Address—P. Johnson
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General Meetings, Des Moines, May 1983, Addressed by Brother Johnson.
To seeing him #43 in the appendix.
O God of grace, our Father, all praise we give to Thee, tis in thy sovereign favor, all blessedness we see.
There only is the fountain which living waters flow, which, like a glorious river, still gladden as they go. Hymn #43 in the appendix.
God of grace are to fall.
In my heart.
Today.
Oh my God.
What was God?
In my life.
This is the world.
We're all.
I'm going to read in the Hebrews 11 first.
Just two verses here.
Hebrews 11 and verses 4:00 and 5:00.
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by yet he being dead, yet speaketh.
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.
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And we turn back to Genesis Chapter 4.
Genesis 4 and verse one.
And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived in bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord, and she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, But Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel.
And to his offering but unto Cain, and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wrong. And his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wrought? Why is thy countenance fallen?
Thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lies at the door, and under thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and he came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
And verse 25.
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son, and called his name Seth.
For God said she hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew, and to set to him also there was born a son he called his name Enos. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord, the 5th chapter. This is the book of the generations of Adam.
In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him male and female created He then.
And bless them and call their name Adam in the day when they were created.
Adam lived in 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness after his image.
And called his name Seth.
Verse 6 and Seth lived in 105 years and begat Enos.
And verse 9. Enos lived 90 years.
90 years and begat Canaan.
Verse 12 and Canaan lived 70 years and begat Mahalaleel.
Verse 15 and my Hallelujah lived 60 and five years in baguette.
Jared.
Verse 18 and Jared lived in 160 in two years and he begat Enoch.
Verse 21 and Enoch lived 60 in five years and begat Methuselah.
And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters.
And all the days of Enoch were 360 and five years, and Enoch walked with God, and he was not.
For God took him and Methuselah lived in 180 and seven years.
And bigot Lamech.
Verse 28 Islamic lived in 180 in two years and began a son, and he called his name Noah. The same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.
Well, before we take up what we have read, I want to say that.
What is upon my heart to bring before us this afternoon.
Is a word to those in the company here who are the Lords.
Who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ?
And they know they're saved. They belong to the Lord.
They have their sins forgiven.
They are indwelled with the Spirit of God.
They belong to the family of God, the people of God.
And they have some understanding of this.
And further, I'd like to say that what I really have upon my heart will apply to those who have a desire in their hearts.
To please the one who has given his life for us our Lord Jesus, and to honor and glorify the Father as we were singing, the one who has chosen us in Christ, and the one who has called us.
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And the one in whose house we're going to be throughout eternity in the Father's house.
Now, that is not to say that we are just entirely ignoring some who may be in our midst.
It would not fit into this plan.
And I would like to say in the beginning that our hearts go out in a way we might say in pity to any who might be here this afternoon with no interest in these things.
No interest, perhaps, because you do not know the Savior.
And it might be that there are those who have no interest because even though they are saved.
They have no real exercise or desire to follow the Lord and to honor the Lord.
And was there to pity. Because you know the.
It's while we're here in this world, it's the only time we have an opportunity to live for God and for Christ in an adverse world.
When the Lord Jesus comes again, he's going to change the conditions that exist in this world.
And it will no longer be a world in rebellion against God. It will no longer be a world filled with unbelief, violence, corruption.
And where Christ is rejected, it will not be a world like that. It will be a world where everything is in subjection to God and where the Lord Jesus is universally honored.
But that isn't true now.
And it wasn't true. When the Lord Jesus was here in this world, he was in the same world.
That you and I are in this very day. I know sometimes it's hard for us to realize that we like to think that for the year 1983 is very peculiar.
Well, there's a lot of changes, of course, as to the manner in which a man lives outwardly and materially. But morally, this world is the same as that through which the Lord Jesus passed when he was here. It was a world then departed from God. It was a world end that was under Satan's power. It was then a world where the claims of God were not owned.
And he walked through this world, this world in which we find ourselves.
But he was here for God, and he was a righteous man.
And that's why I read about Abel in the 11Th chapter of Hebrews.
