Welcome to Harmony Imperative Baptist Church. This is Elder Neal Phelan, Jr. preaching for regular Sunday morning services. Let's turn to the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. We're going to be in that chapter for a while. Brother Dick asked me this morning if we were going back there and I told him, yes, we're going to be back in the book of Hebrews 11th chapter for a little while. I enjoy the study of it and I hope you've enjoyed the messages that we've delivered thus far. And we consider this chapter is the Faith Hall of Fame. There's so many wonderful patriarchs that are mentioned here, and we see some of the great things that they were blessed to do by faith. We've learned so far that this faith that they had was the same faith that we have today. That was before the church, that was before the gospel was revealed, before the coming of Jesus Christ. And we read this chapter, and I think the apostle, as he writes this chapter, is trying to let the Hebrews know in that day that the faith that they are entering into about Jesus Christ is no different than the faith that their ancient forefathers possessed. And he's encouraging them to begin their walk of faith and their new knowledge of who Christ was. We've learned that there are three phases of our faith, that there is vital faith, which is given in regeneration. Faith is a fruit of the spirit, and every person that's born of God's spirit possesses a measure of faith. We've learned that there is academic faith, that the information that we have or the truths that we understand in God's word, Jude refers to that as the faith once delivered to the saints, that's the scriptures. And our academic faith has to do with the knowledge that we have of God's word as we put our vital faith into action. And we've also learned that there's active faith and that is acting upon the knowledge that we have. And we can have the knowledge of God's word and the truth of God's word. But yet, if we don't act upon it, as we read in the book of James, that our faith is dead, it doesn't mean that it does not exist. It just means that it is inactive and we're not using it as God had intended for us to do. We've also learned that faith is the evidence of things not seen, that it is by faith that we see things that have not yet come to pass, God's promises and his blessings. And we see Abraham that sought a city that was not in this world. and that we see things by faith that's not here. We see the Lord's place that He's prepared for us. As I mentioned, I've already walked the streets of gold and played on a harp and seen the angels and all those things. Well, not really, but you know what I'm saying, that we all anticipate the blessings of the world to come, and we see that by faith. And we've also learned that it was by faith that the elders or the old ones obtained a good report. And without faith, it's impossible to please God And last Sunday, I really enjoyed the study of verse four. We're able offering to God a more perfect sacrifice than Cain. And through the study, we learned that there is a time and a place, a purpose and even an amount that God has prescribed for us that we are to offer to him. And if when we offer in that way, we're offering by faith, knowing that God is going to bless us for what we do. Now, today we come to verse five, and we're going to learn about the faith of Enoch. And Enoch, to me, is one of the most interesting persons in all of the Bible. And the reason that he is is because of the way that he departed from planet Earth. He was translated. In other words, God took him right on up to heaven. He didn't even see death. And he's one of the only person that was like that. We read that prophet Elijah that was taken up in a whirlwind of fire in a chariot. And so he's very interesting this morning. So I hope you'll pay attention because not only are we going to learn about his faith, but we're going to learn something very interesting about his life being placed in the sacred canon of scriptures. So we learned that he lived 365 years and then vanished. So let's turn over to the book of Genesis. It's there that we read about him. In chapter five and the thing interesting thing about him is there's only four verses in the whole Bible in the book of Genesis about his life. There's a mention of him in the book of Jude and then this mention of him in the book of Hebrews and just the very mention of his name in Hebrews chapter 11 should tell us that this man is a very important man to God and his faith was great and he should be important to us today. So we're going to read about him. We're going to look over to there's a lot. I don't want to read all these names. One of the reasons I don't want to is because I can't pronounce most of them. We get his lineage here a little bit, though. I'm going to take a shot at it, OK? And you can. And by the way, let me say this, that there's more than one Enoch. You may call him Enoch. that's mentioned in this first part of the book of Genesis. The first Enoch that's mentioned is the son of Cain. Now, this is not the Enoch that's mentioned in the book of Hebrews or in the book of Jude. We read about the Enoch that's walked by faith in chapter 5, and so I'm going to begin reading in verse 12. And Cainan lived seventy years in Begat Mahielel, And Canaan lived after he begat Mehillel 840 years and begat sons and daughters. Don't name any of your children Mehillel, okay? All the days of Canaan were 910 years and he died. And Mahialel lived 65 years and begat Jared. Now that's not the jeweler, but that's somebody else back then. And