Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Genesis. Genesis chapter five
and verse 24. And Enoch walked with God, and
he was not, for God took him. Genesis chapter five and verse
24. There are, dear friends, only two ways that
you and I shall ever depart out of this life and finish our course
here below. And in this chapter those two
ways are set before us. And indeed in the second reading
that we had in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, there are also those
two ways that are said before us. In this chapter we are given
the beginning of mankind. We have said before us the generations
of Adam, And we are told that Adam was created in the likeness
of God. And male and female created he
them. Yes, both Adam and Eve were both
created by God. And God blessed them. And we
read that he called their name Adam. In one way they were surnamed. Adam in the day that they, when
they were created. In the third chapter we read
of the solemn fall of man, the entrance of sin into the world
and then death by sin. And in this chapter that traces
the genealogy from Adam through to Noah over those first 1,640
or so years before the flood, we have a most solemn setting
forth of these two ways of departing out of this world. The one that
is the most likely, the most prevalent, is that we shall die. We have eight times in this chapter
this so reinforced and said before us. In verse 5 we have the death
of Adam, that he lived 930 years, and then we read, and he died. Then we have in verse 8 the death
of Seth, and 12 years, and he died. Then we have in verse 11 the
death of Enos, 905 years, and he died. Then we have the death
of Canaan in verse 14, 910 years, and he died. And then May Hillel, we have
in verse 17, 890 and five years and he died. And then we have
in verse 20, Jared, 960 and two years and he died. Then we have
Enoch, Enoch where our text is. We just pass over him just for
a moment and think of Methuselah, who in verse 27, 960 and nine
years and he died. And then we have Lamech, lastly
in verse 31, 770 and five years and he died. Lamech would have died five years
before the flood. Methuselah would have died the
year of the flood. All of those that died there,
eight generations, and it is, you may say, the most common
way of all the earth. As the Lord Saints have often
said, I go the way of all the earth. But with Enoch, right
at the very beginning here and before the flood, there was a
difference. Enoch did not die. Enoch, we
are told in our text, he walked with God and he was not, for
God took him. And this same way of departing
from this world was also repeated in the case of Elijah. Remember that Elijah walked with
Elisha from one city to another to the assembly of the children
of the prophets, and they each knew that the Lord would take
Elisha's master from his head that day. And they went over
Jordan, Elijah smiting the waters with his mantle. And as they
walked, there came a chariot of fire and horses of fire that
parted between them both. Elijah was taken up into heaven
by a whirlwind." We read that when Elisha, who had seen it
and who was given that sign that this spirit of Elijah then rested
on him. When he came back to the sons
of the prophets, they pressed him and prevailed to go and send
a search party. And they searched for three days
to find Elijah, thinking that that whirlwind had cast him up
into some place, but they found him not. And he was taken in
that same way that Enos departed from this life, not by death,
but bodily ascending up to heaven and changed as he was taken up. And this is the reason why we
read our second portion there, because in writing to the Thessalonians
seeking to comfort them, concerning loved ones that had died, who
they feared had been lost, had perished. He assured them, no,
they had not perished. The Lord had not yet come again. The resurrection had not yet
taken place. And he assures them of this.
And so he tells them that they're not to be ignorant concerning
them which are asleep. that ye sorrow not even as others
which have no hope. These words have been such a
comfort to the Lord's people when they have lost their loved
ones. Many, many times they have been
read at the graveside. You heard it last week attending
the graveside then, the week before last, and no doubt will
be. right to the Lord's coming, the
coming of which is spoken of here, those that are asleep. If we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will
God bring with him. And so there is a picture here
of the last day, the end of the world. When the Lord shall come
in the clouds with power and great glory, and all of those
who have died, their souls shall be brought with him. And at the
same time their bodies shall be raised from the grave and
reunited with their souls. A new body, a sinless body, an
incorrupt body, a celestial body, shall be given to them. And those
that are alive at the Lord's coming, they shall not die in
the same way as their brethren did, but like Enoch and like
Elijah, we shall be changed. We shall meet the Lord in the
air, immediately be given a change from this mortal body and immortal
body, a change that changes us to be like those who have died
before us. And so he says, caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall
we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another
with these words. It is a most solemn truth that
We each are possessed of a soul that shall never cease to exist. And the only way we can depart
from this world is in these two ways. For those that are the
Lord's people, it is a blessed time when the Lord comes again. For those that are changed, for
those that shall be given a resurrected body, For those that are not,
