Well, we have been working our way through the book of Hebrews for a good little while now, and we have come at last to chapter 11, often called the chapter of the Heroes of Faith, and other various similar titles that are sometimes given to it, because faith is what is needed to please God, as verse 6 of this chapter tells us, and we'll be looking at that, Lord willing, next Lord's Day. And faith is what was wavering in the hearts of the Hebrew Christians to whom this epistle is written to. Some of them were being tempted to return to the old covenant, which will not do.
Now that Christ has come and the new covenant has been revealed, there's nothing for them in the old covenant as far as their relationship with God. And they need, therefore, to continue to exercise faith in the Word of God, the revelation that has been given, and to walk according to the light of that truth. And so having emphasized the importance of faith, the writer of Hebrews now launches into an entire chapter to help us better understand it by describing it, by exemplifying it in the lives of God's people. And the first example we looked at last Sunday, which is Abel. By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained a witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead, still speaks. Then we come to the second example, the second example included by our inspired writer, which is Enoch, verse 5. By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found because God had taken him, for before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God. Enoch, who clearly is one of the most remarkable and godly men of all the Bible, and yet so very little is actually recorded about him.
You really have to scratch to find out who this man was and what he did. Remarkable when you compare that to other great men recorded in the Bible, some of whom had chapter after chapter after chapter describing their life and relationship with God and what they accomplished in this world. But with Enoch, it is just a brief mention, but oh my, there's an awful lot said here and we'll notice that, I trust. But Enoch's name and life is introduced in the genealogy in Genesis chapter 5 that I read to you earlier today.
And there are two other times that his name is listed in a genealogy and there it's just listed in passing, no information is given except his name and who came before him and who came after him. One of those in 1 Chronicles chapter 1 verse 3 and the second one in Luke chapter 3 verse 37. And so nothing more is said of him until we get to Hebrews chapter 11 verse 5 and here he is listed as one of the great heroes of faith. And finally, as we'll see a little bit later, there's one other mention in the book of Jude, two verses actually given in the book of Jude to this man and what he did.
But other than that, that's it. That's all the Bible tells us about him. But what we are told is amazing when we consider it carefully and I trust that God will enable us to do that this morning.
My approach is very simple, two parts. Number one, the historical background drawing from Genesis chapter 5. And number two, the New Testament elaboration looking at Hebrews 11 verse 5 and also at the book of Jude. But starting first with the historical background in Genesis chapter 5 that we read earlier, we recognize that this genealogy gives more information about the men who are named in it than any of the other genealogies in the Bible.
And therefore, we need to pay attention to what it tells us. It does list the generations from Adam to Noah, all of the antideluvian history of the earth and following one particular line in that history. From Adam to Noah through Seth because as we know, Adam and Eve had two sons before they had Seth.
One of them, Abel, is one of the heroes of faith in verse 4 of chapter 11 of Hebrews. But the other one is Cain who murdered his brother because of his wickedness. And so if there's going to be a descending line, a godly line from Adam to Noah, it certainly can't go through Abel. He's now dead.
It can't go through Cain. He is a wicked, wicked man. But God gave to Adam and Eve another son, Seth, and that begins the line that goes down to Noah whose life covered both sides of the flood. He was the man that God used to prepare for the flood, and he was the man that God saved through the flood, and he's the man who started a new chapter in human history after the flood. But in this genealogy, in Genesis chapter 5, these items of information are given to each of these ten names. Number one, the name of the individual. Number two, the age when his, and I'll call it his legacy son, was born. That's the best name I could come up with, the one that passes on the legacy from generation to generation down to Noah. So how old he was when his legacy son was born, and then thirdly, the name of the legacy son. And then number four, the number of years lived after the birth of the legacy son. So we're told in the name of each individual how many years he lived before the birth of his legacy son, and then how many years he lived after the birth of his legacy son. And for all of them, we are told that there was the birth of additional sons and daughters.
