Walked with God. Four simple words that speak volumes of Enoch's lifestyle. Before I explain the nature of the message, there are three passages I would like to read. The first two passages we'll consider a little bit more at length. We'll just make a passing reference to the third, but I do want to read it because it helps fill in some things. So the first passage is, of course, Genesis chapter five, beginning at verse 21. Genesis five, verse 21. And Enoch lived 60 and five years and begot Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begot Methuselah 300 years and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. And then the second passage is Hebrews chapter 11, verse five and six. Hebrews chapter 11, beginning at 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 them that diligently seek him. And then in Jude, that single chapter, book of Jude, we read this about Enoch in verse 14 and verse 15. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints 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. So the nature of the message, it's more thematic this morning than expository, but I want to think about with you how Enoch walked with God. And I've been thinking about this theme of walking with God, not in component parts, not what makes up a walk with God, a good walk, a successful walk with the Lord, but more in a simple way, in a boots-on-the-ground way, in a simple way. Not theologically, if you will. It will be theological. Not abstractly. But really, when it comes down to it, what does it mean to walk with God? And I think Enoch is a pattern for the believer who would walk with the Lord. I mean, who does not want to walk with God? And who does not want to please God? And I'm sure you're aware of the many injunctions in the scripture that talk about walking with God. Micah 6, 8, he has showed thee, O man, what the Lord requires, requirement of the Lord. What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God? It's an interesting verse if you think about walking humbly with thy God. And I think it's implied that you're already walking with the Lord but you should do so humbly. And I think the humbly part comes in because if we actually understood what it means to be walking in this world as a child of God, perfectly righteous in Christ, heirs of eternal life, we could have a pride In the sense that, not because we've done anything, but a pride by association. Hey, I'm a child of the king. I own this world. I'm an heir of eternity. I'm a child of God. God is in control of my life. I think there could be some pride in that sense, by way of association. But we are to walk humbly with our God. New Testament, walk in the light as he is in the light, walking with Christ. Walk in the spirit, walk in newness of life. There's a lot of positive injunctions about walking with God. Now I think none of us would say or assume that if we walked close enough with God that we'll be taken as Enoch did, raptured in body, soul, and spirit, But again, I think everyone in this room would like to walk with God. And so I'd like to look at this idea, not the historical facts, but relevance for us today. So we have three points, as you see in your outline. Number one, Enoch walked in the midst of a crooked and a perverse generation, which I want to develop a little bit because we would say we're in the same boat. And that did not preclude him. for walking with God. Secondly, Enoch walked with God by faith from our Hebrews chapter 11 passage. And there's three interconnecting ideas with Enoch, and that is that he walked by faith, he pleased God, and then he was translated. And then thirdly and finally, what is it to walk with God? And there's a single verse in the scripture that I came across that just, I'm gonna use the word simple. It's so simple to walk with God. Didn't say it was easy, but the theme or just the idea of walking with God is really quite simple. And I just want to close with that idea. And I trust, I hope this is really very practical and instructive and encouraging to walk with God. I mean, that's what I would like to have on my gravestone, and I don't want my wife to have the grave marker, or the, what do they call it, the tombstone maker. I don't want her to have to instruct the grave maker to write on it, he walked with God. What if the finger of God wrote that? He walked with God. I mean, that's the only kind of epitaph I want. That's what I want to be known for. And all of us do, just as Christians. So before we get to number one, just briefly, obviously, walking with God, I think the scripture defines that as it's a graphic picture to say what the spiritual life of the believer is like. It's a walk. It's not the quickest, it's not the most comfortable, but it's our lifestyle. It implies a steady, although slow, a steady progression towards a single goal. It's not aimless. It means our lives are going in the same direction that God is going. Remember Amos, how can two walk together except they be agreed? And a believer wants to walk in the way God walks. Sometimes we're knuckleheads and we miss God's ideas or God's principles, but in general we want to walk the way God walks and would have us walk. That implies obedience and faith and all of those kind of things. Walking with God implies intimacy. fellowship, talking with God. I