it is a most solemn, solemn time. For they also shall be raised
and be given a body as well, in which they shall suffer eternally
in the pains of hell, banished from God and from his presence
eternally. The soul does not cease to exist. There is eternal life. There
is eternal death. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself
set this forth while he was on earth in his ministry, that these
two places exist and they are the destination of each one of
us, one or the other. And may we, realising this, seek
that our time here below be spent in a way in which we can be assured
that we shall be with the Lord forever and ever. The Lord says
that he shall give grace and glory and where the Lord gives
grace, here below, we may be assured of glory. Or we have it put in another
way in the words of our text, in the example of Enoch. With all of the others that lived,
all that is told of them is that they begat sons and they begat
daughters, and is told of how long they lived. It is not told
about what their lives were like, whether they were godly or ungodly,
though we believe in this line, this righteous line, that it
sets forth a godly line, but we are not told All we are told
is the length of their lives and that they died. But with
Enoch we are told something different. We are told that he walked with
God after he begat Methuselah 300 years. His life was characterized
by walking with God. and it is that that I desire
to bring before you this morning is the life of Enoch because
his life very clearly was a life that ended in being taken with
God and to be with God and his life here below was the indicator
of where his end would be, where he would spend eternity. We have a solemn case in the
account of Balaam, who was called by the king of Moab, Balak, when
the children of Israel were going to the promised land. Balak called
Balaam the soothsayer to curse the children of Israel. Balaam
was forbidden by God to curse them and he had to bless them
three times. One of the things that Balaam
said as he saw the blessing and good of God's people was, let
my last end be like this. But Balaam did not desire to
live the life of the righteous. He desired to die the death of
the righteous, and that his last end might be like them. But he
actually died fighting against the children of Israel. If we would die the death of
God's people, we must live the life of God's people. If we would
be with them in heaven and love them there, we must love them
here. We must not think that we can
live an ungodly life in fellowship with the world and not with God,
and then at last be found in heaven. Heaven to such unsanctified
and separated people would really be a hell. And here's a most
solemn thought, that the Lord has prepared a
hell. a hell not of peace and a blessing
but of torments for those who are unprepared for heaven. Heaven is a prepared place for
a prepared people and hell is a prepared place for an unprepared
people. So it behoves us this morning
to look at what is meant here of Enoch walking with God. And the Word of God is not silent
as to walking with God. This is not the last time that
walking with God is mentioned and set forth in the Word of
God. So I want to look with the Lord's
help firstly at Enoch, how he is remembered. And then secondly,
how we are to walk with God, how we are to be as he was. And then thirdly, where God's
people are called to walk with him. We can have perhaps some
wrong ideas or views. If we are walking with God, then
surely this will not happen or we will not have to walk through
this or that. So we need to be clear, if we
are walking with God, what are some of the places that we will
walk with him in here below. Firstly then, how Enoch is remembered. Our text says, and Enoch walked
with God and he was not. Now Enoch is mentioned in Hebrews
11 in the long list of those that are examples of faith. We read a first of Abel, that
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying
of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Abel's sacrifice
was a blood sacrifice, Cain's was not. Abel, by faith, viewed
the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is through that faith and that
offering that it was a more excellent sacrifice. We are told that faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. And in verse six, that without
faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God
must believe that he is, and that he is a reward of them that
diligently seek him. So then in verse five, we read
of Enoch. 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. So not only have we got
the testimony in Genesis of our text that he walked with God,
but that he pleased God. And we have this, that he is
remembered in this way, for his walk rather than his talk. Now we are known, we are told,
and especially in Romans 10, that it is essential that though
with the man with the heart man believes, yet with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. But a confession with the mouth
and with no walk to back that up, then that man's faith is
vain. In the epistle to James, James
makes this very, very clear. how important it is that there
is a showing forth of our faith. He says, and is speaking of faith
in a practical way, if a brother or sister be naked and destitute
of food, And one say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed
and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which
are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so faith,
if it hath not works, is dead being alone. Yea, a man may say,
Thou hast faith, and I have works, Show me thy faith without thy
works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. And so, if we have true faith,
that faith will be seen by our works. It will be seen by our
