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Join me this morning by taking your bibles and turning to Hebrews chapter 11. If you've not been with us in the past, we continue to make our way verse by verse through this epistle, and today, we find ourselves in verses five and six as we understand more about Enoch, a man who pleased God because of his faith. Before we read the text, let me remind you, the writer has first comforted the beleaguered Hebrew believers by describing the life of Abel, who was first in faith and now the writer reminds them of another godly man by the name of Enoch. Abel, you will recall, submitted to the Word of God with respect to how to approach God in appropriate worship, offering a blood sacrifice for sin, that would underscore the magnificent doctrine of substitutionary atonement.

And now we come to Enoch, who not only understood that, but also walked with God in intimate fellowship, which was pleasing to God. And as we will see in this illustration of Enoch's life, we will understand more about active faith, what that really looks like in the life of a believer. And this would have been very convicting, as well as comforting, to the early saints, who not only struggled with ridicule and persecution, but like all of us, they struggled with the lusts of the flesh that seek pleasures in everything, apart from the one place where true life can be found, and that is in the living God. So follow along as I read the text Hebrews 11, beginning in verse five,

"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God.

"And 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 seek Him."

As we examine this text and several others that describe the life of Enoch, I wish to answer three questions which I hope will help you understand and be able to apply the passage before us to really know what the Spirit of God is trying to communicate through his inspired writer. We are going to answer the question, first of all, who was Enoch? Very few people really know much about Enoch. There's not a lot said about him; but I think, as you will see, there is much that we can learn from him. Secondly, we're going to answer the question, how did he please God? Very, very important matter. And then finally, we're going to apply this and answer the question, what are we to learn from all of this?

Now, as always, I would challenge you to examine your life, your heart, in light of the penetrating truths of the Word of God. What a joy it is to know that God loves us enough that he would communicate to us those things that would help us enjoy more fully every expression of His grace. So first of all, who was this guy, Enoch? Well, there's only a couple of passages that describe him. One of them is in Genesis five, beginning in verse 21, there we read,

"Enoch lived 65 years and became the father of Methuselah.

"Then Enoch walked with God 300 years after, he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters.

"So all the days of Enoch were 365 years.

"Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him."

Now we'll look at that a little bit more in a few minutes. There's another passage that refers to Enoch in the little epistle of Jude, verse 14. There we read, "It was also about these men..." - by the way, Jude is talking about false teachers, apostates -

"It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, 'Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones."

By the way, this is a reference to the angelic host that will one day accompany the Lord Jesus Christ and will be his executioners in judgment at his second coming, something that the apostle Paul described in Second Thessalonians one, verse 15. Jude says that they are coming,

"to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of their of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

Isn't it amazing, there, we have the words, of an ancient preacher that God has recorded for us; the preacher being Enoch. And here again, we see God's sovereignty at work. I find it fascinating that through the first prophecy - the first human prophecy recorded in Scripture, a prophecy that was not even a part of the Old Testament canon - here we see that it was very accurate. It was well known because it had been passed on through tradition. And now Jude speaks of this prophecy.

And it's also interesting to note that the first prophecy given to a human being was about Christ's second coming in judgment. I find it also fascinating to see that the very last prophecy in the Bible says the same thing. In Revelation 22:20, we read, "He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming quickly. Amen, come Lord Jesus.'"

Now bear in mind, as we have been studying in Hebrews 11. Enoch was a man that not only believed in God, he believed God. He believed what God said, and he preached it. So as we piece these passages together, we learn that Enoch was a man that lived in the seventh generation of humanity. He was one of Adam's descendants. Adam would have still been alive during that time; therefore, Enoch would have had a first-hand account of creation. He would have had a first-hand account of the Garden of Eden, of Adam and Eve's banishment, their sin and their banishment; separation from God caused by their sin; the story of Cain and Abel and on and on it goes. So Enoch lived in that antediluvian period of human history, antediluvian meaning, before the flood. He lived during a time of unimaginable evil, a time when evil was even growing at a rapid pace. Corruption was mounting on the earth, and God was about to judge them with the flood. In fact, God described this period of time through his inspired servant, Moses, in Genesis chapter six, let me remind you of the days in which Enoch lived and preached, beginning in verse five of Genesis six.

