Enoch Walked With God (Genesis Chapter Five - Part 2)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

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Verse 2, He created them male and female and blessed them and called them mankind in the day they were created.

And Adam lived 130 years. And then verse 5, it says that Adam lived a total of how long?

930 years. And then he died. So some people don't take the

Bible literally. They don't take the first few chapters of the book of Genesis literally. This is one of the reasons.

They think, well, you know, come on. 930 years, obviously that's not true. Obviously that's impossible.

And as I always say, with God, all things are possible. God could cause a person to live forever.

And actually, if Adam continued to eat of the tree of life, he would have lived forever.

How is that possible, though? Let's do some more apologetics work.

Back then, you didn't have disease. Disease wasn't a thing.

The environment back then was pure. It was pure. Radiation from the sun was likely blocked from the canopy of water in the earth's atmosphere.

We touched on that briefly in our study from chapter 1. Before the flood, man lived a long, long time.

Those waters above, however, that canopy of water above was broken up at the time of the flood.

So when Noah and his family get off the ark, then life expectancy, it just plummets.

But before the flood, people are living hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. So while the earth is not a perfect environment, the fall has occurred, it's still near perfect.

So originally, even after the fall, man lived, you saw it, 900 years, some of them.

Over time, things start to break down. And that's true with anything.

During certain points in history, life expectancy was very low. You remember maybe hearing about times, biblical times, where people sometimes didn't make it out of their 30s.

That was a common thing. Through technology and modern medicine, we've brought the life expectancy up a bit.

But we get it, hopefully. 6 ,000 years ago, 5 ,000 years ago, it was a whole other world.

It really was. So people, some people have the idea that things are getting better and better and better.

And certainly we are gaining more knowledge, that's true. But just as much as knowledge can be used for good, knowledge can also be used for what?

Evil. Either way, things are actually getting worse.

Because when God created, everything was what? Perfect. It was good. And that's not the case today.

Just for example, when somebody builds a house, or really when they make anything, it is most pristine right after they build it, right after they create it.

Over time, things begin to deteriorate. And that's just the nature of it. The Bible actually compares the creation to an article of clothing that is getting worn out.

That's the way it is with the world. It began with perfection in the early days.

Things were still very good in the pre -flood world, or the antediluvian world, as it's called.

The Earth's climate, environment, the atmosphere, it was close to that original perfection.

That's why people could live so long. There was no disease. Even the animals.

Remember, Noah brought the animals onto the ark two by two. The lion and the tiger did not try to devour him.

So there were no threats from nature. I don't believe there were any hurricanes or earthquakes until after the flood.

So it was a different world. All right, now let's spend some time talking about this man

Enoch. I think this is probably the most interesting part of the chapter. Enoch was the son of Jared.

Look at verse 21. It says, and Enoch lived 65 years and begot who?

Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters.

So these are some godly people. In the last chapter, I said Seth started a new line or a new generation of men who began to call upon the name of the

Lord. That wasn't happening before. So this is the godly line of Adam through Seth that we're reading about.

Who are we not reading about? What genealogy are we not reading about? Yeah, the line of Cain.

So we're seeing two differences or two different lines. The line of Cain, that's what we talked about in chapter four.

Now in chapter five, the line of Adam through Seth. That's going to be very important when we come to the next chapter, chapter six.

So these are the two lines, Seth and Cain. But notice what it says about Enoch.

It says he walked with God, number one. The only other person in scripture where it says that about him was

Noah. And that doesn't mean that nobody else walked with God. What it's saying is these men's faith, it was at a whole other level.

This unique statement sets Enoch apart as a spiritual giant.

Noah and Enoch were spiritual giants. And there's something else that sets

Enoch apart. Every person so far in this genealogy, what happens?

They live and then they die. And of course the Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die.

And after this, the judgment. Here's the thing about Enoch, he never died. How do we know that?

Well, it says, look at verses 23 and 24. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years.

And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him.

Enoch is one of two men in the Bible, only two, that never died.

Wow, I think that would be amazing, wouldn't it? To never die.

You know, there is going to be a generation of believers that never die. Paul talked about this in 1

Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15. So this is sort of a picture, if you will, of the rapture.

But as of this moment, only two men in history, only two have never died. This shows us one lesson we can take away from this.

The greatest blessing is not necessarily a long life. I think long life is a blessing, depending on the life that you're living.

