Enoch Walked With God — Leonard Ravenhill

Faith as the Central Theme of Hebrews 11

Is repetition, you see, and again the thread that we have in Hebrews 11, the thread is the thread of faith the one word, the key word in this chapter, 24 times again it's mentioned, 32 times in this epistle and in considering all the different characters, we've considered some, there are others we have to remember that they're on record in this chapter, they hit this marvellous chapter of faith and this marvellous chapter of being heroes because, again, every one of them in a different, in a variation different circumstances, yet they manifested or they operated this marvellous thing that we call faith.

The good book says, verse 6 of this 11th chapter says, without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder and that the pilgrims may seek him and in every circumstance, it doesn't matter how great the pressure was, whether it was an individual situation or a national situation, whether they faced the lion's den, or whether they faced a hostile crowd they found again that faith, it was faith, simple faith that carried them through they believed that God is, and that he is a rewarder, and that the pilgrims may seek him.

We said that there's a pattern in this chapter and in the fourth verse we have, and we've just grown on this a little while here by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous God testifying of his gifts, and by him being dead, yet speaking now we said, this comes first, you can't alter the pattern here there are some people in this chapter again, I wouldn't have put in, there are some left out, I would have put in.

Enoch, Abel, and the Pattern of Worship

Take a case of Enoch here, if you go back to the fifth chapter of Genesis, you'll find everybody in that chapter lived who offered an Enoch, and they didn't make the chapter that Enoch did. If you like to go back for a minute there into Genesis go to chapter, where is it now?

Chapter 4 I don't know, he apparently wrongly says that faith cometh out by what? Faith cometh by what? Hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Now how many ways are there for God to speak to men? Well to us we generally speak, we say well there's the Bible, that's the word of God, alright and he speaks to us through the word of God.

This is the written word, now there was the living word, Christ the word was made fresh and well-demonised, and he spoke to men. And then there is the Holy Spirit of God, and he speaks to people. Now faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Well how in the world did Abel hear the word of God? He had no Bible, I don't think he had any fellowship at all. He came writing after the tragedy of the Garden of Eden. How did he hear the voice of God?

Well the only thing is God must have spoken to him, directly. And if that happens it's a very exciting experience. I say again that Abel is mentioned first in this chapter because you see he's the first one that built an altar.

And an altar is typical of two things, sacrifice and worship. You remember Abraham said when he was going up to offer his son I am the lad who will go yonder and worship. I was God, he would have said I am the lad who will go yonder and sacrifice because he was taking the choicest thing that he had.

You can't give God second best. If God had said take thy son, he would have taken Ishmael. He would have been glad to get rid of him, a person I wish he had he wouldn't have had any other one around. But anyhow he didn't, God did not say take thy son.

He said take thine only begotten son. Not even thine only son, thine only begotten son it says in Hebrew. And when he goes up on the mountain there, he builds an altar. He leaves everybody else behind which is always involved in real worship taking the choicest gift he has which is always involved in true worship and adoration and it involves sacrifice.

Take thy son, thine only son not even his only son, he had another son not in God's reckoning. You see, one was the child of the flesh the other was the child of promise or the child of the spirit. Abraham did what I guess you and I have done sometimes try to get God out of a difficulty.

You ever try and get God out of a mess? You know you thought he wasn't going quick enough so you gave a push in this or you tried to maneuver this or something else. And what happened? You'll end up in trouble, we always do and so Abraham is mentioned first in this chapter because you can't get anywhere.

Abel is there because of worship. The next man is Enoch, he's not there for worshipping, he's there for walking and after that comes Noah and he's there for working but you can't work and you can't walk really until you learn to worship.

Worship Before Church Activity

This is the whole trouble with the church of God today you get saved, the first thing, get involved in the church that's the last thing you should do, forget it for a year. Get along with God and read the word and understand the word.

You see with activists, we prove everything by how much I've done how many tracts I've given out, how many this, how many that how many duos I knocked up, how many committees I knocked. Oh the first three guys in, they asked me to sing in the choir.

