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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 5:1-24
Well, this morning we are beginning Genesis chapter 5. We're not going to do the whole chapter today. We'll look at the most, I'd say, two-thirds of the genealogy. However, we will end with most of our focus on Enoch.
And so we'll go from verses 1 through 24 in chapter 5. And we want to do that with view to things we've considered already in chapter 4, things that have already come out of chapter 3. So it's very important as we look at the larger themes of Genesis that we understand these building blocks, these very significant themes that are going to run through the whole book and indeed the whole Bible.
And the line of the promised seed and the contrast with the line of the serpent is one of these major themes. The structure of Genesis, it has been argued, I think successfully, is the genealogies, what we just read a moment ago, the Toledot formula.
That is the spinal cord of the book of Genesis. And so the thing that we tend to read past, here comes January in our little checkbox Bible reading list, and you know what it is when you come to those little genealogies, there's that temptation to kind of skim, just glide past, look for something interesting, some weird names going on.
But these are vital, absolutely vital to understand the theological significance of Genesis and how we get from Genesis to the story of Israel, the story of Israel to the story of Christ and the kingdom of God.
So with the genealogy of Cain, which was in chapter 4, we saw this murderer Cain at the very beginning and then his line, his sons, the pride they had, the technology they used to build a name for themselves, to make themselves great on the earth, to subvert the curse of God and subvert their need to seek God's mercy or benevolence toward them.
Cain's genealogy began with his own murder of his brother and it ended, remember, with Lamech. Not literally ended, it circled back to Lamech after we considered his sons. But Lamech, of course, was stylistically chosen for the sake of his song.
He was a wonderful songwriter, wasn't he? When he was talking about killing a boy who offends him. In other words, the lineage of Cain is meant to open with this murderous picture of Cain and then this killer Lamech.
And there it is.
There's the fruition of the line of the serpent. And we close chapter 4 with a little glimpse of Seth. We close chapter 4 with these words. As for Seth, to him also a son was born, and he named him Enosh.
Then men began to call on the name of the Lord. So as we said last week, this is the beginning of public worship.
Corporate worship.
This is the construction that the rest of the Hebrew Bible will use whenever it speaks of Israel gathering corporately to worship the Lord. They call upon His name. They call upon the name of the Lord.
That begins in the line of Seth. So in Cain's line, we see the progress of technology and the depravity of prideful man. But in the line of Seth, we see a progress in the worship of God and the awareness of a need for Him.
The seed of the woman now fully distinguished from the seed of the serpent. The seed of the serpent clinging to the principles of the tempter to become like God, to make themselves as God, establishing themselves with efforts against God.
That, in full contrast to the promised seed, who are the sons of God, who call upon the name of God, Yahweh. So we look at Genesis 5 and we begin with the book of Adam's genealogy. That may be a reference to something that Moses had access to.
It's literally a book, a scroll, some document perhaps. Usually things were orally transmitted, but perhaps this is something that was actually physically contained, that somehow had been preserved, and something that Moses had access to.
The book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, we read, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them, male and female, and blessed them, and called them man. It's literally Adam.
Mankind.
In the day they were created. And Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. So notice how we're here in chapter 5 and yet we're going back to Adam and with the language here, we're going back to Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.
Just notice some of these echoes. The day that God created man,.
In his likeness, in his image, male and female He created them, and He blessed them. All of this is emblematic of what we've already seen from Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.
And so why are we returning to it here?
Well, structurally we're being reminded of God's redemptive purposes for man. This isn't something separate from creation, but it's embedded within creation. This promise that was given to Adam and Eve is going to be fulfilled through the line of Seth, not the line of Cain.
That's the significance.
We have the genealogy of Adam and Cain has no place within it. The genealogy of Adam through Seth is all about the promise of redemption.
So the whole of chapter 5.
Is a description of this ever-narrowing line toward the Messiah. And that's going to run all the way through Genesis. God made Adam in His own image. While Adam was made in God's image, Seth is made in Adam's image but no longer in that pristine state in which Adam was made.
Seth is not born with original righteousness. Seth is not born with a heart naturally inclined, instinctively tuned toward godliness. Now Adam is the image of a fallen man and Seth is made in that image.
Seth too is a fallen man and his sons are fallen men. We're told, interestingly, of Adam's age when Seth was born to him. 130 years old. 130 years old.
We tend to read the narrative.
As those things happen sequentially. As though Abel was killed and then Cain was exiled and then within a few months, here comes Seth. That's not the case so far as we can tell. Adam had to walk a long time with the Lord before God gave him and Eve, his wife, Seth, this child of promise.
Isn't that a picture in Genesis as well? Just the patience of walking with the Lord. When God promises Abraham a child, Sarah will bear you a child. It doesn't happen right away, does it? They don't get the blue plus sign the next morning, do they?
They have to walk and they have to wait.
And God's promises unfold patiently. And there's a test therein.
He tests the hearts of His people.
He tests the faith of His people.
We see this again and again. He has lessons to teach in the waiting. It's a good reminder for our own lives. Just some of the things that we've already prayed for today. Is this not the way of God? To patiently unfold His promises, His assurances, His goodness in our lives.
And we have this long walk of obediently trusting Him. We know that God is not slack concerning His promise,.
As 2 Peter 3 says,.
But it certainly seems that way sometimes, doesn't it? When we look at our lives, perhaps, when we look at the world around us, it seems as though God were slack.
Where is He?
Where's the signs of His coming? That's what the people were saying.
Peter says, you need to reread the Scriptures.
To see how God actually works. Patiently.
Quietly.
In a way that confounds the wisdom of the world. In the meantime,.
