Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] I have a bit of a head cold. So if I sound the way that I sound right now, just.
[00:00:22] Just. That's why. Okay, that's why. And. And if I don't sound as coherent in my thought, that's why. That's my excuse. All right.
[00:00:31] Corrie Ten Boom had an infectious smile. And I have a picture of her. Okay, I'm gonna tell a little bit about this sister in the faith's life. But she had an infectious smile. Now, smiles sometimes, as it pertains to being able to look at a person and see actual happiness in the person, smiles can be a bit deceptive. Smiles don't always tell the full picture. But what does tell the fuller picture are the eyes. Okay? So when you look at a person's eyes, you can usually tell whether or not that person is genuinely happy. And Corrie Ten Boom lived and died a genuinely happy person.
[00:01:11] So if you haven't read her story, if you haven't read the Hiding Place any, like, you should do that. It's an amazing story. Here are a couple of things about her specifically. So she was Dutch, lived in The Netherlands from 18, was born in 1892, died in 1983.
[00:01:28] And during World War II, she and her family. You guys can take that down if you want to.
[00:01:32] During World War II, she and her family, led by their father Casper, built a hidden room behind a false wall in Corey's room that could fit six people at a time.
[00:01:44] The room was ventilated, and there was an alarm installed that would alert them if danger was near. So what was happening were Jewish refugees were showing up to their house. One showed up at their house. They welcomed that person in. And then word began to spread, and more Jewish people began to show up at their house. And so while the Nazis were seeking after Jewish people to put them in concentration camps and kill them, the 10 booms were hiding Jewish people behind this false wall in Corey's room. And so the room could fit six people at a time. It was ventilated. I mean, you just think about all of. Just the ingenuity that went on in here and the courage to. To do this. They became part. Their family, became part of what was known as the Dutch Resistance. And by the end of the war, it was said that they helped save over 800 Jews.
[00:02:30] That's an amazing life, isn't it?
[00:02:34] Eventually, the 10 booms were captured and arrested for their work by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. Their father, Casper, died 10 days later.
[00:02:43] Betsy and Corey, the two sisters, were eventually sent to a concentration camp for women where they spent their days telling others of the grace and mercy of God found in Jesus Christ. That's what they spent their days doing. Telling other people in the concentration camp of the grace and mercy of God found in Jesus Christ and the hope that they had in. In Jesus. Betsy Corey's sister died at the age of 59, and Corrie was eventually released due to a clerical error.
[00:03:14] And 30 days later, the other women who were with her were sent to the gas chamber.
[00:03:21] Corrie Ten Boom would say that she would later on go to. She would go on later to say that understanding suffering on this side of heaven, while being somewhat impossible to understand all of the nuances of it, but that the Bible seemed to say that suffering on this side of heaven was sort of like viewing a beautiful tapestry. So if you can imagine a tapestry in your mind, it's as if suffering is kind of like. It's as if we're looking at the tapestry from the bottom. Have you ever seen the bottom of a tapestry? Just a bunch of random threads. Doesn't make any sense, right? It's almost like we're viewing it from the bottom of the tapestry, where God is viewing the tapestry from the top, as he is the one intricately weaving together the artistic and beautiful design.
[00:04:07] That's kind of what suffering is like. And it was because of. In part because of that perspective, by the grace of God, that in the midst of suffering and in the midst of living in an incredibly dark and evil and wicked generation, Corrie Ten Boom shined as a light of joy and hope amongst those around her.
[00:04:28] Why do I share this with you?
[00:04:30] It's because Enoch, this very peculiar, mysterious character in the Bible, was kind of like that too.
[00:04:39] So as we walk through Hebrews chapter 11, we're taking a person at a time, okay? So we're just going to slowly do this.
[00:04:47] We're taking a person at a time. And we're looking not so much at the character of the person, though that's important. But we're looking at their faith and how these men and women demonstrated faith in the most dire of circumstances. Because that's what, by God's grace, you and I, as followers of Jesus, are called to imitate. We're not so much called to imitate their life. Because if you've been around the church for any amount of time and you're familiar with some of these stories, you know that these men and women were desperately imperfect and broken people in a variety of ways. But what we're just like us by the way. Right, but what we're called to imitate is their faith.
[00:05:24] And we've defined faith as trust. Faith is not just knowing things about God. It's not just knowing theology, though all of that's important and necessary. Faith is taking the things that you know and that I know in our minds and trusting them.
