A Man Who Witnessed for God

Introduction: Enoch as the Man Who Witnessed for God

0:00 The following sermon was delivered at the 1993 New England Baptist Family Conference. As you listen, please keep in mind that Pastor Martin's audience for this sermon consisted of adults and teenagers. We believe that the blunt language used in parts of this sermon would not have been appropriate were young children listening, but that it was appropriate for the teenagers and adults who were present. We are giving this explanation so that you will not be unnecessarily offended and will use discretion when using this tape with children.

0:35 Now I would ask you to follow with me as I read again this morning the brief account of the life of Enoch as it is found in the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 5. And then we shall read those two verses from the book of Jude, which refer to that aspect of the life of Enoch upon which, we will concentrate our attention this morning. Genesis 5 and verse 21.

1:10 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah.

1:18 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred, sixty and five, and five years, and Enoch walked with God. And he was not, for God took him. And now to the book of Jude, verses 14 and 15.

1:51 Jude, verse 14.

1:57 And to these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with myriads, of his holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness, which they have ungodly wrought, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Now we have occasion to notice yesterday morning that in the midst of what I call the bitter sweet genios, the mythology of the descendants of Adam through the line of Seth down to the time of Noah, we find this amazing statement concerning the man named Enoch. Adding to these verses the light of Hebrews 11, verses 5 and 6, the whole life and history of Enoch can be summarized under the simple headings, Enoch the man. The man who walked with God, the man who witnessed for God, and the man who went to God. In our initial study, we considered the biblical frame and border

3:23 within which the divine portrait or mini-mural of Enoch is painted for us. And then in our first study of the life of Enoch proper, yesterday morning we focused our attention on the fact that he was the man who walked with God, considering the significance of that terminology, the setting in which he walked with God, and the source of his experience of walking with God. Now this morning we turn our attention to the fact that this same Enoch who walked with God also witnessed for God. Now the truth that Enoch witnessed for God could only be implied and deduced from that which is spoken of Enoch in the original biographical account in Genesis chapter 5, and we would properly deduce from the fact that he walked with God not as a recluse, not in some monastery, not in a cave away from God, but in the ordinary pressure of society, that in so doing he was indeed a witness by his life,

4:48 and we would have reason to believe that since all who savingly know God and manifest that saving knowledge in a transformed life invariably confess him with their lips, for the Bible knows nothing of a saving faith that is a mute faith. If thou shall confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven. No man can claim the luxury of a mystic, deep, intimate walk with God who is mute in witnessing for God. No such creature exists in reality. In self-deception, yes, but not in substantial, valid spiritual experience. However, we are not left to implication and deduction which would be warranted allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture, but in addition to what we are told about Enoch in Genesis chapter 5, we have these verses in the book of Jude which focus primarily, if not exclusively,

The Context of Jude's Epistle and Enoch's Prophecy

6:13 upon Enoch as the man who witnessed for God. And I want you to keep your eyes on this passage here in the book of Jude, and let me say first of all just a word about the context. You remember the problem Jude had, and every pastor can relate to it. He said in verse 3, I was giving all diligence, I had marshaled all of my mentors, all of my mental and spiritual faculties, and I was prepared to write to you a letter concerning our common salvation.

6:49 Maybe it was going to be kind of a mini book of Romans in which he would lay out the great privileges and provisions and commensurate obligations of the new covenant community, but it was going to be primarily a positive pastoral letter concerning our common salvation. But in spite of all of that preparation of mind and heart, he says, I was constrained to change the direction of those sanctified pastoral desires and predispositions, and I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in privily. There were realities in the pastoral situation of those whom Jude is addressing which diverted him from his original intention and laid hold of his spirit and constrained him not to a positive exposition and opening up and application of their common salvation but to this negative polemic against false teachers who always bring in their train

