Doug: Our message today, as John alluded to in his prayer, is Walking with God in a Wicked World. I think we'd all agree that, as we look at what's happening in the world around us today, it leaves us sometimes mesmerized, that's not the right word, befuddled, consternation, as we see just the corruption in the culture, things we never would've dreamed would happen a generation ago people are taking for granted now. And the question is, how can we remain Bible Christians, consistent Bible Christians when we're just surrounded with so much worldly compromise? Well, let me assure you, it can be done, and it has been done. But I'd like to begin with a little amazing fact about a man, we're going to talk a lot about walking today, a man who made the world's longest walk.
I don't know if you've ever heard of George Meegan. He was a former British sailor that decided after he mustered out of the sailing force that he wanted to do something significant while he was still young and strong and heard about the Pan-American Highway that is 18,600 miles long and it stretches all the way from, Nome Alaska down to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina. And he thought, I'm going to walk it. No one had ever walked it before. Some had walked part of it. There was one especially dangerous part of the trail, that called the Darién Gap that the highway didn't completely go through, and he said, "I'm going to walk the whole thing." And he was committed so he took off in 1977 and he walked for 2425 days.
He ended up walking, because he took a couple of excursions, 19,019 miles. During that 6.6 years of walking, he took approximately 41 million steps. He wore out 12 and a half pairs of Italian hiking boots. He traversed the historically impassable 66 mile Darién Gap where he was shot at and he survived a knife attack unscathed. He garnered eight world records and his book, The Longest Walk, is listed in Guinness Book of World Records. That's a long walk. But even though Wikipedia may not agree with me, it is not the longest walk in the world. The longest walk in the world is found in the Bible. So you may want to turn in your Bibles to the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 5, verse 18.
And we're going to start with, actually you'll see on your screen, we'll start before we really get to the hero of the story. In Genesis 5 verse 18, we'll be reading through verse 24. Jared lived 162 years and he begat Enoch and after he begat Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and he had sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died. Now, how many of you know who is the longest living man in the Bible? Methuselah. How many years? 969. Have you ever wondered who the second longest living man in the Bible was? Jared. It's interesting that Jared is the father of Enoch who is the father of Methuselah. And so you get Jared and Enoch and Methuselah. Actually the longest living person in the Bible is not Methuselah, it's Enoch because he's still alive. So you can see they came from a family of long livers, right there. Their livers were all about that long.
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Doug: Couldn't resist doing that, sorry. So go to the next verse here, and it says, "Enoch lived 65 years and he begat Methuselah and after he begat Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years." There you have the longest walk in the Bible. Have any of you gone on a 300-year walk? That's a long walk. He walked with God 300 years, and he had sons and daughters. Notice he did not just have Methuselah, he had other sons and daughters. So, all the days of Enoch were 365 years and Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. Now this totally throws a wrench in everything that has been said in the genealogies up to this time. God told Adam and Eve, if you eat the forbidden fruit, you will surely die.
And as it goes through the patriarchs, the first six patriarchs up to Enoch, it says, "And he died, and he died, and he died, and he died and he died," and it says, "And he was not." And you go, what? For God took him. He went to heaven. Now since Enoch is now where we all hope to be and there's an obvious connection made between his walking with God and his getting there, it's probably a good idea for us to look at Enoch. What do you think? Because I want to be where Enoch is now. Enoch is the first in many respects. He's the first man to go to heaven without dying. He's the first one you would say, translated. He is the first prophet in the Bible, and you'll see that as we go on. Now, there are about five references to Enoch in the Bible.
He's an amazing person, but there's really very few scriptures. Another reason Enoch's unusual is because there are more references to Enoch in the New Testament even though he's an Old Testament character. It says, oh there's about 50 words about Enoch in the Old Testament, but there's almost a little more than 90 words in the New Testament about Enoch. But the Bible tells us that he's quite a significant individual and very unique and we're going to study, there's a lot in those verses that we can learn. So just to make sure we've covered all the verses, a couple places where Enoch is mentioned, it's simply a genealogy and it says, "And he beget Jared who beget Enoch, who begat Methuselah," that's all it says. But we're going to look at the other two. So, if you go to the book of Hebrews chapter 11, verse 5.
