The First Vanishing

Without faith it is impossible to please Him, verse 6 says of Hebrews 11. In other words, without trusting Him as to your purpose in life, as to your pace in life, you can't closely commune with Him, can you?

I mean, if we're arguing about God's pace, hey, come on, you're so far ahead I can't see you. If that's our argument, we're not really enjoying communion with Him, are we? By the way, He's referring to believers when He says without faith it's impossible to please Him. This is close communion with God, which happens to be the greatest treasure in our lives. My guess is that if I were to ask you if you want God to be pleased with your life, your answer would be yes. That's what all Christians want. We want to live the kind of lives that bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 11, we find a list of Old Testament saints who did just that. Like us, they weren't perfect people. They had weaknesses, struggles, and failures. But they appear in the pages of Scripture because God was pleased with the way they lived out their faith.

This is wisdom for the heart, and Stephen Davey is working through a series entitled Heroes. Today we're looking at the life and example of a man named Enoch in a lesson that Stephen's calling the first vanishing. We're not going to start with Hebrews, we're going to go to Jude, that little letter where we read in verse 14 that Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam.

Four or five things about his biography that I want to give you, this is the first one. The record of Scripture tells us that Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam, and you might wonder why in the world does that matter? I mean is that supposed to be some kind of, you know, impressive pedigree, you know, like he's a descendant of one of the families that came over on the Mayflower, or he's a distant relative of a former president or a king, so what that he's the seventh in the line from from Adam?

Well it matters because we're told this, we're given this clue. If you spend time studying the descendants of Adam, Enoch was from the godly line coming from Seth, the son of Adam, and he was the seventh patriarch descending from the line of Seth, and that particular clue kind of nudges the Bible student to notice that Enoch's counterpart then would have been the seventh generation coming from the line of Cain. You remember the first murderer who killed Abel, and there's a world of difference between number seven in the line between the seventh from Cain and the seventh from Seth. The seventh patriarch in the line of Cain was a man by the name of Lamech. In fact, Genesis chapter 4 gives us the descendants of Cain, and Genesis chapter 5 gives us the descendants from the line of Seth. And if you go back some time and study those two lines, don't be confused, in fact there are Enoch's and Lamech's on both sides, so you have to be observant as to whether or not you're looking at the line of Cain or the line of Seth. Lamech, the descendant of Cain, and I'll just sort of say this, he was the epitome of ungodliness. He was a wicked man.

There's a little poem embedded in the text that we can't take time to decipher, but basically Lamech has written the poem, and in the poem he is boasting of killing a young boy for offending him. And in that poem he brags that he is 70 times more wicked than his forefather Cain. Cain? Oh, I'm 70 times badder than Cain.

He's nothing compared to me. Add to this the fact that Lamech is the first man to begin the practice of polygamy. It'll be a blight on human history, violating the God-created ideal for marriage. All that to say, the seventh in the line from Cain is a self-centered, brutal, ungodly man who defied the authority of God. So when Jude tells us that Enoch is the seventh in the line of Adam, it lets us know that his life is running parallel to Lamech, and it also tells us that Enoch was not living in an easy day to live for God. You know, we might have the impression that, oh, he walked with God. Well, how easy could it be back then?

Oh, far from it. Now I want you to notice the second piece of Enoch's biography. It's found in Genesis 5 and verse 21 where we're told he was the father of Methuselah. We're told in verse 21 that he lived 65 years and became the father of Methuselah. Now there's more to this story than it first meets the eye, and don't go back if you're flipping back and forth in your Bible, but we'll put off just for a moment or two this observation, but I want to at least notice or make note of it here that Jude tells us that Enoch became a prophet. In other words, he received revelation from God. In fact, as we'll see in a few moments, he received very specific revelation about a coming judgment, and we also know by putting the clues together that his name was more than likely given to him from God, or Enoch in his belief named his son what he named him because of that revelation. He names his son Methuselah. He didn't name his son Methuselah to embarrass him at graduation when they read your whole name, you know, and you have to come up front. No, Methuselah means when he is dead it will come.

