Reflections for ‘Prepared for the Rapture’: All died except Enoch – by rapturing God was showing the world that if they had not sinned, they would be gone to be with the Lord in the same manner. (Enoch – 7th generation from Adam) (Noah – 10th generation from Adam)
**We live in the 7th century or 7000th year 7th millennium since the world began.
Story of saving grace – not surrounding gloom.
Introduction: This chapter covers a period of 1,500 years. It contains the history of Adam’s family to the time of Noah. In this chapter, is the story of Enoch. He began his walk with God after his son was born. Too many men wait until they die to walk with God. Enoch was 65 years old when he began his walk. He walked with God for 300 years. The first 65 years Enoch didn’t walk with God. He lived for the world. Lived the 2nd time after Methuselah.
Cainites / Sephites - descendents of Cain lived only for the world. Great in commerce, science, arts & had great big cities. They had knowledge of every sphere of the world. People of entertainment & celebrities. They had become so wicked that God Himself had come down & said I AM going to destroy the whole thing.
Just a few lines from Enoch God had to take a stand to destroy the world.
What did God do with the man who walked with him? God took him. (He didn’t see death.)
God didn’t take away all the people in the genealogy line. They may have been good people, going to church, paying their tithes, & offering & praying daily. God knew that in a short while He would be destroying the world by a flood and He only sought one man – Enoch. A man who lived in a very sinful world – but stood head & shoulders above everyone else. He did not sit on the fence and try to determine, assess & figure out God with his intellect. He just walked with God faithfully.
The Scenario of the world – getting ready for the flood but the people thought nothing would happen. (Now also people think nothing will happen. Jesus hasn’t come so far…)
God had thought that before I let loose my wrath on the world – I’ll get Enoch. He has walked with me. What happened to the rest of the world? They had to ride the flood. Enoch didn’t have to prepare for anything in the worldly way. He had already prepared his soul for eternity.
He was walking with God. (Amos 3:3) “Can 2 walk together ……… they be agreed”
What are you going to do when the stars start falling, earthquakes & cyclones hit you. Do you want things to happen for you to take that first step – to walk with God? It’s time we stop looking for signs BUT start listening to His voice.
Enoch lived in a generation, which was surrounded by gloom, & yet he walked with God.
I’ve got a proposition! Why not walk with God now.
Testimony of Enoch:
(1) Walked with God – Gen 5:24
(2) Pleased God – Heb 11:5
(3) Warned others about the coming judgment – Jude 14
To first please God you must learn to walk with God.
In Hebrews Enoch had a testimony that he pleased God but in Genesis he walked with God. You’ll never please God if we don’t first learn to walk with Him. A lot of people are walking away from God.
John 6: 66 “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” That’s sad when you have a Christian saved by His grace, they’ve been birthed into the family of God, their sealed with the holy seal of promise, born again and then they are not pleasing God because their not walking with God.
1 Corinthian 10: 5 “But with many of them God was not well pleased...”
A lot of people think they can hide things from God. You can’t hide anything from God. It doesn’t matter where you’re at, if you’re a born again believer, God is watching you this morning.
Romans 8: 8 “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Most people think about God and Jesus but they forget about the Holy Spirit. That’s what dwells in us on the inside. There are a lot of people that leave out the spirit of God.
Micah 6: 8 says that we should walk humbly with our God. Don’t try to get proud and boastful. Just walk humbly. If God isn’t first in your life, you’ll be last.
1 John 1: 6 “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practice the truth.”
You can lie to me all you want to but the Bible says if you say you have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, you lie and do not practice the truth. God doesn’t like liars. You know why? The Bible says the devil is the father of it. There’s a lot of Christians that are lying and cheating and stealing against God today. You ever been on a trip and decide to take a short cut? There are a lot of Christians in the world talking short cuts on God.
Coming to the house of God once a month is taking a short cut and you’ll never get where God wants you to be. There are a lot of people not walking with God.
