Will you please turn to Genesis 5, beginning with verse 21—Genesis 5:21-24.
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 sixty and five years:
and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Hebrews 11:5-6.
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath had witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing unto God:
and without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him.
And finally, the book of Jude, just before Revelation—Jude 14-15.
And to these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of His holy ones,
to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.
May we look to the Lord.
Our holy Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou dost open a way for us, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to Thee; that we may come to Thee with boldness; that we may have our veil taken away from our faces; and that we may behold the glory of the Lord and be transformed according to His image.
Our Father, how we praise and thank Thee for such privilege. We do want to avail ourselves of this privilege this morning, and pray that the light of Thy countenance will shine upon us, that we truly may see Thee and be transformed. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We have been considering together the book of Genesis. We mentioned at the very outset that the book of Genesis is a book of biographies. The reason why the first book in the Bible is a book of biographies is because God is interested in men. And thank God for that, because He is interested in you and He is interested in me.
Because He is interested in man, therefore He works in men to make man what He wants him to be.
In the book of Genesis, we find especially the biographies of eight persons. In these eight persons, God reveals His mind towards men: what He originally designed and purposed for men, what He has been doing in the lives of men, and what, ultimately, eventually, He will get. We see this in the lives of these eight persons.
We also mentioned that, because of the work of God in them, we see in every one of them a symbol, a sign, a trademark—something that comes out of their life. Probably it will help us to know them and to know the work of God by knowing these signs and symbols.
In the first man, Adam, we find the tree, because God’s purpose for man is the tree—the tree of life. God wants man, whom He created, to receive His own life into him and thus be united with God in life. This is God’s intention for man.
Then we find in the second person, Abel, and with Abel the symbol is sacrifice. Because of the sin of man, man was driven from the face of God. There is only one way that man can return to God, and that is through the sacrifice—not just any kind of sacrifice, but the sacrifice that God has ordained, even a lamb.
Through the blood of the lamb, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice, and because of this he was accepted. So, dear friends, if we want to be accepted by God—sinners to be accepted by God—there is only one way. We must have that more excellent sacrifice, which is our Lord Jesus: how He died on the cross as the Lamb of God for the sins of this world.
Now this morning we would like to come to the third person in the book of Genesis, Enoch. And with Enoch, we will say, Enoch’s heaven.
Now, in the whole Bible, there are only a few verses written of Enoch, and the verses that we have read almost exhaust them. We find a few verses in Genesis 5, a few verses in Hebrews 11, and a few verses in Jude. That is all you will find in the whole Bible concerning Enoch.
And yet, in these few verses, there is a volume of thoughts—of what God did in this life, and what was expressed through this life to the glory of God. This is something that we would like to share together this morning.
Now, if you open Genesis 5, you will find that at the beginning of the chapter it says, “This is the book of Adam’s generations.” In other words, here you find the genealogy, the book of the generations of Adam—the book of the generations of man.
First you find Adam; then after Adam you find Cain, Abel, and Seth; and then you find generation after generation. One generation succeeds another generation. As a matter of fact, the book of the generations of Adam does not stop at Genesis 5. It goes on even into our day, because, so far as mankind is concerned, it is the book of the generations of Adam. All men came from Adam.
And what do you find in that book? You find that one generation succeeds another generation. You find that man was born, man lived, man begat sons and daughters, and man died. Generation after generation, you find the same description: so-and-so was born, he lived, he begat sons and daughters, and he died.
This is the history of the generations of Adam. This is the history of man. What is the history of man? One day you are born, you live, you begat sons and daughters, and then you die. Or, to simplify it: you live, and you die. You were born, and you are dead. That is the history of mankind, and what a sad history it is.
I like to visit cemeteries. I think it is much better, as Ecclesiastes says, to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting.
When I visit these cemeteries, I like to read the tombstones. In the tombstones, there are two things that are always there. One is that so-and-so was born on a certain year, certain month, and certain date. Then there is another thing always there: he died on a certain year, certain month, and certain date.
Now, on tombstones they put a lot of junk there, but if you consider them, you will find invariably that these two things are always there: born and died. Isn’t it sad?
People may put lots of things there—what great achievements he had done when he was alive. But when God writes the epitaph, when God writes upon the tombstones of men, what do you find? You find nothing. All you find is, “Born and died. Lived and died.” That is all you find.
In other words, when the Holy Spirit writes upon the tombstones of mankind, He has nothing to write about man. All He could write was, “He was born and he died.” That was all. Nothing was worthwhile. Maybe in the eyes of man some people have done great things, but in the eyes of God nothing has eternal value—nothing to be mentioned, nothing to be recorded.
