I would invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Jude, the New Testament epistle of Jude, next to the last of the books of the New Testament, one little chapter in which we have a reference to Enoch, of whom we have learned this morning from Genesis chapter 5, as well as Hebrews chapter 11. We are continuing to look at the early characters of the book of Genesis. Observing how Christ is revealed even through the earliest chapters of the Word of God, we have considered Adam, the head of the human race, who like Christ, the head of a redeemed race, was the head of a people, all of whom were affected by his action. And we've considered Cain and Abel and how Cain is such a picture of the man of this world and the man who looks to the works of his own hands to reverse the effects of the curse. We've considered Abel, received of God as he came with a bloody sacrifice. We've recognized how Adam and Eve in their sin had no notion at all how to cover their nakedness and their guilt, and how that God had to appear on the scene, and He did so by taking from another innocent victim the very clothing that it had that He might therewith clothe Adam and Eve. And in all of this, we see the picture of Christ Himself who the innocent victim on Calvary hung naked that he might provide a covering for sinners. We come to Enoch now and we do not have a strong or clear type of Christ in the man Enoch. There certainly is evidence here of Christ that is to be seen by us in considering this man of God, Enoch. What do we know concerning Enoch? Well, we know that the prominence he has is only because he was in the line of Christ. We've read chapter 5 of Genesis, which gives us the descendants of Seth, And you will recall that when Cain killed Abel, that God gave to Adam and Eve another son named Seth. And whereas the descendants of wicked Cain would create upon earth a wicked civilization, which ultimately would be removed by the flood Yet God mercifully gave Seth in the place of Abel, and from Seth would descend no less than the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. So that in the giving of Seth to Adam and Eve, we are not far afield to say that therein we have the very provision of a savior for mankind in the working, in the coming. And whereas all of humanity would be destroyed by the flood, yet Noah would find grace in the eyes of the Lord and be spared because Noah was the line of Christ being a descendant of Seth. And so the prominence given to Enoch is the fact that he is in the line of Christ, that he is thus inseparable from Christ within the revelation of the scripture and as is shown in the scripture in the very grace of God which came to him by which he was identified with Christ. That is his prominence. And let it be soberly recognized, dear one, that any person's prominence, prominence worth having, prominence that is meaningful, any person's prominence will be only by way of his union with Christ. That is the whole and only true meaning of life. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to him. He is king of kings. He is lord of lords. They are all subservient to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the king of this world has no prominence beside the soul that is united forever savingly to Christ. Enoch had such prominence because he was united to Christ. We are told in that passage that he was the father of Methuselah. Methuselah lived a lot longer on earth than his dad did. That's 969 years. The name Methuselah signifies when his death comes, the flood will come. At death, the emission, that's literally the meaning of the name Methuselah. And there is in that the clear suggestion that when Enoch named his son, he chose a name that was looking forward to the coming of the flood. This would signify a man who knew God in personal communion in Revelation and who proclaimed the coming of judgment. And in fact, we know from Jude's epistle that Enoch did preach concerning judgment to come. As well, we know that Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. And in that, Enoch shares only with one other human being the experience of being translated to heaven. The other was Elijah. And then, too, let it not be missed that the fact that Enoch was translated establishes in the historical record the fact that God is able and willing to translate a person into heaven without that person passing through death. And so, We have the blessed hope of the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, when they which are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet him in the air. and so shall they ever be with the Lord. Enoch's translation is the confirmation to any believer that one day Christ will return and those believing in Christ and living at that time will be translated with him, taken up with him, as the prophecies of the New Testament make clearer. All of these things have strings attached back to Enoch, this Old Testament saint. He walked with God. He was not because God took him. And we read there in the book of Hebrews that he pleased God. Can that be said of you? And the fact that it says he walked with God in Genesis chapter 5 and was translated, and it says in Hebrews 11 that he pleased God, and his translation is further spoken of in Jude, it leads us to the safe conclusion that to walk with God is to please God. And the question is