TEXT:Genesis 5:21-24
INTRODUCTION: 1. Someone has called the fifth chapter of Genesis “A desert of death.” You can almost see the pine boxes and the graves. You can almost hear the weeping widows. You can almost smell the stench of death that arises from this chapter. Over and over we read these words, “and he died.” The last words of v.5 read, “and he died.” We read in v.8 “and he died.” We read in v.11 “and he died.” We read in v.14 “and he died.” We read in v.17 “and he died.” We read in v.20 “and he died.”
Yet, right in the middle of this desert of death stands a FLOWER of life, a little flower called Enoch. Very little is said about Enoch. In fact, more is said about Enoch in the New Testament than in the Old. There are fifty-one words in the Old Testament about Enoch, but ninety-four words in the New Testament.
He only had one claim to fame. He never parted a Red Sea; he never slew a giant; he never wrestled with an angel; he was never swallowed by a whale; he never walked on water; he didn’t even write as much as one verse in all the Bible. The only thing we are told about this man is, “he walked with God.” But I want to tell you that simple statement put Enoch in God’s Hall of Fame. The measure of a man is not in how much is said about him, but what is said about him. A lot can be said about a man in just a very few words.
For example, we are told that David was “a man after God’s own heart.” We are told that Abraham was “a friend of God.” We are told that Elijah was “a man of God.” But there is not a greater testimony in all of the Bible than this one given of Enoch, “he walked with God.”
AS A RESULT WE SEE SOME VERY IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT HIM
I. His Intimate Fellowship
1. We are told quite simply, but very powerfully, “Enoch walked with God.” (v.22) Now anybody can walk with God, but not everybody does. There was a missionary over in India who had led several people in his village to Christ. Well one of these relatively new Christians walked up to him one day and said, “Missionary, I watch you, I see how you talk with God and how you walk with God.” He said, “Does God have favorites?” The missionary said, “Oh no, God does not have favorites, but He does have intimates.”
You don’t need to spend time with God because God needs to get to know you. He knows you already inside and out, upside down, backwards and frontwards, north and south. But you need to spend time with God so that you can get to know Him.
Please notice that Enoch walked with God. God did not walk with Enoch. God was not going Enoch’s way. Enoch was going God’s way. If you’re going to walk with God you’ll have to go in His direction. He will not go in yours.
But also notice that he walked with God. That means he did not walk ahead of God, and he didn’t walk behind God. He just walked with God. Step by step, day by day, he was walking with the Lord.
There is not a more glorious way to live than just to walk with God.
When we walk with the Lord In the light of his word What a glory he sheds on our way!
I. His Intimate Fellowship
II. His Invincible Faith
Hebrews 11:5 is the New Testament commentary on this Old Testament character. “By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death, ‘and was not found because God had translated him’; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Above all else Enoch was a man of faith. He left this as his testimony: “He pleased God.” Well what was it about his faith that pleased the Lord?
A. He Obeyed The Will Of God
Nothing pleases God like faith, and the faith that pleases God obeys God. If God said, “Jump” Enoch said, “How high?” If God said, “Speak” Enoch said, “How loud?” If God said, “Give” Enoch said, “How much?” If God said, “Go” Enoch said “How quick?”
It never entered into his mind to doubt God. He never wondered; he never worried; he never fumed; he never fretted; he just simply believed and obeyed God.
A. it witnesses. Real faith doesn’t just say, “I believe in giving” - it tithes. Real faith doesn’t just say, “I believe the Bible” - it studies. Real faith doesn’t just say, “I believe in the church” - it attends - it serves - it sings - it works!
B. He Believed The Word Of God
God had revealed to Enoch, through his grandson Methuselah, that there was a coming judgment on the earth. Well, let’s do a little arithmetic. We are told in Genesis 5:25 that at the age of 187 Methuselah became the father of Lamech. Then we are told in vv. 28 & 29 that when Lamech was 182 he became the father of Noah. Now when you add up 187 and 182 you get 369. So Methuselah was 369 years old when Noah was born.
Now when did the flood come? Well, Genesis 7:11 tells us that the flood came “in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life.” Now when you add 600 to 369 you get 969 which is exactly how many years Methuselah lived according to Genesis 5:27. You see, I believe that the very moment Methuselah drew his last breath, God shut the door of the ark and sent the flood. Methuselah was God’s ticking time bomb of judgment. Every day that Methuselah lived was another day of opportunity for the world to get right with God. I believe today that the tidal waves of God’s wrath are slamming against the dam of his mercy. But one day the floodgate is going to break and the wrath and the judgment of God is going to flood this world once again.