Could have been a great many, but they are not named because they are not in this line, in this legacy that is being followed in Genesis 5. And then finally, we're told the total number of years they lived, adding the years before the legacy son, the years after the legacy son, the total number of years they lived, which is a remarkable total in most, in all of these cases, compared to what we're accustomed to, and sometimes people wonder, how is that possible? And I suggest two things that will help us understand these long lives.
I consider this to be actual factual historical information. They actually lived these many years. Methuselah, the oldest man who ever lived, actually lived 965 years, almost a thousand years upon the earth.
But two things to keep in mind. Number one, they lived a whole lot closer to the original fall, and that brought in physical decline in the human family. How many thousands of years later are we battling with all of the accumulated effects of the curse of God upon Adam and the sinful results that had their effect not only in the relationship of man with God, but also in man's physical condition? Up until really very modern history, the ages of people continued to decline and decline and decline, even after the flood. In the Old Testament, we often read of people who lived to be 100 years, 120 years, 150 years, a lot shorter than this genealogy before the flood, but a lot longer than we have today, and they didn't have doctors, they didn't have pharmacies, they didn't have big pharma, did they? But they lived longer because they didn't have as much of the accumulated effect of the decline that comes because of the fall, so that's one explanation. And the other one is, there's indication that before the flood there was a vapor or water canopy that surrounded the earth that no doubt protected the earth from the strength of the ultraviolet rays of the sun, but all of that water came down in the flood and afterwards that canopy, that protection was removed, and so that had a life-shortening effect upon the human family at that point.
But at any rate, where are we? We are talking about the total number of years they lived, and then one final piece of information for each of these or nearly each of these in this genealogy. After giving us all this information, then the statement, and he died. Adam lived 130 years and begat his son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth, there's the legacy son.
After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were 800 years, and he had sons and daughters, so all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. And if you go through this genealogy, you'll find that that's stated for every one of them. Of Seth, we read all of this information, and he died. Of Enosh, we read all of this information that I've just listed, and he died. And so forth, all the way through the list until we come to number seven, Enoch.
And there's a change. So all the days of Jared, Enoch's father, were 162 years, and he died. Enoch lived 65 years and begot Methuselah, so far the pattern follows the same course as the others. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters, and the next line, if it follows the same pattern, should say, and he died, but it doesn't. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years, and Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. So ten names in the antediluvian period, Adam, Seth, Enoch, Canaan, Mahalalel.
By the way, Canaan, in most modern translations, is spelled Kenan, with a K, K-e-n-a-n, but it's the same man that we see here as Canaan. Canaan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah. Now looking more carefully at the information in the genealogy about Enoch, we see first of all that he was born to Jared in verse 18. Jared lived 160 years and begot Enoch. After he begot Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had sons and daughters, and so forth. So his father was Jared.
He was born to Jared as his legacy son. And Enoch became the father of Methuselah, verse 21. Enoch lived 65 years and begot Methuselah. And then we are told he walked with God for 300 years after the birth of Methuselah, verse 22. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters, so all the days of Enoch were 365 years, and Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. He lived a total of 365 years, and we don't know how long he would have lived if he hadn't been taken early. 365 years, that doesn't sound early to us.
But that's really early. Most of these guys were living 800, 900 years. But after 365 years upon the earth, we read that God took him, and he died conspicuously missing.
But in its place, we are told that Enoch walked with God and was not. He disappeared from the earth. One moment he was here, and the next moment he's gone. One moment he was here, and the next moment he is no longer here.
He is not. What happened? Where did he go? How do we explain this? The only explanation is for God took him.
That's the background historical information, and that's all we are given. But then we turn to Hebrews chapter 11, the portion that we are working our way through Sunday by Sunday, and we read a little bit more about Enoch. By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God. He is given to us as an example of faith. In this chapter of faith, with a whole list of heroes of faith, he is name number two.
