"Examples of Faith: Enoch" Hebrews 11:5-6
- Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on August 20, 2023.
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Audio Transcript
Chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11, verses 5 through 6. As we’re continuing a series called Examples of Faith. Last time we looked at Abel’s sacrifice of faith, and today we’re looking at Enoch’s words, Walk of Faith. I had to make a humorous title there. Now you see him, now you don’t.
Because the story of Enoch is that he was and then he was not, because God took him away. That’s the story in a nutshell that we’re going to be looking at today. Let’s begin reading in Hebrews 11. 5, 6.
Kirk, do I need to move my mic down? Because it’s popping. Does that mean it was doing an earlier service? Am I okay? Okay.
All right.
Okay, we’ll try that. Hebrews 11. By faith, Enoch was taken away, and so he did not experience death. He was not to be found because God took him away. For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God.
Now, without faith, it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. May we pray? Heavenly Father, as we look at the short passage that we have today on Enoch’s life, help us to ascertain how it applies to us, because he’s an example of how we are supposed to live and in particular, how we are supposed to walk. So guide our hearts and our minds to desire to have a closer walk with you. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen. We’re talking about faith, and I want to read a quote from Andrew Murray that kind of expresses what faith is before I read it. What it is saying is that we have senses that we can experience this world. We have sight, we have smell, we have hearing, and we have taste. That’s how we know what’s going on in this physical world.
But faith is a new sense that comes alive in our hearts when our spirit is quickened and comes to life. And it is with faith that we’re able to perceive and understand the things in the spiritual world that we can’t understand and to understand what is coming in the future and know that by faith. This is what Andrew Murray says. Faith is the spiritual faculty of the soul, which deals with the spiritual realities of the future and the unseen. Just as we have our senses through which we hold communication with the physical universe, so faith is the spiritual sense or organ through which the soul comes into contact with and is affected, affected by the spiritual world.
Our faith is a gift from God that allows us to understand spiritual things and have a right relationship with him. Let’s go back to Genesis chapter five, where we begin with the story today. You want me to switch to the handheld mic?
Here we are in Genesis, chapter five, and we read, Enoch was 65 years old when he fathered Methuselah. And after he fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and fathered other sons and daughters. So enoch’s life lasted 365 years. Enoch walked with God then. He was not there because God took him.
There was something that happened in Enoch’s life when he was 35 years old. And it came about this time when his son Methuselah was born. And it may have to do with the possible meaning of Methuselah’s name. Dr. Henry Morris says that his name means when he dies, judgment. When he dies, judgment.
Others say, from the Cornwall Smith exhaustive dictionary that his name means when he is dead, it shall be sent. Others say that his name means man of the dart or javelin. It all depends on your understanding of the Hebrew language, which I’m not real in depth, so I have to see what other people have to say. But he was given this name by his father that if we take the idea when he dies, there will be judgment. And when he is dead, it shall be sent.
We’re going to look at the chronology in just a minute, and we’re going to see that there was something very significant that happened the year that he died, and that is that Noah’s flood came. The great judgment, the it that is mentioned, his name is what was sent. But in the meantime, Enoch walked with God. You know, people see who I walk with each night in my neighborhood. I try to go on a walk with Mary because I need exercise and she wants me to do that.
And every night when we walk around the block, I’m certain that people notice and they say, who is that beautiful lady he’s walking with? It must be his daughter. Would y’ all agree with that? But, you know, there is a testimony there that I have this special relationship with Mary because I’m not walking with somebody else night after night. And so it was here we have Enoch, and he’s in this similar relationship with God that he’s just walking with him on a daily basis.
He’s walking throughout the day in the normal circumstances of life. And whenever we talk about walk in the Bible, that’s what we’re talking about. How we live, what we do, what we eat, what we say with our conversation. And what we find is that Enoch was just Going through his normal daily routine, but he was always doing it walking with God. He wasn’t just walking with God during difficult times.
He wasn’t just walking with God when there was sickness and when there was problems. It also doesn’t tell us that he was running with God when he was rushed. And he wasn’t flying with God when everything is just going crazy and rushing forward. Instead, he’s walking with God consistently on a day to day basis. Enoch walked with God and in the same way when I walk with Mary.