Mahialel lived after he begat Jared 830 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Mahialel were 895 years and he died. And Jared lived 162 years and he begat Enoch. And Jared lived after he begat Enoch 800 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died. And Enoch lived, and here is his life, we're going to read about it now. And Enoch lived 65 years and beget Methuselah. Now, Methuselah is the oldest recorded person that we know of in the Bible. He lived to be 969 years. And by the way, he didn't even beget Enoch until he was 65 years. And Enoch walked with God, and he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. And that's the end of his story in the book of Genesis. One thing we see about him, two times it's mentioned that Enoch walked with God. As we read his life, we see that Enoch was of the lineage of Seth. He was not of the lineage of Cain. So when you're reading about him, be sure you stay on the right page there concerning his family. There was Adam, Seth, Enoch, Canaan, Mehillel, Jared and then Enoch. Now, I'm making a point here on that because I want you to notice that Enoch was of the seventh generation from Adam. Did you notice that as you're reading? I mean, you can do that in your own family. You know, you can see the different generations even here in this church, that there are several generations and some families in this church. And seldom do we see a generation and a family beyond three. Maybe every now and then you may have four generations that are still alive. But Enoch is the seventh person from Adam. Now, that's very important, because as we read in the book of Jude, we find that this is mentioned. Turn with me to the book of Jude. I'm going to read to you the account of Enoch over in the book of Jude, and I want you to see how carefully the Bible cites this generation. Now, you may say, where's Brother Sonny going here right now? But I'm going to give it to you in just a minute. I should have had this marked already. But over in the book of Jude, you'll find the verse is 14. There's only one chapter in the book of Jude. So in verse 14, it says, And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, talking about ungodly, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints. to execute judgment upon all, to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Now, that kind of preacher probably wouldn't be popular today, preaching a sermon like that. But that was his message. But the point I'm after first is for you to see that he was the seventh from Adam. And you might be saying, well, why is Brother Sonny interested in him being the seventh from Adam? Well, the reason I am interested in that is because if we understand the genealogy of this man, it destroys every false concept of the biblical account of creation by what we call biblical evolutionists. Now, listen to me, because some people, some of God's people get confused in the Genesis account of creation. And they get confused on the age of the earth. Biblical evolutionists will say that God created the heavens and the earth. They believe that God is the divine creator. But they believe that it happened over millions of years so that they can agree with scientists as well. But when we read about this man being the seventh from Adam, then what God is telling us is I'm putting a footnote in here for you in the New Testament. And I'm trying to tell believers that this man, the genealogy of Enoch and the rest of the patriarchs that are listed in the book of Genesis is an accurate account of the time span that was going on in that day. And God is also saying that you can take this book that I just read all those names to you and you can see that they lived so many years and then they died. And you can make a timetable yourself and you can see how old the world is. And actually, I did that one time. And God puts these little footprints all through the scriptures. And you'll find out the age of the flood. You'll find out the age of Abraham. From Abraham, you can get the age of David. And then you can go on through the New Testament to the coming of Jesus Christ. And so that tells us that the earth really is. You all heard me say, I believe the earth is six thousand years old. And the reason I say so is because I say so by faith, because that's what the word of God tells me. It doesn't matter what the sciences tell me. I believe by faith that that's how old this place is. Now, if you look in the center margin of your Bible, you're going to find that there's some of your Bibles. Mine does. I like it. It has a timetable in there. For instance, in your Bible, it may have B.C. something or A.D. something. When I'm reading about Enoch over here in the book of Genesis, I read that Enoch was around B.C. 4000. And that's right, because at this time it was 4000 years to the coming of Jesus Christ. And it's been 2000 years since Christ came, that's 6000 years. And so you see that this is based upon this chronology of the people that are listed in the book of Genesis. Now, we've got a book in our library called Usher's Chronology. He was one of those people that studied time, and so he makes this chart. And so you can find that that book's been around a long time. It's basically been forgotten by the Christian world. But that book is based upon this timetable that God gives us in his word. So Enoch is dated around B.C. 4000. Look at Genesis 7 and 11 just to give you a thought on this. And Genesis 7 and 11, and remember, we're studying about Enoch here. I want you to know the importance of him being there. And verse 11, it