During the wait,.
What have the sons of God been doing? They've been calling upon His name. They've been worshiping Him.
Trusting Him.
Catechizing the next generation. They've heard the eyewitness testimony.
Of the fall.
That's the other thing we get from this genealogy.
They've been able to hear.
From Adam's own lips the truth about man and his fall and God's promise of redemption. Because we read, all the days that Adam lived were 930 years. So think about the overlap here. Adam knew most of these children, great-grandchildren, great-great-great-grandchildren.
He lived 930 years. In other words, he's transmitting to the generations.
The story of the fall.
And the promise of redemption. They're hearing the gospel from Adam's own tongue. John Calvin puts it this way,. In the number of years here recorded, we especially consider the long period in which the patriarchs lived together.
Through six successive ages, when the family of Seth had grown into a great people, the voice of Adam could daily resound in order to renew the memory of creation, the fall, punishment of man, and to testify to the hope of salvation, which remained even after judgment, and to recite the judgments of God by which all might be instructed.
So Adam is able to disciple the generations himself from his own lips, teaching his sons in the Sethite line.
To do the same.
And it's not that all were, of course. Perhaps not all were faithfully instructed and certainly not all faithfully walked. For many, many sons and daughters in the genealogy of Adam were consumed by the flood of God's judgment.
So we have to keep that in mind. Apparently, many followed the way of the world. They didn't follow the way of the Lord. Even though they were in this line of promise, they departed from the way. And that's instructive for us as well, isn't it?
It's not the family you're born into that seals the redemption of God in your life. It's not that you've been around the right people or the right teaching or the right instruction. You must actually, to the point of this sermon today,.
Walk with God.
You must do that.
It becomes something intensely personal. So personal,.
So unique, so rare,.
That only Noah is found in his generation to be faithful in this way. Only Noah.
Consider that.
Out of the thousands and thousands that had heard Adam's own testimony about the fall and redemption. Matthew Henry says, Grace does not run in blood, but corruption does. A sinner begets a sinner. A saint does not beget a saint.
The Holy Spirit begets a saint. Parents need to remember this so that we never lose heart in praying for our children's salvation. It's not our efforts, not our blood, not our frequencies or consistencies.
Thank God, not even the lack of those things that saves our children.
It's the Holy Spirit.
And so we beseech the Lord. Whether sinner or saint, we see this picture in Genesis 5. Death has now entered the world. And that's what this genealogy is trying to tell us. The wages of sin is death. Death has now spread through one man to all.
And so even in the Sethite line, even the line of promise, even in the line of God's favor and of God's grace shining richly upon it, there's the wages of sin. There's the consequences of the fall.
After he begot Seth,.
The days of Adam were 800 years, and he had sons and daughters. And all the days Adam lived were 930 years,.
And he died.
Seth lived 105 years, and he begot Enosh. After he begot Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Seth were 912 years,.
Enosh lived 90 years and begot Canaan. After he begot Canaan, Enosh lived 815 years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enosh were 905 years,.
Canaan lived 70 years, and he begot Mahalalel. I don't know why you guys went with Carina. Mahalalel magazine. Doesn't that have a ring to it? Maybe it could go for a girl or a boy. After he begot Mahalalel, Canaan lived 840 years and had sons and daughters.
And all the days of Canaan were 910 years,.
You get the point.
He died. He died. He died.
Beyond our verses today,.
Eight times,.
This is the refrain of the genealogy. Now we read this as naturally expecting this to be the case. Our reaction is,.
Wow, they lived so long prior to the flood.
This is amazing. Do we know why they lived so long?
Can you imagine living that long? That's the only thing that grabs our attention.
Oh, I wouldn't know.
If I would want to live close to millennium. That would be insane. What ought to grab our attention.
If we've been paying attention.
To the narrative of Genesis is the fact that good men are dying. That men in light of God's favor still succumb to death. That death is the enemy of man. This is the freak tragedy of the fall. They die.
They die.
Living for centuries and yet dying. That's what ought to grab our attention.
And of course it is fascinating.
That the life expectancy is incredibly long prior to the flood. And it's not because we have to adjust things to a lunar calendar or all that. All of that falls apart at one level or another. This is just the nature of the world.
I think the nature of God's intentions for mankind at this point, it's an incredibly long time. After the flood, it will drop in half. By the time of Babel, it will drop in half again. By the time Moses is writing of his own generation in Psalm 90, people are living an average lifespan,.
70, even 80.
Regardless of whether it's 90 years or 900 years, the point is there's still death, death, death. Death has entered the world. And this was not part of God's good creation. He did not create man in His image to rot and to go back to the dust and to be consumed by worms.
This was not part of what God declared to be good. This is the result of sin. This is the wages of sin. So the constant refrain up to verse 24,.
Six times, He died, He died, He died.
It reminds us of the condition of the curse. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men.
Because all sinned.
We're so jaded.
The obituary should be a very devastating thing to read. Death is something that is against God's original purposes in creation. And yet in the wisdom of the Gospel, death becomes the very means of salvation.
The very hope of our salvation is anchored in death and life through it. As we look to the new year, many of us make resolutions. None of our resolutions will come close to being as thorough as Jonathan Edwards' resolutions, if you've ever read those.
One of his resolutions, a very wise one for a 19-year-old to make, was to think much on all occasions of my dying. There's a rare 19-year-old. What am I going to do? I'm going to resolve to be constantly thinking about my dying in any conditions related thereto.
That's a wise 19-year-old.
Let me ask the question, did you think about your death at all this week?
At all?