think the believer today thinks he can't talk with God, it has to be praying. I think we can talk to God. And you might say, well, that's really prayer. Okay, that's prayer. But I think that our mind should be so connected with God that he is in all of our thoughts and our daily life as we walk through this earthly life. And of course, you have to walk. Your spouse, your friend, your pastor, your best, nobody can walk for you. You have to take the initiative. You have to take the time. You have to walk. And there's, unfortunately, no shortcuts. There's never any shortcut in the Christian life. The shortcut, you already got on the shortcut when he gave us grace and we don't have to keep the law. Okay, that's the shortcut. Now we walk, right? Okay, so number one, Enoch walked with God in the midst of a crooked and a perverse culture and society, much like ours. I mean, Enoch walked in the midst of that to the point that God took him, and to the point that he pleased God. I want to develop this just a little bit because I think we are living in the same kind of society that Enoch did. I mean, hedonism and lawlessness and people that hate God and call evil good and good evil and all these kinds of things, loving pleasure rather than loving God. But in the midst of this kind of a society, bad as it is, rather than that being a hindrance to walking with God, it should be a motivation to drive us to want to insulate and isolate our life, the comportment of our life, to just walking with God. There's four things in the context that show us how bad Enoch's day were. And again, I just want to just develop these for a little bit because The scripture says, we're encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. As it closes off Hebrews chapter 11 and goes into Hebrews chapter 12, consider these cloud of witnesses. And so let's consider this society that Enoch found himself in, there's four of them. First of all, the context, the context of the world. Again, all four of these, I think, would give us this idea to have a vigorous and a vital walk with him. I mean, greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world, in the society. But the context, when you read chapter five, the genealogy that sprung out from Adam, you read about this person, they lived, they lived so many years, they died. This person lived, they died. This person, they lived so many years, they died. And the only bright spot is Enoch. Enoch lived, and he had children, and he walked with God, and God took him. I mean, it's amazing, this list of people. We're not going to read through the list, but imagine at your funeral, somebody gets up to read your eulogy, and they come up and they say, so-and-so lived so many years, they were born, they lived so many years, and they died, and then they sat down. You would think, what kind of a little life did that person live? That's really sorry. That's pathetic. But that's the list here of Genesis chapter five. But Enoch, the contrast between a society that was living and just dying, the stark contrast between Enoch, he walked with God. And again, I know that that's all of ours desire. Not that we would walk in a way that's holier than thou or criticizing other churches and ministries. We don't wanna be known as a cheerleader for a church or a ministry. Don't wanna be negative. In simplicity, walking with God. The context is of Genesis five, they just live and die, live and die, live and die. Oh, but wait a minute, here's Enoch. He walked with God. Secondly, Noah's flood. Enoch lived 365 years in the midst of a people that ignored God, they were rebellious, they were sinful, society as a nation, the nation of, before there was a nation of Israel, it was so bad, in Genesis chapter five, that the very next chapter is the flood. Genesis six and verse five, God saw the wickedness of man. that it was great on the earth. Every imagination of the thoughts in the hearts was only evil continually. And so as you know, God would have to bring a worldwide deluge, a flood, because sin had reached an awful dimension. And the only answer that God had was basically to wipe out. And Noah, by the way, the scripture says Noah also walked with God. to wipe out the population and start over. Now, on one hand, of course, we would say, well, the minute that man fell in the garden, everything falls off the table and everything goes south. And we could say that, but on the other hand, to think that it got so bad that God had to wipe out the population of the world. And this was the time period that Enoch lived, right prior to the flood. Next, the scripture says, and we read in Jude, that Enoch was the seventh from Adam. The seventh from Adam. And the Bible tells us the other person who was the seventh from Adam was Lamech. Lamech. And Lamech was a very evil man. The Bible tells us he was a murderer. He was polygamous. His thoughts were so off base. Lamech was within the line of Cain. And if you recall, when they were moved out of the garden, Adam and Eve, We had Abel and Cain, and then eventually we saw, when we looked at Genesis chapter three, that at that line, they left Eden, and they became so inward focused. They developed all this technology, which it'd be interesting to see if they had the technology from today rather foisted on them. But when you read through the