The testimony there as to Abel was as to his righteousness. God testified that he was righteous, and I believe there we see a type. Able is a type and a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ is the man who was here in this world, a righteous man, man who was here for the glory of God. We read in Genesis 4 that when Abel brought his offering, it said God had respect unto Abel.
And his offering?
Abel was for the pleasure of God. God had pleasure in Abel.
He was righteous. God had respect unto Abel and his offering.
And I like to think of him there as a type of the Lord Jesus.
When he was here in this world.
That God, as it were, had respect unto him, He was one upon whom?
The eye of God could rest with delight and pleasure. The thinking of Isaiah 53.
Remember, it says there that she will grow up before him as a tender plant.
And as a root out of a dry ground, when the Lord Jesus came into this world, why the angels proclaimed the glory to God in the highest and on earth good pleasure in man.
He was as a root in a dry ground, a barren land. There was nothing here in this world.
For God's pleasure and delight. But here was 1 Coming to the scene.
As a man, here this one come into the world as a man.
For the delight and glory of God, right from the very beginning, he could say, Lo, I am come to do thy will. O God, don't you think that if there was a man here in this world who could say that his whole purpose of being here was for the will of God, that that man would not be for the pleasure of God? Wouldn't that bring joy and delight to the heart of God? Sure it would. And it did. It did the Lord Jesus.
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Could say that lo I am come to do thy will O gone now sometimes.
I believe we lose.
The benefit?
Of contemplating.
The life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a wonderful thing to contemplate, you know, after we are saved and we are secure and we know that it's well with our souls and we're not disturbed about those things. It's our privilege then to go back and to be occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ and contemplate him.
As he was here in this world a man for the glory of God. But as I say, sometimes we lose the benefit of that by.
Attributing everything to his deity.
I want to make myself very clear and I believe this will be helpful to any who would desire to to meditate upon the life of the Lord Jesus.
Of course he was God over all, blessed forever, but we want to remember that he was truly a man.
He was truly a man here in this world, and as a man here in this world, he he was one who would be obedient because he was a man.
Someone say, well, the Lord Jesus did everything right because he was gone. No, he did everything right as a man.
His humanity was absolutely perfect right from the very beginning. When the pronouncement was given, the announcement was given to Mary says that holy thing that shall be born of thee, that holy thing refers to his manhood, his humanity. Yes, he is the Son of God, that's true. And but there it refers to him in manhood, that holy thing that shall be born of thee.
A man here in this world, and you remember in Luke's gospel, when the Lord is crucified, the centurion there makes the remark truly this was a righteous man. This was a righteous man. The Lord Jesus as a man was righteous because he was here for the will of God. He considered for God in everything that he did. Someone say well.
I like to look at the life of the Lord Jesus and to see the wonderful services that he performed. And that is lovely. To see how he relieved the pressures that were upon individuals, how he had compassion upon the multitude, how he went about doing good, healing those that were oppressed of the devil.
You know why he did all of that? Do you think he did it just to relieve the physical?
Ailments and to relieve the physical pressures, he did it as doing the will of God.
It was God's will that he was doing.
He would do nothing if he did not have a word of God for doing it.
He would only act as having a word from God.
And the will of God made known for him that he should do it. He didn't do those things just because there was a need there.
He did them as doing the will of God. He did always those things that pleased God. That was his exercise. That was his desire. That was the whole motive of his life, was to please God in everything that he did.
Well, back in that 53rd chapter of Isaiah, he shall grow up before him as a tender plant.
And we've been Speaking of him, I believe in that aspect as a tender plant. And there's a root out of a dry ground and a dry ground. Everything else was barren. But you know what goes on in that chapter? And he says that he was cut off out of the land of the living. Think of that. He was cut off.
That one who grew up before the Father as a tender plant. That one who was the only one fruitful for God in this barren scene.
He was cut off out of the land of the living. So you might say in one sense then there would be nothing here in this world that the eye of God could rest upon with delight and pleasure, because the one who is the object of his delight and pleasure has been cut off out of the land of the living. Well, now that brings me to what we read in Genesis in connection with Seth and those that.
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Followed in the genealogy here.