By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and he was not found because God had taken him for before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him for he that comes to God must believe that He is and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So clearly, since it doesn't go on to Noah and talk about the next patriarch in the hall of faith, there in Hebrews. It says, "Enoch," and then it talks about, "He pleased God, he had faith, he sought God." That's all the statements made there in Hebrews in reference to Enoch. And of course, God took him and it says, "He saved by faith but he diligently sought, God."
So, there's an important lesson and we have another verse. It's in the book of Jude and if we go to Jude 14, it's only one chapter in Jude. So it's verses 14 and 15. Now Enoch the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also saying, "Behold the Lord comes with 10 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 all of the harsh things which ungodly sinners has spoken against him." You'll notice, what does it say about the time in which Enoch is prophesying, ungodly, ungodly, ungodly, ungodly four times. So if you think you're the only one living in a wicked world, Enoch lived during a difficult time. So we're going to find out a little bit more here. And I've got seven points, if you're keeping track, about the walk of Enoch that we can learn from so we can be where he is. How can we walk with God in such a way that God takes us, that we please God? Amen.
All right, first of all, why did he walk with God? There's a reason it says, "Enoch lived 65 years and had Methuselah, and then after he had Methuselah, Enoch walked with God." You know, there's a reason that it says, something happened. How many of you noticed something happened between you and your Lord after you had your first child? I know, a lot of mothers have told me, oh you know I used to be a daredevil and I took all kinds of risks and I'd go do crazy things and I was a thrill junkie and then I had my first child and I said, boy, if something happens to me, what will happen to them? And they changed. And, others I know they say, "You know, I started, I was living kind of out in the world, I was wild and then I had this child and I thought, now what I do with my life is my business, but my example is going to affect the eternity of this child. I love them so much, I want them to live forever." And all of a sudden, they have a spiritual rebirth.
Or you see how much you love your sons and your daughters, and you think, God so loved the world, He gave His son for me? He loves us that much? You never really knew how much love it was until you had a child. And for those that are part of that very unhappy club that have lost a child, you learn something about the love of God in a whole new way that I hope nobody has to experience. When you lose a child and you think God willingly gave His child. And I think after Enoch had Methuselah, and he saw this trusting child and he realized that he was an example, it did something about his love for God. And I think the reason he was walking with God was because of love, love for God, love for the child. And I'll give you some verses on that. It says, "He lived 65 years and he begat Methuselah." The word Methuselah, by the way, the name means when I die it will come. And it's interesting that both Methuselah and Lamech died immediately before the flood. Said, "When I die it will come."
Is there a connection between a love and a walk? What does Moses say? Deuteronomy 30 verse 16, In that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments, His statutes, His judgments that you might live. First you love, then you walk. And I think most of us know that all through the Bible, walking is a metaphor for your life, your direction. You know, it talks about an ongoing movement that you are on a conveyor belt, you can't get off. Life moves, it's dynamic. You are not the same now as you were 10 minutes ago and you're constantly in motion. Life is a movement. But you get to make choices about who you walk with and how you walk. And that will determine your destination and your destiny. You need to walk with God because you love God.
You can read here in 2nd John verse 6, this is the love that, this is love that we walk according to His commandments. Notice, when it says walk in according to His commandments means in our daily life, this is the love. And this is the commandment that you've heard from the beginning that you should walk in it. So he has a loving, holy, obedient walk. That's point number one. Point number two, when did he walk with God? And this is significant for our discussion today. You see in Genesis chapter 4 verse 26, now, stay with me. And as for Seth, to him also was born a son and his name was Enos and men began to call on the Lord and then men began to call on the Lord. You'll see that, not long after Cain killed Abel, God gave Adam and Eve another son and he became the patriarch through whom the holy line went.
The Bible says that, "Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. He turned his back on God. His children got involved in polygamy. Violence began to fill the land." But the children of Seth, it says, "Men began to call on the Lord." So as Seth and Adam and Eve continue having children, the Godly seed, they are called the sons of God. Now this is so important to understand. One of the questions we get all the time on the Bible answer program, it says, in Genesis chapter 6, "Then the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, took them wives of all whom they chose." And I've heard the craziest theories. I've heard people say, "Yeah, those are fallen angels that got married to humans and had these freakish giant children." That's not what it's talking about. The sons of God were the descendants of Seth that were calling on the name of the Lord.