"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

"The LORD was sorry that he made man on the earth; and he was grieved in His heart.

"The LORD said, 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them.

"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD."

 By the way, it sounds like the day in which we're living right? Sin always metastasizes. It's like cancer. It never gets enough, and that's what we see today. Can you imagine living in that time period? And I think at some level we can, because of what we see in our culture today, warning people about impending judgment, calling them to repentance. Enoch lives 365 years in that morass of evil. Can you imagine what that would be like? I'm only 65 years old, and quite frankly, I'm looking forward to going home already. Some of you are nodding your head, and some of you are younger than I am.

But to boldly proclaim the Word of God, and as we're going to see, to walk with God in intimate fellowship. So he would have been a very unpopular man. He obviously knew nothing about being culturally relevant, about being seeker sensitive. Otherwise, he wouldn't have called his audience ungodly, right? That's what he did repeatedly. As we see in Jude, he called them "ungodly" or "godless." The term literally means having no fear of God, nor reverence for God. You're utterly bereft of divine righteousness. And historically, preachers that call out ungodly people and love them enough to warn them of impending judgment and their need to repent, those kinds of preachers are not very popular. And by the way, there is no indication in Scripture that anyone ever even responded. They probably didn't, because by the time of Noah, they were the only ones that were righteous that God saved. So the ungodly want to hear how good they are and how much God loves them just the way they are, and how he wants them to enjoy their best life now and all of those silly kinds of things. But folks, as we look at the life of Enoch, we see that Enoch had no desire to please man. His heart's desire was to please God, and he was pleasing to God.

Dear friends, I might add that there's no way that you can please both man and please God. You must choose which one you will please. You can live your life to please yourself and others - and one day you will experience God's judgment - or you can live your life to please the one true God, and you will experience God's blessing. Enoch chose the latter. God also reveals to us the very unusual end of Enoch's life. It's a fascinating story. After 300 years of joyful submission to the Word of God, to the will of God, walking with him in intimate communion, preaching his Word to those who hated him, we see in verse five that, "By faith, Enoch was taken up." The term in the original language can be translated, "translated." He was translated. He was taken up. It implies a sudden change from mortality to immortality without experiencing death, an amazing thought, a miraculous removal from Earth. Can you imagine such a thing? You will recall that Cain was supernaturally driven from the presence of God, and eventually he died in his sins; whereas Enoch was supernaturally translated into the presence of God, and he escaped death.

As we look at this, Enoch's translation into glory appears to be instantaneous. We can't be dogmatic about that, but it appears to be that way. Unlike, you will recall, another man who didn't experience death. His name was Elijah. He was the only other man to be supernaturally transported into heaven without dying. You will recall that he was taken up visibly in a whirlwind after the chariots of fire and horses of fire separated him from Elijah. You can read about that in Second Kings, chapter two.

Let me digress for a moment. I believe Enoch's translation without death foreshadows what believers, who will be alive, will experience in the great snatching away of the church - the rapture of his bridal church - just prior to the pre kingdom judgments; Daniel's 70th week that will come upon the earth, just prior to the Lord's Second Coming. That's first described, you will recall in John 14, the first three verses; and then Paul gives more detail in First Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 51 he says,

 "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.

"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised, imperishable, and we will be changed."

And more specifically then, in First Thessalonians, four and verse 16, we read,

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

"Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord."

I don't know about you, but I pray for that every day. I wish it would happen right now.

