Hebrews chapter 11, and our text
will be found in verses 5 and 6. The scripture says, 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. But without faith
it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him." Now the title of the message is, that
pleased God. Scripture says, by faith, Enoch
was translated. Now, this message is, first I
have to preface this, Because what the Apostle is doing here
is he is showing us, first of all, he gives the definition
of faith. He said, faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And now,
by these examples, by these men in Old Testament times, these
elders that obtained a good report, the Apostle is going to show
us certain aspects of faith. certain benefits of faith. And the first one he shows us
was Abel's faith. He said that, by faith, Abel
offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained
witness that he was righteous. And so, Abel's faith, in offering
a blood sacrifice according to the Word of God, shows forth
justification by faith. Justification of God which is
by faith in Jesus Christ. So that's the first thing we
learn about faith. When a man believes in Christ, he's justified. He's justified before God. As Paul says in the conclusion
of his matter on justification by faith in Romans, in chapter
5 he concludes what he had said in chapter 4. In chapter 5 he
says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God. And seeing that we all have sinned
and missed the mark of God's holy perfection, seeing none
are righteous by nature, none can be justified by the law,
Christ having obtained righteousness by His own faith and obedience,
and having obtained redemption for His people, the only way
by which we as sinners may be made righteous before God is
through this matter of faith in Christ. faith in Christ. Now, when I say you're justified
by faith, we know this, your faith does not justify you. It's
God that justifies you. It's God that justifies you.
Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather
has risen again. You see, His death, His righteousness,
and His resurrection is the cause of our justification. Now faith
is something by which we receive the justification. And so we
are justified rather by the object of our faith, Christ. therefore being justified by
faith. We were justified by His faith
in God, by His faith, and we are justified in the experience
of it by believing in Christ. Our justification was decreed
by God, obtained by Christ, and imputed and imparted to us by
faith. Let's see that in Romans chapter
3. Romans chapter 3. Look at verse 21, but now the
righteousness of God without the law is manifest, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God,
notice how the righteousness is obtained by faith of Jesus
Christ, not faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe. You see, then righteousness
was obtained by Jesus Christ, and it is imputed then and imparted
to us by this matter of believing. And so Paul uses Abraham in that
passage in Romans 4, and he explains Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him for righteousness. Now, for you and I are justified
by faith without the deeds of the law, and being justified
by faith, listen, we have peace with God. That's what Paul concludes. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God. Now, that's important, isn't
it? Have peace with God. You hear men say this, and it's
like, you might as well just slap me when people say it. I've
made my peace with God. If you've made your peace with
God, you have no peace with God. You see, peace with God is only
made by Jesus Christ. And we only receive it through
faith in Jesus Christ. Now then, that's what the text
of Abel proves. Abel, by faith, offered a more
excellent sacrifice. He, by faith, offered the sacrifice
God commanded, which pictured Christ. He believed in the coming
of Christ. He believed on Christ. Therefore,
by faith, he was justified. He had that testimony, that witness
that he was righteous. God testifying of his gift. Now then, we come to our text.
And now we're going to see something else about faith. It says, by faith Enoch was translated. Translated that he should not
see death and was not found because God had translated him. Now the history of this man Enoch
is very short. He's the seventh generation from
Adam. He's not the seventh one from Adam, but seventh generation
from Adam. And this man, the scripture says that he walked
with God. If you read that in Genesis chapter
5, it says he walked with God and was not. For God took him. A very short, very short time. He walked with God and was not. In other words, when it says
God took him in Genesis 5, that's what Paul means by translated.
He translated him. God took him so that he should
not die. But in a moment, Enoch was translated. He was his corruption put on
incorruption. His mortal put on immortality,
and God raised Him without dying. That's what it means. Very miraculous
thing. It only happened to two people.
Two people, and that was this man, Enoch, and Elijah, are the
only two that I know of that were translated without seeing
death. In other words, what happened
to Enoch? What happened to Enoch will happen
then to every one of us who believe on Christ. Do you not get that?
