01-28 Walking with God
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Genesis 5:21-32
Genesis 5:21-32
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 3097 What Is Christianity?
3097 What Is Christianity?
In the home it is kindness.
In business it is honesty.
In society it is courtesy.
In work it is fairness.
Toward the unfortunate it is pity.
Toward the weak it is help.
Toward the wicked it is resistance.
Toward the strong it is trust.
Toward the fortunate it is congratulations.
Toward the penitent it is forgiveness.
Toward God it is reverence and love.
What is the summation of your life? As a believer, your faith will influence every relationship that you have.
Hudson Taylor said: “If your father and mother, your sister and brother, if the very cat and dog in the house, are not happier for your being Christian, it is a question whether you really are.”
The NT refers to the substance of your life as your “walk.” That is referring to your habitual pattern of living. So we read:
8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
In our passage today…we encounter a rare example of the man who walked with God. I say rare—for that phrase is used only of 1 other man in the OT: Noah (Gen 6:9). Though it is was used of Aaron who walked intimately with God and entered the Holy of Holies to speak directly to Him (Mal 2:6).
We discovered what happened to Adam’s family in Gen 4-5. What we saw is a rather bleak picture of the spread of sin across the whole of the human race (Cain & Seth). In Gen 5 there are 2 things that the antediluvians shared in common:
They lived extraordinarily long lives (800-900). That would be a blessing on one hand. Can you imagine the level of learning and understanding that would come from living nearly a millennium. That intellectual development is a strong refutation of the modern mind that thinks the 1st humans were cavemen w/o any knowledge of intellect. On the other hand—there would be great challenges with living that long. Your struggle against sin (if you’re here 50-100 yrs that’s bad enough but 10x as long?). We see a great increase in the moral corruption that results from the sin nature.
They all died (and he died) This is the beginning of the record of the death of humans. If you’re asked whatever became of Adam’s race the answer is simple…sin passed on to all his descendants and they died.
Up to vs 20 there’s really no hope. Sin spreads to all Adam’s posterity and they die—no hope and there’s the dark rhythm repeated…until vs 21 and we encounter in the 7th generation the man Enoch.
Enoch is the son of Jared, the father of Methuselah (969 yrs—died the same year as the flood). Enoch fathered other sons and daughters (can’t be sure how many). Enoch lived for 365 years. Still extraordinarily long. And it is specifically mentioned that for 300 of those years he walked with God. For 3 centuries Enoch demonstrates the faith that pleases God.
What we learn about Enoch from Gen is limited to these vv. There are 2 other passages in the NT that offer a broader picture of this man of who lived his life pleasing to God. We’ll look at those this morning as we consider five realities revealed about Enoch (as usual I have more sermon than time):
1. Enoch’s Translation
1. Enoch’s Translation
Moses writes
24 Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
By itself, this description leads to much speculation about what happened to Enoch.
Heb 11:5;
Together with Heb, we know that Enoch was suddenly and supernaturally removed from his earthly existence. While some say that phrase “and he was not” refers to death, the writer of Heb makes it very clear that he did not see death. This stands in contrast to all the other antediluvians “and he died.”
The term “took” lit means to take by the hand, to seize, to grasp. It refers to a change of location and explains Enoch’s disappearance. Enoch was translated from earth to heaven b/c the hand of God seized him so that “he was not.” Enoch was walking with God, pleasing him on account of his faith in God and all the sudden the Lord would magnify His glory and grace by removing Enoch from his earthly existence without death. We don’t know why God decided to remove him instead of leaving his godly influence on the world which was in desperate need of it.
Only 2 men have never experienced death in all of human history. Enoch & Elijah. Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind (2Ki 2:3, 10-11). He too was no more. Even the LJC tasted death—but not these 2. We might even express how these 2 are the prototype of believers who will not see death for those who live to the time of the rapture (1 Thess 4:13-18).
2. Enoch’s Walk
2. Enoch’s Walk
Moses writes that Enoch “walked with God” twice (vs 22, 24). This is the way you would describe someone who had the closest personal communion with God—you would say “they walked with God.” Again, this is only applied to Enoch & Noah in Gen and then an illustration in Mal.
It is a bit different from phrases like “walking before God” or “walking after God” and yet still portrays the intimacy and devotion one has for the personal God.