That is the history of mankind. Man in the scene has nothing worthwhile to be recorded in heaven. All that is recorded is, “Born and died.” That is the history of man.
Sometimes, when you read Genesis 5, it is very depressing, if you understand what it means. But thank God, in that chapter suddenly you find something different.
There was a man whose name was Enoch. He lived. Yes, he was born, and he lived sixty-five years and begat Methuselah. After he begat Methuselah, he continued to live three hundred more years and begat sons and daughters. All the years of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years, and Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
In other words, in the history of mankind, generation after generation, it was just no different: born, lived, begat, and died. But suddenly, here was a man who was born, who lived, who begat, but he did not die. He was raptured. He was taken by God alive. He overcame death.
Now that is good news. Suddenly it should catch our attention, and we would like to know this man. Who is this man? What kind of man is he? Why is it that he overcame death?
We know that Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam. He came from the godly line of Seth. Adam had two lines of descendants: one was the line of Cain, the wicked, evil line; and the other line was Seth, which was the godly line. Enoch came from the godly line of Seth. He was the seventh generation from Adam.
He lived sixty-five years, and during these sixty-five years he lived just like other people. He lived just like other so-called good people. But there was nothing to be recorded by God. He just lived. He existed for sixty-five years.
Then he begat a son, Methuselah. But after he begat a son, something happened. His life altogether completely changed. He began to walk with God, and he walked with God for three hundred years. Then God took him.
We would like to know what made this change. Before he begat his son Methuselah, he lived a good life in the eyes of man, but nothing different. He was not wicked, but he was not spiritual either. He walked, probably, by himself. Oh, probably he would sometimes ask God to come and walk with him.
But suddenly, after he begat Methuselah, his whole lifestyle was changed. He began to walk with God—not asking God to walk with him, but walking with God. Now, what happened?
Methuselah was also a person who, according to the sacred record, lived the longest life in the world. He lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years—almost a thousand years, not quite. In China, according to our legend, the longest-lived one was Peng Zu, and he lived eight hundred years—not quite as long as Methuselah. Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years: a long life.
But do you know that if you compute, you will find that in the very year Methuselah died, the flood came? Evidently, at the birth of Methuselah, Enoch received a revelation. God revealed to him, “You have a son now. When this son dies, the judgment will come. When this son dies, something terrible is going to happen.”
God gave him the revelation at the birth of the child. When he received that revelation, it transformed his whole outlook. Before that, probably he was just living for himself—not a bad man; he came from the godly line—but he just lived for himself. Sometimes he asked God to come and walk with him.
But when God gave him that revelation—that in the year Methuselah, his son, should die, judgment would come upon this earth—he feared God. By faith, he began to walk with God, and for three hundred years that revelation transformed his life.
Dear brothers and sisters, do we have such revelation?
As we look into the history of men today, it is no different from what you can find in Genesis 5. Generation after generation—we do not know exactly how many generations mankind has existed upon this earth.
Forgive me for mentioning China, because China is an old country. According to our Chinese history, we often trace our history back to the emperors. According to our Chinese history, we have, well, I would say, a little over a hundred generations. I have met a man who was the hundredth generation from his forefather.
But no matter how many generations have passed, the history has not changed. The story has not changed. Even nowadays, you will find that the generation before us lived, begat sons and daughters, and died. Now in our generation, we live, we begat sons and daughters, and we will die. The same story.
Is there no exception? Can there be no exception? Are you expecting something different?
Certainly, dear brothers and sisters, we are living at the end of the very end of our age. According to the Word of God, we have great expectations. On the one hand, we know by the Word of God that the day will soon come when God will judge this world.
Enoch received such a revelation: one day God would judge the world. The flood would come, and his son was a sign. Oh, I do not know—if his son suddenly had a fever, I do not know what Enoch would think, because on the day that he died, something would happen.
He had a revelation, and it changed his life. But brothers and sisters, do we have a similar revelation? From the Word of God, do we not see that the end of this age is approaching? Do we not see that because the sin of this world is so full, God is going to judge this world? Judgment is coming upon this world—maybe in our lifetime.
As the Bible says, when people think of what is going to happen, they are so frightened. But to us the Lord says, “Lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” In other words, dear brothers and sisters, we have great expectations. We know that judgment is coming upon this world, but thank God, we have a hope.
And that is: we may be raptured. We may go alive without passing through death, as Enoch did.
