This is the Truth Network. In this series, we've established quite well the fact that Enoch walked closely with God. But there was another righteous man in the Book of Genesis who lived just the opposite. Who was he?
Well, stay with us, listen, and learn. You're listening to "Until He Comes," a blend of prophetic and practical biblical studies with Dr. Greg Hinnant, author of "The Second Coming of Christ," His Appearing, His Return, Our Preparation, and now author and teacher Greg Hinnant. Hey, welcome to the program, my friend. Today we're concluding our series on Enoc.
And we're going to talk about Enoch as a prophetic man, as a taken man, and then draw a contrast between Enoch's lifestyle and Jacob.
So, first of all, Enoch was a prophetic man because he obeyed God's voice. He heard it accurately, and he shared it faithfully and courageously. What do I mean?
Well, Jude records Enoch's prophecy about the second coming of Christ. In Jude fourteen and fifteen, we read, "See or behold, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of His holy ones, meaning angels, to judge all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done." That's the New International Version. Of Jude fourteen and fifteen.
So here we have a statement. This is quite odd. We have a statement taken from the book of Enoch. The book of Enoch is an apocryphal work, and for those of you who are not familiar with that term, it simply means of doubtful origin. And therefore, because of that fact, it was not included in the New Testament or Old Testament canon.
The book of Enoch was not written by Enoch. It was written by a number of Jewish writers anonymously over a good period of time.
So it cannot be trusted to be entirely inspired, or the genuine work attributed to the man Enoch, which we are discussing in this series.
So we want to establish that fact. Yet, yet the Holy Spirit has Jude record this. And says this is Enoch's prophecy.
Well, this is a a quote, a selection from a larger body, and it does not mean that the entire book of Enoch is inspired. It was just one statement. Undoubtedly, being an inspired writer and quite a holy man himself, Jude heard from God that this statement attributed. To Enoc was correct.
Now, there's another possibility here. We know the Jews, as did other ancient peoples, passed down knowledge from father to son, teacher to students, over centuries by oral tradition. They didn't take notes. They didn't have computers like we do today, and iPhones.
So they listened carefully. Perhaps that's what's wrong with us. We have so many excellent. Or recording devices, we may not listen as well as we should, but they listened carefully, and memorized every word of a particular talk or story, verbatim, and they passed this along to others with great precision.
So the oral tradition was surely available to Jude, and he may have selected this particular statement alone from that body of oral. Truth that was passed passed down from father to son for centuries.
So that's one possibility. Another is, as one scholar puts it, that he could have simply heard from God. He could have heard from God in a direct revelation and have no written source, no scroll that he would have gotten a statement from. Whatever the possibility, whatever the. Origin, we know that the Holy Spirit approved this statement, so we can trust that Enoch actually prophesied what Jude says he prophesied.
This is amazing, because Enoch's vision is strikingly similar to Zachariah's and to Paul's statements about the end times. Let me, specifically, the coming of Christ at Armageddon. Listen to what Zechariah fourteen verse five says. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal. Yea, ye shall flee like ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.
And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
So he's clearly predicting a divine visitation. The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints. With thee, so here, Zechariah says the saints will come with the Lord. In our text, Enoch prophesied and Jude quoted him, that the holy ones, meaning angels, will come. We'll say, my goodness, which was right, gentlemen, ladies, both are correct.
This is often the case with biblical prophecies; they're complementary, not contradictory. Those who wish to try to disprove the Bible just simply miss this because they have no respect for the inspiration of Scripture.
So we see here that Zechariah saw one aspect, a little vignette, a little brief glimpse of the return of Christ.
Well, and Enoch saw another. And putting the record together, we see that when Christ comes. Leading the armies of heaven on a majestic white charger, and the and the heavens open, and he shines in his glory, hovering within sight of the earth. Behind him will be armies of saints and angels.
So, anyway, he was a prophetic man.
Now, Enix prophecy is the earliest known vision. Of Jesus' second coming, he would have prophesied this in the fourth millennia B.C., six thousand years ago. This man saw an event which is, probably, I would say, almost surely within just a few years of the present moment. How many years?
Well, I will not be such a fool as to predict, but at the same time, I will assert. That all the biblical signs of the end, end time events, all of them, predicted by the Old Testament and New, are in place, except for the fulfillment of Matthew twenty five, the bridesmaids, that awakening, of verse six and seven, is yet to be fulfilled and will be at any moment.
