I want you to turn with me to
Genesis chapter 5. And let's read a few verses here
through these genealogies of Adam. This is the book of the generations
of Adam. In the day that God created man
in the likeness of God made he him male and female, created
he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam in the
day that they were created. And Adam lived a hundred and
thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his
image, and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam, after he
had begotten Seth, were eight hundred years, and he begat sons
and daughters. And all the days that Adam lived
were 930 years and he died. And Seth lived 105 years and
begat Enos. And Seth lived after he begat
Enos 807 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days
of Seth were 912 years and he died. And Enos lived 90 years
and begat Cain. And Enos lived after he begat
Cainan 815 years and begat sons and daughters, and all the days
of Enos were 905 years and he died. And Cainan lived 70 years
and begat Mehali Leo. And Cainan lived after he begat
Mehali Leo 840 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Cainan were
910 years, and he died. And Mahala-Leo lived 65 years
and begat Jared. And Mahala-Leo lived, after he
begat Jared, 830 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the
days of Mahala-Leo were 895 years, and he died. And Jared lived 162 years, and
he begat Enoch. And Jared lived after he begat
Enoch 800 years and begat sons and daughters, and all the days
of Jared were 962 years, and he died. And Enoch lived 65 years
and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after
he begat Methuselah, 300 years and begat sons and daughters,
and all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with
God and was not, for God took him." And we'll stop there with
these genealogies. I want to talk to you tonight
about one of these old patriarchs, Enoch. Enoch, it says in the
in the book of Jude was the seventh from Adam. Now, these generations,
as I've read them to you, didn't even mention Abel. He was a son
of Adam. They didn't mention Cain. He
was a son of Adam. It didn't mention, it always,
after each one of these men, I just read to you, it says this,
And Seth lived 105 years and begat Enos, and Seth lived after
he begat Enos 807 years and begat sons and daughters, but they
are not mentioned in this genealogy. All through this genealogy, all
of the sons of Adam are not recorded here. All of the sons of Jared,
all the sons of Enoch, all these different ones are not even mentioned
in this genealogy. This genealogy has something
to do with the men whose names were written not just in this
book, but were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And not
only that, but these men were preachers. These men were significant
because of their calling. God set them apart and calls
their name because through these men, if you go over to, I think
it's Luke chapter 3 and read through the genealogies, beginning
with Joseph talking about Christ, traces his ancestry back, you
will see each one of these generations named in that lineage. And so
that promise seed was passed through these men, through these
men, all down through time. They stood and called and preached
and declared that lineage of Christ and all through these
men. And when Christ traces that lineage back to Adam, who was
the son of God, he says, He traces right back through these men.
But none of these other men's names are even mentioned, not
even mentioned in the genealogy. He was preceded by Abel and Seth
and Enos and Cainan, Mahalaleel and Jared. And you're going to notice when
you go through the scriptures that every now and then God will
preserve the name of an ungodly man. He'll preserve his name
and he'll set him up as a demonstration or he'll set him up as an example
of whatever that error is, whatever that sin is, whatever that example
is that he's going to illustrate, whatever these men are, sometimes
he'll use this name. And I demonstrated that for you
in my message on Cain and Abel. where he uses Cain's name all
through the New Testament. In fact, he calls it the Way
of Cain. That's how he describes it. But here in chapter 5, he's talking
about these generations of Adam, and these were men who stood
and proclaimed the gospel, just as Abel did. And after Abel's
death, God raised up another seed unto Adam, and He begins
these generations with that new seed, and He begins with this
man called Seth. And as I look and consider these
early men of God, I believe I see a foundation of truth being established
in the earth, and it seems to me to be a progressive revelation. I see some things happening in
their fundamentals back here in the garden. I see the fundamentals
of redemption being exampled in the garden when God came and
reconciled Adam to himself, slayed the lamb, covered him with the
skins. I see those fundamental things being laid down. And then
I see them being declared, the gospel being preached to Abel
and Cain both, one receiving it, the other not. demonstrating
all kinds of things to us there. He is demonstrating through this
man, Abel, the Lamb. He brings to light the Lamb and
its significance in worship. If you are going to approach
God, there is only one way to do it, and that is through the
Lamb, through the blood. You are not coming any other
way. God's not going to respect you any other way. He's not going
to respect your coming. He's not going to respect your
person. He's not going to respect your sacrifice. You're going
to bring the Lamb or you're not coming. He makes that perfectly
clear back here between Abel and Cain. And then Seth. Seth comes along. I see Seth
as the renewal of God's promise and assurance of his future generations. God has a purpose in these men. He has a purpose in creation.