But the thing is, when Enoch received that revelation, he changed his lifestyle. Now, do we have this revelation? Maybe mentally we all have this kind of knowledge. We may even talk about it. Oh, we say the world is coming to an end; we say that the Lord is coming soon; we say judgment will come upon this earth. As you look around, it seems oh, so much closer.
We have this knowledge, but does that affect our lifestyle? Do we still go on living as usual? Not bad, but just living as we lived before—living for ourselves, walking by ourselves? Or is it because such a revelation comes to us that it really transforms, changes, our lifestyle, and because of the soon coming judgment, we begin to walk with God?
How many of God’s people today are earth-dwellers? Now, it is true: we are still on this earth. The Lord says, “You are not of the world.” You are in the world, but you are not of the world, because He has called us out of the world.
We are strangers and sojourners upon this earth. We are just passing by. Why? Because we know this world is not eternal. We are looking for a city with foundations, which God has built—just like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were looking for a city, a country, a better country, that God has built. We are strangers, sojourners, passers-by.
But how often we forget. How often we become earth-dwellers. We begin to be rooted and grounded in this earth. We begin to seek for the things of this world just like other people. We forget that we are just passing by. We begin to make this our home. We begin to love the world. We begin to live for ourselves.
Now, if we do, then when the day shall come, we will be caught unaware. But the Lord has warned us already. He has already given us the revelation. He has shown us that the world is passing by. Judgment is coming upon this earth.
Oh, how we need to rise up and begin to walk with God.
How can a person walk with God? You remember, in Amos 3:3 it is said:
Shall two walk together, except they have agreed?
In other words, you cannot walk together if you do not agree. If I want to walk towards the south and you want to walk towards the north, how can we walk together? If we want to walk together, we have to agree. If we agree, then we walk together.
If we want to walk together with God—walk with God—now remember, it is not God walking with you; it is you walking with God. If you want to walk with God, you have to agree with Him.
Now, do you agree with Him? Do you agree with Him that judgment is coming upon this world? Or do you think that the world is getting better and better, like some people who are building the millennium upon this earth?
Do you agree with God that His purpose is to bring all things under the feet of His own beloved Son, that His Son shall have the first place in all things? Do you agree with Him in that? Do you agree with God in His will?
Now, if you do, what will you do? You have to abandon yourself and take the will of God to be your will, His mind to be your mind, His purpose to be your purpose. Only then can you walk with God.
You see, the problem with us today is that we do not agree with Him. Sometimes we do, when it happens that He agrees with us. But most of the time we do not agree, because we have our own will, we want to do our own things, and we have our own plan. We just want God to come along and help us.
That is the reason why we do not walk with God. Dear brothers and sisters, if we want to walk with God, we have to yield our will to God’s will. Now, God does not want us to have no will. He made us with a will. He wants us to exercise our will.
He does not want us to have a passive will. He wants us to have an active will—actively to will His will. That is cooperation. God wants us to agree with Him, and when we agree with Him, then we are able to walk with Him.
Do you agree with Him? Are you willing to lay down yourself and take His will as your will, take His mind as your mind? If you do, you will find that you will be walking with Him. That is the first condition.
The second condition to walk with God: you have to take up His yoke upon you. You remember, in Matthew 11 the Lord said:
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
In other words, to walk with God is a life of discipline. The very name Enoch, in the original, means discipline or devoted. Enoch was a man of discipline. In other words, he lived a disciplined life.
He put his neck under the yoke of God with Christ. There is a yoke there, and the yoke has a kind of curve there. Christ is under one curve, and you are to be put under the other curve. Then you are yoked together with Christ.
The yoke is the will of God, and Christ is meek and lowly. Oh, how He accepted the will of God. He is under the discipline of God—so disciplined that there is no resistance, that active cooperation, one hundred percent willingness. But we are not like that. We fight against God’s will.
That is where discipline comes in. We need to be disciplined. As we are disciplined by the Lord, as we accept His discipline, then we are able to walk together with Him. What God’s people need today is discipline.
If you read Hebrews 12, you will find that a father chastens his son. Our heavenly Father chastens His own sons, and because of this He disciplines us. He chastens us. That word “discipline,” or “chastening,” in the original simply means child-training. He trains us that we may grow into maturity.
It is only when we are willing to accept the discipline of the Lord that we are able to walk with Him. If we want to have our own way, and always want to gratify our own flesh, if we throw out discipline and think that being disciplined is not freedom, if we want our own liberty, then, brothers and sisters, we are not able to walk with Him.