Hezekiah--
3 “Remember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
The patriarchs (Jacob)--
15 He blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
This is the way of obedience and loyal service and indicates one who is going along God’s path, in the same direction. Allen Ross says “The expression became a common description of the life of fellowship and obedience with the Lord, as if to say that walking with the Lord was a step above mere living.”
1 How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, Who walks in His ways.
9 Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, And the righteous will walk in them, But transgressors will stumble in them.
In 18th C John Whitefield preached a sermon in which he described some of the implications of walking with God.
Peace
No longer at enmity with God. Sinners by nature are not at peace. In fact, no one is born “walking with God.” When Adam & Eve sinned they heard God walking in the Garden and they hid from Him instead of walking with Him b/c they were no longer at peace. It is that peace which can only be afforded by LJC.
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Implies Reconciliation
To walk with God must be reconciled. Reconciliation essentially means agreement.
3 “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?
Enoch walked with God b/c He agreed with God.
Fellowship with God
The man who walks with God surrenders his will to God
8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
Advancement
Walking is the picture of advancing from one point to the next. Going from where you are to where you need to be--conforming to the divine image.
29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
The longer a man walks with God the more clearly he will bear the image of Christ—that is sanctification.
Enoch walked with God. Heb says he was “pleasing to God” (not a real difference).
5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.
Now, the occasion for walking with God was the birth of his son, Methuselah (age 65). Moses makes the point that he walked with God after he became the father of Methuselah. It seems likely that God had given a revelation to Enoch. Methuselah means “man of the dart” or a reference to that which is sent (in terms of the flood).
Arthur Pink notes that the name means “When he is dead it shall be sent," i.e., the Deluge (Newberry). In all probability then, a Divine revelation is memorialized in this name. It was as though God had said to Enoch, "Do you see that baby? The world will last as long as he lives and no longer! When that child dies, I shall deal with the world in judgment. The windows of heaven will be opened. The fountains of the great deep will be broken up, and all humanity will perish." What would be the effect of such a communication upon Enoch?
Arthur W. Pink. (n.d.). Gleanings in Genesis.
So Enoch then began walking with God in devotion, adoration, obedience and service.
3. Enoch’s Message
3. Enoch’s Message
14 It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
First: notice 7th from Adam—why I think genealogies are closed (no one is excluded) bc of divine revelation and inspiration of Jude’s message. Enoch is the 7th generation (including Adam).
Enoch was a preacher…and his message “Enoch…prophesied” (message is not recorded in OT). His sermon was a 2-part message:
The Lord is Coming
The Lord is Coming
We understand that this is a reference to the 2nd coming of Christ. This is what Jude is referring to.
31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire,
Enoch recognized the promise of God regarding the seed of the woman and that the Lord would come to judge everyone on account of the evil they had done—holding men accountable. Enoch probably didn’t understand that the promised deliverer would have 2 comings. This would be unfolded in later revelation—particularly NT.
The 1st part of the message is that the Lord is coming and attending Him will be 10000 of his holy ones (angels or believers or both).
5 You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!
Judgment of Ungodliness
Judgment of Ungodliness
Like most OT prophets, their message had both a near and far fulfillment. The message they delivered was directly aimed at the people of the prophet’s time. It was a warning against turning their backs on the Lord while there were many instances of a far fulfillment, pertaining to the end times.
For Enoch—his concern was “all the ungodly...” Ungodliness marked the condition of the people prior to the flood…confirmed in Gen 6:5.
Before the flood there was sexual immorality, pride, materialism, hedonism, demonism…all sorts of ungodliness. This is not a message that you hear from many pulpits today. God is against these things/attitudes. In every generation God raises up men to preach against sin and warn the people that God will judge.
6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
11 ‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
There are consequences to sin. For those in Enoch’s day…failure to turn would results in destruction—fulfilled in the flood. Today, the Lord will return to execute judgment upon all who have rejected the offer of God’s grace—to save from eternal hell. There are many people who doubt God will do such a thing…to them Peter writes:
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; 7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
4. Enoch’s Faith
4. Enoch’s Faith
Back in Heb 11:6-
Heb 11 is God’s hall of fame. Everyone included is here b/c they believed God. That’s faith! Enoch was pleasing to God—without faith it is impossible.