You couldn't sing for them, I'd tell them why weren't you honest and tell them you couldn't. And then you joined up with something else in the church a youth meeting or some other meeting and this is activity but it is not worship.

You can have all the activity in the world and in the church even and not worship God, but if you have worship there'll be some activity. There'll be some arts go somewhere, some artwork. Now, is God arbitrary?

After the first tragedy, the head in the garden of Eden we have another tragedy. This man Abel was righteous, do you know what he got for it? He got slung and killed. And if you're going to live righteously in a lousy world like this part of the place, a rotten world you can get slung too if you, little boys and girls know why a story about Noah and there's a little carving and a little bridge and they put the animals up, the elephants came in two by two and all the rest of it.

And we remember Noah because of what? He built an ark, that's not who he's remembered from. He's remembered in the epistle to Jew because he was a preacher of righteousness. And you can preach anything except righteousness.

You can preach forgiveness, you can preach mercy you can preach expositionally you can preach prophetically, everybody's on the prophetic binge right now. But you preach righteousness. That's the most offensive thing of all.

Abel got killed because he, what? He made an offering to God and because of this God testified of his righteousness. Now why didn't God accept the offering that the other brother brought? I've heard people say, you know right?

Oh man, man, undoubtedly got moving when he started shedding blood. Oh no, no, no, that's not true. Who sheds the first blood? God shed it and he made little things out of leaves to cover themselves. But God took the blood killed an animal and he made fur coats for them and he shed blood.

You see when in verse 7 of chapter 3 of Genesis it says. The eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed themselves fig leaves and made themselves aprons. Do you think now this took me by surprise thinking about this the other day.

Do you think it's significant that. And he cursed the fig tree reaching him. Sometimes not the labour of my hands can fulfill my Lord's demands. Could my zeal, my respite, no. Could my tears forever flow all for sin.

Could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. And when they killed themselves then they heard the voice of the Lord walking. I think I think I might be saying this. I haven't checked up on it but right now it comes to my mind only twice.

Do you hear the voice of God walking. You hear the voice of God walking in the garden. And then you remember that in the book of Revelation the first chapter it says. God turned to see the voice of him that spake.

Now repeatedly through that third chapter we won't labour. The point if you find God saying God said God said to the woman. God said to Adam. Now one of the most pertinent things in Hebrews 12 to me is this.

See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. Have you ever said to somebody the Lord spoke to me the other day and said this. Well did you obey him. Did I obey him. See ye refuse not him that speaketh. Because it's a faithful thing to have more responsibility than somebody else.

If we have more responsibility we have more obligation. Alright verse 21. Unto Adam also unto his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and he clothed them. You see what God is saying here is that your covering is not sufficient.

There is no covering. There is no religious exercise. There is no pilgrimage. There is no fasting. There is nothing you can give as people say sometimes in the church oh I want to give this to the church.

But all those are not righteous except they have no effectiveness in the area of redemption. There is no covering for sin apart from the covering that God himself provided. Their covering was not acceptable to God.

And so they discovered that God had to make a covering. And he made a suitable covering. And he made a covering by death. It's always out of death that life comes. As again in the case of the Lord Jesus he died and he rose again for our justification.

We are reconciled by his death. We are saved. All the offenders didn't seek after God. God sought after us. How many of us pursued God. We didn't pursue God. We were going hell bent as fast as we could go.

And yet somewhere God threw a block in the road and in mercy he came to us. And here a man is trying to cover up his guilt. He's hidden away in the garden. You see the first time we find fear in the Bible.

I was afraid. Afraid of what? You know men say sometimes I'm not afraid of God or anybody else. But you let them lie sick on a hospital bed. All the doctors say well I'm sorry. You look very healthy. We knew about 24 hours a day.

Boy they fall apart. They panic. They're in trouble. Fear gets old. Fear of death. Fear of judgement. Fear of eternity. Man had no fear until he sinned. And ever since he sinned he's been more or less in a state of fear.

Sacrifice, Redemption, and the Shedding of Blood

Alright then there's only one way that man can be redeemed. Now why did God not accept the offering that came. Because God had already shown two things. First the earth was corrupt and he brought everything out of the earth which was corrupt and tried to present it to God.