[00:05:42] Like trusting them to be completely true. So much so that you're willing to die for it.
[00:05:49] And that's a drastic conclusion. But think if, if we're, if we're able to, to get there, think about all of what trusting in God and in his promises in the Gospel would mean for our day to day lives.
[00:06:03] So that's what we're doing through Hebrews 11. And today we get to this mysterious character, Enoch.
[00:06:12] There's not a lot about Enoch in the Bible. Okay, but here's what I want to do. Similar to last week, I want you to hold your place in Hebrews 11. I'm going to reread the text, but I want you to thumb all the way back to the beginning of the Bible, to Genesis chapter five. Okay? So hold your place in Hebrews 11, thumb all the way back to Genesis chapter five. And I'm going to read both texts and then I want to just draw out five observations about Enoch's life and what we might learn from this brother's faith. Okay, that's the sermon today. All right, so while you're thumbing there, let me just read Hebrews 11, 5 and 6 again.
[00:06:50] Says, by faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death. And he was not found because God had taken him.
[00:06:59] Now before he had taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. So that's Hebrews 11, 5, 6, Genesis 5. I'm going to read verses 18 to 24 and this is what it says.
[00:07:22] When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch.
[00:07:27] Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died.
[00:07:37] When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after He followed Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. So what is it that you and I are to walk away from? As it pertains to this man's life and faith. It's simply this, that Enoch walked with God.
[00:08:08] He walked with God. Do you know, and maybe this sounds really elementary to many of you, but again, we're taking things that we know and we're saying, holy Spirit, please apply them to my heart, that I would actually trust this truth and live according to it. Do you know that the Christian life is a walk with God?
[00:08:30] Like that's what this thing is. It could really be boiled down to that statement. So if we're thinking about the Christian life as a walk with God, this is a profound figure for us to learn from. Though he doesn't have much airtime in the Bible, we don't know if he lived an extraordinary life. By all accounts, he lived a very ordinary life.
[00:08:47] He fathered some kids. He didn't live to be as long as everybody else did in his day and age. That's a different sermon for a different day.
[00:08:54] There is a really, really beautiful sermon that was preached by Charles Spurgeon long time ago that's online called Enoch. I would encourage you to go and read it. It's just amazing. And he elaborates a lot on a lot of these things that we won't necessarily tap into, all of which today. But by all accounts, Enoch seemed to live a very ordinary life, but he walked with God.
[00:09:16] Do you view your life with Jesus as a walk with God, or are you and I living under the misunderstanding that what Christianity is is a one time prayer and then a waiting for heaven, but there's not really a day to day recognition of the presence of God.
[00:09:38] Okay. Jesus really isn't at the center of things. Sometimes we might even talk like, you know, God is first in my life and then my family and then my work and then my, you know, whatever. Whatever comes after that. Right. But that's not the way the Bible talks about.
[00:09:52] Talks about Jesus as being at the center of all of it.
[00:09:57] Not first, but center.
[00:10:01] Like is he at the center of it all?
[00:10:05] This, this is what Enoch is put in Hebrews 11:4 to highlight for us that the Christian life is a walk with God. So what does it mean that Enoch walked with God? Here are the five things that I want us to think about pertaining to Enoch and then as it pertains to our lives as followers of Jesus. And I'm going to use kind of both texts as well as there's a text in Jude that we'll look at pertaining to this particular person. Okay, so number one, what does it mean that Enoch walked with God. Okay, Enoch walked with God as a declared righteous person.
[00:10:45] So it says that God was pleased with Enoch.
[00:10:48] Wasn't just pleased with his faith, though certainly that was like the contributing factor, the grace of God through faith that made God pleased with Enoch. But it says that God was pleased with. He was pleased with Enoch. It says now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. He was commended and he pleased God. Why was Enoch known as a person who pleased God? It was not because of his righteousness. Enoch was a sinner, just like you and I.
[00:11:22] Enoch walked with God because God first pursued Enoch.
[00:11:28] And so when we think about this idea of the Christian life being a walk with God, we have to keep the first thing first. Okay? It's walking with God. This idea of walking with God must be preceded by you and I as sinners being born again.
[00:11:47] You cannot walk with God if you and I are not first pleasing to God in the only way that you and I are pleasing in the sight of God. Holy in the sight of God or righteous in the sight of God is. Is because of what God has done for us in the good news of the gospel.