So Jude was a prophetic man, and amazingly. Enoch was a prophetic man. Excuse me, and amazingly, he was the first to see and to speak of the coming of Christ before the first advent, thousands of years before that.
So here's another proof that God knows the end from the beginning. He revealed it to Enoch six millennia ago, and here we are on the day of fulfillment, the verge of it. You know, in Isaiah forty six ten, this is what the Lord says. He says, "I am the one who declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done." How perfectly that fits! Declaring the end to Enoch, and Jude notes this.
He did so from the beginning and from ancient times, six millennia ago. The things that are not yet done. My goodness! Oh, the God we serve is omniscient, and it is from this vast reservoir of omniscience of all knowledge that He prophesies events yet to come. Do you and do I respect prophecy as we should?
Biblical prophecies are not predictions of men based upon the power of human reason. They are declarations from an Almighty, all-knowing God of what He will do or permit in the future. Do make a distinction between human predictions and divine prophecies. They are totally different.
Now some would say, "Now, why did he quote from an apocryphal book? Doesn't that authorize that bit? No, it doesn't." Paul did the same thing when he quoted from a Stoic prophet, a Stoic philosopher, in Acts seventeen twenty-eight, and he said there, "For in him we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring." So he was simply noting that in their musings. The Stoic prophets, the Stoic philosophers, had come across a bit of truth which was true.
So he noted it and used it in that scenario to appeal to the people to whom he spoke. You know, Paul said he became all things to all men that he might by all means save some.
So here, when he was among the very learned, the Areopagites of Athens, he spoke their language. He used one of their own prophets to speak a truism with which he could agree, so he could make some common ground and then spread the gospel to them. And he did. And while many were not saved, some were.
So his efforts were not fruitless. But here we have two examples of. Non-inspired books, a statement from them being selected very carefully and included in the inspired scriptures, we should be able to distinguish that.
So we see here that Enoch then was a son of Issachar in spirit, a man who quote had understanding of the times, insight into the times. To know what Israel or God's people ought to do, First Chronicles twelve thirty two, was he among the actual sons of Issachar? No, he was not because he preceded them. He preceded them by thousands of years. Yet, he was, of their mould, of their spirit, of their kind.
He was a man who had understanding from God about the future and spoke to it.
Now. Are you? Am I becoming prophetic? What do we mean by that? You may have heard that the prophetic office is shut down, but my friends, the Bible doesn't say that.
I just want to make a simple statement about that. There's nowhere in the New Testament that says that the either the gift of prophecy or the office of a prophet, meaning a New Testament prophet, as described by Paul in Ephesians four eleven through thirteen, has been shut down. No, not at all. No, not at all. No New Testament statement.
That is the view of cessationism that began with John Calvin was passed down and is held today by many evangelical Christians, but not all. Many understand the position of continuationism that these gifts do continue.
So prophecy is a gift of God, is not predictions. A true prophet is a person who can hear from God. Why? Because they're listening to God, and I want to add this and give heavy emphasis. And they obey God.
My friend, if you feel like you have been called to hear from God in a prophetic manner, and Jesus does draw parallels between his disciples and the prophets, he did so in Matthew five. In the very Sermon on the Mount, in his opening statements, listen to what Jesus said here in Matthew five, as he opens the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. He was speaking to his disciples. We're told in verse one.
Blessed are they who mourn. He goes on. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Then he says, Blessed are you. My disciples, yes, he was speaking to his disciples.
Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. And why should we rejoice? Listen to what he says: Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets which were before you.
So Jesus. In his opening passage of the Sermon on the Mount, draws a distinct linkage between the ancient prophets, who were faithful to God and suffered for it in times of apostasy, and his disciples, who would be faithful to God in pagan cultures and often times during the Church Age when the Church fell into apostasy as it has countless times. This month, for a gift of any amount, receive Dr. Hinnan's book Revelation Notes, an inspirational commentary on the Book of Revelation. This 758-page in-depth commentary walks the reader through John's apocalypse verse by verse.
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Now again, Doctor Hinnant.
