Enoch Walked With God How To Have Faith That Pleases God Hebrews 11:5-6

Enoch walked with God even though he lived in a wicked worldly culture.  If we have faith we too can overcome a wicked world to walk with our Lord.  We are going to see that this an absolutely amazing man who is a huge example to you and me.

Hebrews 11:5-6  “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”;

This is an amazing statement. This verse tells us that Enoch did not taste death. God just took him. In other words, he didn’t even die, he was just translated to heaven with God. So, who is the oldest man who is still alive? It is Enoch. He still hasn’t died.  If you trace history back to Adam, that is approximately 6000 years. Enoch was born when Adam was 622 years old. That makes Enoch approximately 5400 years old give a decade or two. Enoch walked with God and God took him!

There are two men who have lived an extraordinarily long time, one is Enoch and the other is Elijah. Elijah was taken up in a chariot and horses of fire in a whirlwind. I believe from studying prophecy that these two men will one day appear on the streets of Jerusalem as the two witnesses found in the book of Revelation.

Why did God take him? The Word goes on to say in Hebrews 11:5-6  “… for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. ⁶ 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.”

Enoch walked with God and that pleased God. He obviously was a person of faith.  He believed that God existed.  He believed in the inherent goodness of God that he was a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. God was so pleased with him, the way he lived his life that he simply took him off the face of the earth.

Let’s look a little deeper into Enoch’s life.

1. What Were The Origins of Enoch’s Faith?

We do not know too much about Enoch except a few verses that in the book of Genesis 5:21-24  “Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah.  After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.  And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.”

 This period of time is known as the antediluvian age. That is the age before the flood. First of all, men and women lived a long time in those days.  Enoch was just the seventh generation from Adam and Eve, but already the world had grown evil and because they had many children, the population had already grown exponentially.  This antediluvian age was when there was a constant cloud cover. God watered the earth with dew and not with rain.  This was the time between Adam and Noah.

The bible tells us that mankind grew wicked very quickly. The word tells us that fallen angels actually took on a form and actually had children with the daughters of men as it says in Genesis 6.  The word of God begins to describe the situation in Genesis 6:5 “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of  man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

 This was a world that was so bad, that God ultimately destroyed the entire world he had made except for those who were in the ark. Man did not get that way overnight.  Just like today as evil grows more prevalent today, generation by generation, even so it may not have been to a level in Enoch’s day as it was in Noah’s day, but it was a wicked world.

And as we read the word it tells us that Enoch lived 365 years. But it also tells us that he walked with God for three hundred years.  So, we can only assume that in the 65 years before he had Methuselah, he did not walk with God. There was something that happened in this man’s life around the time of the birth of his Son.  We don’t know what caused him to turn to God.  We don’t have his testimony.  We have very little bible evidence.  I believe that it was a godly fear.  I believe he saw the sinfulness of the world he lived in and he began to consider it.

Maybe it was a conversation with Adam, I know it sounds strange, but Adam would have been 687, and Adam lived to 930.  Perhaps Adam told him what it was like to “walk with God in the cool of the day”. Adam told him all that happened in the garden.  Just seven generations from Adam it is not hard to believe that they still talked of the garden and had heard first hand of the consequences of sin.   Maybe the place where the angel guarded the entrance to the garden was well known.

The scripture tells us that it was the habit of at least some men in that day to call on the name of the Lord. Enoch undoubtably offered a blood sacrifice just like Abel did, and God accepted that. Genesis 4:26  “Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.”  Enoch no doubt was one of those men.  This man began to seek God, he began to want to know God.

Here is what we know, by the time Methuselah his son was born, Enoch being 65 years old, this man had received divine revelation about the flood. A couple of years ago, for my personal devotions, I did an in-depth study of Genesis, and I learned that Methuselah literally means, “When he is dead, it shall come”  That is a reference to the flood.  In other words,  when Methuselah is dead, the flood will come.   Methuselah lived 969 years and then he died. And then the flood came.  God revealed to Enoch that judgement was coming.  Even it was 969 years in the future.  He may not have known that it was going to come in the form of a flood.  He may not have known that Noah would build an ark.  But he had enough fear of God to begin walking with God, naming his son, when he is dead, it shall come.