8:17 their patterns of false and immoral living. And I could not help but think in praying through and reworking through this material of the beautiful framework of this whole motif as we find it in Titus 1.9 where the requirement of an elder is that he be able both to exhort, to encourage in the healthy doctrine and to convict the antilegos, those who speak against the truth. And here was Jude delightfully anticipating fulfilling the first part of an elder's task to exhort, to encourage in healthy doctrine when factors entered and turned him instead to the negative but necessary facet of a pastor's duty namely to convict, to bring to the test and to show as false those who were speaking against the truth. And if you read through this brief little epistle you find again and again references to these who have given themselves over these in their dreamings these that rail these who are hidden rocks and when we come to verse 14 and read And to these also Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied

9:44 do you see the leap that Jude is taking from something spoken by Enoch in the antediluvian period and he says Enoch's words are directly addressed to these present day heretics who are seeking to undermine the faith of the people of God to divert them from the ways of holiness how in the world could Enoch prophesy to these who are creeping in in the first century well you see it shows that the word of the living God is a living and a timeless word we do not simply look in and cup our ears to what Enoch said to the evil men of his generation what Enoch said to them he said to every one generation who fits the pattern of life described in this epistle of Jude and so we turn our attention then to this man Enoch who walked with God but who also according to the passage before us in Jude witnessed for God and in the time allotted this morning we'll consider this second aspect of Enoch's life remember now

The Personal Context of Enoch's Witness: A Godly Life

11:12 within that triangular frame and matting as we now focus upon the portrait itself we shall look at this aspect of the portrait in terms of the context of his witness then the content of his witness and then concluding observations and applications with respect to his witness first of all then the context of his witness and I would like you to consider it with me under two aspects the personal context and the societal context and in a very real sense in any age any set of circumstances the context of his own person and the context of the life of the society within which he seeks to bear witness to his gracious God what then was the personal context of the witness of God? well when Enoch opened his mouth to speak for God he did so as one who was manifestly as we saw walking with God and that in the ordinary

12:38 domestic response in an age of departure from God when the society of Lamech that was thoroughly sensual that was thoroughly secular that was brazenly God and irreverent was gaining in its influence in that setting this man walked with his God so that when he opened that mouth was joined to feet that were choosing the right path when he faced the force of temptation joined to hands that were not touching forbidden objects that were engaged in noble deeds of obedience to God that mouth was joined to eyes that were not fixed upon objects to covet them or to lust after them the context of the activity of his mouth was a totally integrated life lived in this description he walked with God and that contains a very vital principle and the principle is this that more harm comes to the cause of God

14:07 when people's mouths attempt to witness for the other context that is a third of what it means to walk with God the life that would witness to the Savior but a valid representation of the power of the Gospel 15 says sanctify Christ to give an answer to every man who asks you of the hope that is in you and a given relationship between you and an anticipated reaction to a set of circumstances that is as the delightful object of your supreme devotion but more particularly as the one whose rule

15:28 and government you desire to reflect in every single circumstance to sanctify Christ in our hearts not merely on the Lord's day to have him set as Lord to sing him with many crowns upon his throne not merely in the secret set him apart as a mediatorial through whose vernier to God and similarly in family worship no sanctify the pattern of your life secrecy of your shop in the basement alone with your thoughts and your bandsaw and your cave and your wrens in the dish stacking dishes in the dirty pampers fixing the evening meal in every

16:56 in the heart of Peter is the manner woman will precipitate questions what in the world makes you tick what is it that makes you what you and again the assumption of Peter is that when in that spirit of readiness you are prepared to give an answer to the one who asks the answer doesn't in a vacuum it comes out of the context of a life that is already validated and in some ways exegeted the gospel that you will now speak with your lips similar emphasis in Philippians 2 14 and 15 do all things without murmuring and disputing grousing and grumbling everything that comes to you unto the Lord reminding yesterday with all do it not with ices unto men recognizing you in the will of God do all things without murmuring and disputing that you may be sons of God shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation hold the word of life and if that phrase does not witness and I know the debate

