LET US GO ON

(Hebrews 6:1)

 Genesis 5:21-24

²¹Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. ²²After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. ²³So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. ²⁴And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

 

Hebrews 11:5

⁵By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.  ⁶But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

 

Jude 14

¹⁴Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, ¹⁵to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

Enoch, whose name means "dedicated" was born during the 622^nd year of Adam's 930 year lifespan. He was 65 and Adam was 687 when Methuselah was born. It is then that Enoch's life takes on tremendous significance. According to Genesis 5:22, Enoch began to walk with God after the birth of his son, Methuselah.  What was responsible for this change in Enoch's life?  What caused him to begin walking with God?  Was it the result of Adam's influence?  Had his grandfather, Mahalaleel, whose name means praising God, stirred Enoch with his praise?  Again, what motivated Enoch to walk with God for 300 years?  

THE ENVIRONMENT

Just one chapter later God looked and "saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5).  How does a society come to such a condition?  How does a person fall so low?  By the pen of Jeremiah, God declared, "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water" (Jer. 2:13).  The first step toward hideous idolatry is the forsaking of God.  A society must dethrone God before it can enthrone itself.  While man takes the first step, evil takes the second. Morality, like nature, abhors a vacuum.  When any belief is expelled, one is not left with neutrality.  To the contrary, any time a world-view is evicted, another will replace it. 

In the days of Manasseh, when Israel abandoned God, she made way for Moloch, the god of the Ammonites.  The silence of the Jerusalem night was broken by the screams of Jewish children who were being bound to altars, or rolled into the sacrificial fires from the brazen arms of Moloch.  The valley where these sordid rituals were held was called Gehenna, or hell.  We cannot abandon God without creating a living hell.  Our current social scene presses this terrifying reality home with its unprecedented violence, ravaging drug addiction, and the flagrant moralizing of what God calls immorality. 

German theologian Emil Brunner suggested that Adolf Hitler should be posthumously given an honorary doctor of theology degree because he awakened Europe to her Christian heritage by showing her what the world would be like without Christianity.  Hitler's Germany was only possible because she had abandoned God. 

At best the society of Enoch's day was in the process of abandoning God.  Perhaps Enoch was a good man, but our text implies that he was not walking with God.  For 65 years he lived to survive.  For 65 years he was just a voiceless face in the crowd.  For 65 years he did nothing and said nothing that would jeopardize his comfort or security.  In contemporary terms he attended Church, but he never got involved.  He didn't agree with what was going on, but he didn't do anything to stop it.

THE ENCOUNTER

Jude tells us that Enoch was a prophet or seer and even quotes from a then known record of Enoch's prophecies. While we do not have a valid record of Enoch's utterances, Enoch did embed one of his prophecies in Methuselah's name: "when he dies, it shall come" or "when he dies, it shall be sent."  A non-canonical book called the "Ethiopic Enoch" does contain most of Jude's quote.  Later, in Chapter 10 and verse 4 of the Ethiopic Enoch, Enoch quotes God as saying:

"… all the earth shall perish; the waters of a deluge shall come over the whole earth, and all things which are in it shall be destroyed."  

While we do not give canonical authority to the Book of Enoch, most scholars agree that Methuselah's name points toward the great flood that occurred in the days of Noah and at the death of Methuselah.  In essence, when Methuselah died, the flood came.

Enoch's foreknowledge of the coming flood was the thing that precipitated his 300-year walk with God.  The writer of Hebrews tells us, "before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.  But without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Heb. 5, 6).  The apostle Paul tells us "faith come by hearing and hearing by the word of God."  In view of the fact that Enoch did not have a Bible, we must conclude that he had an encounter with God.  It was this encounter that changed the direction of his life.

Paul was a man with a mission before he became a Christian and he was passionate about that mission.  Trying to redirect his life would be like trying to nail warm Jello to a tree.  Paul's life was radically redirected when he had an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. 

He had money and a successful business, but alcohol was his nemesis.  He would be sober for months and then without warning he fall off the wagon and stay drunk for weeks.  During those times he would cry out to God, "God, please help me!"  One night, at the age of 44, in a little Baptist church in Paradis, Louisiana, he was gloriously saved.  That and other encounters with God radically redirected his life.  I know, because he was my father.

We cannot expect those who have had no encounter with God to live radical Christian lives.  It may not be a voice or a vision, but all of us need a life-altering encounter with God; a bench-mark moment that changes us forever.