And just because Cain rose up and slayed Abel doesn't mean
this purpose is going to be thwarted. It's not going to be thwarted.
It's going to come to pass. And God raises up a new seed
and calls his name Seth. And then Enos. This was not much
said about Enos, but it does say this back in chapter 4. It
says, And Adam knew his wife again, verse 25, and she bare
a son, and called his name Seth. For God, said she, hath appointed
me another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth,
to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos.
Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. When the Lord
raised up this grandson of Adam, this man called Enos, through
his person and through his preaching and through his presence and
influence, men began to gather themselves. They began to see
a difference. This thing was not universal.
God had already declared that in Cain and Abel. God has a people. It was not God's intention to
save Cain. Were it God's intention, Cain
would have been saved. He wasn't saved. Does that throw the fault of
His damnation upon God? Not at all. God was just in His
judgment of Cain, just as He is with all sinners. And yet
no man is going to be saved unless God, in His sovereign purpose,
calls that man out of his state, calls him out of that darkness
in which he's born. And this is what's going on.
And they begin to realize these things as men begin to populate. And these things were preached
and studied. And these men stood up, and God gave them a revelation
of heart. And through His Spirit, they
begin to preach and declare these promises of God. And they begin
to gather. They begin to gather in assemblies
and begin to worship God. And they called upon God. They
began to understand that God's name was manifested in these
things. It's manifested in this lamb.
God's name is. God can't just excuse sin. God just can't erase sin. Sin has to be paid for. And you
don't have the price. So God has to appoint a substitute. That's what the lamb was all
about. And then with the Lamb came the promised Redeemer. We're
to view the Lamb in the light of the promised Redeemer. And
they began to see that and declare this. And people began to gather.
Not all of them gathered. Not all of them agreed. But the
ones who did gathered and called upon the name of the Lord. And
so it is we meet today. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name. That's what they were doing.
He said, there am I in the midst. And here he was in their midst,
even in this day. And so through this man named
Enos, men began to assemble themselves into groups and began to worship
God. And then you go down through
these other men, Cain and Mahalaleel and Jared, And except to say
their names are identified with the names of God's elect and
that they stood in their day and declared the testimony of
God to a dying world, we don't know a whole lot else about these
men. I feel certain their names would
not be mentioned did they not stand and declare the truth.
Their names would not be on this list. I know that they did that. What they did, the significance
of it, I have no idea. I have no idea, except to say
that they stood in their generation and declared these things. A
world which appeared to be out of control and in a downward
spiral to hell, and as you go through these, eventually we're
going to come to know And when we come to Noah, we come to see
this downward spiral of men. You begin to see the end of it. God said He looks upon the earth
and it repented Him that He ever made man. And He's going to wipe
them out. He's going to wipe them off the
face of the earth. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
He said, ever imagination of the thought of men's hearts was
only evil continually. And while others were swept away
with this current of man's depravity, these all lived and walked with
God and stood as faithful ambassadors of God on this earth to dying
sinners. And like I said before, you can
go over to the book of Luke and you can see their names remembered
in the lineage of Christ. And this, I believe, is the story
of faith in the scriptures of this man called Enoch. He's called
the seventh from Adam because Cain also, his firstborn son,
he called Enoch. And to distinguish this son of
Adam from that son of Cain, he's called in Scripture the seventh
from Adam. Seventh is the number of perfection.
