I'd like to begin this morning by asking you to turn to Genesis chapter 5. Genesis chapter 5, we're going to look at the passage concerning Enoch from our text in Hebrews 11 this morning. 

Genesis 5.21 says, "Enoch lived 65 years and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." 

We have very little revelation concerning Enoch in the scriptures. And we probably wouldn't talk much about him except that he's mentioned here in the 11th chapter of Hebrews as one of the great men of faith. The key characteristic mentioned in Genesis 5 and in Hebrews 11 is that Enoch, by faith, walked with God, and that he did not see death, but God took him. 

So as I began to study the two verses before us this morning, I thought, wow, there really isn't a lot of material here. I mean, there's very little revelation in the whole Bible about Enoch. And it just says that he walked with God by faith, and God took him. It is fascinating that he did not die, and there is the picture of the rapture of the believers, but what am I going to say here about Enoch? What is God teaching us through Enoch? Because he, like Abel, being dead, still speaks. That's why he's mentioned here in Hebrews 11 concerning faith. 

So as I studied the words and went back to Genesis, the significance of the life of Enoch and his testimony before God became apparent. It says that he pleased God. And the author clarifies that without faith, it is impossible to please God. This entire chapter is about faith. We have to keep coming back to faith and the intent of the author to show the Hebrews, to which he is writing, that the way that they can enter this new covenant in Christ is through faith and faith alone. 

But I think he's also showing them that faith has always been the way to please God. All the way back to the first man of faith, Abel, and continuing with Enoch, and all the way through this chapter. So we see in Enoch that it is faith that pleases God. Before God took him, he had this testimony that he pleased God by faith. 

Now we see also that Enoch walked with God by faith. His life was a life of faith for 365 years. And then the stunning statement, and one day he walked with God by faith and God took him. He caught him up. He did not die, did not see death, because God translated him to heaven with Him. And Enoch remains there today. 

So the message and the important truths we want to discuss and look at this morning are these: Man comes to God by faith. Man walks with God by faith. And man goes home to be with God by faith. Justification, sanctification, and glorification are all promises taken, received, held onto by faith. 

Now these are significant truths, and Enoch is a tremendous example to us of these things. There's a good deal of confusion in the church today concerning this, and it's vital that we understand what it means that a man is saved by grace through faith, justified. But also that we understand what it means that the just shall live by faith. And also that we look forward to the promise, anticipating by faith the day when Jesus will meet us in the clouds and take us to be with Him forever. 

For some, there will be no death like Enoch. What an amazing thing to think about. What promises we have in Christ, and they are all ours by faith. 

Let's look at our text in Hebrews 11, verses 5 and 6. 

Hebrews 11, 5. "By faith Enoch was taken away, so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." 

I've given you three points on your outline this morning for our study. First, we come to God by faith. Second, we continue with God by faith. And third, we come home by faith. 

Well, first we see in the life of Enoch that we come to God by faith. For before he was taken, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. 

Notice the words, "he who comes to God." This is the real question that a man must answer in his heart and mind. How can I come to God? How can I be made right with God? It is obvious that man has a problem. We see it all around us. We experience it in our own families, our own lives, and the people we know and meet. The men of this world and the wisdom of this world do not understand their sin problem. They think they understand. They think they have answers. But it is obvious to us, to those who believe, that the world is hopelessly lost and has no peace precisely because they do not know God. 

I'd like for you to turn over to 1 Corinthians 1 with me, please, and look at a passage where Paul describes this truth. 

1 Corinthians 1 at verse 21. "For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." 

Now, if you look down at chapter 2 at verse 6, Paul says, "However, we speak wisdom." He's just been talking about how when he came to Corinth and he brought the gospel that they weren't saved, he didn't persuade them with words or human wisdom or anything like that when he came. But in verse 6 he says, "However, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew. For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." 

What an interesting argument Paul makes here. The wisest men of Jesus' day, the leaders of religion and government, the philosophers and wise men, did not know the wisdom of God, did not know how to come to God. For had they known, they would not have crucified Jesus, the only way to come to God. 

Men have no answers. I told you last week that a man asked me, "How did you find God?" It was a good question, a great question. But the truth is, I did not find God. God was not lost. I did not find Jesus. Jesus found me. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. That was me; I was lost. 

The answers of the world, the religions of men, invariably are constituted by ways and means for man to find God. But the truth is that man could never find God. 

The next verse from that passage I quoted from 1 Corinthians 2 says this: "But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." 

Man could never come to God on his own. He could never come up with the cross, the substitutionary death of the innocent Lamb of God. Man creates religion, works, rites, rituals to come to God. But God says, "I can't stand your sacrifices, your holy days, your new moons, your Sabbaths. God desires mercy and not sacrifice." 

Remember what the author wrote back in chapter 10 of Hebrews. Chapter 10 at verse 4, it says, "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when He came into this world, Jesus, He said, 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Then I said, "Behold, I have come, in the volume of the book it is written of Me, to do your will, O God."' Previously saying, 'Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin you did not desire, nor had pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law.' Then He said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.'" 

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till his enemies are made his footstool, for by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. 