What does that mean? It means that there’s, there’s a special closeness there. There’s also an ongoing conversation as we’re walking. There’s the sense of companionship and there’s a sense of accountability that, that we examine our day and we look at our schedule and we, we decide if we’re doing the right things. And so it was when Enoch was walking with God day by day, there was a special closeness, there was an ongoing conversation, there was companionship and there was accountability.
When Enoch walked with God, there was also this testimony that he had. And just as people see me walking with Mary in Enoch’s day, people said, oh, there goes Enoch. Look, he’s, he’s walking with God. And his wife would say, well, dear, I’ll see you when you get home from work today. Enjoy your time with God throughout your day.
And I’m guessing his children said, dad, have fun with your best friend today. We know who that is. It’s God. Because Enoch lived his life walking with God. If Enoch made a decision or a purchase, he didn’t have to go and find God somewhere because God was right there with him to give him wisdom.
And if Enoch was in an accident or he suddenly got ill, he didn’t have to go off and find God because he knew that God was right there with him. I’d like us to take our bibles and turn to Psalm 1 where it talks about someone walking in this world. If you don’t have your Bible, you can grab this pew Bible and It’s on page 472. We’re looking at Psalm 1 and in the Pew Bible it’s page 472. And what we’re going to see here as we read it’s kind of the.
Gives you the opposite of what it means not to walk with God.
Psalm 1, beginning in verse 1, how happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the company of mockers. Instead his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit, fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. And then verse 6 says, for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.
Now, if we were to rewrite this in the positive sense, the way we would read it about Enoch is how happy is the one who does walk in the advice of the Lord, who stands in the pathway with the Lord, and who sits in the company of the Lord. He delights in the Lord’s instruction, and he thinks about his instruction day and night. This is the type of relationship that Enoch had with the Lord. Walking with him, continually, taking his advice, being with him in the pathway, being with him in the gateway, wherever he was. Now, I’d like us to take a minute to look at the chronology and the genealogy in Genesis 5.
And I’ve got a chart up there. I know it’s way too small for you to read, so I’ll just have to explain it to you. What we have here is the first 1700 or years so of the existence of the world. And in year zero is when Adam was born. And then we have there that he had his son Seth when he was 130.
He lived 930 years. Therefore he died in what would have been the year 930. And then we have his son Seth and Enosh and Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared. And finally we come to Enoch and Scripture tells us how old each of these men were when they bore these sons to them. And all you have to do is add the numbers up and then you can see within that blue box there the people that were contemporary with Enoch, that were alive.
So when you look at the numbers, Adam was still alive when Enoch walked in this world. Seth was still alive. Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, and Jared were all still alive. And then Enoch had Methuselah, who had Lamech as a child, who then later bore Noah. But all these people were there giving a testimony of what God had done in their life all the way back to Adam.
Enoch had all that information. He knew right from Adam what happened in the Garden of Eden and how he and Eve had given into Satan and they had fallen into sin. And he knew everything that God had spoken to these people along the way. But. But still, with all that knowledge, something changed in Enoch’s life when he was 35 years old.
And the lesson for us is that we can have all the intellectual knowledge of God in our life. We can even believe that he exists. But there has to be a point that faith blossoms in our life and we accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it’s at that point that we begin to walk with the Lord. So it was with Enoch that he began a walk with the Lord consciously at age 35.
Enoch wasn’t the only person in Scripture that was taken away miraculously. If we turn to second kings 2, 11, I’ll read there for you. Talking about Elijah and Elisha as they were walking along. And you can always keep those in order because J becomes before Elijah. H. Okay.
I mean before S. Elijah and Elisha, as they were walking and talking, just going around with their basic daily walk, a chariot of fire with horses of fire suddenly appeared and separated the two of them. Then Elijah went up into heaven in the whirlwind. And as Elisha watched, he kept crying out, my father. My father. The chariots and the horsemen of Israel.