You see, Seth came in to take the place of Abel.
Abel was slain. He was cut off, as it were, out of the land of the living.
The one that God had respect to in his offering as a righteous man.
But cut off, but as we read, if you kept your place in Genesis.
And the end of the chapter 4 when Seth was born in verse 25.
It says that God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel.
In other words, the thought is that what Abel was is now continued instead.
Abel was a righteous man. Abel was one, you might say, to whom God had respect.
Not Cain. Cain represents a wholly different line, a wholly different seed.
But Seth comes in now to take the place of Abel. Now I believe, beloved, that in this way you and I as believers on the Lord Jesus, and even the youngest believer, the newest, the one who was just the most recently brought to the Lord.
You and I, as it were, can take the place of the Lord Jesus in this regard, that we would be here in this world, under his eye for his pleasure, for his his glory, that we might be here to do His will, and that he can take delight in those who seek to go on in the same way and manner in which the Lord Jesus was here as that righteous 1, seeking to carry out the will of God, and do those things that are pleasing.
In his sight.
In Isaiah 53, he said.
Said he was cut off out of the land of the living.
But a couple of verses after that he speaks about seeing his seed, He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days.
You might say, in a way, the Saints.
Are a continuation.
Of the Lord Jesus down here, he is cut off out of the land of the living. God is taking him up into the glory.
And now you and I, as believers, have the privilege.
Of being here in this same world, in this adverse scene.
And to be here in the same manner and spirit now, that is not to say that we're going to be as consistent in it as the Lord was, he said. I do always those things that are pleasing to the Father. We know that there was never at any time a motive.
That the Lord Jesus had that was not fully in accord.
With the Father, I and my Father are one everything that the Lord Jesus did ought all everything motive that he had every desire and everything was wholly in accord with the Father, never any divergence. Now I'm not going to suggest that you and I would be able to go along in that same even consistency as the Lord Jesus. He was that fine meal, fine flower. There was no.
Inconsistency there.
But you know, it's a wonderful thing to realize that we can be for the glory of God. We can be for his pleasure.
And I believe that when the marriage of the lamb comes.
And she's arrayed in that fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of the Saints. We will see then how that the Lord's people have been for his pleasure, and how that there was that in his people in which he could take delight.
And I've often thought, don't we all, in a way, want to be contributors?
To that garment in which the bride is going to be arrayed the righteousness of the Saints.
Well, if that is our exercise, I believe that we can consider.
The descendants of sin. Because in a way Seth begins the generations of Adam over again, even though Abel was before Seth. If you kept your place in chapter 5 when he says the book of the generations of Adam.
There is no mention of.
Abel. There is no mention of Cain.
But we take up in verse 4.
Or rather verse 3.
That he begat said So the generations here.
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Begin with the set because it's taking up.
That which was found in Abel. Now, in that seed that followed him, Seth comes in to take the place, just as you and I.
In this sense.
As being here in this world for God's pleasure and for God's glory and for God's will.
We take the places it were of the Lord Jesus.
I give you another verse in First Corinthians 12. It says that as the body hath many members, yet it's 11 body, so also is the Christ or so also is Christ.
His people bear the same name that's referring to the Church. The assembly down here, it's called the Christ. It's a continuation of the Lord Jesus. It's a continuation. Or what God looks for is a continuation of that life that was manifested in His beloved Son but was coho.
Was cut off when he was rejected and cast out. Now I'd just like to briefly touch upon.
The men that follow in this generation until we come to Noah.
It sort of culminates here with Noah.
And I believe that we can see in these men.
And justice about all we have about them. The only thing that's said about most of them is their names.
And we have Enoch, something you said about his character, but the others only their names.
And perhaps in the meaning of their names, there might be something for us.
In this regard, and what I had in mind was this that as we go through these names and consider.
What these names mean?
I believe we will see some of the.
Characteristics. We might use that word. Some of the characteristics, some of the features.
That God would look for in his people so that they might be, as it were, a continuation.
Of Christ here in this world, if these features are found.
Among the Lord's people if these features are characteristic of us.
