Enoch's life exemplifies the profound blessing of walking with God, a communion that pleases Him and leads to translation from death. This walk is characterized by agreeing with God's word about Himself, oneself, and His Son, a principle demonstrated by Jesus Christ's obedience and exemplified by Old Testament figures. True fellowship with God involves taking two steps: pleasing Him and loving one's neighbor, which is only possible through faith and a willingness to submit to God's will, even amidst suffering, as seen in the example of Job and the ultimate sacrifice at Calvary.
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And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years and he died. And Enoch lived sixty and five years and begat Methuselah, and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah, three hundred years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years, and Enoch walked with God and it was not for God that took him. What stands out, if you notice, is repeated in verses twenty-two and twenty-four, Enoch walked with God. Now over in the epistle to the Hebrews chapter eleven, Hebrews chapter eleven, and in the line of heroes of the faith, We have Enoch's name mentioned in verse five.
By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. and that he is a rewarder of men that diligently seek him. In a moment or two we'll make reference to the other passage in the New Testament, but now isn't it interesting to notice that in the record of Genesis we're not told that Enoch pleased God, and in the record in Hebrews we're not told that he walked with God.
But when we turn to the epistle to the Thessalonians chapter four, we find a lovely parallel, I believe, between Enoch and the saints of today. Paul writing that letter writes with the purpose of teaching the saints how they ought to walk and please God. That's the first verse, and in the closing part of the chapter we find that we have been translated. And so here in Enoch's case, we believe that he walked with God, he pleased God, and he was translated. And I think then that we have, in Enoch's history, a brief though it is, a very wonderful example for us as believers today. We should say this, then, it was unnecessary to say where it says he walked with God to please him, because if you walk with God, you please him.
If you please God, you walk with him. I think that's a simple deduction. You know, I would say that God's superlative pleasure in his people is that they walk with him. Again, this comes out way over in the middle of a book called Micah. One would hardly think that we could get something away out of Micah and tuck it in with Genesis and in the New Testament. What God says to Israel in through the voice of his servant Micah, if you were to give me a thousand grams or ten thousand rivers of oil, or even sacrifice your firstborn son. Well, that staggers our imagination.
And God then says, this would not please me as to have you walk humbly with your God. I think maybe that should sink in. There's nothing I can do for him. There's nothing I can give him that will please him better. than simply letting him walk with me. And, of course, the great example is the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember in Matthew three, and again in seventeen, God opens the heavens and says, My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And the secret of that is found, or the explanation of that is found in that beautiful pre-prayer of Gethsemane.
Not my will, but thine will. be done. You know, walking in Scripture then is used as a figure of the communion that we enjoy as we walk with God. We speak of a man and his wife who've lived a long time, and sometimes it will go like this. They've walked the road of life together a long time. They've walked The road, the light, the gallery. We couldn't understand that unless we knew and understood that they lived in happy communion together for a long time.
Now, that desire of God in the Old Testament is reproduced in the Lord Jesus Christ inasmuch as this is why God made you and me. When he made Adam, he made him to walk with him. So that makes it very poignant that when we come to Genesis chapter three and find God walking in the garden, Adam, where are you? Where are you? Aren't we going to have our little walk? No, God's going to walk alone. And then when you come over to the New Testament and think of the Lord Jesus, we learn there that he chose twelve disciples to be preachers.
Well, we don't learn that at all. We learn that he chose twelve disciples to be with him. I wonder how much we can appreciate the desire of God to have you and me walk with him. There is no one that, no creature that God made can walk as gracefully as the human being that he made. We sometimes talk about us being linked with a monkey. Well, you've seen pictures of apes, and maybe you've seen them in the zoo walking, and it's most grotesque to say they're the least of it.
But man has been so physically constructed that he can move gracefully, that means apart from infirmities. Now, if I were to ask you, I've never had anybody talk along this line to explain what we mean by the art of walking. What is walking? Supposing I were to give you a piece of paper, they write down what you mean by walking and say, I don't understand it exactly. Well, let me explain. Walking is taking two steps. Two steps, yes, multiplied. It matters not if you walk from here to the back of the church or you walk from here home.
or you walk to the end of the earth, it's just two steps, only multiply. Now why do I point that out? Because that's very, very interesting. The two steps, what are the two steps? Well, you walk in fellowship with God when you take step number one and you please him. You walk in fellowship with God when you take step number two, and that is pleading thy neighbor. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thy neighbor as thyself. And have you ever noticed that in the story of Mephibosheth, that the scripture says he was laying on both his feet.