Now maybe that this is how Enoch was taken to heaven in this chariot of fire and the chariot with the horses that were leading, we don’t know. No one was there to see it. But this is what happened in the time of Elisha and Elijah’s life. I’d like you to go to Matthew chapter 24, where we see that there will be another time when people are just going to be caught up to heaven. In your pew Bible, it’s page 880.
If you have your Bible, turn to Matthew 24. We’re going to begin reading in 36 about another time in the future when many are going to be caught up into heaven, just as Enoch was and just as Elijah was.
Page 880, beginning in verse 36. Now, concerning that day and hour, no one knows neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, except the Father alone. As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. For in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. Until the day Noah boarded the ark, they didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away.
This is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be. The two men will be in the field, and one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding grain with a hand mill. One will be taken and one left. Therefore be alert, since you don’t know what day your Lord’s coming.
But know this. If the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into. This is why you are also to be ready. Because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Just as Enoch was caught up, just as Elijah was coming up, a day is coming in the future that those who have a true walk with the Lord, that have placed their faith in him, are going to be caught up at Jesus return into heaven.
And those that are working with them in the field, those that are working with them at the bakery, wherever they are, if they have not placed their faith in Jesus Christ, are not going to be caught up. Let’s go back now to Hebrews chapter 11. Enoch walked with God. What does Hebrews tell us that that means to us? In verse 5 we read by faith, Enoch was taken away.
So he did not experience death. He was not to be found because God took him away. For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God. Now without faith, it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. First thing I want you to see there it says that Enoch was approved.
He was well testified about. People knew exactly what to say about him and his life and his character. But the most important approval that he had first was that God gave him approval. You know, we want approval from people, we want approval from our friends, we want approval from our bosses. But the most important approval that we need in life is approval from God.
And that is what Enoch head. He knew that he was pleasing God by the way that he lived. And he knew that God approved of him. But that approval was also recognized by all the other people that were around him. They all knew by his life and by his walk that he was pleasing God because he was a testimony of righteousness, of what it looked like to live a life walking with the Lord compared to the other pre flood peoples.
He lived just a short life on earth. Now his life never really ended, he never died. And his life continues today to be a testimony to us. Comparatively, we think of Abel as we talked about last week. That because of his faith and his sacrifice he died.
But still his death resulted in eternal life. Enoch pleased God and Enoch had faith. You know, faith is more than just intellectual acknowledgment. James 2:19 tells us that even Satan and his demons believe in God. They’ve seen him, they believe him, but they have not placed their faith in him.
There has to be more than just this intellectual assent that God exists and and that I believe he exists. There has to be faith in our life. So we need to ask ourselves, what is faith? How do we know who has faith? And more importantly, how do I know if I have faith in my life?
Once again, I want to read a quote from Andrew Murray. It says that faith is the unceasing, the reaching out heavenward of that spiritual sense to which things, future and unseen, reveal themselves as near and present as living in power. This faith that we have, it is always understanding that what is far off in eternity is near. And it is real. And it sees and understands and believes that there’s a spiritual world.
There’s something going on that we cannot see. But by faith we understand that it’s there. But in Hebrews 11 we have four things that are demonstrations of what it means to have faith. Once again, I read the verse, without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Therefore, there are four things in here, in this text that let us know if someone has faith and also gives us confidence.
If we have faith in our life, shortly they are There’s a desire to please God. There is faith that also draws near to God. Faith believes that God exists, and faith believes that God rewards. Let’s think about each of those, just briefly. Faith desires to please God.
You know, there has to be this initial desire to have a relationship with God. When I first met my wife, I had an initial desire to have a relationship with her. Have any of y’ all experienced that with somebody? I mean, she didn’t walk by and I not notice her. I wanted to have a relationship with her.
And I had this great desire to have a relationship with her. That’s how faith begins in our life with the Lord. We see the Lord, we learn about Him. We say, wow, I want to have a relationship with Him. People that have true faith in their life desire to have a relationship with the Lord.
We see that in others and it’s a confidence building thing in our own lives that we have true faith. If we desire to please God. That’s the other thing. In order to have a relationship with my wife, what did I want to do? I wanted to please her.
