Good morning to you all. I was feeling how good it is to be supported by the prayers of God's people to be conscious that you're one with us in our seeking to bring the Lord's message. Genesis chapter five, beginning to read please at verse twenty one. Genesis five, twenty-one. 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 he was not, for God took him. Verse twenty-eight in Lamech lived in hundred eighty and two years in Begadah's son, and he called his name Noah, rest or comfort, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands. because of the ground which the Lord had cursed. Chapter six, verse eight. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. And J.N.D. makes that mean descendants of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations. And he makes that his contemporaries, those living in his own day. He was a just man and perfect in his contemporaries, and Noah walked with God. Now into the New Testament, please, to Hebrews chapter eleven. Hebrews chapter eleven. We read from verse one. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were made, were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead, yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. 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 them that diligently seek him. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. I wasn't able, dear friends, really to bring any particular portrait of these patriarchs on Lord's Day, but I think we introduced some of the material in a general way that prepares the way for looking at them now. And three of them come before us in our little study this morning. Enoch and Noah. We have seen that faith is the intelligence of the soul. Faith gives us access to spiritual things. Gives us access to eternity. Gives us access to God himself. Gives us access to the Lord Jesus Christ sitting enthroned and pleading for us. Now as we look at these three characters, we shall find that faith is linked with relationship that is able accepted of God through blood. Then we shall see that faith leads to companionship. For Enoch walked with God until God took him. And that of course is agreement with God. Thirdly we shall see that faith leads to partnership and that of course is activity for God. That not only has this little passage a sequence but we'll find that the whole chapter has a pattern and by and by we hope to indicate the patterns and show the links of faith and the areas in which faith becomes operative. Now let's look first of all at faith that leads the two relationships. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts and by it he being dead yet speaketh. You may recall that I read on Lord's day the closing verse of chapter three of Genesis. And it leads me to believe, dear friends, that there was a place where they brought their sacrifices He drove out the man, we are told, and he placed. Now you students of the scriptures have possibly already learned that spiritual commentators look upon that as meaning dwelling. He caused to dwell, cherubim, and a flaming sword. to keep the way of the tree of life. Man's expulsion from the garden required that guardianship should be put upon paradise, which he had defiled by sin. And he himself must be put out of that place of loveliness and lose his place of majesty and power. But you can see, dear friends, that this is a hint of things to come. A tabernacling or dwelling. Cherubim. And those, it seemed to me, suggest a mercy seat. Because God himself is said to dwell between the cherubim and we find the type of it in the tabernacle and so there at the gate of Eden it seems to me was the place where they brought their sacrifice there were the reminders both of mercy and of justice not only the cherubim who are the guardians of the throne of God. And I believe continually through the scriptures that is their work, the guardianship of the throne of God. But there were the guardians too of paradise that man might not go in and eat of the tree of life and make his sinful condition beyond repair so that there's mercy there and I'm satisfied that it was to this place outside of Eden this tabernacle this place of the cherubim this place of the flaming sword of judgment that these men brought their sacrifices that's worth your thinking about and We are told that Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock the best he had. He brought them to God. And he offered a more excellent sacrifice than came. And its greater excellence was in the fact of its proclaiming the man's humility the man's acknowledgement of sin, the man's acknowledgement of death as the result of sin, the man's acknowledgement of condemnation, the man's acknowledgement of his own personal due. But it was a more excellence sacrifice also because it acknowledged God and all the rights that are in God. that sacrifice declared that a sinful being must recognize the righteousness of that holy one to whom he drew near and to whom he would make his sacrifice and offer his worship. And that is just where we've been. We've been the Calvary. And we have seen the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. So says Hebrews chapter twelve. I love those words, dear friend. They touch something inside here. The blood of sprinkling. And it's not the sprinkling of the blood of Egypt. It's the sprinkling here upon the throne of God. It's the sprinkling before and on the throne, which the high priest performs on the great day of atonement. The eye of God is looking upon blood that is speaking, that is requiring forgiveness cleansing that proclaims redemption for the guilty and at the same time proclaims propitiation and that word propitiation intends that God is fully satisfied it has the idea of meeting all that's in God that's against sin and against rebellion and disobedience. God is satisfied. And then there's the linking thought of reconciliation. First of all then, there's redemption in which we're purchased. There's propitiation in which God's claims are met. And then there's reconciliation in the