The Walk of Faith-Enoch

The Walk of Faith (Lesson 3)

(Enoch) Hebrews 11:5-6

Introduction: During this time of the year many people make commitments.  After hearing a message about what did you give to Jesus for Christmas, our family decided to make a commitment for the New Year.

It is found in 1 Thess. 5:16-18.  Rejoice evermore-constant joy.  Pray without ceasing-constant prayer.  Our family is praying for God to give us 10 churches in the beginning of this New Year.  He has been giving us one here and one there.  What seems impossible to the human eye is not possible with God.  In everything give thanks-constant thanksgiving.

Some preachers believe that Christians need to be committed more.  The problem is not commitment.  The main problem with believers today is not the lack of commitment.  Rather, the problem lies in what they are committed to.  People are very committed.  The problem is what they are committed to. There are people that are committed to their families.  We know of a family that misses church just so they can spend time together. 

We know of people that are committed to their jobs.  There are people who miss church just so they could work. 

Enoch was a man of commitment.  Tucked in a genealogy in chapter 5 of Genesis, two times we are told that Enoch walked with God. 

Genesis 5:21-24  21 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:  22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:  23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:  24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.    

The word “walk” carries the idea of commitment of life and purpose.  Enoch’s commitment and purpose was God. 

In the Greek translation of the Old Testament the word walk is substituted with the word please.  In other words, to walk with God and to please God means the same thing.  What does it take to have a walk with God? 

In order for us to be committed to God properly we need to believe in the:

I.                   Reality of God

The first step of faith is simply to believe that He is. This Enoch did. God is pleased with those who believe in Him, even with the first step of believing that He exists. This belief alone is certainly not enough to save a person, but if it is a sincere conviction and is followed up, it will lead to full faith.

In his book, Your God is Too Small, J. B. Phillips describes some of the common gods that people manufacture. One is the grand old man god, the grandfatherly, white-haired, indulgent god who smiles down on men and winks at their adultery, stealing, cheating, and lying. Then there are the resident policeman god, whose primary job is to make life difficult and unenjoyable, and the god in a box, the private and exclusive sectarian god. The managing director god is the god of the deists, the god who designed and created the universe, started it spinning, and now stands by far away watching it run down. God is not pleased with belief in any of these idolatrous substitutes.

Believing that the true God exists is what is pleasing to Him. Mere recognition of a deity of some sort—the “ground of being,” the “man upstairs,” or any of the man-made gods just mentioned—is not the object of belief in mind here. Only belief in the existence of the true God, the God of Scripture, counts.

Illustration:  When I was struggling over the death of my father we were going through the attributes of God in Seminary.  We were learning how God is always right, He never makes mistakes.  As these truths poured out of my professor, they poured into my life.

We must believe that God is!  These false religions such as Mormonism and Jehovah Witnesses believe in a false Jesus.  The Jesus of the Scriptures is not the half brother of Satan.  He is the eternal Son of God and the only one who saves.

The key word is faith!  We must believe that God is.  In seminary we learn about the proofs of God.  The Bible never argues the existence of God.  In the beginning, God!

How do we know that God is still in control when 150,000 people die from a Tsunami?  How do we know that God is a God of love?  When our feelings and circumstances say the opposite, we believe in the reality of God by faith.  Here is where it gets hard my friends.  When everything around us tells us that God is not who He is, we still must believe that He is who He is.

Illustration:  William Carey. No matter what happens, God’s cause will triumph.  He lost one of his children. His wife went crazy.  He didn’t even see a convert for 7 years.   

II.                Responsiveness of God

6But 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.

It is not enough simply to believe that God exists. In order to please Him it is also necessary to believe that He is moral and just, that He will reward faith in Him. We must recognize God as a personal, loving, gracious God to those who seek Him.

You know what, we don’t realize what we miss when live by sight.  Faith has its rewards.  For some of the saints, they died without receiving the promises, however for others they received precious rewards.

How about having a child at the age of 90?  Wow!  Could you imagine how it must have been for Sarah to give birth at that age?  To see the child and say, hey it does pay to have faith.

God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.  We were having our devotions through the book of Matthew.  Jesus on the sermon on the mount speaks of how our heavenly Father rewards us.  There are different rewards in the Bible. 

