Walking With God

GEN-17 LWP-05

000130AM

If there was a book we all need to read it would be titled, “How to Walk with God for 300 Years” by Brother Enoch.

What an unbelievable life that man had. He lived in the worst time on earth. There were only 8 Noahans and 1 Enoch out of upwards of 5 to 7 billions of human beings who were spiritual and righteous. The world was so bad God had to sweep it all away. And through it all there was a light shining that never went out. There was a voice speaking that never was silenced. There was a life lived that could not be bought out, bribed, or wasted with selfish gratification, Enoch was God’s man. Enoch will forever be the example of how to stand alone for God.

Please open with me to God’s Inspired record of the Lost World, Genesis 5:21-24. In these verses we find that God gives us only a 48 word (in our English Bible) introduction to one of the truly wonderful heroes of His Word.

Meet the Enoch who walked with God. Meet Enoch the mysterious saint, yet a man who like us was called to walk through a world screaming towards calamity, destruction and God’s judgment. Meet Enoch a prophet of God’s judgment and a portrait of God’s grace.

Our text this morning continues a pattern we have been seeing.

Abel illustrates that Genuine Faith prompts a Genuine Worship of God.
Enoch illustrates that Genuine Faith prompts a Genuine Walk with God.
Noah illustrates that Genuine Faith prompts the Genuine Work for God.

First of all we need to see that this is a new concept in the book of Genesis. We have seen that Abel knew what it was to worship by faith, but the Scriptures do not share any insights on how he was walking with God. This brings us to one of the fundamental truths of God’s Word. Revelation in Scripture is progressive. Abel received some revelation, and Enoch received more. And to us has been given the ultimate earthly revelation God’s Son and His Word. And here it is in our hands!

As we read this book it opens with Adam and Eve who walked and talked with God in the Garden, but when they fell and were thrown out of the Garden, they ceased to walk and talk with Him.

But here in chapter 5 we see that the ultimate destiny of man is reintroduced. Enoch is an illustration for all of us of what it means to be in fellowship with God. Enoch portrays our true destiny. Enoch experienced the fellowship with God that Adam and Eve had forfeited.

Please join me and listen to God as He speaks through 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.

Wow! Now you may ask, how did he do that in the Old Testament? Because Enoch’s faith was saving faith. He like us was a saint because he like Abel, had offered a substitutionary, bloody sacrifice to God. Enoch offered an offering symbolic of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. Enoch learned that sacrifice is the only way into God’s presence. So Enoch could not have walked with God unless he had first come to God, and no one comes to God apart from the shedding of blood. God’s salvation plan has not changed from the days of Abel and Enoch until today.

FIRST, IT IS A WALK ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD

RICHARD BAXTER the Puritan Pastor who served in London during the 1660’s once wrote:

Enoch “walked with God,” it is not taking a step or two in a way which denominates a man a walker, but a continued motion. No man is judged healthy by a flushing color in his face, but by a good complexion. God esteems none holy for a particular carriage, but for a general course. A sinner in some few acts may be very good: Judas repents, Cain sacrifices, the Scribes pray and fast; and yet all were very false…. A saint in some few acts may be very bad: Noah is drunk, David defiles his neighbor’s wife, and Peter denies his best friend; yet these persons were heaven’s favorites. The best gold must have some grains of allowance. Sheep may fall into the mire, but swine love day and night to wallow in it. A Christian may stumble, nay, he may fall, but he gets up and walks on in the way of God’s commandments; the bent of his heart is right, and the scope of his life is straight, and thence he is deemed sincere.

SECOND, IT IS WALKING WITH GOD THAT IS ONE OF THE GREATEST OFFERS GOD HAS MADE

“They shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Thy countenance” (Ps. 89:15);

“and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23);

“I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (2 Cor. 6:16).

THIRD, WALKING WITH GOD IS WHAT GOD DESIRES

“I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect” (Gen. 17:1);

“Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace” (Job 22:21).

“In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Prov. 3:6);

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Mic. 6:8).

FINALLY, WALKING WITH GOD WAS THE REGULAR PRACTICE OF THE SAINTS

“And Enoch walked with God” (Gen. 5:24);

“Noah walked with God” (Gen. 6:9);

“I (David) have set the LORD always before me” (Ps. 16:8);

“Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; but it is good for me to draw near to God” (Ps. 73:23, 28).

“When I awake I am still with Thee” (Ps. 139:18);

“For he (Moses) endured, as seeing Him who is invisible” (Heb. 11:27);

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