So back to verse five, "By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death." Literally, the phrase means "he would not undergo," or "he would not experience death." And he goes on to say, "and he was not found because God took him up." "He was not found," it carries the idea, in the original, of searching for something and coming up empty handed after an exhaustive search. By the way, the same thing happened with Elijah in Second Kings two, they looked for him, and he was nowhere to be found. And so as we read the text here, "Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death. He was not found because God took him; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God." Can you imagine having such a reputation for God to say about you that you are pleasing to Him? Now we must understand theologically, God is pleased with all who have come to saving faith in Christ. God is pleased with us because we are hidden in Christ, because we're clothed with the righteousness of Christ. That's the whole truth of justification. But what he's referring to here is something beyond that. This speaks of sanctification. It speaks of a man that loved the Lord and walked closely with him, to resurrect an old English term. It's speaking of piety, of devotion to God; a reverence for God, a zeal for the glory of God, and a desire to have intimate fellowship with him. God is pleased with that, and we find great joy in that. So Enoch lived a life that was pleasing to God in an era of intense corruption, and therefore he would have stood out from other men.

So the second question we want to ask, and answer is, how did he please God? And I would submit to you from this text and others that we could safely describe four ways that his life was pleasing to God. This is very practical to us. Notice again in verse six, "And 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 seek Him." The term "believe" is one that describes more than just believing in God. It's going to include having faith or confident assurance in the person of God; in the trustworthiness of his character, of his person.

So the first thing we see with respect to Enoch and how his life was pleasing to God, number one, he believed that God is. And I might submit to you that this is the embryo of genuine saving faith; the embryo that will eventually grow into genuine saving faith. A man must first believe what creation and what conscience tells him, and that is that God is, that God exists. Though we cannot see him with physical eyes, though we cannot prove him scientifically, only a fool would deny his existence, and God has made that clear. A fool is not referring to a man that has a low intellect, it's referring to a man who has no fear of God, who wants to live in rebellion against God. Only that person would deny that God exists. In fact, to deny God's existence, I believe, actually proves his existence, because, as you think about it, a man's ability to affirm or to deny anything requires universal laws of logic and moral absolutes. So, to say that these inherit human faculties of logic and having moral absolutes are merely the product of random chemical interactions that produced gasses and liquids and over millions of years, evolved into a myriad of different species, including human beings, folks, that is a worldview that is so utterly absurd and self-contradictory as to qualify a person to be either insane or intentionally irrational. That is rebellious. The fool has no fear of God, and he deliberately rejects him, and ultimately, because of that rejection, God hardens his heart and condemns him.

So the question is, which is it, does a person deny God because of insanity or rebellion? Romans, one answers that, beginning in verse 18,

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

"because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.

"For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

"For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened."

There's the judicial hardening my friends. "Professing to be wise, they became fools." So a man that is pleasing to God must first believe that he is. But again, understand that genuine saving faith requires more than just believing that God exists. Saving faith requires not only that a man believes in God, but a man believes God. That a man believes what God has to say about himself in his Word; what he has to say about how sinners are to approach him, how we are to be reconciled to him through faith, ultimately in a substitute that he must provide, which we know is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe that we see here, in this text, a reference to something beyond just believing in God.

Notice again, at the end of verse six, "...he who comes to God must believe that He is." Now this would have had special significance to the Jewish audience that was hearing this. To believe that "He is," I believe, speaks of something more than mere deity. It speaks of a specific god. It speaks of the God who revealed himself to Moses and the Israelites. The "I AM, who I AM." "He is," is the third person singular of "I AM". "I AM" is the covenant name of God. You will remember in Exodus three God told Moses to tell the people that "I AM" has sent you. God refers to himself in in the present continuous tense, because he wants us to understand his self-existence, his pre-existence. He always has and he will always exist. There's never been a time that he hasn't existed, and all of that is summarized in his covenant name. When Jesus referred to himself as "I AM" in the New Testament, he was appropriating the covenant name - the Old Testament covenant name - of God. You can look at John's gospel, for example, and Jesus says, "'I am the bread of life,'" which was the first of of the seven metaphors in John's Gospel describing the person and the work of Christ. "'I am the bread of life.'" He went on to say, "I am the light of the world." "I am the door of the sheep." "I am the good shepherd." "I am the resurrection and the life." "I am the WAY and the TRUTH and the LIFE." "I am the true vine." You've got to believe that He is the great I AM. I'm convinced that the writer is telling these first century Hebrew believers that it is impossible to please God without faith in the great I AM, the one who is, the one who always has been and who will always be. The self-existent, pre-existent, uncreated creator of the universe. The covenant making and the covenant keeping God of Israel. The one who has revealed himself in his Word. The one who is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