This man stood in a perfect holiness before God. He stood in a perfect
righteousness before God. This man took the name of God. That Scripture back here in chapter
4 where it says, "...then began men to call upon the name of
the Lord." That is also interpreted this way by some of the translations,
"...then began God to call on men by His name." He began to
call men by His name, identified with Him. And so it is with these
men. I'd say this, for every son which
God raises up, Satan produces one and attempts to bury his
name. You know what the word Enoch means? I looked that up
today. It means initiated. Initiated. And I always think of that like
a club. When we were kids we had clubs
and to get in you had to, we'd dream up some kind of initiation
you had to do, you know, and then you could get into the club.
But that's not what the word means. Initiate means to start
something. You initiate a race or you initiate
something. It means to begin. It means a
new beginning. It means to start, to originate,
to introduce something new. It means to instruct or guide.
And it also means to admit into membership. And so it is that
this man Enoch, God begins to introduce something new, something
that we haven't read before, something in this assembling
of the saints that's not mentioned before, and that is that Enoch
walked with God. He walked with God. Now, I haven't
read anything about that since way back yonder in Genesis chapter
3. where God came down and walked with Adam in the garden in the
cool of the day. He came down and walked with
him. That walk was lost in the fall. You find Adam by himself. He
wasn't walking with God. He was hiding behind the trees,
sewing up aprons to cover his nakedness and his shame. What's
restored in this reconciliation of God, and we're beginning to
see those things established in these first men of these first
civilizations, is this walk. This walk is coming back into
play. God is bringing to light this
walk. Enoch walked with God. He walked
with God. Now, here's something for you
to think about. If I did my math right, Adam
was not only alive when Enoch was born. Adam. Adam. Seven generations had passed.
Adam was not only alive, but he continued to live another
178 years after Enoch was born. Adam and Enoch walked with one
another. All of these men that God had
called out and made preachers in whatever place it was of their
abode, wherever it was that they were at, God established, I believe
it says here in chapter 4, that then began men to call upon the
name of the Lord. That tells me there was local
assemblies around and places and they gathered and worshipped
God. And each one of these men were pastors, preachers, who
stood there and instructed those assemblies, who instructed their
families. They were priests to their families. Might have called
them clans back then. I don't know what they called
them. But there was generations and generations of men. And these
men lived to be 900 and some years old. And if you go through
here and add all of these up, they were so old and then had
a child. And then this one was so old
and had a child. You add them all up, Adam was
still alive. Adam was having fellowship with
Enoch and he knew Methuselah who came after Enoch and lived
in fellowship with him for so many years. These eight patriarchs
all knew one another, all fellowshiped in the gospel, all worshiped
God in spirit and in truth. And actually, here's something
else you can think about, Methuselah not only knew Adam and had fellowship
with Adam, but he also knew Noah. This man's knowledge spanned
from Adam, the first man, all the way to the flood. Methuselah. Think about it. He had fellowship
with all these sons of God all the way to the flood. What a
picture, Christ. Who has fellowship with His church
from the beginning to the judgment. All the way. What a picture.
This one life, spanned in knowledge from the garden to the judgment. But tonight I want us just to
look at this one individual whom the Lord singles out and calls
our attention to, this man called Enoch. Enoch is mentioned in
the Scripture several times, but in three key places that
I want you to study, so if you're taking notes you can jot down
these Scriptures. First of all, here in Genesis
chapter 5 that I just read to you a few moments ago, And then,
if you will, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. This man called Enoch is mentioned
here in Hebrews chapter 11 in God's roll call of faith. These
faithful men that God calls into our site for us to look at, calls
our attention to these men to illustrate the necessity and
the importance of faith and to declare to us what this faith
is all about. And he says here in 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. But without
faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God
must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him." And then if you'll go back to the
last book next to Revelations, the book of Jude, and hear warning
about false prophets. warning about the danger of their
influence, warning about how just a few men murmuring and
complaining caused the whole of Israel except for two men
to fall in the wilderness, how that Satan's deceit and his deceitful
lies that he that He weaves out and spreads out, and the angels
begin to hear Him in glory, and one-third of the heavenly host
fell. You can read about it here in the book of Jude. The folks
in Sodom and Gomorrah, somebody sat up over there and said, well,
you know, hath God surely said, and began to question God, and
began to set up a religion by their own reasoning, and they
changed the glory of God into an image made like unto man,
and then birds, and then four-footed beasts, and creeping things,
and God gave them up. He gave them over to themselves
to do what they want and dishonor themselves among themselves.
