(Men God Made) Enoch — Willie Mullan

578 please, 578 I would have the saviour with me for I dare not walk alone. I would see his presence near me and his arms around me strong. 578 please.

To the subject this evening.

Enoch’s Brief Biblical Biography

And you can see that we are looking at Enoch this evening and there are only about 9 verses in the bible telling of all the details about Enoch. The whole biography from the third pen is given to us in 9 verses.

But what a lot the spiritual has packed into these verses. Let's read the 9 and then we'll get into the details. Look at Genesis chapter 5 please book of Genesis chapter 5 verse 21. Genesis 5 verse 21 and Enoch lived sixty and five years and begat Methuselah and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years and begat sons and daughters and all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty and five years and Enoch walked with God and he was not for God to kill.

And then you'll find a great verse in Hebrews chapter 11 please letter to the Hebrews and it is the eleventh verse the fifth verse Hebrews 11 verse 5 by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him for before his translation he had dispensed the money that he pleased God.

And you'll find another word or two about him in the little epistle of Jude just before the book of Revelation there Jude, there's just one chapter and it's verse 15, verse 14 and 15 and Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of the saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and before their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

And as we just remember up these verses you will find that the whole biography of this man is given to us in about nine verses in the scriptures. And yet although we have only nine verses we are going to find that we have a unique man before us.

Enoch’s Seven Distinctive Firsts

You see Enoch was the first man and there are so many things that he did. First of all you see he's the first man recorded in this book that walked with God not another one before him. He's the first man and it's recorded that he walked with God.

And we should take time this evening to just find out exactly what that meant. But he was the first man recorded in this book that walked with God. And then he's the first man in this book that has this testimony that he pleads God.

And that's a big thing. And we need to take time about that too just to see exactly what that means. He had this testimony that he pleads God. And then he's the first man in this book the first man on this planet that missed death.

He didn't die. He was translated. He's the first man that was translated. But there are four things that he's first in. If he was the first man to have this record read of him that he walked with God first man to hold this testimony that he pleads God first man to miss death.

And the first man to be translated. Oh but there are three more firsts to go. And if I look through the common phrase I find they all list these four but I find they missed the other three. There are seven firsts seen.

You see he was the first prophet on this planet when we were reading way back in Jude there this is what we read. Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied and you will find that all the men that went before him.

You take Adam and you take Seth and you look at each one that comes down and Enoch was the seventh. You will find he was the first prophet on this planet of ours. Oh but there's something more wonderful.

He was the first preacher that preached about the Lord coming. Yes let me read it to you again. It says Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying behold the Lord comes. He was talking to the clouds that would rise.

He would say behold talking to an ungodly cloud too. And he was saying behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand other things. And there's something more. You see he walked with God. That's one and he pleased God.

That's two and he missed death. That's three. And he was translated wonderfully miraculously translated. That's four. He was the first prophet. He was the first man to preach of the Lord's coming. Oh but he was the first man to preach of the Lord's vengeance because he said the Lord cometh to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly of their ungodly deeds.

And you'll find that he's quite a unique character. And let me say while we can say these seven unique things about him which makes him very unique indeed. Remember he was not a nation builder like Abraham.

Neither was he a mighty leader like Moses neither was he a warrior like Edith neither was he a prime minister like Daniel. As far as I can see and as far as I can look into this biography given to us by the Spirit of God he was just a common, complete, five-H oh what a very unique man just to say.

And I think we are going to learn lessons from him this evening that real ordinary country men can walk with God. That's what we're out to learn this evening and we'll have to watch him as God put him in the school.

Walking Continually With God

And I want to just emphasize this little bit before we get away from these unique things that he walked with God for 300 years. And that's something worth talking about. And when we get down to see what it meant you'll just see what a mighty statement that is Mrs Hudson Taylor when she was dying turned to her husband who was a mighty man of God and she said to him darling, for the past 10 years I have lived with the Lord without a cloud.

