Hebrews 11:5-6

Well, good morning everyone! Happy first Sunday of summer to you all! Thanks for being here.

If you have a copy of God’s Word, would you please join me in Hebrews chapter 11 as we continue our series on God’s Hall of Faith, and today we’re looking at the faith of Enoch, the man who walked with God. What a distinctive description!

I have to confess to you, I’m super excited to preach today! Some of you are thinking, “Curt, you always seem excited to preach.”  True! — but that’s especially the case, today because this message lends itself to a prophetic theme and the return of Jesus Christ to planet Earth! Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. It’s drawing ever closer. The Apostle Paul exhorted the Roman Christians in Romans 13:11. He says about this time, he says, ‘We must know the time that now it is time to awaken out of our sleep, for our salvation is now nearer, our deliverance through Jesus Christ is nearer than when we first believed.’

[Romans 13:11, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.“]

And this is the life message of Enoch. He illustrates events in my estimation that are shortly to take place.

I want to preach with sensitivity and compassion, but I’m also asking the Holy Spirit to make me bold in declaring the Word of the living God, the prophetic Scriptures, to awaken a sleeping culture and arouse a drowsy church!

So if you would, please buckle your seatbelts as we take a drive through history that connects us with today. Let’s begin by looking at our text, Hebrews 11, verses 5 and 6. Here’s the sacred record.

Hebrews 11:5-6, “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because” (Where did he go?) God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.” (Well, how did he please God? Verse 6 is a commentary on how to please God.) “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”

So what do we need to learn from this remarkable text of Scripture about this remarkable man with this remarkable experience where he suddenly disappeared from the pages of history? Three lessons for you today, and here’s the first. The history of Enoch is revelatory [i.e. revealing key information,] and by that I mean it reveals to us even events that I believe, as I mentioned a moment ago, are about to happen perhaps even in the near future.

Now, it’s impossible to preach about Enoch without going back in time, climbing in a time capsule and going back, back, back 5,000 years ago to the early stages of mankind as recorded in the book of Genesis. And so I want to read for you a chronology, a genealogy of this man of the hour, Enoch, picking it up in v. 1 of Genesis 5, starting with our first father, our first parent, Adam.

Genesis 5:1, “This is the book of the generations of Adam.”

(Then we skip a few generations through Seth to get to our man… Verse 18.)

Genesis 5:18-27,

18 “When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch.” (There’s our guy.)

19 “Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died.

21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.

22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years.” (And note this) “he had other sons and daughters.” (I’ll come back to that.)

23 “Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years.” (And here’s our text from Hebrews 11) 24 “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech.

26 Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and he had other sons and daughters.

27 Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years and he died.”

(And we drop down to verse 32 to his grandson, the famous Noah.)

32 “After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham and Japheth.”

Okay, here we go. A history lesson with application for everyone in this room today. Number one, this is the first of two insights from history. Every person is important to God because He created them in his image. But the scriptures are clear. His own people, His own children are especially dear to him. He has an affinity for His own. God has your name, believer, written into His book of remembrance. He knows all about you, all the details. Here’s the record from Malachi 3.

Malachi 3:16-17,

16 “… a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the Lord…” (That’s you and me if we’re in Christ.) “and esteemed his name.

17 “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “in the day when I make up My treasured possession.””

What an endearing phrase to describe all of you who are God’s children! You’re His treasured possession! What is my point? The Lord keeps track of you in detail. He knows what you’re thinking at this very moment. He knows what you thought before you got here and what you’ll think this afternoon. He’s orchestrating the events of your life. He’s monitoring what you’re doing, what you’re saying and how you’re acting.

In Enoch’s chronological record, it was noted that he walked with God and then he suddenly went to live with God. Just like that, he was gone! — and he went home to his heavenly abode! The same thing is going to happen to you and to me, whether by Rapture or by death. Chances are the majority of people in this room right now will be gone within 50 years. Within 100 years, not a single soul will likely remain seated here today. We have a day appointed.