scripture, they were interested in metal making and woodwork. And they were breeding livestock and music. They were developing music and all of these kinds of things. And they were very inward focused on their careers, their technology, who as a people they could become. And they were ignoring God. This is where society was at that time. They served themselves. And again, just as a reminder, when we go back to the Garden of Eden, and we saw after the fall, there was an immediate divergence of two lines, the seed of the woman, the seed of promise, and the seed of the serpent. And mankind kind of fell into those two buckets. Genesis 3, verse 15, God says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. There was this immediate divergence, two lines of mankind, those who loved God, wanted to serve him, those who hated God. Two types of worship, spiritual worship, faith-based worship, or works-based, carnal. to lifestyles, those who would live unto God, and those who would live unto themselves. We could expand that list. We talked about that when we looked at Genesis chapter three. But there was a very, very rapid development of sin. A rapid development of corruption in the heart. And Lamech, who was a contemporary with Enoch, Lamech typifies this way of Cain, the seed of the serpent, that's a strong language. But there was this incredible wickedness of the time. And if you set Lamech side by side with Enoch, both seventh from Adam, it would be night and day. It would be good, it would be bad. It would be something to embrace, it would be something to abhor and stay away from. So Lamech as a contemporary with Enoch also displays the wickedness of the time. And then fourthly, to remind us and round out the context of Enoch, we read in Jude, behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000s of his saints 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 all of the hard speeches which ungodly sinners had spoken against God and God's people." That statement is not only prophetical, it's historical. It's historical of what occurred in Enoch's time. And four times he has this word ungodly, the opposite of godly. ungodly, and in the midst of these four adjective type passages or settings, we understand that Enoch walked in a very wicked, a very evil time, but he walked well pleasing to the Lord. In his walk, he didn't have a Bible. that was a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his path as our brother prayed. He didn't have the technology that can be put to good use, downloading sermons from sermonaudio.com. In other places, we get sermons. There's no record of him having a body of like-minded believers that he could have gone to and said, hey brother, I need to be encouraged. or I could encourage somebody else, or let's worship God together, let's pray, or whatever. Of course, we have an incredible amount of spiritual light, and we have the word in abundance, and the Holy Spirit has been poured out, and we could go down this list. But the same God who enabled Enoch to walk in that society enables his people today. Divine grace. was very active in the life of Enoch. That divine grace which is just as potent for us today. And of course we can pray, God help me to walk like Enoch. Just like this person that you put in the word of God, Lord help me to walk with you in that same way. God does require us to walk with him humbly. And so we can garner that promise and the truth of God's word and ask God to make us like that. Secondly, Enoch walked with God by faith. We read the passage in Hebrews chapter 11 that by faith, Enoch was even translated so that he would not see death, not see physical death. And in fact, God translated him because he had this testimony that he pleased God. There's three things here that are hooked together. I want to look at all three. Faith, and pleasing God, and his translation, the fact that he did not see death. These three are kind of like three bookends that show us his walking with God. And of course we must have, they're connected together, we must have faith, to walk with God, and we must have faith to please God. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And Enoch pleased God, and so God translated him. God took him by divine grace. Now Hebrews chapter 11, as you know, is called the hallmark of faith. And in verse one, it tells us what faith is. Faith is the substance of things not seen, the evidence of things hoped for. And then there's this list of accomplishments that faith does. And the focus is not on the people who did these things. The focus is on the accomplishments. Abraham, what did he do? He went out, not knowing where he was going. And then later, he offered up his son, Isaac. Noah? Noah moved with fear and built the ark. By faith, Israel passed through the Red Sea. There's this list of faith. They subdued kingdoms. They wrought righteousness. They stopped the mouths of lions. They obtained promises. They escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness, they remained strong. They waxed valiant in fight. They did all of these things by faith. And again, the focus is not on the individual. It's on faith. the faith that God gives, the faith that God preserves, the faith that God, besides saving faith, that growing faith in your life as you walk with God. Enoch previously did