This morning I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 5, Genesis 5, chapter 4 is familiar in that we have the announcement of Cain and Abel and we know what happens there between the two brothers, Cain killed Abel, then we have a bit of Cain's genealogy in the middle of that chapter. At the end we read that the Lord gave to Adam and Eve another son named Seth. That chapter closes. At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord. In chapter 5 we have the account of Adam's line from Adam to Noah. Again we read about Seth being born. We read about Enosh and Kenan and Mahalalel. And then Jared, verse 18. I'd like to pick it up in verse 18. Our consideration this morning, our text is verse 24, but let's begin reading at verse 18 to the end of the chapter. When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Jared lived 962 years and then he died. When When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God. Then he was no more because God took him away. When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. And after he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Methuselah lived 969 years, and then he died. When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed. After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Lamech lived 777 years, and then he died. After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Beloved, in Adam's line, or we might also say in Seth's line, there is one man that really stands out, who by now is no surprise to you what I'm going to say. His name is Enoch. And the Bible says of him in verses 21 to 24, When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. And then particularly this verse, verse 24, Enoch walked with God, then he was no more because God took him away. Now, it's fascinating, isn't it, boys and girls? It's fascinating enough and amazing to think about the fact that Enoch was translated. He was literally carried over by God directly from this life to glory. That's hard for us to fathom and imagine no matter how you look at it. But it's also fascinating, I believe, that he is described as being one who walked with God. Now, I trust that this is a description that every true believer would like to have. In fact, one day I certainly hope that it will be said or can be said of me, which can only happen by God's grace, that I walked with God. And may that be the legacy that each of us desires to leave for those who come after us. Now through self-examination, we are to see if indeed we are on that road that leads to leaving that kind of legacy. We are called to examine our walk with God. Is my walk with God a walk that understands my sin and misery and need for a Savior? Is my walk a walk that looks to Jesus Christ alone for that salvation? And does my walk reflect humble yet joyful love and gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ for placing my feet on that path and for Himself earning my walk with God? Indeed, may our primary desire be that it be evident, that it be evident that we walked with God, that by God's grace we might take our place, even as Hebrews 12 says, in that company, that cloud of witnesses that those who come after can look back to to look and to be encouraged by their walk of faith. May that be our desire, Let that be evident about us. But here, God Himself in His holy word says with His own mouth that Enoch walked with Him. Noah is the only other man in the righteous line of Seth who is described as walking with God. I believe later on, Abraham and Isaac are also described as those who walk with God. And God describes David as being one who was righteous and a man after God's own heart and one who was considered to be God's friend. And those are all wonderful things. And we know much about all of those other individuals, don't we? David, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, but Enoch. We know very little about him. Yet twice it is said of him that he walked with God. And therefore, beloved, as we once again hear the call to self-examination, we must consider walking with God. And notice, first of all, the meaning of walking with God. What does it mean that Enoch walked with God? Hebrews 11 gives us an indication of what that means when it says in verses 5 and 6, By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God took him up. For he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God, and without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, And that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. Enoch was pleasing to God. He was a man of true faith. Faith that understood and believed that God is real. That God exists. And in the midst of a wicked world of idolatry, Enoch believed that the Lord alone is God. There is no other. And only this God is the God of salvation. And he gives salvation to his people. Enoch, his life was characterized by his love for God and by walking with God in faith. I'm so grateful to Dr. Godfrey in Dull Sunday School this morning because now I realize that Enoch was a Psalm 15 man. Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellow man, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken. To walk with God and to please Him means, as the writer of Proverbs says, to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Hebrews 11, we know, is a chapter on faith and often I make reference to it in a sermon and with good reason because verse 1 defines faith. Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. And then the rest of the chapter is what we might call a commentary on the Old Testament heroes of faith. And I think that it is indeed a joy to read there about our favorite Old Testament Bible characters. About all the wonderful stories there, the things that we are reminded about them. Of course, their faith is what is being set forth there. Yet we remember the episodes of our favorite Bible characters. Yet Enoch, one whom we know very little about, he stands out. even among all of the other heroes of faith listed, Enoch was exemplary. Why? After all, he didn't build a huge ark. He didn't kill a giant with only a sling and a stone. He didn't kill a thousand Philistines with only a donkey jawbone. He was not a great prophet to God's people as far as we know. So why does Enoch, one man in Seth's line about whom we know so little, why does he stand out? as the Bible simply says, he walked with God. He pleased God. That's all we need to know about him. And the fact that he believed in God and put his faith and trust in God then implies a number of things. And the first thing that it implies is reconciliation. To be reconciled. When two are brought back to each other. There must have been reconciliation between Enoch and God. Amos 3, verse 3 says, How can two walk together except they be agreed? And we all know, don't we, from personal experience, we know the answer, don't we? They can't. They can't. There must be agreement between two in order for the two to walk together in harmony. And of course, though, reconciliation means that there wasn't always agreement and harmony. There was enmity. Enoch, like his fathers before