It's a reference to coming judgment. Enoch the prophet was given revelation from God and he would end up, by the way, preaching it to his ungodly world, when my son dies it will come. And if you study the descendants of Adam and take at face value the years were given by God and there's no reason why not to, Adam was created in the first year of creation. We know from Scripture it was on the sixth day.

He lived 930 years. In these days before the flood there's a water canopy in the atmosphere shielding the earth from harmful rays. Earth is watered daily by a heavy dew.

Rain has never fallen on the planet yet according to Scripture. If you look further on your list you'll notice the patriarch Jared was born 460 years after Adam and you can see Adam's still alive. These men would have known of each other.

They probably knew each other. They have a compounding interest of revelation that God is delivering and they would have learned from Adam of course the principles of atonement and the gospel promise. Then Enoch's born you notice and compared to the rest of the patriarchs he dies at the age of 365. He dies a very young man comparatively.

This was young. In fact at the age of 65 he has his first child with his wife, a son. Although we're not given the details God visits Enoch in some fashion and informs him of coming judgment and he also informs him that his son's life will be the measurement of God's final years of patience for when this boy dies God promises to judge the human race. So name your son Methuselah. When he dies judgment will come.

Is that what happened? Well if you look further on your chart you'll notice that Noah is the last patriarch listed according to Genesis 5 and the clues of this chronology place his birth in the year 1056. We're also told that he lived 950 years.

