproofs
to the churches in Asia, the seven letters written in the
Revelation, the reproofs were made to them that they had those
in their midst that held error or that taught error. The church
itself was, you might say, sound, but they were being reproved
because they had those in them. really they should not be walking
with, they should not be tolerating, they should be disciplining and
walking with them in a way that purge the evil from their midst. So it will be in agreement if
we're walking with the Lord, the Lord has his people here
below and the Lord's people will It might say we're drawn to each
other than they that fear the Lord spake often one to another. And if we are found walking with
the Lord, it won't be as an isolation as if we were the only one in
this world that ever knew the things and ways of the Lord.
There'll be that drawing together and walking together. So there will be also a walking
in agreement with His will. Of course, the will of the Lord
is revealed in the Word of God, but in our lives as well, as
providence unfolds the book and makes His counsel shine. We think
of dear Job, when Satan was permitted to bring all the evil into his
life. When his sons and daughters were
taken, his flocks, his herds, When his health was taken, he
says, the Lord gave and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the
name of the Lord. And he says to his wife, shall
we not receive good at the hand of the Lord and shall we not
receive evil? His utterances were of a submission
to the will of God, a bowing before the will of God. If we
had to walk like Enoch did, and Enoch walked with God, then it
won't be all the time fighting against His will, fighting against
His Word, going contrary to His Word. The Word directs one thing. We say, no, we're going to do
different. We're going to obey the advice
of man instead of the advice of the Word of God. No, it will
be a walking with God. if we walk according to His will. So may we really lay this to heart and
really examine our own lives, our own path. Are we walking
with God or contrary to Him? Contrary to His word, contrary
to His will that we know is His will, And yet maybe deceiving ourselves
and thinking, well, we're still the Lord's people. We'll still
get to heaven. And yet our walk is not walking
with God at all. Then there will be a walking
with His Spirit. Our Lord says, if His people
come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, Take my
yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. And that is a very close
walk. If you picture a yoke, like with
the oxen, a piece of wood that goes over one shoulder or one
neck, and then over the other neck, and in the law it was forbidden
to yoke together an ox and an ass because There was a different
strength. The ass had not got the strength
of the ox. And so if they were yoked together
and they were pulling the plough, then the strain on the poor ass,
he couldn't keep up with the ox at all. You think of two walking
together. One's a strong person. One is
not strong. One wants to go twice the speed
of the other one. Hard to walk together. when one
can't keep up with the other one, or if we're carrying something
and one can't bear the burden, the other one can. But our Lord
says of his people, to be yoked with him, take my yoke upon you
and learn of me. And so then there's this walking
together with the Lord, there's a agreement with his spirit. We think of the disciples walking
with the Lord, going up to Jerusalem. They went through Samaria, and
we read that the Samaritans did not receive him because his face
was set as it were to go up to Jerusalem. He must go to Jerusalem
to suffer, to bleed, and to die. And for this reason, in God's
providence, he wasn't to be detained in Samaria. The disciples, when
they saw that the Samaritans wouldn't receive them, They said,
shall we command fire to come down from heaven and consume
them, even as Elias did? And the Lord said, you know not
what spirit ye are of. The Son of Man came not to destroy
man's lives, but to save them. And so they, by walking with
the Lord, they learned what his spirit was. They learned how
he would deal with that situation, what his Manawos, the woman that
was taken in adultery. That was another real lesson
for his disciples when the Jews came with the woman taken in
the very act. Moses says that she should be
stone, but what sayest thou? And the Lord then bows down and
he writes in the earth and he says to them, he that is without
sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And he bends
down, he writes again. And as they were convicted in
their own consciences, they went out one by one, beginning at
the eldest. They knew that they were committing
the same sins themselves. And afterwards, the Lord lifts
himself up, says to the woman, hath no man condemned thee? She
said, no man, Lord. And he said, neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. not sinning
that grace might abound, not just pardon, but just go on with
your life as it was, but go and sin no more. That is the spirit
of the gospel. John, in his first epistle, if
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We not come unto the mount that
might be touched, that burned with fire, the holy law of God,
but we come unto Mount Zion. We come to the gospel, we come
to the Lord. We come to him who has suffered,
bled and died, paid the debt and gives to his dear people
mercy and grace and a renewing of heart and of spirit. It is
a blessed thing to walk with the Lord in the spirit of the
gospel. The apostles, they said to the
Lord, how many times shall my brother sin against me and turn
again and say, I repent? Till seven times? And the Lord
said, nay, till 70 times seven. Again and again, forbearing,
forgiving, and loving one another, walking in the Spirit of the
Lord. Enoch, he walked with God. He
had God's Spirit. May we have that same Spirit. May we walk with the Lord in
the Word of God. May we walk with the Lord with
his dear people, that we might commune one with another. that
we might think as the Lord thinks, act as He would act, know the
mind of the Lord and the spirit of the Lord. May that thought
remain with us. How well do we know the Word
of God? How well in private do we walk
with the Lord in the Word of God? Do we walk a path of prayer? Here below it is by faith, it
is by prayer. And do we walk with the Lord
there? Our Lord had whole nights in prayer to His Father while
here below. We can be sure of this, that
Enoch, in his walk with the Lord, he walked in prayer. But do we? Would our walk be called a life
of faith and prayer? It's a searching word. Enoch,
he walked with God, not separate from Him, not contrary to Him,
not opposite to His Word and to His way, but with Him. And Enoch walked with God, and
he was not, for God took him. We could put it another way,
Enoch walked with God, And in his walk he was ready for the
time when the Lord would take him, for when the Lord would
come, whenever it was, that he was ready because he was already
walking with God. He's not a stranger to God. He's
not alienated from God. Yes, Enoch was still a sinner. And here below we know he would
still have sinned and walked as a sinner. the same as you
and I, that there is a way that the Lord has appointed for His
people, though they are sinners, yet they walk with Him. And what
a wonder that that is. The whole secret is in our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, in His righteousness, walking with
the Lord, walking with the hope of the Gospel, not trusting at
all in our own righteousness, but trusting in Christ alone. And that which the Lord works
in us, working in us the love of God shed abroad in the heart
by the Holy Ghost, the love of Christ constraineth us. A walk that is characterized
by those constraints of love, In the things that we don't do,
and the things that we do do, you may say the love of Christ
constraineth us. May these things be a help to
us, so that our walk be a walk with God, in hope, in love, in
the fear of the Lord, in love to the brethren, a love and oneness
to the Word of God. in faith. And he not walked with God, and
he was not, for God took him. May the Lord bless this word,
and may we be searched by it. Above all, may we