He is man number two. He is one of God's heroes of faith. He is an example of faith, but he is also an exception by faith. He is an example of faith in the life that he lived, lived in the realm of faith, believing God, believing the revelation of God and acting accordingly. But he is an exception by faith, that is an exception to the normal course of human history, which is birth, life, and death. Birth, life, and death. But in the case of Enoch, birth, life, and he was taken.
No death. And that remarkable exception, we are told, is related to, linked to, his faith. He was taken by faith, we read in verse five.
By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death. Some of the translations use a different word for taken away. They use the word translated.
Some of you may have that in your Bible. Enoch was translated. That's one of those words that we don't normally use today in the way in which it is used here. Because we almost always, when we hear the word translated to translation, think in terms of turning something out of one language into another language. To translate the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into English as translation and so forth. But the word translation actually has a broader meaning and that's the way it's understood here. And in my Miriam intercollegiate dictionary, the very first definition is the one that is employed by some of the Bible translators. And there, to translate means to remove or change from one place, state, form, or appearance to another.
To remove or change from one place, one state, one form, one appearance to another. Enoch was truly translated in the first dictionary meaning of that term, translation. His state was changed, his form was changed, his place was changed, his appearance was changed, just like that. One day he's just going about his normal life and God took him. He was gone. He was in heaven.
He was translated. And therefore, he was spared the sentence of death, certainly the sentence of physical death, which applies to all of us. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
All of us have sinned. All of us shall die. Death has a broader connotation there than simply physical death, but it has no less meaning than physical death. We all die. We are born, we live, we die. We're born, we live, we die.
That's the way things are ever since the fall of Adam. But in the case of two men and two men only in the Bible, that death sentence is canceled. One of them is this man Enoch. The other one, far more familiar, is the man Elijah.
Remember him? He was taken up by a whirlwind into heaven. He, like Enoch, did not die. And Elijah's life covers many chapters in the Bible.
We know a great deal about him and what he did. But the indication is that Enoch's life was just as monumental, just as important, just as remarkable, just as God-pleasing as was that of Elijah. These two men and these two only were spared the sentence of death, and at God's time were taken up directly, bodily, into heaven. He was taken away so that he did not see death. We know from the scriptures that on some day, could be today, could be a thousand years from today, we're not told the time, but on some day when Jesus Christ returns, all of God's people who were alive at that time are going to experience the same thing. We are all going to be translated to heaven.
We're all going to be taken up bodily to heaven. We're all going to go immediately to heaven without going through death, exactly what happened to Enoch and what happened to Elijah. It might be helpful to take just a minute to consider what the Bible tells us about Elijah. Since 2 Kings 2, I'll read just two verses, verse 1 and verse 11, about Elijah. And it came to pass, when the Lord was about to take up Elijah from heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal, and it tells about the different places they went, here, there, and so forth. And then we read in verse 11, then it happened, as they continued on and talked, they're just going through a normal activity here, they're walking along together in conversation, it happened that as they continued and talked that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Just like that. One moment he's here, the next moment he's gone. The difference, however, is that in Elijah's case, we have an eyewitness of what happened, namely Elisha. He was there, he saw it. He saw the chariots of fire come down and came between Elijah and Elisha, but evidently he saw Elijah being taken up by a whirlwind into heaven.
We don't have any details of what Enoch was doing when he was taken up, whether anybody was with him when he was taken up, whether he went up in a whirlwind, and if there were chariots of fire, we don't have any of that information. But we do know that he was taken up. He was not found because God had taken him. He was not found.
Think about that for a moment. The implication is they looked for him and they couldn't find him. He was not found. And that too parallels what we know about Elijah. Then they said to him, the other young prophets, the ones that were being trained by Elijah and Elisha, the school of prophets, then they said to him, that is to Elisha, look now, there are 50 strong men with your servants. Please let them go and search for your master, lest perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley. Did they really think God would do that? Take him up and dump him on a mountain or in a valley and leave his dead body there?