All of these things caused by the influence of these men and
women who sneak in unaware. You don't even see them come
in. They come in and sit down, and they're quiet, and just little
by little, little by little, just a little complaint here
and there, and a little, well, you know, he's a good preacher,
but now there's a few things he's off on, you know. And after
a while, there you go, there you go, it's gone. And he warns
us about these things. And he said this is something
that Enoch dealt with in his day. In his day. Look here in verse 14 of Jude. And Enoch also, the seventh from
Adam, prophesied of these. He preached about these. He experienced
this in his day. Seven generations from Adam,
and here they are, false prophets, entering in, sons of Cain, following
after that way of Cain, coming in. complaining, murmuring, questioning,
all these types of things. And Enoch also, the seventh from
Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with
ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and
to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly
deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard
speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him, against
this promised seed, against this Christ. against this one sacrifice. Enoch was a man who was both
a son of Adam and a son of God and an heir according to the
promise. Enoch was a man who believed God. How could he believe God? It
doesn't say anything at all about God speaking to him. But he spoke
to him through Jared. And the Haliel spoke to Jared. And so on and so on and so on
and so on all the way back to Adam. who preached to Abel and
Cain. This thing of hearing has to
do with preaching. God established it in the beginning,
in the garden, and He follows all the way through the Scriptures.
He doesn't vary from it. We think today we hear from men
that this is something new that the Lord started when He appeared
on the earth. It's not new. This preaching of the gospel
goes all the way back to the beginning of time. Turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 4. Let me show you something while
we're on this subject. Let me just show you something
over here in Hebrews chapter 4. This is about Israel. Israel out in the wilderness
that I was telling you about just a few minutes ago. And they
sat out there and they listened to these complainers and murmurs. And finally God got fed up with
them. And He said, these ten times, He said, you stood before
Me and accused me of these things, and I've let them go. I've sent
the means there. I've forgiven you of these things.
I've let these things go." He said, it ain't going to be 11th
time. These 10 times, and that's it. It's over. Now listen to
what he says down here in chapter 4 about that. "'Let us therefore
fear lest a promise being left to us of entering into his rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it.' For unto us was
the gospel preached, now listen, as well as unto them." What was
preached? The gospel. Why, I thought they
worshipped the Lamb. They did. They did. With a view toward that promised
seed that was going to come. They heard the gospel. In that
temple and in those sacrifices and in that priesthood, Jesse,
they heard the gospel. They heard the gospel as well
as unto us, but it didn't profit them because it wasn't mixed
with faith in them that heard it. Let's take a little bit of time
now and consider this man Enoch and his walking with God. Enoch was a man who was both
the son of Adam and the son of God and heir. He was a man who
believed God. Enoch was a man whose life is
summed up and preserved in the Scripture as walking with God. And Enoch pleased God and he
left that legacy to his children. And Enoch was a man that God
translated so as that he should not see death. It just says he
was not. He walked with God and he was
not. Folks got to looking for Enoch
and Enoch wasn't there. He was kind of like Elijah. That
chariot come down and scooped him up and took him right off
into glory. Enoch, he just walked with God and walked right into
glory. He never saw death. Never saw death. But here's what I want you to
see. The scriptures testify that Enoch pleased God. Until God
is pleased, there cannot be a walking with God. God must be pleased. Listen to the prophet. He said,
can two walk together except they be agreed? You can't do
it, can you? I want to. I want to. I meet folks around
in this community. I'd love to be their friend.
I'd love for them to come and work. But we can't walk together
because we're not agreed. We can't hold a conversation
together, let alone walk together. So long as a man walks contrary
to God, God walks contrary to him. Two cannot walk together
except they be agreed. Enoch, like every other son of
God, came forth from the womb speaking lies just like Cain.