I did everything I could to please her. I sent her cards, I bought her Christmas ornaments. I took her out to eat occasionally. Couldn’t afford it too much. But my desire was to please her.
And so it is that faith begins with a desire to please God. But faith also draws near to God, meaning it’s emotion towards someone or something that I choose to approach God and say, God, I want to have this relationship with you. I don’t stand off and say, if you desire me, come after me, and then run from him. It’s just the opposite of that. I am drawing near to him to come to God to draw near to Him.
We do that through prayer, through sacrifice, through worship, through devotion of our heart and a commitment of our life to him. When we look at other people, if they have a desire to please God and if they’re continually drawing near to him, we know that they have faith. And if we can see that in our life, we also know that we have faith too. But next we see that faith believes that God exists. You can’t have a relationship with an imaginary person.
We would take you to a hospital or institution if you did that. We know for certain that God exists. And we. One of the ways is, according to Psalm 19:1 and 2, that we have the evidence of creation that becomes the foundation of our faith. The heavens declare the glory of God and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they communicate knowledge. What that’s saying is when we look at everything that’s created, it’s evidence of that God exists. Evolution, people have faith in that. They focus on so much of the evolutionary process of a human being that we supposedly came from something down there to what we are today. That’s so complicated.
The chances of that happening randomly are so slim. But then when you look at every type of animal and every type of plant and every type of flower and every planet, and you have to think that all, all of those things randomly happened. It just tells you it’s all impossible. We have some large tubs of Legos at our house. And why inside us, they love to come over and play with the Legos and keep their little sisters away from them.
And this is what they do. They pick up the tubs and they shake them and they shake them and they shake them and they shake them. Thousands of pieces of Legos and they open it up and this beautiful Ferrari is sitting there that was put together with all the pieces. Is that the way it happens? That’s what evolution says.
This big box of Legos that we don’t even know who shook it, you know, but it was shaken until all this appeared. It’s impossible. We can believe that God exists because we have the foundation of the evidence that we see in creation. But the greater evidence of that is in Hebrews Chapter one, verses one through three, where we read, long ago, God spoke to the ancestors by the prophets. And that was wonderful.
They told us all about God. But in these last days, he has now spoken to us by his Son. God sent someone better than the prophets. He sent the Son, who is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature. Now, you may have a lot of people that write things that try to say that Jesus isn’t God, but you don’t find writings that say that Jesus did not exist because that is well documented historically.
And we have the record here in God’s Word and all of the faithful witnesses that told us that he died on the cross, he was buried, and he rose from the dead. Those historical facts, the written record, the very words of Christ himself are evidence that God exists. And our faith, our belief that God exists, rest on these two foundations. It’s not blind faith, but it’s something that we can be certain about. Faith desires to please God.
Faith draws near to God. Faith believes that God exists. And the fourth thing the text tells us is that faith believes that God rewards. Faith believes that God rewards. What does that mean?
Well, the biggest reward we have about placing our faith in Christ is that we have salvation from our sins, that Jesus blood on the cross has allowed us to be forgiven by his sacrifice. And we have a guaranteed relationship with God throughout eternity. And we know that we’re not going to be in hell for eternity. But there’s something more than that. God tells us that there are rewards for those of us that live our lives faithfully.
The people that walk closer to God, that live more faithfully are going to have greater rewards. And there are those people that are going to have less rewards because of the way they live. And Jesus said, there are going to be some that it’s just as if they were just grabbed out of the fire at the last minute. There’s not going to be these rewards for them. When I wanted to have a relationship with Mary, I knew that if we continued in that relationship, I was going to have great reward.
In many ways, I was looking forward to that. I was expecting my relationship to develop into that. And so it is with God that true faith knows that he’s going to reward me for how I live with him. In Revelation 22:12, read, Look, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me to repay each person according to his work. And then we read, in Proverbs 8, 17, God says, I love those who love me and those who search for me.
