Our subject is ‘The Secret of Abiding Peace’. Abounding joy, and Abundant Victory in War Times and at All Times.’ You will find the text in Genesis 5:24, ‘Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.’ In the description of Enoch’s walk given in our text we find the secret of abiding peace, abounding joy, and abundant victory in war times and at all times. To my mind, the text is one of the most fascinating and thrilling verses in the entire Bible.
It sounds more like a song from a heavenly world than a plain statement of historical facts regarding a humble inhabitant of this world of ours, but such it is, and it is possible for each one of us to so live and act that it may be recorded of us, ‘He walked with God, ‘ and later, ‘then he was no more, because God took him away.’
The position of this verse in the Bible is significant and suggestive. There has been, in the verses immediately preceding, a very ordinary, commonplace, and, at first sight, long recital of how one man after another of the olden time lived so many years, fathered a son, continued to live so many years, and fathered other sons and daughters, and then died.
Then suddenly Enoch is introduced and the story begins just as the other stories begin and goes on just as the other stories go on, and seems about to end just as the other stories end, but, no, there is this fresh breath from heaven and these melodious tones sound out: ‘Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.’ Then the story goes on again in the same old strain. Remember that this account belongs to a far away time, thousands of years before Christ, and about a thousand years before the Flood, and yet what depth of truth and beauty there is in it.
Are there not lessons for us to learn from that far, far-away olden time?
The entire authentic history of Enoch is contained in nine verses in the Bible, six in the Old Testament, three in the New. History outside of the Bible is utterly unacquainted with him, yet he stands out as one of the most remarkable and admirable men of whom history speaks, a man whom God honored as He has honored but one other member of the entire race. Enoch’s greatness was the kind that pleases God. We are told in the 11th chapter of Hebrews and the fifth verse that ‘By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away.
For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.’ Quite likely his greatness did not win very hearty commendation from his contemporaries. However, that was not of much consequence.
His greatness did not consist of military renown, political power, profound scholarship, successful statesmanship, splendid artistic or architectural genius, or even of magnificent philanthropic achievement. It was greatness of a more quiet and less pretentious and visible nature, but of a far more real and lasting nature; it was greatness of character. ‘He walked with God, ‘ and God so enjoyed his fellowship that He took Enoch to be with Himself permanently.
I wish to make clear to you all three things: first, what it is to walk with God; second, what are some of the results of walking with God; third, how we may get into such a walk ourselves