THE ENDURANCE

Enoch's faith or Word persuaded heart produced a 300-year walk with God.  Every day for 300 years, Enoch walked with God.  While the world around him slid deeper and deeper into wickedness, Enoch walked with God.  Though friends and family ridiculed him, Enoch walked with God. 

Some years ago, while pastoring in the southern part of Louisiana, I had the opportunity to talk with a man about his salvation.  He was drinking his third or fourth beer when he told me an extraordinary story.  It seems he was on his deathbed when he had a visit from Jesus.  He said Jesus walked into his room, talked with him, touched him, and healed him.  I inquired if he was attending Church anywhere and he said, "NO".  I asked him if he was serving God and he responded by saying, "NO."  After a moment's silence I heard myself say to him, "You are a liar."  As one might expect, he became very angry and in the midst of the cursing asked what gave me the right to judge him.  He implied that I was passing judgment on him because he drank beer.  You need to understand that I'm not in the habit of calling people liars, so I was as surprised as he was.  When he settled down enough for me to respond to him, this is what I said.  "Sir, if I had experienced the kind of encounter with Jesus that you've just described to me I'd be an on fire man of God.  Either you've lied to me or you're the most ungrateful man I've ever met." 

I remember a young man who "got saved" every four or five months and then backslid as regularly.  An old Pentecostal preacher who was familiar with this young man and his ways was holding us a meeting.  On the second night of that "revival," Ronnie came to the altar and cried his eyes out.  That night on the way home the old preacher looked at me and laughingly said, "Ya know, somebody needs to get that boy saved and then shoot 'im."    

People come and go, so I've met and heard a lot of things over the years.  I've met the pew jumpers, the shouters, and those who've told me that I was the greatest preacher they had ever heard and that Point Assembly was their home Church.  They pumped my hand and thought I was eating the same bull they had told other pastors.  What they didn't know was that I had their number.  I'm not impressed with flash-in-the-pan loud mouths who don't know what the word commitment means.  I'm not putting my money on super-spiritual idiots who think everybody else believes the lies they've told themselves.  These two-faced hypocrites fail to realize that we don't need their flattery, so we don't buy their lies.  I'm not impressed with men who can slam dunk a basketball from mid-court and yet have the morals of an alley cat.  My apologies to the cat.   I'm not impressed with people who can sing the glory down on Sunday night, but cuss a blue streak on Monday.    I am impressed with people who have faithfully served God for past fifty years.  They've prayed when no one else showed up for the prayer meeting.  They've washed the saints feet.  They've prayed new believers through to the Baptism in the Holy Ghost.  They've taken the enemies best shots and yet they're still standing. 

Enoch's encounter with God lasted past Monday night.  What he experienced and what he believed was so real that it kept him walking right for 300 years. 

I'm thrilled that you're supernatural in Church, but how well do you represent God on the job?  It's one thing to sing praises in an auditorium filled with Pentecostal believers, but quite another to stand for Christ among the pagans at work.  It's great to jump and dance on Sunday morning, but do you walk right on Monday morning?

Enoch's walk lasted 300 years and that in a hostile environment.

THE END

Of Adam, scripture says, "all the days that Adam lived were 930 years; and he died" (Gen. 5:5).  Concerning Seth, we are told "all the days of seth were 912 years; and he died" (Gen. 5:8).  Scripture tells us that Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, and Jared, Enoch's father all died.  However, when we come to Enoch we are told, "So all the days of Enoch were 365 years.  And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him" (Gen. 5:23-24).  Everyone else in Enoch's tree died, but Enoch's life on earth and his walk with God ended in what we might term a mini-rapture—"he was not, for God took him." 

I may be wrong and I'm certainly not attaching divine inspiration to this statement, but could Enoch be an OT picture of the generation that will see HARPAZO or the rapture of the Church?  If so, then that generation will consist of people who have had a life changing encounter with God and who are consistently walking with Him in the midst of a hostile environment. 

CONCLUSION

ENOCH'S WALK

• ITS COMMENCEMENT – It began with an encounter.

• ITS CONSISTENCY – It lasted 300 years.

• ITS CONSUMMATION – "he was not, for God took him."

How's your walk coming?  Have you started?  Have you stopped to rest?  Does the encounter you had need refreshing?  Do you have enough heart persuasion to last 300 years?  Has a decadent world influenced you?  If we are to go on we need a fresh encounter with Almighty God.