Did you know that God enjoys the fellowship of His saints? I love what it says in the Old Testament. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.
Isn't that terrific? You say, why is it so precious? Because God loves His saints. I mean, He didn't die, but He was precious to God.
He never died, God just took Him. And you know, He's a wonderful picture of the believers who will be alive on the earth when our Lord descends in the air to catch His bride with a shout. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Well, he is one of two people in the Old Testament who never experienced death. God simply took this man named Enoch to heaven. And though Enoch doesn't appear in many verses in the Bible, there is more to learn about him than you probably think. Today, John MacArthur will help you cultivate an unrelenting faith like that of Enoch.
Stay here now as John continues his look at the power of faith. Enoch pleased God, number one, because he believed that God was, and secondly, because he sought God's reward. There was a third reason that he pleased God, and this is kind of the main thing here. He pleased God not only by believing He is and by seeking God's reward, but by walking with God. After you once believed that God is, and then you actually believe that He can save, and that you need the reward He offers, and you come to Him on His terms, that's only the beginning. Then what he wants you to do is walk with Him.
Walk with Him. Twice it said in Genesis of Enoch, Enoch walked with God. Enoch walked with God.
I love that. And you see, that's used interchangeably with the phrase in the Septuagint, He pleased God. And that's what pleases God, you see, when we walk with Him. Now the term walk is used so many times in the New Testament that to try to do a study on the term walk would take a long, long time. But basically what it means is the manner of daily conduct, the manner of daily conduct. Every time you see it in the text, you know, the unbeliever walks. According to things of the world, the believer walks in the Spirit.
It means the manner of his daily conduct. And you know what Enoch did? He just continued in the presence of God. He just moved daily in the presence of God. Now there are many things implied in Enoch's walk.
Let me share with you some of them. First thing implied in his walk was reconciliation. Reconciliation. There's a very important question asked in Amos 3, 3.
Remember this one? How can two walk together except they be, what, agreed? Now that's an obvious thing, right? Two people cannot really walk together in intimate fellowship unless they are agreed. So two people walking together then presupposes harmony.
It presupposes agreement. Which in the case of Enoch means he and God had agreed together on something. So when we say that a man walks with God, it implies the rebellion is over. Every man born into this world is in open rebellion against God, isn't he? Jesus said, he that is not with me is against me. He that gathers not together scattereth abroad. And so men live in rebellion to God. But when you say that two are walking together, then the rebellion is over. That's implied in the very fact they're walking together.
The war is over. And Enoch walked with God. What does it mean? It meant God had absolute standards, Enoch met them. It doesn't mean that God gave in a little and Enoch gave in a little. It doesn't mean that God conformed to Enoch, it means Enoch conformed to God's standards.
So reconciliation needed to take place. In Ephesians it's defined, I think, in a simple sense in verse 17 of chapter 4. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as Gentiles walk, heathen. Now how did you used to walk? Well, in the vanity of their mind. The old walk was self-centered, wasn't it? Before you knew God. The second thing about it, having the understanding darkened, it was an ignorant walk. Self-centered and ignorant. The third thing, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart.
Not only ignorant, stone blind. Verse 19, past feeling, given over to lewd living, uncleanness, greediness. That's the old walk. Ah, but look at verse 20. But ye have not so learned Christ. Now that you're Christians, the walk is different. You're no longer cut off from the life of God. You're no longer living in sin and uncleanness. That's changed in your walking with God. Christ changed all that.
So you see, that's what He's saying. To begin with in a walk with God presupposes reconciliation. You can't even begin to walk with God until you've come to the foot of the cross, can you? Until your sins have been forgiven, the rebellion's over and you move on God's side.
There's a second thing implied in a walk with God and that is corresponding nature. You know anybody that pals around with a goldfish? I don't know anybody. I don't know anybody that's got a goldfish for a pal. You say, that's ridiculous, MacArthur. How could you have a goldfish for a pal and drag a bowl around?
How could you do that? Goldfish, you couldn't have any fellowship with a goldfish. You're right. But you see, you say, well, you're talking in senseless words. You could never have a fellowship with a goldfish.