My friends, the only kind of faith that is pleasing to God is a faith in the right God, the one God, the God that has revealed himself in Scripture. This is the God that revealed himself to Enoch. We must have faith in the God who has ultimately been revealed in his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember what the writer of Hebrews said earlier in Hebrews one, beginning in verse two? "In these last days he has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He [referring to the Lord Jesus] is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." So please hear this, dear friends, this is not referring to the false god of the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons or the Roman Catholics or the Muslims or any other religious system that rejects the truth about the one true God, as he has revealed himself in Scripture. This is not speaking of the popular god of the Word Faith movement that exists to make men happy, wealthy and can be manipulated to somehow hand out the goodies. It's not the god that we are to worship. That is not the god we place our faith in. This is not the popular god of the Oneness Pentecostal movement, who can morph into the Father, and then if he wants to, he morphs into the Son. Then if he wants to, he morphs into the Holy Spirit, but he is never all at the same time. That is not the God of the Bible. You place your faith in him, you have a faith that is false; that is spurious, that cannot save; and this is not the popular god of Neo Evangelicalism that winks at sin and that submits his will to the will of man. The kind of faith that pleases God believes in the one true God who has revealed himself in Scripture and through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. A man with genuine, saving faith is pleasing to God. That kind of man will decisively and deliberately cast his entire being on the truth of the Word of God. He will believe the historical facts about the Lord Jesus Christ - the ultimate spiritual object of genuine saving faith - our only hope of salvation.

Now, Enoch didn't have all of that revelation, but he believed in the revelation that God had given him, which would have included some of the things that we see, for example, with what he revealed to Adam and Eve and Abel and others. He would have understood the need for an innocent substitute to atone for sin, he would not have known that would have been a blood sacrifice that would ultimately typify the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now it might be helpful for you to realize that many of the Jews in that day, and many today, believe in the right God, the true God that is revealed in Scripture, but they refuse to believe what he has said. See, once again, there's a distinction. It's one thing to believe in God, even the right God, and then to disregard what he has said. And that's the problem. They disregard what he has said. With respect to salvation, being by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Folks, without the proper object of faith, it is impossible to please God.

Saving faith includes, as we have studied, a knowledge of, and an assent to, and an unreserved reliance upon the finished redemptive work of Christ as revealed in Scripture. So Enoch's faith pleased God, not only because he believed that God is, but secondly, because he walked with God. And it's interesting, isn't it? Twice in Genesis, we are told that Enoch "walked with God." Now this was a common phrase in eastern countries of that era, and even to this day. It denotes a constant communion and interaction with a person, an intimate communion, sweet fellowship. In fact, it's interesting in the Septuagint, which is the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the phrase "walked with God," is also translated, "pleased God," which uses the same Greek word that is translated to be "well pleasing," used twice here in Hebrews 11 verses five and six. So the point is simply this: what it's referring to is having - in other words when you walk with God - it's referring to having a constant interaction and communion with the living God. That is what is pleasing to him. And of course, we do this through private worship, through prayer, through meditating upon the word of God, through obedient living, holy living that manifests the likeness of Christ. What is the greatest commandment? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. And the second, to love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. And so walking with God includes all that we do that is consistent with being obedient to those great commandments. And you want to ask yourself; do I enjoy this kind of communion with the living God? Do I walk with him, or do I walk far from him?

I find it interesting, as a grandfather, I get to, obviously, be with my grand babies, and we now have a two-and-a-half-year-old that stays with us during the week. And it's always fascinating to see how she does not want to walk with Papa when we go to the grocery store, when we go places. And you know the drill, you undo the door, and you undo the car seat, and all of a sudden, they're like a scalded dog coming out of a cage. They want to just bolt out into the parking lot where the cars are flying. And the rule is "no, no, no, hold Papa's hand." And when you know they're fighting it, and when you finally get them, they do not want to hold your hand. They do not want to walk with you. They are quite certain that everything's going to be okay and that life only makes sense if I can have my own way. They don't see the danger of darting out in front of the cars that are zipping by in the parking lot. They don't understand anything about the danger of wandering off into a crowd where there's some pervert that could steal them and you never see them again. They don't see any of that. They don't see the danger of getting into something that they're not supposed to or whatever. She sees none of this until something frightens her, and then what happens? Oh, you're wearing her.