Find me. My greatest reward is knowing that if I love God, that He is going to return that love to me. And that’s placed in all of us. It’s part of what seeks for the relationship with God that only he can give us. We look for love in other people, and we expect that if we love them that they will love us in return.
Well, God guarantees that he is going to reward us with his love. And he guarantees us that if we search after him, he is going to reward us by allowing us to find Him. Faith has both an internal and an external testimony. And that’s what we see in the two passages here. Between Hebrews and Genesis.
There’s this idea that there’s something about faith that’s inside of us that we recognize. But there’s also this external testimony that’s in our life. So we come down to two questions today. The first one is, do you have an internal testimony of faith? And do you also have an external testimony of faith?
And the passage tells us what characterizes this. An internal testimony of faith is characterized by, you’re going to desire to please God more than you desire to please anyone else. You’re going to desire to draw near to God more than you desire to draw near to other people or other things. You’re going to believe truly that God exists, and you’re going to believe that God is going to reward you and for your life the way that you live. Someone who has true faith has that testimony inside of them, and it’s a confidence that the Holy Spirit gives us.
Yes, you’re a true believer because those things are true of you. But faith also has an external testimony that everybody else can see. And it’s characterized by this walk that Enoch had. So the questions to ask yourself are these. Do people see you walking with God throughout the day in your normal routine and circumstances of life?
Is there evidence to others that God is walking with you? Or is it more likely that they see you walking with the world and carrying around what it values instead of what God values? Another question is, do people see that your affections and that your loyalties lie with God? Or are they more likely to say that you love people and things more than you love God? Another question is, do people see that you walk with God in all your circumstances?
You’re walking with him through your daily routine. You’re walking with him when you’re rushed, you’re walking with him in difficult times, and you’re also walking with him in quiet times. Are people more likely to say, yeah, he walks With God occasionally it’s when things are difficult or when he’s sick or there are problems or he’s wanting a promotion. But we don’t see him walking with God all the time.
When you think of your relationship with God, do you today sense that there is closeness, that there’s conversation? Do you sense that you have companionship with him? And are you accountable to him? Knowing that he’s watching everything I do and he stands beside me and he says, you know, that’s not the right decision to make, or that’s not the right thought to say? And is there the testimony that others would say to you or about you?
There’s, James, he’s walking with God again, or their family saying, you know, we’ll see you when you come home from work today. Enjoy your time with the Lord and your children and your friends say about you, have fun with your best friend today. Because we know that your best friend is God. When you have a task, when you have a test, when you have a trial, do you have to run off and find God quickly to come and help you with them? When there’s a surprise or a new experience, or you have this overflowing emotion as your immediate response, God, did you experience that with me right now?
Or do you have to run off and find him somebody who’s walking with God? He’s always right there with him. And when you make decisions day by day, when you decide to make purchases, do you go off and have to find God and spend time with him? Or is he right there to give you wisdom and guidance? And if by chance you were to have an accident or to suddenly get ill, do you know that God is right there with you in that accident, in that illness, so that he can hold your hand and so that he can comfort you?
All of these things are evidences if we really have faith in our life, if we walk with God. Of course, there’s a first step to all of this. And that happens after you have that initial desire to be with God, that you have to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, that he died on the cross, he was buried, and he rose from the dead, and he did that for you as a payment for your sin. You have to accept that gospel. You have to invite him to be the Lord of your life.
That’s the first step. But then this ongoing walk, it’s a developing relationship that you have with the Lord. Every time I walk with my wife, I know her better. And so it is that every day that you walk with the Lord, you know him better and better, and you understand how much he means to you more and more. These are evidences of faith to others, but they’re also evidences of faith in your life that you can know for certain that you have a walk with the Lord.
We’re going to be coming to the Lord’s table today, so we want you to spend some time in preparation to examine your heart. Because according to scripture, we need to come to the Lord’s table prepared, meaning that we know we have a walk with the Lord and we know that our walk is right with him today. So the worship team is going to come and lead us in a song. You don’t have to sing with them or you can sing, but this time is for you to examine your heart and ask the Lord, are you without sin, or is there something that you need to confess today before you come to the Lord’s table.