Dear congregation, if you turn again to Genesis chapter five and verse 21, we read of Enoch. We read there that Enoch lived 60 and five years and begat Methuselah. "'And Enoch walked with God, "'after he begat Methuselah 300 years, "'and begat sons and daughters. "'And all the days of Enoch were 365 years. "'And Enoch walked with God, "'and he was not, for God took him.'" We also read of Enoch in Hebrews chapter 11, verse five, There we read Hebrews 11 verse five, that 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. It tells us there too in verse six that without faith, it is impossible to please God. For him that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So we've been looking at several character studies. We've looked at Adam and Eve, the first man and woman. We've looked at Abel last time, and here we're looking still towards the dawn of time at Enoch. And indeed, Enoch is an appropriate person for us to consider. Also, in light of the Lord's Supper, we hope to celebrate this Lord's Day. Enoch is a godly man. He gives us a godly example. And of course, with the Lord's Supper, we are called to examine ourselves. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Last time with Abel, we saw how Abel, with the faith that he had, offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. In many ways, we have a picture there of the faith of Abel as it pertains to his worship. But here with Enoch, we see faith as it were in daily life. And really there's this basic principle that we're told from the scriptures here in relation to Enoch and in relation to us all, and it's this, that in order to have a life pleasing to God, we must have faith. In order to have a life pleasing to God, we must have faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. And the converse of that then would also be true, that if we do have faith, then our lives, to some degree at least, are pleasing to God. And that certainly ought to be our desire. And indeed, it is the desire of every Christian, of everyone in whom the Spirit of God has worked, it is their desire to live in such a way that pleases God. What a wonderful testimony Enoch gives us. A man who pleases God. Enoch's name, children, means dedicated. or devoted. And so Enoch in this way, he lives up to his name. He is dedicated, he is instructed, he is devoted to God. And so this evening we, with the Lord's help, we are looking at Enoch's walk with God. Now, of course, there's a lot of things that could be said about what it is to walk with God, and we want to draw out six things, at least, that we believe are here. The first thing is this, that to walk with God tells us that there has been a great change in Enoch's life. To walk with God means that there has been a great change in Enoch's life. We're told twice in verse 22 and then verse 24 that Enoch walked with God. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah. Verse 24 again, Enoch walked with God. Hebrews 11 tells us that Enoch pleased God. And so therefore we deduce that there has been a great change in Enoch's life. That this is not the direction that sinners go. It's not the way we come into this world. Nobody walks with God after the fall. Ephesians 2 verse 2 tells us, and it would have been as true of us as it is of Enoch, or of Enoch as it is of us, that in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. Adam disobeyed God when he ate the fruit, and Eve with him, and plunged the whole race of man into a state of sin and misery, and Adam has a son, we read in this chapter, after his likeness. And so it has ever been since, with Christ the only exception, that all the children of Adam walk a different way, and you know that yourselves in your own soul. That that is the way you have come into the world. Perhaps that's the way you are this evening still, walking according to a spirit that is a spirit of disobedience at heart. And that is as true for Enoch as it was for every sinner born into this world by ordinary generation. But here then in verse 22 of Genesis 5 we read, and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years. It certainly seems to suggest that the birth of Methuselah had an impact, an influence in his life, and perhaps under God was used as a means of conversion. That's not certain, but it seems to suggest that he walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years. Methuselah is interesting in many ways. As you know, children, he's the oldest recorded man in scripture. His name, Meth, comes from the word death. And shalach is the verb in Hebrew to send forth. Some would suggest that it has the idea of after his death, Methuselah's death, there is a sending forth. And we know of our chronologies, right at least, that after his death there was the flood. Almost immediately after the death of Methuselah, there was the flood, and it's as though that God was coming with Methuselah, and maybe there was some revelation. We can't be sure, but it's possible there was some revelation at this time that judgment is coming, that God's Spirit will not always strive with man, as it was said to Noah. But there's also this, that there's God's forbearance. We heard