Gen 5:24, And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. 
Last week, we considered this passage in the light of the manner of the walk of the faith that Enoch had with God. He pleased God to such an extent that God did not make him taste the bitterness of physical death. As we saw, there is only one other record of this same grace of God, and that was with the Prophet Elijah. These men honored God in the manner of their lives as an example of the type of life that we now are given in Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who tasted death for all of us.
We noted that Enoch, outside of the recorded lineages is mentioned in only two other passages, both of which have much to say to us. The first, which we began to consider, is Heb 11:5+6. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found because God took him up;  for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. 
	We will pick up at this point today. Because Enoch walked faithfully with God, God was pleased with him. This is something that we need to take to heart. Many of us get caught up in the manner in which we try to please God of ourselves. We look for those elements of our behavior and our dealings with others that would show God how worthy we are to be loved by Him. We feel that if we treat others in a way that shows sacrifice on our part, that sacrifice will somehow transfer into God’s vision of how good we are. We are so audacious as to think that we can show God the real person that lies beneath this flesh and blood. It is as if God could not possibly know our intimate thoughts and desires and true longing after proving our merit to be so loved. 
	This is not the reason that we are to live a life that is pleasing to God, to show how much we have learned and matured in our self-righteousness. We are called into a life that pleases God because that call is received and accepted for exactly what it is, making us prisoners of the Love of God. The Apostle Paul knew this as he informs us in Eph 4:1-6, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. 
	Notice, he was a prisoner of the Lord. He was living a pleasing life to God, even though that life was in a Roman prison, because he had no other option. He was constrained to do so. He had no choice. It was not the Romans who had put him in that cell, but the foreordination of God. It was because of that physical prison that Paul had the time and the inclination and the absolute need to write all those letters to the churches whom he so loved. Without that physical imprisonment, we would not have the full New Testament as our encouragement in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, Paul was in prison in Rome, but his heart and his spirit were not tethered by those physical restraints. He was held by the love that indwelled his very nature in Christ Jesus.
That is the call of God that so envelops us, that we become united to His will to be pleased in the lives that we live. It has nothing to do with our desire and our ability and our longing to show off our spirituality. It has everything to do with the heart of Jesus Christ and the love that we now have in Him. As Paul writes to Timothy, in 2 Tim 1:7-9, For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity… It is God’s purpose for which we now live, not our own. It is God’s work which enthralls and grips and, yes, enslaves us, not our own. It is by God’s grace, alone, in which we are able to walk, even the feeblest of steps, not by our own human ability, which always fails. 
There is a battle that rages in the hearts and minds and souls of believers. It is that inner conflict between what I want and what God wants. What I want always leads to death and is restricted by the law of God set into us, back at the Garden, in the knowledge of right and wrong. It needs to be governed and governed severely for the very survival of humanity. That inherent self-preservationism squirms and struggles and fiercely wrestles against the constraints of God’s loving wisdom and law of life. Rom 7:22-8:2 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 
	We are in a continual turmoil when we try to find some equality between my needs and God’s needs. We try to insinuate ourselves into the midst of what we know God wants, thinking that He won’t mind if we have our little slice of the pie, so to speak, from this corner, or that corner. We delude ourselves with the lie that God surely does not need every bit of our attention and our focus, that we can have some little aspects of self-adornment. We get so confused, so befuddled, and be muddled when, on one hand we want the Lord to have His complete way in our lives, and on the other hand, we expect Him to meet our self-gratiating desires to be somebody unto ourselves. We pray for others to see the light, and we often want that light to shine boldly on us in the center stage. 
	Thankfully, as the Apostle Paul encourages us, even in this self-delusion and confusion, God has made Himself our salvation. Rom 8:26-28 And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 
	Despite the best efforts that we put forth to make ourselves holy in the eyes of man and in the eyes of God, He rules and overrules and intercedes on our behalf, in His great loving-kindness and tender mercy. He causes all things to work together for good. He intercedes constantly on our behalf to bring about only that which will serve to meet His perfect plan and purpose to faultlessness and excellence, thank you Lord! 
The very core of what it means to be a prisoner wholly of Christ Jesus rests in the singleness of heart of His Body. As we read earlier in Eph. 4, There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. It is singly the union that is now our life in Jesus Christ. The only focal point for us is God and God, Alone. That is how we please Him in our lives, individually, as a married couple, as a family unit, as a corporate expression of His Body. 1 Cor 3:7-9 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. It is all God’s work. Our option is whether we will give ourselves to that work willingly and whole-heartedly. No matter what, it will happen. God has set His seal upon it. Enoch and Elijah walked with Him in it. It was the promise of God given to David and to all who truly call upon His Name with humbleness of spirit.	
Listen to the prayer of King Solomon in encouraging us to walk with God in the light of His Word and unto His glory alone. 2 Chron 6:14-17, And he said, "O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no god like Thee in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing lovingkindness to Thy servants who walk before Thee with all their heart; who has kept with Thy servant David, my father, that which Thou hast promised him; indeed, Thou hast spoken with Thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with Thy hand, as it is this day. Now therefore, O Lord, the God of Israel, keep with Thy servant David, my father, that which Thou hast promised him, saying, 'You shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way, to walk in My law as you have walked before Me.' "Now therefore, O Lord, the God of Israel, let Thy word be confirmed which Thou hast spoken to Thy servant David. 
The king upon that throne is Jesus Christ, God’s Only Begotten Son. He will not share his glory with another, no matter how much we try to get our part of it. It will include us, when we are whole-heartedly honoring Him, but it will never be ours unto ourselves. It will always be centered on, emanating from, and completely returned with majesty back to Him.
	This walk of being utterly pleasing to God then brings us to the second passage of the New Testament that references Enoch. Jude 14-21, And about these also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, "In the last time there shall be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts." These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. 
	Let us examine our hearts before God in the light of Enoch’s prophesy. There will be a judgment that will face those who live in an ungodly manner. That judgment will be upon all, as to whether our lives are now unto Christ or unto ourselves. As Christians, bearing the blessed and holy name of our Lord and Savior, as His Church, as His Body, how are we dealing with one another? Where are we putting the focal point of the manner in which we live our lives? How do we treat our spouses, our children, our brother, our sister, our parents, our neighbors, our fellow saints in Christ Jesus? What rancor and disorder and hatred and animosity and violent intent and unforgiveness is there in the very depths of our minds and hearts when we think of those whom we perceive have done wrong to us?
	Listen to the Apostle Peter as he describes what our lives should show forth, both individually and corporately. 2 Peter 1:2-9, Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 
	We now partake of the divine nature of God in Jesus Christ. He is now our reality. He is not a wish. He is not an unfulfilled hope. He is not a dream-like probability or possibility. Jesus Christ is now our life. Beginning here, in my heart, let each one of us live forth Christ’s life, and not our own. We are the prisoners of Jesus Christ’s Love. This is not a matter of striving for excellence of ourselves. It is not a matter of making the best of every situation with our human understanding or positive thinking. It is not a matter of our trying to make lemonade out of the lemons of life. We are to live in the truth that we are the prisoners of Christ Jesus and have no other option but to obey His every command in all the power and by the will and the prayer of the Holy Spirit as His will becomes our only will. So be it!
And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 3:8. Salvation belongs to the Lord; Thy blessing be upon Thy people! Selah. Amen.