At some point in the week, did you think of that day, that day that you don't know,.
But the Lord knows, when you're going to die?
Probably not. Probably not.
Maybe some of you had a rough week and you had a reason to. I don't know, but probably not. When I was studying Renaissance art in my undergrad, one of the fascinating things about Renaissance paintings so often, especially even in scenery, but especially in still life, was they had what was called memento mori, a reminder of death.
Maybe a skull, maybe a bone. Some emblem of mortality. And so even the greatest scenes, there was this kind of bleak little symbol in some corner of the canvas, and it was this reminder of death. It's good for Christians to have memento mori, to realize our days are numbered.
This is sort of the last taboo in Western civilization. It's one of the few things that can make a Westerner blush or make them uncomfortable. Funerals and death, it should not be this way for Christians.
And death is a result of sin. It's certainly the point that Moses has been inspired to make in Genesis 5. It's the point he makes when he writes to Psalm 90. You have set our iniquities before yourself, our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
All of our days have passed away in your wrath. We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are 70 years. If by reason of strength they're 80, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow. It is soon cut off and we fly away.
Who knows the power of your anger? For as the fear of you, so is your wrath. Teach us to number our days. Death is a result of sin, Moses is saying. And even in the line of Cain,.
There's death, death, and more death.
And so we're insulated and we're desensitized to the reality and that constant specter of death all around us. The reality that we're avoiding on the one hand is all too normal for us. We're jaded to it because we know, I don't want to think about that.
I know everyone has to go and kind of face that. On the other hand, we forget that God did not create us to simply die.
That's the shock.
He died, he died, he died, he died.
Man was not made to bury other men.
So the question then becomes,.
In light of Genesis 5, how do you escape this cycle of the wages of sin? Or to put it in a Pauline phrase, who will deliver from this body of death? Where does this cycle end and how does it end? Is there any hope within Genesis 5?
And the answer comes in verses 21 -24. Enoch lived 65 years and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years.
And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him.
He didn't die.
God took him. Enoch is the 7th from Adam in the line of Seth. Lamech was the 7th in the line of Adam through Cain. What a contrast there. One who says, I'll kill a child if he dishonors me. The other walks with God and was not,.
For God took him.
The contrast could not be any greater. In Enoch, godliness reaches its highest point. In Lamech, depravity and pride reaches the lowest point. Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. In other words, Enoch escapes the tragic summary of all human life.
He escapes that constant refrain of.
And he died, and he died, and he died.
He is simply taken by God. We don't read of this occurring to anyone else except Elijah in 2 Kings 2, which is why Jesus asked his disciples, Who do the people say that I am? Part of the answer is, some say you're Elijah, with the Elijah to come.
Elijah was taken up. He must be coming back. You must be that Elijah. Jesus identifies John the Baptist as the Elijah to come if we're able to handle it.
That's what he says.
Instead of saying that Enoch died, our text states very clearly, he was not. He was not. And the reason is implied in the first part of that construction. The reason is found in these all important words, Enoch walked with God.
Enoch walked with God. In the Hebrew, this verb to walk, halak, it's a very rare stem here.
Very, very rare.
It's in the Hithbayel stem, which is incredibly rare in Genesis. And the last time we saw it, the verb in this stem, was in Genesis 3, where God was walking in the garden. Why was God walking in the garden?
What's implied there is that he would often do so as he would commune with Adam and Eve. He had created them. He had set them apart on a Sabbath to rest and reflect the fact that he rested after his labor.
And so man was meant to commune with God and enjoy his presence there in Eden. And he walked in this way. And here that allusion is, all the way here in Genesis 5, Enoch walked with God. And we're meant to understand.
As Adam was created to walk with God.
As Adam was meant in Eden to walk with God.
This is how Enoch,.
Even outside of paradise, learned to walk with God. So we're reminded by this verb that man was created to glorify God.
And enjoy Him forever.
Enoch was enjoying God.
Even in the midst of a fallen world.
Even in the midst of fallen flesh. God condescended in His mercy to walk with Enoch. And Enoch walked with God. Adam and Eve were meant to rule over the beauty of God's creation. Man was meant to be an utter rapture as they communed with their Creator in the midst of the creation.
God walked with man.
And that was lost. Utterly lost.
When Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden as a result of their sinfulness. Adam and Eve fell and they lost the privilege of God's presence.
They were exiles from Eden.
In the same way that Israel would become exiles from the Promised Land. And yet in His grace, God reveals Himself.
He woos and calls and shows Himself.
To the sons of Adam. He's pleased by Abel's sacrifice. Abel learned how to walk with God. Learned how to come with a pleasing sacrifice out of a pure heart and a desire to honor God and seek His grace.
Enoch has found a way to walk with God even outside of Eden. It's not that this was the original goal. It's not that this is bandaged and duct taped.
And somehow made to work,.
But it is pointing to the goal. Enoch is walking with God and yet walking toward the greater hope of being with God forever. He knows that he's not meant to dwell in this fallen condition forever. He knows that God, His Creator Yahweh, did not create this creation.
Just to subsist in the fall.
He remembers the promise that Adam had told him. He remembers the promise that was passed down the Sethite line. And so here is God at work in our fallen, groaning world, and He's bringing men to walk toward paradise.
He's putting that paradise yearning in Enoch's heart. Enoch's walk, in other words,.
Is a walk of faith.
He's looking beyond the fallen world. He's looking beyond the present reality in a way that the Cainites never could. He's looking at the world as though he's a sojourner. And he's looking to the reward of God Himself.
If God is going to redeem this, then that means that once again I will be able to walk with God and enjoy His presence as God originally created man to do. He's walking. He's diligently seeking Him as he walks by faith.