[00:12:04] Romans 3:23 26 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified. That word justified just means declared righteous in the sight of God.
[00:12:17] Are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he that's God might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. This little statement right here that says it was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, that's foreknowledge. He passed over former sins. I think what Paul's talking about in this text is he's talking about men and women from the Old Testament who were declared right in the sight of God, though Christ had not left heaven and come to earth yet.
[00:12:58] How did God do that? How was it that Enoch was declared as one who was commended by God and having pleased God? If Christ, if the Son of God had not left the throne of heaven and come to earth as a human, lived the perfect life, died on the cross for sin, and risen from the dead, and we're going to get really theological for a moment. It's because God in eternity past decreed his people righteous through the life, death and resurrection of his Son. So though Christ wasn't going to come for another, however many thousands of years after Enoch lived, Enoch was declared righteous because of what Christ did.
[00:13:36] Does that make sense?
[00:13:39] You and I are only.
[00:13:41] There it goes. You and I are only declared righteous in the sight of God. We can only walk with God because of what Christ has done.
[00:13:53] The gospel is not good advice, friends. It's not good advice for how to live a better life or how to be a better person. The gospel is news and you don't live out news, by the way. You either accept the news or you reject the news.
[00:14:10] That's the invitation that you and I have when we hear the good news of what God has done for sinners through through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's we can either reject that news and say we're going to do it our way, like we talked about last week with Abel, or we're going to recognize that there is no forgiveness of sins apart from sacrifice. And the greatest sacrifice in the history of the world has already been made through God himself.
[00:14:39] So friends, have you received Jesus as Savior and Lord? We can't have a conversation about what it means to walk with God if you haven't first received yourself by faith. The good news we don't please God. God is not pleased by us by a redoubled effort to live a better religious life.
[00:15:02] We're only pleasing in the sight of God because of Christ.
[00:15:08] And through faith and trust in Christ and what Christ has accomplished, that ought to lead to immense freedom from you. That if you're thinking about the Christian life as a means of you need to be a better person or you need to do more or work harder, you're thinking about it wrongly.
[00:15:27] Christ has done what you could never do. He lived the life you could never live. He died the death that we deserve to die. He was buried. He was resurrected, defeating sin, death, Satan and hell forever. And now he says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. Let me be your rest. Let me take the burden off. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Which means Jesus burden is a non burden.
[00:15:51] The the only way that you and I might lose the burden of sin and shame and guilt and condemnation is by looking upon Christ in the cross. What he accomplished on our behalf and trusting.
[00:16:04] That's how we enter into a relationship with God is by trusting in Jesus as Savior and as Lord. And while the Son of God had not left heaven and Come to earth in the days of Enoch. Enoch trusted in the grace and mercy of God by the grace of God number two.
[00:16:31] Enoch's walk with God meant that he walked with God in all of life.
[00:16:38] He walked with God in all of life. Genesis 5:22 21 to 22 says, When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after He fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. So you think about the longevity of Enoch's walk with God. Hundreds and hundreds of years. Now, that doesn't make a lot of sense to us today because we don't live to be that old, okay? But you think about just the idea of the longevity. He walked with God in all of life. Like Enoch's walk with God was not merely compartmentalized to his quiet time.
[00:17:13] Quiet time, whatever that means to you is necessary. We see that in the life of Jesus. Jesus often broke away. Listen, we live in a busy culture for sure, but none of us are ever going to be as busy as Jesus was.
[00:17:29] Ever.
[00:17:30] It doesn't matter if you're the CEO of a Fortune 500, you're never gonna be as busy as Jesus was.
[00:17:37] Like, when Jesus left, crowds were looking for him.
[00:17:41] He never got a break.
[00:17:43] Rightly so, because he's amazing, right? Like, everybody wanted to be around Jesus.
[00:17:48] And so Jesus would find times, yes, to break away and spend alone time with the father. That's necessary for you and I as followers of Jesus. But our walk with God cannot be relegated to those times exclusively. We can't think about it that way.
[00:18:06] Enoch walked with God in all of life. He fathered children, many of them.
[00:18:13] And again, we don't have the details of what Enoch's home life looked like, but nowhere in the text does it say that he lived this extravagant life with all these amazing adventures and journeys and all of these kinds of things. I mean, it just sounds like a pretty ordinary guy that fathered some kids and had a family and walked with God in the midst of all of it.