You're exactly right. You want to know what is just as impossible? You having fellowship with God. God doesn't pal around with sinners either. They live in a different atmosphere. He doesn't frankly want to drag your bowl around either. You see, you are in a whole different world than God is.
The sinner has no corresponding nature. You can't take a goldfish for a walk. You can't sit down in the living room and have a conversation with your goldfish. You live in two different worlds.
There's no corresponding nature. Therefore, you can't walk together in either atmosphere. You can't get in the bowl and talk to him. He can't get in the living room and talk to you.
Two different spheres. The same thing is true of a man. A man cannot have fellowship with God on the basis of his own nature because there is no corresponding sphere in which the two of them can be agreed.
You understand what I'm saying? And so to walk with God means that there must be a common life. That something has happened to allow the man to step into a domain where he before couldn't exist. Now when you became a Christian, the Bible simply says this.
Your citizenship is no longer on earth. Where is it? And where do you walk according to the book of Ephesians? In the heavenly. Do you know that when you became saved, you automatically stepped into a different sphere?
And we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings. Where? In the heavenlies. And I walk with God and I am in a different sphere.
Why? Because I was a goldfish, but God made me into something like He is. Not a God, but one who has a new nature that is capable of communing with God.
You see? Walking with God then presupposes a change in nature. And that's what Paul meant when he said, if any man be in Christ, he is a what? New creation.
He had to be. Old things are passed away and a few things are become new, right? What? All things. You have to have a new nature to walk with God. And so there was a sense in which the walk with God means there's been a change in a common kind of life. Thirdly, to walk with God implies a moral fitness as well as a judicial dealing with sin. This idea of a corresponding nature has to do with God dealing with sin. Sin is what keeps us apart. He deals with sin and therefore we move into His presence.
But thirdly, there has to be a moral fitness involved in it. You see, God does not walk out of the way of holiness. You remember that in the Old Testament before God would ever walk through the camp of Israel, God would always say, get everything that's defiled out of the camp before I come in. God will not walk in any way but the way of holiness. Before Christ commences His walk in the millennium, all things that offend must be cast out. The holy God keeps no company with the unclean.
None at all. Listen to 1 John 1.6. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
Why? Because God doesn't walk with darkness. If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we're liars.
God walks with no darkness at all. But if we walk in the light as He's in the light, we have fellowship. You see, it's only when we're in the light that we have fellowship and by that He means being saved.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we're confessing our sins, He's cleansing us. You see, it's the saved who walk with God, it's the unsaved who don't. And the only ones that God ever walks with are those who are cleansed of their sin, who are confessing, who are being cleansed. God walks with them. And so the walk with God then presupposes a moral fitness, a holiness. Fourthly, to walk with God implies a surrendered will. Because, you see, God forces His company on nobody, doesn't He?
God only offers Himself. And a man comes to Him because he wills to come. Jesus simply said, come. At the end of the book of Revelation it says, come. Isaiah speaking for God said, come.
Jesus with sorrow in His heart said, you will not come unto me that you might have life. God forces Himself on nobody. And when a man comes to God, that assumes a surrendered will. To walk with God means you do as He designs. And may I say that the surrender of our will to Him is a surrender of love. It's not a depressing submissiveness, it's a surrender of love. You like this, 2 John 6, and this is love that we walk after His commandments. See, it's love.
It's not bondage. Then I think to walk with God implies spiritual fellowship. To walk with God means that you're not only moving in His sphere, sin is forgiven, clean, with a new nature so that you can breathe the air that He breathes and fellowship with Him, reconcile to Him, surrender to His will.
It also means spiritual fellowship. When it says He not walk with God, it means that they just had a steady kind of unbroken communion. You know how long He walked with God? Three hundred years.
It's terrific, isn't it? You say, well, I've walked with God for seven months. You say, very good, seven months. Three hundred years Enoch walked with God. Now, you want to read the account of a great life. There it is in four words, Enoch walked with God.