So my question is this, why would a man or a woman, who claims to love Christ, not want to walk in close fellowship with Him? We have been saved so that we might walk in newness of life, right? We are told that we should walk by the Spirit, so we will not carry out the desires of the flesh, and on and on it goes. Enoch understood these great truths. He understood that when a man decisively commits himself to a personal pursuit of holiness and intimate fellowship with the living God that he is going to experience that soul-satisfying, soul-nourishing, soul-exhilarating joy of being in fellowship with the living God, regardless of circumstances, regardless of all the people that are going to mock you and ridicule you because of your warnings to them regarding the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man and the judgment to come. So dear friends, walking with the Lord is not something onerous. It's not some religious duty. It should be the desire of our heart, because that's where we find life. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. And it is this kind of intimacy that is pleasing to God. And as we look at the account in Scripture, we see that Enoch walked with God for over 300 years. He couldn't see him, but he had faith in him. He knew that he was there, and one day - we don't know what was going on, but somehow, in the midst of that sweet fellowship, as they are walking along, not that they're literally holding hands here, I don't mean that, but in the midst of that sweet fellowship - suddenly he woke up and he was in heaven. Don't ask me to explain that.

We tend to do the same thing as believers, don't we? We only want to walk with God when we desperately need him, and what we don't see is that we desperately need him all the time. But moreover, dear friends, when we walk with him, we don't do it just because of our desperate need for him, we do it because it is pleasing to him. It brings glory to Him. It honors him even as it honors us for our children to walk in close fellowship with us. Think about it, when God saved us by his grace, the Scripture says we were "justified by faith, and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). So we are declared righteous. We can now enter into the presence of God. The long war with God is over. The rebellion is finally finished. There has been reconciliation; there is restoration that has taken place. Now we can walk in harmony. We were once "children of wrath," Paul tells us, in Ephesians two. But now we are children of God. He is our heavenly Father, something that unbelievers can't even fathom. They have no fellowship with God because they have not been made partakers of the divine nature and so forth.

And by the way, don't think that that is some kind of special blessing that is available to everybody who really has an intimate relationship with the Lord. That's not the point here. The point is simply this: when a sinner is reconciled to God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God is pleased, death is conquered, and heaven is going to be our certain destination. We're all going to one day wake up in glory if we've placed our faith in Christ. That's amazing, isn't it? Jesus is our supreme example, right? He trusted in the Father. He submitted to his will in perfect obedience, and as a result, he was raised from the dead, and now he sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

I'm sure there were times when Enoch was deeply discouraged. Whenever I think through these passages, I try my best to put myself in the in the place of the character that's being described. And I know firsthand that ministry is war. It is war. That's why I tell young men that that want to go into the pastor, you better make sure that God has called you to that, because it's not what you think it is. The world will hate you. Not only that, as Paul lamented over and over again; many in the church will hate you. You will be mistreated. You will have to break up fights among people. Paul said in First Corinthians 11, there's always going to be factious and divisive people in your church. That's just part of it. But every faithful servant knows that when we are weak, that's when we are strong, right? That's when God's grace is sufficient. Remember what the Lord told Paul when he was so frustrated and discouraged about the thorn in the flesh - some false teacher, or maybe a group of them - that Satan had sent to discourage him. The Lord said in Second Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Ah, folks, there is never a week that goes by that I do not have to comfort some lay person in this church. And there's never two weeks that go by that I don't deal with some pastor outside of this church. I had to deal with one just this last week.