Pretty big statement. And from all who knew her intimately it was a very fruitful statement. I don't know that if you know that Spurgeon said this just before he died I wrote it down here he said, for many years I have not known to be out of fellowship with the Lord for more than 15 minutes.

Mighty statement. We need to think very carefully this evening about walking continually and unceasingly with God and we're going to look at this unique character this evening and we're going to look at his birth first of all.

Enoch’s Genealogy and the Meaning of His Name

And we're back to Genesis chapter 5. We've already been told that he was the second from Adam. Now I know quite well there are quite a lot of arguments about that. I know all the arguments that are brought against that and I've seen them and I don't believe them at all.

I've seen booklets written on this that he is not the second. I don't understand me arguing with God's words. If God's word says he was the second from Adam then surely a plain statement like that ought to be accepted.

But they have argued they have written booklets. Well we'll not take the time to write a booklet. Let's do it for ourselves with us, Genesis chapter 5 and this is the book of the generations of Adam and that's a very lovely statement in the day that God created man and mind you God created him just in case there's somebody here ready to argue he was not evolved.

He was created and let me say it he was created in a particular day because if it's a creation it doesn't spread out. You know God created man on the sixth day. If male and female created he them and blessed them and called their name Adam.

Now that's, he's first isn't it. And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years and begot a son in his own likeness after his image and called his name Seth. We bypass Cain and Abel and we come to Seth and he's number two isn't it.

And verse 6 Seth and Seth lived a hundred and five years and begot Enos. Don't mix that up with Enoch for Adam is first and Seth is second and Enos is third and Enos lived verse 9 and Enos lived ninety years and begot Canaan is the word and he's number four.

Verse 12 says Canaan lived seventy years and begot Mahalaleel and he's number five. Verse 15 says and Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years and begot Jared. And verse 18 says and Jared lived a hundred and sixty and two years and begot Enoch.

And there's your seven Adam and Seth and Enos and Canaan and Mahalaleel and Jared and Enoch is number seven. And I don't know where the argument comes in at all. I've never been able to associate myself with any doubts here at all.

He was the seventh from Adam. Alright so the Bible says whether I could find it or not doesn't matter. Now you can see that Jared was his father. Now the names here are very wonderful. I suppose I can fill the next star in with the names and I don't want to do that because the subject of Enoch the word Jared means descendant.

Now hold on to that and just try to get that into your mind. And if you go back still further you will find that Mahalaleel is Jared's father. We'll just take these three. We'll take verse 12 that Mahalaleel or verse 15 Mahalaleel begat Jared.

And we'll take verse 18 Jared lived so long and begat Enoch. And we'll take Mahalaleel and Jared and Enoch now Mahalaleel is a very interesting name. You can see at a glance it ends in E-L and whatever name you get in the Old Testament ending in E-L it has something to do with God because E-L is from the Old Hebrew Elam and it means God.

You'll find that Bethel you remember we did this one evening. Bethel means Beth means the heart and E-L means God. It means the heart of God. And we don't want to waste time with this. You know that Emmanuel you know that one on your own but E-L means God.

It means God with us. And you've got so many. You've got Daniel and Ezekiel and you remember we went into this when we were doing Ezekiel with this word Mahalaleel it means God is splendor. And I believe that this man Mahalaleel he was taken up with the splendor of God.

I think these words teach us things. Now he had a son that didn't follow him because his son was Janet and his name means descendant. It seems as if he was so proud he was looking back. He was descended from Adam.

I think the one was taken up with God and the other was taken up with man. But when Enoch came on the scene that's a different word altogether. That means stupid. I believe he was stupid. This one that we are looking at he was stupid to turn away from man and get back to God.

I think there's a whole thing if we went on up through the names I think it would fit you but that's not what I'm supposed to be doing this evening and I have plenty of material there if I wanted to waste the time but I don't want to waste the time.

I just want you to see Enoch's birth. He was bethekened from Adam. His father's name was Gilead which means descendant and he lived for 365 years now. I want you to see secondly Enoch's world. The world that he was born into all I know of all is the same planet.