of that last Thursday evening, the 40 days forbearance, that there's this window of the space to repent and to turn. And indeed, what long suffering then is here with Methuselah? That God doesn't, at the birth of Methuselah, destroy the whole world with a flood. No, he waits these 969 years, the long suffering of God in the days of Noah. Well, anyhow, here's what we do know for certain, Enoch walked with God. We know for certain Enoch pleased God. What a glorious thing that is. That in chapter five of Genesis, so quickly after Genesis three, that there is this testimony of a man walking with God. And it is speaking about the life that he is living. There is this pleasure of the Lord in Enoch in his life. But when we see that and when we bring all of scripture to bear on that, what we need to see is that there must have been therefore this great change in his life. And we really have to look behind that too and see that there is in his life the application of the sacrifice, the same sacrifice that was pictured to Adam and to Eve with the coats of skin, that the same sacrifice that was pictured with the offering that Abel made, an offering that had blood in it. That is why it was accepted. It was an offering of blood. And here, Enoch, this is telling us that Enoch had faith in this blood, that the sacrifice of Christ that was to come on Calvary's tree, that is what is behind this pleasure of the Lord in Enoch. That is what is behind his walking with God. That is what is behind every act of faith in any person in this fallen world. No one will ever walk with God. No one will ever please God except for this sacrifice. And because of this sacrifice, Amos the prophet says, can two walk together except they be agreed. And this is telling us then that Enoch has had, that blood has been shed for Enoch. Enoch has been made willing in a day of power. And now then, Enoch has this testimony that he pleases God. Now he is walking with God. And that's the question for us this evening. Do we have this walk? Has there been a change in our lives? We're not told about the how of this change with Enoch. We're not told whether it was dramatic or not. But there is, after the birth of Methuselah, a walking with God for 300 years. And has there, dear friend, been a change in our lives, a change of direction? Something you cannot explain simply by a better resolution on our part, but because of the sacrifice, because of the blood, because of the work of the Spirit of God, there is a change in direction in our lives. But as I was blind, now I see. You were sometimes darkness, now are you light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. So the first thing we're saying about walking with God is that it tells us there is a great change in Enoch's life, a change that comes from the grace of God. The second thing here, though, is this, that to walk with God is to delight in his presence. It is to delight in his presence. And again, you think of the opposite. You think of the way in which sinners are born into this world and the way that they go, the way that you go by nature and the way I went by nature. God, the Psalms say, Psalm 10, God is not in all their thoughts. They don't think about God. Indeed, when they think of God, that they hate God. If they could, the natural heart of man would destroy God. You look at Lamech in the chapter before this, and there's this arrogance of this man, Lamech. He's defying God. He's making a song about his own strength and his own power, and it's sheer defiance against the God of heaven. But it doesn't need to be so overt, so out there. It can be simply an ignoring of God. are trying to limit the space in which we think of God. We'll think of God on the Lord's day, or we'll think of him maybe at this point of a day, but for the rest of the time, we want to clear the space for our own thoughts. And the whole tenor of our lives would say this, God is not in all their thoughts. And that is a willful thing. It is a suppression of the truth because the whole creation, every atom in this creation testifies to God and it takes incredible willpower and evil to put the thought of God away. But God is not in all their thoughts. Now here's somebody walking with God. And now God is in their thoughts. They think about God. Yes, they see God in creation. They see God in providence. They see God especially in his word and especially in the word made flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they delight to think of God. God for who he is in himself, but especially in what he has done in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is where their thoughts go. This is where their desires go. The person walking with God understands what the psalmist says in Psalm 63. Oh Lord, my God, most earnestly, my heart would seek thy face. within thy holy house once more to see thy glorious grace. That's a person walking with God, desiring to see the face of God. In the face of Jesus Christ, that's where we see God. The loving kindness of my God is more than life to me. That's a person walking with God. That's a person not only thinking of God in some kind of intellectual way, but a person who desires