says, In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up. Now, that's an account of the day of the flood, when the flood, the very day the flood came upon this world. You can trace it to the very day of creation if you want to do that. Now, I said of creation, let me backtrack just a moment, because we don't know exactly how long it was from the time that Adam was created and he fell. It doesn't seem like very long to me. But anyway, we get a pretty accurate account though here, and so you've got these little footnotes like the one I just read to you in Genesis 7 and 11. And if you read the Old Testament, you'll find other footnotes that connect to this verse from the time of the flood and etc. And so I'm saying then this morning that the account of Enoch is very important to us as Christians. Because when you can understand that this world is 6,000 years old, then the evolutionist has no time to produce a world that came into existence by evolution. Six thousand years will not allow any evolutionary process. And when Christians begin to give way to the fact that this earth is only six thousand years old, you've given them exactly what they want and they know that. So he's put in here for a purpose, for our faith, that we can understand how old this world really is. Let me just give you a little more information on this. It's very important, important, I believe, this morning. And you may say, well, Brother Sonny, we're waiting to hear about the faith of this man. But let me give you just a little bit more information here in case you're making some notes. Look at Matthew chapter 1. Some of you may know what I'm about to tell you, and it has to do with the genealogy that's listed there concerning our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter 1, you read of the names of these people, the lineage of Christ. And by the way, when you read this man, you understand this lineage goes up to the New Testament. You know, you read in verse 2, Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judas. And you read all down through there. I'm not even going to try to pronounce all these names. And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus Christ. Now, it would be easy to trace the age of the earth from Christ, wouldn't it? I mean, there's no problem there. But you see this genealogy table going through here. And then one other place you can look at is in Luke chapter 3. This is the good one here, I believe, concerning, if we're looking at time, in Luke chapter 3, look at verse 37. Now, the reason I'm giving you this is somebody says, why do you believe the way you do concerning creation? You've got some evidence there. 3 in 37, all through here, we read this genealogy goes all the way back to Adam. And in verse 37, you find which was the son of Methuselah, which was the son of Enoch. Enoch is mentioned there. So we find that this genealogy table is not only important for us to understand the age of the earth, but also the genealogy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So this is when we read this, man, there's a there's a lot of importance. I guess I was thinking like this, that this morning I've asked you to view some ancient documents. that are older than any parchment that you might find in the British Museum. And they give us an insight in some of the oldest history in all the world. And we as Christians, we sometimes take that for granted that we've got this information here, but we'll go to the to the British Museum and there's the Rosetta Stone and we'll say, wow, there's the Rosetta Stone. But we got something better than that right here, that this is the most accurate history in all the world. This is the only history book that you can open up and read it and you can believe everything that you read. And I like that about the scriptures, because I know what I read is it through. Do you read any other history book? And you might question whether or not it's tainted with somebody's opinion on something. But this one is God's opinion. It's God's word concerning history. Now, let's look at Enoch's faith. Enoch has I want to look at his faith in two different ways. I want to look at his walk. And I want to look at his talk, because we find that Enoch was very faithful in his life. And two times it tells us in the book of Genesis that Enoch walked with God. What does that mean, anyway, to walk with God? Well, it carries with the thought of somebody's daily conduct and fellowship with God. Walking with God is a decision that you and I make every single day. Just like what we're going to wear, what shoes we're going to put on, what we're going to eat for breakfast. It is a decision that you and I make every morning when we get up if we're going to walk with God. Now, let me just say this, that we didn't make a decision to be his child or for him to be our father any more than any of us made a decision to have our parents or to be somebody else's child, or to be somebody's child. This was given to us by God's grace. And we understand that we are God's child by His grace. According to Ephesians 1, God chose His people in Christ before the foundation of the world. And so that's when it all began. And we understand that there are even some children that may want to walk with their parents. I was talking to a lady that cuts my hair, and she was telling me, giving me her testimony. And she was telling me that when she grew up, that her parents had nothing to do with her. And so she was kind of pushed around from family to family. But she had a godly grandmother and her grandmother continued to tell her that God loved