[00:18:35] He didn't see it as some separate thing.
[00:18:38] He saw walking with God as being the whole center of his life. So he walked with God in his parenting. He walked with God in his home. We don't know much about his life, his wife, anything. Walked with God in his marriage, walked with God on Tuesdays and on Thursdays.
[00:18:56] Spurgeon says 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 do. He was not merely orthodox in head, but the truth had entered into his heart. And 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 thought of God, merely that he speculated about God, that he argued about God, that he read about God, that he talked about God. But he walked with God, which is the practical and experimental, experimental part of true godliness. In his daily life, he realized that God was with him, and he regarded him as a living friend in whom he confided and by whom he was loved.
[00:19:47] So how do we walk with God in the midst of all of our busyness? Like, as a pastor of the church, I have lots of conversations, and I have my own life and my own family. Like, I know it is hard, man. It's hard to find time. And it can be very discouraging when we feel like we don't have a second because we have needy kids and we've got spouses. And for those of us who maybe don't have spouses, but you're in a season of singleness. You've got all sorts of things and responsibilities, and everybody's jammed packed to the full, right? So how do we walk with God in the midst of all of that? It's learning to live with a conscious awareness of his presence and love in the midst of it, that God is not just a doctrine, but he is a living friend who leads us and walks with us in the midst of all of it. So what might it look like for you and I to be, by the grace of God, more conscious of his presence in the midst of the busyness, to have conversation with him in the midst of the busyness? There are times that my kids walk in on me doing the dishes or whatever, praying. Like, I'm just, like, sitting there praying. And I always have this thought in the back of my mind of like, dude, they think I'm crazy. Dad's talking to himself again.
[00:21:00] Talk to God when you do the dishes.
[00:21:03] Talk to God when you get up in the morning. Talk to God when you take a shower. Talk to God when you do these ordinary, seemingly mundane things, like, Jesus is your king, he's your Lord, he's your savior, and he's your friend.
[00:21:18] Enoch walked with God in all of life, in the midst of all, all of it.
[00:21:27] When I was.
[00:21:30] I don't know how old I was 12 maybe. I was at soccer practice one day and I tried this new move that we had learned at camp, and I tripped over the ball and I fell, and I tried to catch myself when I fell, and I got up as if everything was normal. And I just started jogging down the field, and my teammate was jogging next to me, and, I mean, he went pale looking at me, and so I just was like, hey, what's the matter? And he was like, oh, look at your hand. And, I mean, it's not like preacher exaggeration to say this. Like, I. I mean, my hand was all but hanging by, like, my flesh, okay? Like, just broken in so many places. And. And so I immediately started screaming. And my grandfather, who helped raise me, ran over to me and he picked me up. The hospital just providentially was right across the street from where we were practicing soccer. So he picked me up and he was like, you know what? You can walk. And I was like, oh. And. And so he was walking with me, hand in hand, across the hospital. And I just remember him vividly saying, just, hey, keep your eyes on me.
[00:22:33] Just. Just look at me. Just look at me. Don't look at your hand.
[00:22:37] Right? The pain was there. I didn't have to. I didn't have to dwell by looking at the pain. Like, the pain was there.
[00:22:44] That's kind of like what it means to walk with Jesus throughout our day.
[00:22:51] 2nd Corinthians 3:18 says, we all with unveiled faces. Hey, if you're here and you're a Christian, that means your face has been unveiled. Isn't that beautiful?
[00:23:00] Like, why do you believe that people used to be 300 years old? Why does that make sense to you?
[00:23:05] It's because the spirit of God has unveiled your eyes.
[00:23:11] We all with unveiled face contemplate the Lord's glory. And through that, Paul says, we're being transformed from one degree of glory to another. How does life change happen in the heart of a Christian? By beholding the face of Jesus Christ. Life is painful. And in the midst of the pain, Jesus says, look at me. Just keep your eyes on me.
[00:23:34] Peter sank. Why did Peter sink? Because he took his eyes off Jesus.
[00:23:40] Keep your eyes. Keep your eyes on me. Look at me. Gaze upon me. I'm going to get you through it. I'm going to walk with you through it. I am your friend.
[00:23:51] Enoch walked with God in all of life. Number three.
[00:23:56] Enoch's walk with God made him a holy man in an unholy generation.