But that's what they wanted to make sure that didn't happen. Because it's proper to honor people, even in their death, to honor their dead body and give it a proper burial. That's all part of the way that we recognize the image of God in people when they die. And so these, I want to call them preacher boys, wanted to go find him if they could. And Elisha said, you shall not send anyone, but they urged him till he was ashamed. He said, send them, therefore they sent 50 men and they searched for three days but did not find him. And when they came back to him, Elisha, for he had stayed in Jericho, he said to them, did I not say to you, do not go?
In other words, I told you so. They couldn't find him, but they looked, they searched, but he was gone. His body wasn't here because God took him bodily to heaven, not just the release of his spirit to be with the Lord. This happens to us when we die, but he was transposed bodily into heaven. And again, the implication, slight implication of scripture is that somebody went looking for Enoch the same way, and he was not found. He couldn't be found.
There was nothing left to find. God took him up to heaven, and that's the whole answer of the matter. Now, one necessary implication that is not told us here, but it has to be true, obviously, is that in the case of Enoch and Elijah, both of them had their bodies instantly glorified in the way from earth to heaven. That's the only way that a body, a human body, can go into heaven. Paul is very clear about that in 1 Corinthians 15.
Mortal shall not put on immortality. We cannot in these bodies of sin and decay enter into heaven, into the presence of God. There has to be a change, and that whole chapter in 1 Corinthians 15 is about the resurrection of the body, how that God is going to raise again the bodies of his people when Jesus Christ comes again and raise them as glorified bodies like Jesus had when he came out of the tomb. And in glorified bodies, we will go bodily to heaven, our bodies and our spirits being joined together because humanity in its wholeness is both physical and spiritual, is both spirit, soul, and body, and redemption's not complete until the body is redeemed.
And so the body has to be changed. It has to be glorified if it's going to go to heaven. But Enoch went to heaven. Elijah went to heaven. So clearly their bodies were glorified before they went to heaven. But it also tells us of Enoch, there are three things basically that are told to us in our text in verse 5. Number one, that he was taken away so that he did not see death. Number two, that he was not found because God had taken him. And number three, that he had this testimony that he pleased God. The Genesis account says he walked with God. The Hebrews account says he pleased God.
That helps us understand what both of these phrases mean when you put them together. What does it mean to walk with God? It means to please God by your life. What does it mean to please God? It means to walk with him day by day, by faith, following his word, believing his word and following his word.
That's what it means. He had this testimony that he pleased God. Who rendered this testimony that he was pleasing to God? God did.
God did. God's testimony that he was pleasing to God by faith, that he walked with God by faith. Faith is at the root of pleasing God, as verse 6 goes on to say.
Without faith, it is impossible to please him. But we read in verse 5 of Enoch that he pleased God. Therefore, the only way he pleased God was by faith, which we were already told.
By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he died, so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God. His faith is the root of his God-pleasing life, but his God-pleasing life consisted of what? Of activities that pleased God. He walked with God.
That speaks of daily living. His daily life, from the time he got up in the morning until the time he went to bed at night, was a life that pleased God. How did he do that? By faith.
What does that mean? He believed the revelation of God and acted accordingly. He took the word of God that had been given to him, he believed it, he embraced it, and then he ordered his life according to it. And he walked so close to God that God said, I'm just going to take him on.
Come on. And so in all of this, what do we learn, therefore, about Enoch's life? Well, let me make two statements about Enoch's life. Number one, it was a normal life. And number two, it was an exceptional life. It was a normal life in most respects. Enoch lived what was of 65 years and begat a son.
And then he lived 300 more years, and then he had more sons and daughters. In other words, he had a normal marriage, a normal family life, presumably a normal vocational life. We don't know what he did, but he's normal in every respect, but he's exceptional in this respect. In his walking with God, he is exceptional in the extent, the greatness of his faith in the sense that he pursued by faith his walking with God to an unusual degree. It was a normal life, but it was an exceptional life in the most important aspect of life, which is his relationship with God.