You see, my friends, no man can come to God, find God. God had to find man. And that is exactly what He did when Jesus took on flesh, became a man, and came into this world for the express purpose to die in our place for our sins to satisfy the wrath of God, that He might remain just and be the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 

This is the simple gospel message, God's way, the only way that a man can come to God. This is the greatness of Jesus, of His sacrifice, of His high priestly office, of His covenant. All the things that the author of Hebrews has been teaching us in the first ten chapters. And the question then comes, how do I enter this covenant? How do I receive these promises? 

And the Jewish mind, just like the men in John 6 who asked Jesus, is what must I do to work the works of God? Just as men ask today, "What must I do to be saved?" How can I find God? We want to do, to accomplish, to work for our salvation. And man asks, "What must I do?" And religion gives them all kinds of dos and don'ts. But the Bible says, God says, the sacrifice of Jesus says, done. Done. It is finished. 

And the message of the Bible, of John 3, of Romans 3 and 4, of this 11th chapter of Hebrews, is that a man can only come to God, can only be made right with God, by faith. We cannot establish our own righteousness by works and religion. We must receive the righteousness of God by faith. He imputes to us His righteousness by faith alone, in Jesus alone. 

And the author here in verse 6 says that faith begins with believing that God is. Can you imagine that in our world? Many, many men do not believe that God is. In fact, I would say that the vast majority of men do not believe that God is. They may believe in a God, some God, the old man upstairs, some cosmic force. But that's not what the verse says. A man must believe that God is. The God of the Bible, Jehovah, the Creator God, the only true God. 

And most men do not believe in the true God. Even though the evidence is so abundant and clear all around us, in us, that He is. In fact, Romans 1 says that there is so much evidence of His eternal power and Godhead that man must make a continual, monumental effort to suppress and hold down the truth that He is in order to create their own gods after their own likeness to meet their own needs. 

Well, not only does a man have to believe that He is in order to come to Him, but he must believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. This is an amazing truth. God is a rewarder. He wants to give to those, reward those who diligently seek Him by faith. 

Vincent comments that these words mean that the seeker believes that diligently seeking God will result in his own personal good. Now this is interesting because if we seek Him, we can only seek Him through His Word. And if we seek Him through His Word and believe Him in what He says and trust Him enough to obey what He says, then I have faith that this will result in my good. Not mansions and Cadillacs kind of good, but salvation and sanctification and glorification kind of good, peace and joy and comfort and encouragement kind of good. 

I believe God and His Word, and I know that if I trust and obey, then it will be for my good and for His glory. This is the kind of faith that pleases God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God, to come to God. And in order to have faith, we must first believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. 

Faith in Christ is the means by which we can be made right with God. We can be justified. Romans 3.21 says, "But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe." 

Romans 4.4 says, "Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness." 

John 3.18, "He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." 

In John 5.24, Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death unto life." 

The New Testament and the Old are abundantly clear that the only way to come to God is by faith, and Enoch was an example of this. He had this testimony that he pleased God. 

Well, next we see that Enoch walked with God. Genesis 5.24, "And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." By faith, Enoch came to God. He was justified. He had a good testimony. He pleased God. But it was also by faith that Enoch lived and walked with God in fellowship, abiding in Him. 

This is a tremendous lesson for us in our day because it is easy to fall into a works or law sanctification way of thinking. We who believe Jesus, who have been born again, are very clear about justification, about coming to God by faith. But sometimes it is difficult for us to understand that the just also live by faith. 

And some Christian churches teach that the law is binding on the believer or is a means to holy living. But as we see back in verse 38 of Hebrews 10, as well as in Romans 1 and Galatians 3, which are all quotes from Habakkuk 2.4 in the Old Testament, the just shall live by faith. We see this so clearly in the New Testament under the new covenant in Christ's blood. 

Turn over to Galatians 2 with me, please. Galatians 2 at verse 19. Paul writes, "For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." 

How does righteousness come? By grace through faith. This is how I have a fruitful walk with God. 

Turn over to John 15 with me, please. We love this passage in John 15 as Jesus describes this abiding relationship of faith for fruit in our lives. He says, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing." 

Jesus describes the Christian life as one of abiding in Him, remaining in Him, trusting in and depending on Him moment by moment. Just as a branch abides in a vine and fruit is produced through it, so Jesus lives in us and He is the vine. We are the branches. It is by His life and power in us that we bear fruit for His glory. 

I read a quote this week, something a man wrote in an argument on Facebook, actually. The person he was arguing with was maintaining vehemently that the law is binding on the believer and that fruit comes through obedience to the law. Now this is a common sentiment in Christian circles and thinking, I believe, and maybe even for some of us at times. 

But I want you to listen to the response and evaluate it for yourselves. Here's what the man wrote. He said, "Fruit does not come from obedience. Fruit comes from abiding. Obedience comes with maturity." Now certainly it is our great desire to obey God, to live for Him, to bring Him glory, but this can only come through faith, through an abiding relationship with Jesus as we are growing and being conformed to His likeness. 