Every one of us will be translated. We will be changed. We will be... Our corruption must put on incorruption. Our mortal must put on immortality. And this will happen at the resurrection. At the resurrection. And what was the testimony that
he had then before this miraculous event? Before his translation? It was this. Before he was translated, he
had this testimony that he pleased God. That he pleased God. Therefore,
we may clearly see that these two are the same thing then. Walking with God and experiencing
the favor and presence of God. Of necessity, we must be at peace
with God. You cannot walk with God unless
you're at peace with God. You cannot walk with God unless
you please God. The Scriptures declare, how can
two walk together except they be agreed? You cannot walk with
God, you cannot please God, except you have peace with God, unless
you are in agreement together. Now, Enoch was not a sinless
man. He was a son of Adam, just like
we are. He was a son... This is why he
needed to be translated. Because he was a sinner. He was
a sinner just like we are, and therefore we know His pleasing
God did not come by His works or self-righteousness, as false
religion would have you believe. False religion would have you
believe that translation comes by the works of the flesh. That our peace with God, our
walk with God, comes by our obedience to the law or by moral character. These liars, they preach that
we can, by our own self-righteousness and personal obedience, achieve
some enlightened state. That's what they believe. That
we, by our change in character or habits, might come closer
to God. Walk closer to God. that they
might feel His presence in the flesh and become by their works
and personal righteousness at peace with God. Now Enoch was
a truly miraculous and unique thing that happened to him that
will not happen to most of God's people. There will be some in
the resurrection that will experience what Enoch experienced. But notice his testimony that
he pleased God was not in his translation, but rather by his
faith. His faith he pleased God. By faith Enoch was translated
and he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith
it is impossible to please Him. You see, Enoch pleased God by
faith. by faith. Enoch pleased God while he was
here upon the earth, the same way that every child of God may
be pleasing in the sight of God, and that is faith in Jesus Christ. This morning, do you desire to
please God? Because you can't walk with Him
unless you please Him. You can't walk with Him unless you please
Him. Except you and God be in agreement, you cannot walk together. How then can a man walk with
God? Only through faith in Jesus Christ. Now I tell you, that it is better
to do good than evil. Isn't it? We know this. We know it's the will of God
that we walk upright, that we love one another, do good works,
take care of those that have need, feed the hungry, clothe
the naked, encourage those who are weak, read the Word, study,
pray, worship God. But listen, none of these can
please God. You can do all these things to
the best of your ability, and by them you will never please
God. When have you ever prayed enough?
When have you ever worshipped enough? Listen, when have you
ever believed enough? When have you ever loved enough
to please God? If you are trusting in any of
these things, you will never please God. You will never walk
with God. If you are trusting in these
things, you have made a covenant, not with God, but with death
and with hell, and God will disannul that covenant when you see Him.
He will disannul it. Scriptures are not ambiguous. As I've said before, they're
very plain. You listen. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. And this is not just any faith.
This is not faith in your faith, but rather faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ. For we do none of these things
for righteousness. We who believe in Christ, we
look to none of our works to please God or to give us favor
to walk with Him in peace. There is nothing that we can
do to earn that. And only true believers recognize
this. Only those who are quickened
by the Spirit recognize our inability to please God. Our absolute,
complete, utter ruin and inability to satisfy the justice of God
by any merits of the flesh. Therefore, we look by faith to
Jesus Christ and only in Him are we able then to please God. Only by looking to Him. By faith
in Christ, We receive the peace and favor of God which Jesus
alone, our substitute, has provided. You see, salvation is something
altogether worked outside of us. Salvation was something wrought
of God, all of God. It's God who purposed it. God
purposed the salvation of His people. He purposed that you
should be holy. I like this. You know, one person
had a difficulty with the matter of election. And she said, I
didn't understand it. And one pastor said, well, it's
very simple. Did God save you on accident
or on purpose? On purpose. Well, now you understand
election. You understand election. Not
complicated, is it? God didn't save you on accident.
He saved you on purpose. He designed it. He planned it.
He purposed it. And Christ Jesus accomplished
it. Salvation is not complicated
to understand. Jesus provided all the righteousness
God demanded, and His death provided all of the sacrifice God required
for our sins. And now the Holy Spirit comes
in application. That's totally outside of us.
We weren't looking for God. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. There's none
that understandeth. What were we doing? We were blind
wandering out there somewhere in the wilderness, thinking all
the while we were okay, but lost and blind and dead. And God the
Holy Spirit came and He quickened us all outside of us. All outside
of us. Salvation is outside of us. And
then God, by grace, wrought salvation in us. One of my favorite messages I've
heard A man named Peter Minnie preached it. Surprised by grace. You know, everyone who's saved
is surprised. You know that? We weren't looking
for it, we weren't asking for it. God gave it to us. We didn't earn it, we didn't
merit it, we didn't wrought it ourselves. God gave it to us.
He came and He said, here, it's yours. And what'd you do? Yes, it's mine. Yes! It's mine! And you received it. You received it. That's faith.
Faith in Christ receives what God has purposed, what Christ
has wrought. Believer, I know this, that often
you are troubled by your sin, by the weakness of your own flesh,
your eyes stray from Christ, your affections are cold. You
begin to look at this world, at your circumstances, at your
own heart. You know what you find when you
do that? You find no standing. You find no standing. You're like Peter. When he was
on the sea, as long as he looked at Christ, he was able to walk
freely. The moment he took his eyes off
of Christ and looked at the waves and the wind, he began to what? And so then when you start to
sink, believer, what do you do? You cry. Save me. Save me. You know, I've been
saved for a while, but how many times a day do I say that? Save
me. Save me. And you know what he does? He
saves me. Every time. Saves me. Always
saving me. Faith is always looking to Christ. So then set your eyes. Set your
eyes of faith firmly on Jesus Christ. For God is always pleased
with you. In Him. He is always pleased
with you. That's just hard to believe.