I believe we can say that he would find delight and pleasure even as he found delight and pleasure in his beloved Son. As God looks down in this world, I'm sure that he sees the world.
Far more clearly than we do.
Sometimes I hear remarks by Saints saying.
All things are getting so bad in this world.
And we only see a little bit of it. We only hear about a little bit of it. Of course, we hear more in these days than than people did in days past. And it's not really for our good.
You know, it's sad really to think that the communications that man has invented.
Has only increased our knowledge of evil.
Rather than just being cognizant of what evil is going on in our immediate vicinity.
Now man is knowledgeable of the evil and wickedness, and everything and sorrow is going on.
Worldwide, but even with that.
Where no man can really see the world in all of its barrenness as God does.
As he looks down. But there is a bright spot, you might say, in this world, and that bright spot for the people of God, the children of God. If you're a believer on the Lord Jesus, you form a part of that bright spot here in this world. If you're not, you're a part of that darkness. You're part of that barrenness.
In which God can have no pleasure and no delight, but as a believer on the Lord Jesus.
Why, You're part of that bright spot that is light and God can look down upon well now as we touch upon some of these names.
As we go through them and touch upon them, we want to see something of the features and characteristics and I believe we will see that.
That they applied to to the Lord Jesus for the most part. Some of them, of course, could not.
But most of them do.
Saith brings before us, as I say, the one who takes the place of Abel.
And who is the first one born after Seth?
We read in verse six that he begat Enoch.
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Enos means in the Hebrew.
Weak marble man.
There's a more than one word.
Used for man in the Hebrew.
Adam is 1 and Enos or Enos is 1.
And that speaks of man not in his dignity, but has a.
Weak and failing creature, man in his weakness, perishing, dying. Well, what would this bring before us? I think it would, would mean that one of the first things, and I say this to young believers, that we need to get hold of and enter into if we're going to be here for the will of God. And that is what we have in Romans 7. I know that in me that is in my flesh.
There is not one thing in man in the flesh that is for God's pleasure.
And it's a wonderful thing when a young Christian gets hold of that. And when we say about the flesh, we're not just talking about the sins of the flesh.
In Colossians chapter two, we read about circumcision and there it's connected. It says it's with the putting off.
And it says in the King James the sins of the flesh.
I think if you will check Mr. Darby translations as it appears in the better manuscripts, the word the sins of are omitted. It's not the putting off of the sins of the flesh, it's the putting off of the flesh. And there's a difference.
It's perhaps easy to judge and condemn the sins of the flesh.
The things that the flesh are capable of doing that even.
Moral persons of the world might recoil it, and the flesh is capable of that.
The Lord tells us far from within, out of the heart of man, out of the heart of man, and we all have the heart of man.
We all have that heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked in the flesh, the flesh in US and out of the heart of man proceed all of those evil things. Well, you know, we want to judge not only what proceeds out of the heart of man, but we need to judge the flesh itself. Because, you know, there are some things that are acceptable as far as man is concerned of the flesh.
They're religious things.
You know, sometimes I get the impression that when we read the Gospels and we read about those Pharisees and Sadducees and how the Lord Jesus exposes them and condemns them.
We are apartment to think that those men were very.
Unattractive men.
We're apartment to think that those men were despicable. Oh yes, they are. When they're exposed and by the light of Christ we see how despicable they are. But I've often thought that if one one person who had one of those Pharisees living next door to him, he might think that he was a very nice man. He might think, well he's very respectable. He doesn't carouse, he's not out in drunkenness.
He's not out committing all sorts of crimes and is a real trial to society. He may not be that kind of man at all.
But he was a religious hypocrite.
And when he's exposed by the Lord, you see how terrible it is. But that's the flesh.
The flesh is capable of putting on a religious front. The flesh is capable of enjoying religious things as long as it's not really Christ.
And the flesh can even enjoy moral things and upright things. There was that rich young ruler who came to the Lord, and I don't believe that he was that. He was a dissolute character, living in debauchery. He was a very nice person, very clean, moral, and upright. But he wasn't willing to follow the Lord, and he went away sorrowful. What am I saying? I'm saying that the flesh needs to be judged.