not walk with God, right? He, at some point, was an unbeliever. He walked according to the course of the world. He went his own way, but then there was this point when God saved him, and now he has faith. He's been reconciled to God. This faith, which is the gift of God, is put into his life. It changes him. He becomes a believer, and now he's able to walk with God. At some point in his life, the scripture doesn't tell us when, but saved by faith. At some point in his life, he has faith. And so now he's able to walk with God, this advance, this progression in spiritual things. His life is surrendered to God, but it's not just that. He enjoys God. He's blessed with God. He has joy in God. We always quote that answer to the first catechism, what is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And we think that that's a two-part statement for two different parts in our life. We're supposed to glorify him on this earth, and then when we get to heaven, we'll enjoy him forever. You're supposed to enjoy him now. Do you enjoy God? I was reminded of this several weeks ago. I reconnected with an army buddy. Hadn't spoken with him for 50 years almost. And I said, George, how you doing? He says, I'm still enjoying God. I said, enjoying him? He goes, yeah. How can you not enjoy God? That's supposed to be our experience. But again, here's Enoch with his faith. It's a justifying faith. It's a sanctifying faith. And maybe God even told him that he would be translated. We don't know on this particular level, because faith always has divine revelation at its foundation. Maybe it was told to him that he would not see death. We don't know, but he lived by faith, as the scripture says. And because of that, he pleased God. Secondly, in this category, he pleased God. Before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. Can you, here's a question that we should think about, can you please God? Can you please him to the level that Enoch pleased him? You're not in Enoch, obviously, we're living in the third millennium. Who knows when he lived, way, way back then. but could you please him to the point that if it was still God's plan to translate people that pleased him to heaven right away, would you get up there? Would you be at that level? Let me answer that question in a minute, but first I want to talk about the fact that the Bible says it actually is your Christian duty to please God. It says that in the Bible in 1 Thessalonians 4 in verse one, furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and we exhort you by the Lord Jesus Christ that as you have received of us how you ought to please God, excuse me, how you have received of us how you ought to walk and please God, that you would abound yet more and more. The apostle here is saying, you've already received of us how you ought to, and here it is, walking with God and pleasing him, again in the same context. We've already told you how to do that or what you need to do it, but we want you to abound yet more and more. And the Apostle Paul, as you know, he was contending with so much. People that wanted to please men. Are we men pleasers? He said, if I were to please men, I wouldn't please God. And he was dealing with those that were in the flesh. Remember in Romans, he said, those that are in the flesh cannot please God. Talking about people who are not saved. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be the Spirit of God dwell in you. He talked about those that entangle themselves in other affairs of this life when they're supposed to be a Christian soldier. And he says, no man entangles himself with the affairs of this life so that he can please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. Again, it's your Christian duty to please God. It's a tall order. It's your duty to please God. Again, furthermore, we beseech you, brethren, and we exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and please God so you would abound more and more. In our sanctifying faith part of our life, let me paraphrase A.W. Pink when he gives four things that have to occur for us to please God. He says, well, first of all, you have to be accepted of God. Back to Cain and Abel, Abel's worship was accepted by God. He had a relationship with God. And you need to have a relationship with God to be accepted by God. Secondly, the thing that is done has to please God in accordance with his will. We just don't decide, well, I think I'll do this to please God. There's enough in the scriptures that tell us how to please God that we could follow after and do. We have to do so in accordance with his will. Thirdly, how we do it, right? Remember, Jesus always was getting at the motives of the scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites. He said, you're white as sepulchers, you look great on the outside, but inside you're full of dead men's bones. God looketh on the heart, not the exterior, not the amount of money that you give, not this duty or that principle or this other thing. The motive goes along with the act or the duty. And fourthly, he says, if you think about faith, faith is the only way that these four come together. I didn't mention the fourth. The fourth one, it has to be to the glory of God. So we're accepted of God, It has to be in accordance with his will. Our heart has to be in the right