Well you can't get redemption out of corruption and everything he brought was already contaminated with death. The ground, the earth brought forth everything that was corrupt and he brought what was corrupt to God as an offering for sin.

And God said that's no good. Secondly God had given an example by the fact that blood had to be shed. God had spoken. He'd spoken in action. One brother ignores it and says the labour of my hands can't fulfil my Lord's demands.

And the other one says well if that's what God did if the only covering for my people was through God shedding blood the only covering for me is that I shed blood. And he brought an offering to God. He shed blood.

If you look there in the 1st of John chapter 3 in verse 12 I was looking up something else actually today and I had to solve it. 1st epistle of John 3rd verse 12 it says his offering was not acceptable to God.

He deliberately ignored what God had done the warning of God the example of God in the blood being shed. And he tries to bring this to God. He really despises that which God has revealed to him. Now he said right at the head of the whole of this marvellous chapter on Hebrews 11 for the simple reason again that when God whispered by faith to him or revealed by faith to him or revealed by action to him that only by the shedding of blood could there be an acceptable offering.

He obeyed God. You know there used to be a preacher in England Dr Jowett. I think he coined the phrase and he said it's true right through life you have to bleed to bless. One of my great phrases is that an experience of God that costs nothing is worth nothing and it does nothing.

You have to bleed to bless in everything that's of any value. There has to be sacrifice cost no matter what level you are. And therefore this man did what was contrary. Nobody else has ever done it before him.

Nobody else has built an altar. Nobody else has made a sacrifice like this. And you know that's the difficult thing when God asks you to do something that every Tom, Dick and Harry or Mary or Sally or Sue are not doing.

God says you do this. And somebody says well who do you think you are. And you say I don't know anything about that. God told me to do this. This I'm going to do as I've said so often every man that I can read of anyhow every man that I can read of who's made it for God has been a disciplinarian if you want it in the Bible language disciples you know there isn't a thing in the New Testament.

I told a lady this the other day and she almost fainted. She's a great activist or she goes all over America. She's got money. She'll fly here. She'll fly there. She'll load her pockets with tracks. She'll buy books and give them away and so forth and so on.

And then a couple a lady came to our house the other day. She knows we preach up north. She was passing through town. She asked to come and she came and brought two young preachers with her. And I didn't know a thing about what they were doing in town.

She called and said she would come. Alright. I gave her directions. We'll be there in half an hour took her three times longer took her an hour and a half to get there and right away. I said to them I said and I don't introduce myself this way.

But they hardly sat down when I said to them look there is nothing in the New Testament that tells you to get people saved. I thought she was going to need out of the service or something. But she she was shut up.

Give me a scripture that tells you to get people saved. It doesn't. What it does say is this go make disciples. And that makes a world of difference. One thing to give a tract. Another thing to knock on a door something.

One thing to invite others. But it says go make disciples. And that's a formative period that there has to be attention given like the attention to a child. But you see we're looking for shortcuts to maturity.

We're looking for easy blessing. You see when it comes down to the last issue you've got to build an altar if you're going to be any good to God. And that Hebrew, Palmy, Romans 12 says present your body a living sacrifice.

It was death sacrifice in the Old Testament. This is a living sacrifice. The scholars will tell you that that grief of the death presented in the air is tense. It's something you do once and for all. Man said to me one day the first thing I do every morning is is lay myself on the altar before God.

Do you do that. Man said no, you don't? Well you should. I said well how should I? How could I do it? If this is my body and this is the altar and I lay myself on the altar. I lay myself on the altar this morning.

There's only one way I can lay myself on the altar tomorrow morning. That is I took myself off during the day. But you see it's present your body a living sacrifice. It's one surrender staying in subjection, obedience a living sacrifice.

Well sacrifices are painful. Sacrifices are costly. Exactly when I allow God as it were to bind me to the harms of the altar. Then immediately I'm into trouble in more ways than one. Alright let's go from that to the next character here in Hebrews 11 I want you to say that again because you can't get anywhere until you learn to worship.