So Jesus saw a parallel between the ancient prophets and his disciples. In the same way, I think it's healthy for us to aspire to become a prophetic Christian. Whether you claim the gift or whether you claim the office—that's another issue. How will that be the case? Obeying God's voice.
It is obeying God's voice that opens our inner ear to hear the still small voice of God speaking to us. Very accurately, this is so needed by the church. We need to hear from God. You say, "Well, we've heard from God in the New Testament and the Old Testament." I agree. I have been an expositor for forty years, but I want to help you understand something: that God speaks primarily through the Scripture.
Yet at certain times he may say something to us. As we see constantly in the Book of Acts, he's speaking to people all the time. For instance, in Acts ten, he speaks to, to Cornelius to call Peter while he's praying. While Cornelius is praying, he says, "Call Peter," and then he speaks to Peter in the dream, and then after the dream, he tells him that men are at the door, and that he's to go with them.
So, God speaks to his people. But what's important is that we hear accurately, and that comes through humility and obedience to God. If you want to speak for God, listen when God speaks. If you don't listen when God speaks to you, I don't care what you say. No offense intended, but I won't be doing much listening because you're not listening to God.
And there are many false prophets out there today.
So don't be gullible. If a prophetic message is unbiblical, reject it, and pray for the person who spoke it that they'll repent. I want to add one more thing. If you want to be prophetic, you need to be willing to minister correction to people when they need it in love. Speak the truth in love, because the first duty of the prophet was not to predict the future, but to correct God's people and call them back to the Word of God.
Now, our next point. Is that Enoch was also a taken man? This is the, this is the acme. This is the culmination point. This is the highest peak of our previous eleven lessons.
Enoch was taken suddenly by God. The Bible says in Genesis twenty four five twenty two through twenty four, Enoch walked with God. And then in verse twenty four, Enoch walked with God, and he was not. For God took him. He was translated to heaven.
The first man to experience this later Elijah did.
So he was chosen out from his wicked generation for translation. He was selected. He was tapped out like we tap out people people at an honors ceremony. Oh, what a privilege! What an honor!
The Bible says then one day he disappeared because God took him.
So, unlike his disbelieving, disobedient peers, Enoch was not left behind to face the worldwide judgment, which at that time was the flood. Today, we're facing a worldwide judgment of seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments.
So, this was a great privilege. A great privilege that he was translated to heaven, taken from this earth directly to heaven without experiencing death. This is what translation is. What an amazing thing occurred to this man!
So, because he walked with God, he was taken. Because he believed God, as we're told in Hebrews 11, he was taken. Because he obeyed God, he was taken.
Now the rapture will be similar in that it will be a selection made by Christ alone of who is ready versus who is not ready, who is watching versus who is not watching, who is worthy, meaning prayerful and cross carrying, versus those who are not, who is seeking Him every day, of necessity, and those who are ignoring Him, and having nothing to do with Him. Oh my goodness, there will be a difference. In the body of Christ, when Jesus appears, all Christians will not go. Listen to that. Prepare yourself.
Tell others to walk in the humble fear of the Lord. That is in respect of God, and be busy about fulfilling His will in your life. Go through your daily tests in humble trust. And obedience. If you fail, go immediately to the Lord, as we are called to do in First John chapter one, verses five to ten, and confess your sins, and He will immediately forgive you, as He promises in verse nine.
But do not walk in sin and expect God to take you home. Do not live for this world alone, and never think of the things above, and expect Christ to take you when He comes. It's time. That we fear the Lord.
Now let's talk about a man who lived the opposite way. His name was Jacob. Jacob was also saved. He was a righteous man. His father was Isaac, and grandfather Abraham.
What a lineage! What an amazing spiritual family he was a part of. But his lifestyle was not spiritual. He was not close to God. He did not walk with God as Enoch or as Noah.
Or as Abraham, his grandfather, or as Isaac, his father, he did not walk in close communication with God. He did not walk in conformity to God's ways. He did not walk in constant devotion. He did not receive God's correction. He did not contemplate God or think of God during the day.
He was not under God's control. He controlled himself. Thank you. He was not upright. He was not forward-moving in his spiritual life.
He was content to be redeemed. That was enough for him. He was not enduring in his faith. No, not at all. This describes the man Jacob.
He is the exact counterpart of Enoch. Instead, Jacob walked his own way. I'll do it my way. Thank you. He walked far from God.