place, and it has to be to God's glory. He concludes this thought by saying, faith is the only means whereby these four requirements can be met. By faith in Christ, the person is accepted by God. Faith makes us submit our will to God's will. Faith causes us to examine the manner in which we do that thing, Godwards, and faith aims at God's glory. Abraham was strong in faith, giving glory to God. On this level, in your sanctified faith level, you can be accepted by God even though those fruits of your faith were not perfect. even though we are growing in them. Enoch was not translated right away when he was 65. He went through 300 more years before God took him. And so we can, it's implied we can assume that he was growing in his faith with God and his walk with God. And as the storehouse of God's riches was opening up to him, he dove in more and more. to get to that point. So it's your Christian duty to please God. But can you please God? Can you please God? Well, on the level that we just spoke of, the development of your Christian character, of course you can please God on that level. God is working in you to will and to do of what? His good pleasure. His good pleasure is to bring you along that road to get you to that point. But on an infinitely high level, you please God because you are found in Him with whom God is well pleased. Think about that for just a minute. Because you are in Christ, And God the Father on several occasions says, I am well pleased with my son. Because you are in him, you are pleasing to God because of what Christ has done. You are accepted in the beloved. That starts to tell us what this righteousness of Christ has been given to you, the dimension of it. If you are in Christ, God is well pleased with you because you're united to Christ, eternally united to Christ. So these two aspects of pleasing God in our sanctifying faith, in our growth in faith and grace and all these things, we look outside of ourselves. We know that we're unworthy, but we want to do things to please God. It's our duty. And we apply for grace that God would be pleased with our fruits, our works, our labors, our prayers, our whatever. But on the second level, it finds its answer in the fact that we are ultimately and finally gazing to God because we are in Christ, we're found in Him. Paul Washer, quite a while ago he said this, Paul Washer said this, if you could see your persona in heaven and compare it to your person, persona, soul, spirit, essence on earth, what you would see is they're exactly the same. You're not gonna be more accepted when you get to heaven. There's the issue of a body, you'll be given a new body at whatever time that is, but your soul essence, your spirit essence, believe it or not, is identical upon this earth. You've been accepted in the beloved. There's no, you can't add to that. You cannot add to the righteousness of Christ, no matter what you do. So we can please God. And that's a glorious thing. On the one level, it's our duty, and we want to please him as a child of God, but to know that finally and ultimately, we are pleasing to him because we are in Christ. And then Enoch's translation, and our translation. Enoch was translated, it says three times, should not see death. God translated him. Before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. So Enoch there is living, the seventh generation from Adam, and one day, he is translated into heaven. And it's like, where's Enoch? I saw him yesterday. You know, today there's ways, thanks to technology, you can disappear. You can change your identity. You just may want to decide to go live in another part of the country and just start over or whatever. You can disappear. Back then, I don't think you could just disappear unless God is doing the disappearing. He's no more. And his being taken by God is just as dramatic as Elijah's. He had the chariots of fire for Elijah, and he was taken up by a whirlwind, and people saw him going up. But Enoch's translation was just as miraculous, just as remarkable, just as astounding. The Greek word in Hebrews for translation means to be carried across, or to be changed from one place to another, or to be removed. Enoch's in another place now. He was removed from one world to another world. He was physically taken by God. Now you know, as the scripture tells us in the book of 1 Corinthians, that there will be this great rapture of people in bodies who are Christians living on that day when God wraps us up, they will also be taken. And however you, whatever time you think that might happen, post-trib, mid-trib, on meal, whatever, et cetera, et cetera, we all agree that there will be a people that is taken up. And that removal from this world to that will be amazing. It's gonna be miraculous and remarkable. Your translation from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son is just as remarkable, just as amazing, just as much a work of grace. Colossians 1.13, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and he has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. Same word, Greek word. He removed us from one world into another world. He carried us across. He bore us to a new location. Enoch, I think here, as a Gentile, he gives us by way of application, or he typifies, or he shows us what happens when someone is translated, spiritually