Now if you'll bear with me one moment we're given another piece of information. In fact according to Genesis chapter 9 verse 28 you might want to even flip over there if you're in the book of Genesis. In chapter 9 and verse 28 we're told that Noah lived 600 years before the flood and 350 years after the flood and that is a wonderfully helpful verse because it allows us to date the actual event of the flood to the very year it happened and that year was 1656 which just so happened to be the exact year Methuselah dies. Now it took 969 years for the prophecy to come true but it came true just as God said but can you imagine? I mean you're Enoch, you're in the delivery room and there's that squalling boy and God informs you that you're holding in your arms the length of his fuse and it just got lit and you don't know how long it will take before the explosion but as long as that boy lives judgment tarries. Keep in mind we have no record or hint of Enoch being told how long his son would live in fact the implication is he thought it wouldn't be very long as far as he knew his son might die in infancy I think I think Enoch would have been shocked to find out the Methuselah would not only outlive him but he'd live to be 969 years of age surely he wouldn't live long I mean already the human races is involved in demonic worship you study these times astral worship they're worshipping at the zodiac they're living in utter rebellion and depravity this is a human race now marked by murder and brutality men are boasting of killing children polygamy has now become a new standard with all of its abuses of women now in vogue I mean eating must have been thinking okay if that's true my son is not going to live for very long but he begins to preach this truth I think he's surprised but he will keep at it and he will preach for some 300 years 300 years the judgments coming and he doesn't know if his son will live two years 20 years 200 years or two minutes so then follows this biographical observation this comes into play now number three Enoch walked with God this is the event that changes everything I mean this is like you know sliding down the interstate on your backside right or maybe surviving a gunshot or or a cancer report or or bankruptcy or something the birth of Methuselah dramatically altered the life of Enoch forever the moment he held that little boy in his arms he was a different man in fact I think that God wants to make sure we don't miss the crossroads experience in Enoch's life because in Genesis chapter 5 and verse 21 he makes it very clear then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah then and only after then his entire outlook on life radically changed frankly I I've heard the testimony before of a man men who in that delivery room holding a child new Wow oh my wait a second I am responsible for the next generation I'm gonna be watched I'm gonna be modeled after I am going to need to walk with God like never before that's a good thing now I want to make a point here that I think is important because I believe this hero is for believers you need to understand that Enoch was from the godly line of Seth everything I've said back there I now wanted to to bear weight here Enoch already followed God we would call him a believer in our vernacular he wasn't an idolater in fact no one would have been surprised to hear hey guess what God chose Enoch to be a prophet well of course I mean that figures no one would have been surprised that he would be a prophetic voice in the land now let me stop here for a moment what does it take to walk with God well let me let me suggest it it's it takes the same thing for you and me to walk together for one thing we have to all agree we have to both agree on the destination we're gonna walk together right I mean if you want to walk around the block five times and and I want to walk the Bojangles for a biscuit and sweet team and we we got to go our separate ways and I feel sorry for you because what you're gonna miss we can't we can't walk together unless we are walking in the same direction so we have to say we have to have the same purpose the same goal in mind don't we secondly we can't walk together unless we keep the same speed or pace I can't ring your doorbell and say hey look how would you like to walk around the block with me and you say well sure and I say well look why don't you go get on your shoes and I'll go ahead and get started without you it wouldn't work would it if I walked around the block ten paces ahead of you or ten paces behind you we might be out on the street together at the same time but we're not in conversation we're not enjoying each other's fellowship we're just in the same neighborhood to walk with someone you have to have the same purpose in your spirit and the same pace in your step something happened to Enoch's purpose and pace we don't know all the details something happened Hebrews 11 gives us a little bit of a clue it tells us that he began to exercise living passionate faith in two distinct perspectives he becomes an illustration of what kind of faith pleases God first Enoch began to trust by faith that God exists without faith it is impossible to please him verse 6 as of Hebrews 11 in other words without trusting him as to your purpose in life as to your pace in life you can't closely commune with him can you I mean if we're arguing about God's pace hey come on you're behind or you're so far ahead I can't see it that's our argument we're not really enjoying communion with him are we now by the way he's he's referring to believers when he says without faith it's impossible to please him he's not talking about saving faith I believe he's talking here about sanctifying faith this is close communion with God which happens to be the greatest treasure in our lives how do you work up your walk of faith I mean what can you do in practical terms to strengthen your walk of faith well if I have enough time in my week to add to my research and study and if I have a little extra time I'll pull out a book by Thomas Manton he's a Puritan who pastored in the 1800s he has a commentary on Hebrews 11 well in one section he provoked my thinking and I really wanted to share it with you so let me quickly give you what he said to his congregation on how to work up your walk of faith he's very practical pastor five ways number one you work up your walk of faith by way of meditation he wrote there is nothing you prize that you do not allow your mind to run upon that's his way of saying daydream about so so daydream he said run upon the truth of heaven and its glory and and the presence of Christ secondly worked up your walk of faith by way of argumentation I love this point he doesn't mean go out and pick a fight he's actually talking about arguing with yourself argue with yourself when you have some doubt arise go into the word and commit your mind to the truth of his promises and argue with anything that rises up against the hope you have within you when's the last time you've had a good argument with yourself Stephen you