God and needs God and loves God and the loving kindness of my God becomes more than life itself to me. The person walking with God continues and says, in thee my soul is satisfied. The soul, your inner being, your truest self is satisfied with God. My darkness turns to light and joyful meditations fill the watches of the night. So God is in the thoughts. Before they were trying to create space where God was not. Now the watches of the night are filled with joyful meditation with the thought of God. That's a person walking with God. It's a grief to that person now when they don't have God in their thoughts. It's a trouble to them when they find themselves not thinking of God. It's a trouble when they find themselves with the thought of God but without the sense of his nearness and his presence and the joyful meditation that fills the watches of the night. and it produces in the person who walks with God an earnest seeking of his face, a desire to see his glorious grace, just like a husband and a wife, or children, you and your mom or your dad, when you go for a walk or you enjoy one another's company. And when you're not with one another, you think about one another. And you're sad if something gets in the relationship. And if there's a strain in the relationship, you will try to fix it. You want rid of these little foxes that spoil the vines. And you would be very aware if the other is absent. It would be a strange relationship, would it not? A strange relationship of love if you were not aware of the absence of the person you loved. Well, the person walking with God will often be saying, saw ye him whom my soul loveth? Well, Helmus O'Brackell writes here that the believer will often lift up his heart on high, longing for this influence, this influence that gives this fellowship with God in Christ. He will often lift up his heart on high, longing for this influence and desiring to receive strength and spirituality from him in his daily walk. That's the person walking with God, constantly desiring God for help, to be near to thee, to live apart from thee as death, but near thee all as well. And so we ask ourselves, and we ask you this evening, these questions, are you aware of God's presence? And do you delight in that presence? Oh, you say, that can be a hard thing to say. Do I delight in it? Do I desire this? You're saying, oh, that I was more aware. Oh, that I had more desire after him. But maybe let's ask it then the other way around. Not are you aware of God's presence, but are you aware of his absence? The Highland minister John Kennedy one time said, that he felt if he knew the Lord at all, it was in his absence. If you love a person, if you really desired a person, you will feel their absence. You won't be indifferent to that. You'll be despondent and it will cause you to seek. So here's a walking with God. It tells us there's a great change. It tells us that there is a delight in his presence, but to walk with God thirdly is to desire to be like God. It's a desire to be like the one you're walking with, just like a son walking with a father, looking up to his father, wanting to be like him, wanting to grow up to be like him, wanting to be able to do the things that he does. The one walking with God desires to be like God. You see, when Enoch walked with God, it's very clear that Enoch is not a person who views his own spiritual progress or spirituality in general by the standard of the day. He's not looking at the other people and saying, that's the standard. No, Enoch walked with God. It doesn't say he walked with Adam. He walked with Enos. He walked with Seth. No, he walked with God. God was the great reality to him. This is what really set Enoch apart. He walked with God. I have set the Lord always before my face. The word of God was the standard. That's a danger we can have. We can begin to compare ourselves with others. We can think that because so many other people are doing this, well, it must be okay, and they profess to be Christians too. But no, the man walking with God, the woman walking with God, desires to be like God. They set God before them. They're asking, what does God want? What does God say? What does God require? And their prayer is, thy word sheds light into my path. A shining light, it guides my feet. Oh, let my feet be in thy way. Make me walk in the way of thy commandments. Like Paul then, they have this mark, this standard, I press, Paul says, towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And what did that do for Paul? Well, for Paul, it meant he would also then say this, I have not yet attained. Paul, before he was converted, was above everyone else. He could compare himself with everyone else and set himself apart as above the rest. And yet, after his conversion, there was a sense in which he could say that he had done more for the sake of the kingdom. There's times he, to defend his apostleship, he does that in terms of suffering. Who suffered like him? in terms of the effort that he had put out, who had done what he had done. But that wasn't the standard you see Paul was setting. The standard he had was the attaining of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ. And