And he learned to worship. And worship is costly. Hebrews 11 again and into 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 this testimony that he pleased God.

Enoch’s Walk With God and His Testimony

Now that doesn't say much really does it. And yet it does say a lot. He was translated he did not taste the bitterness of death. But before he was translated he had a witness by the spirit of God. And John Wesley preached law of the witness of the spirit to believers than any other thing he ever preached.

He had this testimony that he believed God that he pleased God. Now go back to Genesis. Now chapter 5 verse 21 says Enoch lived 60 and 5 years and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God. Watch it now here after he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters.

And all the days of Enoch were 360 and 5 years. That's an awful lot. Or you could say 365 is to remember. Maybe there are 365 days in a year where you walk with God every day. Alright. But he walked with God after he begat Methuselah.

Does that tell you anything. Doesn't it suggest that once he found he was a parent he discovered he had far greater obligations than he had before. And he's going to have to walk before his children. And from the very day that his child was born for 300 years he had unbroken fellowship with God and he had this testimony that he pleased God.

I'm thinking at her end yesterday of the different faiths man we've come a long way. I'm sure Enoch and everybody else in the Bible never dreamed that men would walk on the moon. But they walked up there.

Don't know how good it was but they walked there. I told some folks in the Bahamas the other day who'd been walking on the bottom of the sea. They had some special apparatus and they'd been down looking for sponges and special things on the rocks sea anemones and all the other things.

And I thought well what a world we're living in. We can walk on the bottom of the ocean. We can walk up there in the sky. It's amazing where people are walking these days. It's amazing how often God said to men he said to Abraham walk before me.

Well that's a pretty stiff thing. Don't walk before the church. He's not saying that walk before each other though. Maybe it's implied but he says walk before me which is stiff enough. And then to make it worse he says and be thou perfect or be thou upright or walk correctly.

The Psalmist said he walked through the valley of the shadow of death. I think everyone would run through it wouldn't you. That's a spooky place to go through. But he walked through the valley of the shadow of death and he said he feared no evil.

The Psalmist says in Psalm 1 you remember blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Isaiah 35 talks about two ways.

There's a highway there and a way the unclean shall not walk therein. You see there's a divine provision a highway. And there's a divine prohibition. The unclean shall not walk therein. And there's a divine provision.

The wayfaring man though true need not err therein or he need not be afraid. And as I said yesterday every morning you get up the first thing you have to do is make your choice. Where are you going. What are you going to do.

You know you've heard people sing it so often. I've heard people sing. I walk today where Jesus walked. Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God and he walked with God for 300 years. Well they didn't say it.

But surely the implication is this if he walked with God surely he talked with God. Could you walk with somebody 300 years and not talk. Do you remember what Amos says in the third chapter about verse 3 that come to walk together except they be agreed.

If you're going to walk with somebody you decide whether you're going east or west. Don't you. You decide what speed you'll go. Do you remember that wonderful word again. I like so much. And I guess you do in Isaiah 40, 31 they that wait upon the Lord to renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles.

Oh boy that's exciting. You get fluttering up there isn't it. And then you get to a meeting. And whoosh. There's a kind of euphoria. And oh boy you'll feel it on cloud 99 or something. They shall mount up with wings as eagles.

They shall run and not be weary. And they shall walk and not faint. And you know why it says that Abraham walked with God and he not walked with God. And it says walk before me and be thou perfect. Because it's typical of the monotony of life because most of our time we're not trying and we're not running.

We're just walking. And it's a testing thing. And it's a teasing thing. And it's a tough thing you know to live like a saint when there's nobody there to applaud you and sacrifice you. Nobody to pat you on the back because you spent the whole night in prayer instead of snoring your head off or something.

You went without something that you would have liked. And somebody gave you the money. And suddenly the Lord says well why? Do you want it or is it vanity. Or do you want to be like the Joneses or the Smiths or somebody else.

And right away you surrender that thing to God. And there's nobody there except a sweet wonderful whispering of the Spirit of God. This is what I want you to do. Thanks for doing it. And it's in the monotonous things of life where the test comes.

