The example of ABEL shows us WHERE THE LIFE OF FAITH BEGINS.
The example of ENOCH shows us OF WHAT THE LIFE OF FAITH CONSISTS.
Sermon Text: Hebrews 11:5-6, Genesis 5:21-24 & Jude 14, 15
Here is what the life of faith consists of:
1. PLEASING GOD,
2. WALKING WITH GOD,
3. WITNESSING FOR GOD.
I. BY FAITH ENOCH PLEASED GOD (Hebrews 11:5-6).
“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. . . .”
Enoch was one of only two people who were take from earth to heaven without dying.
“. . . before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
WITHOUT FAITH IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE GOD.
Absolutely nothing can please God apart from faith.
John 3:17-18—“God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but HE THAT BELIEVETH NOT IS CONDEMNED ALREADY, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
John 8:24—Jesus warned the Pharisees, “. . . ye shall die in your sins: for IF YE BELIEVE NOT that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
Revelation 21:8—“But the fearful, the UNBELIEVING, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. . . .”
Not even good works in themselves please God.
Romans 3:20—“By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. . . .”
Enoch pleased God by believing two things about God.
A. He believed that God exists.
“. . . for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. . . .”
Science gives us much evidence of God’s existence:
1. The law of cause and effect;
2. The law of entropy;
3. The law of design.
However, science cannot prove the existence of God. It is a matter of faith.
1 John 5:10—“He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. . . .”
B. He believed that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
“. . . and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Psalm 58:11—“Verily there is a reward for the righteous. . . .”
1. GOD HIMSELF is the reward of them that seek Him.
Genesis 15:1—“Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great REWARD.”
Einstein said, “Certainly there is a God. Any man who doesn’t believe in a cosmic force is a fool, but we could never know Him.” Brilliant as he was, Einstein was wrong. We can know God.
1 Chronicles 28:9—David said to his son Solomon, “. . . if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.”
Psalm 9:10—“They that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.”
Proverbs 8:17—“I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall fin me.”
Jeremiah 29:13—“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
2. GOD’S SALVATION is the reward of them that seek Him.
Psalm 149:4—“The Lord taketh PLEASURE in his people: he will beautify the meek with SALVATION.”
Matthew 6:33—“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
II. BY FAITH ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD (Genesis 5:21-24).
“And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”
The term “WALK” is used many times in the New Testament to represent FAITHFUL LIVING.
Romans 6:4—“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death . . . even so we also should WALK in newness of life.”
2 Corinthians 5:7—“For we WALK by faith, not by sight.”
Galatians 5:16—“WALK in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
Ephesians 5:2—“WALK in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us. . . .”
To “walk with God” signifies a life SURRENDERED TO GOD, a life CONTROLLED BY GOD, a life LIVED FOR GOD.
Amos3:3—“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”
YOU CANNOT WALK WITH GOD WHEN YOU ARE WALKING IN SIN.
1 John 1:5-7—“. . . God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship on with another. . . .”
To walk with God is THE BUSINESS OF A LIFETIME, not just the performance of an hour.
Psalm 128:1—“Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways.” Walking with God is a blessed walk.
Revelation 3:4—Christ even speaks of our fellowship with Him in heaven as a walk: “They shall WALK with me in white: for they are worthy.”
Like Enoch, every believer SHOULD walk with God every day he is on earth. When we get to heaven, we WILL walk with Him forever.
TO WALK WITH GOD IS TO PLEASE HIM.
Genesis 5:22, 24—“Enoch WALKED with God. . . .”
Hebrews 11:5—“. . . he had this testimony, that he PLEASED God.”
IV. BY FAITH ENOCH PREACHED FOR GOD (Jude 14-15).
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgement 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. He preached a message of judgement.
There is both a positive and a negative side to the gospel: heaven and hell.
1 Thessalonians 2:4—“But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; NOT AS PLEASING MEN, BUT GOD, which trieth our hearts.”
Ezekiel 3:18-19—“When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; BUT HIS BLOOD WILL I REQUIRE AT THINE HAND. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”
In a small church a pastor delivered a sermon on abortion, and after the service a German man who had lived in Nazi Germany told of his experience:
I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to the Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it, because, what could anyone do to stop it?
A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance and then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars!
Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to the death camp. Their screams tormented us.
We knew the time the train was coming and when we heard the whistle blow we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.
Years have passed and no one talks about it anymore. But I still hear the train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me; God forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians and yet did nothing . . . .” [Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes, p. 85].
Because of Enoch’s faithful preaching and faithful living, no one who heard Enoch or lived around him had any excuse for not believing in God.
Could the same be said of you?
B. He preached in a godless day.
Some of you might be thinking, “But it is so difficult to walk with God and witness for God in these days.”
Let me remind you of the times in which Enoch lived. It was just before the Flood, and probably conditions were far worse than they are now.
The word “ungodly” is used four times in Jude 15.
A life of pleasing God was no easier then than now.
Genesis 5:22—“And Enoch walked with God after he begat METHUSELAH three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.”
Many ancient and modern commentators have interpreted the name Methuselah as meaning “WHEN HE DIES, IT SHALL BE SENT.”
What would be sent? The year that Methuselah died was the year that the FLOOD came.
When Methuselah died, judgement was coming.
Methuselah lived longer than any other man in history whose age was recorded (969 years).
Was there a reason why Methuselah lived so long? Is this just a useless piece of trivia or is there some truth to be learned from Methuselah’s name and age?
2 Peter 3:9—“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is LONGSUFFERING to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
1 Peter 3:20—“. . . the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.” As God was longsuffering long ago, so He is today.
Romans 2:4—“Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that THE GOODNESS OF GOD LEADETH THEE TO REPENTANCE.”
Ezekiel 33:11—“As I live, saith the Lord God, I HAVE NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATH OF THE WICKED; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?”
Can you hear God pleading with the souls of men, “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: for why will you die?”
CONCLUSION
Genesis 5:21-22—“And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: and ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD AFTER HE BEGAT METHUSELAH three hundred years. . . .”
It is not said that Enoch walked with God BEFORE his son was born.
What caused the change in Enoch’s life?
God revealed to Enoch that the world would last only as long as Methuselah lived.
From the time Methuselah was born, the world lost all its attractiveness for Enoch; and from that time on, he walked with God.
Isn’t it time that you started walking with God.
jonathanrmcleod@yahoo.com