walk and by our conduct, by our lives. It is not just having
one day in the house of God worshipping and then the rest of the week
living as if we were heathens. It is not just spending a few
minutes in reading and prayer in the morning and evening and
the rest of the day walking as if we never had a thought of
God or of his ways at all. What is set before us here is
not Enoch walked sometimes with God or Enoch worshipped God,
but no, Enoch walked with God. And this is how he is remembered. When we gather often for funerals
and we hear of what the Lord has done for his people, We generally
will hear something of both, what they have said and what
their lives have manifested. Sometimes there's not as much
recorded or even heard of what they've said as what we would
like, but their lives are full of a walk with the Lord. Others,
there may be much that has been said, and things that perhaps
have troubled those that are left in how they have walked. How vital it is that we're not
only just looking back to how the Lord has begun with us, we're
not relying upon what things that we have said to others,
but of God's witness, God's presence with us, His walk with us, that
we have this, what Enoch is remembered for, is what we should be remembered
for as well. Whether we die like the list
of the eight others in this chapter, or whether we are transformed
and translated, immediately given a new body as Enoch, as Elijah,
as those at the last day will be. That it be found that whatever
time the Lord comes and in whatever way, whether it is suddenly through
a heart attack or a stroke or a car accident, whatever it is,
or whether it be a slow death through cancer or some other
affliction or dying of old age, Whatever way it is that we be
found a people walking with the Lord, waiting for him, looking
for his coming, not strangers to him. That beautiful chapter
again is read often at funerals or to those that nearing their
journey's end in John 14, when he assures his people that they
are not to be troubled, that he says that he will He goes
and prepares a mansion for them. I will come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am there shall ye be also. And that
spoken by someone that is known by his people is a blessed thing. If we know someone literally,
then to be told that they will be coming for us and they will
help us. is a great comfort, a greater
comfort than be told that a stranger shall come for us, but to have
one that we already know and already have walked with. So
this is what is to be emphasised here with Enoch, is that he walked
with God. His life is to be looked at,
his condo, his conversation, the things that he did, how he
acted, how he walked, how his life was described. And here it is described as walking
with God. And Enoch walked with God, and
he was not, for God took him. Well, if we are to follow in
the path of Enoch, then we need to know first that it can be
so, and then how that it is so, and what we may expect the path
to be like. And so I want to look at that
in our second point. I turn again to 1 Thessalonians
and chapter 4. Our second point, we look at
how we are to walk with God. And Paul, when he writes to the
Thessalonians here, in the beginning of the chapter that we just read
the last part of, 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 1, Paul begins by
saying, furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort
you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us, how ye
ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. Notice the Apostle uses the two
words that the Holy Scriptures use to describe Enoch. In Genesis, he walked with God. Paul says how he ought to walk. In Hebrews, Paul, as I believe
it is, the inspired word of God says that Enoch pleased God. And so Paul says to the Thessalonians
to walk and to please God. And the apostle writing to the
Thessalonians has shown them and through other scriptures
as well how we are to walk and please God. So right from the
start we know that Enoch is not the only one. The Church of God
in these Gospel days is exhorted and directed and instructed to
walk in the same way as what Enoch walked. So how is it that we are to walk
with God. Well, I want to look at various
ways, and the first way is that second description that we are
given of Enoch, and that is that he walked by faith. By faith
Enoch was translated, but it is that he also walked by faith
because all of these in this 11th chapter of Hebrews, they
walked by faith and they died in faith. The two things are
joined together. The Lord Jesus Christ is set
forth in Hebrews 12 is the author and finisher of our faith. And so faith is not given just
on a deathbed. Yes, we think of the dying thief
and it is said that there is one that none might despair that
was called on a deathbed and one that none might presume. It's a solemn thing going through
life thinking I'm going to leave it until I'm ready to die, and
then I will believe, and then I'll walk with God, and then
I will be saved. Well, there was only the dying
thief recorded in that way, and countless warnings of those who
have lived like that and died, and then it has been too late. Sometimes shorts the warning,
sometimes there is no warning at all. And so we would look
at how we are to walk with God. It is to walk by faith. Faith is the substance of things
hopeful, the evidence of things not seen. We also would remind
you that faith cometh by the word of God. Faith cometh by
hearing and hearing by the word of God. Those that heard the
Word of God and it did not profit them, we are told that the Word
did not profit them, being not mixed with faith in them that
heard it. And so there's two things there.