You bet it's impossible to believe, except God give you faith to
believe it. He's always pleased with you in Christ. Do you believe
that Christ is the Son of God? Have you by faith seen that all
your righteousnesses are as filthy rags? That you can never please God? Have you been exposed and stripped
and laid bare before the holy bar of God's justice? Have you
seen the sentence of death upon your own soul? How many people
wonder about somebody else? I'm not asking you to wonder
about somebody else. What about you? Don't sit and think, man I wish
so and so were here to hear this. No, you should hear this. You
should hear this. Are you exposed? Have you fled to Christ for refuge?
To lay hold on that hope set before you? I set Him before
you. Here He is. Set Him before you.
Every time I preach, I set Him before you. Lay hold on Him. That's what faith is. Faith receives. Faith lays hold on Christ. flees to Christ for refuge. Come
not by your works, not by your religious deeds, not by anything
in you, but lay prostrate at His feet. I'll tell you this. Salvation
is of the Lord. And He gives salvation to whom
He will. And whom He will, He passes by. Now what should you do as a sinner
with that information? You should lay down at his feet
until he gives it to you. All the while confessing that
if he never gives it to you, he's right. You should come like blind Bartimaeus
came. Jesus, thou son of David, give me what I got coming to
me. Is that what he said? Have mercy The leper. You should come like
that leper. Lord, if thou will, you can. Like that Canaanite woman who
said, the Lord said, is it meat to give the children's bread
to dogs? And she said, truth. One of my other favorite messages
is All dogs go to heaven. She confessed to be a dog. If God ever strips you down and
gives you this faith I'm talking about, you will confess the truth. Even the dogs receive crumbs. All of these laid prostrate at
His feet. And you know what all of these
have in common? They all found mercy. Salvation is of the Lord, He
gives it to whom He will. But I guarantee you this, anyone
who ever comes in such a manner to Christ, He always gives. I'll
tell you this, if you will not come and you are damned, It'll
be your own fault. You should come and lay down
at His feet and beg for mercy. All who trust in Christ, He promises
this, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that
believeth not shall be damned. And so everyone who comes to
God by Christ, God said, this is my beloved son, listen, in
whom I am well pleased. You see, God has united all of
his elect by faith. I mean, united all of his elect
in eternity to Christ. And when Christ came, we were
united with him. But when we were born in this
world, we weren't united with Him experimentally. We didn't
know anything about Him. We didn't know of our union with
Him. But when God comes in power and grace, He gives the experience
of salvation. The experience of salvation.
And we, by faith, become united with Christ in the inner man. He creates a new man and that's
a union with Christ. And listen, I want you to know
this, you who believe, you who trust in Christ, listen, God
is well pleased, where? In Christ. Not with Christ, but
in Christ. And if you are a believer in
Christ, you are united to Him. You are in union with Him. He is the head, and you are His
body. That's how much in union you
are with Him. Therefore, if God is well pleased
in Christ, He is also well pleased with those who are in Christ,
by faith. Are you in Christ? Are you in
Christ? this is only evidence by faith
by faith which was showed by enoch enoch pleased god how by
faith by faith he pleased god not by his works but by his faith
in christ so paul says without faith in is impossible to please
him So then only believers in Christ, only those who are quickened
by the Spirit, born again of the power and will of God, only
these please God and are able to walk with Him in peace. Now then, I'm going to give you
some things that what happened to Enoch has also happened to
us in some measure. This translation of Enoch, I
want you to see that in part, at least at this point, we have
all had some experience in this translation, and says that by
faith Enoch was translated. And I tell you, you who believe,
you by faith have been translated. You've been translated. Not in
the full measure of the resurrection as of yet, which you will. Now,
these two men, Elijah and Enoch, they received translation that
they should not taste death. They were resurrected before
they had ever died. And I'll tell you, believer,
that is part of our inheritance. We too shall not die. You got that? Our Lord said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in me shall
not die. Believest thou this? Well, that's
hard to believe. Well, it's impossible, except
God give you grace. Now, this body is going to the
ground, but I'm not going to die, and neither are you. Neither
are you the body may die, but we're going to be in heaven and
one day our body too will be Translated it will come up from
the grave. It will be translated from corruption
from Corruption to incorruption as mortal shall put on immortality
and death shall be swallowed up in victory. So we have that
in common We're going to be just like Enoch So there's nothing
He received that we who believe on Christ will not receive. Now
then, secondly, we've also been translated in this way. We've
been translated from death to life, haven't we? We've been
translated. Every believer in Christ has
been translated by God spiritually. In Ephesians chapter 2 it says,
And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom we all had our conversation
in time past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you are saved. and hath raised us up together
with Christ, and made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ,
that in the ages to come He might show forth the exceeding riches
of His grace in His kindness toward us. Now that's all that
salvation that happened outside of us? That's what He did. We
were in union with Christ, we died with Christ, we rose with
Christ, but God willing to show this. He's going to show this
to us. How? It's manifest by this. who are saved by grace through
faith. And that not of yourself. What's
not of yourself? Faith is not of yourself. It,
faith, is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus, unto good works which God hath before ordained,
that we should walk in them. See, then, we have this same
witness, this same testimony of Enoch, that we believe God,
that we trust in Christ, and we have been translated from
death to life. Second of all, we've been translated
from darkness to light. Paul said, you who were sometimes
darkness. Not you were in darkness, you
were darkness. You were darkness. You were groping
about in the dark trying to find some satisfaction, some hope, and finding none. We were blind and dead to the
knowledge of Christ, and the Scripture says, man by nature,
it says, the natural man receiveth not the things of God, for they
are foolishness to him. Is this foolishness to you? Well,
it's because you're a natural man, you can't receive these
things. Neither can he know them, because he spiritually discerned.