All of its forms. Everything, whether it's religious, moral, upright. If it isn't Christ, it's the flesh, and young believers need to get hold of that, that we are not debtors to the flesh to live after the flesh.
And they either in the flesh, cannot please God. But we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. Well now Enoch would bring before us the acceptance of the fact that death has been pronounced upon us. We want to be like like Isaiah.
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When he says woe is me.
From a man of unclean lips. But then he says I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. He recognized that not only that he was unclean, but all other men were too. That's really judging the flesh, that is, we recognize that that man in the flesh is unacceptable and is not for God's pleasure. That's the first thing we need to enter into now, the next one that is born.
**** in verse 9 live 90 years and begat.
Canaan.
Well, Canaan, I believe, means in the Hebrew traitor.
A traitor?
And I thought of a traitor as one who acquires things.
He was one who acquires things well. This is what God would look for his people too. That he might have pleasure in them, that they would acquire.
Things spiritual things, the things of God, the things of Christ.
Oh, you know, we're so busy in this world acquiring material things, and we all have to confess.
That we have an interest in acquiring material things.
And we find that most of us who have been here a little while in this world that.
We have accumulated quite a few things that we have acquired.
And many of the things perhaps we have acquired that we don't really even make any use of that. We just keep them. We've acquired them.
But the Lord would have us, God would have us to be acquiring spiritual things. That's what he says in Matthew 13. He says every scribe that is instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like unto A householder who brings out of his treasure things both new and old. A householder, A householder is one who has acquired things.
And the Lord says, Now, I want you to be like a householder. I want you to acquire things so that you have a treasure.
Building up of a treasure, but of spiritual things, the understanding of the.
Of the great spiritual blessings that are ours. Oh, I would encourage young people.
To go in for acquiring.
Spiritual realities, spiritual truths, spiritual things go into acquiring what God has made available to you and me as believers. We've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.
And we want to acquire these things and you know, these we speak about.
That we came into the world with nothing, and it's certainly we can take nothing out.
But I believe what we acquire spiritually down here, we're going to take with us.
When we go out, we're not going to take with us all of the material things that we have acquired, but we're going to take with us what we have learned of God and of Christ.
They're going to be with us for eternity. We want to acquire them now. Now is the time to go in for them when you're young.
When you're young to go in for the acquisition of spiritual things. Now after Canaan, we see in verse 12 That he begets Mahalaleel.
Well, Mahal allele his name is.
A little difficult to really translate, but it means something like this in the Hebrew.
God is splendor.
Or the splendor of God.
That it has something to do with the thought is of the greatness of God, Oh, how great he is. And I thought of this in connection with what we had in the Colossians one growing by the knowledge of God.
Well, this is this is what God would look for too. And his people that there might be that.
Growing by the knowledge of God.
Knowing more and more of his.
Of his greatness acquiring knowledge of himself.
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Well, you know the we're not just speaking about knowledge in an intellectual sense.
We're not just saying that that one can acquire.
A lot of knowledge by listening carefully to ministry or reading good ministry.
I've had young people say to me, you know, I don't seem to be able to.
To really learn a lot, I read some of the good ministry and.
I don't seem to retain it and I I believe there is a there is a sense in which some are able to get more out of those writings than others.
And I'm not going to say that as far as knowledge is concerned, knowledge itself, that all are able to grasp and attain to the same amount of knowledge. But the knowledge of God I believe is a moral thing, the knowledge of God. And this is more than just knowing something about the dispensation and knowing about future events and the prophecy, knowing about the Church, the body of Christ, and all of these.
Wonderful subjects of scripture. It's really the knowledge of God.
In the soul.
And that's really what produces group is the knowledge of God, and I believe we should read the word of God in that light.
To learn something of God, of His purposes and counsels, which we have revealed in the New Testament.
Something of his ways and his manners that we find so much of Indiana, the Old Testament.
But the point is, is to learn about God and and we know that in whatever, whatever aspect God presents himself and whatever it is we learn of Him, we can say it's splendor, it's glorious, it's praiseworthy.
You know, for God to reveal himself is to glorify himself. That's all he has to do.