Now, what exactly did his life consist of? And now we pick up those two verses in the book of Jude, verses 14 and 15. Verse 14 begins, Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam. Evidently Jude, the New Testament inspired writer, believed that the historical account in Genesis was exactly right and historical. Count the names. He was the seventh from Adam.
Here's the report. He was the seventh from Adam. This is totally historical, but the writer of Jude, who is one of the half-brothers of Christ, what he tells us about Enoch is in the light of what goes before where he's describing counterfeit Christians of the worst sort. People who claim the Christian religion associate themselves in fellowship with Christian people, attend your feasts and so forth he talks about, but are sinful, wicked, live adulterous lives. They are scandalous in their behavior. They are anything but true Christians. They are hypocrites. And then Jude says, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about people just like this.
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. They think they're getting away with their counterfeit Christianity. They think they're getting away with their hypocrisy. They think they're fooling people by their external Christianity as they come to worship services and sing the same hymns as the people of God and go through the same ceremonies as the people of God, but in their lives they're wicked, wicked people. They are not living God-pleasing lives at all.
They may think they're getting by with it, but there's a day of judgment coming. When the Lord is going to return with ten thousands of his saints, that sounds like the second coming in the time of the rapture of the saints. And he says, Then God is going to call them into account and they are going to be severely punished for their wickedness. Who prophesied this? Enoch, clear back, before the flood. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was a prophet of God. He said these things, and these things are true. The New Testament tells us that they will come to pass, even as Enoch prophesied.
So he had a normal life in some respects, but an exceptional life in other respects. He was a prophet of God, and notice he wasn't a popular prophet of God. When you look at what he prophesied, you'd have to say, He was one of those hell-fired brimstone preachers. Ooh, don't give me that kind.
Give me teachers having itching ears that will tell me what I want to hear. Well, then you won't have one like Enoch, and you won't have a true prophet of God either. Because true prophets of God will tell the whole counsel of God, good and bad, encouraging and discouraging warnings about the judgment of God upon sin with please to repent of your sins, to turn from your sins, to avail yourself of the provision which God has made, to truly embrace Christ by faith and live a life pleasing to God by faith.
But if you won't, judgment is coming. That's the kindest thing that anyone can do is to tell you the truth instead of giving you pleasing platitudes that will make you feel good as you slide ever closer to the precipice of hell. So he was a prophet of God. He had a life of worship. He walked with God. He pleased God.
He, therefore, we would assume, married someone, we don't know who, a wife, by faith following the wisdom which God gave him about marriage. He fathered children by faith, receiving those children into his home and teaching them the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He prophesied by faith, proclaiming the message that God gave him, no more, no less. Any prophet, any preacher has one responsibility.
Tell the people what God said, no more, no less. And that's what Enoch did. He prayed by faith. He meditated upon the revelation of God by faith. He bore testimony to others by faith.
Now let me make a few applications and close it. Notice again, I pointed this out from time to time, but notice again the close relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. That's so obvious in the book of Hebrews, but it's clear all the way through the New Testament. You really can't properly and thoroughly study the New Testament without referring back again and again to the Old Testament, and here we see it again. If you're going to understand who Enoch is and why he is in the New Testament scriptures in Hebrews chapter 11, you've got to go back to Genesis chapter 5 and learn what is told to us about him there. That's the way it is, a close relationship between Old Testament and New Testament.
A second application. It is possible to live for God in a wicked world. What was the world like in the days of Enoch? Well, in three generations it was so wicked that God destroyed the whole thing by the flood. He was getting more and more and more and more ungodly and wicked.
The wickedness was great. The righteousness was small. There was a remnant following God.
Enoch was one of those people following God and living for him, and he was doing so in circumstances that are probably far more wicked and difficult than what we are dealing with today. It's not impossible to live for God in a wicked world. Don't blame the environment. Don't blame the world. Don't blame what's going on outside of you for your failure to walk by faith with God and to please him. If you will walk by faith, you can walk a God-pleasing walk in a wicked world. May God help us. A third application is that this shows us once again what is our God-created purpose.