speaking, out of the kingdom of darkness, out of the power of darkness, into the kingdom of his dear son. Enoch escaped death. You escaped death, right? The wages of sin is death. You're escaping that spiritual death. We probably won't escape physical death, or we might, but God's emphasis is on don't worry about the one who kills the body. Worry about the one who could kill the soul. The spiritual death that comes from the wages of sin. So for the believer now, faith, like Enoch, it's exercise. The soul is lifted up above the scene. We walk in newness of life. Our heart has been translated. We've been raised above. We've been made an heir of eternal life. And like Enoch, we walk with God. Of course, our desire is that this doctrine would become actual experience. and known by us as we walk in this world, and that would have an impact upon us. It's one thing to know the doctrine and read it. It's another thing to live in the realm of this eternal life. But that's exactly what a life of faith is. It's being lifted up above the world, translated out of that old place, put in a new place, and having that new perspective. Enoch's translation was a miracle. I think it spiritually symbolizes what happens when we are born again. Your whole spiritual life from start to finish is a miracle. It's amazing. It's astounding. It's supernatural. It's divine. It's otherworldly. Before his translation, of course, he had this testimony. He pleased God. He pleased God because he walked with God. He walked amongst this culture, this society that hated God and hated God's people. But faith was the victory that overcame the world in his case. I mentioned in Corinthians it talks about at some point in time there will be this taking away, this rapture of people. And the Puritans, I think it was the Puritans who coined the phrase the blessed hope. And the blessed hope was the return of Christ. I think our hope is not his coming again. Our hope is our translation. If the blessed hope is his coming again, then the blessed to have and to hold is the translation from spiritual death and spiritual darkness into eternal life and spiritual light. Enoch walked with God. Thirdly and finally, what is it to walk with God? I mean, we don't do this in this church, but if I were to ask somebody by name, could you stand up and tell us, what is it to walk with God? What would you say? I think most of us would speak to some of the component parts that we think put our walk with God together. So we might say, well, it's to read the scripture, or it's prayer, or it's ministry, or it's to not do these things, but do these things. And those might be component parts of walking with God, but in its most simplest form, What is it to walk with God? And I'm gonna say it's really simple. It's very simple. And just for a moment, I want you to set aside, I said it was simple, not necessarily easy, but it is simple. Set aside just for a minute those things that make it difficult. Set aside spiritual warfare. Set aside the world, the flesh, the devil, the culture, society, our own weakness and firmities. Set those aside just for a minute. And think about, by way of a theme, a thread that would run through your entire life, what is it to walk with God? The Puritan John Owen, in a brief discussion on walking with God, pointed to two simple things with one verse that encapsulates those two things. Again, walking with God is not just a duty, it's the course of your entire life. In its simplest form, walking with God can be summed up in Acts chapter 11, in verse 23. In Acts chapter 11, close to verse 23, Barnabas is gonna be sent out, he's supposed to go as far as Antioch. He gets to Antioch, And it says simply this in chapter 11 of Acts, verse 23, who, when he had came, he saw the grace of God and he was glad. And he exhorted all of them that with purpose of heart, they should cleave to the Lord. And John Owen says, those two things, purpose of heart, that is your goal every day, that fixed design, the end of your life, what you purpose to do that day is to number two, cleave unto the Lord. Cleave unto the Lord. This is what Barnabas exhorted those saints in Antioch, with purpose of heart, They should cleave unto the Lord. Purpose of heart is a word that means to set forth by way of purpose or to show by way of demonstration. This is it. This is my purpose. Purpose of heart. The heart is the center of your spiritual life. It's the soul, the mind, the fountain of your thoughts, your passions, your desires. your appetites, with an intentional purpose of your heart, your life, you should cleave to the Lord. That word means to stay in that place, remain there, continue there. If you distill, what does it mean to walk with God? Yeah, there's a whole lot of other stuff that we want to do, but if we start on this simple plane, I'm purposing in my heart today just to cleave to the Lord. That might result in me reading the scriptures or praying or meditating, that's secondary. I'm just gonna cleave to the Lord like a man should cleave unto his wife. I'm gonna remain, I'm gonna hold him. John 15, I'm going to abide with him, the vine and the branches. I'm gonna cleave unto the Lord. If you're walking somewhere and a storm happens, you're driving somewhere, you get a flat tire, if you have a destination in mind, though