The gospel of Christ is to the lost man a mystery. Paul said
we speak the gospel in a mystery, the hidden wisdom of God in a
mystery. Things the princes of the world
did not know, they could not know. And yet, how do you know
them? Because God hath freely given
them to you. freely given them to you. You
have been translated from darkness to light. Now you see! Now you see. Scripture tells us that in, I
believe it's 2nd Corinthians, it tells us
that God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness
has shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. You see, you who know Christ,
you who believe on Christ, you have been translated. Now I know
this, you don't know, you don't think you know all things, but
you do. You know all things. If you know Christ, you know
all things. Now you don't know Him like you
want to know Him. But you do know them. And I tell you, this
knowledge is not common knowledge. This light is not common light.
Man by nature does not see the things of God. And this is the testimony that
Enoch had, that he pleased God. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is. and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him do you believe that god is i know this god is manifest in the flesh i know
this our god died for our sins in the flesh. I know that He's
risen from the dead, and I know this, one day He is coming to
finish this work that He started in me. He that hath begun a good
work in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.
I know that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him. You see, I only seek Him because He gave me grace to seek
Him. And I know this, He'll finish
the work. Have you believed on the Son of God? Because without
faith, it is impossible to believe God. Now, I'm going to close
with four practical things concerning this faith. Four practical things
concerning faith. Since faith is the only way to
please God, and it's only faith in Christ that pleases God, how
can you obtain faith? And that's not a practical question.
How does one obtain faith? If that's the only way to please
God, how can I have it? Do you desire to have faith?
How can one obtain this? I tell you this, not by any works
of the flesh. You won't merit it. You can't
buy it. You can't earn it. It's a free
gift of God's grace. It's free. You can't add anything to it.
The minute you add something to it, you defile it and it's
all worthless. Faith is something God must give. Jesus said this himself, this
is the work of God. You want to know what the work
of God is? It is that you believe on him
whom he has sent. How can one obtain faith? It's
only obtained by grace, the grace and power of God to give it. And so then do you desire faith?
Maybe you should go to the one that gives it. Seek it. And I've told you. God is gracious. God is gracious. Second of all. Do I have saving faith? That's a question in it. You
who believe I know it plagues you often because your faith
is weak. Your faith is so small at times. And I know it plagues you. How
do you know you have saving faith? Well, man's faith is only as
good as the object of his faith. If your object is yourself, you
have no good faith. It's not real faith. You have
an object in your works. If that's your faith in your
works, it's no good faith. The only assurance that a man
could have is by looking at the object of his faith. You desire assurance? Stop looking
at yourself and look to Christ. Is He successful? Then you have real faith if He
is your object. That's how you know you have
saving faith. And you know what? You may know this. Some people
say, well, you can't know this until... John didn't say that.
He said that you may know, that you may know that you have faith,
that you believe on the Son of God, that you may know. You desire
to know? Then look to Christ. Well, I don't know! Well, look
to Christ. And all who look to Christ have true saving faith. And last, what will be the end
of all true faith? The same as Enoch. By faith, Enoch was translated.
By faith, Scott will be translated. By faith, JD will be translated. By faith, you'll be translated. That's the end. We will have
exactly what our brother had. He's not getting away with anything
we ain't gonna get. It's part of our inheritance.
He may have received a little early, but we're all going there. Who? Those who please God. How? By faith. And how do you walk
then? How do you continue to walk until you receive it? You
walk by faith. You walk by faith. The just shall
live by faith. And we who live by faith have
this testimony. We please God. May God give you joy in your
heart for that. In Christ, you've pleased God. I pray God will
bless this to you. Stand and be dismissed.