blood. that brings us into oneness with God himself. And so he brought a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. And you and I have led hold upon the death of Christ. And we see its infinite values. We see that Calvary means, I'm released. redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. It means that my God is sacrificing nothing of his character when he receives me through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. And it means that there's a oneness and a peace and a harmony between my soul and God. You see, the perceptive faculty of this man, Abel, he saw by faith we understand, and he understood his sinnership and God's holiness. He saw what Cain could not see. On the contrary, came, comes as a worshiper and not as a sinner. That was the great folly of this man. He came as a worshiper and not as a sinner. What he brought was in order if he first of all made recognition of his sin in blood, It would have been an acceptable thank offering to God. But it was not so because he bypassed the blood of sacrifice. And he did not make any recognition of sin before God. He brought of the fruit of his own toil, the fruit of the land, And no doubt it looked beautiful upon the altar. And he's the picture of the person who loves the ornate and the beautiful in religion. But they see nothing in the death of Christ in a personal way. And so the grandness of a building and the greatness of a system and the wonderful order of their religion satisfies their hearts, but the wounds of Calvary have not been seen to be availing for them, nor do they see the Lamb of God in all the perfection of his person, in all the perfection of his sacrifice. I come to the second. That, you see, brought this man into a right relation with God because he was declared righteous. And God, in some way, gave testimony to what he did. We're not told how God paid tribute and said, I accept this sacrifice, but he did it. And he's a righteous man in the sight of God through simple faith. You and I are standing in all the righteousness of another today. We're glorying in it. Not glorying in anything of the flesh, but glorying in Christ. Who of God? is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Now having led the basis it leads to the second which is companionship. For 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. Now our supplemental reading this morning made clear, dear friends, that this man was remarkable. In more than one respect, you can see how unusual he was by the fact that he didn't see death. He is recorded in a chapter that is somewhat like a cemetery because time and again we read there and he died and he died and he died. And here's the rule. He died. But here again is the exception. And he was not, for God took him. Now he was remarkable in that respect, but it seems to me there are a number of ways in which he was a remarkable man. He was remarkable in his conversion. He lived to the years of sixty-five. I'll soon be sixty-eight. And I think it's a matured person, surely. Somebody who has seen a little of life at sixty-five that is spoken of here. He lived to sixty-five and then there was a birth and a second birth. In that birth there was a revelation. And we're quite clear, dear friends, when it says by faith enough that God had given him a revelation, that God had spoken in some way to him. And the name that he gave to this child was Methuselah, which means when he is dead, it shall come. When he is dead, it shall come. And that was at once a promise and a prediction. A promise of the child, a prediction of an event that would take place when he would die. Isn't that clear? And it was then that Enoch It said to begin his walk with God. That was his conversion. A providential thing. God acting in some remarkable way in which he made known to this man that tragedy would come on the earth when his son Methuselah had run his late court. And he lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years. And I believe the extension of his life that made him the oldest man of all points to the compassion and long-suffering of God. Not only did he wait the hundred and twenty years in which the ark was a building, but he bore in long suffering the rebellion, the apostasy from him that was growing until the earth was corrupt and until every vestige of decency was gone and God is obliged to step in and act in judgment. Nine hundred and sixty-nine years of the long suffering of God. And so, beloved friends, we see a remarkable thing in the conversion of this man. Secondly, we see it in his company. He walked with God. And that meant, of course, agreement with God. God would give the direction to his life. God would be his guide. How can two walk together except they be agreed? Says Emos. How can they? You and I who are married have had agreement. that we might walk together as man and wife. There's a harmony between us. There's something there that doesn't exist between myself and somebody else outside of that agreement. No, God required harmony with himself. And so this man is an intimacy with God that was growing. And the daily walk increased that intimacy on a basis of mutual harmony and agreement. And we can see this man day by day with his unseen companion. But the evidence of it in a spiritual fashion, in the growth that would be manifest in his life. And so together, one has profit and the other has pleasure. Yes, Enoch has the profit of that presence. God has the pleasure of a man of faith who looks up to him and is in such close touch with him that it can be said he's walking with God. With God. Do you remember, dear Christian, how in the song of Solomon, in the last chapter we read Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Isn't that the counterpart of Enoch and his companion, God? There she is leaning on him. And it's a wilderness through which is passing. And it's an upward way. Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, barrenness? Nothing for her soul. Nothing upon which she can delight or of which she can partake there. Barrenness. But she's coming up and that's the upward difficult way. And dear Christian friend, we need not expect that we're going to find the way is easy all the time. But we have the best of company, the sweetest of company, the holiest of company, the strongest of company. We have our beloved, and upon him we can lean, and thus it was with enough. It has been well pointed out that Enoch was a family man, that during the three hundred and sixty-five years of the total years of his life, that he had sons and daughters. He reared the family. And you don't do that, dear friends, without many a heartache and many a headache. Sometimes the family can be a great joy. Sometimes there can be those things that really touch deep into the sensitive part of the soul as you seek to do the best for them and find disappointment possibly in the doing of it. But he walked with God though he was a family man. And he walked with God for three hundred and sixty-five or for three hundred years. Next he's remarkable as to his calling because he was a seer. And we would have found that had we read in Jude's little epistles, he was a prophet. He could see he too had the perceptive power of faith. He could see as God was seeing. And he knew that there was coming a time of judgment. Better than that he knew that the Lord himself was coming with ten thousand of his saints. Behold, he cometh with ten thousand of his holy ones. And he's coming, he says, bringing judgment upon these with their own godly ways and their own godly speeches and their own godly conduct. and their ungodly attitude to God. It's all ungodly. But the man had a calling as a prophet in that he was remarkable. And it seems to me that he is. Am I right? The first prophet. Then he's remarkable as to his commendation, because he was given a testimony that you and I would envy, would covet to have. He pleased God. God himself was pleased with him. And it is incident upon that that we read 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 them that diligently seek him. So this man had a commendation of his faith and of his life and of his testimony. and so he pleased his God. This has a very practical part for you and me, for there are many ways in which we may please him. There are sacrifices that you as a holy priest can offer undue offer day by day within the rent veil. and God is pleased. And you bring your offerings of a material kind as well as the spiritual. And the scripture says, with these sacrifices, God is well pleased. God is well pleased. They are all in that realm of faith. You can see that your God accepts your simple little thing. My stammering offering of praise. He doesn't look on the words I say. He looks on what's in my heart. I've been trying to give expression to it how badly I'm only too aware. But God is getting the incense of the sacrifice and it's coming up to him with pleasure and the joy of his heart is full as his people praise him. So give it to him even though it's stumbling and let him have your material offering too. put it in the pierced hand, put it in the wounded hand of Calvary, saying, Lord, you've done everything for me. This is only a fresh and a thing that I'm giving back because I do love you. Why should I love him so? Oh, he deserves it all. And we can please him in these ways and many others. And then, or I must close, as to conveyance, he was a remarkable man. He was not. He was missing. For God took him. He was an absentee, for he was transmitting. What wonderful words, dear friends, that he should not see death. I think I saw them. As I read them in these past days, as I never saw them, he should not see death. No child of God looks forward to death. In the truest sense of the word. Although there are times when we have known them. To call on the Lord to take them. They were glad to go. But in the fullest sense. We recall that death is an enemy. And we don't want them. We want the Lord himself. We want to be with Christ in the air. at the thrusting place. We want to be caught away. The Spirit of the Lord caught away, Philip. That's rapture. Of course he brought him back again to another sphere of service. But he catches away. He'll rapture us. And we'll meet him in the sky. And we're looking to see him, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and bypass death. Disappoint the last enemy. And isn't it lovely to think that when he comes, that there in the sky he'll meet his people in the very territory of Satan. He'll come to make that a conquest over the prince of the power of the air. Thrilling, isn't it? Meeting Christ in the realm and kingdom of Satan. And by and by those hosts will be cast down to earth. And finally, Satan will be in them, bottomless pit the abyss, and lost in the lake of fire. We'll meet him. He was not, for God took him. Translated, and it has been well said, He changed his place, but not his company. He changed his place, but not his company. We have the best of it, Christians, whether it's by the article of death or by the coming of the Lord. Thank God. for the mighty one, the glorious person who makes a victory through the valley of the shadow or the meeting in the air. Now let's pray. Our Father, we thank thee for gladdening our heart. as we think about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whom have we in heaven but thee? And there's none upon earth that we desire beside thee. Lord, thou and thou alone aren't enough the heart to fill and satisfy. Thy servant of old said, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. And Lord, we're looking for thee, waiting for thee. We pray that like Enoch, we may be presenting a testimony to those around us until that day dawn. and the shadows are forever gone. Bless my dear people throughout the day in the various tasks and duties that fall to their hands. In our joys and pleasures, in our every occupation, may we walk with thee. And of thy great name we shall ascribe. everlasting praise through the worthy one our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.