I like what this man said because it brings clarity to the argument. We cannot bear fruit by our own effort, by the works of the law, any more than a branch can bear fruit of itself. But rather, fruit must be produced through us as we abide in the vine. And as we learn to abide, to trust, to believe, to live by faith, then we bear fruit and we grow and we become more mature, more Christ-like. And with this comes obedience as our outward lives are conformed to the reality of who we are on the inside, new creations in Christ with a new heart and a new spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit living in us. 

Our life is conformed to the character and nature of God, of Christ, as we walk by faith, and thus our living is in conformity to His will. With maturity comes obedience. Fruit is a result of abiding. 

Turn over to Ephesians 1. I want to just show you a couple of prayer passages in Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 3 where Paul's praying for the believers there and look at the tremendous truths that he lays out in these prayers. 

Ephesians 1 verse 15, "Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." 

Paul says that the very power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us to conform us to the likeness of Christ so that we might know the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. 

Now look at Ephesians 3 at verse 14. Ephesians 3, 14, "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." 

The Holy Spirit imparts strength to our inner man. Christ dwells in our hearts through faith. He lives in us, works through us to produce fruit for His glory, to work His will in our lives. When we consider the greatness of the power of the Holy Spirit, the life of Jesus Christ in me through faith, why would I even consider attempting to accomplish anything by my own strength, my own efforts or ability to keep the law? It doesn't work. It can't work. I must walk by faith if I am to bear fruit and glorify God. 

Listen again to Paul's words in Galatians 2.20, "I have been crucified with Christ. My old man, that's Romans 6.6, the old man that was controlled and dominated by indwelling sin, the old man was crucified in order that the body controlled by indwelling sin might be rendered useless or powerless, that I would no longer be a slave to sin. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God." 

Paul's talking about walking here; he's talking about living the Christian life. "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness, if fruit, if holiness, if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." 

Righteousness does not come through law; it comes through the resurrection power of Christ's life in me, and the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Enoch came to God, was justified by faith. Enoch walked with God, was sanctified by faith. The just shall live by faith. 

And last we see that Enoch went home to be with God by faith as well. Genesis 5, 24 says, "And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." And Hebrews 11, 5 in our text says, "By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him." 

Notice that, by faith Enoch was taken away. We saw in the first verses of this chapter that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Our faith is not a hope-so faith or pie-in-the-sky kind of faith. Our faith has substance and it is evidence of things yet to come because our faith is in Jesus. 

And this is the very lesson we learn from the life of Enoch, the end of his life on this earth. Christians have a promise from Jesus concerning eternal life. I love this truth. Again, John 5, 24, "Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but has passed from death unto life." 

John 10, 27 says, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." 

Jesus gives us eternal life through faith in Him. When do we get this eternal life? The answer is now, my brothers and sisters in Christ. Eternal life begins the moment we believe. 

1 John 5, 13 says, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." That you may know that you have eternal life, present possession. 

Listen to the encouraging words of 1 Peter 1 at verse 3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 

The end of our faith is the final salvation of our souls, Peter says in verse 9. 

John 14, 1 says, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also." 

I'd like for you to turn over to Romans 8 at verse 18. There's so many Scriptures. Paul's writing in this passage about our eternal hope, the anticipation of the glorious revealing of the sons of God. And he says in verse 18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." 

"For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance." 

Paul said in Philippians 3.20, "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things, to Himself." 

So many scriptures assuring us of our guaranteed hope, our anticipation of glorification, of the rapture of the church, and Enoch is a picture, a type of that. He did not die. God took him. The word means to transpose, to replace one with another. Enoch was on earth, walking with God, living a life of faith, and one day God just took him so that he did not see death. He moved him from earth to heaven. 

And one day this is exactly what is going to happen to the believers on this earth. One more passage, 1 Thessalonians 4.13. Turn over to 1 Thess 4, verse 13. 

Now you remember in Thessalonica they had been told that they had missed the rapture, that they were in the day of the Lord, the time of judgment, that the ones who had died, the Christians who had died were not going to be raised. Paul says in verse 13, "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you should sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus." 

"For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord." 

"Comfort one another with these words." The dead will rise first, but then those who are alive and remain will be caught up to be with Jesus forever in heaven. This is a promise, my friends, a promise we receive and hold fast to and anticipate by faith, just as Enoch was translated to heaven because of his faith in God. 

And Paul says in verse 18 of the passage we just read, the promise of 1 Thessalonians 4, "therefore comfort one another with these words." 

What comfort it is to believe Jesus, to have these promises. What a joy, what a peace, and what an assurance to live by faith. We come to God by faith. We walk day by day abiding by faith. And my friends, one day we know by faith that we will be walking with God and Jesus will come in the clouds and catch us up to be with Him forever. What an example of faith Enoch is. All the way back there, seventh from Adam, living, walking by faith. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank You for these good words, these promises, these truths. Thank You for all of the scriptures that You've preserved for us, given to us to give us assurance, assurance based on Your promises and the fact that we believe You, that we trust You. Help us to understand, Lord, that we come to You by faith, that we walk with You by faith, abiding in Jesus one day at a time. And Father, help us to anticipate and hope for the promise of the time when by faith we will be taken to be with You forever in heaven. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.