How can we ‘Walk with God?’
1. Walking in Faith: (2 Corinthians 5: 7)
One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Comes by hearing. Shown in your life by Exercising.
There’s a lot of people who if they don’t have that material portion in front of them, they don’t believe it. That’s what happened to doubting Thomas in the word of God. He said I don’t believe the Lord has risen from the dead. He said I’ll have to see him for myself. I’ll have to pierce my hand into his side and see the nail prints on his hands before I’ll believe. Some Christians not only start doubting the Lord but they start doubting their salvation and church life, the ministry and the gospel. Start walking in faith. I’m not afraid because I walk by faith and not by sight. Get off the stool of do nothing and start living by faith. When you quit living by faith you start to become afraid of this world. There are Christians like that too. They are afraid to do anything for God but they’ll do anything for you. Jesus came in that room the second time and old Thomas was there. He wasn’t there the first time. Jesus told Thomas he could touch him but that he should be able to feel him without touching him. Thomas believed. Do you believe God can do something for you this day? (Men of faith – Noah, Abraham, Elijah)
2. Walking in the Spirit: (Galatians 5: 16)
We need to teach in the spirit, sing in the spirit, preach in the spirit, walk in the spirit because the flesh will profit us nothing. Because you can never edify the body of Christ in the flesh. But there are a lot of people that are trying to do it. They are trying to be what they want to be in the flesh instead of what God can make them in the spirit. We need to walk by faith and we need to walk in the spirit. There are some Christians today that have got so far out of the will of God that they can’t hardly even sense the Spirit. Anytime you do something sinful in the eyes of God then you move out of the will of God and you try to stand up and justify that you’re in the will of God, you’ve further backslide than you thought. The Spirit of God does not tear down but builds up. It heals...it does not hurt.
3. Walking in the Light: (1 John 1: 5-7) (1 John 2: 9-11)
If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. You know why Christians can’t have fellowship with one with another? They are not walking in the light. You get close enough to God where his light shines on you, you’ll not have anything to get your brothers and sisters in Christ riled up. You know how we’re going to get along in heaven? We aren’t going to have any flesh. The Bible says we’ll have new bodies and new names. If I had to carry this body with me to heaven, I wouldn’t want it. If I had to live in heaven like I do down here, I wouldn’t want to go. But thank God there will be new bodies, a new place, no flesh and no devil. When people see our light, it glorifies our father in heaven. Some Christians lay down their Christianity depending on who they are around. They’ll get around family members and talk about the weather. They’ll go to family reunions and they talk about the food and how they haven’t seen each other in a long time but they’ll never mention the Lord. But yet they claim to be Christians.
4. Walking Worthy of our calling in the Lord: (Ephesians 4: 1)
Are you walking worthy? None of us are worthy of the Lord but are you walking worthy of your calling in the Lord? I’m still thinking about short cuts here. Too many are taking short cuts on God. We need to walk worthy of the Lord and not your wife or your husband, your friend, your Pastor. We need to realize that God is watching us and say, “Is what I’m doing pleasing unto God?” There will be some who live here today and if they don’t accept what Christ has for them, they’ll start justifying their actions toward God. There is no sitting on the fence. We’re either for him or against him. God has given us what we need today and all we have to do is accept it and carry it home with us. We leave our burdens here and carry home our blessings.
5. Walking in Truth: (2 John: 4)
I was talking to someone he said that at work a bunch of people were talking and cursing and he got up and said you don’t have to curse to make a point. We don’t have to stand for that stuff. Stand up and tell people you’re a child of God and you’re different. You Christians who sit around listening to garbage are apparently backsliding otherwise you wouldn’t be listening to it. Stand up for God. Walk in the truth. The Bible says the truth will make you free.
