Walk By Faith (like Enoch)
Pastor Chad A. Miller
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 43:57
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· 21 viewsEnoch’s great walk produced two wonderful things—fellowship and righteousness. A day-to-day practical faith is necessary for anyone, especially believers, in order to please God. We can walk with God if we believe 1) that he exists, and 2) that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
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REFLECTION TEXT: Mic 4.5
5 For all the peoples walk
each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
forever and ever.
SERMON TEXT: Hebrews 11.5-6
5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
INTRO / TRANSITION
When reading your Bible, it’s very easy to blow through those passages with all the genealogies in Scripture.
If you’re like me, you think, there really isn’t much here. Or, this won’t be on a test -
OT Connection: Gen 5.18-27
18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch. 19 Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.
21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. 26 Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.
Genesis 5 only devotes 51 words in English to describe Enoch.
Notes about Enoch’s Life:
Long-lived, ante-diluvian (before the deluge of the flood)
lived over 3.5 centuries
One writer puts into perspective:
Preaching the Word: Hebrews Vol 1&2—An Anchor for the Soul Enoch’s Longevity
So we know that Enoch lived over three and a half centuries on this earth. This means that if Enoch’s 365-year life span had ended in 1992, he would have been born in 1627—the year before Salem was founded by our Pilgrim fathers on Massachusetts Bay. That same year Francis Bacon published New Atlantis in London. On Enoch’s hundredth birthday in 1727, young Jonathan Edwards would have been installed as assistant pastor to his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, in Northampton, and the Danish explorer Vitus Bering would have discovered the strait between Asia and North America.
When Enoch celebrated his second century in 1827, Jedediah Smith blazed the first trail from Southern California to Fort Vancouver. And at the other end of the country, New Orleans would celebrate its first Mardi Gras when students from Paris introduced the Shrove Tuesday event.
In 1927, on his 300th birthday (the cake would have melted from the heat of the candles!), Charles Lindbergh would pilot the Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic to Paris, Babe Ruth would hit sixty home runs, and the first “talkie” (The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson) would be produced.
And finally, in 1992, the whole world would know of his departure in one instant through satellite cable communication. Not only that, but Enoch’s son, Methuselah, born when Enoch was sixty-five in 1692, would not die until the twenty-seventh century, A.D. 2,661—at the ripe old age of 969 years (cf. Genesis 5:27).
The point of all this is that though Enoch’s tenure was brief in comparison with that of his father and son, it is nonetheless an amazing stint of time—and those 300-plus years were given to righteous living in the midst of a terribly evil ante-diluvian world that was destroyed precisely because of its depravity (cf. Genesis 6:11–13).
Enoch preached for 300 years that judgment was coming!
14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
About Enoch’s “Translation”
But most of that is not what Enoch was known for. In fact, his sensational EXIT is the incident of note!
24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
Scriptures don’t say exactly how this happened:
Everyone else: “then they died”
Enoch was “no more…for God took him!”
Could have been a whirlwind like Elijah (only other person to not see death)
“Perhaps the whole of the patriarchs saw him depart, even as the apostles were present when our Lord was taken up. However that may be, there was some special rapture, some distinct taking up of this choice one to the throne of the Most High.”
-Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Hebrews, ed. Elliot Ritzema and Jessi Strong, Spurgeon Commentary Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014), 321.
We don’t know how…but we do know why - ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD! Translation:
He had faith in God.
He pleased God.
He walked with God - He sought the LORD!
He walked with God - He sought the LORD!
2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
“I will seek the LORD.”
26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord!
May your hearts live forever!
“I will seek the LORD.”
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
“I will seek the LORD.”
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
“I will seek the LORD.”
32 When the humble see it they will be glad;
you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
1. Like the author reminds us at the onset of the chapter, If we are “of the faith” we must understand what FAITH IS!
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
2. Like ABEL, we recognize that our believing / active faith MOVES US TO WORSHIP!
We identify with the OT worshipers:
1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
We identify with the NT worshipers recognizing that God does not dwell in houses made with men’s hands when Jesus underscored that John 4.23-24.
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
We worship with the bride for now and all eternity
8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”
13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
3. And like ENOCH, our legacy of faith is evidenced by the fact that WE WALK WITH GOD!
23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
when he delights in his way;
“write down this reference”
1 John 1:5-2:6 - WE DO NOT WALK IN DARKNESS
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
God keeps our steps steady on His pathway
133 Keep steady my steps according to your promise,
and let no iniquity get dominion over me.
WE WALK BY THE SPIRIT’S HELP - IN THE LIGHT OF GOD’S LOVE
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
we follow in our LORD’s Footsteps who served, suffered, spoke, and loved well!
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
which brings us to verse 6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Walking with God...
We “seek” Him. Not as though He is hidden or lost - but getting into His Word!
We do not walk in darkness.
We follow our Lord’s footsteps who always led the right way to men and women.
We walk in the Light of God’s love as we walk in the Spirit!
APPLICATION
Faith in Hebrews 11:5–6 is directly connected to our actions. Faith is partially (but not entirely) about having hope in what we cannot see—Christ and the eternal life He offers in an eternal place.
Abel’sEnoch’s actions, and the actions of all the people described in Hebrews 11, involve obediently following God’s will. These actions stem from faith in Him. Faith in God precedes everything good, because He is the source of faith. It is not our efforts that God’s work depends upon; it is God in whom we place faith. In light of this, what pleases God—merely placing faith in Him, or acting out of His faith in us?
You say, you’re a woman of faith?
what faith? whose faith? the gift from God?
take courage, you have in you the power of God unto salvation…the good news of Jesus Christ!
You say you’re a man of faith?
if it’s faith in the God of this Bible, then you will be MOVED to worship (with little regard to reputation - some might say with reckless abandon)
We claim to be a people of Faith?
Then we will WALK WITH GOD TOGETHER! In Covenant (like we read about this past week in our study of Nehemiah in the Gospel Project)
We will warn one another when we see someone headed away from the Lord’s well-lit path toward a path of darkness and separation!
We will encourage one another and build each other up IN OUR MOST HOLY FAITH!
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
WE MAY NOT GO OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY...
BUT WE WILL GO WITH GOD WHEN HE TAKES US…
But until then, will you WALK WITH GOD today?