The Bible says, and we will see there will be scripture for this, it tells us in 1st John chapter 3 verse 1, "Behold what manner of love the fathers bestowed on us that we should be called sons of God." And Isaiah talks about us as the sons and daughters of God. And Jesus was called the Son of God and Adam is called the son of God. And so the idea, yes there's a place where angels are called sons of God in the book of Job. But Jesus is pretty clear the angels are not plumbed like humans. They don't get married, they don't have babies. Angels are all individually created. They do not procreate. And so the, and then others say, "Well they're aliens," these sons of God that somehow had intimate relations with humans. That's crazy, you're going to hear it.
I'm shocked how much people have bought that. Because all the old commentators believed what I'm telling you, that the sons of God were the descendants of Seth and as long as they maintained a separation... What did God tell the children of Israel? "Do not intermarry with the unbelievers or they will take your hearts after them." But then it says, "The sons of God saw the daughters of men, the children of Cain." They were called the daughters of men because they were mortal. The sons of God are immortal, they have eternal life. And when I say immortal, it means they've got the promise of life if they follow. And when they saw the daughters of men, they made the same mistake Sampson made when he went after the Philistine girls. The same mistake that Solomon made, the strongest man and the wisest man, Solomon loved many women and he went down. They drew away his heart after them.
And the Bible is so clear that we should not be unequally yoked. And this is what is happening here. What is the result of that? It says, Violence filled the earth after that. And it came to pass," and this is Genesis 6 verse 1, "When men began to multiply on the face of the earth, that the daughters were born to them. That the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit will not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his days will be 120 years." Now, notice this is chapter 6. You find Enoch in chapter 5. So what was the result? The thoughts of men's hearts were only evil continually. And someone's going to say, well Pastor Doug, but it says, when the sons of God saw the daughters of men and they got married, they had children that were giants that were mighty men. That's called genetic vitality. It's just a normal trait in genes that, you know, if you inbreed too much with one species, it gets weaknesses and mutations. But if you breed outside, you have what they call genetic vitality. That's all that was happening there. And it's not aliens and they're not fallen angels. You'll find those in Los Angeles.
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Doug: So, what kind of time is he living in? It says, "The Lord saw," go to verse 5, "The Lord saw that wickedness of man was great in the earth. That every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry." That breaks my heart to even read it. God was sorry that He had made man on the earth and He was grieved. How does God feel about wickedness? It breaks His heart. Sinners are not happy for one thing. Doesn't it hurt you when your children are living self-destructive lives? It grieved Him at His heart. Now, I want to put up a little chart on the screen. It's got a timeline. Hopefully, you can see this. Put it up on the big screen for those in the house. Thank you.
Here you've got 20 generations, between Adam and Abraham. In the middle of that, you're going to see generation number seven, is Enoch. It says, "Enoch lives a total of 365 years." Isn't that interesting? How many days in a year? 365. And so he lives one year for each day. And God, God could have taken him to heaven a year earlier, a year later because he did not die of old age. You might be thinking, oh, he died, he went to heaven an old man. When you're living 900, what do you look like at 365? You're in your prime. So it's not like he was about to, you know, step in the grave. He was in his prime like Jesus. By the way, what does it say about Enoch? In Hebrews, we just read, it says, "For he had this testimony that he pleased God." What happened when Jesus was baptized? What did God the Father say? "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
Now, you might be thinking, well, Jesus pleased Him because He's the Son of God. But Enoch pleased Him too, which means you can please Him. And I can please Him. He's obviously not pleased when wickedness is great in the earth. But Enoch somehow maintained a closeness to God during that wickedness. Now look at, look at what's happening here. Enoch gets to talk to Adam for over 300 years. Enoch can go to the gates of the Garden of Eden and still see the angels with the flaming sword guarding the way to Eden. It's still there. Matter of fact, that's where the sons of God would still bring their sacrifices in faith they someday would be able to eat from the tree of life again. Enoch can talk to Adam and find out what it was like even before sin, when he talked to God face-to-face. And he made up his mind that he was going to put God first and seek first God's kingdom and be a witness for God. So, I just thought you should get sort of a backdrop there of the times in which they lived.
All right, so when did he walk with God? He walked with God during a time of great wickedness and yet he walked with God and he was faithful. The children of Cain, you can read where Jude says, when he is talking about Enoch, he says, "Woe to them they have gone in the way of Cain," when the sons of God went after the daughters of Cain, they compromised their faith. That's what he's talking about.