her and given her the passage of scripture in Psalms 27 and 10, that when your mother and father forsake you, then the Lord will take you up. And she said she hung on to that promise all through her life. Until she came to the place in her life that she came to know the Lord and followed him in her life. And she told me what great strength that that gave her. And though there are some parents that may not walk with their children, we know God will. And what I'm saying to you this morning is that no matter how many times we may have made a mistake or how far, how far we may have fallen, God will always walk with you. Enoch walked with him by faith. But God wants us to walk with Him every day. There's none too small, none that have fallen too far that God will not walk with them. You know, that's what Jesus said, coming to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden with sin, I will give you rest. Jesus wants us to walk with Him daily. He said, He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. So the walk with God is a decision that we make. But I can promise you that God will never deny you walking with Him. He wants to walk with us. Well, when we think about how the Enoch walked with God, I've already told you that he didn't make a decision to be God's child any more than we make a decision to be the child of our parents. So when we're talking about walking with God, we're talking about fellowship, fellowship with God. Now, I want to say it's not relationship, although we do have a relationship with him. You know, the relationship is something that we receive passively, don't we? We have children. There are children by relationship. They became that passively. And so far as God is concerned, we have a relationship with him as his children. And we became that passively. We didn't make a decision to do that. But when we think about relationship, we look at the gospel of John in chapter one and the same thought is expressed here. And verse 11, it says he came to his own and his own received him not. They didn't want to walk with him. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." Now, this verse proves what I've just told to you. It says, "...which were born, not of blood, nor the will of man, nor of the flesh, but of God." So it says they were born of God, not by their own will, and since they're born of God, since they have this relationship, they have the power to have fellowship with Him. And so we, as God's children this morning, have the power and we have the privilege to do exactly what Enoch did, and that is to walk with God on a daily basis. Now, we come to this thought that we read in the book of Amos, and you're very familiar with this passage where Amos asked this question in Amos three and three. How can two walk together except they be agreed? The answer is they can't. You must be agreed to walk together with God. You know, we find that true even in a marriage, that we must be in agreement to walk together. Now, I'm not saying that in a marriage you have to agree on everything or there wouldn't be any marriages. Some people can even disagree concerning maybe their their their faith. Somebody want to go to a different church or something. But basically, you've got to agree on a lot of things. You may have to agree to disagree on some things. But basically, if you're going to have a good marriage, you've got to agree on some things. And if we're going to walk with the Lord, then we're going to have to agree with him on some things, aren't we? Somebody might say, well, you know, I think I can walk with the Lord and I can have my own doctrine and I can believe what I want to believe. I'm afraid you can't. You know, we're going to have to believe as close as we can to the things that God has given us to walk with him. Now, we may, some of us may be in darkness on some things. Obviously, all of us don't know everything. And there's a lot we all have to learn yet. But for the life that God has given us and the truth that He has given us, then we should embrace those things and walk in them. In the book of 2 Corinthians, we find Paul writing this, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? The answer is none. And what communion hath light with darkness? The answer is none. What concord hath Christ with Belial? None. What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? None. And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? None. For ye are the temple of God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk within them, and I will be their God. They shall be my people. That's talking about his elect. Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate. He's telling his people that you do not need to be fellowshipping with the ungodly world. that if you want to walk with me, come out from among the world and have fellowship with me. And then he says, I will be their God. I will receive you and I will be a father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters. Now, are they as sons and daughters relationally? Yes, they're already by relationship as sons and daughters. But as far as fellowship is concerned, it is not there. And he's saying, I want you to walk away from this ungodly world, that you can have fellowship with me. Now, fellowship can be severed. We can have fellowship with the Lord one day, and we can find ourselves doing some things that we should not be doing, and we can find our fellowship severed from the Lord. Have you ever felt that way in your own experience? I believe every one of us has. There have been some times in our experience that we feel like