A disciplined life. Number three: if we want to walk with Him, we have to walk by faith, not by sight.
Enoch walked with God, and he pleased God. Why? Because it is said that no one can please God unless you believe that God is, and that He is the rewarder of them who seek Him.
Enoch had faith in God. He believed in God’s Word. He believed in God’s revelation. He believed that judgment was coming, and he believed that God is a rewarder of them who seek Him. If he should seek God with all his heart, God would reward him by taking him out, without passing through death nor through the flood.
He believed that God is, and He is the rewarder of them that seek Him. And he walked by faith. If we want to walk with God, we have to believe. You cannot walk by your own feeling. You cannot walk by sight, from what you see. You have to walk by faith, because you have seen the invisible.
Do we believe that God is? Do we believe that He is the great I AM? Do we believe that He is everything to us?
The Scripture says, “You must believe that He is.” Now, He is what? It is just another way to put it: He is the great I AM. “I AM that I AM.” In other words, God is everything. We have to believe that He is everything.
Then He is a rewarder. He will reward those who seek Him. If we have such faith, we will be able to walk with Him.
Fourthly, you find that Enoch pleased God, and God took him. Actually, the Holy Spirit simply puts it in different ways. In the Old Testament, in Genesis 5, He said, “Enoch walked with God, and God took him.” But when you come to Hebrews 11, the Holy Spirit changes the wording.
Instead of saying that Enoch walked with God, He said Enoch pleased God. In other words, to walk with God is to please God. To please God is to walk with God. Because Enoch had pleased God, God took him.
Can we please God? Is it our life’s purpose to please God? Whom do we want to please? Are we man-pleasers? Are we self-pleasers? Or are we God-pleasers?
Brothers and sisters, have you ever thought of this? Whom do you like to please most? Are we able to please God? Sometimes you may think, “Now, to please God, that must be very difficult, because God is so perfect. How can you please Him?”
There is one person who has pleased Him—well pleased. You remember, three times the heavens opened and a voice came from heaven and said:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Our Lord Jesus, when He was on this earth, pleased the Father in all things. God said, “I am well pleased. I am so satisfied. I am delighted with Him.”
Do you know that in Christ, we can please Him too? So, very simply, how can we please Him? Walk with Him. If you walk with Him, you will please Him.
God wants walking companions. God is always walking. Never in the Bible do you find God running—except in one case, and that is a parable in Luke 15.
When the prodigal son came back and stood afar off, he dared not take another step. He wondered. He looked at himself. He was dressed not like a son. He was thinking maybe his father would receive him as a slave, a servant; but even that, he doubted.
After he came back from the far country and saw his own father’s house there, he could not move anymore. He stood afar off. The elderly father was looking at the door. He saw his son way off, standing there, and you know what he did? He ran to him.
That is the only place in the Bible, in a sense, that speaks of God running. You know, God never runs. He is never in haste. We are always in haste, but God is never in haste. In the Bible, you see God walks. God walks.
Now, what do you mean by walking? Walking means that He would just take a step at a time, but it is very steady. It is continuous, and it is walking towards His goal.
He never stays put. He never runs. He neither delays nor hastens, but He walks on and on and on and on. The ongoing of God is a tremendous thing in the Bible. God is always going on.
In one sense, God is perfect; therefore, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But, on the other hand, you find that so far as God’s purpose is concerned, He is always walking on and on towards His purpose.
Even in the Bible, you find the same thing with our Lord Jesus. You remember one day when the disciples were rowing in the boat in the night, and there was a storm, and our Lord Jesus was walking on the water. Was the Lord Jesus walking towards the boat? No, He was passing by. They had to call Him back. He was always going on, always going on.
You remember also, when He was resurrected, He appeared to the two men going to Emmaus, and the Lord was always walking on. They had to ask Him to stay. The ongoing of God—God always walks on. Now, are we walking on with God?
In Christian lives, sometimes you find some people make a dash, and they disappear. Oh, walking with God is so sporadic. Sometimes we rush, and then we stay put, or even go back.
But Enoch walked with God. It was a steady step, step by step. How many years? Three hundred years. Never letting up, never hastening, but just a steady walking with God.
Brothers and sisters, this is what we need. We need to walk with God.
The only solution to the incoming judgment—the only preparation for the judgment that is to come upon this world—is walking with God. It is not storing food. It is not buying guns. It is not going to the desert. It is walking with God.
That is the best preparation to escape the things that are coming and to stand before the Son of Man: just to walk with God. God does not expect you to make a dash, a hundred-meter dash. God wants you just to walk steadily with Him day by day. Walking is a daily matter. Walking is practical living.