6. Walking in the Fear of the Lord: (Deuteronomy 10: 12; Acts 9: 31)
There’s nothing in this world that will help a church grow and that’s people walking in the fear of the Lord. There are Christians out there who won’t even go in a video store because they sell trash. They do that because they fear the Lord. There are some who won’t go to movies. There are others who won’t go into a restaurant that sells alcoholic beverages. A lot of Christians now think there’s something wrong with them. “Why I don’t see anything wrong with going to a restaurant that sells alcoholic beverages.” Bless God, keep your mouth shut. If they want to fear God, let them. I wish I was more like them and less like me. We need to be afraid of God. We need to say that if we don’t do something, we know what God can do to us.
7. Walking in Humility: (Micah 6: 8)
Walking humbly before your Creator and Benefactor, from whom we have His being, and all the blessings of life, and was dependent upon him; and therefore, as a creature, should behave with humility towards his Creator, acknowledging his distance from him, and the obligations he lay under to him; and even though a king, yet his God and Creator was above him, King of kings, and Lord of lords, to whom he owed his crown, scepter, and kingdom, and was accountable to him for all his administrations: and this "walking humbly" is opposed to "walking in pride", which kings are apt to do; but God can humble them, and bring them low, as Heathen kings have been obliged to own; see Daniel 2: 21. [Abraham Lincoln]
8. Walking in Love: (Ephesians 5: 2)
The Bible says that Love is the fulfilling of the law. The greatest commandment in the Bible is to love the lord. The second is to love thy neighbor as thyself. Christians get so wrapped up in early things that they forget we are supposed to walk in love. The Bible says if you see that your brother hath need and you shut up your bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in you? That’s not just talking about money. You can pray for people and call them. A lot of Christians are walking in lust instead of love. There are not many Christians that love those lost souls out there. They’ve lost their desire and their hunger and thirst to witness. Enoch walked so close to God that the Lord just took him. He didn’t have to die to be in His presence. He just went home to be with the Lord. God’s looking at some Christians today that he’s not well pleased about.
9. Walking in Surrender:
(a) Surrender from sin (1 John 3:9)
(b) Surrender to God (1 John 1: 5 – 7)
1. We must surrender ourselves to God. We can’t walk with God while we are self-centered.
2. Surrender our will to His supreme will. We need to put ourselves at His command.
Illustration: (a) Soldier under the command of his superior officer.
(b) During the civil war Lincoln was asked to pray that God would be on the side of the Union Army. His reply was that He would pray that the Union Army would be on the side of God.
10. Walking by Keeping God’s Commandments: (Deut. 5: 33; Joshua 22: 5)
God never gave a commandment to man which he did not design that he should obey. He who selects from the Divine testimonies such precepts as he feels but little inclination to transgress, and lives in the breach of others, sins against the grand legislative authority of God, and shall be treated as a rebel. These were the basis of a regular covenant; and God here, as we have seen, governs the people in the land of promise according to their responsibility, as a jealous God. Mercy, beyond law, only comes in chapter 30. There had been mercy (chap. 10) in giving them back the law, and placing them under sparing mercy still. Remembering, however, the changeableness of the human heart, Joshua appends to the acknowledgment of their fidelity in the performance of their duty the pressing admonition, to continue still to observe the law of Moses faithfully, to walk in the ways of the Lord and serve Him with the whole heart, which was simply a repetition of what Moses had impressed in a fatherly way upon the hearts of the people.
Results of Walking With God:
It pleases God - Hebrews 11: 6
It brings great peace - Isaiah 26: 3
It brings great joy - Psalms 16: 11
We become more like Him – Isaiah 46: 5
It is the way to stay on fire for God - Luke 24: 32
It is the way to fruitfulness - John 15: 5
What is an Unholy Walk?
• No Bible meditation
• No prayer life
• No family altar
• No consecration
• No bridling the tongue
• No commitment
• No devotional life
• No dedication
• No testimony
• No warning those around you
Conclusion: (2 will be driving back from work – 1 taken 1 left ……………)
Are you ready to ‘Walk with God today?’ ‘Are you ready to be raptured anytime?’