Enoch’s World Before the Flood

But there are times down through history when the world has been more wicked than at other times. Now you can see that he's born in Genesis chapter 5. And you know that Genesis chapter 6 is the chapter where man became so wicked that God had to destroy this world.

Let's go into chapter 6 just for a moment. See verse 5 and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. I want you to watch the word wickedness and I want you to watch the word great. It was great wickedness.

Man was very wicked and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And how often in the 25 years that's passed I have tried to underline only evil continually. My, if every thought that passed through your mind was only evil continually what a wicked man you would be.

Oh but I beg your pardon the whole world was like that. It was a world of men and women and boys and girls. And every thought was only evil continually. A holy God could do nothing else with a world like that.

Only this Christ. I decide to go on with it. He wouldn't be the holy and the just God he's supposed to be. Yes this is the world that he was born into. It was a wicked world. Let's get the hold of this.

And in case you're still in doubt about the thing just let's go back to Jude and have a look at what he said there. Yes just let's get the hold of that very carefully. And we're at Jude and we're at that 15th verse.

Now mark every time you get the word on gobbling here he's prophesying for this cloud that's around them. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of the saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their half speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

So if you take the word ungodly sinners and then you take the words ungodly deeds these ungodly sinners were committing ungodly deeds but they were committing them in an ungodly way which they have ungodly committed.

Oh you know this is nearly getting beyond us ungodly sinners committing ungodly deeds in an ungodly way. It was an ungodly wicked sinful world that he was born into. Make no mistakes about it because we've got to have this settled just now.

If God just picked Noah out and told him all about the ark and what a world it was God came in judgment upon that world. Now let me say this that our Lord Jesus Christ stood up and said as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the coming of the son of man.

I can tell you that the world around us tonight is a wicked ungodly sinful world. If we only knew we don't know thank God we're ignorant. But if we only knew if we only knew the inventions that Russia and America have invented for destroying one another we would hardly fit in these seats.

We don't know we don't know at all see this bomb that was dropped in Hellasium you don't see that so long ago 1945 I think it was and you know it staggered the world at that time. It blasted so much all at once and countless boulders were burned into a cinder in a second and Japan just tore them in two.

And in a moment they were afraid of it coming again. Ah well that's like a squib that we fellows are playing with according to the things they've invented now it's obsolete tonight. We can't. Now they have things invented now to blister this whole world in a split second.

They're afraid themselves now. And what's more they don't know that once they set it loose that it will get out of control in the atmosphere and bring down the heaven from their heads. Yes it's a wicked world.

But then if we knew the immoral wickedness that's in the world tonight and you can go home and thank God you're ignorant of it and I hope you never get to know. But God sees it God sees it. And when you think that the scientists are fiddling about now to make babies whatever size and shape they want oh if we go into all the things that's on the planet tonight I don't think I'll have any bother in proving that we're in a wicked world.

In fact I think it's at the place where God can't go on with it much longer. I believe our Lord Jesus must come and I believe he must come very soon. But I want to say this that in that wicked world in that day with only some godliness like a flood tide all over it there was a man that walked with God.

It's great learn this this evening if we can learn anything. And he did you know. So I want you to see Enoch's birth and I want you to see Enoch's world. And then I want you to see Enoch's tongue. Let's go back to Genesis.

Methuselah and the Revelation of Coming Judgment

We're at Genesis 5. I think we must be very careful here. We need to look into the word very closely here now please try to look at this closely. We're at Genesis 5 verse 21 and Enoch lived sixty and five years now.

Don't race on. Please don't race on. He's a man now of sixty five years of age and begat Methuselah. This is his first born child. Now I want you to notice that the moment the child was born something took place in this fellow's life.

If I think it's it was a crisis in his life. It says that he lived sixty and five years and it doesn't say a thing about those sixty five years about him walking with God or knowing God or anything like that or the big of it.