Both his feet. Not only one leg, but both of them were laid. Why? Because it says he fell, his nurse let him fall. Well, our mother nurse, our nurse mother, she let us fall in the womb when we were in the womb as God would speak of it she let us fall in Eden and so we were born laying on both feet in other words we have been absolutely incapable of taking those two steps walking in fellowship with God walking and pleasing him and our fellow men now then Before we can know then what it is to walk with God, we've got to remember that he has issued the divine edict or decree.
Can two walk together except they be agreed? Except they be agreed. You can't commune with a person. Supposing you think of a walk. And you're going to walk with someone. And you go for a literal walk. You're walking along the road. You're not driving in your car, but walking along the road together. And one of you says, well, it certainly has been a lovely day today. Do you think so? I thought it was cold today. I really was miserable. Well, that certainly was a nice sunset that we had last night.
Did you notice it? Did you think that was a nice sunset? Oh, my. And no matter what you suggest, The other person takes a contrary view. The sooner the watch stops and you separate, the better. The two walk together except they be agreed. And of course, you may be sure of this. God's not saying, well, you want me to agree with you over. The Lord says, this is what I want you to agree with me. I heard somewhere about a husband and his wife. were watching over a fence, a pair of horses plowing in the field.
And as we watched them go step by step down the furrows, the wife said, John, that's lovely to see them walking together like that. I wish we could walk like that. And he said, so we could, if we had what they had. What's that? She says, he says, they've only got one tongue. I don't know whether you know the meaning of the agricultural tongue, but you ask somebody after the meeting, they'll tell you. And that tongue kept the two of them together. Well, there's only one tongue. It's God's tongue. You can can can can all your ideas. You can scrap them. You can throw them out the window. You can forget them. God says, this is it.
Sign the dotted line. Then we'll walk together. No walking with God, no fellowship with God until we know what it is to agree with God. Now that would be a big subject, wouldn't it? Agree with God. And so to make it very simple, then I would look at it like this. It's not covering it by no means. But there are three outstanding areas in which we must agree with God. And the first one is you must agree with what he says about himself. You must agree with what he says about you. And you must agree with him as to what he says about his beloved son.
He stands between the two of us and he brings us together. God says, I am holy and you're sinful. And I can't have anything to do with you unless the one in the middle brings us together. And so, beloved friend, I like to think then this is just exactly what happened at Calvary. Christ was lifted up. Lifted up. Not all the way, but lifted up. And so heaven above and the earth below and in the very physical position of the cross, I like to think God brings man and sinner together. You know, I...
I can't help but try and imagine God's thoughts that day in a garden. Adam, where are you? Where are thou? God's all alone. Adam's hiding. Hiding. The purpose for which God made him has been destroyed. And God walks alone. Oh, the disappointment God must have known. Now, don't question that. because it's not Jesus disappointed. I'm saying it's God's disappointment. He was grieved for the misery of the people. If he could be grieved, he could be disappointed.
If he could be pleased and angry, he could be disappointed. And when he walked in the garden, and Mr. Newbury, whose Bible, I believe, is one of the best you can put in your hands for the study, he doesn't change the text. But he just gives you the grammar of it and helps you to understand it in a much better way. And he says the word, the verb that's used there is walking habit. It's a habit. And now sinners come in and God walks alone. I don't know if I mentioned it to Coronas. It's familiar to me that maybe I did. I think maybe I told you friends at the camp. But the woman in whose house I stayed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, when we lived there some years ago, were having meetings in that city.
And I was staying in her home with a young brother in the meeting who was boarding there. He wasn't married, and his home was in Toronto. He'd been sent by Simpson Sears to Halifax to be manager of the city. there and so he had a very fine job and was boarding with this woman and her husband and I went to stay while I was having the meeting and one day he said to me David I'd like you to take the car and drive so and so the woman down to see her child who is in the nursing home well I asked him questions and I did it and I sat outside in the car until she returned and when she came back and got into the car I could see her wiping her tear from her eye And, well, I said, how was the little fella today?
Oh, she said, just the same. Well, I said, does he know you? For I understood there was something abnormal about the child. Oh, no, she said, he doesn't know me. He knows nobody. I said, where was it? Well, she said, he's in his crib. He never leaves the crib. Oh. I said, how old is he? She said, twelve. Twelve. Twelve. And he never left the crib. She was just down paying for the nursing home.