Now, this morning I will not go into this, but maybe, if God wills, next time we will see the secret of walking, and that is abiding. Abiding is the secret within, and walking is the outward expression. But we need that practical walking with God in our lives. We need to walk with God.
Now, what do you mean by walking with God? If you read the Scripture, you find a number of places in Scripture that speak of walking with God. For instance, in the Psalms it is said, “Walk in the light of His countenance.” To walk with God means to walk in the light of His countenance.
This thought is found again in 1 John. You find, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.”
To walk with God means to walk in the light of His countenance. To walk with God means you see His face. Now, you cannot see His face if you are too far away. You have to see His face when you are very close to Him, and the light of His countenance shines upon you. You walk in the light as He is in the light. Now, that is walking with God.
Walking with God is to keep His commandments. If we keep His commandments, then we walk with Him. Walking with God is to walk in love, because God is love. Therefore, if we walk in love, then we walk with God. Walking with God is to walk in truth. If we walk in truth, then we walk with God, because He is truth.
Walking with God is to walk with Him according to His character. Walking with God is to do His will. Walking with God is to abandon ourselves to Him. That is walking with God.
Now, are we walking with God?
Dear brothers and sisters, God is not expecting you to do something spectacular. Our problem is that we always think in terms of the spectacular, as if the Christian life is just something spectacular. Now, in one sense, it is always supernatural—that is true. But in another sense, you find that God wants us to walk with Him.
It is a daily matter. Daily we learn to deny ourselves. We learn to take up our cross. We learn to do His will. We learn to yield ourselves to Him. We learn to obey Him. We learn to keep His commandments. We learn to walk in the life that He has given us and be obedient. We learn to walk in truth, and we learn to walk in love, because He is love.
In our daily life, it has to be a steady, step-by-step walking with Him. Be His walking companion.
Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and God took him. It is always like this: you walk and walk and walk with God, and suddenly you find that you have walked too far—you are there, at the end of the journey.
Do you not know that if you walk with God today, if you walk with Him today, suddenly you will find He took you?
Oh, there is nothing that encourages my heart more than what the Scripture says: “As the days of Noah were, so shall be the days of the coming of the Son of Man,” in Matthew 24.
It says that suddenly, when people are unaware, the flood came. But you see, two are sleeping; one is taken, one is left. Two women are grinding at the mill; one is taken, one is left. Two are working in the field; one is taken, one is left. The Lord said, “Watch, pray, and be ready.”
What does it mean? It means that the coming of the Lord will come in such a way that you find two. Two is the number of witnesses. By the mouth of two or three, everything is certain. So here you find two. Now, these two refer to Christians, not to unbelievers.
You find two sleeping—that is night. Two are grinding—that is early morning. Two are working in the field—that is daytime. Why? Because the earth is round. In some places it is night; in other places it is morning; and in other places it is noontime.
Actually, it is the same two. It represents Christians who are living at the time of the coming of the Lord. It refers to us. We are living at such a time. Judgment is coming upon this earth, but we can escape—not to the desert, but escape by being raptured.
When the day comes, one is taken. Now, who is taken? The one who walks with God. You walk and walk, and you find you are leaving there more and more until you go there. That is the way to walk.
Thank God for this blessed hope. I often tell people, “I am not waiting for death. I am waiting for rapture.” I am not sure of it. Nobody is sure of it. If you are too sure, beware.
But if we walk with Him, that is all He asks of us. If we walk with Him, we will be there, by His grace.
May the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Our heavenly Father, oh, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou dost not leave us in the dark. But through Thy Word Thou hast warned us that we are living in the last days, that judgment is coming.
But we do praise and thank Thee that Thou dost tell us we can escape the things that are coming upon this earth and stand before the Son of Man, even before Thee. Oh, our Father, we do pray that we may be such people who do not despise or neglect Thy revelation, but that we may take Thy Word to heart.
We ask that by Thy grace our lifestyle will surely be changed; that we may not just be earth-dwellers, rooted and grounded upon this earth that is to be destroyed. But we pray that we may truly be strangers and sojourners, that our hearts may be in heaven with the Lord.
We pray that we may live upon this earth walking with Thee day by day. Lord, we do expect that Thou wouldst take us, because Thou hast promised us.
Our Father, we do pray that these words may not be just a momentary stimulus, but may have lasting effect upon our lives. We pray that we may be like Enoch, translated because he pleased God.
We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.