Three hundred years. We're lucky if we can make it through the week without straying away. Oh, I love that about Enoch.
The term walk means continuous. Three hundred years of steady, sweet communion. Man, no wonder he just took a walk one day and kept right on walking into heaven. God liked him so much.
His fellowship was so sweet for all those years. In the New Testament we have the term walking in the Spirit, which is the same thing, isn't it? The Spirit of God is God Himself. And the believer is to walk in the Spirit, which means we're to just move in the atmosphere of the Spirit's presence, see? Just continually being bathed in the consciousness of God's presence.
Continual fellowship with Him, expression of fellowship in prayer, sensing His presence. I love what it says in... Of course, every Christian possesses the Holy Spirit, but in Galatians 5, I love this, verse 25. Galatians 5, 25, if we live in the Spirit, and we do, right? Romans 8 says that, we live in the Spirit.
Read it, verse 9. If we live in the Spirit, let us also, what? Walk in the Spirit.
Let's order our steps. Walking in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit.
You say, well, why do you want to do that? Well, it's very important. Because if you walk in the Spirit, you'll not fulfill what? Alas the flesh. And if you walk in the Spirit, you will see this in your life, love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. So you need to walk in the Spirit.
What does that mean? That means it's just communion, communion, communion. I've always said, I've said it many times, walking in the Spirit is nothing more than just letting the Spirit of God pervade your thoughts. You get up in the morning, good morning Holy Spirit.
Spirit of Christ, Spirit of God, it's your day, you know. And life is a matter of decision. It's just one decision after the next. You get up in the morning, you decide whether you're going to wear your blue dress, your red dress, your brown tie. It's just one decision.
You go to the kitchen, decide whether you're going to have Froot Loops or Captain Crunch. You go from there, you know, one after another. And all, really all living in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit is just yielding those decisions to the Spirit of God as you go. You simply say, Holy Spirit, here's another decision. I want to just go the way you're walking. And at any point in your life, somebody ought to be able to stop you and say, hey, what are you doing here? You say, well, I've been walking along with the Holy Spirit and this is where we've arrived.
Practical, isn't it? Walking in the Spirit. 300 years that man walked with God.
Oh, that's terrific, isn't it? Can you imagine what kind of a man he must have been? I mean, I would have liked to just hang around Enoch. Just hang around and do a little of that rub off on me, walking with God.
And you know something? Going to heaven wasn't much of a step. I mean, he was so far into communion with God that that was a little tiny step into heaven. And so he walked with God. You know, walking in the Spirit is a wonderful thing.
In the New Testament, it describes it under many terms. 3 John 4 says it's a truth walk. Romans 13, 13 says it's an honest walk. Ephesians 5, 2 says it's a love walk. Ephesians 5, 8 says it's a light walk. Ephesians 5, 15 says it's a wise walk. Ephesians 2, 10 says it's a good works walk.
And I like what Paul calls it. He says, it's a worthy walk. It's the only one that makes sense.
It's the only one worthy of your life. Why would you want to walk in the way of Satan? Why would you want to walk in the way of the world?
Walk in the Spirit. Well, you say, I'd like to have somebody I could follow. Who could I look at that walks with God? Well, you could look at Enoch. Or maybe you could look at Noah. He walked with God.
I'll tell you somebody else who you could look at. Look at Jesus. He walked with God, didn't he? I love what it says in 1 John 2, 6. Remember this verse? He that saith he abides in him ought himself so to walk even as what? He walked.
Isn't that good? He that says he abides in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked. You want to know how to walk with God? Just look at Jesus. Always in communion with the Father. It says in John, it's the end of chapter 7, everybody went to his own home and it says in Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
See? That's where he went every night and he just communed all night with the Father. And you know, he just talked to the Father all day long. He got to the tomb of Lazarus and he said, well, Father, it's going to be wonderful what we're going to see here now.
Let's do it. And Lazarus rose from the dead. And he continually talked to the Father all through his life. He just lived constantly walking with God. And above all, all of these facets of the walk in the Spirit, it's a faith walk. 2 Corinthians 5, 7 puts it that simply. Listen to what it says, for we walk by faith, not what?