that we've walked with the Lord. We feel close to Him. We feel that peace. We feel like we're in his will, but then we find ourselves sometimes doing some things that break that fellowship with him. And we seek to have it back. And he's promised to give it back to us. You know, in the first John, he says that if we sin, if we say that we do not sin, then we've lied. But if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us. And then we have that fellowship. And that's what confession is all about. And that's what repentance is all about. You know, confession and repentance never has paid for a single sin. It never will. But it will bring you back into fellowship with your heavenly father, that you can enjoy that peace in your life. So we find that this is one of the great things that Abel did, that he walked with God and Abel obviously, I'm Abel, Enoch obviously, I'm preaching last Sunday's sermon, Enoch obviously walked with God. Now, there's a lot, the Bible has to say a lot about our walk. And if I were to go through all the Scriptures in the Bible that talked about our walk, then we'd be here for a long time. But let me just give you a few that's found in the book of Ephesians, because Ephesians has a lot to say about walking. In Ephesians 2 and 10 it says, We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, with God hath ordained that we should walk in them. So when it comes to our walk, we want to walk in such a way that we are doing some good works. And of course, that's a long subject itself, isn't it? In Ephesians 4 and 11, Paul says, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. You and I are called to a vocation just like a job. We're called to honor the Lord Jesus Christ in our life and we're to walk worthy of that. If you're a member of the Lord's church, you are to walk worthy of that church. Everywhere you go, everything you say, everything you do is a reflection not only of the church, but of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you say that you love the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is your Savior, and you go out in the world and you live a life that's ungodly, and people see you doing those things, you are slandering the Lord Jesus Christ. And many times we find ourselves not living up to the perfect standard. None of us do. But yet we are representing him and his people. In Ephesians 4, 17, he says, This I say, therefore, and testify to the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles in the vanity of their mind. Now, the vanity of your mind means a bunch of emptiness. And so we have our mind filled with good things concerning the way that we walk. In Ephesians 5 and 2, and walk in love, which is the way that we're supposed to walk in the church, that we're willing to sacrifice ourselves for others as Christ loved us, gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling saver. As members of the church, we are offering ourselves unto God and to his people, aren't we? You know, we offer ourselves, we offer ourselves to one another, and we are servants of Jesus Christ. And finally, in Ephesians 5, excuse me, 5 and 8, you were sometimes darkness, but are now light, and the Lord walketh children of light. So we're to walk as children who have some light upon the Word of God. So there's a lot of walk scriptures. I'll give you one more. This is 5.15. See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. The word circumspectly carries with the thought of accurately and precisely. So we are to walk in a way that is accurate, precise. I'm not telling you to be stoics or doesn't tell us that. But we are to measure our walk every day. Now, we've looked about at his walk. Let's look at his talk. Did he walk the walk and talk the talk or did he just talk and not walk? As we read his life, obviously, God was very pleased with him because he was translated. We're going to look at that in just a moment. And I don't know anybody that's ever been translated like that except Elijah. So we look at some of the great patriarchs like David and Solomon and Abraham would be the high father, probably one of the greatest. And Noah, none of them were translated. That's quite an honor to think about a man that God just took him on up to heaven. I mean, they were walking along one day and God said, you know, we've been walking along here now for about three hundred and sixty five years. Come on up here. Let's just walk together a little bit closer. And he just took him on up there and they just continued walking. But let's look at what he said. Look at his message over in the book of Jude. We've already read it to you, but I want to look at it again because this is his talk. This is what the man was saying while he was down here on planet Earth, around all these people. And remember that this man lived just prior to the flood. Methuselah was, wasn't that his son? And then a couple more generations and you got the flood. So can you imagine how ungodly it must have been in that day? I mean, it's bad right now. If you don't know that, open your eyes. It's bad. Christians are being persecuted right now in other countries. They're being put to death. That's a sad thing. We should be, even though they may not agree with us, everything doctrinally, we love them. They're representing the Lord Jesus Christ and we're thankful and we see them being put to death. But the world was very wicked in that day. The Bible says that it was so wicked that every thought of man's imagination was on evil continually. They must have had a lot of televisions around in that day, a lot of bad music. The