Part 9
will not walk with a man in whom He has no pleasure. Can two walk together, except they are agreed? If men walk contrary to God, He will not walk with them, but contrary to them. Walking together implies amity, friendship, intimacy, love–and these cannot exist between God and the soul unless the man is acceptable unto the Lord.
Doubtless Enoch, like Elijah, was a man of like passions with ourselves. He had fallen with the rest of mankind in the sin of Adam. There was sin about him, as there is sin about us by nature, and he had gone astray in act and deed as all we, like sheep, have done. Therefore he needed pardon and cleansing, even as we do.
Then to be pleasing with God it was necessary that he should be forgiven and justified, even as we are–for no man can be pleasing to God till sin is pardoned and righteousness is imputed. To this end there must be faith, for there can be no justification except by faith. And as we have said, already, there is no pleasing God except our persons are justified.
Right well, then, does the Apostle say, "Without faith it is impossible to please God," and by faith Enoch was made pleasing to God, even as we are at this day. This is worthy of earnest notice, Brothers and Sisters, because this way of faith is open to us. If Enoch had been pleasing to God by virtue of some extraordinary gifts and talents, or by reason of marvelous achievements and miraculous works, we might have been in despair! But if he was pleasing to God through faith, that same faith which saved the dying thief, that same faith which has been worked in you and in me–then the wicket gate at the head of the way in which men walk with God is open to us, also!
If we have faith we may enter into fellowship with the Lord! How this ought to endear faith to us! The highest grades of spiritual life depend upon the lower ones and rise out of them. If you want to walk with God as a man of God, you must begin by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, simply, as a babe in Grace! The highest saintship must commence by the confession of your sinnership, and your laying hold upon Christ Crucified. Not otherwise does the strongest
Believer live than the weakest Believer–and if you are to grow to be among the strongest of the Lord's warriors–it must be by faith which lays hold upon Divine strength.
Beginning in the Spirit you are not to be made perfect in the flesh.
You are not to proceed a certain distance, by faith in Christ, and then to commence living by your own works–your walk is to continue as it begun. "As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk you in Him." Enoch was always pleasing to God, but it was because he always believed and lived in the power of his faith.
This is worth knowing and remembering, for we may yet be tempted to strive for some imaginary higher style of religious life by looking to our feelings instead of looking alone to the Lord! We must not remove our eyes from looking, alone, to Jesus, Himself, even to admire His image within ourselves–for if we do we shall go backward rather than forward. No, Beloved, by faith Enoch became pleasing to God and by faith he walked with God–let us follow in his footprints.
Next, when we read that Enoch walked with God we are to understand that he realized the Divine Presence. You cannot consciously walk with a person whose existence is not known to you. When we walk with a man, we know that he is there. We hear his footsteps if we cannot see his face. We have some very clear perception that there is a person at our side. Now, it we look to Hebrews again, Paul tells us, "He that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him." Enoch's faith, then, was a realizing faith. He did not believe things as a matter of creed and then put them up on the shelf out of the way, as too many of us do today–he was not merely orthodox in his head–but the Truth of God had entered into his heart.
What he believed was true to him, practically true, true as a matter of fact in his daily life. He walked with God–it was not that he merely thought of God, that he speculated about God, that he argued about God, that he read about God, that he talked about God–he walked with God, which is the practical and experimental part of true godliness! In his daily life he realized that God was with him and he regarded Him as a living God, in whom he confided and by whom he was loved. Oh, Beloved, do you not see that if you are to reach to the highest style of Christian life, you must do it through the realization of those very things which, by faith, you have received?
Grasp them! Let them be to you substance and evidence. Make them sure, look upon them, handle them, taste them in your inmost soul and so know them beyond all question. You must see Him who is invisible and possess that which cannot be as yet enjoyed.
Believe not only that God is, but that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, for this, according to Paul, is the Enoch faith! God realized as existing, observing, judging and rewarding human deeds–a real God, really with us–this we must know, or there is no walking with God.
Then, as we read that Enoch walked with God, we have no doubt it signifies that he had very familiar communion with the Most
High. I scarcely know a communion that is more free, pleasant and cordial than that which arises out of constant walking with a friend.
If I wished to find a man's most familiar friend, it would surely be one with whom he walked daily. If you were to say, "I sometimes go into his house and sit a little while with him," it would not amount to so much as when you can say, "I have, from day to day, walked the fields and climbed the hills with him." In walking, friends become communicative–one tells his trouble and the other strives to console him under it–and then imparts to him his own secret in return. When persons are constantly in the habit of walking together from choice, you may be quite sure there are many communications between them with which no stranger may intermeddle.
If I wanted to know a man through and through, I should want to walk with him for a time, for walking communion brings out parts of the man which even in domestic life may be concealed. Walking for a continuance implies and engenders close fellowship and great familiarity between friends. But will God, in very deed, thus walk with men? Yes, He did so with Enoch and He has done so with many of His people since. He tells us His secret, the secret of the Lord, which He reveals only to them that fear Him. And we tell
Him, alike, our joys in praise, our sorrows in prayer and our sins in confession. The heart unloads itself of all its cares into the heart of Him that cares for us! And the Lord pours forth His floods of goodness as He imparts to His beloved ones a sense of His own everlasting love to them. This is the very flower and sweetness of Christian experience, its lily and its rose, its calamus and myrrh. If you would taste the cream of Christian life, it is found in having a realizing faith and entering into intimate communion with the heavenly Father. So Enoch walked with God.
Next it is implied in the term, "walked," that his communion with God was continuous. As an old Divine has well remarked, he did not take a turn or two with God and then leave His company, but he walked with God for hundreds of years! It is implied in the text that this was the tenor of his life throughout the whole of its 365 years.
Enoch walked with God after Methuselah had been born, 300 years, and doubtless he had walked with Him before. What a splendid walk! A walk of 300 years! One might desire a change of company if he walked with anybody else, but to walk with God for three centuries was so sweet that the Patriarch kept on with his walk until he walked beyond time and space–and walked into Paradise–where he is still marching on in the same Divine society!