[00:24:03] So this bleeds over from the last point. If beholding Jesus, learning. I'm sorry, if learning to be conscious of the presence of Jesus and the love of Jesus, on a day by day basis is the means by which you and I are changed by the Holy Spirit.
[00:24:19] Part of that transformation, a big part of that transformation is. Is you and I becoming more like Jesus in our character.
[00:24:27] Okay, so a gospel message that says you and I can be forgiven but not transformed is no gospel at all.
[00:24:36] That is not good news, friends, that you can just be forgiven and wait for heaven, but there's no actual life change that's supposed to happen. That's not Christianity.
[00:24:49] You and I can't help but change by the power of the Holy Spirit when we're walking with Jesus, our friend in all of life.
[00:24:57] You ever spent a lot of time with somebody that you really look up to and gotten to know them on a more personal level, and the more time you spend with them and the more you observe them and you just kind of begin to imitate their mannerisms a little bit, like that's what proximity does.
[00:25:18] So Enoch's walk with God made him, by the grace of God, holy.
[00:25:23] And he was holy in the midst of an unholy generation.
[00:25:28] How do we know this? Jude, chapter one. I'm sorry, Jude 1415. There's just one chapter in the book of Jude. You don't have to flip there. I'm just going to read it to you. Jude 14:15 says Jude is arguing against opponents who are bringing in heresies into the church. And Jude says it was also about these that Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied, saying, behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way. And of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. So. So Enoch was preaching repentance in the midst of an unholy generation, calling people to turn from their evil ways and to turn back to the one true and living God. Because walking with Jesus made Enoch a more holy man. This is the plan of God, by the way, in saving you and I.
[00:26:28] Romans 8, 28, 29. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, which is amazing for those who are called according to his purpose. But what does it mean? He goes on for those who he foreknew, he also predestined. Why? To be conformed into the image of his Son.
[00:26:46] So what does it mean? That God is working all things together for the good of those who love him. The good, the bad and the ugly things. It's so that you and I might become more like Jesus by the power of the Spirit walking with God.
[00:27:01] God in the midst of us walking with God, God makes you and I more holy. He makes us more like Jesus.
[00:27:09] This point I added right before I came up to the stage. So point, point number four, and let me say this about holiness real quick, okay?
[00:27:21] This. This ought to bring us tremendous gratitude and hope, okay? The idea that as we walk with God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God is going to make you and I more and more and more holy. It ought to bring about a lot of gratitude and that. Think about this. Who were you five years ago?
[00:27:40] You think about yourself five years ago.
[00:27:43] I think one of the reasons that you and I get so discouraged when we think about our maturity as Christians is because we measure it on a day by day basis.
[00:27:51] And so we're like, I mean, dude, like, I'm no better than I was yesterday doing the same thing I did yesterday, or maybe a week by week basis, no better than I was last week. But think about five years ago.
[00:28:04] I mean, maybe that's hard. I don't know. But think about these small, little intricate ways that the Holy Spirit has shaped you and formed you and brought you to quicker repentance and a stronger hatred for sin and a greater affection for Jesus over the last five years. If you've been a Christian that long, if you haven't been a Christian that long, I mean, think. Think about what God does, what he's been doing in your life since you became a Christian. These small, little incremental baby steps that you and I have taken by the power of the Holy Spirit in us and God making us more like Jesus. And that ought to lead us to a lot of gratitude. God accepts you and I as we are, but he loves us too much to leave us as we are.
[00:28:50] So you and I will die with sin, with indwelling sin in our lives. We will die with that, even if you live to be a hundred years old. But by the grace of God, we will not be who we were when we first began.
[00:29:02] And so we should be grateful for that. And God promises to never finish, to never stop that work until it's fully completed at the day of Christ. Whether it's the day that we go see Christ in heaven or the day that Christ returns, that's when the work will be completed.
[00:29:16] All right, last thing.
[00:29:23] I'm sorry, I've got two more things. Okay.
[00:29:27] I don't feel well. Okay. All right.
[00:29:31] Number four.
[00:29:33] Enoch preached repentance to others. I just read the text from Jude. Enoch lived a holy life because he walked with God in the midst of an unholy generation. And because he walked with God, he preached repentance to people.
[00:29:46] Okay, he preached the good news because this is what happens when you and I walk with Jesus. Jesus says in Matthew 4, I love this verse. He tells these fishermen, these blue collar guys who had no seminary degree, no theological education. He says, hey, follow me. And what does he say he'll do? I'll make you fishers of men. That's a promise, by the way.
