“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Genesis 5:24.
As we near the close of the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan on Earth before the glorious second coming of Jesus, so many competing voices call for our attention. To which voice will we give heed? We are invited in God’s word to “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10. When every other voice is hushed, and in silence we wait before Him, the quietness of our souls allows the voice of God through sincere prayer to be more clearly heard. As Enoch beheld the prevailing iniquity surrounding him in his time before the Flood, he found it necessary to withdraw from constant association with people, and to spend much time with God in prayer and meditation.
The theme that so deeply moved Enoch’s heart was the infinite love of God. And this very theme is to be
| “A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you" |
prominent in all our presentations of the gospel as it is in truth: the love that would lead the Father to give His only begotten Son to come and be born a helpless babe in Bethlehem, subject to the weakness of humanity, to live a life on earth with the risk of failure and loss for eternity. Not only did Christ come to our world to live for us, but He endured the most horrific death on account our sins, feeling the horror of divine justice against transgression, and in dying for us, makes the way of salvation available to all. Let us behold the Lamb of God! Let us meditate upon the matchless gift of God for a world that did not love Him! Through an entire surrender to Him, our sinful hearts can be replaced by the miraculous gift of a new heart! “A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.” Ezekiel 36:26-27. The sure result of a union with Christ by faith is the evidence of His presence by the Holy Spirit. The word of God takes root in our lives: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” How is this fullness seen? Like the bright light of the sun containing every hue of the spectrum of color, Christ’s presence in the new heart by the Holy Spirit will reveal all each of His attributes. When we live by faith on the Son of God, His abiding presence means that all the fruits of the Spirit are present in the life—not one will be missing! Let us praise God for the assurance that “the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit.” Proverbs 12:12. And these are the fruits He graciously fills us with, to be manifest to all in blessing: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23.
When Christ abides within you, His presence cannot be hidden, as is manifest by His Spirit. But if we choose to sin against God, His presence is no longer abiding in the heart—not that He leaves us to be lost, but that He takes the earnest position of seeking to arouse us to our need of being justified again by His blood, through confession of our sin to Him. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. The only thing Christ hated on earth was sin—and that was because it separates humanity from God. “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:2. But praise God, we do not have a picture in the Scriptures of God indifferently leaving us alone in our sins to die—no, no! His assurance is clear: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5. The problem is not God forsaking humanity, but humanity turning from God. The fearful warning of trifling with sin is shown in the words of the wise man: “His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.” Proverbs 5:22. By persistently refusing to surrender to God, the heart becomes hardened, no longer desiring to heed the invitation of Christ, and becoming less and less capable of yielding to Him. How important then that we continually behold Him, yield to Him, and if we sin—surrender to Him in penitence and humiliation at the foot of the cross, knowing He will take us back in His arms of love—for He has sought us out! Thankfully, He earnestly seeks us back as straying sheep, calling to our hearts, knocking on the door of the hearts for entrance that we would choose to surrender anew to Him: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20. Let us make it our prayer, then, that Christ will keep us abiding in Him.
But sadly, many who profess the name of Christ fulfill the prediction of the last days in the following words: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5. The last point is so powerful—having a “form of godliness”—but there is no power in the life. What is the power we need?
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17. The power we so need is the power of the gospel—not preached merely, but lived! Enoch exemplified the gospel because He understood the importance of deep, meaningful communion with God. How well would it be if each of us, without giving first concern or thought to all the pressing duties of the day, would spend a thoughtful hour in contemplation of Christ’s life for us, with a special focus upon what He has done for us in the closing scenes of His earthly life. Let us in imagination grasp the meaning of His sacrifice, and let us allow sacred emotions to rise in our hearts as we reflect upon His ministry now for us in the sanctuary above: “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16.
Soon Jesus is to come—but the experience of faith needed is only possible when constrained by the active love of Christ in our hearts. That which we most need is “faith which worketh by love.” Galatians 5:6. But the love we are to behold is substantial—it is the love of God revealed in Christ, shown in His word, and beautifully exemplified in the book The Desire of Ages. What a privilege and opportunity we have to come to Him today with hearts willing to be shaped and molded by His divine grace. And as we contemplate His word and works in nature, as we take time from the intense strain of life’s activities to commune with God as did Enoch, our hearts, like those of the disciples on the road to Emmaus will also burn within us. “And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” Luke 24:31-32.
To know God is to love Him. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:3. What a privilege is afforded us to choose to continually
| Let your whole life breathe out the fragrance of His holiness |
abide with Christ. Learn to cultivate the habitual sense of His presence by praying without ceasing—even amid the daily duties of your life. When you have the opportunity, take time for memorization of Scripture, meditation upon God’s word, and sincere prayer. Let your whole life breathe out the fragrance of His holiness, as did Enoch’s life. In love and mercy, God did not permit His faithful servant to pass to the grave. He was the first to be translated to heaven, for He had the testimony of faith! “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Hebrews 11:5.
God is faithful, and He will fulfill His word to the weakest of His saints who choose to trust Him, as their relationship with Him is motivated by His infinite love. “Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
| He asks for complete surrender! |
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” 1 Corinthians 10:11-13. None of us has any power to withstand temptation apart from Christ abiding in our hearts, as Paul could honestly confess in his agonizing struggle of being convicted of His sinfulness but unconverted in the experience of Christ abiding within Him: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” The power we need is the power of of God’s grace in the life, that which Christ imparts to us: “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” Romans 2:4. God’s goodness is what makes repentance possible—it is not something we achieve apart from Him. “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” Acts 5:31. Yet He will not force His way—He asks for complete surrender!
May this day be a day of translation preparation. For Enoch’s holy life is a witness of the kind of lives God will have among His faithful whom He will translate to heaven: “And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.” Revelation 14:3-5. May your whole soul’s desire be to remain, moment by moment, abiding in Christ, bearing fruit to His glory. Through the grace of God afforded in Christ, impelled forward by the Holy Spirit, may you even now, through entire surrender of your heart, mind, and will to Him, begin—or continue—the Enoch walk.
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