Isn't that exactly what Hebrews 11 says about Enoch? Hebrews 11 .5 -6. By faith, Enoch was taken away.
So that he did not see death.
And he was not found.
Because God had taken him. For before he was taken,.
He had this testimony.
That he pleased God. Just like Abel pleased God.
But 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.
That's what Enoch did.
He diligently sought the God who made him. He diligently pursued the Lord.
Who was availed by fallen world and fallen flesh.
There are several things to note here.
First, notice that in our text we have that Enoch walked with God. Here in Hebrews 11 it says he has this testimony he pleased God. Why doesn't it say he walked with God like the Hebrew here? Well, the writer of Hebrews is taking this from the Greek where the Greek is a verb that's translated pleased.
He pleased God. And so it's reflecting that.
That's what we have in verse 5.
He had this testimony he pleased God. And this is really just adding dimension to what it means to walk with God. What it means to walk with God is to walk in a pleasing manner toward God. To walk with a desire to please God.
Which is to say to bring honor to His name. To make Him known. Hebrews 11, 5, and 6 is a divinely inspired commentary on Genesis 5, 22 -24. And as with the whole chapter of Hebrews 11,.
It's all about faith.
The focus here is on Enoch's faith. Faith, in other words,.
Becomes the theological description of what it means to walk with God.
What it means to walk with God.
Is to have faith in God.
To believe that He is.
And in light of that,.
To diligently seek Him.
That's the divinely inspired commentary on what we're reading here in Genesis 5. Faith believes that God is. He who comes to God must believe that He is. And that's not that He is as though it's the ground of being as some Anglican bishop might want to say.
The ground of being. The unmoved mover. Some abstract designer and deity. Now this is the personal God. This is the God whose name you can call. The God who's revealed Himself at first as simply one God.
In the Shema, but now with further revelation, we understand that He's actually a triune God. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And that is the only way we can know this God. It must be by the Spirit through the Son unto the Father.
We cannot know God unless He's triune. But not only do we need to know that God is and believe, have faith that God is, we must know that He's the rewarder.
On the face of that, brothers and sisters, do not expect the reward of His presence or His blessing or His favor.
If you're not diligently seeking Him.
I should not expect in my life for these things to just drop down on my lap as though I'm going to all of a sudden burst into rapture.
When I'm being sluggardly, lazy.
In my pursuit of Him. When I'm taking it for granted and I'm not diligent. It's hard to be diligent for a year,.
For ten years.
Enoch lived 365 years and his epitaph, his summary,.
Is he walked with God.
Isn't that the greatest life summary a person could have? No wonder Enoch becomes a symbol of godly faith in Hebrews 11. And more than that, much is written about Enoch by the Jews of Second Temple period.
Much is written about Enoch. Apocryphal literature we call it. Letters, a whole letter of 1 Enoch.
This apocalyptic letter.
And it's picked up by Jude.
Jude actually quotes from 1 Enoch 9. And he quotes this Jewish tradition.
That Enoch was a prophet.
He was a prophet that was denouncing the pre-flood world.
He was preaching against it.
Warning this world of the judgment to come. That certainly is what happens when you're walking with God, isn't it? It wasn't just that his heart was warmed to this personal God. He yearned to be with Him.
He longed to know Him. He longed to bring a pleasing life before Him. A living sacrifice laid on the altar, as it were. But he also was heightened to the awareness that God is going to judge. We see that reflected in the name Methuselah.
Very interestingly. Methuselah in Hebrew, it could be repointed the beginning of that as maweth, which is death. It could be repointed.
Methuselah, it will come.
So the idea would be here, after death it will come. The idea being that after Methuselah dies, the it is coming. The judgment.
The flood.
He's prophetic. That's what Jude 1, 14 and 15 says. Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam,.
Prophesied about these men.
These men being the apostates,.
The false teachers,.
Those who have fallen away from the faith.
They're greedy.
They're consumptive. They have outbursts of wrath. Also saying, this is Enoch, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of His saints to 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.
This is part of Enoch's sermon, according to Jude. Part of his prophetic denouncement. And notice the emphasis here. The ungodliness. The ungodly.
Ungodly in behavior. Ungodly in their way.
What does that tell you about Enoch's life? That he had a godly way that he was living.
He was walking with God.
What a stunning figure Enoch is.
All the days of Enoch were 365 years, and Enoch walked with God, and he was not for God to come. Someone might say, I've heard this said, I have a 365 faith. That might be something you'd see on Twitter or something.
I have 365 faith. And they mean by that, you know, 24 -7, 365. I'm a Christian every day. I live for God all year long, every year. When you say Enoch was a 365 believer, 365 years of life. And there's a lot contained within those 365 years, as you can imagine.
And we don't have any of it. The lack is the point. What is the most significant thing to be known about Enoch, according to Genesis? It's not what happened in year 211. It's not the things he did in that span of 40 years when he was really zealous.
It all boils down to the central point.
He walked with God.
As much as you need to know about Enoch. Do you want to know why Enoch escaped death? Here it is.
He walked with God. It's as simple as that. That's his epitaph. That's his epitaph.
I hope we can look at our lives in that way and reduce everything down to a statement like that. It would be good that all GRBC obituaries simply had that. There should be a section in the cemeteries of Hubbardston and Berry and a lot of tomb sentences say, he or she walks with God.
What an epitaph. What a summary of life. I walked with God for 365 years. Can you imagine all the birthday candles that would have to be put on that cake for the end of his life? It would be a bonfire.
Imagine how much the world would change.