brought to every one of us. Do you? Do I desire to please God? Now, indeed, the reflexive response to that question is, you bet, I sure do. Who's going to say, no, I don't want to please God? The natural response is, yeah, yeah, I want to please God. And yet, we know that our true heart is exhibited much more by our actions than by our words, isn't it? And what is it in our actions that would confirm our profession to desire to please God? Do we truly desire to please God? Do we truly desire to walk with Him? Well, as Enoch lived, we find several things about him here in Jude chapter one. And if you find chapter two of Jude, you're in the wrong book, okay? In Jude, the first chapter, the only chapter, Jude is speaking about false teachers. And in verse 14, he refers back millennia to this man who lived before the flood had come and says, Jude verse 14, Enoch also the seventh from Adam. Enoch the seventh generation removed from Adam and that fact being cited by Jude gives some emphasis to the fact that the biblical number seven suggests completeness There was completeness in the work and ministry of Enoch, and what all of that was, I'm not prepared to say, but the fact that God took him at that stage would further suggest a spiritual completeness, a pleasing God spiritually. Enoch VII from Adam prophesied of these. Okay, Enoch was a prophet, a preacher. And he preached concerning unbelievers of whom Jude writes thousands of years later. And so we find that God had given unto Enoch a spirit of discernment and a conviction attached to that discernment so that during his lifetime he preached concerning unbelieving teachers who would arise, and thus we attach unbelieving, or rather we attach preaching warnings concerning unbelieving teachers to the definition of walking with God and pleasing God. Ministers who will walk with God and please God will not always be saying nice things. They will, of necessity, be identifying false teachers who they are and what their false teachings are as a warning unto men and women. This is what Enoch did. This is a part of walking with God, of pleasing God. Not only did he prophesy of these, but this is what he said. Verse 14, behold, the Lord cometh. He proclaimed that Christ was coming. Now the question might be asked, how can we say that Enoch, living so many thousands of years before Christ, was speaking of Christ? And the answer to that is that that is who Jude is speaking of as he brings the illustration of Enoch into his teaching to show, I, Jude, am telling you the same thing that Enoch was saying And as I am speaking of Christ, so he was. Likewise, the passage we read from Hebrews chapter 11, where the heroes of faith of the Old Testament, all of whom lived before the coming of Christ, are set forth as heroes of faith, the context of the whole book of Hebrews being, believe Christ. Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Therefore, believe him as did all of these heroes of the faith. And this is why at the end of Hebrews 11, it said that they died not having received the promise. What promise? The promise of Christ coming, that they fully anticipated and hang their lives upon living in the anticipation, Christ, my King, is coming, therefore I am a stranger and a pilgrim in this world. Why, that's the same thing that Enoch lived. Thus he's listed in Hebrews 11 and cited for the same thing here in Jude, the 14th verse. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, spoke of the false teachers in his prophetic proclamations and proclaimed the coming of Christ. Enoch believed Christ would come. And then it continues that he said, behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints, literally here his messengers are his angels. He will come accompanied by the very hosts of shimmering, radiant beings of heaven, for he is in fact none other than Jehovah Sabaoth, Christ is the Lord of hosts, Jehovah Sabaoth, which means the commander of the hosts of heavens. He is the commander in chief of heaven's armies, all of the angelic creatures. And when he comes, he will come with them, even as his first coming in Bethlehem was accompanied by the sky full of angels proclaiming glory to God in the highest. He will come with 10,000 of his saints, angelic beings, verse 15, to execute judgment upon all. Jude tells us that Enoch preached Christ is coming and he's coming to execute judgment. That is not a popular subject in today's spineless evangelicalism. but it is what Enoch preached. It is what the faithful preachers of the Old Testament preached. It is what the apostles preached. Hence, Jude proclaims the same here. It is what Christ preached. And those who will be faithful to Christ and his word, thus, like Enoch, will preach. Christ is coming. unto judgment, to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him, against Christ. And so he proclaimed that Christ will come and he will come unto judgment against those who've spoken against him. And as I hear the blasphemy of our culture and hear the name of Christ being used in careless, meaningless conversation as I hear his and God's name used as nothing more than an expletive by which someone accents their trifling, foolish, and worthless thought. I am reminded that every idle word accounts shall be given of it and that Christ is coming in judgment upon those who have spoken evil concerning him. It is a