Sermon: Pleasing God

Take a copy of God's word in hand this morning. If you're using a Pew Bible, you can turn right open. Page 1007, the Pew Bible as we continue our way through the book of Hebrews. We're in Hebrews chapter 11 this morning, going to look at verses five through six of Hebrews chapter 11

in page 1007 of the Pew Bible chapter 11 verses five through six.

Let's pray before we open God's word together.

Father, we come before you this morning, some of us with bowed heads and bowed spirits,

others of us without bowed spirits.

Pray wherever we are at this morning that you'd find that you are humbling us under your word even as you humble us under your word, that you are lifting our heads up, lifting our spirits up,

gaze upon the beauty of your son.

You open our ears that we hear you speak this morning and that all of us would say as we walk from this place, that we know you've encountered the living God. Speak to us, pray

and we pray this in the strong name of Christ. Amen. Hebrews chapter 11 verses five and six. This is the holy inherent sufficient word of God.

By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not the death he was not found 'cause God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe he exists and that he rewards those, seek him of the grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

We continue in the Hall of Fame this morning what has often been called the Hall of Fame of faith and Hebrews chapter eleven's three points this morning as we go through these two verses. One is walking with God, the second is faith in God and the third is the reward of God. So walking with God, faith in God. And third, the reward of God. And we'll do this this morning as we look at this life of Enoch who is a very fascinating

and interesting figure in the Bible. Maybe one of the most fascinating, interesting because we know so very little about him and yet he plays a pretty significant role here in Hebrews. Enoch is the second in the list of this hall of fame of faith. The writer of Hebrews is walking us sequentially, uh, chronologically through these different men and women of the Old Testament that are examples of faith before us. And yet we are never told in Genesis that

Enoch was a man of faith. In fact, we never have his faith mentioned in in any regard. And yet the writer of Hebrews is rightly asserting that Enoch is one of the great people of faith that you and I are to look to as an example and to understand from his life what it's to look like to be a person of faith. Well, how can he know that? Well, if you and I were to go back to Genesis, we would find the account of Enoch in Genesis chapter five

and in Genesis chapter five, we only have three verses that deal with Enoch and let me read them to you from those verses. In Genesis chapter five, when Enoch lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God. He was not where God took him.

In Jude, the New Testament book, Jude picks up the story of Enoch and there we find out some more about Enoch that we don't know from anywhere else and the scriptures. And Jude says this, he says Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying, behold the Lord comes with 10 thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds and ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way

and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. So Jude tells us that Enoch prophesied and what did he prophesy? He prophesied that God was going to come in judgment and he was going to come in judgment and he was going to judge all the ungodly things that people had done and he was going to come and judge the ungodly on just a few generations after Enoch. That great judgment comes is the judgment

of the NOIC flood, all that we have of Enoch and from that we know Enoch was a man of faith. Genesis doesn't say that, but rather it tells us that he was a man of faith because there was the fruit of Enoch's faith backed in those three verses of Genesis five. It's mentioned twice. Enoch walked with God, he walked with God. What does that mean? If I was to say to you one, to one of you after the service here this morning

and we're getting ready to walk outta the sanctuary and I said, well, why don't you walk with me in the neighborhood here behind the church you would know for us to walk together we are close to one another. There is relationship. We are conversing with one another. There is an intimacy. It requires us to be with one another and one another's company walking with God. It speaks of this, it speaks of relationship. It speaks of intimacy,

a relationship in which there is knowledge in which there is companionship. There's a shared perspective and a shared pursuit when when you walk together you're headed somewhere to that point, that shared point together.

Paul will pick up this idea in Galatians five when he speaks about keeping in step with the spirit. He says, before listing the spirit, the fruit of the spirit. He says, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh walking with God, keeping in step with the spirit, walking by the spirit. All of that is the fruit of living in faith with God, dwelling with God. The fruit of that is you walk with God.

Enoch was such a man of faith. We might say he was a man who set his mind upon heavenly things and not on the things of the flesh and the things of the spirit. As Paul is getting at their relations.

You remember the context. This great man of faith, he's, he's living in a time where wickedness is growing. It is growing to such an extent that it, it reaches beastly levels, such a heinous level that God will look at the earth and he will say that he must flood the earth to rid the earth of this stain. And in the midst of all of that growing beastly, heinous hostility against God, it is Enoch that is unstained keeps

his eyes upon God. He walks with him the man of faith.

RC Sproles said this about some of the giants of our faith, Augustine and Luther and Calvin. It could have easily as easily been said of Enoch. He said, these men all were conquered, overwhelmed and spiritually intoxicated by their visions of the holiness of God. Their minds and imaginations were captured by the majesty of God the Father. Each of them possessed a profound affection for the sweetness and excellence of Christ.