He had Heaven on earth and it was, therefore, not so amazing that he glided away from earth to Heaven so easily.
He did not commune with God by fits and starts, but he abode in the conscious love of God. He did not, now and then, climb to the heights of elevated piety and then descend into the marshy valley of lukewarmness, but he continued in the calm, happy, equable enjoyment of fellowship with God from day to day. Night with its sleep did not suspend it. Day with its cares did not endanger it. It was not a run, a rush, a leap, a spurt, but a steady walk. On, on, through three happy centuries and more did Enoch continue to walk with God!
It is implied, also, in this phrase that his life was progressive, for if a man walks either by himself or with anybody else, he makes progress, he goes forward. Enoch walked with God. At the end of 200 years he was not where he began. He was in the same
Company, but he had gone forward in the right way. At the end of the third hundred years Enoch enjoyed more, understood more, loved more, had received more and could give out more, for he had gone forward in all respects. A man who walks with God will necessarily grow in Grace and in the knowledge of God and in likeness to Christ. You cannot suppose a perpetual walk with God, year after year, without the favored person being strengthened, sanctified, instructed and rendered more able to glorify God.
So I gather that Enoch's life was a life of spiritual progress. He went from strength to strength and made headway in the gracious pilgrimage. May God grant us to be pressing onward, ourselves.
Suffer a few more observations upon Enoch's walk. In "Kitto's
Daily Bible Pleadings" there is an exceedingly pleasing piece illustrating what it must be to walk with God by the figure of a father's taking his little son by the hand and walking forth with him upon the breezy hills. Kitto says, "As that child walks with you, so do you walk with God. That child loves you now. The world–the cold and cruel world–has not yet come between his heart and yours. His love, now, is the purest and most beautiful he will ever feel, or you will ever receive. Cherish it well, and as that child walks lovingly with you, so do you walk lovingly with God."
It is a delight to such children with their fathers. The roughness of the way or of the weather is nothing to them–it is joy enough to go for a walk with father. There is a warm, tender, affectionate grip of the hand and a beaming smile of the eyes as they look up to father while he conducts them over hill and dale. Such a walk is humble, too, for the child looks upon its father as the greatest and wisest man that ever lived! He considers him to be the incarnation of everything that is strong and wise. All that his father says or does he admires. As he walks along, he feels the utmost affection for his father, but his reverence is equally strong. He is very near his father, but yet he is only a child, and looks up to his father as his king.
Moreover such a walk is one of perfect confidence. The boy is not afraid of missing his way. He trusts implicitly his father's guidance.
His father's arm will screen him from all danger and, therefore, he does not so much as give it a thought–why should he? If care is needed as to the road, it is his father's business to see to it and the child, therefore, never dreams of anxiety–why should he? If any difficult place is to be passed, the father will have to lift the boy over it, or help him through it–the child, meanwhile, is merry as a bird–why should he not be? Thus should the Believer walk with God, resting on eternal tenderness and rejoicing in undoubted love!
A Believer should be unconscious of dread either as to the present or to the future.
Beloved Friends in Christ, your Father may be trusted, He will supply all your needs– "You are as much His care as if beside
No man or angel lived in Heaven or earth."
What an instructive walk a child has with a wise, communicative parent! How many of his little puzzles are explained to him, how everything about him is illuminated by the father's wisdom! Every step the boy takes, he becomes the wiser for such companionship.
Oh, happy are the children of God who have been taught of their Father while they have walked with Him! Enoch must have been a man of profound knowledge and great wisdom as to Divine things.
He must have dived into the deep things of God beyond most men.
His life must, also, have been a holy life, because he walked with God, for God never walks out of the way of holiness. If we walk with God, we must walk according to truth, justice and love. The Lord has no company with the unjust and rebellious and, therefore, we know that he who walked with God must have been an upright and holy man.
Enoch's life must, moreover, have been a happy one. Who could be unhappy with such a Companion! With God Himself to be with us, the way can never be dreary. "Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for You are with me." Granted that God is your Companion and your road must be a way of pleasantness and a path of peace. Did Enoch walk with God? Then his pilgrimage must have been safe. What a guard is the Great Jehovah! He is sun and shield! He gives Grace and Glory. He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Nothing can harm the man who is walking with the Lord God at his right hand.
And oh, what an honor it is to walk with the Eternal! Many a man would give thousands to walk with a king. Numbers of people are such worshippers of dignities that if a king did but smile at then they would be intoxicated with delight! What, then, is the honor of walking with the King of kings? What a patent of nobility it is to be permitted to walk with the blessed and only Potentate all one's life long? Who is he that is thus favored to be the King's companion, to walk alone with Him and to become His familiar Friend? Jehovah rules earth and Heaven, and Hell. He is Lord of all who shall walk with Him!
If it were only for the honor of it, oh Christians, how you ought to desire to walk with God! Enoch found it safe, happy, holy, honorable and I know not how much more that is excellent! But certainly this was a golden life–where shall we find anything to equal it?
II. Secondly, let us consider WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES WERE
CONNECTED WITH ENOCH'S WALKING WITH GOD. The
first remark is that the details of his life are very few. We do not know much about Enoch and this is to his advantage. Happy is the nation which has no history, for a nation which has a history has been vexed with wars, revolutions and bloodshed. But a nation that is always happy, peaceful and prosperous has no chronicle to attract the lover of sensations. Happy is Enoch that we cannot write a long biography of him! The few words, "Enoch walked with God," suffice to depict his whole career, until, "he was not, for God took him."
If you go and look at a farmer's field and you say of it when you come back, "I saw yellow flowers covering it till it seemed as a cloth of gold. And then I spied out, here and there, white flowers like silver buttons set on the golden vesture. I also saw blue cornflowers looking up with their lovely eyes, causing the whole field to sparkle," you would think that it is a very pretty field if you are a child. But the farmer shakes his head, for he knows that it is in bad condition and overrun with weeds! But if you come back and simply say, "It is as fine a wheat field as ever grew and that is all," then your description, though brief, is very satisfactory.