If you had been born in 1655.
1655.
And you live to 2020. Pretty scary in some ways. That's a lot of change. You just think of what you know about history in the past 365 years. I mean, where would you even begin with that? The amount of wars, famines, pestilences, cataclysmic events, intrigue and treason, nations rising and falling, all within this span of time.
And we should not think that somehow Enoch was just living, farming, day after day. Every day seemed to be the same. He opened up his closet, had all the same outfits. Every day was just the same. We should think he was experiencing the same kinds of things that we would experience if we had lived 365 years.
And yet he walks through that. How could you summarize a life that witnessed so much,.
Contained so much?
Children, great children, hopes, ambitions that crumbled, people that died, unexpectedly loved ones, relationships that were forged, relationships that turned to betrayal, grandchildren, great-grandchildren to the 10th degree, cities, tribes, nations rising and falling, all of that's contained within this life.
And the only thing you need to know about Enoch.
Is that he walked with God.
That's theologically significant. And as we move forward, though we'll know more details about them than we'll know about Enoch,.
We'll see the same exact thing with Noah.
When we're introduced to Noah in Genesis 6, we read,.
Noah walked with God.
That's what you must know about Noah. He was just like his great-granddad.
And again, in Genesis 17, when the Lord appears to Abram, He wants Abram to know what is of vital significance for his life. The Lord appears to Abram and says to him, I am Almighty God. Here you are in the Chaldees and you're worshiping the Pantheon.
You're worshiping this graven image. Abram, I'm the Almighty God. Walk before me and be blameless.
Walk before me. And that's what Abram does.
He starts walking before the Lord. And you know how that goes with him. It's not always easy. There's some pretty hairy situations. There's a lot of intrigue and there's a lot of heart sorrow. And all that's contained within life.
And yet, this is the great summary. We move forward from Abram to his sons. And in Genesis 48, when Jacob is blessing Joseph, he says, the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked. The God has been my shepherd all my life long to this day.
Do you see the significance here of walking? This is a very important theme. Not just in Genesis, but throughout all of Scripture.
A walk with God.
A walk before the Lord.
A following after the Lord. This is given to us from the very beginning of the biblical storyline to say, if you're going to know the God who made you, you must walk with Him. And now unfold and look at what it means to walk with Him.
As we move through Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy, this walk is a conditional walk. There's conditions applied to it. If you walk, blessing and favor will break upon your head. If you do not walk in what I command you to walk in, pestilence and famine and death will consume you.
You shall observe my judgments and keep my ordinances to walk in them.
I'm the Lord your God.
This is what He commands to His people over and over again. Constant exclamations and warnings about the people's failure. And the people do fail. Judges 2, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered, and yet they would not listen to the judges.
And they played the harlot with other gods and they bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked. We're going to see these patriarchs, these men of great faith, and we're going to watch their generations crumble in idolatry and lawlessness.
Sadly, this is an amazing thing. It becomes a bad thing to be described as walking in the way of the kings of Israel. That's like an insult. Well, we want nothing to do with Him. He walks like the kings of Israel walk.
That's how bad it gets, even at the greatest levels of authority, power, and privilege in the kingdom of Israel and Judah. And God calls out in Psalm 81 .13, Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways.
Do you see the connection between listening, between obedience and walking? At stake is God's ongoing presence. This is part of the biblical storyline of Israel, right? At stake is, can you stay in the land in which God dwells, the land which has been entrusted to you?
Can you dwell here? Or must you be dragged out into exile and to face God's judgment in a foreign land, to be removed from the Eden presence of God?
That's the issue.
And so Leviticus 26 .12, he lays out, I will walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people. Then he lays conditions upon this. It's only conditional upon your ability to walk with me. All of this failure then draws toward the fulfillment of God's promises.
They fail and fail and stumble and stumble, Romans 10, at every turn.
And so what does God do?
He makes a new covenant. He makes a new covenant. One that's not like the old. Now God's Holy Spirit is not going to dwell in a holy holies. You can take a pilgrimage to it if you want to be near the presence.
No, God's going to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. God's Spirit is now going to indwell those who are called His people. People who had formerly not been His people but now are. Ezekiel 36 .26 and following the great prophecy along with Jeremiah 31 of the new covenant.
I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.
I will be their God and they will be my people. That failure God allowed for this great purpose. So that He would not just save narrowly one nation and one tribe and one tongue out of the whole earth.
But that He would save a people, a holy nation, a priesthood, royal. Out of every tribe and every tongue throughout the face of the earth. And He says, I'm going to put my Spirit within them. And what's the result of the Holy Spirit now indwelling His people, the believers?
It causes them to walk before Him. It causes them to walk with Him. It causes them to have desires to please Him.
Desires to know Him.
Desires to persevere in His mercy. It brings them conviction when they fall away. Conviction when they stumble and stutter. This is all a result of the implanting, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. What agreement does the temple of God have with idols?
You are the temple of the living God. And God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they will be my people. Paul is saying that to the church at Corinth. He's saying, you are the Israel.
You were God's intention from the beginning. God is your God and you are His people.
It's the walking light of that.
I say then, Galatians 5 .16, walk in the Spirit.
Walk with God. How can I walk with God?
You walk in the Spirit.
For what the law could not do, Romans 8 .3 and 4, what the law could not do in that it was weak for the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh because of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh.
This is speaking of Christ on the cross. That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not now walk according to the flesh but walk according to the Spirit.
Do you see how significant this is?
I hope you see how foundational this is.
It underscores the question, how do we walk with God? Can we give a more comprehensive answer of what it means to walk in the Spirit? As Christians that are part of this new covenant in His blood, let me give you ten answers.