But can I tell you the good news? By the way, all of that's just part of life in a fallen world, right? I don't want you to get all down in the dumps. I mean, I'm rejoicing in what God is doing. That's just reality. You know, you just learn to live with that. But the good news is this: the Lord never fails to comfort those who are willing to live in his presence. I don't care how difficult it is; and this is what I always bring people back to, look, we can't fix all of this. Maybe you need to say this and do this or whatever but let me take you to the gospel once again. Let's look what God has done. Look what he's doing. Look at all of the promises that he has given us. This is where we need to focus. You know, set your mind on things above, not on the things of this earth. And that's all part of walking in intimate fellowship with the Lord. Enoch understood this. I'm sure Enoch found great joy in the midst of sorrow. Don't you know, the man had to struggle with all of these things?  But he walked with God.

So Enoch's faith was pleasing to God because he believed that God is, He walked with God, thirdly, because he preached the Word of God. Again, in Jude 14 he prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way; and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." So that would have been a little summary of the kind of sermon that you would have heard from Enoch. Well, obviously God had to have revealed these things to him, as he has to us in His Word. And so as we think about this, Enoch believed what God said, and he was willing to serve God with a fearless commitment to be his messenger to warn the people, despite enormous opposition. So Enoch not only took God at his word, He was obedient to proclaim that word come what may. He trusted God with his life and with his message. He was willing to say, "Lord, you do with me, whatever you wish; you do with my message, whatever you wish; I will be faithful to you."  And folks, this is what the Lord would have us do.

The Psalmist speaks of this in Psalm 91. I go back to it personally so many times.

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadows of the Almighty.

"I will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust!'

For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence.

"He will cover you with His pinions and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark."

Enoch believed that God is, he walked with God, he preached the Word of God, finally, he pursued God's reward, and this is what is pleasing to the Lord. Again, notice verse six, "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 seek Him." Most people today seek the applause of man. They want the rewards of this life. I find it fascinating. It seems like every time you turn around Hollywood, or the entertainers, are giving themselves more rewards, awards. I mean, it's happening all the time. Well, there's no life in any of that. Are you kidding me? You get your reward here on Earth, and you celebrate all of that, and then you get sick and you die, right? I mean, that's life. Maybe you don't get sick, but you die, all right? And so our hope is not in any of that. Our hope is in Christ and Enoch understood that. He experienced that. The reward of salvation and eternal fellowship belongs to all who place their faith in him. And do you realize, dear friends, that God invites us to experience this?

The Jews would have had some understanding of this. King David understood this. He told his son, Solomon, "If you seek Him, He will let you find Him, but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever." Proverbs, eight, verse 17, "I love those who love me and those who diligently seek Me will find Me." Jeremiah said, "And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." Dear friend, if you're here today and you've never trusted in Christ as your Savior, I would plead with you, as a minister of the gospel, to seek him while he still may be found. Jesus said, "'Come to Me all who were weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.'" And Jesus said, "'For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.'"

Of course, Satan offers us a whole smorgasbord of things that we think will bring pleasure - bring joy to our life - but they all fail. All of the philosophies and false religions and every imaginable form of idolatry and immorality; all of those things that appeal to the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the boastful pride of life. But dear friends, God offers so much more. He offers us eternal life in his presence. But that is only available to those who trust in him, who live by faith and not by sight. And for those of us who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, oh child of God, whenever we walk in intimate fellowship with the lover of our souls, we experience this firsthand that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. Do you seek his face in your life? And when you do you experience his love, his forgiveness, his power, his presence, his protection, his promises - including eternal life - and this was certainly foreign to many of the Jews of that day because they saw God as an austere, unapproachable God; a consuming fire. They did not see him as a heavenly Father. They did not see him as a gentle Savior. They did not see him as an indwelling comforter. So all of this must have been deeply convicting and encouraging to the Hebrew Christians. And the writer is essentially saying to them, seek the One who rewards those who seek Him by trusting in Christ as Savior. Trust in what God has said, in his new covenant - which has replaced the Old - and there you will find joy to your soul.