By sight. Do you like this verse? Colossians 2, 5 and 6, as you have received Christ Jesus, so walk ye in Him. Why don't you receive Him? By faith.
How do you walk? By faith. Enoch just believed God. He never saw God. He just believed that He was there.
Do you believe that? So, he pleased God. What pleases God? Believing God is. Seeking God's reward.
Walking with God. That's what pleases God. And there's another thing that old Enoch did that pleased God, and it's not in Genesis, and it's not in Hebrews. It's tucked away in a nice little spot in the 14th verse of Jude. You know what he did? He preached for God. Look at Jude 14. This is interesting. He was some kind of hellfire and damnation preacher.
I've heard a lot of guys, and I've been accused of being repetitious. But this is the most repetitious sermon I ever heard, and it's inspired. And don't you ever forget it. We learn line upon line, precept upon precept. Repetition is how we remember, but listen to what he says. Verse 14, here's Enoch preaching for God.
This is what marked him. Isn't it wonderful when the walk in the Spirit is not just an experience, but it also affects the way you affect others? It's one thing to say, well, I walk with the Lord. Well, does it affect anybody?
Well, no, we just do it in secret, private. Well, Enoch walked with God, plus he affected everybody. Now watch, verse 14, and Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these. Now the word these refers back to false teachers.
Jude is really letting the false teachers have it in this little book. And old Enoch recognized false teachers in his day and God gave him a sermon against them. Enoch prophesied saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints. Here's Enoch, the seventh man from Adam, predicting the coming of Christ.
Long way off. Now listen to this, to execute judgment upon all and to convert all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed. I told you it was repetitious. And of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Now that's some kind of preaching. He says God's going to come in judgment and He's going to convict all the ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.
Boy, that's some heavy stuff. Now why does Jude bring this up? Well Jude is trying to show how God hates false teachers and to prove how much God hates them and how much He's always hated them, he pulls a prophecy right out of Enoch, the seventh man from Adam. God that far back hated false teachers. But you say, what was Enoch preaching about?
Enoch was batting against his own generation. He lived in a crummy generation. You say, well, some of you might say, well, it was easy for him to walk with God. Look when he lived. No, it was tough to walk with God when he lived.
The Canaanite civilization had already corrupted. Enoch was in the midst of a polluted situation and he was preaching. And I mean he let them have it, didn't he? He let them know they were ungodly and he let them know God was going to judge them. I think God was pleased with Enoch because his faith wasn't just something that he kind of felt in his heart.
It was something that he put on his lips. He pleased God because his faith was active. He was fearless. He confronted the ungodly and he did it by faith. You think Enoch really had seen the judgment of God on sinners? No. You think he could say, well, I was there?
No. He preached the judgment of God on sinners because God told him to preach it and he believed it would happen. He did it by faith. He was pleasing God. He pleased God by believing, by seeking, by walking, and by preaching, all by faith. Lastly, what happened as a result?
We'll close with this. By faith, he entered into God's presence. He pleased God so much that God just took him. Genesis 5.24, don't you love that? It says this, "'And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him and his body was never found.'" What happened to Enoch? The last thing he said was he was going for a walk with God. Three hundred years ago he told me that. Hebrews 11.5, what does it say?
It's rich. Listen. By faith Enoch was translated.
What does that mean? Literally he crossed over that he shouldn't see death. He never died and he was never found because God translated him.
Why? For before his translation he had this testimony, he pleased God. God just wanted him because he just loved him. He pleased God. Some commentators say, and I think it's probably true, that God took him because he didn't want him to ever get polluted by the corruptions of this world. He had been so faithful for so many years that God just thought, there's no sense in leaving a man like this in this world, and he just took him on up.