He walked with God. Well then I'm implying and I'm sure I'm right in saying if he walked with God he talked with God. What did God talk with him about? I know what you talk to God about. You give him all the problems in your life and maybe sometimes some rubbish and stuff.

And you take God's time and say well this and that and the other and something else. Do you sit and wait? Does he talk back? What does God share with you? What does he share with me? What could he share with this man?

It's the beginning of creation as it were. The world is new. Sure the briars have come up and the thorns and the signs of the curse are around. But here is a man who is walking with God. Well again if this is all we have to go on there's not much in it.

He's not lived 65 years since he got Methuselah. And the word Methuselah means in every Hebrew name has a meaning. And the word Methuselah means when he is dead it shall be sent. And immediately Methuselah died.

The heavens split and the earth split and the flood came and this man walked with God. That's why he's in the church. He walked with God. What kind of a world did he walk in? Well it's pretty lousy. Are you guessing?

No I don't think. I better guess what shall we do? Well let's go back to the back of the book. The lady was talking today won't tell you which one. But a lady in a book shop was saying they like good commentary.

And somebody said to Spurgeon one day which is the best commentary on the Bible? He said the Bible. And I think he's right. Look at the little book of Jude. The book of Jude is an epitome. That is it's the whole Old Testament.

Or the whole of the Old Testament in essence. Right at the back just for revelation. There's a page or two in front of it. The epistle of Jude and the 14th verse. And Enoch also the 7th from Adam. You see if you go back and read about the other 6th you know what happened to them?

They all died. The 7th from Adam didn't die. There are those who hold the theory that this world will last 6000 years. And it's getting pretty tight near that. If you follow the Jewish calendar and every person the other 6 persons all died.

This man Enoch didn't die. He was a 7th. That's the perfect number. The curse has been on the earth for 6000 years in the 7th thousand. If you want to follow that theory the period of the millennium everything is going to be reversed.

The curse is going to be removed. The lion and the lamb will lay down together. You won't get any poisoned ivy in any other generous environment. It's going to be a marvellous thing. Sue is feeling happy already.

No more poisoned ivy. And the whole creation is going to be turned around. But here is a man. Look he walks as straight as an arrow. It's a dark world. He's walking in the light. It's a crooked world.

He's walking in a straight path. It's a disobedient world. He's walking in a path of obedience. It's a world of error. He's walking in a path of truth. How do you know? Well read this verse verse 14. Enoch also the 7th whom Adam prophesied.

Oh boy here you become again. Why was Noah unpopular? Because he built an ark. No Noah was unpopular because he preached righteousness. What about this man Enoch? Some people think he went down the road and all he did was talk to the Lord all morning all afternoon all night.

That's all Enoch did. He just walked on and on and on year after year century after century. And at the end of the trip he said boy that's the longest walk I've ever had. And it's the longest talk I've ever had.

John and I have walked and talked together for 300 years. That's a record. I wouldn't have ever been wrong. But when you come to read the record here in June it's a different story altogether. Enoch the 7th whom Adam prophesied of these things saying behold so he was a preacher that got him into trouble.

And right there at the beginning of creation he's talking about things that were going to happen at the end of the world. What did he do? He prophesied saying the Lord cometh with 10 ,000 of his saints.

Well he hasn't even mentioned. He's going to die yet or be resurrected. And he's coming to execute judgment on all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed.

And of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against them. These are murmurers complainers walking after their own lusts. Now do you see the difference? Abraham pardon me Enoch is walking in righteousness and holiness and integrity.

He's walking in a bunch of folk who are hardly fit to go down a sewer pipe. Look at their ungodly deeds. Their mouths speak great swelling words. They have persons in admiration. They have ungodly deeds and they ungodly in an ungodly way committed them.

And they had hard speeches and they were ungodly sinners. And as far as we know here is one man walking righteously right down in the middle of this hostile bunch who are totally antagonistic toward God and everything that's righteous and true.

Whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, he thought on these. He said he did, they were happy to live in a sewer pipe, in a drain pipe. They're like the people that Noah had to deal with.