you might be deterred or slowed down, it doesn't change the destination. We have to make him our end, our design for our life, our goal. You've heard me say that if you aim at nothing, you're gonna hit it every time. He has to be our aim. He has to be our rule. No man liveth unto himself and no man dieth unto himself. Whether we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live or die, therefore, we are the Lord's. Cleave unto him. We have to expect our strength from Him. This walk with God, as simple as it is if we distill it this way, we absolutely need His grace. And we need Him to continue to fuel our faith, our strength. Again, John 15. Abide in the branch, divide in the branches. No shortcuts. If we're striving, we have to strive lawfully. As much as we would like to take a shortcut, we can't. I've climbed up Half Dome at Yosemite three times. That hike is about 18 miles. There's a change in elevation of about 4,000 feet. You have to carry your own water. It's arduous. There are some risky places. I mean, the trail is generally safe, but maybe you've heard of people that get off the trail. And they get swept down a waterfall by slipping on a rock, or they do something stupid. But you start from the valley floor, and you walk past Vernal Falls. And then you go another hour or two. Then you go by Nevada Falls. You go around the back of Half Dome. And the last 300 yards or so, you're climbing up a rock at about a 45 or 60 degree angle, holding onto cables, getting to the top. I've made that trip three times. Always stayed on the trail for safety purposes. And also, they don't want you to mess up the habitat for others. Stay on the trail. As difficult as it is, never had an issue. Compare that to about a year or so ago, I was hiking with a friend in San Mateo, about a three-mile hike at the most. We climbed up, he called it a mountain. It wasn't nothing compared to Half Dome. And we climbed up there in probably 45 minutes, maybe an hour. And then he said, hey, do you want to take a shortcut to get back? And I said, yeah, sure. And so we headed off in the right compass direction to go back to the trailhead, but taking a shortcut coming down this mountain a whole other way. No trail there. And as we got through the underbrush and we started to get a little bit farther down the shortcut, a lot of trees were shading the hill. And it had been raining the previous week. So it was very slippery. And sure enough, there was a steep place. And I slipped. And I tried to grab a branch. It twisted me around. I hit my head. I fell. I hit my head. I got a really bad nosebleed. I was covered in blood. I cut myself up. I was covered in mud. And it was pretty amazing. We finally somehow got down the hill and there were some hikers walking past us and they see me covered in blood and mud and all I could say was I could point to my friend and I said, no matter what, don't go hiking with this guy. And my wife can tell you how bad I looked. I mean, it was amazing. It was a safer trail. It was shorter. But we decided to take a shortcut. There's no shortcuts in the Christian life. And I say that, and I use that illustration because sometimes, relative to walking with God, we can think a shortcut, well, I will shoehorn in some Bible reading. There, I walked with God today. That's not the import of what the scripture's trying to tell us. God wants all of you. God wants you, with purpose of heart, to cleave to him. That's what Enoch did. That's what walking with God is. No shortcuts. It has to be a persevering walk. Again, Enoch walked with God for 300 years after God met him when he was 65. It has to be habitual. I think drawing near to God is easy in a sense, but the difficulty comes in when we want it to be habitual and ongoing. That's where we need to cry out to God for help in His Holy Spirit. We have to be reminded that works don't make us walk with God. Typically, works are a fruit of being in His presence. If we're in His presence, we want to read the Word. We want to commune and pray and talk with Him. So what does it mean to walk with God? With purpose of heart, cleave unto the Lord. That's about as simple as the Bible can make it. Yes, we can use the scripture reading or Bible intake or prayer. It can be a means of drawing near to God, but it can also be seen in the larger context of a fruit that comes from walking with him. We as humans with this Adamic nature, we often want to substitute the intangible with the tangible things we can touch or measure or quantify. God put us in a different place. God wants us to walk with him. Let's purpose in our minds and our hearts to walk with God. I mean, is there any other way to live life? No. Like Enoch, let's walk with God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We have a desire and we want to investigate and understand what an amazing man, by your grace, Enoch, to walk with you to the point that you took him, you were pleased with him. Father, help us to, at least on this simple plane, this simple level, to even with childlike faith, just walk with you. And Lord, would you not grant your Holy Spirit and your divine grace and all things that are needful to keep us on that trail, that pathway, to walk with you? This is our desire. We pray that you would do it. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.