He was born with the same nature as Cain. Born under the same
wrath that Cain was born under. Born into the same ignorance,
in that same darkness and blackness. He was conceived. David said,
I was conceived in iniquity and I was brought forth from the
womb speaking lies. He said, I went astray as soon
as I was born. speaking lies. That's his story. That's who
he was. In order for his walk with God, he must needs have
been reconciled to the truth. He had to be reconciled. He had
to be reconciled to the truth, to the Christ who is the truth,
and to the testimony of those who were called of God before
him. He heard the gospel. He had to be reconciled to what
he heard. Nobody is going to be saved until
God sends the gospel to them. They have to hear. They have
to hear. Election does not mean that you
don't have to hear the gospel. It means God is going to send
the gospel to you. That's what it means. Does that
mean that we ought to just draw our hands up and say, well, you
know, I went down one time. I'm going to get off my notes
for a minute. We went down to Florida to hold a meeting. This
had been some 30 years ago. And they didn't have a place
to meet, so we met over at this Seventh-day Adventist church.
And they meet on Saturdays, the old Sabbath day they meet there,
so on Sundays they didn't use their facilities, and we rent
the facilities and we had this meeting. And Jay Wimberley and
several of us went down there to hold a meeting for them. And
what I remember about is before the meeting, we were waiting
on folks to come and I started looking around and there was
no signs. There was nothing there to tell folks that we were meeting
there. Just the old Seventh Day Advent sign and stuff like that.
That's all was there. And after a while, Jay said,
Brother, shouldn't we print up a little sign or something, stick
it out here and say, you know, on Sunday afternoon, two o'clock,
we're going to meet here?" And he said, oh, well, he said, if
they're God's elect, they'll know where to go. That's the
kind of foolishness that gets you in trouble. My own brother said to me one
time, he said, if I believe what you believe, I wouldn't preach.
I said that myself, the first time I ever heard the gospel.
And I said, well, I said, actually, if I believed it was up to man,
I wouldn't preach because it wouldn't be any use. Man's dead. Lazarus was dead. He laid in
that tomb dead. You could stand out there and
tell him what he needed to do, and you could preach this reform
doctrine to him, and you could stand there and beg him, and
you could appeal to him, and you could do whatever you wanted.
What he needed was for the Son of God to come up to that tomb
and say, come out, and give him life. We're dead in trespasses
and sin. Man is dead. God took Ezekiel
out and he said, son of man, what do you see? He said, oh,
I can see bones. Wasn't any life anywhere, just
bones. And he said, behold, there's very many and they're very dry.
They're dead. They wasn't fresh dead, they'd
been dead a long time. They'd been dead since Adam.
They was dead, dry bones. He said, can these bones live? Now brother, that's the thing.
If you're going to stand up here and preach the gospel, you're
going to have to know that men are dead. They're not holding their two
fingers up and going down for the third time. They're dead.
They're dead. The only way they're going to
live is for you to do what God said to do. He said, Ezekiel
prophesied to the bones. What am I going to tell them?
Tell them to live. They're bones. They're bones. Can these bones
live? Oh, Lord God, thou knowest. But
if you say they can, I'll preach to them. That's exactly what
I think. That's exactly what Moses said.
He said they'll live, Jesse. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. But they can't believe. Natural man, he doesn't receive
the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them for
they are spiritually discerned. But it pleased God. It pleased
God. That's what Enoch did. He pleased
God. How did he do it? By faith. How
did he get it? God gave it to him. How come
him to get it? Because God said he would. That's
why his daddy preached, and that's why his daddy before him preached,
and his daddy before him preached, and that's why I'm here in Taylor,
Arkansas preaching to you. Because God said He would! And
I believe Him. I believe Him. And I got proof
of it sitting right here on my front bench. Dead sinners, give
them life! Live! Live! Come out of that
darkness! Come out of that hole! Come out
of that tomb! And He come out. Ain't that what
it says? He come out. Oh, that's what happened to Enoch.
That's exactly what happened to Enoch. You're not going to
walk with God until God gives you life. You're not going to
walk with Him until He walks with you. Adam wasn't walking
with God. He was hiding in the trees, hiding
in the garden, hiding in his ignorance, sewing up big leaf
aprons to cover his nakedness. He was in darkness, deadness. He didn't know God. He lived
a pretense. For a pretense, he made long
prayers. For a pretense, he went out and
gave his offering. It was all a pretense. Oh, it
looked good before men, but not before God. You're going to walk
with God. God has to come to you. God came
to Adam in the garden. Adam didn't come to God. He wasn't
even seeking God. He was just worried about the
judgment God was going to pronounce on him. That's what men are.
