ENOCH: THE ONE MESSAGE PREACHER
JUDE 14,15
INTRODUCTION
A. The demands upon a pastor today are very unique.
1. In interviews with speechwriters today, most say they can be counted on to write 12-15 really good speeches every year.
a. These are professional writers.
b. Some of the best in their craft.
c. 15-20 is really pushing it.
2. Contrast that to the preacher today.
a. Most preachers are not professional writers.
b. On would merely have to watch me type for three minutes to see that.
c. On top of their other duties…visiting the sick, holding committee meetings, moderating business meetings, and a myriad of other tasks…
d. Including trying to be husband and SuperDAD…
e. Preachers are tasked with preaching approximately 150 sermons a year!
f. 10 times what the average professional speech writer is able to produce.
g. It must be relevant, interesting, biblically sound, and delivered in a dynamic and powerful way.
h. It is a challenge.
3. That’s why so many preachers long to become an evangelist…
a. All you need are five or six really good sermons and a fast car!
b. Thankfully all our messages have only one really main topic…Jesus.
c. Story of the great Orator preaching the same message 3 weeks in a row!
d. Some sermons are timeless.
e. i.e. Billy Sunday’s “Payday Someday”…Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” and Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount”.
f. Today we look at another timeless sermon by a preacher we do not know near enough about.
g. The preacher is Enoch, and He only had One Message!
4. We do know from the study of God’s Word some interesting things about this preacher Enoch.
a. He walked with God…Gen 5:24…prerequisite for a successful preacher!!!
b. He didn’t die…Gen 5:24, Heb 11:5
c. He was a prophet and a preacher…Jude 14-15
d. He will be martyred during the tribulation…Rev 11..when He and Elijah return to preach the Gospel.
5. What was his message?
(Jude 1:14-15 KJV) And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, {15} 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.
a. Enoch’s message was a message about the Second coming of Jesus Christ… a subject that barely gets mentioned today.
b. It was a message about the seriousness of sin…sin that we have de-classified today!!! God still calls it sin!
c. It was a message about God judging those who spoke wrongfully about Him…we need to be reminded today that every word we speak will be held accountable for!
d. It was a message by a man of God who practiced what he preached…we need to see more of that today…today’s preachers are more known for their scandals than their messages.
e. How we need more preaching like this today!
6. There are three things I want us to see about this message that Enoch preached.
BODY
A. It Was A Good Message For Enoch’s Time.
1. Enoch lived in an ungodly time.
(Gen 6:5 KJV) And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
a. The longer men lived, the more the violence increased…its why God cut man’s live short after the flood…
b. The more the violence increased, the closer judgment came.
c. Ungodliness was not the exception…but the rule.
d. Yet in the midst of the ungodliness…
e. In the dark storm of approaching judgment…
f. God sends a ray of light
g. His man…preaching His word…crying our to a lost and dying world…repent!
2. Even in the midst of wickedness, Enoch lived a Godly Life.
a. Because of His devotion to the Lord, Enoch was blessed.
b. His son, Methuselah, lived 969 years.
c. His grandson, Noah was a righteous man who loved the Lord, and saved the earth when God sent the flood.
d. For you daddies and grandpas, if their were no other reason than this…
e. It ought to inspire us to live godly lives before our children and grandchildren.
(Prov 22:6 KJV) Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
f. If we would just live godly lives before our children, it would be amazing what would happen in our country today.
3. Enoch preached a message that was not popular among his contemporaries.
a. Enoch’s message pointed out that there was a wrong and a right.
b. People today will argue that there is no wrong or right…YES there IS!!!
c. That it was God’s standards they would be measured against.
d. That there would come a day of reckoning when they would be judged.
e. That there ungodliness would be their doom…the ruin of their house.
4. Enoch’s message is still not popular today.
a. It’s not politically correct to point out others sin to them.
b. It’s not politically correct that Jesus is the ONLY way to go to heaven.
c. It’s not politically correct to talk about a place called Hell.
d. It’s no politically correct to teach that homosexuality is a sin.
e. It’s not politically correct to preach and teach that abortion is sinful and wrong.
f. Who cares about being politically correct when you can be right???
g. Popular or not, God’s word is the only truth we can preach.
B. It Will Be A Good Message For The Time of the Tribulation.
1. The rapture of the church will usher in a period of seven years without the restraint of the Holy Spirit upon this earth.