18:24 among exegetes but assume at least it's one of the valid aspects of it the holding forth of the word of life again is not conceived of in a vacuum but in the context of a blameless and a harmless light that shines like a sparkling star against the inky black darkness of the midnight of the moral state of any given generation you are seen as luminaries shining in the darkness well you see that was the personal context of Enoch's witness when he stood in prophesied saying behold the Lord came and he goes after the conscience of the ungodly long before his mouth was opened his life was a witness against that generation so the personal context of his witness was that of a persistent steady godly life amidst all the normal pressures of life lived as a normal ordinary domestic man in a wicked world but then note briefly with me the societal context what was the context of his witness with respect to society at large well from the general drift that was

The Societal Context of Enoch's Witness: An Ungodly Generation

19:52 taking place as we had occasion to note briefly yesterday that generation was drifting into the very patterns that would ultimately find expression in God's universal judgment in the flood in the time of Noah it was no golden age of universal revival it was not the good old common grace reign Lamech and his descendants were actively building their godless culture yet hedonistic and brutal society the erosion among the godly in which they were making that all important choice of marriage partners based on something other than godliness was already beginning to take its effect we learned something about the society from that general description but secondly we learned something about the society from the things he spoke about in his prophecy look at the language of the text when Enoch prophesied there was one particular thing that was the focal point of his prophecy next to the fact that he emphasized the coming judgment in the coming of the Lord he focused

21:20 upon the climate of ungodliness verse 15 to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of their works of ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought and of all the hard things which and here's a unique phrase ungodly sinners have spoken against him well I thought all sinners were ungodly well yes they are the very essence of sin is ungodliness but you see the word used here in its noun and verbal form and you have here in this text speaks of a peculiarly aggravated kind of sinfulness a saviour without it was a and a

22:45 they were a society there is no god and so was not one if we may use that of human sin where some choose the path of profligacy and others of drunkenness and others of sensuality and materialism but there was an overriding in the way we think and how we live now that fact contains a very vital principle as we think of the context in which Enoch witnessed for god his witness no doubt was very costly to him as then in Christ Jesus 2 Timothy 3.12 just walk with God in a wicked age and you'll suffer persecution even in the more refined country it may not be

24:12 and for one reason you won't play with the boys on the business trip and your presence as a godly man is an irritant to their conscience and the man above you who must sign off on your promotion has had his conscience rubbed raw on every business trip where when he's been dallying with in room porno movies and going off to topless bars he knows you've been back in your motel room the very room you roomed with him reading your bible and calling your wife a mist from that can be spun out and heard by the spirit he will suffer persecution but when such a man begins to open his mouth and witness for God that persecution will be greatly intensified Amos 5.10 says then the gate and you remember the language of Ahab concerning Micaiah 1 Kings 22.8

25:32 because he prophesied evil concerning me and not good he didn't say I hate him because he speaks lies it wasn't a matter of lies or truth because he always speaks evil well he had to because Ahab was a man who had sold evil and any man who was honest with his soul would have to tell him you are an evil man who has sold into judgement and so before the coming of Christ designated in Hebrews 11 as the reproach of Christ so the confessing the witnessing Enoch no doubt of the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ before Christ was yet incarnate in space but blessed be God when Matthew 10.32 says whosoever shall confess me before men him will I confess before my father Enoch had the confidence that confessing his God in his generation the living God would confess him in the final day well that's just sketching in a little bit of the context in which Enoch witnessed for God

26:59 it is in many ways in its leading principles exactly the same context in which we are called upon to witness for God context we are called to witness for God not out of a perfect life if you wait till you're perfect before you witness you'll be in the place where witness is no longer needed it's called heaven but we are called upon to witness out of the context of in the totality of life God never calls a man committed to walking consistently with him and then committed to that principle you and I like Enoch are called upon to bear in an age is not just by the full of generics

28:20 men are from education or perspective whether prime time caster or commentator even to suggest that God may have something to do with the greatest flood of the rivers in the middle of our country in our recorded history just bad luck over the flood Enoch witnessed for God it is ours