What is that? To fellowship with him. That's what was destroyed by sin in the garden. That's what was restored by God in the sacrifice of blood that he made for Adam and Eve. To fellowship with him. He made us for himself.
We'll never be content until we find that rest in him, said Augustine, and he was exactly right. Of all the things you are doing in this world, and I'm sure you're doing a lot of things, and I trust that all of them are good, are appropriate, and are important, but I'll tell you what is more important than anything else is to cultivate a life of fellowship with God. That's more important than your job. That's more important than your recreation. That's more important than anything else that you can do. As legitimate as it may be, the most important thing in your world is to cultivate fellowship with the living God, the one who made you and sustains your life.
Enoch walked with God. And how do you cultivate a life of worship with God? Well, first, you have to determine to do it.
And secondly, you have to schedule certain things to do it. You're going to have to schedule times of prayer. You're going to have to schedule times of Bible reading. If you won't do that, you won't live very close to God.
I'm sorry. You've got to set aside the Lord's day and assemble with the people of God. If you won't do it, you're not going to cultivate a close life of fellowship with God. That's your reason for being here, to cultivate a closer and stronger, ever more close, ever more strong walk of fellowship with God. That's what pleases God. The fifth lesson here is to be reminded of the rewards of living by faith, walking by faith.
In the case of Enoch, what was the reward? He escaped death. That enemy that all of us have some level of apprehension toward. As Christians, we know that it's not going to be fatal, if I could use that word. It's not going to be the end of us. It's not going to be destruction, that God will be with us when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and he will take us safely to the other side. And what awaits us on the other side is so much better than anything we have on this side.
But don't we all, to some extent, whether small or great, don't we all have a little apprehension of that actual experience of death? Well, Enoch escaped that as a reward for his faith. God was testifying to all of us of how pleased he was with Enoch and his life of faith by taking him in this way.
What a demonstration of a life that pleased God. I've already mentioned that this account gives us a foretaste of the rapture of the saints that we read about in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. The day is coming when the Lord shall come from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, that in the dead in Christ shall rise first. And then we who are alive and remain because we haven't died, shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. That generation escapes death and it's not so fantastic to think about the reality of that when we know it happened twice before in earth's history, once with Enoch, once with Elijah, and someday it's going to happen with all the living saints when Jesus Christ returns, however many thousands or millions there may be.
But my final application here is to point out the different divinely appointed circumstances that we may have in life. Who was the first example of faith? Abel. What did his faith earn him?
Martyrdom, murder, death of the most hideous kind. And yet he was a man of faith and pleasing to God. And it was God's appointment for him to be killed by his brother in this gruesome way. Then he was willing to accept that as God's divine will. He wasn't around to say, point to the next generation, point to his down the road and say, but what about Enoch?
Why didn't you do that for him? Why did you let him live and depart in such a glorious way when you chose to have me go through martyrdom and a cruel death? The only answer to that is because that was God's design, that was God's will.
And what is our joyful response to that? Even so, not my will but thine be done. The way we walk with God by faith, the way we please God by faith is surrender to his will, which means to accept the circumstances of our life, accept whatever circumstances we are in as God's will. If it wasn't God's will, you wouldn't have that illness. If it wasn't God's will, you wouldn't have that broken relationship.
If it wasn't God's will, you wouldn't be wrestling with that difficulty. You believe that, don't you? You believe that God sovereignly controls all of these things and that God never gives us anything that's not both for his glory and our good, Romans 8.28. You believe that, don't you? So don't look around at others and say, Well God, why did you treat them that way and treat me this way?
There's only one answer to that. Because I, Almighty God, maker of heaven and earth, the omnipotent one, the omniscient one, the all gracious one, have chosen that path for you because I know it is best for you. And it is our joyful response and walk by faith to accept that and say, Help me, Lord. Lord, I believe help thou mine unbelief as I surrender to this in my life. Shall we pray? Father, teach us thy ways and show us thy paths and help us to walk a life of faith that is pleasing unto you as we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