[00:30:08] Jesus says, hey, if you'll stick with me and you'll walk with me and you'll keep me before your mind and you'll know my love for you and you'll love me in return. If you'll do this, guess what I'm going to do for you? I'm going to make you an evangelist.
[00:30:22] Isn't that amazing?
[00:30:24] I'm going to make you a fisher of men.
[00:30:28] And so we talk a lot about evangelism here. But here's the thing, y'all, like if we don't have a desire to evangelize, it must be brought into question where your communion with God is.
[00:30:40] Because if you and I are communing with God, if we're walking with God on a day by day basis, you and I will want to do.
[00:30:50] Doesn't mean it's going to be easy. It's not easy. It's never. It's not supposed to be easy. It's supposed to force us to rely upon the Holy Spirit to do it. It's that not easy.
[00:31:03] But if we're walking with God, we ought to want to tell people about God.
[00:31:08] Repentance is a wonderful joyful thing. Don't think about the guy with the picket sign on the side of, you know, whatever the side of the road yelling at people, repentance is joy. You know why repentance is joy? Because it calls people to turn from lesser joys to the greatest one.
[00:31:25] That's why it's joy.
[00:31:28] You're going down a path that's going to lead to death and destruction. And I love you and Jesus is amazing and he'll take you in turned to him.
[00:31:37] And so Enoch's walk with God made him an evangelist.
[00:31:42] He called people to repentance, like it says in Jude 14 and 15. Last point.
[00:31:48] Enoch's walk with God ended in him never tasting death and continues today.
[00:31:57] It's the most mysterious part of the text, but it says by faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death. And he was not found because God had taken him.
[00:32:05] So there are two people in Scripture that never tasted physical death, Enoch and the prophet Elijah.
[00:32:14] Surely, though we don't know all the details of this, so we don't want to speculate too much, but surely this was an act of God's grace to rescue these righteous men out of a world without having to experience the pain of physical death. And there are Some, according to 1 Thessalonians 4:17, there are some who will not taste physical death before Christ returns. What an amazing gift of God's grace that will be.
[00:32:41] We don't know if it'll be us in the room. We don't know if it'll be our kids. We don't know if it'll be our grandkids. But isn't it amazing to think that there are people who will live, who will never taste physical death?
[00:32:54] What God is, God is amazing.
[00:32:59] He's so wonderful, he's so gracious and he's so kind.
[00:33:08] So what a gift of grace that some will not experience the sting of death. If, however, Jesus does not return in our lifetime, you and I will experience physical death.
[00:33:20] And while Enoch was rescued from death, here's the good news for you and I to close on. Today, Jesus experienced death fully on our behalf.
[00:33:31] Jesus didn't just experience physical death, he experienced spiritual death, momentary, for the first time in all of eternity, separation from God the Father. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[00:33:49] And because Jesus was forsaken on the cross on behalf of his people, you and I, though we experience physical death, will never be though we experience physical death, we will never experience what the Bible calls the second death, eternal separation from God. We'll never experience it. That's why Paul can say in Romans 8, nothing will be able to separate you who love God from the love of God.
[00:34:23] Tim Keller says this in his book on death.
[00:34:26] He's since gone to be with the Lord, and it's said that on Keller's deathbed, he tells his son, don't weep for me. Soon I will be better than I've ever been.
[00:34:38] That an amazing perspective to have on your deathbed. Don't we all desire that?
[00:34:43] He says, rather than living in the fear of death, we should see death as spiritual smelling salts that will awaken us out of our false belief that we will live forever.
[00:34:57] When you're at a funeral, especially one of a friend or a loved one, listen to God speaking to you, telling you that everything in life is temporary, except for the love of God. This is reality.
[00:35:11] John 11:25. Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live. And this is true.
[00:35:23] This is true for you and I. If Jesus tarries in returning, you and I will. Will experience physical death, unlike Enoch. But like Enoch, physical death will be the extent we'll never experience spiritual death. And so, as Enoch today continues his walk with Go unhindered by sin, he's not viewing things through a mirror dimly, as we are today. You and I will walk with God on the new earth as well.
[00:35:50] We'll see Jesus as he fully is. And you and I, for the first time, will be forever and always who we were always created to be.
[00:36:00] Amen. Amen. Let's pray together.
[00:36:09] Sa.