1. He rewards us when we are persecuted.

Matthew 5:11-12  1 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

1. He rewards us when we love our enemies.

Matthew 5:46   46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

1. He rewards us when we give to others.

Matthew 6:1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

1. He rewards us when we pray to Him.

Matthew 6:6  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

1. He rewards us when we fast.

Matthew 6:18   18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly

1. He rewards us when we serve.

Matthew 10:41-42  41 He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.  42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

1 Corinthians 3:8   8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

The reward that God gives for faith is salvation. “Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). In other words, every good thing that God has, including eternal life, constitutes the reward for belief. For faith we receive forgiveness, a new heart, eternal life, joy, peace, love, heaven—everything! When we trust in Jesus Christ, we become mutual heirs with Him. All that God’s own Son has is ours as well.

Since we have stepped out by faith and obeyed God’s calling there have been so many blessings.

Time and time again we have seen people encourage us.

1. We got a free van.
2. We got free tickets to fly to Chicago for a conference.
3. We were in a restaurant and some waiter who we never met gave us a 100 dollars.
4. We found out that we are expecting our second child.
5. We were in one church and preached and a young boy got saved.
6. We are able to fellowship with great saints and build new friendships.
7. We are able to stay with family during part of the time.
8. We have seen many decisions to live for God more holy.
9. People have given us money.  One guy just recently, never stepped in church.  He gave us a 100 dollar bill.

III.             Return of God

Jude 1:14-15   14 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.

The judgment on apostates, already mentioned in verses 4-7, 13, was now confirmed by a reference to a pre-Flood prophecy made by Enoch, the seventh from Adam (Gen. 5:4-20). However, scholars have puzzled over the absence of any reference in the Old Testament to this prophecy attributed to Enoch. Since Jude’s statement is similar to a passage in the apocryphal Book of Enoch (1:9)—written prior to 110 b.c. and thus probably known by the early Christians—many assume that Jude is quoting from that book. Others suggest that the difference between Jude’s words and the Book of Enoch indicate that Jude received the information about Enoch directly from God, or that under divine inspiration he recorded an oral tradition. None of these views affects the doctrine of inspiration adversely. If Jude quoted the apocryphal book, he was affirming only the truth of that prophecy and not endorsing the book in its entirety (cf. Paul’s quotation of the Cretan poet Epimenides, in Titus 1:12).

Enoch’s message was simple “The Lord cometh.”  What that means for the believer and the unbeliever is different.  For the believer it means being caught up like Enoch and taken to be with the Lord forever. 

For the unbeliever it means that they will be judged.  First, with 7 years of Tribulation which Enoch is not referring to.  He is referring to the Second Coming when the Lord executes judgment on all unbelievers.  There will be a second rapture where people will be taken to be judged and removed from the earth.  God will judge the ungodly.  Enoch uses the word four times in his message.  It means that the people lived as if there is no God.

Enoch’s life was different from others because he lived as if the Lord would come.  In the midst of living like in the days of Noah, people eating and drinking and could care less about the Lord’s return, we ought to warn others.  Judging from this account, his message on ungodliness was brief and perhaps repetitious, but it was inspired. We have no hint as to how effective it was, but Enoch’s purpose was to be faithful, not effective. He did what God required of him and left the results to Him. One thing is certain: because of his faithful preaching and faithful living, no one who heard Enoch or lived around him had any excuse for not believing in God. Whether any of these people believed or not, the influence Enoch had on them must have been powerful.

Jude’s report of Enoch’s preaching contradicts any notion that Enoch lived in an easy time for believing. He was surrounded by false teachers and false teaching. We do not know if he had the fellowship of any fellow believers, but we know that he lived in the midst of a host of unbelievers. He could not possibly have preached as strongly as he did without considerable opposition. He battled against his own generation in the same way that Noah would later battle against his. He let them know they were ungodly, and he let them know God was going to judge them.

I believe God was pleased with Enoch because his faith was not just something he felt in his heart. It was heard on his lips and seen in his life. His faith was active and dynamic, vocal and fearless.

How do we know if we really believe in the Second Coming of Christ?  If we really believe we will live like it and tell others about it.

Titus 2:11-13  11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,  12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;  13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 

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