[Hebrews 9:27] “… it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment…”

But God is monitoring your life even now before you exit the scene. We must prepare for death by trusting in Christ. But some of you need to hear the message that God loves you. He’s detailing what you’re going through. He’s compassionately caring for you. In fact, Isaiah 49:16 says ‘God has engraved your name on the palms of His hands.’

[Isaiah 49:16, “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands;“]

A second insight from this first lesson. God’s record of the world is not speculative. But it’s a pre-Genesis flood era documentary about 3,000 years ago, 5,000 years previous to this time now. These were not prehistoric cavemen, but sophisticated, rational people like you and me living in a specific time and place with a developing technology. We must beware of a chronological snobbery today, a recency bias that thinks that our generation, our time period, is most important because we live in it. No, no… God is no respecter of person. There’s been billions of people on planet Earth. He knows everyone. He created everyone. And we’re not any more special than others. So we need to learn from history.

We learn from history about looking at the meanings of the names in this chronology. Jared, (that’s Enoch’s daddy) his name means “descent,” perhaps referencing the world’s descent into wickedness. Then there’s

Enoch, our man of the hour, the declarative prophet. His name means “dedication,” perhaps dedicated to preach the Truth. And then there’s his son,

Methuselah, Enoch’s son. It means “When he dies, it will come.” Or “When he dies, judgment.” Don’t let this be lost on you. The year that Methuselah died, the Genesis flood occurred, even as predicted in his name. And that tells me something about our God because Methuselah is the longest guy who ever lived, 969 years old. And according to 2 Peter 3,

[2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”]

God is long-suffering. He’s patient, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He’s waiting for you to turn your heart to Jesus by turning from your sin and trusting in the Gospel!

Now this word about the flood. The worldwide flood likely wiped out billions of creatures, living things, animals, as well as, you’re going to hear me right, billions of people. The earth was heavily populated at the time.

When Karen and I dug the foundation for our home in a housing subdivision in northern Kentucky when I pastored there just outside of Cincinnati across the Ohio River, when we dug it out, we were on a hillside. We discovered marine fossils on a hillside in the hills of Kentucky. How’d they get there? Hey, take a trip to the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest… 29,000 feet high in the Himalayas. You will find at the very top marine fossils! How did they get there? — Answer: the Genesis flood. The Genesis record is meant to reveal to us what has happened and what is coming. It is revelatory.

A second lesson this morning. The translation or catching up of Enoch is representative. Again, I share two insights. First of all, I believe God has given us a picture of our coming deliverance.

My view of eschatology is revealed in the graphic on the screen.  [Below]

I believe in a pre-tribulational Rapture, a premillennial return of Christ to earth. That means we believe he’ll come back to earth to set up a kingdom for 1,000 years rule and reign. I want to say, however, I am charitable to those who differ from me on eschatological ideologies. I want to be kind, but I also want to explain why I stand where I do. Those who hold to no tribulation and no 1,000-year kingdom do not, I repeat, do not interpret the Old Testament promises from God to Israel literally. Nor do they interpret the book of Revelation literally. —But sound exegesis of Scripture always demands a literal interpretation lest we insert our own idea s into the text of Scripture which is warned against in Revelation 22. We cannot arbitrarily spiritualize the Old Testament promises of God to Israel nor the book of Revelation. Now, I admit the book of Revelation has a lot of symbolism, but literalism allows for symbolism. But I also see obvious literalism implied with specificity being made of people, places, events, and numbers. Why would God go to the trouble of all that specificity if we’re not to interpret it literally?