warning to every one of us to see to it that our speech is pure and clean. and that the name of Christ and the name of God and all of the slangs that have been invented by which to degrade it further are never a part of our vocabulary, but that we use the names of deity only in the most tender worship or in the most earnest and contrite confession and repentance. and undo his praise alone, for Christ is coming in judgment upon those who misuse and speak against his name and his person. Enoch is indeed a picture of Christ for us to consider. He walked with God, so did Christ. Did not our Lord say that all that he says and does, he does not speak of himself, but it is the Father speaking through him? Enoch pleased God and was not that the record of our Savior as the Father repeatedly would say of him, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Enoch preached righteousness. We have just spoken of his preaching. Was not that the purpose of Christ as he came preaching and proclaiming that judgment was at hand, that the kingdom of God was at hand, that mercy was to be found in him, that judgment would fall upon those who rejected him? Enoch prophesied that judgment would come as Christ did. Enoch prophesied on the necessity of faith, why he could not have pleased God without faith. And as he preached concerning things unseen and yet to come, the only way to grasp them was by faith. Thus, his message was preaching of faith as Christ himself also proclaimed. And then Enoch ascended directly into heaven even as Christ ascended directly into heaven. And in these things, we see a parallel between Enoch and Christ himself, yet the parallel is interrupted by this reality we dare not fail to mention. Enoch did not die. Christ did die. For Christ came not simply to be a prophet and a teacher as Enoch was, he came to be a savior. And the salvation that he would produce would be by means of him taking upon himself the sins of Enoch and of all of his people and atoning for them with his own blood on Calvary's cross. And there upon the cross, he receives in his body the wrath due to my sin and to Enoch's sin, which is the only reason that Enoch could be translated without seeing death, because he had a Savior who did see death in order that such translation might be possible. And in that, all of us are in the same boat with Enoch. It could be that this day, before the service ends, the trumpet would sound and the Lord would descend and his people be taken to be with him forever, and we would know what Enoch and Elijah both knew. Or it could be that each of us would pass through the valley of the shadow of death, not alone, but with Jehovah our Savior, who is with us as we pass through, knowing every nook and cranny of that dark valley, because he has been through it for us, before us. that we might be taken through it unto eternal life and light of the other side. And in that, our Savior is distinguished from and elevated above all, all of those who in the Old Testament are but a picture and a type of Him. But back to our earlier question. Do you desire to walk with God? to use that desire to please Him. Let us consider an answer, a few answers from Scripture to the question, how may I please God? And the first answer is simply this. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Without faith, we've read, it is impossible to please God. So if you are going to please God, it is going to be by means of faith, believing, just as Enoch believed, just as he proclaimed to his generation, a generation and an age that was getting worse and worse in wickedness and that would have to be wiped away with the flood, yet in the midst of such currents of wickedness pressing against him, Enoch stood against the currents, proclaiming that judgment was coming, and inseparable from his message was, believe, believe. And thus he is cited as a hero of faith in Hebrews 11. You want to please God? Believe. And when I say believe, and nothing more, I say the same thing that many of the deceivers of the age are saying. For in this age of unbelief and rejection of the word of God, the notion has developed that faith is good and you just need to believe. But the fact of the matter is, faith is damning. If it is anchored in the wrong object, Faith is under the condemnation of those whose faith is misplaced and misdirected. And again, as Hebrews 11 speaks of the great heroes of faith, And as Jude speaks of Enoch, whose faith is evident in both of those passages, the contexts in both passages is Christ, Christ, Christ, believe Christ. The faith that is spoken of without which one cannot please God is a faith that is in Christ alone. And you can never please God except by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Christ himself made it very clear and unmistakable when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation? What are you looking to to keep you out of hell? Do you confess Christ is mine and I am his? My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not Trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Without faith, it is impossible to please God. If you want to be pleasing to God, believe on Christ. We note what we read earlier this morning in the prayer time concerning the fact that faith, true believing, is demonstrated in obedience. And so Saul was commanded to destroy the Amalekites. God had sent