when he saw that, he said, I have not yet attained, but I follow after. When he saw that, he said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? You see, this leaves the person walking with God often very dissatisfied with their own spiritual progress. It doesn't mean they're doer. It doesn't mean they go around with a long face. No, but they have, and God's people, in a way, learn this dissatisfaction where they are in relation to where they desire to be. It will always be this sight I have not yet attained. It will always be, oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death. It will always be, I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. And we must learn, believers must learn to walk step by step. There's light for the next step. So many times, God's people, I think especially as they go on, they want to leap into glory. They want to leap into heaven. Oh, to be with Christ, which is far better, Paul says. I'm in a straight between two, having a desire to leap into heaven, to be with Christ, which is far better. But no, there's more steps for you to take first, Paul. And so he must continue here for a time. Light for the path. But fourthly, to walk with God, and really this is at the very heart of it all, is to be found at Calvary's cross. To walk with God is to be found often at Calvary's cross. You say, well, what does Enoch know of Calvary's cross, children? He lived so long before. Well, we've seen already, Enoch knew from Adam and Eve, his grandmother and grandfather, he knew about sin, he knew about the sacrifice, he knew about the offering. He knew in principle the question Amos asked, how can two who walk together accept they be agreed? To walk with God is to agree with God. Sometimes we use that expression, I'm walking with you, I'm there with you. The idea that you're going in the same direction, you agree with one another, you're walking in the same direction. Well, to walk with God, you must agree with God. God's the one who sets the terms. God's the one who tells us, but when you come to walk with God, You're not saying, God, I thank thee that I am not like other men. No, you're saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And you're coming with your sin and you're going to this cross. To walk with God means to fight with sin. John Owen says, every sin, is a fruit of being weary with God. Every sin is a fruit of being weary with God. But put that this way, the person who is walking with God is weary with sin. The person walking with God is weary with sin and fights against it. The person walking with God agrees with God's assessment of sin. The person walking with God agrees with God's atonement for sin. And this is where Enoch was, and it's where everyone walking with God is often, at Calvary's cross, at the blood of the sacrifice, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. To walk with God, fifthly, means a person will persevere in the face of difficulty. Of course, behind that is the grace of God. To walk with God means a person will persevere in the face of difficulty. Christ says, no man will pluck them out of my hand. There's so much opposition. There's the world, the flesh, the devil, and you look at Enoch, and you know, sometimes you might look at somebody like Enoch and think, but Enoch just seems so exceptional. But Enoch would tell you, I am a man of like passions. Enoch lived in this difficult time, in this godless time, a time ripening for the flood and for judgment. Cain has murdered his brother Abel. Lamech in the chapter before has, as we said, made this song that glorifies his own power and defies God. God is saying that he sees the thoughts and the intentions of the heart only evil continually. And here's Enoch, and he is a man, like we said, of like passions. He's a real man. He's a family man. He has at least four children, sons and daughters. He's no doubt busy, and yet we read here that for 300 years he walks with God. What a testimony is here to the grace of God. How many temptations would he have faced? You think of your own lifetime and the number of years that you've lived, or I, and the number of temptations you've faced, the number of times we are pulled, as it were, by sin and doubt and temptation to walk in a different way, and yet we're told here for 300 years he walked with God. What a testimony to the grace of God. Here was a man who, no doubt, was the special object of the attacks of Satan. Everyone else, it would seem, was going in that way, but here was a man walking with God. Here was a testimony of grace. Here was one whose candle kept burning, and no doubt, therefore, the object of Satan's darts and temptation. Here is one who it would seem, humanly speaking, it's as though this is the only seed of the woman left. But we read Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years. We cannot blame the evil of our time. We have the same grace that Enoch had available in Christ to us. But sixthly here, to walk with God is to testify to others about God. Jude writes, in verse 14 and 15, of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, that he