Now, regarding the Rapture. I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for a long time, and one of my favorite passages in the Bible, especially in the context of conducting a funeral for a believer or a graveside service, is 1 Thessalonians 4, talking about the return of Jesus. Oh, what hope, what a comfort it gives! And this is what it says;

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17,

15 “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep, (those who have died)

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be CAUGHT UP” (that’s the word for Rapture) “together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

Oh, hallelujah! This grave doesn’t end it! They’ll live again in resurrected bodies at the return of Jesus Christ! That’s the hope we have in our Savior. And while the word “Rapture” does not occur in our Bible, the Greek word used in this text, “harpazo,” means the same thing. It means “to catch up” or “to carry away,” and I believe this is pictured in the person of Enoch. He’s the only person in the Bible, in Scripture, to not to have died other than one other man. Who’s that man? Elijah! Elijah. They were taken, both of them, directly to heaven without having died. Now stay with me here. Perhaps the two of them will be the two witnesses of Revelation chapter 11. You’ve got to read that chapter! — Not right now. You’ve got to read that chapter. It will shock you with the vividness of the persecution against Christians that we already see in our culture right now! This persecution will reach a zenith in the time of the tribulation.

Let me give you an overview of Revelation chapter 11. These two guys, they breathe fire out. They have mighty power from God, and they witness for Jesus Christ in the streets of Jerusalem. And there’s a character who is running the world at that particular time. He is described in Scripture as the Antichrist. In the text it says, he’s the beast that rises from the bottomless pit. We’re not talking science fiction here. We’re not talking Godzilla, King Kong, or Jurassic Park dinosaurs. Okay? We’re talking about Satan incarnate, the Satan-man who’s going to rule a world government. Revelation is full of it. These three guys who are witnessing so powerfully are killed by the forces of Antichrist and they lie in the streets for three and a half days. Now, in Jewish law, the same day you die you’re supposed to be buried, but these guys are exposed to the elements. Why? — because the world is rejoicing. They’re so happy that these fervent believers, followers of Jeshua, are dead they actually exchanged gifts! No doubt, according to the text of Scripture, people from all over the world see. It’ll be relayed by satellite for all eyes to see, and then suddenly, after three and a half days, these guys are going to be resurrected from the dead and ascend up to heaven! At that very moment, there’s an earthquake that shakes Jerusalem, that destroys the 10th part of the city, and 7,000 people die! And the people are astounded and give glory to God for what He’s done before their very eyes. Wow!

This leads me to a second related insight. God has given us a warning for the coming judgment. I do not want to steal from Pastor Pat’s thunder. He’s back up here next Sunday preaching on Noah and the flood. And he’ll do a great job, and you’ll want to be here to hear that. But I do want to simply say that evil and rebellion in our contemporary world have now reached a fever pitch, much like they did in Noah’s time. Just watch the news. Observe the hatred for biblical Christianity and biblical morality. Observe the filth in our media. Observe the anarchy in our streets and universities. Observe the outright lawlessness that flows from our governmental elites in Washington… And keep your eyes on Israel. Why does this thin slice of Promised Land get so much media attention? — Because still coming into the future, there’s going to be a coalition between Russia and Middle Eastern Islamic nations, even as now it’s starting to develop, in intensifying their attacks on Israel which I believe eventually leads to the Battle of Armageddon spoken of in the Book of Revelation. And for those who look at Ezekiel 38 and 39 and say, ‘Ah, that’s only something from the past,’ I would bring to your attention the specific phraseology of 38:8 when it says, “… in the latter years.” This is yet future.

Enoch was a prophet, and he warned of the coming judgment for his own generation. I believe God gave him direct revelation of what to name his son, and he named him Methuselah on purpose. “When he dies, it will come,” — the judgment. And as I mentioned a few moments ago, sure enough, the same year that Methuselah died, after living 969 years on earth, the worldwide flood came and destroyed everything!

Well, you may say, ‘Curt, how do you know that Enoch was a prophet who preached judgment?’ The half-brother of our Lord, Jude by name, in his one chapter epistle says this about Enoch from way back before pointing to the future. This is what he said.

Jude 14-16,

14 “It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh” (that is, the seventh generation) “from Adam prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His holy ones.” (That will include you and me if we’re in Christ)

15 “to” (as it says in the text) “execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.

16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.”