They're worried about hell. They're looking for a fire escape.
They're looking for a ticket, a rabbit's foot to rub. They
want to whistle through the cemetery. Superstition. That's what they
want. You need life. You're dead. Enoch was dead. His daddy knew he was dead. And
he brought to him the only thing that could give him life, the
gospel. And God blessed it and gave that man life. And he walked
with God. Dead men can't walk. They just lay there. They just
lay there. Spiritually dead men. Well, we'll
hear you again someday when we get time. If I ain't too busy. Oh, here's the thing. Here's the thing about this walking.
In order to walk with God, he must need to have been reconciled
to the truth, to the Christ who is the truth, to the testimony
of those who were called of God before him. And walking together
implies friendship. Brother, if you start shooting
at me, I am not going to walk with you. If you start swinging
at me, I am not going to walk with you. If you are friends
with me, I will walk with you. When you walk with somebody,
it implies friendship, it implies love, it implies unity, it implies
common ground. If I walk with you. Fellowship,
somebody said, is fellows in the same ship. You know, I run
into people all the time, and they're straight as an arrow
in their doctrine, but they've got no fellowship with the church,
and they complain about it. but they never seem to gain any
ground toward it. To have fellowship or desire
true fellowship, we must know by experience, know in our hearts
something of the reconciliation of God. To be gracious, I need to experience
grace. To be merciful, I must need to
have received mercy. To love, I must first know the
love of God that passes all understanding. John said, He that loveth not
knoweth not God. I don't care what you say you
know. He said, He that loveth not knoweth not God. For God is love. You can't know
Him who is love and not love. Enoch was a sinner. Enoch was
a rebel. God came to him in his death,
in his darkness, in his deadness, and he came to him in his confusion
and ignorance and blackness. And he spoke to his heart. And
he broke him. And he fell down before him.
And he said, If thou wilt, thou can make me whole. Just like
that old leper. He knew what he was. God showed
him what he was. Has God showed you what you are? He made me taste of who I am. I tasted it. He showed me what
I was. He showed me my faithfulness
was nothing more than a cloak over my rebellion. He showed
me what I was. He took me down to the pit. I
know Jesse's been there. Do you understand what I'm talking
about? Have you ever been there? Have you ever seen that sin? Has the Spirit of holiness ever
taken you down and stripped you and showed you what you are?
showed you your shame, and you look around and you see a whirlwind
of sin that's just spiraling out of control, out of control.
It's growing like a bonfire all around you, and sin and ignorance
on every hand, and every church, and every man standing up, waving
his hands, talking about, I'll fly away. You'll fly away, alright,
right into judgment. Right into judgment. standing
up in ignorance. Has God ever showed you that?
I'll tell you when He does and you see another, you put your
arms around him and you say, I love you, brother. Yes, you
will. Bless your heart. You won't cuss
the preacher then. You won't cuss him. You'll love
him. You'll kiss his feet. That's what it says in Romans
10. They cried, how beautiful is the feet of them. Preach the
gospel of peace. Couldn't stand to look at him
two weeks ago. Now like the woman who came in with her hair and
cried, and her tears fell on his dirty feet, and she took
her hair and cleaned his feet. How beautiful are the feet of
men that bring glad tidings, bring this gospel. He that loveth
not knoweth not God. Born under the curse of God,
a curse that left him in darkness, unloved, unwanted, undesirable,
A curse that leads me in a wilderness surrounded by others of the same
curse. A curse that leads me to my own
reasoning and logic. A curse that leads me to the
influence of the world of Satan and of the subtlety of his ministers.