2. That period of time will be known as The Great Tribulation.
a. It will be a time of great wickedness, violence and evil.
b. Listen to how Jesus describes in Matt 24:22-22
(Mat 24:21-22 KJV) For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. {22} And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
c. It will be a time when Satan and his demons have free reign upon the earth.
d. It will be a time of great confusion about so many simply vanishing.
e. It is during this time God will send His two witnesses to the earth to preach to the peoples of the earth.
f. These two witnesses are Enoch and Elijah.
(Heb 9:27 KJV) And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
g. The preacher Enoch will preach this same message to those lost in the tribulation.
h. He and Elijah will preach with boldness and power.
(Rev 11:3-12 KJV) And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. {4} These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. {5} And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. {6} These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. {7} And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. {8} And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. {9} And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. {10} And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. {11} And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. {12} And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
3. Listen to the message Enoch will preach…
a. Jesus is coming back soon…bringing His saints with Him.
b. He is coming to execute Judgment upon the earth.
c. Repent…
d. The same message he preached the first time he walked the earth.
C. It Is A Message That is Good For Our Time As Well.
1. We need to stress the neglected message of Christ’s return today.
a. A lost and dying world needs to know that time is short.
b. That His return could be any day.
c. The saved of earth need to be reminded that Time is running out.
d. The day of the harvest is not near…it’s NOW.
e. If God’s people would live in the light of His return…what differences do you think it would make?
f. If you knew for certain Jesus was going to return next week…what things would you do?
g. How about if it was in 2 years…10 years…20 years…50 years…
h. In your own mind, how quickly did those priorities realign???
i. It could be tomorrow!
j. We need to learn to live like there’s no tomorrow…because there might not be.
2. Like Enoch, we need to stress the seriousness of sin.
a. Too many times today…we…even in our churches…gloss over sin.
b. We have a tendency to look the other way…and act like we are turning the other sin.
c. God’s Word says it hadn’t ought to be this way!
d. But this is nothing new.
e. It was even happening in the Apostle Paul’s day.
f. He dealt with it in 1st Corinthians 5:1
(1 Cor 5:1-2 KJV) It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. {2} And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
g. Look at how Paul describes the attitude of the church toward this known sin.
h. You are “puffed up” or proud to have this man named in your congregation!
i. It has not caused you to be brokenhearted…you have not mourned over this sin!
j. It is a sin whereby those involved…if unrepentant, could even lose their lives…
k. And the church is overlooking it.
3. Folks the church is dancing with the devil!
a. There is no church discipline because we are too worried about hurting feelings and losing members.
b. Where there is no discipline there is no respect.
c. It’s why the churches are not respected like they once were.
d. We have become so much like the world that the world can tell no difference in themselves and in us!
4. It is time the church grew a backbone and stood up to the world.
a. There really is an ABSOLUTE MORAL STANDARD by which men should live.
b. It’s the Holy Word Of God!
c. There really is ONLY ONE WAY to Heaven, and that’s thru the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
d. There REALLY IS NO OTHER name under heaven by which men may be saved…except the name of Jesus.
e. Why do we cower…why do we speak softly…why are we apologetic???
f. We know the truth and the truth shall set you free!!!
g. We don’t have to back down…we don’t have to back up one inch.
h. What we learn from God’s holy Word we should shout from the housetops.
i. Trumpet from one end of this community to the other.
(John 1:41 KJV) He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.
j. We need to share this same message with the world…We have found the Messiah!
k. His name is Jesus.
3. In this age of compromise, we need to awaken people to God’s Holiness.
a. The world might compromise
b. The church might compromise.
c. But God never will!!!
d. I don’t care what the world says is OK to do…what does God say??
e. I don’t care what the world says about how you go to heaven…what does God say.
f. I don’t care if everyone is doing it…what does God say???
g. You see, to God sin is still sin.
h. The smallest sin that you can even think of is enough to keep you out of heaven.
(James 2:10 KJV) For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
i. It doesn’t matter what the preacher says…it matters what God’s Word says.
CONCLUSION
A. A Timeless, and Powerful Message.
1. Full of timeless truths, and sound advice.
2. Some may wonder, preacher where do you get your messages…
a. The same place Enoch did…
b. Walking with God!
c. That’s why some are good…
d. Some not so good…
e. And some are awesome.
f. It depends upon how close to God we’ve walked.
g. When we as Christians walk the talk, our talk will be affected.
h. I encourage you today…really begin to walk with the Lord!