There is plenty of documentation for those of you who care to study. Just go to answersingenesis.org and study it out for yourself; sedimentary layers, the fossil records, even the marine creatures, as I mentioned. The early earth was destroyed completely by a flood. And this is what Peter says was going to happen in the future in a similar kind of way with a different manner of destruction. Read this text and fear the Lord.

2 Peter 3:6-7,

6 “…by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”

I’m a Gospel preacher, and as you can tell, I’m preaching the Word of God, and I’m going to beg you today to flee the wrath to come! I’m going to beg you to look to the One who drank the cup of the Father’s wrath and bearing our sin in His own body on the tree and rose again the third day, and if you’ll turn from your sin and embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ and believe on Him, you will be saved! That’s what it says;

Romans 10:13, [“For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”]

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved from the wrath of God for your sin. Jesus died to take your sin if you’ll only apply it to yourself!

One final lesson from our text. Thirdly, the testimony of Enoch is redemptive. The phrase used of Enoch, he “walked with God,” is a reference to his saving faith and to the life that proved he believed in the God he could not see. Pastor Jason did a wonderful job, an amazing job, last week, hammering home this point that saving faith is always followed by obedience as evidenced in the book of Hebrews 11. Every one of those people listed, their faith was documented by their following obedience. They believed God and obeyed, but they believed in the God they could not see. This won’t shock you. I’ve never seen God. Newsflash! — neither have you, but the Bible makes an exclusive statement in Hebrews 11:6.

Hebrews 11:6, “…without faith it is impossible to please Him, (God) for whoever would draw near to God must believe (two things) that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”

So what does it mean to believe that God exists? In its most basic definition, (here it is) it is to believe that there is a personal Creator whose name is Yahweh, expressed in three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Yahweh made us. He’s the eternal One, the self-existent One who made you and me. We believe that He is there… has always been there. We believe that He is the Sustainer and Sovereign Controller. If anything exists, God must exist! Why? — because something does not come from nothing. There must be an un-caused first cause. Science and reason demand as much. (Now stay with me!) Those who deny God do not do so on rational scientific grounds. They do so on moral grounds. They do not want to be held accountable for their immoral choices. This is the world view that dominates Earth’s population currently, just as it did back in Noah’s day.

Back to chapter 11, verse 6 of Hebrews. How does God reward us if we believe? — by letting us see with our own eyes in the next life what we believe to be true in this life without having seen it. You will see Him. Everything I’m telling you is going to happen according to the Word of God relative to the return of Jesus Christ and the coming judgment.

Two insights from this lesson, and the first one, I confess to you, is very painful. It’s hard for me to even say this, but it’s in the Bible. Walking with God is often unaccompanied by family. Some of you earlier, when I went through the analogies of how old these dudes were, you were probably thinking in your brain, ‘Yeah, right. This is a fable. This has got to be mythology.’ No, it’s not. They really lived that long! Well, you say, ‘How could they live that long?’ I believe before the collapse of the vapor canopy surrounding the Earth that collapsed in the raining of the 40 days and the 40 nights, the Earth was protected from the ultraviolet rays which shortened life, so they really did live that long. They really did! And during that time, they multiplied greatly! There were billions of people on the Earth because of how long they lived, and they kept propagating in an amazing way. So when you connect the dots, you arrive at this conclusion. Many of Enoch’s family, his brothers, his sisters, his children, perished in the flood. Perhaps many of Noah’s family, his brothers and his sisters, and perhaps earlier children he had. Remember, he didn’t have Shem, Ham and Japheth until he was 500 years old. He must have had other children, maybe many children, but they did not believe, and they perished! The only people on board the ark were Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives and two of all animals on the face of the Earth. All others were destroyed. They apparently did not believe even as Lot’s children laughed at him when he warned his own kids of coming judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah for committing the same sin that our culture celebrates in the month of June. They were destroyed. That is Bible Christianity. Oh, the grief! I’ve talked to many of you, and my heart bleeds for you! The grief we parents and grandparents suffer when our family chooses not to walk with God by faith.