A curse that pollutes my best efforts and my best deeds and
turns them into filthy rag. A curse that reads the Word of
God but can't find any comfort. Attempts to worship God but can't
find any spirit to do it. Attempts to walk with God, but
has no sense of His presence. Does that bother you? Oh, I don't
want to get up here without His presence. I don't want to read
this book without His presence. I don't want to wake up tomorrow
morning without His presence. I need His presence. Walking
with God implies the presence of God with you. Oh, have you
ever been made aware of who you are by nature? One whose life
is summed up with a whole volume of can'ts and won'ts and will
nots. That's my biography right there. I can't, I won't, and I will
not. Have you ever thought about yourself
being alienated from God? Did God ever reveal that to you? Alienated from God? Paul told
those Gentiles, he said, you remember where God found you.
You remember, no connection to his promises, no reason in yourself
for him to show mercy to you, no hope, he said, without God
in the world. That's where he found you. Has
the Spirit of God ever led you there? Has the Spirit of holiness
ever uncovered your nakedness, showed you your shame, showed
you your rebellion? Lying there in your filth and
your degradation, lying there with nothing in yourself to recommend
you to God, lying there in your rebellion and leprosy of your
sin, has God ever come to you in His Spirit and said, I love
you with an everlasting love? Therefore have I drawn you to
myself. God ever revealed His love. I
tell you, I was sitting in the pew listening, hanging on every
word. Oh, I wanted to hear something,
something from God. I didn't care what man had to
say. I wanted to hear something from God. Will you speak to me? And he gave that man a message
on the prodigal son. And he said as that son approached
his father's house, God caused it to This work in his heart
to say, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to go where
the blessings are. I'm going to go back to my father's
house. That's the only place you can find any blessings in
his house. Ain't any blessings out there. There wasn't any blessings
in that land of Nod where Cain went. The blessings were right
there where Abel died. God's house. And that prodigal
said, I know where I'm going. I'm going back to my father's
house. I'll just go back there as a servant." And he was coming
down the road, and the father was looking out the window. He
was looking for something. Now, the boy had it in his mind
to be a servant, but the father wasn't looking for servants,
he was looking for a son. And he saw his son, and he ran
out, and he put his arms around his son, and he kissed him, and
he kissed him, and he kissed him some more. That's the love
of God. I tell you, when He finds His
Son, and He puts it in His heart to seek Him, He watches for Him. And He sees Him a great way off,
and He goes to meet Him. He goes to meet Him. And when
He meets Him, the first thing He does is demonstrate His love.
Do you know anything about that? I'll tell you this, when you
do, you'll walk with God. What am I trying to say? I'm
trying to say that Enoch had an experience of grace, and it
brought him to Christ, and he became one with Christ, and in
Christ he saw the love of the Father. Herein is love, not that
we loved Him, but that He loved us and gave us His Son for propitiation
for our sins. Showed him that love. There is not going to be any
walking with God until God is pleased and until you can see
how this just and holy God can be pleased with such a sinner
as yourself. And it is to this end that faith
is given and to this end that faith is necessary. There is
not going to be any justification of the conscience until the mind
and heart is awakened to see the love of God manifesting in
that suffering and death of Christ on the cross for a worthless
worm. When he sees that, he sees love. He understands love. The love of God is shed abroad
in his heart. Listen to this here in Romans
chapter 5. He said, Scarcely for a righteous man will one
die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare die.