All it is about. Our baby, he never grew to be able to walk with me. I wonder, beloved, seems of God, if... we would have examined our hearts in this presence this morning would we have to say that I'm afraid I don't walk with God worse than that I'm afraid God's not walking with me why is there a difference or a big difference a big difference doesn't say that God walked with Enoch it says that Enoch walked with God That makes no difference.
Don't tell us. You don't read it carefully enough. I could say humbly but truthfully that many a time God watches me. Many a time in the study of my Bible, I could almost say, oh Lord, that's enough. He's revealing himself to me through his word. I'm enjoying it, but you can only take so much. And again, there have been times when sorrow comes in, trouble, and there's been a calm, and there's been a peace. God's with us. God's walking with us. But it doesn't say that. He says, enough. Walk with God. God sets a pace. We have two boys in our family, one at the top and the other at the bottom, and David's twenty-one next week, and his brother is...
Sixteen years older than he is. So when David was born, you can imagine when he was learning first to walk, George was a boy, sixteen, seventeen years old. And sometimes I found myself walking with George, just without changing the word, and sometimes I found myself walking with David. But when David and I were together, I walked with him. But when George and I were together, George walked with me. I set the pace for George. Little David set the pace for me. But it's not God says to Enoch, well, how far do you want to go with me?
Or how quickly do you want to walk with me? Or what kind of a walk do you want? I'll come down and say, no, Enoch says it where, oh God, you set the pace and I will walk with Now I find when I study this and look at reference here and there, that there are three spheres in which we are found walking in the New Testament. If you go to First Thessalonians four, you'll find we're walking before the world towards them that are without. When you come to Ephesians chapter five and two, walk in love, we're walking in the circle of the saints. And then when you come to second Corinthians five and seven, When walking with God, we walk by faith.
So honesty, honesty must be the characteristic before the world. When they see me walk, they must be an honest walk. When the saints study my walk, they must find a walk of love. And when God looks into my heart, when I walk with him, he sees he must see the faith. It's the walk and not the talk. I can't know. I can't see what you're doing because of what you're saying. The walk and the talk are so much in disagreement. And the worst, my neighbor's not going to be moved if I can go to his door and say, you know, I'm a conference speaker.
You know, I travel a lot around. Oh, forget it. He's not interested in my speaking ability or my speaking engagement. What kind of a man am I to, my neighbor? You see, they know it's by our walk. I heard about a little girl at a Christmas party once, and a man was dressed up, of course, as Santa Claus, and he was handing out the gifts to all the little kitties. Thank you, Santa Claus. Thank you, Father Christmas. Thank you, Daddy Christmas. When it came her turn, she said, thank you, Mr. Smith. How do you go on Mr. Smithy's robe? Riled underneath his wig. How do you go on Mr.
Smith? I know you by your boots. He didn't know that his boots were showing, and she knew that man, and she knew him by his boots. She knew him by his feet. They know his pies are what? God grant me what, honestly, before the man of war. And then, since you know... And when I'm dead and gone and you come to my funeral and don't ever have anything like that. But if you do and you shed a wreath of you, it's because you love me. It's because. And why did you love me? Because you thought I loved you in return. Oh, beloved station of God. That's what we long for in one another more than anything else.
The matter of station of divine love. But then you're outside the last one. I have nothing to say to the sinner or the Christian. I have nothing to say to us at all. But I have nothing to say to us at all. But I have nothing to say. Oh, I'm walking alone with God. Not honest. Well, of course, you would know that's a prerequisite. How could I walk with him who wasn't honest? And if he is a God of love and I walk with him, surely there will be love. But it's the things he does to me. The things he does to me. They're not nice. They don't like them. And they all seem to be wrong. And he hurts me and causes me to weep. Sometimes our heart would break.
God did it. Or God allowed it. No, he wouldn't do it. What do we want to do? We're going to bow in his presence. Maybe with a broken heart. Cheerful life and say, I will be done. Wasn't it the little girl in the school for the youths, deaf and dumb? When the teacher had examined them one day, she said, why? And she wrote to the board in the chalk. Why are you deaf and dumb? And I can speak in here. And she held the chalk up to see if any one of them children would like to give an answer on the board. One little girl, I suppose, from her Christian home, she walked up and she wrote down, even so father, for so it seemed good in my life.
That's all. top. I could ask God in my lifetime a thousand questions. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? And I don't ever expect to get answers. I don't answer to them all. You've never got answers. Why did you? Why did you take my family? You took my stock. You took everything. Now you've taken my help. Why did so? Do it. He never found out why. If you know where he found out, I'd like to know where I can find it in my Bible. He never found out the reason. What was the reason?