He was a righteous preacher, what happened? Well the same thing that happens to Lot. You see God raises his prophets in the midst of all the corruption. God's rich and Sodom and Gomorrah going to be barbecued in the days of Noah.

They had a testimony. Noah was a righteous man and they lived unrighteously and they rebelled against God and God flooded them. You see the one thing that we learn from history is that we don't learn from history because whatever God does we still turn our noses and say we'll go our own way anyhow and that's just why the world is in the mess.

It's in tonight. What have we learned after two world wars. What have we got after giving 55 ,000 wonderful young men to lay their bodies down in Vietnam. What have we got for how many billions have we given them, 150 billion dollars.

And now let's give them a little bit more. I'm not talking about whether that's right or wrong, I'm saying this you see, that we never learn our lessons. I used to think when I was a kid they used to talk about Humpty Dumpty.

I didn't think much of the story anyhow but Humpty Dumpty isn't a nursery rhyme for children. It's one of the smartest things ever written, it's telling us we can't put the world back together again it's broken like Humpty Dumpty, the egg on the wall fell off, was broken and you can't put it back, there's no way of putting an egg back together again, and by the same token there's no way of putting this world back together, we spent millions, billions.

How do we write history? You give a smart guy at university a PhD and he sits down and writes some marvellous thing. Winston Churchill writes the history of World War II and H .G. Wells wrote the outline of history.

No foot sir you know how we write history? We write history with ink, with blood for ink and people's skins for parchment, that's how we write it and we're in the same disastrous situation today, we've got murmurs and unclean people and people rebelling and rioting against God, the news tonight said that in the past year, past 12 months 70 ,000 teachers in schools in America not Russia, 70 ,000 teachers have been injured by people, 70 ,000 of them the kids have wasted 500 million dollars worth of school property, how do you do it?

They write to school and give it to all the law because they've had all the chances in the world and not all taught with the same brush, thank God but it's a very desperate situation. And to lift your voice up in the wilderness like this is to ask for the same trouble that these other people got, martyrdom to be an outcast because of course you've got the ways of man and the ways of the sorcerers and the way of Sodom against the way of God.

End-Time Ungodliness and the Call to Righteousness

Alright he's in the midst of this bunch of people and remember this, come down to verse 17 in Judea, beloved remember the words which were spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ how that they told you they should be martyrs in the last time and should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

What apostles. Well if you look at the second epistle of Peter, the second chapter in verse 3 there's a reference to the same thing 2 Peter 3 3, knowing this verse they shall come in the last day scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming.

I'll go back to verse 2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord our Lord and Saviour knowing first that they shall come in the last day scoffers walking after their own lusts.

So we're going to have an identical situation right before Jesus comes to that which this man had in the day when he went he's surrounded by an ocean, it's like a little island surrounded by an ocean of impurity, all the sewers suddenly broke up and they began to cast all their filth and their stench around us.

And you've got the same thing here in the day in which this man lived a righteous life and he had a testimony that in the midst of all that violence and corruption and militant opposition to God in the midst of it all he lived a life that bore testimony from God that he was righteous number one and he pleased God.

Go back again to Genesis 5 for a minute. Verse 24 Enoch walked with God. Oh pardon me. Verse 22 Enoch walked with God and began to soothe him. And again it's repeated in verse 24 Enoch walked with God and was not for God took him.

What did God share with him do you think? I say it says he walked with God and it's implied I'm sure that he talked with God. What did God talk to him about? Again I ask what does God talk to you about and to me about?

Do you think that God shared his sorrow with him that after he made a perfect environment for men men are always the same. If we abolish floods and we did this and we did that men will be different. We've tried that all over the world and men are no different.

They're just the same. Well do you think God shared his sorrow over the calamity of the Garden of Eden with him? Do you think he shared his sorrow with him about the devil who had been a beautiful being.

According to Isaiah the most beautiful being that was ever made. Every precious stone was his covering. He walked in the midst of the fire. He walked in the midst of the Garden of Eden. He had a high authority.