I don't know what it is. It doesn't say but it says Enoch lived sixty and five years and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years. Something happened when the kid was born.

Yes it was a mighty moment. It was a crisis. Now the word Methuselah means this. It means when he shall die. It shall come to pass. It's a big long word. And it means when he shall die it shall come to pass.

Now when you think that Enoch's whole life was changed and he walked with God and he pleased God and he trusted God after the child was born. What sort of a crisis took place here. It seems to me that God came in at the birth of this child and God revealed to this man this ordinary country man.

God revealed to him that he was going to destroy the world. And he told him when it would happen. It says we see this. We may be forgiven him. Well when he shall die it shall come to pass. God just said Methuselah.

And he knew exactly what it meant.

Now that changed him a bit. It was the mighty moment of crisis wasn't it. Yes it seemed that this revelation came and that day he had a revelation of the coming flood and the coming judgment. And as long as this child would live this judgment would be kept back.

And surely this proves the goodness and the grace of God because this child lived longer than anybody else. This child was the oldest man that ever lived when he died 969 years. And that must have been just the goodness and the grace of God.

God waited and waited and waited. Never mind about the age of Methuselah never mind about the grace and the goodness of God. You know Enoch is the one we are thinking about. And he got the message and the message changed him.

And from that day after he begat Methuselah he walked with God. Do you see this 22nd verse. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were 365.

That's the whole span. He didn't die. God took him of course. But 65 of those years was lived and we don't know how. And then the child came when he was 65. Oh but the other 300 he walked with God because the revelation came and because he knew exactly what was going to take place.

Enoch’s Faith in God’s Word and Translation

Now I want you to not only look at his birth and I not only want you to look at his world and his son but I want you now to look at his faith. Let's go to Hebrews. And we are at Hebrews chapter 11 now this is very important for us to get the hold of because it is faith that comes before us now.

And we are at verse 5 by faith. Enoch was translated that he should not see death. That's a mighty little phrase. He should not see death. So he never left the body. There's a man in the glory somewhere tonight.

He's still in the body. I don't know if any change took place in his blood or anything like that. But I know that he did not see death. And to die you must leave a body. That's death. He didn't see death.

I don't want to hammer that bit out. The bit I want to hammer is by faith. And you know I must take time with this because you see we are so smart these days. We can read this chapter and you go down and it's verse by verse by faith Abel by faith Enoch by faith Noah by faith Abraham by faith Moses by faith.

It goes on and on. And you see we get so used to say by faith that we begin to think almost think that faith is something like a magic wand almost on idle. We make it. If we could get this thing you know we could do things.

But please don't. Let's do that. Please let's do this. When we're talking about by faith please let's do it like this by faith in God. And even that is not enough. That's enough to start with in the school anyway.

No it's not that either you see it's not by faith. And it's not just by faith in God. It's by faith in what God said that he heard. Did you get that? Because I'm afraid you're in danger of missing that just now.

Do you know what faith is? Let me tell you what faith is. Faith cannot be by hearing and hearing by the word of God by the message of God by the saying of God. I'll tell you this country man on the day this kid was born he heard God say when he shall die what will come.

And you see he believed what God said. And it was faith in what God had said that changed this whole world. And I believe you know that through life we believe as mythists. I believe we make up our own minds.

I believe we lean on our own understanding. I believe we work red tape. I believe we do a lot of things we shouldn't do. But we don't get down and listen and hear God and go the way God tells us half the time we don't.

We go our own way. And that's why we're in trouble sometimes. But this wee man heard the word of God when the child shall die it shall come to pass. And he believed that it would be as it was told to him.

And you know that day he came to the conclusion if you're going to end this world when this child dies then there are only three things for me to do in this world. One is to walk with thee and the other is to trust thee and the other is to please thee.

That's his whole life. It's all summed up just like that. That's all he did. You know he just walked with God and he trusted God. You can see he faithed it says by faith. Even it was translated it wasn't that he whipped some sort of a thing that got him taken out of this world.