The Content of Enoch's Witness: Origin, Objects, and Burden

29:48 well then consider with me secondly having looked at the context of his witness what was the content of his witness and I want us to examine it under three headings its origin, its objects and its burden look at Jude 14 the origin of the witness of Enoch is called prophecy and to these also Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied breaks down not a one of us here is a prophet anyone claim to be we nail into the wall but wait stop for a moment when it says Enoch prophesied what is the Holy Ghost telling us what is the Holy Ghost telling us Enoch became an instrument to speak the very of God a prophet is one to whom God whether by impressing upon the mental faculties whether in vision whether in voice whether by the usual Hebrews 1 says in many different ways God spoke unto our fathers the prophets but whatever came

31:14 up no matter how in what came out of the prophets the was the month he of God what the prophet said God said and whatever God was ordinarily the prophet so when it says prophesied it would not be in any way contrary to the mind of the spirit to give this free paraphrase Enoch the seventh from Adam spoke the word how did a prophet introduce his message thus the Lord the burden of the Lord so when it says Enoch prophesied generation Enoch spoke the uniquely divinely word of the living God now how did you Enoch prophesy and what he prophesied well as always people have nothing to do but engage in scholarly investigations if written books about it did he extrapolate this from the so called book of Enoch is this a divinely inspired capturing of oral tradition I don't give a hoot

32:39 because I believe Enoch was the revelatory activity of God and my friend that is exactly the origin of your witness and mine we give to people the fruit of the revelatory activity of God when we say to people here in Romans Paul says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God we are not prophets but we are speaking prophetic words words that God has revealed for all and when we have said

33:58 and after this have no more that they can do are conveying the words of prophecy so witness likewise coming to us in visions in signs in in powerful impressions from the spirit of God shaping our minds to frame but they are all found within the lids of this book that's why of me and of my in this sinful and adulterous generation of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory Paul said do things without murmuring and disputing that you may be blameless sons of God blameless and harmless shining as lights

35:26 holding forth what the word of life that is the order of our witness I have a message a general of moral in my quote sexual preference I hope you never used the term we are glutted with euphemisms nobody in the world has a sexual preference God established your identity in your mother's womb he made them men waiting was good

36:42 that I should and it's God's that made you what you are see the terminology termination of pregnancy

37:28 and when we seek to people of the sin of covetousness which is idolatry and of God and when we speak in an age and come to the more central issues that in the evening ministry of the truth of the cross where a real Jesus of Nazareth who is and was and in his life is the only doing things in the stock

38:57 and the real we need not in any way speak with timid voice yes it is an ungodly generation one that is willing to entertain the most bizarre the most stupid and vile answers to the great problems and put people on platforms public television subsidized by institutions which will be undermined by the very things they are subsidizing and they are called worthy of consideration Charlie Rose will interview them with his wrinkled brow and his engaging interest but let anyone dare in my darkness of eternal hell you and I the origin of our witness is exactly

The Objects of Enoch's Witness: Confronting Ungodly Sinners

40:25 the same as Enoch's Enoch could say what he could say not because he had seen there is no indication of that in much more oh dear people have you ever have you finally gotten rid of the itch to say well I wish I may when there were living prophets if we had a living prophet here this morning Lord for five minutes and we all went out and discussed what he said wouldn't get any two of you to exactly agree what he said oh no he said this oh no he said that oh but you didn't catch this nuance it wasn't what but the way he said it meant can we be arguing for the rest of the day over what he said here we have a more sure word of prophecy and that's the origin of our witness but then look at the objects of the witness of Enoch look again at Jude 14 it is to these who are introduced in verse four of who at one

41:50 time of the Christian certain men crept in privily it is these who have given themselves to fornication and they I tell you the open blasphemy in the most common radio broadcast and television programs now is absolutely frightening people make jokes at the most sacred thing verse and what they understand like the creatures in these he acts out I'll not be