All right, point number three, how did he walk with God? Now this is the part I want you to think about because there's good lessons here for us. Three things, so under 0.3, I've got three subcategories. Well, I guess I've got four. Walking by faith, walking by the spirit, walking away from evil and walking in truth, the Bible uses all of those phrases. Hebrews 11:5, by faith, Enoch was taken away that he did not see death and he was not found because God had taken him for before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God. As we can have that testimony. Why? By faith.
So the Christian walk is a walk of what? You see, when you're walking with God, it's not a walk in a trance, you know, see people sleepwalking, he's walking with God. You know, it's like you're in your own world. He's walking with God in the world as a real person. He's married, he's having sons and daughters. He's got a family, he's got an occupation, but he's living a holy life. And when you're walking with somebody, you try to keep pace with them. Now, usually the minor follows the senior in walking. God, when you're walking with God, who sets the pace? Hey, God, stick with me. No, you don't do that. You stay with Him, right? So when you're walking with someone, it means you're watching them and you're setting the pace.
I remember years ago I was with Mark Finley at a camp meeting. Mark likes to, he likes to walk for exercise. And he says, "Oh, Doug, I'm going walking. You want to go with me? I said, yeah. And then he looked at my short legs and he said, "Now I walk fast." I said, you won't have a problem. I said, we'll keep up with you. Because if you're going to walk with someone, if you're not going the same speed, what happens? Someone's got to speed up or slow down so you can be together. So walking with God means keeping pace with Him and He knows how fast you can walk. Because how many of you have gone walking with your kids when their legs are only about, you know, nine inches long, when they're little and they got to take 20 steps for every one of yours. And you get a hold of their finger, and you slow down a little bit or you pick them up [laughs] every now and then.
And so God is not going to leave you behind, but you want to make sure to keep up with Him. We walk by faith. Second Corinthians 5:7 says that, "For we walk by faith, not by sight. You may not know what's around the next corner, but you are with someone who does." If you're walking with God, do you have anything to fear? Really, think about it. If you've surrendered your life to God... I never forgot the words from that book called The Hiding Place where Betsie ten Boom, the sister of Corey ten Boom was, they're basically dying in this concentration camp. And Corey was so worried about their predicament and Betsie said, "The safest place in the world is the middle of God's will. If we are in God's will, it doesn't matter what is happening around us. And we have nothing to fear." And if you're with God, you and God are a majority. You have nothing to be afraid of. Amen. He that abides under the shadow of the Almighty, you have nothing to fear. Thousand may fall at your side, 10,000 at your right hand, if God is with you, you have nothing to fear. So we're walking in a dangerous wicked world, but we don't need to be afraid.
Romans 14:12, "Who also walk in the steps of faith, which our Father Abraham had." Notice they're all talking about walking in faith. What else did I say? Walking by the Spirit. How did Elijah get the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Walking with Elijah? He said, "I want a double portion of your spirit." He said, "Well, if you see me taken up, then it'll happen." As they walked along together, suddenly Eli-, Elijah caught up to join Enoch and Elijah receives a double portion of the Holy Spirit. The only way we can do it is to walk in the spirit. Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, we walk according to the spirit."
Galatians 5:16, "I say, then walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." Friends it's not complicated. You can either follow Cain or follow Seth. Cain it was carnal, it was the lusts of the flesh. Why did the sons of God get in trouble? Because the daughters of men were beautiful. It wasn't because they were spiritual, they were being controlled by other things. Bible says, "Walk after the spirit. Do not walk after the flesh."
And you look, number, point number three, walk away from evil. It's not just what you walk with, but you want to walk away from things. I was during COVID, I was hiking back, I went back to the cave where I used to live, and I took Nathan who had never been there. So, Nathan and I with another buddy, we hiked up there and hiked back down at night and all of a sudden we heard [inaudible] and I said rattlesnake. And my friend with me said, "No, it's a cricket.
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Doug: And he shone his light and there was a rattlesnake on the trail. So what did we do? We changed course. You need to know how to walk away from some things. Now, let me give you scripture. You read here in Psalm 1, the first Psalm, blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. In His law, he meditates day and night. I truncated that a little bit. But he's not walking in the way of the ungodly. Proverbs 4:14, "Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it. Do not travel on it. Turn away from it and pass on." How do you stay holy in this wicked world? You got to know how to avoid certain places and even certain people. That doesn't mean you know live like a hermit on top of a pillar because we need to reach people.