Every person ought to want to please God. You want to please God b/c the opposite of pleasing Him would be to incur his displeasure or wrath. No one wants to be on the receiving end of God’s wrath and judgment.
Yet men will try everything in their power to try and please God. Men will try to earn His favor by keeping the Law, going to church, serving, giving. Rom 14:23 “whatever is not from faith is sin.” Every religious system that emphasizes works as essential to salvation cannot possibly please God. Without faith impossible (not difficult—impossible for God to lie—Heb 6:18). Enoch believed God is God.
No man will ever please God or walk with God without faith. Faith begins the relationship b/t the sinner and the holy God having been reconciled and at peace. The one who remains in his sin is described in Scripture as the disobedient.
24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
What does the faith that pleases God look like?
Faith in the Reality of God
Faith in the Reality of God
One who comes must believe that He is. There’s a great deal of truth wrapped up in this little phrase—unpack it for you.
Believe that He is—who He is, who He says He is. The only way to believe the reality about God is thru His self-revelation.
The person who pleases God believes God is who He really is. He simply believes What God has revealed about Himself. Now, our modern culture really struggles with this. On one hand, there’s a great movement by which people suppress the truth about God thru wickedness. It is very common to find people who claim to be atheistic—who believe there is no God. Those who maintain that belief don’t even do as well as the demons who believe—the evil supernatural world is filled with demons who are monotheistic—even Trinitarians. So you have a world that praises the atheist for being enlightened. On the other hand, you have many people who say “well you just gotta believe in God” and that might be a cosmic force, big man upstairs, an uninterested creator, or even the Great Architect.
The Bible never sets out to prove the existence of God. Here’s a fundamental observation. “By grace you are saved thru faith.” To please God we must believe that He is—that comes by faith. But the Bible never sets out to prove scientifically that God exists. Gen 1:1 simply states the fact… You can’t prove God scientifically. You can’t see Him with your physical eyes.
18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
He is the invisible God. To see Him you need eyes of faith. The first way faith expresses itself is by believing the reality of God. That means to believe everything that He says about Himself in the Bible and not manufacturing a false God in our minds.
Faith in the Responsiveness of God
Faith in the Responsiveness of God
Enoch understood that God rewards those who seek Him. He rewards the faithful.
11 And men will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely there is a God who judges on earth!”
Now God rewards those who seek Him, not those who seek His rewards. We shouldn’t put a claim on God’s rewards simply b/c we have faith or b/c we believe we have earned them on the basis of our faith.
Martin Bucer (16th influenced reformation in Germany) wrote: “That the Lord rewards his people for their good works is not on the grounds of their righteousness, but purely from his free grace and for the sake of his dear Son (Rom. 11:6), in whom he chose us for eternal life before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), and created us for good works (Eph. 2:10) which through him he effects in us (Jn. 15:5) and rewards so generously (Rom. 8:10-14, 26-30). Consequently when God rewards our good works he is rewarding his works and gifts in us, rather than our own works. Moreover, while the faith we exercise and the good works we perform proceed from our own free will nevertheless it is he who produces this good will and action in us, impelling us by his Holy Spirit (Phil. 2:13); thus all the good that God does to us and the eternal life that he gives us still remain the results of his grace alone, so that no one should boast of himself, but only of the Lord (Phil. 2:13; Rom. 6:23).”
5. Enoch’s Children
5. Enoch’s Children
Methuselah was a perpetual reminder—even after God took Enoch, that God was extending grace and offering forgiveness to those who turn from their sin…but also the warning of judgment coming in the flood.
Methuselah lives until the year of the flood which sees his grandson, Noah become the man thru whom God will save the human race from the devastation of the flood. We’ll look more at Noah in the coming weeks as we get into Gen 6.
Application
What then shall we do? Practically, the Bible tells us what pleases God & Christ:
· Exalting JC (Mat 3:17; Col 1:15-19)
· Proclaiming the message of the cross (1 Cor 1:18-2:5)
· Asking for wisdom (Col 1:9-14; Jam 1:5-8)
· Keeping ourselves from sexual sin (1 Th 4:1-8)
· Giving to others in time of need Phil 4:10-20; Heb 13:16
· Submitting to authority (Rom 8:7-8; Col 3:20)
· Praising God for everything (Ps 69:30-31; Heb 13:15-16)