Oh, and a scene that Job could never touch. In a place where Job had never been, there was a spirit called the devil, Satan. And one day God and Satan had a conversation. God throughout this quick height of challenge. Have you considered my servant Joseph? Not a man in all the earth like perfect upright. Oh yeah. Can you hear the slang with which he'd say it? Oh yeah. And a sneer in his lips if he's got any.
You make it easy for him. Let me tell you, if I got my hand on him, I'd turn the tables and make him curse you to your face. You couldn't do it, says God. It matters not what I do to you. He'll bless me. Let me try. Yeah, let me try. He couldn't do it, but he didn't let you. So the Lord allowed him. Then you know what happened. And then God and that creature got together again. Oh, the joy in God's heart, as he said, as we would say today, was triumph. I told you so. I told you so.
You didn't spoil my servant, and I was right. In the matter of pleasing, one may be like Samson. He wanted a wife, Father Murray said, in the part of the day. She's not a Christian, Samson. Now you know that. Oh, there's many a Christian in the assembly. Or many Christian girl, Christian boy. You could marry. I know that, but she pleases Amy. Amy. She pleases me. That's all that matters.
Pleases me. Oh, that terrible self-pleasing spirit that permeates us all. For it pleases me, that's all that matters. That mishaps of me. And then there was Peter. And Peter had learned that in grace God made no distinction between a Jew and a Gentile. And he learned it all right, and he walked in that truth. Until one day he found himself among some who didn't just altogether see it that way. And, oh, Peter then, he withdrew himself from the dear Gentile converts.
And he associated with only those who were Jewish converts. And the Bible says, pleased men. And with such strong denouncing words, Paul weakens, we ought to please God. rather than men. I just got an example of this through the week about certain preachers, and none of them are here today, so you do rather sit back and relax. Certain preachers, well, they used to go to A, but they don't go to A anymore. Somebody over in B doesn't like it. And so they're not going to A anymore because B doesn't like it.
Men, please, I got a letter from a young preacher. Probably an interesting story. The Lord Mer of the city of Belfast gave me a little book to take over to him. I'd make you set up and be curious, wouldn't it? And anyway, I got him, sent him this little book, and incidentally, the Lord Mer's marriage was cousin. So he said to me, David, did you ever get discouraged in your early days with the hypocrisy and sham of many of our brethren? My. That gave me an opportunity. And I wrote him a letter. Yeah, I said, of course, calling him by his name for a dirt mention, if you know.
I said, you know, the trouble is, and I say this kindly, but you're handcuffed. You can't do a thing about it. Oh, thank God for being able in some little measure. If I'm invited there to preach, I'll preach. If I feel called God to do it. And if I'm invited over here to preach, I'll feel free to go. God seems to be guiding. But some brethren in assembly A may not like it because I went to assembly B. But God saves from being Peter's than disrespect. Men pleasers instead of pleasing hearts. And then we come to the Lord Jesus. And when we come to him, we've got the beautiful truth.
Even so far. He pleases. Let me say, brethren, sisters, this little message comes to a close really soon. There are wonderful blessings for those who will be Enoch's eyes and walk with God. And what will it be? Well, Enoch learned two things that were future. And he held that secret, and nobody in the world knew what it would be. And one was, he believed there would be a deluge coming. And when his son was born, he gave him the name. When he is dead, it shall be sent.
Sometimes take a piece of paper. And notice how old Enos was. Notice how old he was when Mephibosheth was born. Notice how old Mephibosheth was when Lammoth was born. And notice how old then he was when Noah was born. And then notice how old Noah was when he entered the ark. And Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years. And the nine hundred and sixty-nine years to the last year are absolutely fulfilled from his birth to the year that Noah entered into the ark.
When he is dead, it shall be said. And then he speaks out and he says, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints. Where in the world did you learn that? And thousands of years have rolled away and we today know that he was right. Not that the Lord comes for the saints, but he comes with the saints for the coming to the air was a secret. None of the Old Testament saints knew it. Even Paul in the beginning of his ministry didn't know it. But later on he had received it from the Lord. Well, now let me tell you something.
That was a secret. Now, if I want to tell you a secret, I want to have you close. So in Psalm twenty-five and verse fourteen we read these words, the secret of the Lord is what men experience. The marching of the Bible says, the whisper of the marching. Now if I walked into a bunch of brethren and I heard something that was funny or something that was interesting to them all, I said, you know what I saw today or I heard today? I don't care who's there. It's John Thompson's music, as we say in Aaron. Everybody can know it.