Why was judgment such a long time coming?  It was 969 years before judgment finally came to earth. That only shows one thing.  The longsuffering, the kindness, the mercy of God, giving men a time to repent, a space to repent.  But you can add the years up and when Methuselah died, the flood came.

That divine revelation must have worked a powerful work in Enoch’s life.  Because for the next 300 years, Enoch walked with God. His walk of faith so pleased the Lord that at the end of those 300 years God took him.

What does that have to do with me?  Enoch walked with God in his generation, not having the Word of God, not having the outpouring of the Spirit, not having a church to attend, not having lots of other believers to encourage him, not having teachers to show the way, not having all the understanding of history and all that has happened.  If Enoch walked with God in his day, what excuse do we have?  The devil may tell you, that is impossible for you to consistently walk with God. No, it is not.  These things were written for an example to us.

The question becomes, have you made that decision in your life?  There was a moment of conversion for Enoch at 65, at the birth of his son must have said, “I am going to completely repent of all sin,  I am going to walk with God. He exists and I am going to diligently seek him.”  Don’t wait until you are 65!  Don’t say, I will wait until I have children, then I will give my life to Christ.  Today is the day of salvation. The first thing the life of Enoch shows us, is that it is possible to begin walking with God, staying faithful until the end.  Today decide for Jesus.

1. What Can We Learn From Enoch’s Faith?

• We can walk with God as Enoch walked with God

Genesis 5:24 “And Enoch walked with God…”  When you walk with somebody it implies relationship.  Enoch had a relationship with God.  How amazing to find way back in the book of Genesis the heart of God for fallen humanity.  You see the same God who walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, walked with Enoch. And he wants to walk with us.  You see, God wants to have a relationship with us. Christianity is more than a religion. It is a relationship.  I do not simply state creeds and beliefs and doctrines.  You and I who know Christ have a relationship with God.  A personal relationship.  He knows our name, he cares about what we face, we can talk to him about anything we are going through.

It is not a run, it is a walk. When you run, it is hard to communicate, at least it is for me through the huffing and puffing. But when you walk, you can talk to one another.  If my wife and I decide to go take a walk together, it means that we are going to talk, like the old song says:

“And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own.

And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.”

If you stop and think about it, what greater privilege could be given to any man or woman today. That the king of the Universe could be right here alongside of us by His Spirit.  You can sense him.  If you walk with him long enough, you get to know his presence. You can be in the middle of a crowd. at Wal Mart or at the grocery store, and sense Him. You can be in the lowest valley and know He is there.  You learn that God walks the dark hills and he is there continually to show you the way.

Some would say, I don’t know how to walk with God. If you want to walk with God you have to spend time building a relationships with God.  It is more than saying a sinners prayer. It takes time.  It takes time in prayer.  It takes times in worship.  It takes time in the word.  It takes time practicing solitude, listening for his voice. I am here to tell you that we can walk with God just like Enoch did.  Get up in the morning and start talking to him. What are we going to do today Lord? Spend time with him.  Acknowledge Him throughout your day.  Practice the presence of God.

Paul describes how a relationship with God will affect our walk on the earth in his epistles.  In fact, he uses the word walk over 25 times in his epistles. If you have a relationship with God it will affect your walk.

You will walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh.

You will walk in love.

You will walk properly as in the day, not in revelry or in drunkenness

You will walk by faith and not by sight

You will believe God’s promise that he will dwell with you and walk among you

You will walk in the good works God has prepared for you to walk in.

You will walk as children of the light

You will walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise.

You will walk in wisdom.

You will walk in peace.

Enoch walked with God and we can too.  And then…

•      We can please God as Enoch pleased God.

I don’t know about you, but when I enter heaven I want the Lord to be pleased, to say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.  Hebrews 11:5-6  …for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. ⁶ 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.”

Enoch’s faith pleased God. Enoch’s faith manifested itself in the day to day decisions that he made for 300 years.   We tend to think of faith as “calling those things that are not as though they were.” We tend to think of faith as believing God for healing. We think of Abraham believing God for a miracle like for Isaac to be born.  We think of Moses and the faith he had that God would lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.  We think that faith is about big things.  Enoch’s faith was a simple faith that he chose to do the will of God and overcome a worldly culture around him.