Many of those dazzling events and striking incidents and sensational adventures which go to make up an interesting biography may attract attention, but they do not minister to the real excellence of the life. No life can surpass that of a man who quietly continues to serve God in the place where Providence has placed him. I believe that in the judgment of angels and all pure-minded beings, that a woman's life is most to be admired which consists simply of this–"She loved the Lord and did all she could for Him."
And that man's life shall be the most noteworthy of whom it can be said, "He followed the Lord fully." Enoch's life has no adventures.
But is it not adventure, enough, for a man to walk with God? What ambition can crave a nobler existence than abiding in fellowship with the Eternal?
But some will say, "Well, but Enoch must have been very peculiarly situated. He was, no doubt, placed in very advantageous circumstances for piety." Now, observe that this was not so, for first, he was a public man. He is called the "seventh from Adam."
He was a notable man and looked up to as one of the fathers of his age. A Patriarch in those days must have been a marked man, loaded with responsibility as well as with honor. The ancient custom was that the head of the family was prophet, priest and king in his household. And abroad, if he was a man of station and substance, he was counselor, magistrate and ruler. Enoch was a great man in his day, one of the most important of the period.
Therefore we may be sure he had his trials and bore the brunt of opposition from the powerful ungodly party which opposed the ways of godliness.
He is mentioned among a noble list of men. Some have unwisely thought, "I could walk with God if I had a little cottage, if I lived in a quiet village, but you see I am a public man, I occupy a position of trust and I have to mix with my fellow men. I do not see how I am to walk with God." Ah, my dear Friend, Enoch did! Though he was, undoubtedly, a man distinguished in his time and full of public cares, yet he lost not the thread of sacred converse with Heaven, but held on in his holy course through a life of centuries. Note again that Enoch was a family man. "Enoch walked with God and begat sons and daughters."
Some have said, "Ah, you cannot live as you like if you have a lot of children about you. Do not tell me about keeping up your hours of prayer and quiet reading of the Scriptures if you have a large family of little ones. You will be disturbed and there will be many domestic incidents which will be sure to try your temper and upset your equanimity. Get away into the woods and find a hermit's cell– there, with your brown jug of water and your loaf of bread, you may be able to walk with God–but with a wife, not always amiable, and a troop of children who are never quiet, neither by day nor night, how can a man be expected to walk with God?" The wife, on the other hand, exclaims, "I believe that had I remained a single woman I might have walked with God. When I was a young woman I was full of devotion. But now with my husband, who is not always in the best of tempers, and with my children who seem to have an unlimited number of needs and never to have them satisfied, how is it possible that I can walk with God?"
We turn to Enoch, again, and we are confident that it can be done!
"Enoch walked with God, after he begat Methuselah, 300 years, and begat sons and daughters, and all the days of Enoch were 365years." Thus, you see, he was a public man and he was a family man–and yet he walked with God for more than 300 years. There is no need to be a hermit, or to renounce married life in order to live near to God. In addition to this, Enoch lived in a very evil age. He was prominent at a time when sin was beginning to cover the earth.
It was not very long before the earth was corrupt and God saw fit to sweep the whole population from off its surface on account of sin.
Enoch lived in a day of mockers and despisers. You know that from his prophecy, as recorded by Jude. He prophesied, saying, "The Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." He lived when few loved God and when those who professed to do so were being drawn aside by the blandishments of the daughters of men. Church and State were proposing an alliance, fashion and pleasure ruled the hour and unhallowed compromise was the order of the day. He lived towards the close of those primitive times wherein long lives had produced great sinners–and great sinners had invented great provocations of God. Do not complain, therefore, of your times and of your neighbors and other surroundings, for amid them all you may still walk with God.
Enoch walked with God and, in consequence thereof, he bore his witness for God. "Enoch, the seventh from Adam prophesied." He could not be silent! The fire burned within his soul and could not be restrained. When he had delivered his testimony, it is clear that he encountered opposition. I am certain that he did so from the context in Jude, because the passage in Jude has to do with murmurers and "complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks great swelling words," and Enoch is brought in as having had to do with such persons. His sermon shows that he was a man who stood firm amidst a torrent of blasphemy and rebuke, carrying on the great controversy for the Truth of God against the wicked lives and licentious tongues of the scoffers of his age. He says, "Behold, the Lord comes with myriads of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed."
It is clear that they spoke against Enoch, they rejected his testimony, they grieved his spirit and he mourned that in this they were speaking against God. For he speaks "of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." He saw their ungodly lives and bore witness against them. It is remarkable that his great subject should have been the Second Advent! And it is still more noteworthy that the two other men whom one would select as living nearest to God, namely, Daniel and John, were both men who spoke much concerning the coming of the Lord and the Great Judgment Day. I need not quote the words of Daniel, who tells us of the judgment which is to be set, and of the Ancient of Days who shall come upon His Throne. Nor need I repeat the constant witness of John concerning the Lord's Second Coming. I will only mention his fervent exclamation, "Even so, come quickly,
Lord Jesus!"
Thus you see that Enoch was a preacher of the Word of God and, therefore, he had a care over and above that which falls to the lot of most of you. And yet, with that and all the rest put together, he could please God until his life's end! If I may speak of an end to a life which ran into an endless state of joy–he continued as long as he was here to walk in faith, to walk in a manner in which God was pleased–and so his communion with the Lord was never broken.
III. This brings us to conclude with the third head–WHAT WAS THE CLOSE OF ENOCH'S WALK? We would first remark that he finished his work early. Enoch walked with God and that was such a good, sure, progressive walk that he traveled faster and reached Home sooner than those of us who walk with God, sometimes, and with the world at other times! Three hundred and sixty-five years would have been a long life to us, but it was a short life for that period when several Patriarchs attained to nearly a thousand years of age.
Enoch's life, as compared to the usual life of the period, was like a life of 30 or 35 years in these short-lived ages–in fact, the best parallel to it is the life of our Lord. As with the extended ages of men of his period, Enoch's life was of about the same length as that of the Lord Jesus in comparison with such lives as ours. He passed away comparatively a young man, as our dear Brother and Elder
Verdon, just departed, has done, and we do not wonder that he did.