him and like his children after him, like each one of us, was a sinner. But he had been reconciled to God, brought back into favor with God. And that does not mean that God had been conformed to Enoch, but it means that Enoch had been transformed to God. Walking with God also assumes that there must have been corresponding natures, or we might say agreeable natures, between Enoch and God. You see, light and darkness, we know, don't correspond very well to each other, do they? They don't agree because they are opposites. Sinful man cannot walk with God because the two don't have anything in common. Their natures are at odds with each other because of sin. God is holy and righteous and good, but by nature, Enoch was unholy, unrighteous, and bad. And in order for Enoch to have a nature that agreed with God, his sinful nature had to be changed. Because God does not walk with guilty sinners. And therefore, Enoch had to be declared not guilty. In order to walk with God, Enoch had to be justified before God. His sin had to be paid for and forgiven and he needed to be perfectly righteous in order to come into God's holy presence. Beloved, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are justified by the grace of God through faith. Faith which receives all of the precious benefits of Christ's saving sacrifice. What about Enoch? Well, he too was justified by grace through faith in the promise of the seed of the woman, the promised Christ who was to come. He lived before Christ came and before Christ accomplished His perfect work. We live after. But you see, together we are justified only because Jesus Christ has paid for all of our sins and because He freely gives to us His perfect righteousness in order to stand in God's presence. He alone is the reason that we might be justified before and that we might be reconciled with God. But this then leads to another element necessary in order to walk with God. And that is a moral fitness. And what I mean is walking in truth and uprightness. And this is accomplished by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. We know that God's way is holiness. Nothing but holiness. You recall, I trust, that in Israel's history, God had laid down many ceremonial laws regarding cleanliness and purity for worship. Walking with God includes moral cleanliness and purity. And this is talking about a life that is good and right and fair and just and honest and equitable and so forth. 1 John 1, verses 6 and 7 says, If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. You see, beloved, walking with God means that we stop taking our own way, that we turn away from the world's way, and that we follow God's way all by the sanctifying power and by the leading of God the Holy Spirit. And this also means then that walking with God implies that Enoch's will had been surrendered to the will of God. Through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit with a new heart and a new nature, Enoch also then had new desires. His desire was for God and for God's will and to do God's will and not His own will. Walking with God means that God's will is always before my will. Always before my will. And to follow God's will is a delight. Because our renewed minds know that God's will is perfect, holy, right, and good. And all of this then points to spiritual communion. Again, two cannot walk together, as we have said, if there is no spiritual communion. And walking in spiritual communion also suggests steady progress, growth in grace, in knowledge, in understanding, in assurance, in comfort, and in peace. And those who walk with God, you see, are never the same, not even day by day. You might say, well, some days I don't see a lot of difference from the day before. And it's true, we can't always tell a difference day by day, but by the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, there is progress in sanctification day by day. More and more we hate sin and desire not to sin. More and more we love what is right, we desire to do what is right before God. More and more we understand our sin and misery, the depth of our sin and misery, the hideousness of that, and more and more we are filled with joy, even in greater measure, because we understand by the grace of God the beauty and the glory of Christ's saving sacrifice. And our self-examination, you see, is one of the tools that God has given to us to check that progress. And one of the things then that we must look for, beloved, is continuity. It seems clear that there was continuity in Enoch's walk. Boys and girls, that means he didn't just walk with God once in a while or every now and then or when he felt like it or when it was convenient for him. He walked with God daily for hundreds of years. We struggle to walk with God consistently for 70 or 80 years, and I'm being generous there. But Enoch did it for over 300 years. And by the grace of God, his walk was so pleasing to the Lord that through His own Word, God saw fit that we today, so many years later, should know about it. But we need to also notice, beloved, that Enoch's walk took place in the mainstream of society. It took place before the eyes of the world. He was not a closet Christian. His Christianity wasn't secret. Anyone who knew him or saw him, they never had to wonder, is he or is he not a believer? You see, some think that in order to walk with God in this way, Enoch must have been some sort of a recluse, a hermit, Like a monk who withdrew from society to live apart from the evil appetites of the world and apart from the wicked menu that the world has to offer. To escape, you know, the temptations that would hinder his walk with the Lord. But that's not true. It's subtle. But I believe it's here. Enoch was a family man. Genesis 5, verse 22 says, He had other sons and daughters. Just like all the others listed. No doubt it was normal family life in the Enoch household. And when we consider the fact that Enoch lived in a desperately wicked and sinful world, as Scripture records, then this description of Enoch walking with and pleasing God is even more awe-inspiring. The world was increasing in wickedness as the time moved closer to the great flood, Yet in the midst of a wicked world and before the eyes of a watching world, Enoch's confession of faith was clearly seen and could be heard loud and clear because one who walks with God cannot keep silent about his faith. And we know that his walk was a walk of faith because as Hebrews 11 says, without faith it is impossible to please God. We can be sure that God's message in the garden about the seed of the woman crushing the head of the seed of the serpent, we can be sure that that message had been passed down through the generations of the Seth's line. And Enoch had faith in the woman's seed, in the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ. And it's only through faith in Him that one can enjoy communion with God. And it is only through Him that one will enjoy then the reward of walking with God. The text says that He was no more because God took him away. The idea in the original Hebrew is to take and even to take to one's