You could probably double, even triple that. The first thing is, and there's no order here, the first thing is we walk with God by walking through valleys with Him.
Walk through valleys with Him.
Here's this new covenant. Here's this promise of blessing. Here's this adoption by the Spirit so that we're now sons and daughters of God. And yet we have no expectation that we're removed from the trials and hardships of life.
In fact, now we're guaranteed that everyone must suffer if they seek to enter into the kingdom. And so part of the Christian life is now walking through valleys with Him. The significant emphasis there is walking through valleys with Him.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. This idea of I'm going through something. I'm experiencing something. There's something unfolding over time. And the shadow of death is looming over me and yet your presence is here.
I'm walking with you.
Your rod and your staff are bringing me comfort. Richard Baxter, a very, very interesting little book. I think you can get it on Kindle for maybe three bucks. Walking with God. And he lays out, as only a Puritan could, you know, 30 different aspects to walking with God.
But on this point he's very insightful and he says, To walk with God is the best preparation for a time of suffering. Oh, interesting, isn't it? You don't walk with God when suffering comes. You walk with God to prepare for when suffering comes.
You walk with God prior to that, expecting that. Knowing that you'll be clinging to Jesus when all you can do is cling to Jesus. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me.
You will stretch out your hand.
Psalm 138. Suffering in this life becomes unbearable unless you walk with God. And let's take that into Hebrews 11 kind of language. Unless you know that God is. And you know that He will reward you as you diligently seek Him.
That's what it means to walk with God through valleys and suffering.
God, I know that you're with me. Doesn't look like it.
But I know you're with me.
And somehow I know you're for me.
You're for me even as I look at this cross. I'm reminded of my Savior trusting in you.
Diligently seeking you. Knowing that you are good and you are a rewarder of those who seek Him.
And therefore He took the cross and He endured its shame.
He sought the joy that was beyond it.
And so help me, Lord, as I look down this valley to see the joy that lies beyond it. I'm going to trust you though I have no earthly reason to trust you. That's what it means to walk with God. Secondly, we walk humbly before Him.
And that's why He brings us through valleys. He humbles us as our brother was praying. He was thanking the Lord for humbling him.
Catching his attention.
We recognize that.
We recognize that we're being humbled when we're brought to the beginning of a valley. All of a sudden we shrink down to size. And God becomes larger in our minds. Never as large as He should be, but thankfully larger.
And so we're humbled. We walk humbly before Him. We have a reverential fear. Micah 6 .8. He's shown you, oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?
What does He require of you?
Walk humbly with Him.
Be slow to speak. Be slow to question.
Be patient in suffering.
Walk humbly.
Trust His promises that have yet to sprout just because He's the one that gave the promise. Acts 9 .31. This is the result we see. Humility is just another way of talking about reverence or fear even.
In Acts 9 .31 The churches throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and were built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit they were multiplied. I love that combination there.
Walking in the fear of the Lord, being comforted by the Holy Spirit. These things always collide in the life of a Christian.
We've seen it tenfold this year. I've seen it in so many of your lives.
That as you're being humbled,.
As you're beginning now to walk in the fear of the Lord, His hand is heavy upon you. Some trial, some cataclysmic circumstance, some breach has opened up in your life.
And yet what is there in the midst of that?
And you have to be a Christian to see it. It's the supernatural comfort of the Holy Spirit. We sang it.
Comfort, comfort, ye my people.
The Lord's all about our comfort as we walk with Him.
Isn't that an amazing thing?
Christians in the most uncomfortable places and situations have a supernatural comfort in the Lord because they're walking with Him.
They're walking with Him.
Thirdly, we walk in Him. We don't just walk with Him, we walk in Him. Colossians 2 tells us what that means. As you've received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him,.
Established in the faith as you've been taught,.
Abounding in it with thanksgiving.
This is what it means to walk in Him. You're rooted in Him. What does it mean to be rooted in Him? It means to be settled, established in the faith that you've been taught.
The faith of our fathers.
The evangelical faith.
The faith of the Gospel.
To be rooted in that. Established in that. Aware of the finer distinctions. Aware of the depth and the gravity of it. Seeing it as something worthy of your own life, of your own blood if necessary. You're established in the faith.
You're rooted in it as you've been taught. And what's the result of that? Abounding in thanksgiving.
Look at the life of Paul.
Look at the life of the apostles. Rooted, willing to suffer. And as they're suffering, they're abounding in thanksgiving. That's what it means to walk in Him. And fourth, we walk in truth.
We walk in truth.
You can't walk with God unless you're walking in truth. God's truth begins to collide with and undermine our half-truths,.
Our half-baked truths,.
Our convenient truths. Psalm 26 .3 Your loving kindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in your truth.
Teach me your way, O Lord.
Psalm 86 .11 I will walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. There's that reverence and humility again. Read the whole book of Proverbs and highlight every time you come across the verb walk.
It's amazing.
It's amazing how often walk, walk, walk according to my instruction. Do not walk in the way of scoffers and sinners, my son.
Fifth, we walk properly. We walk properly.
We're Christians. We walk appropriately for what it means to be a Christian. We walk as those who are in the day, not in the night. Romans 13. The night is spent.
The day is at hand.
That is the eschatological day, the end times day.
The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us cast off works of darkness. Put on armor of light. Let us walk properly. As in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
Walk properly.
Walk appropriately.
Know the times.
And walk worthily.
Sixthly, walk worthily. This is what it means to walk properly. First Thessalonians 2, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. You walk worthy of that. Colossians 1 .10, that you may walk worthy of the Lord,.