They say, "Whom the gods love die young," and both Enoch and Verdon were men greatly beloved. Perhaps these holy men ended their career so soon because they had done their lifework so diligently that they finished early.
Some workmen, if they have a job to do in your house, are about it all day long, or rather all week long and make no end of confusion! No wonder that some people live a long while, for they need to do so much to do anything at all! But this man did his work so well and kept so close to God that his day's work was done at noon and the Lord said, "Come home, Enoch! There is no need for you to be out of Heaven any longer. You have borne your testimony, you have lived your life. Through all the ages men will look upon you as a model man and, therefore, you may come
Home." God never keeps His wheat out in the fields longer than is necessary! When it is ripe, He reaps it at once! When His people are ready to go Home, He will take them Home. Do not regret the death of a good man while he is young. On the contrary, bless God that there is still some early ripening wheat in the world and that some of His saints are sanctified so speedily!
But what did happen to Enoch? I am afraid I have said he died, or that I shall say so, it is so natural to speak of men as dying, but he, alone, and one other of all the human race are all that have entered the heavenly Canaan without fording the river of death! We are told concerning him that, "he was not." Those gentlemen who believe that the word, "to die," signifies to be annihilated, would have been still more confirmed in their views if the words in my text, "he was not," had been applied to all departed men, for if any expression might signify annihilation in their mode of translation–this is the one! "He was not" does not, however, mean that he was annihilated! And neither does the far feebler term of dying signify anything of the kind!
"He was not," that is to say, he was not here–that is all. He was gone from earth, but he was there–there where God had translated him. He was, he is with God! And that without having tasted death!
Do not grudge him his avoidance of death. It was a favor, but not by any means so great as some would think, for those who do not die must undergo a change and Enoch was changed. "We shall not all sleep," says the Apostle, "but we shall all be changed." The flesh and blood of Enoch could not inherit the kingdom of God–in a moment he underwent a transformation which you and I will have to undergo in the day of the Resurrection. And so, though he was not on earth, he was translated or transplanted from the gardens of earth to Paradise above.
Now, if there is any man in the world that shall never die, it is he who walks with God. If there is any man to whom death will be as nothing, it is the man who has looked to the Second Advent of Christ and gloried in it. If there is any man who, though he passes through the iron gates of death, shall never feel the terror of the grim foe, it is the man whose life below has been perpetual communion with God! Go not about by any other way to escape the pangs of death but walk with God, and you will be able to say, "O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" It is said of Enoch that, "God took him." A very remarkable expression! Perhaps He did it in some visible manner. I should not wonder. Perhaps the whole of the Patriarchs saw him depart, even as the Apostles were present when our Lord was taken up.
However that may be, there was some special rapture, some distinct taking up of this choice one to the Throne of the Most
High. "He was not, for God took him." Note that he was missed.
This is one thing which I could not overlook. He was missed, for the Apostle says he, "was not found." Now, if a man is not found, it shows that somebody looked for him. When Elijah went to Heaven, you remember, 50 men of the sons of the Prophets went and searched for him. I do not wonder that they did–they would not meet with an Elijah every day–and when he was gone away, body and all, they might well look for him! Enoch was not found, but they looked for him.
A good man is missed. A true child of God in a Church like this, working and serving his Master, is only one among five thousand– but if he has walked with God, his decease is lamented. The dear
Brother whom we have just buried, we shall miss. His brother
Elders will miss him. The many who have been converted to God and helped by his means will miss him. And assuredly I shall miss him. I look towards the spot where he used to sit–I trust that someone else will sit there who will be half as useful as he was. It will be almost more than I can expect. We do not want to live and die so that nobody will care whether we were on earth or not.
Enoch was missed when he was gone and so will they be who walk with God.
Last of all, Enoch's departure was a testimony. What did the Blessed Spirit say by the fact that, "he was not, for God took him," but this–there is a future state. Men had begun to doubt it, but when they said, "Where is Enoch?" and those who had witnessed his departure said, "God took him," it was, to them, an evidence that there was a God and that there was another world. And when they asked, "But where is his body?" there was another lesson. Two men had died before him, I mean two whose deaths are recorded in Scripture–Abel was killed and his witness was that the seed of the serpent hates the woman's seed. Adam, too, had died about 50 years before Enoch's translation, whose witness was that, however late the penalty may come, yet the soul that sins, it shall die.
Now comes Enoch and his testimony is that the body is capable of immortality! He could not bear testimony to resurrection, for he did not die–for that we have testimony in Christ who is the first fruits from among the dead. But the testimony of Enoch went a good way towards it, for it bore evidence that the body was capable of being immortal and of living in a heavenly condition. "He was not, for God took him." His departure also was a testimony to mankind that there is a reward for the righteous, that God does not sit with stony eyes, regardless of the sins of the wicked, or of the virtues of His saints. It proved that He sees and is pleased with His people who walk with Him–and that He can give them, even now, present rewards by delivering them from the pangs of death–and therefore He will certainly give rewards to all His people in some way or other.
Thus you see, living and dying–no, not dying, again I am mistaken–living and being translated–Enoch was still a witness to his generation! And I pray that all of us, whether we live or whether we sleep, may be witnesses for God. Oh that we could live as my good Brother, Verdon, whom we have lately buried, lived, whose soul was on fire with love to Christ! He had a very passion for souls! I scarcely think there is one among us who did as much as he, for though he had to earn his daily bread, his evenings were spent with us in the service of the Lord, or in preaching the Gospel!
And then, all night long he frequently paced the weary streets, looking after the fallen, that he might bring them in! He often went to his morning's work weary, except by the rest which he found in the service of Christ.