There were two powerful things that Enoch obviously believed.

• He believed in God’s existence. It says, he who comes to God must believe he exist.

This was not just some mental assent that acknowledged, “Oh yeah, there must be a higher power somewhere.”  He believed in God so much that he took it to the next stage. He said I am going to seek this one who exists.

• Enoch believed God was a rewarder. “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.”

It says in Genesis that, “Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.” All those years, he didn’t go up into the mountains and hide and live as a hermit, he continued living his life, having children, raising children, being a part of the culture. But there was something that set him apart from his neighbors.  He was a man who diligently sought God for 300 years.

I can tell you that there have been seasons in my life when I have sought God more and sought God less

I cannot tell you that every single day of my life I sought God.  But I think that this man had such a passion, that he got up in the morning and he sought God.  He said, God I believe you are a rewarder.  God blessed him with sons and daughters.  God blessed him with revelations about the future.   Until God one day said, “You have become so close to me, why don’t you just come on up here? And leave the world behind?”  God rewarded him.  He didn’t have to face death.

There is another that the scripture records as someone who pleased God. That scripture talks about Jesus!  In Matthew 3:17  “And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  That voice from heaven was the father himself speaking of His only begotten son saying he pleases me. What did Jesus do to please God? How did He please God?  He pleased God by doing His will.

John 5:30 “…I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”

John 8:29  “…for I always do those things that please Him.”

 Jesus pleased the Father just like Enoch by doing day by day the things that pleased God and the will of God.  Sometimes we think that in order to have faith it has to demonstrate in signs and wonders. We have these images of this guy standing there with his bible in one hand and he is straining in prayer.

He is commanding mountains to move, and demons to leave, and sicknesses to depart. Don’t get me wrong … that is a part of what faith is. We make that all that faith is.  Let me tell you what faith is.

Faith is believing that doing the will of God and pleasing Him is the purpose of your life.

 It begins when you get up in the morning and you chose to take some time in the Word and time in prayer.  Why do you do it?  You do it because it pleases Him.

It continues down through your day as you are at work, and even though everyone around you is having a bad day.  You feel that dread coming down over you.  You feel that negativity. But you want to please God. You step out in the hallway and say, “Lord I am going to praise you for that is the right thing to do for this is the day that the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad.”  You become the only one in the room with a go to attitude.  Why? That pleases God.

Faith is when your family is complaining, and your flesh feels like jumping in there with some of your own moans and groans. But in order to please God, you don’t. You work at changing the environment with your words and actions.  Why? It pleases God.

Faith is when you work a full eight hours with a good attitude and a happy spirit, when everyone else is slacking and not doing what they should. Why? It pleases God. Faith is when you get cut off in traffic and you bless them instead of the other. Why? Because it pleases God. Faith is when you chose your entertainment choices with programming and movies and tv that reflect godly values. Why do you do it? You please God.

And then

• We Can Serve God Like He Served God

Enoch served God.  What did he do?  I believe that as he sought God, God gave him revelation.  Some of that is still yet to be fulfilled. He looked way ahead, I believe he saw the second coming of Christ as is written in Revelation 19.

Jude 14-15  “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands 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.”

I cannot believe that a man who had such powerful words as this that have made it into the canon of scripture was not a light to his generation. I can tell you, he probably had people who didn’t care for him much. If he preached strong in Jude, he no doubt served God, by living his life in contrast to the ungodliness that was a part of his world.

His message was one that you better get right with God.  God will execute judgment on all. God will convict all who are ungodly.  He spoke of ungodly deeds committed in and ungodly way by ungodly sinners.  Enoch had a message for his generation. Get right.  How we need to hear Enoch’s words in this generation.

• We Can Expect To Be “Taken” As Enoch Was Taken

This is the most amazing point of this entire message. Enoch walked with God and was taken. We can walk with God and expect to be raptured.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18  ^“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

Enoch is a type of modern-day believer. A believer who is on fire. A believer who knows why he exists. A believer who walks with God and  who does not partake of the ungodliness in our world.

One day, Jesus will return in the rapture of the church. We will be caught up.  Are you ready? Enoch showed us what to do. Enoch walked with God, served God, pleased God and was taken.  We can and should do the very same.