43:15 coarse in care is not that the other party dear people how relevant and it was to such who are not coming to church on Sunday let us hear the word of God God would say and said there's something more than money and pleasure and sex and popularity and buildings and orchestras and beautiful

44:31 and aesthetic things remember the society of Lamech what Luther calls the church of the devil was erected on the foundations of the society developed by Lamech Enoch prophesied told the Lord with the prophetic past that it's already he saw the from

45:31 the dead the Lord judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of their works of ungodliness which they have unto the hardly sinners have spoken against him you see men can't get their hands on God so they do the next best thing they take their tongues and with their tongues they make daggers and arrows and bullets and come on and they go and they go against him and it's to such a people that Enoch dared to get in their face and say a day of judgment is coming and almighty God will cause you to be self condemned that's the sense of the word convict not merely to point out the wrong but to persuade to the moral judgment of the accused that is we're not called to that is that so

Application: Reproving the Unfruitful Works of Darkness (Ephesians 5)

47:00 turn to Ephesians chapter the book of Ephesians was not for Elisha Timothy and Titus Ephesians was not and writing to calls them to a walk in love in beginning in chapter 5 be ye therefore imitators of God as loved children and walk in love who and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet to young people when anyone tries to tell you well if you really love someone and you've got an understanding that there's commitment of heart surely something so beautiful and so sacred as sexual intimacy before marriage in that context that can't be unclean listen to what the passage says walk in love but fornication and uncleanness let it not be named among you indicating that within the orbit of biblical love fornication never fits never never and all uncleanness

48:27 and I'm going to be very blunt and some of you adults don't like it please bear with even the so-called Christian college and university campuses there's the notion of the erogenous even bringing people to sexual penetration there's no fornication that's a devilish theology that is made its way throughout Christian college and universities and intervarsity I'm not saying it's endorsed by the colleges endorsed by the leaders but it's endorsed under bushes in coed dorms and in the back seat of cars the apostle says walk in overtones that have the filthy edge on it they are not befitting but rather giving of thanks unless someone should

49:54 say that's Paul what did he know don't take it seriously that's no fornicator nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and what you will find when I took my first I said to myself I'll sway the rest of my life that didn't come to me second hand third hand it came into my own ear

50:50 when I fell how do you know the first time I didn't say all could be one of them I'm going to play Russian with your purity and with your soul

52:00 to take my words lightly don't play head game tactically fornicate uncleanness is the net that catches it all so there's the abstinence from the and then he says in the forbidden fruit of these sins will be a nerve along which will ride the white hot body and soul no heavy breathing in hell no illicit

53:30 orgasms when he fell well that's a big enough order he says that's not all you're not to be partakers with them because if you're reverting to what you once were you were once dark are you light in the Lord walk his children of the light you forgot Enoch no I didn't we're coming to Enoch Enoch's life is the first nine verses ten he walked with God he proved what was well for the Lord he made the right moral fork but that's not all you like Enoch we are not only to walk with God in an evil generation we're to witness for and look at the dimension of witness that is underscored here have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather

The Courage to Reprove: Personal Testimony and Challenge

55:00 very interesting eclego reprove them it is that work to point out verbally the sin and to do it in such a way as to bring the conscience into a state of internal with the unfruitful them but wait a minute nobody's running around men love darkness rather than light and will not come to but you are light and you are light not only in specific thus reprove them for the things that are done by them in seeking to be an Enoch who dares of an

56:29 evil generation and not like some wild and when the girls

57:31 laughing in the study hall that she had in their face if you're anything what happened it's secretly you're envying you'll never get in their face and reprove them if you're your mouth will never speak with against this pastor Martin you're an old man I'm not telling you to do anything by the grace of God that I did not do as a senior in high school I know God can give you grace to do it I know what it's like to be in the locker room when

58:54 the dirty jokes are spoken and when I use when I pass out track to attack the same for Connecticut Stanford High School still step home I can't count the years walking down that the guys who go by in their cars and they see me with my Bible and walking down the hill often passing out tracks and they