He would sometimes meet a Brother with eyes full of joy, and say, "Five souls won for Christ last night!" At other times, after a sermon, here he was a great soul hunter and would fetch enquirers downstairs into the Prayer Meeting. And when he had squeezed my hand he would say in his Swiss tones, which I cannot imitate, "Jesus saved some more last night! More souls were brought to Jesus." For him to live was to win souls! He was the youngest in our eldership, but the gray-heads do him honor. As we stood weeping about his tomb, there was not one among us but what felt that we had lost a true Brother and a valiant fellow soldier. My the Lord raise up others among you to do what Elder Verdon did!
May the Lord quicken the older Brothers and Sisters to be more active than they are and make the young ones more devoted. Our ranks are broken, who shall fill up the gap? We are getting fewer and fewer as the Lord takes one and another Home of the bestinstructed and of the bravest-hearted. But, by His Grace, recruits are daily coming in! May others come forward–yes, Lord, bring them forward by Your Holy Spirit to be leaders in the front ranks, that as the vanguard melts into the Church Triumphant, the rear may continually find additions! Translated to the skies are some, may others be translated out of darkness into marvelous light, for Christ's sake. Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Psalm 119:33-56.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN
Ge 7:1 • Noah's Eminence
ERMON 3196
Noah's Eminence
"And the LORD said unto Noah, Come you and all your house into the ark, for you have I seen righteous before Me in this generation."
Genesis 7:1
GOD keeps His eyes upon the sons of men and He searches among them for certain individuals upon whom He delights to fix
His gaze. These are not the kings and princes. These are not the men of talent or of fashion. These are not the men who are regarded by their fellows as famous. When God speaks of having seen Noah, He speaks of having seen one of the kind of men for whom He was looking, namely, a righteous man. There is not a righteous man upon the earth whom God does not see. He may be in a very obscure position, his circumstances may be those of poverty, he may be anything but famous. But as long as he is righteous, God delights to look upon him. He looks upon him so as to take care of him so that if destruction is to come upon the face of the earth, an ark is to be prepared for the preservation of righteous Noah and his family. "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry." Whoever else He does not see, He is sure to see the righteous! But "the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth."
Now, what God delights to look upon, we should delight to look upon, so we will fix our mind's eye upon the righteous man mentioned in our text and notice, first, the eminence of Noah's character. whereinthat eminence consisted. .
So, first, we are to notice THE EMINENCE OF NOAH'S
CHARACTER. He was a righteous man in the sight of the Lord.
The Lord said unto Noah…"you have I seen righteous before Me in this generation."
Noah was a gracious man, one to whom the Lord had shown great favor for He had put Divine Grace in his heart and had given him faith, for it was by faith that Noah "prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." The Grace of God was within him and became the source and wellspring from which flowed the righteousness for which he was so remarkable. Divine Grace is the root of every righteous character, so let Grace have the honor and glory of it!
In the Chapter preceding our text, we are told that " Noah was a just man." It is especially noticeable that in an ageof violence and oppression, Noah was a just man. He was no oppressor. He dealt justly and fairly with his fellow men. Noah was also "perfect in his generations." The marginal reading is that he was "upright." He was not one who leaned this way for advantage, or who leaned that way for gain. He stood upright in conscious integrity before his fellows. Acting in accordance with the Grace of God which was in his heart, he had learned to do that which was just towards others.
He was also a devout man, for we read that "Noah walked with God." Like his ancestor, Enoch, he lived in communion with God, in prayerfulness and pious meditation–and his life before his fellow men was in consistency with that walk before God.
It is especially mentioned that
Noah was righteous in that generation, and this is the more remarkable as that gener ation was so unrighteous and ungodly! The darker the night, the more brightly shine the stars–and good men are never more precious than in evil times! There are plenty to go the way the stream is running. When godliness is in the ascendant, and the Puritans rule the realm, they are Puritans, too, but when ungodliness comes to the front and the Cavalier holds the scepter, they scoff at everything that is good! Like dead fish, they must go with the stream–they have not the power of the living fish to swim against the current. They go the way their neighbors go. But Noah was a righteous man in an unrighteous generation. It may be that you, dear Friend, are seeking to serve the Lord among most ungodly men. Well, if it is so, be all the firmer for the right because of all the wrong that is around you! Remember how much honor it brings to the Grace of God when it produces a righteous Noah in the midst of an evil generation. You, working man, are the only one on your street who comes to the House of God–well, mind that you come boldly–be not ashamed of being different! And when, in your workshop, you hear the cursing and reviling of the wicked, let them know whose colors you wear and who is your King. But be careful that your life is so consistent that they cannot pick holes in it–and then you need not mind being a speckled bird among them, as Noah was in his generation!
What makes the character of Noah all the more remarkable is the fact that he was almost alone as a righteous man.The Lord said to him, "You have I seen righteous before Me in this generation," as though he was the only righteous one in that generation! When the flood came, his ancestors had all passed away and the members of his own family were not all that they ought to have been. He practically had to stand alone and standing alone is not easy work.
You know how we are all helped by the company of godly people, how good it is for us to be where the Word is preached with power, or where we can listen to the gracious talk of Christians who are more advanced in Divine things than we are. But to stand quite alone–to be the one white man amid a nation of aborigines, to be the one traveler in a land which all the inhabitants are your foes, to be in a community where there is no one to help you–it is only the Grace of God that can make a man of this sort and enable him to say, "If the world, itself, is to be destroyed, one honest man shall be found upon its surface. The Grace of God has so settled me in the fear of the Most High that whatever others may do, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."
But the special point about Noah's character is that we are not only told that he was righteous, but that he was righteous before God. The Lord said to him, "You have I seen righteous before Me in this generation." As I have turned that expression over in my mind, I have thought of the various tribunals before which we all have to stand. And as I try to take you, in imagination, before them, one after another, I wonder how many of you will be able to pass them all and to endure the supreme test so that, like Noah, you may be righteous before God?
First of all, there is the common tribunal of ordinary society and public repute. I hope that without any conceit, the most of us can say that we believe we are reckoned as righteous by our fellow men. They trust us in business matters, they do not suspect us of dishonesty. We hope we have not given them occasion to do so.