self. God didn't simply take him out of this world and place him in some remote other place, but He took him to Himself. And of course, there are many different interpretations of what this may mean, especially from those that deny what we know to be the truth of the matter. The truth is Enoch changed places, but he did not change company. And with every other name listed, some of which we read, some of which we didn't, every other name listed in this genealogy, we read the same fate, don't we? We are told that they lived so many years. We're also told that of Enoch. But then what? Then he died. But Enoch stands out. He did not die a physical death. He walked with God and God took him from this life without tasting that physical death, even as some of our own here have tasted in these past few days. His reward, beloved, was that he did not taste physical death. Now, this is not a reward of merit, is it? Enoch did not earn his reward, but it was a reward completely of God's grace. And I believe it points us to our hope. You see, beloved, this is a message of comfort because Enoch was under the same curse of death that all of mankind was under, that you and I were under. He was by nature a child of wrath, alienated from God. Yet by the grace of God, Enoch believed in God. And by taking Enoch apart from physical death, our God shows us that He provides a way out for His people. Our God shows us through Enoch that He, not death, is the final, ultimate power. Death is indeed the last enemy because of sin. But God, through Enoch, anticipates the glorious work of the seed of the woman. Enoch is a picture of the escape from eternal death. This is a picture of the amazing grace of God. And today we know that that way is Jesus Christ and no other. He is that way of escape from eternal death. And He is that entrance as well into eternal life. We know that unless Jesus Christ comes first, we will all face physical death. But because of Christ, you see, for the believer, death is just a doorway. That's it. A doorway to that eternal walk with God, to that reward that Christ has earned for us, for each one who looks to Him in repentance and faith. Enoch points to life beyond the here and now. He is also one that another psalmist could describe. Psalm 73, verses 23 and 24. Yet I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. That's our comfort for this life. And then afterward, you will take me into glory. Beloved, those who would come to the Lord's table are only those who walk with God in faith and obedience. and the call to self-examination than is a call to examine your walk with God. Do you find these characteristics of walking with God in your life only because of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are they present? Are you reconciled with God? Does your nature agree with the holy nature of God? Is your walk a morally fit walk, striving to be holy even as God is holy? Is your will surrendered to the will of God? In other words, do you delight to do God's will? And do you enjoy spiritual communion with God, which is a daily communion without interruption, and which is a growing communion all before the eyes of a watching world? Does that describe you? Can you say that? Or must you admit that no, that doesn't describe me? Are you walking alone? Are you walking alone? You see, if you have not turned to the Lord Jesus Christ alone in repentance and faith, to the one alone who is the way and the truth and the life, then you're walking on a path to be sure, but the Bible describes it as a broad road that leads only to destruction. guaranteed and there are many who find it but for those who who with humble heart confess their sins and turn to the lord jesus christ it is guaranteed that that our god places them on that narrow road that narrow path that leads only guaranteed to eternal life walking with god beloved to walk with God means that your mind is renewed daily, more and more in conformity with the mind of Christ. Paul says in Romans 12 verse 2, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. To walk with God means that you have a constant and growing knowledge of whose you are. You can say, I am not my own, but I belong body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. And therefore, you do not live a life of compromise with the attractions of this world. To walk with God means that your first love, which the Bible says for the believer, is Jesus Christ. That your first love always and only takes first place in your life. And that everything else flows from that. Boys and girls and young people, this means you too. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ, whether you've said it publicly here yet or not? Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Does He take first place in your life? Before everything else that you can think of? Before hobbies? Before recreation? Before sports? Before friends? Before you name it? Does He come before everything else? And then does everything else flow from that? You see, that true love must then determine how we live the rest of our life in relation to all of those things. To walk with God, beloved, means that your whole life is a life of thanksgiving and gratitude to God for His redeeming love. And to walk with God also then means that it's evident among us as believers. That we talk about it. That we encourage one another. That we say, I'll pray for you. That we talk about our faith with one another. We don't always have a very good reputation for that, do we? But it must be there. To walk with God means that as a child of God, that you take your place in His church and at His table. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself paved the way that we might be able to walk with God both in this life by faith and in the next life by sight. And by the grace of God, may we prepare and look forward to coming to the Lord's table next week in order that we might receive the nourishment and strength of Christ to walk with God. Amen. Shall we pray? Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, again, O Lord, we humbly thank You for Your Word which is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path to lead us as we strive to walk with God. Father, we confess that there are times when we turn to the right or to the left. Draw us back. Draw us back, O Lord, in Your mercy and Your grace. Do not let us wander off, but keep us on your path. And Father, may we delight to walk with you before the eyes of the world, not in a pious or an arrogant way, but with humble heart. That even then others may see that there is something different about us, about your people. Something which gives us great joy beyond imagination or expectation. We pray then, too, Lord, you would give to us the opportunity to give an answer to those, whoever asks us for the reason for the hope that is in us. We thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord, that we might be moved by the power of your Spirit to greater intimacy and fellowship with you each and every day of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray all of these things. Amen.