60:02 cry out have your soul didn't have anybody preached 17 years of my life and I never heard one fifth of what we've heard in every single message in this place I grew up in a background that apart from my parents instructions no addressing that I'm and get in the face of my generation and tell them that Almighty God was listening to their dirty jokes there was no porn but I dealt with what was there the dirty jokes the filthy minds are illicit involvement in alcohol we got in their face I marvel that I didn't get beat up we even used

61:17 to go and sit at the bar stool and pass out track give out a little track that said a bar to heaven a door to hell whoever named it named it well what you say but I tell you little did I know some be able to do it with a good conscience and say get in their face what about you come on man if we don't do this we may not get the next project you're low man on the totem pole if we don't get the next contract because this thing here has been accepted and signed off as

62:25 acceptable your jobs in the you know what you do you say like the three Hebrew children look we are not careful to answer you in this oh Mr. Supervisor think God's even to a that God is not irrelevant he's the God of truth who loves truth and fellowships only you take it in every every realm and then you see and it doesn't mean that all Enoch did was

The Burden of Our Witness: God-Centered Pressure on Conscience

63:48 go around help of God though you may think you're accountable to none but yourself he'll judge you by accountability to God upon man by and who do not find forgiveness and acceptance in the way that Enoch did the burden and central concern of our witness in an age of ungodliness is to be a God centered focus on those God revealed truths most calculated to make the godless feel the pressure of God upon their consciences that's why when Paul was before Felix he didn't say God loves you Felix has a wonderful plan for your life would you like to hear about it he reasoned with him of what of righteousness

65:12 temperance and of judgment then Felix trembled you read the context there in Acts 24 Felix wanted to hear more concerning ready to even know the first things of the central doctrines of the cross Felix and come to grips with these greater issues and telling them that their greatest needs being healed by glancing at the cross the greatest of man's self worth and the highest is blatant soul dear people Enoch witnessed for God what a witness he is institutes the model of that delicate balance between personal godliness joined to aggressive witness I thought for some of God's people the best thing within them by some kind of micro surgery a built in speaker and a tape that would make them speak for God because their lives are such that their witness would be compelling

Conclusion: A Society of Enochs

66:39 there are others the best thing you could do for the gospel is get a big roll of duct tape and wrap it around their mouth which are you Enoch constitutes that it is possible witness in an ungodly age and Enoch constitutes a warning to all the ungodly among us the Lord has come that you've never been here Enoch speaking to us in a

67:40 if you're part of the myriad of his holy ones made holy by the efficacious his work he comes with his holy ones to me it's a thrilling thing to think that though I've never seen Enoch I've walked with him in the bible I wonder how we'll be positioned when the Lord comes will he be ranked in such a way that I'll wink at Enoch when the Lord comes with his holy ones it's a wonderful thought for a Christian isn't it you stand in the face of this generation at times

68:58 feel God what's like those poor people stand in Mississippi what I've witnessed in the last 20 years of iniquity rising with no revelation people there's no excuse not to be a company of Enoch to walk with God and to witness for God let us pray we thank you for the livingness of the scripture how we thank you for this man in his generation and oh that the virtue and the power of Christ ministered to us by the Holy Spirit will make us a society of Enoch oh God we plead especially

70:24 for these young men and women we see already the marks of an Enoch who manifest a desire to who timidly but nonetheless really deter peace of their godless generation and reprove their sins strengthen and oh may the test of the coming years that indeed they are Enoch's in heart and yet Lord we think of others young and old alike who are part of this generation soaked in its own self-importance with its own self-esteem and self-fulfillment and self-actualization and self-expression oh Lord if we are ready to vomit it out what must your soul feel that exude with you to be bold witnesses for you take away our sinful timidity oh Lord take it from us excise it cut it out of our hearts to witness a bold as well as a winsome

71:53 company of Enoch's to witness to this needy generation in Jesus name we pray Amen