But at the same time, there's, you need good judgment about what you look at and what you read, what you listen to so that we can be holy as we walk through this wicked world. Proverbs 1:15, "My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your foot from their path for their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed blood." And then finally, "Walk in truth." Now, that's 3 John verse 4, "I have no greater joy than to hear my children walk in truth." And the Bible says, "Thy word is truth." That means we're following the map and we're walking according to the word. Amen.
So, number four, what was the influence of Enoch's walk? What was the result of that? Now first of all, the word Enoch actually means teacher, someone who is dedicated or consecrated experienced. He was a missionary. Now I'm looking back in the book of Jude, in Jude 1 verse 14. Now Enoch the seventh from Adam. You mean he was the seventh and he went up, is that right? He was seventh, he was seventh from Adam. He went up. Do you know right now we're living at the end of 6000 years. We've just entered like the 7000 year of biblical history. The seventh from Adam doesn't die. He's translated. Maybe I'm making too much out of that. But I think it's interesting. God picked an interesting number.
But Enoch, the seventh from Adam, he prophesied. What does that tell us about Enoch? Is he a prophet? Prophets prophesy. He prophesied about these men. What men is he talking about? Go to the book of Jude. Now he, Jude starts out and you got to go back and say, what was he, what's he talking about? In the book of Jude, again, that's just one chapter, if you look at verse four, the discourse of Jude begins by saying, "Certain men have crept in, unnoticed." crept into what? The church. Who long ago were marked out for this condemnation ungodly men who turned the grace of our God. So these are men who they're talking about the grace of God, but what do they do? They turn it into rudeness and deny the only Lord, God, and Jesus Christ, they make the gospel carnal. Do we have preachers doing that today? The gospel's all about feel good and it's what's in it for me and have your best life now. And how can I be blessed? And it's all about me, me, me. And they're corrupting the gospel.
And this is the very thing it says, "Enoch prophesied about these men." What men? The one that he mentions in verse 4 saying, "Behold the Lord comes with 10,000 of his saints." Enoch was an Adventist.
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Doug: Enoch is prophesying about the Lord coming. If he did it back then and it was okay and God said that he was blessed, then is it okay for us do it, to do it now? Should we be ashamed that we are talking about the second coming? Enoch did it. Not only is he talking about the second coming, he's talking about a coming judgment. And that judgment came when his son Methuselah died in the flood. God destroyed the world back then with a flood. He's going to flood it next time, Peter says, with fire. So like Enoch, we're living in similar times, a time of coming judgment. What is part of the three angels message? Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is come. Enoch lived in a time where he said, "We are living in a time of impending judgment because of the wickedness. God has spelled out a particular time of mercy." He said, "My spirit will not strive with man forever. I'll give him 120 years."
I don't know how long it'll be until the Lord comes. No man knows the day or the hour, but we are living in the time of God's mercy. It's a time of judgment where probation's going to run out one of these days. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men saying, "Behold the Lord comes with 10,000 of his saints." Now, someone's going to ask, and so I should probably just tell you right now, isn't Jude quoting from the book of Enoch? He is. In fact, I'll read you exactly what it says in the book of Enoch. There is an ancient document that predates Christ. They found parts of it in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It really existed, probably was put together during the time of the Babylonian Captivity. It appears the first time during the time of Maccabees. And it was a kind of an assembly of Jewish sayings and words to encourage. And the way it reads in the book of Enoch, it says, "Behold He comes with 10 thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment on all and to destroy all the ungodly and to convict all flesh of the works of their ungodliness, which ungodly have committed. And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."
Sounds very similar to what Moses says in Deuteronomy chapter 33, verse 2, "The Lord comes with 10,000 of His saints." He's talking about the-the judgment on Mount Sinai. And, so people are thinking, well, should the book of Enoch be in the Bible? No. But Jude is quoting from a segment that was quoting from Moses that is inspired. So thought someone was going to ask me, they'd say, "Pastor Doug, should we be studying the book of Enoch?" No. There are some times in the Bible, certain Bible writers have quoted from non-canonical sources, but those quotes they chose were inspired segments. If that makes sense, say amen. Okay, what was the influence of Enoch's walk? Malachi chapter 2, verse 6, "The law of truth was in his mouth and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity and turned many away from iniquity. He was a preacher, he was a prophet. He was warning people, he was a witness. Enoch probably lived in the hills and he'd spend time with God and prayer and then he'd go to the valleys and he would be a witness. He wasn't living the life of a hermit.