prophesied, saying, behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints. to execute judgment upon all. So you see, he has this sense of judgment coming, to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Enoch is a preacher of righteousness. Enoch is one who declares God and what God requires. And dear friends, if we are to walk with God, then we will testify not to what we have done, but to his grace. And that's what we're doing in the Lord's Supper. We're testifying of God and of his grace, of God and his Christ. We're saying that Calvary's our only hope. The broken bread and the poured out wine point to our only hope. Well, what a picture we have of godliness. But I see here a picture too of the seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, don't you? Was Christ not the one who was devoted to God and his service? Was he not the greater Enoch? How perfectly aware was he of his father's presence? Did he not walk with his father, walk with his God? Did he not delight in that presence? Did he not delight in his God to do thy will, I take delight? Was he not one who, in a very real way, in the most real way, stood alone Was he not the one who, in the most intense way, was the object of Satan's attacks and fiery darts, trying to get him to waver, to move out of the path of obedience to that will of God? And in the godlessness and the cruelty of that age, did he not have the testimony? that he pleased God. Oh, dear friends, he did and he does. I always do those things, he says, that please my father. There at the baptism and there on the Mount of Transfiguration, you have this testimony of God that he pleased God. The father is pleased with his son. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. He has a testimony from heaven that he pleases God. And yet, my dear friends, the amazing thing about this greater than Enoch was this. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. We read of Enoch that by faith he was translated that he should not see death. And he was not found because God translated him for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. And yet he is the one who pleased the Father more than any other ever could. And because of the pleasure the Father has in him, We read that it pleased the father to bruise him. And he did see death. He did taste death for every man. He could say of the father that he only ever pleased, thou hast brought me to the dust of death. The refrain in Genesis 1 was, it is good, it is good, it is very good. The refrain in our chapter Genesis 5 is this, and he died, and he died, and he died. And yet, when we come to Enoch, there is this, we can only call it a divine interruption. Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Do you see what it's saying? Do you see the picture this would have given the church right at the dawn of time here? Enoch translated that he should not see death. children looking for their father Enoch, a wife looking for husband Enoch, children looking for uncle Enoch, and he's not to be found. Why? Because God did something. Because the cycle of death was broken. God broke the cycle of death. God gave another foretaste of what he promised in Genesis 3.15, that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, and that there would be eve, there would be life. And here God has done this great thing. God took Enoch. How do you explain that except this, except by this? If Enoch has not died and Enoch was a sinner, someone must have died for Enoch. Someone must have died for Enoch. It's pointing again to the substitution. It's pointing again to the sacrifice. This explains it all. There is a death for Enoch. There is blood for Enoch. The believer does not die to satisfy sin. God has seen fit for the vast majority of believers to die physically. But here we're told that God has broken death. God has destroyed death. And someone has died for Enoch. That explains why he walks with God. That explained why he pleased God. And really at this point, if we have this right, The point at which Enoch dies, Adam would be the only patriarch listed who had died by this point. And really what it's saying is this. As in Adam, all die. Even so, in the seed of the woman, in Christ, shall all be made alive. Abel went into heaven with his soul, his body resting in the grave until the resurrection. Enoch went into heaven, body and soul. What an astonishing thing the angels had seen in this short space of time. Having seen the fall of man, having seen the judgment pronounced the day that you eat of the tree, you will surely die. And then seeing Abel, whose name means vanity, his soul coming into heaven. But now here's Enoch, body and soul. a glorious picture for us and for the church back then and the church now, a glorious foretaste, a first fruit, if you will, of the resurrection of the body. One day the angels will see not just Enoch come into heaven, body and soul, but the whole church of Jesus Christ, which he has washed, which he has covered with the sacrificial blood and skin, and they will be presented without fault. And forevermore we'll walk with Christ in glory. Before his translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Amen, let us pray.