that word directly to him through Samuel, the prophet, and Saul did not do it. Oh, he destroyed most of them, the highest majority of them. He kept back only Agag, one of them, their king, and the best of their livestock as well, which he later said was kept in order to sacrifice. But it seems that was an invention of necessity, that explanation, when he was caught red-handed in disobedience. He could say, I obeyed, inasmuch as he had killed the Amalekites. But it was only partial obedience. And let us never forget that partial obedience is disobedience. And that is exactly what Samuel practiced. And he did not please God. And when he said, we kept back the best of the livestock for sacrifices to God, catch the whiff of sincerity and spirituality and piety that he's trying to float before the all-seeing eye of God. We kept these things back because you're deserving of the best. in sacrifice and offering. We kept the best cattle and the best sheep because nothing less is good for you. And yet the very doing of it was disobedience. And God says, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? God's delight was not in offerings and sacrifices and all of the busyness about religion that might have been associated with those sacrifices. God delights in obedience. Do not make the mistake of imagining that you believe if you live in continual disobedience to the word of God. James, which the adults have been hearing in recent Sunday school lessons, James makes it clear that there is a faith that is a dead faith and thus a damning faith. And it is a faith that does not have obedience flowing forth from it. pleasing God involves a faith that is obedient to God. And third, we notice that this is a faith of obedience unto sanctification. In 2 Thessalonians 4, the apostle Paul writes, we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as he have received of us how ye ought to walk, so ye would abound more and more, for ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification. And he speaks here of moral purity, but sanctification certainly goes beyond that. It is the matter of being holy before God. of being separated unto him in holiness. And this is an outworking of a faith that is obedient, true, saving faith. It moves ever towards sanctification. Do you have a desire to be holy? Are you striving against the natural fleshly impulses which otherwise would govern and rule us continually? Do you perceive that your fleshly lusts are in fact warring against your soul and that you therefore stand in need continually of the whole armor of God with which to be defended from the assaults of the wicked one and even the wicked one who is you? This desire for holiness was certainly evident in Enoch as he stood against the rushing currents of his age, while the whole world was cascading toward a flood. And he was standing there proclaiming, the Lord is coming with 10,000 of his angelic hosts to execute judgment upon all who dishonor his name. This is a man who is unlike the world around him. This is a man who is separate from all of the current of the age. This is a man in whom sanctification is advancing and progressing. He believes, his belief is evident in obedience. His obedience is becoming a way of life as he is set apart unto God. And then we notice fourth that God is pleased with a broken and a contrite spirit. David had sinned horrifically and each of his sins had begotten another generation of sins and he was condemned, defiled, and shamed And he is confronted by the prophet Nathan with his sin, and God brings David to repentance, and he writes the 51st Psalm as a hymn of repentance. And in that psalm, he says, Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken heart. broken and a contrite heart, O Lord, thou wilt not despise." You come to God with a broken and a contrite heart in the midst of the consciousness of your sinfulness, and He will not despise it. He will be pleased You please God by the broken and the contrite spirit that recognizes in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. That is what the Apostle Paul proclaimed. Under the inspiration of the spirit of God, In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. May I jump off subject for a minute so far that you'll think I've gotten lost from my subject, but I haven't. It is right on subject. We're coming into the warm months when everybody wants to run around naked. And we have beautiful young people in this church who are tempted by the fashions of the day to join in to the parade of exhibitionism. And we speak to them about modesty, covering their body. And we think to ourselves that that means putting on fabric so that we're not too exposed to other people. But understand that modesty at its core is not about covering the body. Modesty is the recognition that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing and therefore I stand before God with a broken and contrite spirit and those who stand before a broken God with a broken and contrite spirit are not going to be exhibitionists. They're going to cover their bodies as well. And the whole matter about modesty on our ladies is not a question about inches of fabric or the lack thereof. It is a question about my view of myself before God. In my flesh dwelleth no good thing, and for this reason I will not. make flesh what my self-presentation is about, I will