"Enoch Waled With God"
Genesis 5:24
This is an astounding statement:
"Enoch," a sinful man like you and me, "walked with God!"
And "he had this testimony, that he pleased God." In his daily life
Enoch walked in company with the living God, living in God's presence as his
constant Friend, IN WHOM HE CONFIDED AND BY WHOM HE WAS LOVED. What kind of man
was Enoch? What kind of life did he live? The answer is clear: Enoch was a man
of faith; and he lived a life of faith. He was not a sinless man. He did not
live a higher life, a deeper life, or a holier life than anyone else who lives
by faith. IT WAS NOT ENOCH'S CONDUCT, HIS PERSONALITY, OR HIS DISPOSITION THAT
PLEASED GOD, BUT HIS FAITH IN CHRIST (Heb. 11:5-6).
There was nothing at all remarkable about
the character or works of this man, Enoch, by nature, which caused God to look
upon him with pleasure. Enoch did not win God's favor by something he did. GOD
WAS PLEASED WITH ENOCH BECAUSE ENOCH BELIEVED GOD. He believed that which God
has spoken. Enoch's faith was the same as Abel's before him and Noah's after
him. The faith by which Enoch walked with God and pleased God was the same
faith that the dying thief possessed. And it is the faith of God's elect today.
My friend, WALKING WITH GOD IS NEITHER MORE NOR LESS THAN BELIEVING GOD. The
only way anyone can walk with God and please God is by faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. NO MAN PLEASES GOD, BUT HIS SON. NO MAN WALKS WITH GOD, BUT HIS SON.
THE ONLY WAY ANY FALLEN CHILD OF ADAM CAN PLEASE GOD AND WALK WITH GOD IS BY
FAITH IN HIS SON, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Our sanctification, like our
justification, is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We grow in grace as we
grow in faith. Having begun in the Spirit, we are not now made perfect by the
flesh. We do not begin and go a certain distance by faith in Christ, and then
finish our course by the works of the law. TO WALK WITH GOD IS TO CONTINUE AS
WE BEGAN. BY FAITH IN CHRIST. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the
faith."
Don Fortner