Fully pleasing Him.
Just like Enoch,.
Pleased God.
Walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. This is what it means to walk with Him, and it's what it means to walk worthy of Him. Romans 6 .7, that we walk in newness of life.
Do you not know that many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus, were also baptized into His death?
We've been buried with Him.
Through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in the newness of life. We walk in the newness of life that has been wrought by the Spirit of God.
The same power that mightily rose Him from the grave, from those death waters. That's the Spirit at work in our lives. We walk according to that newness.
Eighth,.
All of these have been individual to a point, and this is why number eight is so significant. We walk together with Him. We walk together with Him. Enoch is a wonderful picture in all of these individualist ways, but it's not so good for the larger picture.
We're not individuals walking with God. We're a caravan, really. We're grouped together in our walk with God in profound ways. When we have fellowship with the Son through the Spirit, we have fellowship with one another.
This is ABC Christianity. In fact, I will not be able to walk with my God unless I'm walking with my brothers and sisters who are called by God and who love my God. I won't be able to walk with Him. Not healthy, not for long, not consistently.
God has so designed the church.
According to different gifts, different talents, different callings, different backgrounds. He so designed it for us to walk together. 1 John 1 .7 If we walk in the light as He is in the light,.
We have fellowship with one another.
And the blood of Christ Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Another communal aspect to walking with God. Not only is it not individualist, it's communal, but not only is it communal, it's also generational.
We walk teaching our children about God. And that's a very specific command from Deuteronomy 6, right?
When you walk by the way,.
When you lie down, when you rise up.
These are the words which I command you today.
And they shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. See, when you walk, when you stand, when you sit.
All of that corresponds to Psalm 1. That's how we open the service, isn't it? Psalm 1, two ways to live. We have here Deuteronomy 6, a child being taught whether the parent is walking or standing or sitting, how to walk in the ways of God.
We read in Psalm 1, blessed is the man who walks, not in the counsel of the undaunted, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. Psalm 1 is just riffing on Deuteronomy 6. In other words, blessed is the man who's been raised by his parents to fear the Lord.
Blessed is the man who's been taught and has learned not to walk, not to stand, not to sit in the seat of scoffers, in the seat of fools. Tenth and last for these points, we walk in love. You will not be diligent to teach your children as you walk by the way, how to walk in Him.
You will not walk with your brothers and sisters, at least not well and at least not for long. You will not walk in any of these ways unless you've been taught by His own example how to walk in love just like Him.
Ephesians 5, 1 and 2, be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us. We have to learn how to walk in love as Christ loved us, as Christ showed us how to walk in love.
And this applies from the greatest to the most mundane things. Romans 14, 15, if your brothers grieved because of your food, you're no longer walking in love, Paul says.
We have to learn how to walk in love.
These are the ways that we learn how to walk with God.
The whole picture is captured so well.
In Bunyan's Great Pilgrim's Progress. It's a progression. It's a journey towards Celestial City. Different characters come in at different times. Thankfully, we all work through this together. It's a picture of growing in knowledge but also walking through valleys and sufferings, missteps and trials, mistakes and foolishness.
It's a picture of growing in knowledge and in grace, but that grace only comes as we're humbled, as we're brought low and therefore more dependent upon God's mercy, more earnest to seek Him, more zealous to never lose Him.
Remember when Pilgrim,.
When Christian lost his role of assurance, how after he got that back, he gripped it so tight that he would never make that mistake again.
He would be diligent. He would walk with God so much more closely.
In sum of the whole, this is from a commentary written back toward the end of the 1800s, Marcus God's.
I just thought this was such a helpful way.
Of understanding what it means to walk with God for you as an individual.
Listen to this.
We walk with God when He is in all our thoughts, not because we're consciously thinking of Him at all times, but just because He's naturally suggested to us by anything we could think of. With the godly man, everything has a connection to God.
And it must be ruled by that connection. If some change happens in his circumstances, he first determines how that change is going to affect.
His connection with God,.
His relationship with God. Will his conscience stay clear? Is he going to be able to live in the way he's been communing with God? And when he falls into sin, he cannot rest until he's resumed his place at God's side and he knows that he's walking with Him again.
There's a restoration in that relationship. This is the general nature of walking with God. And here's His definition. It's a persistent endeavor to hold all of our life open to God's inspection and in conformity to His will.
It's a persistent endeavor. It's an effort to live my life open to God so that He can show me any ways that are not pleasing to Him and then thereby I can repent and confirm to His will. This is what it means to walk with God.
A readiness to give up what we find causes any distance between us and God. A feeling of loneliness if we don't have some satisfaction in our fellowship with God. A cold feeling when we're conscious of doing things that are displeasing to Him.
This walking with God shows our whole life and character. When that consciousness of God begins to have some weight within our mind, we're found instinctively to seek to please Him. We're seeking to please Him because we're aware He's there.
He's watching.
And so lastly, something that Dodds doesn't get to that I think is utterly vital. It's not just our consciousness of God's presence. It's not just our desire to have our lives open before Him. It's not just our pursuit to diligently seek Him, but we cannot walk with God unless we're walking with God under the shadow of the cross.
And so one last time, I just bring us back to our text. All the days of Enoch were 365 years, and Enoch walked with God and He was not.
For God took Him.
We just rehearsed so much of what it means.
For us to walk with God.
But what we have here in Enoch doesn't include any of that, does it? It just simply says that he walked with God. There's no information given to us about what that walk looked like. It does not say that Enoch walked in mighty zeal before the Lord.