cover my flesh. Because it's not about me to be exhibited to all of those around, it is about me to manifest Christ in my life and heart unto all around. And when a person is possessed of such thought in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. No flesh should glory in his presence. This is an expression of the broken and contrite spirit that he will not despise. And so rather than saying, I better dress right or the preacher might see me. It says, God sees me. I stand before him. I stand before him, a sinner by nature and by choice. I stand before him with nothing to boast. Even if I imagine that he has made me the most beautiful and alluring creature on the planet, I stand before him and I have nothing in my flesh in which to glory. My flesh only takes me astray and away. No flesh should glory in his presence. Oh Lord, let me in all of my ways, present myself in such a manner that says, I am nothing without my Savior. And he alone is the one who adds any worth that I can ever claim. whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all for the glory of God. That is an expression of God receiving a broken and contrite spirit. We notice as well, fifth, that God is pleased with our praying for wisdom. James tells us, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, which giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. But specifically, the pleasure of God as we pray for wisdom is when that wisdom is sought that we might be better instruments for service in his kingdom. And so God said to Solomon, ask me whatever you want. And we read in 1 Kings 3 that Solomon observed the weight of responsibility upon him to lead the people of God, and he prayed that God would make him wise, that he might be an effective servant of the Almighty, leading God's people. And we read, and the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And so in James, when it says, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, which giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, it continues on in saying, but let him ask in faith. And the idea there is let him ask for the cause of the faith. Let him ask for wisdom that he might be better equipped for the work of God. And this I say, everything we request of God should be asked, not that we might consume it upon our lusts, but that we might therewith be equipped to serve his kingdom and his honor, who alone is worthy of all honor and glory." It doesn't mean that everyone has to become a monk or a nun and shut themselves up into a convent or monastery for the rest of their lives. Not at all. That is the very opposite. Rather, it means that the carpenter who is out on the job building structures is thereby serving the Lord and recognizes that the one whom he serves is worthy of him doing the very best job at everything he does, that the glory might go to God. It involves the teacher recognizing that the reason for his or her existence is that others might know and honor Christ and that by his or her method in teaching, Christ might be set forth and honored. Whether it is in the office or in the farmer's field or on the highway or whatever your vocation is, it is a holy calling. in which you ask God for the skill and ability to do your job to the very, very best that it can be done, because you are his ambassador, you are a citizen of his kingdom, and citizens of his kingdom should be the best there can be. And for the honor and glory of Christ, you engage everything that you do, and of course, It almost needn't be said that if that which you would engage is sinful, it cannot be engaged for his honor and glory and on that cause alone it is forsaken and left alone. Praying, Lord, make me the most equipped servant that I can be in that to which you have called me. that I might in my service bring honor to your name." Finally, God is pleased with Christ. Oh, he is pleased with his son, a son who always obeyed. always did his will, who could say, I do always those things which please my Father in heaven, God is pleased with Jesus Christ. And anyone who is attached to Christ is thereby attached to God's pleasure. And though Enoch walked with God and pleased God, yet the pleasure of God upon Enoch was ultimately due to his union with Christ, his son, in whom he is well pleased forevermore. And so if you desire to receive the approval of God and to be pleasing to him, All of these things we've named should be in continual cultivation, but ultimately and absolutely, it is in Christ and your union with him that God will find pleasure in you. So granted that you seek Christ, that you bow the knee unto him, and that you, like Enoch, stand forth in an age where all of the currents are against you and Christ, that you stand forth there humbly, contritely for him. Let us all stand together as we pray. Have mercy upon us, Almighty God, for we know that in our natural state we are not pleasing to Thee. And unless there be a God-wrought transformation by which we look to Christ alone and away from self, by which we live unto Him and not unto self, by which we live with the humble and contrite spirit that rejoices in Christ rather than in the flesh. Grant that we might know these things and know thy favor and thy pleasure. May we, as individuals and as a church, walk with God. Teach us what that means. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.