Karen and I, my wife and I, went to a conference a few years ago with a godly pastor being one of the speakers. His name was Jeff Pollard, brokenhearted as he preached. As he described it,

“I have an Esau for a son, an unbelieving son.” And this is what he said. “In your sorrow and grief, you’re not alone. Reject lies. Christ loves you even while your Esau despises you.” He continues, “In your sorrow and grief, do not dishonor God. It’s possible to grieve sinfully. More than Esau’s rejection of you is his rejection of God. And you will agree with God in the day of judgment.” Jeff Pollard

That is so hard to say when it’s your own child or grandchild… but it’s Bible Christianity.

A final insight; Saving faith is always persevering faith. It’s going to get more and more difficult to follow Jesus as Christ’s return comes closer. We need faith to hang in there when things go wrong, when they go south, when they go bad. We’ve got to trust God. I love the words of Elisabeth Elliot, who lost two husbands in death, and she talks about faith, and she defines it this way.

“Faith, like love, is not a feeling. Faith is a willed, obedient action. Jesus said again and again, ‘Don’t be afraid.’ ‘Fear not.’ ‘Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me.’ Accept, take up the cross and follow Me.”  Elisabeth Elliot

Over five decades of ministry now, I’ve begun to see a trend of apostasy happening among those I love, those with whom I have served, those who are parts of my church, walking away from what the Bible teaches, and it grieves my heart more than I can say! You’re right there with me. I know you are. I’ll add only one more thing. I’ve got to keep looking up. I know that you’re going through a difficult time, but just remember this is not the end of the story!

Some of you are familiar with the news reports about my hometown of Rock Valley, Iowa. I’m devastated by what’s happened in the town where I grew up, where I went to high school, where Dad and Mom went to heaven from, where my sister and brother-in-law live… a devastating flood! In the last 36 hours, a torrential downpour of rain, a breaking of a levee, overnight inundating that city, having them go door to door at night, including my sister and brother-in-law, saying, ‘You’ve got to get out! Grab your valuables and leave as quickly as you can! Flee the wrath to come!’ They did. Most of the city was evacuated. Most of the city ran for their lives, and it’s interesting to me that many of them have found safety in churches. I do want to say this, that the floodwaters grew so quickly in the night, that’s early Saturday morning, that some couldn’t get out in time and they went to higher levels of their home, and finally some went to their rooftops. And thank God for Kim Reynolds, our Governor, who dispatched helicopters to try to save those who couldn’t be saved any other way. Deliverance came from above! Do you see the picture?

Our world is being inundated with a flood of iniquity and rebellion against the One True God. But one of these days, our blessed Savior is going to break through the clouds and He’s going to deliver us in His return and call us to Himself! This is called the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, and every man who has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure. Oh, my friends, our faith will soon become sight! — And when He comes, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus!

Would you pray with me?

Lord, You know my heart is broken. I’m at a stage of life where I realize that departure for the life to come is probably not far away, but I thank You for the confidence we have because of Christ. Thank You that we’re secure in Him as we trust in His Gospel of His death, burial, and resurrection. Lord, my heart aches for people who are being overwhelmed by the flood of iniquity in this world, and many of them capitulating, apostatizing, falling away. Oh, God, have mercy, help us all to realize, even every person who’s sitting here today listening, that there is coming a judgment, but there’s a deliverance in the One who promises the return from heaven. Lord, would You save those who don’t know Jesus? Right now, when they cry out, ‘Lord, forgive me and save me! I want to flee that raft to come, the rising flood. I want to be rescued by the heavenly helicopter in the person of Jesus Christ.’ Lord, I pray that Your people will find comfort in the truths of Scripture because Your Word is true. It is right. We agree with it, and we bow the knee before You and it. Lord, I pray as we sing this song, which anticipates the coming of Jesus, that it will give us great hope and great joy and great consolation, great comfort, great peace, that Jesus is coming again!

We thank You in His precious name. Amen.

Would you please stand together as we sing?