First John 2:6, "He who abides in him so him ought himself also to walk as he walked." How did Jesus walk? It's saying that we should walk as Jesus walked. How did Jesus walk? Acts 10 verse 38, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy spirit and with power who went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him." Enoch had a life of good activity walking with God. It wasn't a trance where he was disassociating from the world around him. He maintained holiness while he still networked with people to be a witness. Matthew chapter 4:19, and verse 20, "Jesus said, follow Me and I will make you what?" As they walked with Jesus, He taught them how to fish for people. Enoch was trying to win souls because he knew judgment was coming. After all he names his son, “when he dies it will come”. I mean he must have believed in a coming judgment.
Point number five, we're getting there. With whom did Enoch walk? This is a short point but I just had to put it in because it's the most profound thing of all. It says, "Enoch walked with God." I mean can you think of anybody more awesome than God? What a privilege that you are being invited to walk with God. You remember our scripture reading? It said, "Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God. God is saying, "Will you walk with Me?" You see, Adam and Eve ran from God in the garden when He came to walk with them because they'd sinned. Enoch, he ends up becoming what God wanted Adam to be. He says, "I'm coming to God. I want to walk with God." God said, "Okay, you'll be the first one that doesn't die. You're going to go with Me to the kingdom."
Revelation chapter 3, verse 4, "You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments, they shall walk with me in white for they're worthy." What a privilege, what a promise that God would say we can walk with Him in white. First Thessalonians 2 verse 12, "That you would walk worthy of God who has called you to His own kingdom of glory." We're on our way to heaven to walk with God. Ephesians 5, 1 and 2, "Therefore be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love." In Ephesians 5:8, Ephesians, there's a lot about walking with God. Ephesians 5:8 "For you are once in darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of lights. Where did he walk with God?
Hebrews 11 verse 5, "By faith, Enoch was taken so that he did not see death and he was not found because God had taken him for before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased God." Before he was taken he had a testimony. When do we need to please God? Before. Some people think, well, when the Lord comes then He'll change me. Well, yeah, you'll get a glorified body, but you need to develop a holy character now. Blessed are the pure in heart they will see God. Now, how did he, how do we know that he went to God? I mean it says, "He was not." If you're in Alaska and you're a pilot and you disappear, you know what they say? "He went missing." Because it's such a big wilderness so many pilots they fly off and something happens and they never find them. If you're a sailor in the Pacific and you don't come home on schedule, you know what they say? "He went missing."
And even when Elijah was called up to heaven, even though Elisha was a firsthand witness, they said, "No, he just went missing. We're going to go looking for him." I think there were witnesses otherwise they would say it's a big world out there, especially back then there weren't that many people. And all of a sudden, Enoch disappeared. They'd say, well. you know, he went missing. Doesn't say he went missing. God took him to Himself. And there must have been witnesses as the apostles saw Jesus ascend to heaven, as Elisha saw Elijah go to heaven. I think that it may have been his family, may have been his son or someone, they saw him ascend up to God. And no one doubted it because he walked so close with God. I heard a little girl explain this one time, I heard a story of a little girl that explained it to a friend about Enoch. She says, Yeah, every day God would say we're going to go for a walk. And God would meet him at his front door and they'd walk together. And then after 300 years of walking with God, one day God said, you know, we're closer to My house than your house. Let's just go to My house.
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Doug: That's good enough for me. Where is he? He's in heaven. He's where we want to be. Finally, how do we walk with God? Let's bring it home. What, how many of you want to walk with God? You want to be where Enoch is? What can we do learning from the lessons, constant communion with God. Prayer. The Bible says, "Pray without ceasing." Enoch never said amen at the end of his prayer because he never stopped. Now, I'm saying that sort of tongue in cheek. What I mean by that is, he was practicing the presence of God. Sometimes I think we get done with our prayers, we say amen, we say, okay God, I'll check back with You again tomorrow or next meal. But, he just never wanted to leave God's presence. Pray without ceasing. Luke 18:1, "He spoke a parable to them that men ought always to pray." Luke 21:36, "Jesus said, watch therefore and pray always." It's talking about living in an attitude of prayer. Why? Jesus said, "Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. That's how you keep walking with God. It means being aware of God's presence. And, you know, if you're walking with God, if you're abiding in Christ, the Bible says, "Whoever abides in Him sinneth not, 1st John 3:6. That's how you live a holy life, pray.