There wasn't each of them a singular unswerving loyalty to Christ as spoke of a citizenship in heaven that was always more precious to them than the applause in walking. God, I bet if I asked many of you in this room this morning if I said, oh, think of some man or woman that is a great man or woman of faith that you know they walks with God, we, we could all come up different people. There's some of you in this room this morning

that if someone asked me that I would say, ah, that's a brother. That's a sister that walks with God. There's just something about their countenance. There's, you know that they dwell with Christ. There's an intimacy there, there's an experience there. There there's an affection there fruitfulness in their lives that they're, they're they're a person of faith.

Enoch was such a man, enoch's faith, it had legs. It was clear he knew God and what the writer of Hebrews is doing, he's pointing out to you and I that our lives are reflect the fact that we believe enoch's the example. Now that doesn't just happen. If you seek to walk with God, you must cultivate communion with God. As a Christian, you and I must understand that even as our union with Christ is fixed, our union with his him, with him is fixed.

Our communion with Christ, it ebbs and it flows. Our union with him is unchangeable but our communion with him, it flourishes and it diminishes that that communion is something that is to be cultivated or walking with Christ.

If I plant a, a garden in my backyard at home and it's a flower garden and then I no longer cultivate it, no longer tend to it, there will be weeds that pop up in it and as weeds pop up in it, the the beauty of that garden, the color of that garden, the dynamic of that garden, the loveliness of that garden, it will eventually diminish. So it is, it's true of the garden of yours and my lives in Christ. It it has to be cultivated or walking with Christ.

Your life with Christ needs cultivating as you dwell in Christ. And Enoch, he walked with God. He was such a man and you'll notice that the writer of Hebrews says that displeased God. Why? Because Enoch himself was pleased with God. God was pleased with him because Enoch was pleased with God. That is he sought him, he desired him. He understood what our catechism said. What is the chief in a man, man's chief in is to glorify God

and enjoy him forever. Enoch enjoyed God. He was his pursuit.

Remember I often think of this of the lover in the song of Solomon, the lover in the song of Solomon. He speaks in a way that he, he's just, he's drunk with love for his beloved

aches in love for his beloved. He, he just wants to be with her, just wants to walk with her and dwell with her and have everything of her and that's the man or woman of faith in Christ

to be a thirst hunger.

But he can't be satiated the side of glory with glimpses of him. You want more of him cultivated.

We walk with him secret. We seek him private, we dwell upon him, devote ourselves to prayer because that's how we speak to him. We are in the word because it is how we hear from him and we know that if we don't, our walking becomes standing in the way of sinners and before we know it, we are sitting in the seat of scoffers. So our delight is to be in the law of the Lord. We meditate upon it day and night as the soul says.

'cause we cannot be satiated with mere glimpses of Christ. We want to see him more, taste him as he's so very good.

That is how we become a tree planted by streams of water yielding fruit and season faith has legs. It walks with God in Christ. We can say with the apostle Paul for me to live Christ Christ,

he walked with God. Leads to our second point, faith in God walking with God is the fruit of faith in God. So this is a little backwards this morning. We've taken the second first and the first second walking with God is the fruit of the fact that Enoch had faith in God and that's the context of Hebrews chapter 11. He had faith in God. If you look back through Genesis and all the people mentioned from Adam on, you'll see

that there's a common refrain as you get to the end of each one of their little stories, get to the end of Adam, you get to the end of each one as you go through them and it has the same phrase over and over. Quote, he died. And yet you get to this end of these three verses about Enoch and walking through his life and everything that we have. It's the one time that you don't see this in these chapters regarding the patriarchs.

There's no and he died instead he was, we are told quote that he was not for God took him, he didn't die. He was simply taken. How was he taken? We don't know. Maybe he was taken up like that. One other person in the history of humanity, Elijah who was taken up in a jury to fire. Maybe that's how we don't know. Maybe it was that he just ascended all of a sudden and people saw him taken up. We don't know. Maybe it was he vanished. We don't know.

What we do know is what the writer of Hebrews says here, three different times he was taken, taken up. He was taken because why? Because he pleased God and he pleased God by being a man of faith. And this is what the writer of Hebrews say is, it's the only way to please God

by having faith. Faith essential. You and I know what is this faith that pleases God? You should want to know this. If the only way to please God is to have this kind of faith, well then what constitutes this? This saving faith. How do you define it? What is it made up of?

Theologians have wrestled with this through the ages and have said that there are three critical elements of saving faith. Three crucial elements of saving faith. The first is that you must have knowledge. You must know because saving faith has content. We we need knowledge of who God is. It requires his revelation and God has done so. He has shown us that he exists through the light of nature. Nature testifies to this.