Yet, in so large an assembly as this, there may be some who dare not say that even in the opinion of their fellow men, they are righteous. And if it is so, my dear Hearers–if you are justly condemned by your fellow creatures–how can you expect to stand before the tribunal of God? If you cannot dispute the justice of man's verdict, you may well tremble at the thought of appearing before the bar of God! You are evidently unrighteous but oh, thank
God that there is a Savior for the unrighteous, "for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." That last word describes you–you know that you could not stand without a degree of shame before those who are acquainted with your character. Well then, fall down upon your knees before God–tell
Him that you are sinners, but also quote Paul's faithful saying that, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Do not be afraid to do so! Christ did not come to save sham sinners, but real sinners such as you are! Go to God in all your sinfulness, without first attempting to make yourselves better, and cast yourselves upon His Infinite Mercy in Christ Jesus!
There is another tribunal a little further on. A man may have a pretty good character among his fellow men who do not know him intimately, but how does he stand in the opinion of his more immediate friends? Those who know us well, those with whom we constantly trade, those whom we meet in our daily work–our employers, our servants, our fellow workers–what do they think of us? If any of them think badly of you because you try to do what you believe to be right, you need not mind that, but rather rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake! But, on the other hand, if friends who judge you as favorably as they can are obliged to regard you as far from upright, how will you stand before the all-seeing eyes of God? Let the painful fact that you do not stand well before those who know you drive you to humble yourself before the Lord and to seek pardon and peace through Jesus Christ, the sinner's Savior!
Suppose we have been able to pass these two barriers of public repute and our more immediate acquaintance? How do we stand in the inner circle at home? Occasionally, when I have spoken well of some young man or woman, I have been grieved to hear the parent stay, "I wish, Sir, your judgment had been correct. My son (or daughter) may behave very well before strangers, but it is very different at home." Sometimes I have thought a good deal of certain men whom I have met here but I have afterwards discovered that they had broken-hearted wives whom they had not treated with the love and kindness they ought to have shown towards them. And I have also known professing Christian women who have not sturacter in the Church, and a reputation for sanctity there, what is the verdict of those who know more about our private life? What is the verdict of the servant concerning his master?
What is the judgment of the wife concerning her husband? What does the parent or the brother or sister say? I solemnly fear that there are many professors of religion who cannot pass this test–and
I am deeply sorry when this is the case–for if there is any place where Christianity should be best seen, it is in the home circle!
Rowland Hill used to say that he would not give a penny for the religion of the man whose cat and dog were not the better for it.
And there is much good sense in that homely remark. I do not know anyone here whom this cap will fit, but if there is such a person, I hope he will put it on and wear it. This is the sum and substance of the matter–if our character cannot endure the scrutiny of those who are around us in our home, how can we hope to stand at the bar of God when all that we have done shall be published before the assembled universe?
Supposing that we can satisfactorily pass that ordeal, how do we stand before our enemies? "Before our enemies?" asks someone.
Yes, for you remember what was said by the jealous presidents and princes of Babylon concerning Daniel, "We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God." He was such a godly man that they could not find a flaw in his character however closely they examined him. There he stood fully clad in the armor of righteousness and before they could lay hold of him, they had to get their king to make a new law ordaining that any man who would pray should be cast into the den of lions. Look, too, at our Lord Jesus Christ when He was accused by His enemies–they brought various charges against Him, but they could not substantiate them. And even when they bribed two witnesses to give evidence against Him, even they did not agree with one another as towhat He had said! His life had been so perfect that there was nothing that could be truthfully laid to His charge. "Ah," says one, "that is a test, to live so that even our enemies cannot truthfully find any fault in us." It is no dishonor to a manto be wrongfully accused–it is rather a mark of honor to have bad men plotting against him–but it is a subject for gratitude to God when one can run the gauntlet of our enemies and remain unabashed before their cruel, wolfish eyes! They are always on the watch for anything wrong or inconsistent with a Christian profession. "Well," says one, "that is a test that I could not pass." If so, dear Friend, remember this–there is no enemy whose eyes are as clear and as keen as those of God! Even the great archenemy could not detect a thousandth part of the imperfections and infirmities that lie open before the Most High! How important it must be, then, to be found righteous before God!
Then, further, I wonder whether all of us who profess to be Christians could pass the test of being adjudged righteous before our own conscience. I do not mean that we should be selfrighteous–God forbid that we should ever be that! But I mean that we should have so lived that our own conscience would declare that we had not been hypocrites, nor liars, nor deceivers, but that, through the Lord's upholding and restraining Grace, we had been true to our profession and had done that which we sincerely believed to be right. You remember how the Apostle John, taught of the Spirit, writes concerning this matter–"If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God." [See
Sermons #1855, Volume 31–WHAT IS THE VERDICT? and #3152, Volume 55–THE LOWER COURTS–Read/download both sermons, free of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org.] Can we, all of us, pass thistest? Happy and blessed are we if we can! But even then, we must remind ourselves and one another that there is a still sterner test which Noah was able to pass, for he was righteous before the Lord.
II. This brings us to the second part of our subject, in which we are to try to find out WHEREIN THE EMINENCE OF NOAH'S
CHARACTER CONSISTED. He was distinguished for his righteousness before God, for the Lord expressly said to him, "You have I seen righteous before Me in this generation."
So the eminence of Noah's character consisted in this–his righteousness must have answered to the Divine standard.God would not have called Noah righteous if he had not been righteous– and we cannot suppose that God's standard is anything short of perfection. Then did Noah live a perfect life? No, speaking popularly, and as the Scripture often speaks, we may say that Noah's character was a righteous one. There must have been flaws in it and, certainly, after this time, there was one great sad flaw of which it is not now necessary to speak more particularly–still, God regarded him as righteous–and that must settle the question as far as we are concerned.