If we are to walk by faith, then we are to walk by the Word of
God. And if we are to profit by the
word of God, then by faith we will trust in the word of God
and believe that word rather than our own wisdom and own understanding. It's the most solemn thing today
when even some of those that profess religion will take the
holy inspired word of God and pull it to pieces. This allow
the Genesis account pour scorn on other parts of the Word of
God, pulling a pieces that of which God has given, whereby
man may be saved. The Holy Spirit says through
Paul to Timothy, that from a child he'd known the Scriptures, which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation. And if we walk as
Enoch did, and walk with God, Then we'll walk by faith, we'll
walk believing that the Word of God is the Bible, the Bible
is the Word of God, and that God has given that, and as our
Lord said, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall
not pass away. We shall be men and women of
the book, of the Bible, we will love it, we'll walk by it, it
will be In our hearts thy words, says David, have I hid in mine
heart, that I sin not against thee. And Jeremiah says, thy
words were found, and I did eat them. They were the joy and rejoicing
of my heart. And our Lord, when he was offering
himself up at Calvary again and again, the scriptures were fulfilled
in what was done and what he said at that time. And so may
we, if we are to be like Enoch and walk with God, we walk with
him in the word of God, we walk with him by faith, and where
man, poor puny man that shall be soon ushered into eternity,
dares to lift up his fist, dares to lift up his wisdom, his philosophies,
his Research is scientific so-called oppositions of science that the
Word of God says falsely, so-called true science. It observes that
which the Lord has created and made and is beautiful, false
science. It supposes and it challenges
and it despises the Lord God who made all things and by which
true science is truly examined. Solemn thing to be a poor man,
fallen man, sinful man that shall appear in the presence before
God and have to give an account how that he has ridiculed the
word of God, pulled it apart, despised it, taken it from others
and not embraced it himself. May none of us be in that. most
solemn, solemn position, but walk by faith. The second thing I bring before
you is that which is set before us in Amos, and really it is
something that really does not hardly need to
be set forth. It is a question, how can two
walk together except they be agreed? You cannot get two people
on earth and get them to walk together closely at peace and
harmony if they are not in agreement. And so with Enoch, when we read
that he walked with God, we would know this, that he was in agreement
with God. He spoke earlier in the week
of the need to be held to be submissive to the will of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ in the
Garden of Gethsemane, nevertheless not my will, but thy will be
done, a complete agreement with his Father. And so if you and
I are to walk with God, then it will be in agreement with
him. Micah, he sets before us the path that is to be a humble
path. One of the greatest sins of man
is his pride, to lift up his head in pride against God. Those that walk in pride, says
Nebuchadnezzar, he is able to abase, and he does abase, So
in Micah chapter 6 and verse 8, He hath showed thee, O man,
what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to
do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. In the margin it says, Humble
thyself to walk. Not only here is the humility
set forth, but justly, and to love, mercy. But that spirit
of humility, dear friends, may we always be warned. When pride
rises up, when we refuse to bow and humble ourselves before God,
before his instruments, before men, before the Church of God,
Pride is not walking with God. In Acts chapter nine, we read
of the churches of God there, that they were walking in the
fear of the Lord. This was a time after their times
of persecution when Paul, Saul had been converted and brought
to walk with the Lord instead of against him. We read, then
had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria
and were edified. And walking in the fear of the
Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied. Their time of great persecution
under Saul had come to an end. and they then walked in the fear
of the Lord. When Paul writes in Romans 8,
he speaks of the vital necessity of walking in the Spirit and
not in the flesh. Our fleshly lusts and all what
is in our members is not of God. We are not to walk in ways of
carnality and after the flesh, but after the Spirit. We are also to walk in a path
of love. Again and again, the Lord says
this, if a man love God, then he is to love his brother whom
he had not seen. If he is to love God, whom he
has not seen. His brother he sees, his brother
he loves, and he is to walk in love. That is to be the way that
we are to walk as Enoch walked. We also have set before us by
John in his first epistle that we are to walk with him in light
as he is in the light. So we also are to walk in light. If we walk in darkness, then
we cannot say that we have fellowship with him and walk with him. With Daniel, he confesses in
Daniel chapter 9 of the sins of Israel, and one of the sins
that he sets forth and confesses is that they were not walking
in his commandments, they were not walking in his ways. If we
are to walk with God, then we are to walk in his commandments
and walk in his ways. There are many other aspects
set forth in the word of God of how we are to walk with God. And if we study the epistles,
especially to the churches, then we are given a picture of how
we are to walk with God and how we are to please God. Well, I want to look then thirdly
at where God's people are called to walk with him. we might be tempted to think,
if we walk with God, then we shall not have any troubles or
trials or sicknesses in our lives. But again, the picture is very
different in the Word of God. Yes, we are not told the details
of Enoch's life. We don't know what trials he
had, what sicknesses he had or anything. But we are told of
the lives and the path of those that Paul wrote to in the Thessalonians
and of the churches that are to walk with God. And so what
is the path? Where are we called to walk with
him? The first one I mentioned is
walk with the Lord in prayer. Our Lord came from the Father
to this earth, and he speaks of the time that he had with
his father. While he was on earth, he spent
whole nights in prayer unto God. You and I, if we walk with God,
we'll do so with a path of prayer. We cannot see God. He is everywhere. He has promised to be with us
always. But to truly walk with him, it
will be that we are called to walk a path of prayer. And it is in that way that we
draw near unto God and find access with him and commune with him
and fellowship with him. In that sense, it is a blessed
place that we are called to walk with him. And may we have a renewed
sense of that, the preciousness, the blessings, the loveliness
of prayer. of walking with the Lord in the
closet. The next I bring before you is
that of tribulation. The Lord said, in me you shall
have peace, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be
of good cheer, I've overcome the world. He testifies that
ye must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom. Troubles and
trials and afflictions and crosses will attend those that are walking
with God. And we must be clear of that.