internet was probably, pornography was, they had the internet going. Well, you know I'm kidding you, I'm just seeing if you're paying attention. But I want to tell you, there's ways that Satan can get the wrong kind of stuff in front of people, eager eyes that are interested in stirring up their flesh. And it was so bad that God destroyed it with a flood. Now, the Lord's not going to do that again. He made that promise. When the world gets that bad again, Jesus Christ is coming back. And that's exactly what his message was. This message, as we read it, I want you to notice some things about his talk, because the sermon he's preaching is a sermon that's foretelling the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Not only that, it's a sermon that promises that God's going to have a lot of people. It says he's coming with ten thousands of his saints. That's a word with an S on the end of it. In other words, in that day, they didn't have a number to give. So this means an infinite number that no man can number. Now, let me ask you a question this morning, if you're still listening. How could he make such a promises that that God was going to come back with that many people if we're waiting and hoping that people might be saved? I mean, it sounds to me like it's a sure deal that all these people are already secure in a father's love. There could be no promise. We might say, well, there's going to be some we don't know how many yet. There may be 100 or maybe 2,000. There may be 5 or 10,000. And hopefully there may be a whole lot, but we really don't know. This is a precise promise that's given. It's already known how many are coming back. So we read this. Here is his message. And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied. This is a prophecy. It was made in the morning of time. It was made by man that had a lot of information. Where do you think he got it? God gave it to him. He got this revelation directly from God. God said, I'm going to come back one day, my son's coming back, and I'm going to bring the disembodied souls of the saints with me, ten thousands and thousands of them, and I'm going to bring them up to be with me, and I'm going to execute judgment upon the wicked world that will then be. And the Apostle Paul said that evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse, and that's what's happening today. Here's this prophecy, behold the Lord cometh, that's future, with ten thousands, that's a number that no man can name, or number, of his saints, that's his people, 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 their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Now, my friends, I don't know what that whole sermon sounded like, but here's what I believe, that this man was given information from God concerning the second coming of Jesus Christ, and he was going around to everybody in that world in that day, and he was preaching this message and warning them. And there's really nothing wrong with that message here this morning. That whoever you are here this morning, I will warn you that the Lord is coming back. He's coming with ten thousands of his saints, and nobody can keep him from coming. And I don't know, I don't understand what grace is, but I'll tell you one thing, there came a time in my experience that I began to think about things and wonder if I did belong to the Lord. And any sensible person that belonged to the Lord ought to have that kind of thought. I mean, if you've ever wandered around in your religion and just accepted things and never had a personal experience with the Lord Jesus Christ, never wondered if you're a sinner, never wondered if you needed the blood of Jesus Christ, I would question, question if you're just in religion or if you really belong to the Lord. There comes a fear in all of us when we recognize that we have sinned, we've fallen short, that we're worthy of nothing, and that if God does what we deserve, that he'd burn us forever. Every one of us believe that, should believe that. And one of our Psalms says, if my soul were sent to hell by righteous law, proves it well. And I'll agree with that, that I believe that for myself. But we also come to that time in our experience that we question our salvation, we begin to look at the Lord and say, am I, do I belong to the Lord? Am I part of this covenant? Am I one of these thousands of thousands that he's coming for? I pray that I am. I remember when that happened to me, I began to get the Bible out and read it. I thought, you know, I've always thought I was a safe person, but, you know, I'm kind of questioning that now because God's shown me my sin. I've never seen my sin like that before. And I started reading in the Bible thinking, you know, I better look through here and just see if I really do belong to the Lord. I begin to read the scriptures and found that, well, gosh, I'm pretty condemned here. I don't know if there's much hope. But then I begin to read about his grace towards sinners. And I found great compassion and love for sinners as I began to read the scriptures. And I came to that place in my experience that I could say, yes, the Lord is mine. I belong to him. I'm a filthy sinner. I hope I can do better in my life and make some changes. So this was a message of fiery judgment. I don't know how you'd handle a preacher like that. I don't know if you'd come out on Sunday morning to hear him or not. But I'll tell you something. God was pleased with this message. Some people say, well, I don't like those fire and brimstone messages. Well, we probably need some more of them. You know, we need