It does not say that Enoch walked doing miracles, signs, and wonders. No detail is given. And at this point in scriptural revelation, that's very significant. It's very important. Because our comfort from God's Spirit is in this.
It's not the strength of Enoch's walk. It's not the perfect consistency we might think he had. It wasn't that he mustered up effort every morning. It was not Enoch's walk in and of itself. It was who Enoch was walking with.
Enoch walked with God.
That's the emphasis.
And he was not, because God took him.
It's the Lord.
Enoch walked with God and God took him.
All of the emphasis is on God's action. God's activity, God's mercy, God's grace. And it breaks the bonds of death. It swallows up the grave in victory. That's the emphasis.
God has to act.
God has to rescue. God has to deliver. God is the one who takes up his people at the last. Enoch's raptured life, therefore, points us all the way forward to Jesus, who's the greater Enoch, as he was the greater Abel,.
Who lived that perfect life of obedience, walking perfectly, with perfect zeal before the Lord.
And yet, unlike Enoch, at the end of that walk,.
Though he should have been taken up into the Father's love.
And exalted there on the spot, what happens to our Lord and Savior? He's not taken up and embraced. He's not skipped over from death, even though he requests it when he's holding that cup.
No, he's given to death. He's given to die.
And the Father doesn't smile upon him when he's constituted in our sin. The Father turns from him in horror as he pours out the wrath that's due our sinfulness. Christ is delivered over to wrath. And only then, only then, as a result of dying, does Christ break the bonds of the grave, overcome the last enemy, risen and exalted on high.
So it's not enough for us to say we escape the judgment of death by walking with God. It's not enough. We haven't gone to the Gospel with that yet. We escape the judgment of death by walking with God,.
Trusting in Christ our Savior,.
Walking by Him according to His Spirit,.
Communing with Him day in and day out,.
Giving our hearts to Him, beating our breasts like the penitent sinner when we do things that are against His will and we walk in waywardness and coldness to Him.
This is the lover of our souls.
This is the one who was turned away and rejected though. He walked better than He could ever hope to walk.
He was the sinless one.
And He died a sinner's death.
And so because of Christ, I can be taken up at the last.
Because of Christ, Paul can say,.
Lo, I tell you a great mystery. Not all will sleep, but all will be changed. He says in 1 Thessalonians 4 that at the last, like the voice of an archangel, the sound of a trump, the dead will be risen from their graves, from the earth.
And then all those who are alive still, all together will be caught up with Him and all the saints in the clouds. That's the day that's coming. The saints don't rise from their graves. The saints that still are alive don't rise to be with Christ unless Christ had been the firstfruits, unless Christ had died on the cross and been buried in the earth and then broke the power of death and of sin.
He paid the wages of sin.
Brothers and sisters, may we truly grasp this glorious hope. It's so amazing at the end of 1 Thessalonians 4 when Paul says that, he says, Thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
Comfort one another with these words.
May we be comforted by this hope. May we walk with God, grasping it with assurance. We know this will be the case. May our lives be affected by that knowledge. May we diligently seek Him as we walk by faith,.
Knowing. He's a rewarder.
May we draw closer to the God who condescends to walk with us. Isn't that amazing to you?
He walks with you. His desire is to walk with you.
He has a greater desire to walk with you.
Than you ever could to walk with Him. So great was that desire,.
He took on flesh and lived a life we could not live. He walked in our stead and paid our penalty for our salvation. And I close with this exhortation from a sermon on this text from George Whitefield.
One of his revival sermons, one of thousands. I beseech you, by the mercies of God and Christ Jesus,.
Take heed to yourselves.
Walk closer with your God than you have in the past.
The nearer you walk with God,.
The more you will enjoy of Him whose presence is life itself. Isn't that a picture from Genesis 5? When you're that close to God, death doesn't exist anymore. God is life itself, the light of life. And you'll be the better prepared for being placed at His right hand where there are pleasures forevermore.
Oh, do not follow Jesus far off. Think of the love of Jesus.
And let that love constrain you to keep near to Him. And though you would die for Him, do not deny Him. Do not keep at a distance from Him in any way.
Walk with the Savior.
Father, we thank You for Your Word. Father, we thank You for Your promises, Lord. We thank You for these glimpses You give to us, Lord, that You are the one who acts, You are the one who undertakes salvation by Your grace, for Your glory, Lord.
There was nothing intrinsic in Enoch for him to earn Your favor. It was simply Your grace. It was Your grace that gave him new eyes and a new heart, ears to hear, a heart that longed. We're with Him, Lord.
Your desire was toward Him, as it is with us, and we're humbled. We're humbled, Lord, because of Your love. We're humbled, Lord, because of our sinfulness, because of how easy it is to become cold and jaded and indifferent to the realities of the Gospel.
How it becomes easy, Lord, to walk in the well-worn paths of the world instead of trotting those painful steps of the Savior, knowing that they lead to joy everlasting. Let us be like Him. Let us walk in all of these ways, Lord.
Let us be as Enoch was, believing that You are, and that You are a rewarder of those who diligently seek You. I pray for my own life, for my brothers and sisters here,.
That together we would be diligently seeking You,.
That we would walk closer to You now than we have in the past. I pray for those in this room, Lord, that have no walk with You, who have been walking on a wide path of destruction,.
But they haven't been walking with You.
Oh, Lord, give them eyes to see. Give them the horror of their judgment. Give them the light of the grace of Your free offer, that all those who come to You will in no wise be cast out.
They'll be saved.
Let them walk in that joy that only belongs to Your sons and daughters. These things we ask in Your Son's name, Amen.