Don't let's read it like that by thinking it was translated that he should not see death. And the step was definitely in death and was not fun because because God fancied it God was doing the fancy. Now I want you to get this bit in now you see the day that this little child was born God didn't normally come into the bedroom and say when this child shall die the flood will come.

He said something more. He said that before it comes I'll translate you. And he believed that bit too. There are two things here. He couldn't have had faith in God translating him except God had said I will translate you.

Oh yes he just believed God every time he believed God about the flood. He believed God about the translation. I'll take you out of it before it comes. So he started walking with God and went through this godly crowd around him trusting God and pleasing God.

He had this testimony that he pleased God. He's quite a character isn't he. I told you he was a unique character. And the Holy Ghost only needed a little bit to bring this biography before us. Yes his faith is very wonderful to me.

Walking With God in a Dark and Hostile World

Now I want you to get the hold of this. I want you to see his walk now. You see we go back to the Genesis one and we find that he walked with God. And I've stopped and hinted to you already. It matters not about what day we live in how dark it may be how wicked the enemy may become around us.

How the lion may roar or the goat may whistle with water. I'll tell you that in the midst of all the darkness and diabolical wickedness and sinfulness and ungodliness that may get thicker around us as the days go on it is possible to walk with God.

You know it's a mighty subject. It almost frightens you when you realise that Daniel walked with God in Babylon. He's the prime minister there. And when you're a prime minister you must get some problems.

I can see Julie Carter's face changed in the last 12 months. And he came into the chair of a smiling confident fellow thinking he would do wonders. And he's like an old man tonight. And he's not going to stick it.

He's going to get through it anyway. Yes he's got his problems. And Daniel was the prime minister of Babylon. And when all the enemies tried to find something against him they could find no fault. And he could walk with God in Babylon.

Yes he could. And when the Roman Empire took over Palestine just before Christ was born it says that Zechariah who was the father of John the Baptist and Elizabeth who was his mother that they both walked in all the commandment of God blameless.

Ha ha. Yes there is no institution. And I'll tell you a wee thing more. The Lord will come one of these nights and he'll take us home. And I wouldn't mind if it was tonight it might be I can see anything to stop it.

In fact I see everything to hurry it on. And if he takes us up they leave a cloud behind. And they send them strong delusion. And they'll believe the lie. They'll get round the antichrist like flies. Oh but in the midst of all that the Lord will steal off 144 ,000 and they will walk with God in the tribulation.

Yes it might be. It might be possible. It keeps a possibility about your home. And about your home and about everything else. And a thousand other things. And the business and all this. You wouldn't think that grace was here at all.

And you wouldn't think we had the Lord beside us. And you wouldn't think we had the Holy Ghost within us. And you wouldn't think we had the word of God at our elbow. And we're not listening to God at all.

Half time. Oh wonder we can't walk to listen to the TV. Yes I can tell you this. It is possible if you behold this. If we're going to walk with God after going the same direction as God. Wouldn't we? It sure hasn't.

You can't walk with God and go in the other direction. You know. And God will always lead us on. Let me walk with thee. We will see. God will lead us on to perfection. And will lead us on to holiness will lead us on to peace.

We'll have to go in God's direction. Oh yes. We may have upset the typical Eton when he said yes we can walk with God. Let me tell you fellows it's hard to keep up with him. He takes big steps. And your faith of faith can hardly keep up with him.

And there's sometimes we lag behind. Even Peter followed far off. Yes. I'll tell you this. If you're going to walk with God and you're going to listen and you're going to do what he tells you to do. And you're going his way.

And you're going to keep up with him. You'll be a lonely man. He'll not be with the clouds. Don't tell me that you play balls when you're walking with God in the church. I don't believe that. I don't believe that at all.

I believe that just getting as near the world as you can possibly get with sort of being decent at the same time. I believe that if you're going to walk with God you'll have to be alone with God. You'll have to shut the door.