to hear some preachers get up and talk about our eternal destiny and about your salvation and about, you know, whether or not you have come to that place in your experience that you've questioned it and you know that you belong to the Lord. And if you have, I'll say you need to do something about it. Let's rise up and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he told us that we're supposed to do. You find a similarity in this message. Look at First Thessalonians, chapter four. Now, if you're wondering sometimes where Paul gets his theology, I'll tell you where he got it. He got it from the Bible. And as he writes in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, it's almost the same sermon that Enoch preached when the world first began. In verse 14, he says, If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. Now, who is he talking about? The ten thousands of saints that Jude said was going to come back with Jesus. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain into the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. That means we're not going to go before them. Prevent means to go before. And we won't go before them. They're coming back. The Lord will descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangels and the trump of God. The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain those that are alive when Christ comes back shall be caught up in together with the Lord. And so shall we ever be at the Lord. Now, I know there are some people that believe in a millennial reign of Jesus Christ. A lot of good Christians believe that. I don't believe it because of this verse, because when Jesus comes back, He's going to call all of us. I mean, the disembodied souls of the saints are coming back. Their bodies are going to be resurrected. Their bodies will be raised, glorified and reunited with the soul and spirit that's going to be with the Lord. And if all that's happened, then I don't think that's going to happen a second time. It doesn't say anywhere in the scriptures where all that's going to happen all over again. I think he's going to execute judgment, just like it says in the book of Jude. And then Peter says he's going to burn this place up with the fervent heat. So that's why I believe I'm an Amillennius, you might say, and I believe that when Christ comes, that's going to be the end of everything. There's something else we see in this that I think is amazing, and I'm running out of time here, but how could God do such a thing? I mean, we think that we read about that this man was translated. Now, what does that mean anyway? He was translated, says it three times. It's kind of like if you've ever seen Star Trek. And they pull out this phone and say, beam me up, Scotty. And they're here and they're gone. They're up there. Well, that's what happened. I don't mean to be funny, but but really, that's what happened with Enoch. That God just carried him to heaven immediately. He did not die. It said he should not see death or he did not see death. One of the great things about this is this man never had to approach the monster death. Have you ever thought about how you're going to handle death? Have you thought about, you know, when you get older and you realize that your time is short, you wonder, well, how will it happen for me? Will it be a car crash or a plane crash or will it be a disease? Will it be sudden death with a heart attack? Will it be cancer? Will it be slow and painful? How is it going to happen for me? You know, death is a great monster, isn't it? You know, everybody fears death in one way or another. Our fear is much lessened by our knowledge of Christ. That's why Paul says, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? And we, when we die, we should die like Christians. We want to die bravely. We want to die with the knowledge of what's about to happen to us. I mean, if you believe there's a heaven that's better than this place, then that's the way we ought to die. I've seen Christians in this church die that way. They weren't afraid of death. They knew where they were going. It was almost like they couldn't wait to take that last breath. And I've seen some that have professed that there is a heaven and a better place than this. And it's like they are so afraid to die. Now, I don't know what I'm going to do. I love the story of Martin Lloyd-Jones, who was a preacher in England 100 years ago, and he had cancer and he told everybody, he said, I want to die a fearless death. I want to go to the grave and I want to be an example of everything I've preached all my life. I want people to know that I am not afraid to die. And that's the way that we should die as Christians. But Enoch never saw that. He never had to experience death himself. And you say, well, how could God do such a thing? The reason I'm saying the question, we know God's able, but yet Christ hadn't died. And we understand that when people died in that day, that their soul and spirit went to the Lord. But really, people really didn't have that much knowledge on what happened after death. But here's a man that God just took him. I'll tell you, one of the reasons that God could do that was on the future merits of the Christ death, that the father could say, I have complete confidence in the fact that my son is coming into this world, that he is going to be as Job said in the latter days, he will walk upon this earth and he already has and he shall pay for the sins of my people. How shall a man be just with God? Job asked. I'll tell you how. Jesus Christ is going to make him just. That's the only way any man can be just with God. And so God took him. I'm sure Satan, the accuser, would accuse God night and day that you've done something, that you can't do that. And he took him on anyway. He's a picture of the coming resurrection, isn't he? That for those that are alive and remain when Jesus Christ comes back, Enoch is a picture of those that are alive and remain, that they will be caught up together to be with the Lord. They will be immediately glorified. We know Enoch was glorified. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. We know that Enoch was glorified when God took him up. And he's there with the Lord today, just like the old prophet Elijah. They're both there. They were taken up. As one person said, he is a pledge and promise of the coming resurrection of the dead. Well, I'm about out of time, but I just got a couple more comments I want to make in Hebrews, if you want to go back with me there for just a moment. Because there's a little more of this that we read after we read of his faith. There's a little commentary in verse six, but without faith, it is impossible. To please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So. Without faith, we cannot please God. You may say, well, you know what? I think I can, as long as I'm not out there doing those big sins. You know, it's not really important for me to be in his house or read his word or pray or do those things. Sorry. But the scriptures say, if God's giving you light on something and you're not doing it without faith, it's impossible to please him. You must believe that he is. Do you believe that he is this morning? Do you believe in God? Do you believe that God exists? That comes first. You certainly can't follow anybody's instructions that you don't believe in. If you believe in him, that's great evidence that you belong to him, that you're his child. But you also would believe that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. I believe that. I believe in rewards. Now, I don't believe in anybody getting a crown in heaven for the things they do. I believe the rewards that we get are here in this world. I don't think anybody in heaven is going to have a bigger crown than somebody else. If we do anything for that purpose, we're doing it for the wrong reason. We're just like when we studied last Sunday about the offering of Cain, it was for the wrong reason. And you can do good things for the wrong reason. I like the sermon one man preached here one night, and he's talking about crowns in heaven. And he said, well, if I get to heaven and my crown's bigger than brother so and so that I love, I'm giving my crown to him. You know, that's the attitude we would have in heaven. And then we read in the book of Revelations for everybody that had a crown cast at the feet of Jesus Christ. That's where every crown belongs anyway, isn't it? Because he's worthy of every crown. But I believe the Lord rewards his people. There is a reward for the righteous. There's a reward for living right, for doing right, for walking right, for talking right. There is a great reward. I believe I've been greatly rewarded. I'm not saying I've done any great things. I've been given more than I deserve. God's blessed me so much. I want to say it because I want to exalt him. I want to exalt Jesus Christ this morning and say he's been faithful to everything he's promised me. He's blessed me beyond my wildest expectations in my life. He is great. He's rich and He's worthy. In Proverbs we read in 11, 18, The wicked worketh a deceitful work, but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a reward. Do you believe that? Now, I'm not talking about you getting a Cadillac tomorrow, but I'm talking about a reward. Your greatest reward would be your fellowship with Him, wouldn't it? If you're seeking His face, you want to walk with Him, that's the greatest reward any of us can have, and that's just fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that some of them asked Jesus, you know, what shall we eat or what shall we drink? And Jesus said the Gentiles seek after all that, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. You know, we've got it wrong. We want to seek all the things of the world and then we may become religious. That's what Jacob was at first. Remember Jacob when he crossed over the brook and he said, Lord, if you'll do this for me and bring me back to this place and I've got all this stuff, then you'll be my God. No, he was already his God. You know, we've already got a God. We don't want to have him. We don't do any bargaining with the Lord. But we must believe that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek his face. The faith of Enoch, he walked the walk, he talked the talk. He wasn't a hypocrite. He didn't say he was something and then didn't live it out. He lived it out in his life, and he is one of the great examples of faith. So great that God said, Enoch, come on up here. Walk with me. You don't have to see death. I'm going to bring you on up here and show you everything that belongs to you that your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has paid for. And you can begin to enjoy it right now. I can't think of a better testimony in all the Bible, and I think he must be up there around the top for God to take him like that. Well, you may be here this morning. You've not made a confession of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to give you that opportunity as we stand and sing. Thank you for visiting Harmony Primitive Baptist Church. This has been Elder Neal Phelan, Jr. preaching for regular Sunday morning services.