The other side of the thing is that he took him up because he loved him so much. Did you know that God enjoys the fellowship of his saints? I love what it says in the Old Testament, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Isn't that terrific? You say, why is it so precious? Because God loves his saints. Now Enoch didn't die, but he was precious to God. He never died. God just took him. And you know, he's a wonderful picture of the believers who will be alive on the earth when our Lord descends in the air to catch his bride with a shout.
Just as Enoch was translated to heaven without seeing death, so also will those of God's people alive at the rapture, according to 1 Thessalonians 4, be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So Enoch is an ancient picture of the rapture, and it shows that God has the prerogative over death. Well, Enoch died young, poor fellow, 365. Didn't really die. He passed from the scene very young. His son lived, oh, 600 years longer.
That's really strange, isn't it? You say it's a shame about Enoch dying at only 365. No matter why, just because he pleased God. You know who goes into the presence of God?
Only those who what? Please him. Only those who please him. You say, I'd like to go into God's presence.
Very easy. Do you believe that he is? Good. That pleases him. Do you believe that he rewards those who come to him on his terms?
Good. That pleases him. Have you committed your life to walk with him? That pleases him.
Have you opened your mouth to speak for him? That pleases him. And someday you'll enter his presence.
And that pleases him most of all. That's John MacArthur, chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, with a lesson on how you, like Enoch, can have an enduring faith that pleases God. Today's lesson on grace to you is part of John's study titled The Power of Faith. John, your message today about Enoch, who, as Scripture says, walked with God and he was not for God took him, the fact that he was transported directly to heaven makes it seem as though he was some supernatural character with faith that is somehow larger than ours would be. And yet faith is faith.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Our faith, in terms of its character, is really no different from the faith of a man like Enoch's, right? Well, and I think the end result proves that Enoch's faith got him into heaven. The process was a little bit different than it's going to be for most of the redeemed through the ages. But there will be a group of believers who will go to heaven in the same way that Enoch went to heaven, right?
Right. They'll be taken up into heaven just as he was. He's sort of a prototype of what the rapture of the church is going to be like. The same faith that granted heaven to Enoch is the faith that grants heaven to us as well. Faith is that powerful.
When you think about it, that's amazing. You're saved by faith. Faith is powerful enough to take you from death to life, to take you from ignorance to truth. Amazing, the power of faith. And that's exactly what our series is about, the power of faith.
That's the title. Evolution is by faith. And if that's true, and it is, then it's absolutely critical to recognize what genuine faith looks like and how it behaves.
A lot of talk about faith, a lot of talk about believing, but what does it really mean to believe, to have faith that saves eternally? The book of Hebrews, by the way, spells that out for us, as you will see in this series and in the new study guide. I want to let our listeners know that the study guide on the power of faith is now available. Great tools for studying with the group for personal study, devotional reading. And as we've been seeing in our series, Hebrews 11 takes you through a who's who of Old Testament believers, those who received salvation, because God granted them true faith and drew them to himself. There are people you would expect to see on the list, others you probably might not expect to see.
People like Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Joshua, Rahab, Samson, and many more. The study guide is the power of faith, 240 pages, affordably priced and available exclusively from Grace To You and a great tool for you in terms of your daily devotions or even a Bible study that you might be conducting with family or friends. Thanks, John. My friend, John's study guide takes you deep into each lesson from his current radio series, giving you detailed outlines, plus questions that will enrich your personal or group study. To order a copy of the Power of Faith study guide, contact us today. Call 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. The Power of Faith study guide costs $9 and shipping is free. This study guide could be great for you to work through with a new Christian.
Again the title to ask for, The Power of Faith. Order it when you call 800-55-GRACE or shop online at gty.org. That's our website, gty.org, and while you're there, remember you can listen to John's verse-by-verse teaching as it fits your schedule. You'll find 3,600 sermons, all available for free download. You can search by topic or specific verse or book of the Bible, and if you're not sure where to start, try what we call Grace Stream. It's always on, giving you John's teaching on every verse in the New Testament in sequential order.
We reset it about every two months. It's a great way to fill the white spaces of your day with biblical truth. Our website again, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for joining us today. Be back tomorrow as John continues his look at the obedient faith of Noah. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.