You'll have to shut it on your kids. And you'll have to shut it on your family. And you'll have to shut it on your TV. This fellow wasn't in the club. This an old gobbledy club up there. He wasn't in the club.

He wasn't in any club. Not a bit of him not one bit of him. My dear friends that pub that's across the street there the masonic. You're not allowed to say the name of Jesus in there. Not allowed yet. Some of the boys who say they love him are stuck in it.

You've got to come out of it. I'll tell you this. You'll be a lonely man. I'll tell you once more you know if you're going to walk with God. And if it's possible if it's possible if it's possible you'll have to go God's way.

You'll have to give up the pen. You'll be a lonely man. You'll be an unpopular man. Not shut and freeze the club. Yes. It's a mighty thing isn't it. Yeah. It's what you call walking with God. I'll tell you you misunderstood.

You criticised. What about it. I suppose I criticised him. But the book records he walked with God. Let me get the hold of this book if I can where it reads verse 11. My faith in it was translated that he should not see death.

It's not the new. Because God had told him he believed God would would not let him see death and was not found. Because because God had translated him for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.

And that's a mighty little faith to please God. I went to preach with a young man at the Ted Hall about 30 years ago and Jack Throop and I preached together. And old Jack said to me I'm not so well today Willie I'll just take two or three minutes and the whole thing's on your shoulders.

And I would rather it had been the other way about and I preached on. He pleased God talked about the servant's purpose in life and the servant of the Lord his whole purpose in life is just to please God.

If you please old ladies you'll not please God. Just please God. And I went into this in a way I don't want to go into tonight. But there was a man praised a black man called Sambo the biggest coloured man I've ever seen in my life.

I think I would be right in saying he would be about 6 feet 8 and I think he would be 19 stone and he was the best looking coloured man I've ever seen but Sambo was sitting now. I didn't come back to preach at the Ted Hall for another 10 years.

They're begging me just at this moment to go to preach again at the New Year services.

The big day in Scotland and I'll have to ask the Lord about that.

But when I went back 10 years later I was sitting in the front seat and the place was crowded with Sambo. And you know what that does to me. I'm 10 years older. I'm not old fashioned and I was just stoned.

And then I had got through this particular meeting and had done a sprint around the old brass rail of the platform and got them by the hand and they squeezed big arms around me and squeezed me and I said Sambo you know it rejoices my heart just to see you and remind you now.

I said you've been going on. What have you learned he said Willie. I haven't learned anything. I learned something that day. I just learned that day that all I have to do in life is to please the Lord.

And I'll practice that up to now. He says I get up in the morning to please him. I settled that with him a long time ago. What time would it take you for me to get up in the morning. And I'll wear what clothes I think pleases him.

I'm not worried about my friends. I just wear what clothes I think please him. And I eat to please him. What I think pleases him. I eat and I pray to please him. I have seven times a day to pray and I give to please him.

And I sacrifice to please him. And I sing to please him. I'll tell you he had grown a whole lot. I think this is it. Isn't it just to please him. This is the whole thing. This is what Enoch got the day the kid was born and the Lord said when he shall die the flood will come and before it comes I'll translate you.

The Coming Judgment and the Hope of Being Taken Home

And you know here we are tonight and we know as well as we're sitting that the judgment is coming. You men know this this whole world won't go on you know. Oh the Lord will rise and shut the door of grace the way that Noah shut the door of the ark.

And the judgment will fall on this world you know. And before it falls he'll take us home and flit us. But it didn't affect us. It just didn't affect us the way it affected Noah. Dr. Campbell Morgan said this you know don't know if you knew Dr. Campbell Morgan he had a face that you would actually have thought was chiseled out of concrete.

He was a hard looking man but he was one of the great servants of God. And he said there was a little girl she was just four and a half and she went to Sunday school and she came in, blew the door into the kitchen where her mother was preparing the tea.

And she said mummy we had a wonderful man in Sunday school today. And while I was playing it on she said oh tell me about him. What was his name? And she came close and leaned on the bench and her eyes were shining.