But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Why? Because that sinner was
a son. That's why. Turn with me to 2
Corinthians chapter 5. In each faith takes in the fall
of man, the promised redeemer, Abel's lamb, the preaching of
the gospel. In each faith speaks of a sanctification
of faith by an imputed righteousness that God testifies as sufficient
to save. Now, faith, now I want you to
hear me, faith is not what justifies you. The book of Romans teaches
justification by faith, but it does not teach that that faith
is what justifies you. It's the merits of Christ that
justifies you. It's His suffering and death
and His imputed righteousness, and God raised Him from the dead
for our justification. Listen to this. It says he was
delivered, Romans 4, verse 25, who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. I just told you a place there
in 2 Corinthians 5. I'm going to get to it in a minute. Romans
3, verse 24, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in His blood. Faith is what appropriates
the sacrifice. Faith doesn't justify you. The
sacrifice justified you. God justified you freely by His
grace. But when He did, He justified
you by setting forth the blood of Christ and the crucifixion
of Christ in the Gospel to you, whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in His blood for the remission
of sin. And this redemption is declared
in Hebrews chapter 9 as being eternal. Listen to this. Not by the blood of goats and
calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Eternal because
it was decreed in eternity. Eternal because it was not affected
by time and circumstance. Eternal because the God who purposed
it is eternal. And eternal because the sacrifice
was eternal. It says, "...who through the
eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God." Purposed
of God in eternity, accomplished at Calvary, and it's applied
to the heart by the Spirit of God through faith in all those
that believe. By faith, it said, Enoch walked
with God. By faith. Now, I want you to
listen to this. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation." God's people are reconciled in
the purpose and mind of God from all eternity. When God appointed
for them a substitute and a Redeemer, they were justified in Him. They
were redeemed in Him according to His purpose in eternity. And
then once in the end of the world, He accomplished this redemption
in the life, the death, and resurrection of Christ. And when God came
to Adam in the garden and reconciled him, He reconciled him to an
eternal sacrifice, to an eternal substitute. to an eternal redemption. He was slain before the foundation
of the world, it says. It says his priesthood had neither
beginning of days nor end of time, and in that respect he
was like unto the high priest Melchizedek, one whose blood
was the blood of the everlasting covenant. God has reconciled
Himself in Christ. He's satisfied. He's at peace.
He's willing and justly so to reconcile sinners to Himself.
And therefore, He gives to us this ministry of reconciliation.
He's reconciled. He's reconciled. All right? What's the ministry? What's my
plea for peace? What can I tell guilty sinners?
What can I tell sinners concerning the God with whom they have to
do? Listen to this. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. He
didn't charge it to them. He charged it to Christ. That's what you tell them. That's
what you tell them. Tell them Isaiah said their warfare
is accomplished. It's over. It's over. Speak comfortably to Israel.
Tell them that warfare is over. The only basis of peace given
for guilty sinners is the basis of reconciliation wrought out
by God. A reconciliation whereby God
satisfies Himself for the sinner's sin by the substitutionary sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in verse 20, 2 Corinthians
5, We are ambassadors for Christ
as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you and Christ
did be reconciled to God for or because He hath made Him to
be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Enoch walked with God. He pleased
God because God walked with him and gave him the faith of a reconciled
sinner. This walk, and I'll close with
this, this walk with God implies continuance. Enoch didn't walk
with God for a half mile and turn around. He walked with God
into eternity. He walked with God into a translation. To walk with God implies a progression. Now, I don't know about you,
but I don't walk around in circles. And the older I get, the less
I want to walk. But when I do walk, I'm going somewhere. I'm
leaving here and going there. This thing of walking with God
implies leaving one place to get to another. To walk with God implies a destination. Those who are truly justified
and know so by faith, it says in the Scripture, walk not according
to the flesh but according to the Spirit. To walk with God
implies a confident knowledge that He's going to do you good.
Else you ain't going to walk with Him. You ain't going to
walk with Him. I'm not going to walk with God
who's going to curse me. God's going to send me to hell.
I'm not going to walk with Him. I have to come to see that He's
going to do me good. He's going to do me good. Concerning those, now listen
to me, concerning those and concerning that faith that Enoch had with
God, He goes on to say there in Hebrews chapter 11, I think
it's verse 6, he goes on to say this, He that cometh unto God
must believe that he is and is a rewarder of those who diligently
seek him. They believe that in that walk,
God's going to do them good. They're going to walk with him
because they're confident of it. They're confident of it. And to walk with God implies
His presence with us. You know what they said His name
was going to be called when He come into this world? Immanuel. What's that mean? God with us. That's what that means. And when
He took to Himself, what a pledge of salvation! What a pledge of
the gospel! What a pledge of the purpose
of God's grace. The Word was made flesh permanently. Permanently. He's not going to
leave that flesh in glory and go on back to spirit. He's a man forever. Forever. You think about that. What a
pledge. God with us in this man forever. A pledge. That's what salvation
is. Christ in you. the hope of glory. That's what this man had. That's
what Enoch found. That's why he walked with God.
And that's why he was translated, that he should not see death.