But the greatest blessing is not to live a long life. The greatest blessing is to walk with God.

Amen? Enoch walked with God.

He was then taken from this world and brought to another world.

Never having to taste death. And, of course, this is a foreshadowing of what will happen at Christ's return, as Paul wrote to the

Thessalonians and the Corinthians. I want to be part of that generation of believers who never dies.

You say, well, the odds are, the statistics, you know, it's probably unlikely. Well, I don't know.

I have faith it could happen. Amen? It could. We should be looking for the Lord's return, but Enoch never died.

Interestingly enough, when the New Testament mentions Enoch, he is mentioned in the book of Jude, verse 14.

He is actually connected to the Lord's return. Jude 14, you don't have to turn there, but it says,

Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, Behold, the

Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints. I want to test you this morning.

Who do you believe was the first prophet in the Bible? And technically,

I'm not going to say that there's one definite right answer, but when you think of the first prophet in the

Bible, who do you think of? Let me see a few hands and just call out, give me the name. Who do you think is the first prophet?

Janet. John the Baptist. Okay. Well, he's the first prophet on the pages of the

New Testament. That's true. Anybody else? All right.

Well, I think you know where I'm going with this. I did a Google search on who was the first prophet.

And by the way, I don't recommend that you do a Google search to find out biblical truth. You can't believe everything you read on the

Internet. You know that. But it said that Abraham was the first prophet. Okay, fine.

If that's what somebody believes, I submit to you that Enoch is the earliest character in the

Bible that is called the prophet, because Jude says that he did what? He prophesied.

So Enoch, I believe, was the first prophet, and he was taken to heaven or paradise.

The way it's written, it seems like he was living his life one day, and then all of a sudden he's not there anymore.

He's gone. God took him. But just to spend a moment on this other statement that he walked with God, Amos chapter 3, verse 3 says,

Can two walk together unless they are agreed? Are you walking with God this morning?

Are you walking with God? Anyone who professes the name of Christ is unlikely to say no, although some people,

I guess, would if they're in a backslidden condition. But what does it mean to walk with God?

Part of it is you agree with God. You agree with everything that he says.

In other words, you agree with everything that is in this book.

So Enoch walked with God. See, every believer in Jesus Christ agrees with God, but let's face it, there's some things we struggle with.

There are some things in the Bible that are challenging, some things we don't understand. There may be personal struggles that you have, but every believer is walking with God.

The way I understand this, Enoch was walking with God side by side, side by side every moment of every day.

When you consider that he was alive for hundreds of years, that's quite a thing.

Maybe our walk with God, we're walking with him. The Lord is up there, but we're maybe 20 steps behind.

We're walking with God, but we're lagging behind 50 steps. Whatever the case, Enoch had a serious commitment.

He walked with God, and he was rewarded in that God took him. Matthew Henry writes this about Enoch's walk.

He says, The Holy Spirit, instead of saying

Enoch lived, says Enoch walked with God. This was his constant care and work while others lived to themselves and the world, he lived unto

God. Isn't that so common with us? We get caught up in our day and the things that we want and desire, and sometimes we don't even intend to do it, but we're living to ourselves.

We're doing what we want. We want to accomplish our goals, and it's easy to lose sight of what

God wants. So Enoch walked with God. We're getting close to the end of the chapter.

Enoch's son, who was left behind, if I can say it that way, and that's no knock on him, because God, I believe, left him behind for a purpose.

Who's his son? What's his name? Methuselah. So Methuselah is the oldest man to ever live here on planet

Earth. And the reason why God allowed him to live so long was to be sort of like an object lesson of God's patience in long suffering.

Turn to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. So the idea is that God allowed

Methuselah to live longer than anybody else to be a picture of his long suffering before the flood, because when the flood came, it destroyed every person on Earth save Noah and his family.

And within Methuselah's name, I think there's a message, there's a prophecy.

Of course, his father was who? Enoch, who was a prophet. So his father gave

Enoch, gave his son the name Methuselah, which some interpret to mean, when he dies, there shall be an omission, or when he dies, then it will be sent.

Many scholars have believed, although there is some debate about this, but many scholars believe that there is a prophecy built in to Methuselah's name.

In other words, when Methuselah dies, what happens? The flood.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Moores Corner Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, moorescornerchurch .com.

We'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.