Noah had the righteousness which is of faith, and that faith of his enabled him to look forward to Christ's Atonement. Do you ask how I know this? Well, when he came out of the ark, he "built an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clear fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar." Those sacrifices were acceptable unto the Lord, for He "smelled a sweet savor"–"a savor of rest"–in them, and they were among the many types of the one great Sacrifice that was afterwards to be offered upon Calvary's Cross. It was in this way that Noah's faith enabled him to look forward to Christ as the sin-atoning Lamb of God. And his faith, like that of Abraham, "was counted unto him for righteousness." God looked upon him, in Christ, as a perfectly righteous man–and his righteous life was the experiment and outflow of the inward righteousness which God had imputed to him in answer to his faith. He was righteous before God, and no man was ever that in his own naked character! Job's friend, Bildad, said concerning God, "The stars are not pure in His sight. How much less man, that is a worm? And the son of man, which is a worm?"
I have set forth the character of Noah before you and commended it to the utmost. Yet I know that in the sight of God, the Patriarch's character was not, in itself, perfect. There must have been innumerable imperfections, infirmities, and faults which God's
Omniscient eyes could see in it. How, then, could he be said to be righteous before God? Why, God looked at him in Christ! He became heir of the righteousness which is by faith, or, as Paul puts it, he was "accepted in the Beloved." Then, in consequence of that acceptance, he was "righteous" in the modified sense in which all the Lord's people are righteous when the Grace of God has taught them to walk uprightly and so made them, at least in a measure, like their righteous Father who is in Heaven!
But let me add to this, in order to clear the Gospel of anything like legal defilement, that the eminence of Noah's character appears in the fact that he was righteous before God, that is to say, his righteousness had respect to God. When he dealt with his neighbors, he did not say to himself, "Now I must deal righteously with these men, or I shall lose my reputation as an honest, upright man." Oh, no! He dealt righteously with men because he desired to be righteous before God. He did not ask himself, "What will my neighbors think or say concerning the building of the ark?" His great concern was to be obedient to the commands that the Lord had given him and, therefore, we read again and again, "according to all that God commanded him, so did he." He fashioned his life by the will of God, not by the will of his fellow men, nor by his own will and, Beloved, this is the way for us to be righteous before God, when He brings us, by His Grace, to desire to live according to His will and to His praise and glory! I fear that many professors go blundering on, not stopping to pray, "Lord, show us what You will have us do." Noah did not act thus– he was righteous before God, righteous with respect to God, righteous in God's sight!
I would like to have, in this Tabernacle, a band of men and women who will be just and fear not. Who will do the right even though all others are opposed to them, or though no one else shall know anything about it. Are any of you seeking to please men by your religion? If so, such religion is of little or no worth. Be not the servants of men, but the servants of God! Take your orders from Him and from Him alone. Do not shape your course and character according to the fashion of society. If you are truly born of God, you belong to a noble race which should never stoop to such degradation as that, so be righteous before the Lord! You have already had the righteousness of Christ imputed to you, so may the Spirit of God impart that righteousness to you that you may live unto God, and before God, fearless and careless of what men may say against you so long as you are right in the sight of the Most
High! May the Lord graciously give us such a righteousness as this! And, Beloved, we must have it, we must have it, for without holiness shall no man see the Lord! Our own righteousness can never save us–we must have the righteousness of Christ!
But remember that we must be purified in heart, character and conduct, or else, where God is we cannot go. How searching will be that test which we shall have to endure at the last! When we are judged by our fellow man, they may be deceived–but when we shall be judged by God, He will never be deceived. Men may accept fair words as signs and tokens of Divine Grace, but God will not so much regard our words as read our hearts! If men hear us pray, they say, "What good men they must be." Yet God knows what hypocrisy may be lurking behind those pretty sentences! Men judge us by our actions, but God can read the motives that prompted us to those actions. You know how righteous men have appeared to be in the eyes of their fellow men, yet they have proved to be false after all. God grant that none of us may ever be like that, but may we have a character that will bear holding up to the Light of God, a character concerning which, when the eyes of God examine it, He will say, "Here is truth in the inward parts. My Spirit has worked truth and integrity within this heart and life–this man is weighed in the balances, and is not found wanting." I am speaking these solemn words to myself, to the deacons and elders around me, and to you who have long professed to be Christians– not to you outsiders, but to the very best people here. None of us are any better than we ought to be and I cannot help fearing that some of us are not what we seem to be. Do not let us imagine that what we seem to be in the sight of our fellow creatures will have any weight in the judgment of God! We may be reckoned righteous by our neighbors and friends, but if we are not washed in the precious blood of Jesus, if we are not robed in the righteousness of Christ, if our lives have not within them the evidences of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, our friends' favorable judgment will avail us nothing when the all-seeing eyes of God beholds us as we really are! I pray with all my heart that we may, each one of us, be righteous before God even as Noah was in his generation.
III. I have no time left for dealing with the third part of my subject which was to have been THE GRACIOUS REWARD
GIVEN TO NOAH BECAUSE OF THE EMINENCE OF HIS
CHARACTER.
You all know that the Lord will bless the righteous forever and ever, but the great question that we all have to answer is, are we righteous? Oh, what searching sermons, what tremendous blows hypocrites will endure without showing asign of feeling anything! I usually notice that if I preach a sermon that is more than ordinarily searching, there are sure to be some tender-hearted souls crying out at the close that they are hypocrites. Dear Creatures, I wish I had no hearers more hypocritical than they are! Those who take such discourses most to heart are often those who have the least reason for doing so, while the real hypocrite is no more moved by it than is the marble in our baptistery! I might almost point him out with my finger, for he would not stir–he would be as bold and brazen as Judas was when he sat with the rest of the Apostles just before going out to betray his Lord. Oh, the dreadful presumption, the terrible hardness of heart to which men may come! Lest this should be the case with any of us, let us, each one, now pray David's prayer, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
Let each one also pray, "Lord, let me know the truth about my case! Let me neither be self-deceived nor a deceiver of others! Let me know the worst of my case! Open my eyes even though the sight of my petition before you should be horrible to the last degree! Do not let me go down to Hell dreaming that I am going to Heaven! Let me know what I really am–and if my heart has never been broken, break it now! If I have never been washed in the precious blood of Jesus, wash me in it now! Jesus, the sinner's
Savior, I come to You this moment. I cast my arms around Your Cross, O frown me not away! Look in mercy and love upon me and tell me that my sins, which are many, are all forgiven."