should not be thinking that's doubt get rid of it okay that's what he's talking about third work up your walk of faith by way of supplication cry out with David he wrote Oh Lord guide me with thy counsel let thy truth and thy light lead me fourth work up your walk of faith by way of dedication he writes do not men strive to step higher in the world you know get a leg up do they not rise early and go to bed late only to maintain their frail lives that are crumbling the dust I mean are working their heads off for stuff he says shall we do nothing for God should we not be more industrious all of that language I mean if people are sweating it out for temporary things shouldn't we be industrious for eternal things so if we want to work up our walk of faith we do it by meditation and argumentation and supplication and dedication and finally number five we work it up by means of expectation we look for him like Paul wrote in Titus chapter 2 we are looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ that's how you work up your walk Jews little letter informs us that Enoch prophesied verse 14 tells us that the Lord is going to come with thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in ungodliness or an ungodly way and you get the idea that a sermon he's calling everybody ungodly how popular would that be he's prophesying that God is going to judge on godliness now we know from our fuller record of revelation all the way through the epistles and revelation that this event he's prophesying about is going to take place at the end of the tribulation when the church and Christ return to judge the world as Christ sets up his kingdom but what Enoch doesn't know is that God is actually going to apply this aspect of judgment to an earlier event that will take place as soon as his son Methuselah dies it's the worldwide judgment of the flood and we have every reason to believe Enoch doesn't know how far away that coming judgment is he just knows it's coming so just imagine for a moment by the time Methuselah turns 850 years old around that time Enoch's already dead God comes to Noah and says build an ark it will deal with that in our next lesson together so I don't want to spend too much time there but he says to Noah start building an art Methuselah becomes a a picture of God's patience isn't it interesting that the man whose death will bring judgment is the man God determines to live longer than any other human being has ever lived that's the patience of God Methuselah is 875 years old Noah lays the keel and the ribbing fits the sides the crowd gathers and mocks what's a rain though I don't know I've never seen it but it's coming Methuselah is nine hundred and forty years old Noah and his family are working on the inside the interior of the ark Methuselah is 965 966 967 Noah hangs the door on the hinges 968 Noah and his family packed the ark with food 969 dons and pairs of animals begin appearing the ark has finished the family's getting on board and they get the news that that grandpa Methuselah has just died now he never reserved a seat on the ark because he knew he didn't need to his death would signal the judgment of God every patriarch by that point in time from the line of Seth has now passed away except for Noah and the judgment of God promised nearly a thousand years earlier now comes and for the first time in human history the sound of thunder is heard and rain begins to fall more on that next time but let's back up and go back to Enoch years before this event let me give you the fifth piece of his biographical puzzle falls into place he's not only the seventh generation from Adam not only the father of Methuselah not only walk with God not only warned his world of coming judgment but finally Enoch was the first human being to vanish from sight Hebrews 11 and verse 5 we finally get to that verse tells us that Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death he was not found because God took him the Greek word for took him up has the same idea of being raptured literally being snatched away he just vanishes we're not told how God did it we're just told he did it and the text says he couldn't be found that means they tried they sent out search parties they probably assumed somebody from that line of Cain did him harm who saw him last where was he let's go search they try they looked I mean come on this this doesn't just happen what do you mean he just disappeared it doesn't just happen oh maybe today the same thing could happen only this time every person who's placed their faith in Jesus Christ will suddenly vanish disappear Enoch becomes not only a prophet of the coming judgment of God who comes from heaven to earth and judgment he becomes the first to experience God's ability to move someone from earth to heaven just like that he vanishes Warren Wiersbe writes that Enoch had been walking with God for so many years that his transfer to heaven wasn't really an interruption he had been walking with God and he could not see him but he believed he existed and he believed he was personally involved his legacy is that he walked with God but his legacy is also that he walked away with God and I close with this and G Campbell Morgan's biography that I'm reading through these days this expositor wrote in the early 1900s and I close with his quote he writes a little girl came home from Sunday school after hearing the story of Enoch and she said mother we heard about a wonderful man today in Sunday school and the mother let her child tell her what she had learned well his name was Enoch and you know mother he used to go for walks with God the mother responded that's wonderful but how does the story end she said well one day they walked on and on and on and got so far away that God said to Enoch you're you're such a long way from home you might as well come on to my house and live with me that great which happens by the way to be his plan for you and for me as well every one of us who belonged to him one day will end our walk of faith like Enoch by an invitation already printed by the Lord with the exact moment either by means of the rapture or death to just come on to his house and live with him forever for Enoch he simply vanished from this earth and God took him up to heaven but the invitation to enter heaven and live forever with God is open to everyone God invites all people to respond in faith to the gospel and join him in heaven upon death or upon the return of Christ I hope you've responded to that invitation if you'd like to know more about the gospel we have a little pamphlet entitled God's wisdom for your heart it explains the message of the gospel and how you can respond to it it might be that you're a Christian but you'd like to have this pamphlet to share with people in your life who are not we'd be happy to get you information on how you can get a copy or a supply of the brochure God's wisdom for your heart give us a call today at 866 48 Bible that's eight six six four eight two four two five three thanks for joining us be back tomorrow for more wisdom for the hearts