I. His Intimate Fellowship
II. His Invincible Faith
III. His Indestructible Fearlessness
Did you know that Enoch was the first prophet ever mentioned in the Bible? We learned this from JUDE 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.
Do you hear the message he was preaching? It was a message of judgment.
A. A Day Of Social Permissiveness
Enoch was living in a day when everybody was doing his own thing, and the cosmos was turning in a chaos. There was no respect for human life. Morality was a joke. Sex was a toy. God was just a figment of man’s imagination.
B. A Day Of Spiritual Perversion
People were totally preoccupied with the good things in life. They were not concerned about God. They didn’t care about heaven. Holiness was irrelevant. People were living just like animals for self gratification, self propagation and self-edification.
But right in the middle of this This great man called Enoch was preaching sin black, hell hot, heaven sweet, judgment sure,
Enoch would not have called an abortion “termination of pregnancy,” he would have called it murder. He would not have called homosexuality “an alternative sexual preference,” he would have called it perversion. He would not have called adultery and fornication “free love,” he would have called it “sinful lust.”
When Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States, he went to church one Sunday and came home. His wife said to him, “Calvin, what did the preacher preach about today?” He said, “Sin.” His wife said, “Well, what did he say about it?” He said, “Well, I think he was against it.” We need preachers like Enoch will stand up in a pulpit with a straight back, squared shoulders and a rock jaw and let this world know that God is against sin.
I. His Intimate Fellowship
II. His Invincible Faith
III. His Indestructible Fearlessness
IV. His Incredible Fate
After three hundred years of faithfully walking with God, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, century after century, we are told simply “and he was not, for God took him.”
I think what God wants us to see is not so much how Enoch was taken, but where Enoch went. He went to be with the Lord. I want to tell you if you are a child of God it doesn’t matter whether you go through the grave, or you go through the clouds. Either way, whether you die before Jesus returns or whether Jesus returns before you die, you are going to be with God. Charles Spurgeon rightly said, “To the Christian, death is just God’s angel calling him home.”
There was a little boy named John Todd born in 1800 in Rutland, Vermont. Shortly after his birth his family moved to a little village called Killingsworth. When John was six both of his parents died. The children in the home had to be spread out among the relatives, and a kind hearted aunt who lived in North Killingsworth agreed to take John and give him a home. He lived with her until fifteen years later when he went away to study for the gospel ministry. When he was in middle life his aunt became desperately ill and realized that death would not be far off. In great distress she wrote this nephew of hers a pitiful letter asking questions like, “What would death be like? Would it mean the end of everything? Or, would there be beyond death a chance to continue living, continue growing, continue loving?” Here is the letter her minister nephew, John Todd, wrote:
“It is now thirty-five years since I, a little boy of six, was left quite alone in the world. You sent me word you would give me a home and be a kind mother to me. I have never forgotten the day when I made the long journey of ten miles to your house in North Killingsworth. I can still recall my disappointment when instead of coming for me yourself you sent a man named Caesar to fetch me. I well remember my tears and my anxiety, as perched high on your horse and clinging tight to Caesar, I rode off to my new home. Night fell before we finished the journey, and as it grew dark I became lonely and afraid. “‘Do you think she will go to bed before I get there?’ I asked Caesar anxiously. Oh no,’ he said reassuringly, ’she’ll surely stay up for you. When we get out of these here woods you’ll see her candle shining in the window.’ Presently, we did ride out in the clearing, and there sure enough was your candle. I remember you were waiting at the door; that you put your arms close about me, and that you lifted me - a tired and bewildered little boy - down from the horse. You had a big fire burning on the hearth, a hot supper waiting for me on the stove. After supper you took me to my new room. You heard me say my prayers and then you sat beside me until I fell asleep.
“You probably realize why I am recalling all of this to your memory. Some day soon, sweet aunt, God will send for you to take you to a new home. Don’t fear the summons the strange journey or the dark messenger of death. God can be trusted to do as much for you as you were kind enough to do for so many years ago. At the end of the road you will find love and a welcome waiting, and you will be safe in God’s care. I shall watch you and pray for you until you are out of sight, and then wait for the day when I shall make the journey myself and find you waiting at the end of the road to greet me.”
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