Let the most trembling soul in this whole congregation cling to the Cross, crying to Him who hung upon it–
"Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Your Cross I cling.
Naked, come to You for dress.
Helpless, look to You for Grace.
Foul, I to the Fountain fly–
Wash me, Savior, or I die!"
If we cannot cling to Christ's Cross as the sailor clings to the mast, let us cling as the limpet clings to the rock–and the more the devil tries to detach us from it, the more closely let us cling to it.
Let us come either as saints or sinners, whichever we may be, to the foot of the Cross and look up at that dear head crowned with thorns and those blessed hands and feet and side so rudely pierced and, as by faith, we see the precious sin-atoning blood flowing from the Savior's cruel wounds, let us each one sing as we have often done before–
"There is a Fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Emmanuel's veins
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains!
The dying thief rejoiced to see
That Fountain in his day,
Oh may I there, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away!"
Then, though you have not, up to now, been righteous before God as Noah was, you shall be so for the future! The blood of Christ and the righteousness of Christ shall make you so! And then a new heart and a right spirit shall be given to you–God's own Spirit shall be put within you and God shall be glorified in you even as He was in righteous Noah! May it be so, for His dear Son's sake! Amen.
Ge 7:1 • A Family Sermon
ERMON 1336
A Family Sermon
"And the Lord said unto Noah, Come you and all your house into the ark…And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood."
Genesis 7:1, 7
GOD in infinite Grace had entered into Covenant with Noah that He would preserve him and his family alive. The tenor of that Covenant you will find in the 18 th chapter. "With you will I establish My Covenant; and youshall come into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you." There was a positive foretelling of Noah's coming into the ark and finding safety. The thing was fixed and ordained so to be, and yet, when the time came, Noah was not carried into the ark by force, nor lifted into it against his will by a benevolent violence. He was bid to come into the ark in the most natural manner possible and he entered it voluntarily and cheerfully. He and his family left their houses to find a home in the ark, and so they were saved.
The Covenant promise and purpose were fulfilled, but Noah acted in perfect freedom, as much choosing to go into the ark as others chose to keep out. Now, Beloved, there is a decree in Heaven ordaining the salvation of the Lord's chosen people. It is useless to deny that decree, for even if it were not so, yet no difficulty would be withdrawn, it would only be shifted to another place. Some of us, instead of denying predestination, like to think upon it and find rivers of consolation springing from the everlasting purpose of the living God.
But, albeit that God has purposed and decreed the salvation of His elect, yet this by no means prevents our speaking, in the Lord's name, to all men. Nor does it set aside the necessity that those men should cheerfully accept the Gospel of God and awaken themselves to obey its command, by the power of Grace. My Hearer, I cannot tell whether your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation of the world, but I can assure you that to you is the word of this salvation sent and that it bids you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with this assurance–that if you do so you shall be saved, for so has the Lord most solemnly declared!
The method of the Divine arrangement involves an active consent on our part and a willing obedience to the Gospel command. The purpose is sure, but it is unknown and unrevealed till the Gospel is made known and brought home with effectual power so that the heart accepts it, the spirit obeys it and the man is saved–saved as a free agent. He is saved as a voluntary being, yet not saved apart from the secret, almighty purpose of the Most High–nor without the effectual working of His Grace. And so we come here, at this time, believing that there are some in this house concerning whom the Lord has purposed that they shall be Christ's in the day of His appearing.
We address you all hoping that the Spirit of God will apply the Word with special power to the chosen, that they may see that they, themselves, must believe in Jesus–that they must be actively awakened to repentance, to prayer, to a change of life, to confidence in Christ. When this shall happen, then shall the Covenant purpose be known to them and fulfilled in them, for they shall be saved from the wrath to come! Not knowing, therefore, who is to come into this net, we cast it into the sea, believing that Christ knows every fish in the sea and what fish will come to the net. We do not wish to know this, ourselves, for it is quite enough for us to know how to cast in the net and to be fishers of men.
The practical work belongs to us, but the result we leave with the Lord. There are two things in the two texts. The first is the call–"The Lord said unto Noah, Come you and all your house into the ark." The second is the obedience to the call–"And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark."
First, then, THE CALL. We remark, at the outset, that it was a call from the Lord. "The Lord said unto Noah." You see, Noah was familiar with other forms of calls, for he had been the instrument of many. For many years he was a preacher of righteousness, and the principal office of a preacher is to herald his Master, to make proclamations and to call upon men in the name of the Lord to obey the Lord's Word. "To you, O men, do I call, and My voice is to the sons of men."
But it was not by such calls as Noah could give that men were to be brought into the ark. For albeit we cannot doubt that he was a faithful minister and an earnest preacher. And, no doubt, he pleaded with the people day and night, yet, sad to say, not one beside his own family entered into the ark through Noah's labors. Perhaps his preaching may have been useful to his wife and to his sons' wives.
If so, he had no mean reward for his pains. But to all outside of his family his word seems to have been powerless as to delivering them from death by the devouring flood. But now he was to know something of another call, differing in many respects–a call from the Lord of Heaven and earth whose Word is with power.
The preacher can only give the general call and it is his duty to give it to all around him. He is to stand in the streets and lanes of the city and bid men come to the feast of Grace. Yes, he is to go into the highways and hedges and, as far as he can, to compel them to come in. But men do not come upon our compulsion or upon our call unless a secret something goes with our pleadings–a mysterious power, quiet, silent, omnipotent–making the voice of man to be the voice of the Holy Spirit and hiding within the shell of the outward call the kernel of the inner call! When the Lord said to Noah, "Come you," he did come.
He did not put it off and say that surely it was meant for others.
He felt it to be a personal call. It was "Come you." He knew that it was for himself. God the Holy Spirit speaks home to the inmost soul when He speaks to save–there is no putting off His voice as though directed to another. Noah did not feel inclined to controvert, or plead for delay, or object, or make excuses, or say he could not.