Later, however, he changed, became a spiritual man.
So Jacob's vow at Bethel, as a young man, reveals how intensely self-centered his life and his heart actually were. Listen to this from Genesis 28, verses 20 and 21: "If God will be with me and keep that is guard and protect me in this way that I go." I will give me the bread to eat and raiment, a clothing to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace. Then shall the Lord be my God. Oh, my goodness! And then he added, as an addendum, as he was stating his terms to God, he said he would give God the tenth.
Well, how good that was. You know this was almost comical, in its selfishness. If Yahweh met the requirements of Jacob's deity employment application, Jacob would hire God as his own God. Did God perhaps rejoice with the angels to say, "Hey guys," speaking to the four living creatures around and the elders, "Hey, let me get your attention, Jacob." Has decided to let me be his god, and they all clapped. Yes, wonderful, wonderful, hallelujah, Yahweh.
I doubt that happened. I don't know what God's immediate reaction was, but it wasn't joy. Not at all. Because essentially, Jacob was saying, "Look, you're my father's god, my grandfather's god, but I don't really want to have anything to do with you. But if you're going to be with me and help me in my way." And you'll provide food for me and clothing, give me success in the world, and I'll give you a tenth, and that's enough.
And so many Christians live that way today.
So many Christians live exactly like Jacob today. They want to have as little to do with Jesus as possible, friend. If that you repent, and if it's your friend or family member, repent and help them change as soon as possible, so they may be ready for Christ's coming.
Now, mercifully, God walked with Jacob during his twenty years of self-centered spiritual immaturity. He even blessed him, but not for his sake. He did it for Isaac and Abraham's sake, and of course, Jacob mistook it as being God's favor on his life. Many times, Christians today—you may be one, or you may know one. Take the blessing of God on their worldly life, their natural life, as a sign that God is pleased with their spiritual life.
Sometimes He's doing it only because of their parents who are praying for them to come to repentance and cease being Jacob's and start being Enos.
So Jacob was materially blessed, but spiritually he was barren, empty. And dry inside for twenty years. He did not please God. He did not know God. He did not walk with God, and God did not use him.
Then one day, as she committed, all came apart. Exodus thirty-four tells the story. His his daughter, Dinah, went into the city. One of the men of the city, saw her, raped her. And afterwards, decided he wanted to marry her, and came to Jacob with this proposal.
Jacob accepted it, and his sons appeared to accept it, but secretly they planned vengeance. And we will go into the details of the trick that they played. But they tricked the men of Shechem, came in suddenly, slaughtered them. It was a mass murder committed by the patriarchs. Oh my goodness!
This chapter of the Bible is shocking. And then. Jacob realized what had happened, and he knew that there would be those of their relatives who would come after them to destroy them. And he repented in Genesis 35, and he called his family to repent and put away their their household icons, and they did. They repented.
It's the first known revival in human history, in in Israel's history. Then God renamed Jacob Israel. Prince of God, a prince with God who prevails with God, and then he began to walk with God as Enoch had, and as his father Isaac had, and great grandfather Abraham. Friend, walking apart from God always incends some sort of disaster, some sort of sheikum event. And during this time, these years, ironically, Jacob referred to God as the God of my father.
You'll see that in Genesis thirty-one verse five, verse forty-two, and Genesis thirty-two nine. Oh my goodness! Don't live a Jacob life and walk far from God until you come to a catastrophe. Not at all. Instead, follow the Enoch pattern, his simple yet wise way of preparing for the first worldwide flood.
Is the way God is calling you and I today. To prepare for the second great flood of judgments, the coming tribulation period, he wants us to be tested and matured, and Christ-like, and walk with God like Enoch did.
Now in this age, and then be taken out before that time comes.
So, friends, I hope this series has been a blessing to you. I certainly love studying the life of Enoch. Take these things to heart, put them into practice in your heart and in your life. And tell others to do the same. God bless you.
If this message has blessed you, tell your friends, and please consider helping us stay on the air by sending your tax-deductible donation to Greg Hennett Ministries. Also, remember you may download the Until He Comes podcast from your preferred podcast app. May you walk closely with Christ and trust and obey Him in your daily tests of faith and patience until He comes. This is the Truth Network.