Second point, the Bible. Most of these you know. "Spend time in the Word. Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly," I'm rereading this, “Nor stands in the path of sinners or sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the Law of the Lord." What is the Bible called? In the Old Testament they called it the Law of the Lord. His delight is in the Word of God. Psalm 1:19, 105, "Thy word is a lamp to my feet." Why do you need it? It's a light to my path, because a path is where you walk. It illuminates the path. Read the Bible. Amen.
And then, and by the way, Jesus said, John 5:39, Search the scriptures. These are they that testify of me. And then finally, see, share your faith, the three secret ingredients in the Christian vitality, you neglect these things, you are going to be drifting the wrong way. If you want to grow closer to the Lord, increase these things. Spend more time in prayer. Spend more time in the Word, not just reading it but meditating on it. Surround yourself with it. You know what Moses said about the Word, he said, "To your children, when you lay down, when you rise up, when you walk by the way on the doors of your house, surround yourself with the Word." We are surrounded with so much nonsense in this wicked world right now. We're being bombarded by digital information. You must compensate by filling your mind with the Word of God. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. God can give you extra grace to be holy in this wicked world. Amen.
Share your faith. Point number three. You know your faith gets stronger as you share it. You become more resolved as you share it. I already talked about how Enoch was a missionary and you may not all be evangelists, you may not all be able to teach or preach or give a Bible study. You could probably give out literature. Someone once said that, "If you want to grow in your faith, start out saying, all right, I'm going to spend 15 minutes in prayer. I'm going to spend 15 minutes in the word and I'm going to spend 15 minutes each day saying something to someone else about God or what God means to me." If you think that's too big an order, start with five, work your way up to 10. But some of us, we have no regular devotional life. If you're going to live a Christian life in this world, you've got to spend time with the Lord. You can't count on what you get once a week in church, amen. It's got to be what's happening in between, during the week.
And then I'll close with this, walking with God in a wicked world is a miracle. It is impossible without the Holy spirit. Jesus sent the disciples across the sea. He didn't say they would never have any storms and they encountered severe weather. And out there in the middle of the sea, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the storm, Jesus came walking to them on the water. Now, to walk on the water is not normal. Would you agree? I mean, out in the middle of an ocean. He had no jet ski or water skis or any contraption. And Peter sees Him first, they're scared. Peter sees and said, "Lord, if it's You, bid me come walking to You on the water." Now, we always think about Peter began to sink, but you’ve got to give Peter credit. He was willing to at least try.
And he got out of the boat and Peter walked on the water. Peter did the impossible until he took his eyes off Jesus. And then he began to sink and he called out and said, "Lord, save me." And as soon as he called out for help, the Lord took his hand, picked him back up, and they walked back to the boat together. Living a holy life in a wicked world is a miracle. Some people say it's impossible. It is without Jesus. But through Christ all things are possible. God would never ask you to do something that you cannot do. He would never ask you to do something that you will have to do alone. He will help you do what he asks you to do. He wants you to live a holy, obedient life. Take it one day at a time. That’s the nice thing about a walk, God is not asking us to leap with Him or to jump with Him, He's saying, "Walk," one step at a time, it's just moment by moment. Most of you have been good through the whole church service.
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Doug: Just, some of you have been ignoring me. You've been on your phones, texting people. But most of you have been tuned in. It's just one moment at a time. If you can make it through church, most of you are good all night long. If you can make it one minute, you can make it an hour. Moment by moment we walk with the Lord. How many times in the Bible do we see God performing miracles to help people walk? Luke 5:23, Jesus says, concerning this man, "He's paralyzed. He's got to be carried by others." And He said, "What's easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say, arise, take up your bed and walk. And He said, "That you might know I could forgive sin," He had the man rise up and walk. Jesus said to the man who was crippled there by the pool of Bethesda, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." Peter and John went to the crippled man by the beautiful gate, they said, "Silver and gold, we do not have, but what we have, we give you in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk." And they walked into the temple together. And Jesus can work a miracle in your life and help you to walk like Enoch with God into the temple.