My daughter and I, Grayson, we often grab each other when there is a beautiful sunrise or sunset and I know when she says, dad, come look, I know what it's about. We run to the back window and then we just say it together. Psalm 19, one the heavens declare the glory of God dies, proclaim his handwork. Day to day, pours out speech. Night to night reveals knowledge. We know there's a God. Romans one says that every single one

of us born into this world, we know that there is a God. Now Romans one also says that we suppress that truth. You and I try to keep that truth down and we push it down, but we know by the light of nature that there's a God. This doesn't all just happen. There's a creator, but knowing is not sufficient for saving faith. In fact, what the writer of Hebrews is asserting here is that we must do more than have mere knowledge.

He says that we must believe that God exists and this is a second element of saving faith. What theologians call ascent. We not only need knowledge that God exists, but we must ascent to this knowledge. We must believe that indeed God is who he tells us He is our belief that God exists is not just a bare belief in a God. And in fact, the wording here that the writer of Hebrews uses is pointing to that very thing to ascent.

This verse literally reads in the original it is necessary for anyone who comes to God to believe that he is is. And that would've sent any Jewish Christian's mind just stirring because they would immediately gone back to Exodus with that kind of phrase. Or Moses is before the burning bush and says, who is it that I'm to say sent me down to Egypt? And God says to him, I am who I am. That is I be I exist or to put it in this language.

I is. It's not just that there is a God. It's not just that. It is the God that reveals himself in nature. It is assenting actually having a conviction that this God is real and this God is true. We have conviction that this is true conviction that he is and that Christ is a son of God and the savior of sinners. And yet even knowledge with ascent is not sufficient for saving faith. For James says even the demons believe they have

conviction and they shudder. They have knowledge that God is who he says he is. They have knowledge that Christ is who he says he is. They even ascent and believe it. Remember Matthew eight, when Jesus appears on that distant shore and that demoniac comes running up to him, that is filled with a legion of demons. And you remember what those demons say to Jesus when they say him approach, they say to him, what have you to do with also Son of God

have you come to torment us before the time they know, know who he is, they as sent to who he is. They know that he will judge them. They as sent to the fact that he has a right to judge them. Just this isn't the time

knowledge is needed, but that is not sufficient knowledge and ascent, true conviction is needed, but that is not sufficient.

Third necessary have the element trust.

Trust. Whereas the writer says here, we must believe that God rewards those who seek him. Trust in him a yielding of yourself to him, a humble submission to him knowing that he rewards such seeking and as we'll sing this morning at the close of our service, no fate. I dread. I know I am forgiven the future. Sure the price has been paid for Jesus' bled and suffered for my pardon and he was raised to overthrow the grave knowledge

dent, cross saving faith that this God who exists, who created all things that he covenanted with the son, that he would send the son into this world to live, live and to die for sinners. And that son lived and died for me.

I trust that I didn't trust myself personally to him,

knowledge sent trust. That's saving faith, telling our biblical theological foundations class the other day. That's something you should memorize

because when someone comes to you and and says, what must I do to be saved? And you say, well, the only way to please God, Hebrews is very clear. The only way to please God is to have faith. And they say to you, well what is faith? Uh, having knowledge of this God who sent a perfect son to live and die for sinners. It is a enting to that truth where you actually believe it, you're convicted of that and then it's personally entrusting yourself to him.

And it's easy to remember because it's just cat spelled wrongly, but it's cat knowledge, assent, trust, that's saving faith, walking with God, faith in God. And finally the reward of God is a reward for such faith being taken up, being taken up. Enoch was taken up. What does it mean that Enoch was taken up? Well, he was taken as a writer of Hebrew, says here he was taken to be near God. That's the great and that's the amazing

and that's the everlasting gift that he gives, the reward that he gives.

Lee and I have been married for 25 years. I remember about a week before our wedding I was sitting in a group and someone asked me, what gift are you giving her?

And they all started piling on. They said, she's gonna have a gift for you. You better have a gift. Now, I didn't know the unwritten rules. I'm a man. I didn't know this. And so I remember scurrying trying to find some gift. What's funny is Lee and I were talking about the other day and I said, I can't remember what I gave you. Saving grace was she couldn't remember either.

It's so silly. It's so silly. Why? Because we were giving each other the greatest gift she was giving herself to me and I was giving myself to her. We promise till death do us part. We haven't forgotten that

greatest gift was ourselves. There'll be many wonderful small gifts in heaven. Don't seem so small this side of glory. No more pain, no more suffering, no more tears. Get to see our loved ones that have preceded us. Oh, things are small. Great gift as God gives us himself

gives us himself. We get to draw near to him as the psalmist said in that wonderful psalm that he wanted to dwell in the house of the Lord forevermore where he says, whom have I in heaven but you and there is none upon earth that I desire besides you. And we given him. There's John. We'll see in Revelation Revelation 21 where he says, behold, behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people

and God himself will be with them as their God. He makes his home with us forever and he dwells in our midst forever. We have unfettered unclouded, complete fellowship, intimacy with him for all of eternity. He gives us himself. That's the reward. Nothing like it

forever be near God. We're taken up like Enoch rewarded.