But there's something that is a secret, like I took my brother Pam aside last night, and I said, really, Pam, so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so. I wouldn't mention it in public. But I'll tell you, he and I, of course he's a lot higher than I, but he got down some way there between, and we got across. A little secret. What am I driving at? I'm saying that you'll never learn God's secrets and they should walk with him. You've got to be close. You've got to be close. And young fellows in a meeting, I want to tell you something. If you're a student of the Bible, here's the secret of knowing it.
What? I don't care what you forget, but don't forget this. You walk close. E.J. Ironside, who was reputed to be one of America's best Bible teachers in his day, when he was only a young man starting out in his career, he visited an auntie, an uncle, who lived in California. And when they knew their nephew was very much interested in studying the Bible. And so they said to him, look, if you go down and they told him where to go, And down the lane, you'll find a house and he described it.
And out on the lawn of that house, you'll find a little tent. And you'll find an old man in there. And he knows the Bible. Incidentally, he wasn't an old man. But everybody who ever talked to me or mentioned his name always referred to him as an old man. He died when he was thirty-four. But why was he called an old man? He seemed to be so older, so much older than his peers in the knowledge of the Word of God. So this young Bible preacher now, he said, you Mr. Fraser? Yes, that's my name.
He said, you know, I'm greatly interested in the Bible. And my aunt and uncle tell me that you know the Bible and you can tell me something from the Bible. I'd like to hear. Well, now he said, just sit down for a little while and we have a little chat. Now why was he in that little tent? He was a TV victim, and the consumption of the lungs eventually took him at that early age, so that he was out enjoying fresh air as much as possible, and he lived in the little tent. And so he opened the book, the book, as I'm reading, and figuratively, and told him, and my eyesight roped and wrote, and finally the old brothers, they called him, He said, I think now we've had enough for today.
He said, Mr. Fraser, could you tell me where I could get that book that you have been reading? What book? Well, we've got all this knowledge about the Bible from. Where can I buy that book? Oh, I'd love to have that book. My dear young brother, he said, do you want to know where I got it? Well, I'll tell you. I came, come from the north of Ireland, and in a little cottage, on a sod floor, now, as we hear you know what a sod floor is, but it just means that there's a hard earth camped out.
No other kind of a floor. That was a little bedroom. And on that sod floor in my knees was my Bible and my bed. God revealed these things to me. You know something? I was back in the middle of land some time ago, and I stole that incident. And I saw a little ripple in the meeting. People moved and whispered, I wondered what I'd said maybe. So after the meeting, a sister said, Brother Kirk, come here. And she took me out to the door of the Gospel Hall, and she showed me across some trees, and I saw little chimney pots sticking up in a bit of her roof. She said, that's their house you're talking about. That's where Andrew Fraser lived.
Then as I traveled around and would mention to one old brother, another old brother, and I said to my, an old brother in the North Barrieron who was renowned as one of the godliest men in our days, Mr. Gilmer, did you know Mr. Fraser? He did. He says, I knew Andrew Fraser. Shall I tell you what I think of him? He was the godliest man that ever I met in my life. When I came to America, I said to another brother in the Lord, did you ever hear of Andrew Fraser? Andrew Fraser said I certainly did. You know something, his name was McClure. William John McClure said this. He said when he went to heaven, it wasn't much of a change.
It wasn't much of a change. It was a big change. But what he meant, he was already living in heaven, living in communion with the Lord. Maybe you don't want to know your Bible very much. But if you would leave this meeting today and confess to me, and I know you wouldn't, but if you would say to me, I'm not really interested in walking in fellowship with God, I'd say you'd better get born again. You'd better get born again. I don't care how far away from God you are. I don't care what type of a backslider you are. I'll say this.
If you're truly born again and I can get close to your heart, you say, well, Brother Kirk, yes, I'd like to walk closer with God. Well, brothers and sisters, here's the secret of it. This book has made it very clear and very plain that we've got to please him. And the more we play with him, the more we walk with him, the more we please him. And then we open this book and we read and we read and we read. And you don't have to go to the conference, but thank God for our conference is. But some fear says, and that's all the police, they ever get the ministry of the word. They ever learn anything. It's through the lips of another servant of the Lord.
Well, you often fell at you that God, and you young fellows, you young fellows in God's name, get down before God. That's a prudent of things for young men today. If the Lord is not going to come in our day, and we're