Moreover, and folks, this is a miracle of miracles and a mystery of mysteries, when you find him, you will discover that he was the one that made you seek Him. Jesus said, "'No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.'" Oh, talk about a reward. Oh, what a Savior! I will never lose the wonder of all of that. Folks, this is the gospel. To think that he has chosen us, that he might redeem us, that he might inhabit us, that he might have eternal fellowship with us. Unfathomable. And if Enoch were here today, he would say, "Amen and Amen."

Well, what can we learn from this? Very quickly, God pleasing faith believes that he is, that he is the great I AM; all other gods are false, and they are hideously offensive to the one true God. Folks, you must place your faith in the right God, the only God, the true God revealed in Scripture. God pleasing faith walks with God. It will choose to live in intimate communion with God, to live in his presence, to "walk by the Spirit," as Paul says in Galatians five. Which means to surrender yourself to the Spirit of God, as he has revealed himself in his Word. To submit your thoughts to his thoughts. Let his thoughts become your thoughts, because you know the Word of God and you're applying it to your life. Give every day to him; aggressively seek him in every decision that you make, and when that happens, you will experience the fruits of the Spirit, and other people will experience it as well. Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.

By the way, a good way of measuring this, is that kind of person will be the kind of person other people are drawn to, not repulsed by. People want to be like that kind of person. They want to spend time around that kind of person, because it's obvious that person is walking with God, and therefore is pleasing to God. And if it's pleasing to God, it's certainly going to be pleasing to us. Folks, you've got to walk with God and realize that that's something you must be dedicated to do, because the world is going to distract you from that. Your flesh is going to find things that are far more appealing. Self-promoting Facebook posts are going to seem far more appropriate and appealing than spending time alone with the Lord, meditating upon his Word. Hobbies will be far more appealing than serving Christ, especially in obscurity. Entertainment is going to seem far more attractive than reaching out to someone in need, sharing the love of Christ, or fellowshipping with others in a Wi Fi group, or whatever. We must learn to do, as Paul said in Ephesians 5:2, "Walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us."

So folks, you've got to choose to walk with God. As Paul told Timothy, “Train yourself for godliness." The idea of going into rigorous training, self-discipline. Colossians, two Paul said in verse six, "Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude." Folks, if none of this resonates in your heart and you claim Christ as your Savior, I would plead with you to examine your life because you may be deceived. First John one, verse six, the Spirit says this,

 "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth,

"but if we walk in the Light as He is Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son, cleanses us from all sin."

Well, two final things, God pleasing faith will preach the Word of God. You may not have a pulpit, but you've got children, you've got friends. Pray for opportunities to give people the truth of the gospel. Be bold like Enoch. You know his faith was not merely a private attitude of his heart, it was a public proclamation of his lips that overflowed from his heart. Ask yourself, does this characterize my life?

And then finally, a God pleasing faith, will pursue God's reward. You know, child of God, think of this: salvation, as glorious as that is, is only the beginning. We have an opportunity to know God, to fellowship with the living God. It begins even now. That's why Paul said in Philippians 3:8, "I count all things to be lost in view of," catch this, "the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Practically, can I encourage you to spend time around godly people. You've got opportunities for that here at the church, discipleship, through the Soul Care ministry, Wi Fi groups, so many opportunities. And what you're going to find is you're going to be, as I said before, you're going to be drawn to those types of people. People that are pursuing God's reward that are living this way are going to be people that you're going to enjoy being around. You're never going to feel on duty around them. You're never going to feel as though you're not living up to their standards. Instead, you're going to enjoy being with them. You're going to want to imitate them. You're going to want your kids to imitate them, because they are imitating Christ because they are walking with him. And in the context of that kind of fellowship, dear friends, you are going to experience another aspect of God's reward, this side of heaven. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. May God grant each of us that kind of faith so that like Enoch, we might be pleasing to Him. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these truths. I pray that by the power of your Spirit, we would be able to grasp them and apply them to our lives, that we might bear much fruit for our good and for your glory; that people would look at our lives and realize that we are walking with you, and as a result of that, you can use our lives to make people hungry for the gospel; hungry to know the living God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we commit all of this to you, and we thank you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.