We're not to think, well, because this has befallen me and this
trouble and this sickness and this trial, I can't be walking
with God. When we think of the life of
Joseph, how he was dealt with by his brothers, how he was falsely
accused and put in prison, in every place we read that he was
walking with God. The Lord was with Joseph, what
he did, the Lord was walking with him in those places and
in that tribulation. Don't judge our walk with God
by the things that come upon us outwardly. We may have the
Lord with us and walk with the Lord in the fires that the martyrs
had, in the persecutions that the people of God have known
through the years. in the things that we are walking
through now as a nation, in captivity like Daniel was in Babylon, a
strange land, whatever it is in that tribulation, the Lord
calls his people to walk with him in those paths. It is also in a path of enduring,
being tempted. The Lord himself was tempted
and He is able to succour those that are tempted. It's when in
thought, in word, in deed, we take up with those temptations
that come upon us from without, out, or from within, that then
that is sin to us. Our sin, it rises up, and those
corruptions are our own corruptions. But when we are led away of our
own lust and are tempted, that James sets before us is sin. And so those are the people of
God, those that walk with God. We are not to think that they
are sinless. We are not to think that they
are not tempted. They are tempted. They do know
what it is. The Lord does succour them. The
Lord does help them. They don't delight in sin. Sin
is a cause of sorrow and a grief to them. But then they walk with
the Lord where the Lord leads them in providence. You have
in John 10, a beautiful picture of the Lord as the shepherd and
his people as the sheep. And that when he puts forth his
sheep, he goeth before them. Now with all of the people's
lives, The Lord has a path for them. When we think of Abraham,
God says to Abraham to go out from the Ur of the Chaldees into
a place that he'd tell him of, and he's brought into Canaan.
With Jacob, he is led and he goes from Canaan, and he goes
to Laban, then he goes back to Canaan, then he goes back, into
Egypt, and there he dies in Egypt. Joseph, his life is taken out
of his own control by the events of providence. No words, no leading,
no direction, but providence in every case. It takes and directs
him where he should be in each time. His choice is not who,
what pit he's thrown into, or who he shall serve, or what prison
he's put into, or even when he's called out of his prison and
the position he has next to Pharaoh. God chose all of that for him,
and he was led in that way, as shepherded by providence. And so God leads his people. Where they walk with him, he
chooses where they shall be, whether for myself, It was the
31 years in Australia and the ministry now and the time, the
29 or so years that I've had in England, then those choices
are the Lord, where he places us and where he puts us and where
our ministry is. And so again, sometimes we get
surprised by providence. Sometimes it takes us unawares
and we don't realise where this thing has come from. If we walk with God, then God
is the chooser and he is the appointer, not ourselves. And we're not to think of those
things that come upon us. Well, this surely is because
I'm not walking with God. No. why the Lord even went, and
he walked with those Hebrew children in the burning fiery furnace. And he was with Daniel in the
lion's den. He is with his people. And many
of the Lord's dear people have had some paths have been strange
paths, difficult paths, paths they've struggled with, they've
had to wrestle with, They've had to bring before the Lord,
asking of Him, why? Seeking to know the reason for
it. Sometimes like the Apostle Paul
struggling under the thorn in the flesh, the Lord not taking
it away, but giving him grace instead. And so I just want to
be clear in this last point, that even if we're like Enoch
and walking with God, we may be led as following him into
some places that are very hard for the flesh and hard to understand. But what a blessed place if it
is found, I am with thee, Israel passing through the fire. The
Lord assures his people, I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. being with them in their trials
and in their troubles, and then at last in death itself, the
Lord being with them and the Lord taking them to himself,
whether by death or whether when he comes again. But may it be
our desire, our comfort, and what we watch for and are careful
to maintain, ask the Lord that he'll maintain it for us, that
our days might be like the days of Enoch, that Enoch walked with
God and he was not for God took him. One day it shall be with
those in the church that they shall be in the full text. God shall come and take them.
And may our desire be that walking with God. May the Lord
add his blessing. Amen.