Do you see the math though in this reward? It's fuzzy math,

it's odd math, different kind of math. We please God with our finite feeble faith and love and he pleases us with infinitely we please God with mixed and halting and tainted affection and he pleases us with pure, consistent holy affection. But it's even fuzzier math than that. It's even crazier math than that. The really odd thing about this math is that in the economy of God, we are rewarded for what we are given by God through Christ, by the Holy Spirit

given to the triune God secures our salvation. We do nothing. The Father sends the Son and the Son lives a perfect life, dies a perfect death, and then the Father and the Son sin the spirit in this world to take hearts of stone and melt them into hearts of flesh. And he gives us the gift of faith and we simply receive and we have knowledge and ascent and trust because he has given it to us. He gives it as a gift and then we're rewarded.

Crazy math

and wonderful math.

Yes, Enoch walked with God and a pleased God. God provided the faith and Enoch gets the reward.

So it is with each of us. Faith is in Christ.

All of Christ. Sinclair Ferguson said it well when he wrote this, he said The great gospel imperatives to holiness, walk with God, keep in step with the spirit are ever rooted in indicatives paras. The commands indicatives are what he has done that he became sin for us, that we might be counted as the righteousness of God. Ferguson says, as the great gospel imperatives to holiness are ever rooted in indicatives of grace

that are able to sustain the weight of those imperatives woven into the warp and woof of the New Testament's exposition of what it means for us to be holy. To walk with God is the great groundwork that the self existent thrice, holy, triune God has in himself by himself and for himself, committed himself and all three persons of his being to bringing about the holiness of his own people. This is the father's purpose. The son's purchase, spirits ministry

gifts it and we're rewarded. Whereas Paul will say, for by grace you've been saved through faith. This is not of your own doing. It's not a result of worth a gift.

God gives. We're rewarded and is this God who gives that we are rewarded with spending eternity with He takes us up. Jesus makes this clear. This is a reward of faith. John 11, whoever believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Wait, I thought Enoch and Elijah were the only two that never died. I know men and women of faith who have died. What does Jesus mean?

Let's remember the context of John 11. John 11 Lazarus has died. Lazarus, Mary, Martha, these three siblings were dear friends of Jesus. And you remember that Lazarus has died and then Jesus is meeting with Martha and he's ministering to Martha. He is extending mercy and grace to her and comforting her. And it's there that he says to, I'm the resurrection in the life. Whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live.

And everyone who lives and believes notice the importance of belief. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

It's an interesting fact that throughout the New Testament that often the death of believers is referred to asleep as an example for Thessalonians four 14, since we believe that Jesus died in rose again. Even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. Why is it that Christians dying is often referred to as sleep in the New Testament? Because it's momentary. Just a moment. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, you will be

with me this very day in paradise. The Apostle Paul says, to be absent from the body is what it is to be present with the Lord,

the reward for faith or the Christian or near and to be present for Christ.

We die but we don't experience the full weight of death. It's been neutered. The sting of death has been taken away, been neutered. A lion that has no teeth is some other kind of beast. The very real sense, it's odd that we call it death because it no longer has that sting.

Jesus bore the weight of that,

a gift of grace.

There's no reward like it we're taken up one day. Our bodies even they will be raised and our body and our souls shall be reunited and we shall ever be, be throw before the throne of God near him and we shall see him in all his glory in the face of Christ Jesus. And it shall be that way Day after day after day, you're never pushed away from his nearness. Never does he say you are too close. Never does he say You are not mine forever.

There is near making this home with us.

Everyone who lives believes in me shall never die.

God is worth walking with, worth having faith in. We might be rewarded with the clothes.

The gift of grace is Jesus. My redeemer going to sing. There is no more for heaven now to give why? He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace and he shall be forevermore. That's the reward. If you have faith, you have knowledge of sent and trust in this Christ, you're to live it. You're to walk with him in faith everlasting. I pray that's true for here this morning. Pray

Lord and our God, we are thankful,

we're giver of such glorious salvation. We are so desperately in need to pray for every soul in this room this morning, all of us would be able to say, we not only have this knowledge, you are God and your son.

We are convinced of its truth for the that we have each personally entrusted ourselves to this Savior lived and died for sinners. We might walk with you. We might all enjoy that reward to come for all of eternity. Pray this in the strong name of Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.