Just the opposite of what man is in the flesh when he reveals himself. It's only shame.
The more you know of man in the flesh, the uglier you see he is.
But when God reveals himself, it's to glorify himself. The more you learn of God, the more.
That the greater knowledge you have of himself, the more you glorify him.
The greater his splendor and the greater his praise.
Well, I'm sure that the, you might say the affections.
You want to use that word that flowed between the Father and the Son when the Lord Jesus was here.
Or how he he knew the Father, and how the Father was glorified in his affections and in his desires.
Well, I believe the thought here of Mahalaleel would be a God is Splendor. We learned something of the glory of God and making himself known to us. Now in verse 15, Mahalo, Leo lived 60 and five years and begat Jared.
As I say, there's nothing really said of these men that we're touching on here except their names. Jared means lowly.
I thought of clonliness. We connected, of course, with humility.
But there is nothing more lowly, and there is nothing more humble than obedience.
We read in Philippians 2 That the Lord Jesus humbled himself and became obedient.
Unto death.
He was obedient even to the point of death, and that the death of cross obedient to the Father.
There is nothing more humble, nothing more lowly than obedient.
If we want to be humble.
We have to be obedient.
And that's what God is looking for in his people, that humble, lowly obedience.
That would say not my will, but thine be done. Oh, I trust as we touch on these things that that you do not feel that these are, you might say, some standards that are far outside of us and beyond us. I don't think so. I believe God can give grace to us if there's a desire and an exercise that these features could be found in US.
As I say, I know that it's not with consistency.
But don't we want to have some of these things or these features found in US?
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In the measure in which God could take delight and pleasure.
Lowly, humble obedience. You know, sometimes I think it would be good for us to realize this.
That.
We want to be obedient. We want to do what we know God wants us to do.
Even though maybe our own wills would desire otherwise. But we're going to submit our wills, and we're going to be obedient because we know that that gives pleasure to God.
It delights his heart to see his people to take that lowly place and saying, well, this is what I really wanted to do, but I know it's not the mind of God. I know it is not pleasing to God. And so I'm going to obey what I find in Scripture. I'm going to obey the Word, and this brings delight and pleasure.
This is a continuation you might see, of that life that was here on earth, that was lived in humble, lowly obedience to the Father Jared.
And then we read in verse 18 that Jerry lived in 160 in two years and he begat Enoch.
Now, there's something said about Enoch.
More than the others, Enoch's name means.
Training.
And I suppose it would suggest the fact that.
We need training. We need to learn. That's what the Lord made in in the 11Th of Matthew when he says take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I know in the King James he says all of me, but it really should be translated from me. That is, we learn by from Him by walking in communion and fellowship with Him.
Enoch was one who walked with God.
He walked with God.
And so he was in the school of God, and he learned. And this is the way we're going to learn.
I said a few moments ago about the fact that some may not be able to to glean as much knowledge and gain as much knowledge as others. That's true. I believe it is true.
But you know, we don't want to excuse ourselves if we are unintelligent in the ways of God by saying.
Well, I never was very studious.
Or I'm just not a very intelligent person. We find that the the prerequisite you might say, to learning and divine things is not human. Intellect is not to training in school, but it's walking with God, walking in fellowship and communion with the Lord.
I believe that's the thought here of training Enoch in God's school. It's learning.
In communion and fellowship with Him, take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
Learn from me. Well, I know that we've all experienced at some time or another, we've met persons who were very deficient, so to speak, as far as official or formal training is concerned.
But they perhaps had a real depth of understanding and knowledge of God in his ways.
Because they have been walking with God for many years.
And I would encourage young people to take up the principle of learning as being in God's school, in communion and fellowship, to learn from Him. And we learn as we are exercised to be pleasing to Him.
You know that was the exercise of Enoch we read in Hebrews 11.
That he had this testimony before his translation that he pleased God.
We have in one of our little hymns. I think it's the last stanza. Then we shall be where we would be. Then we shall be what we should be. And I've often thought when that hymn is being sung, I hope we don't have this thought.
That we cannot be pleasing to the Lord down here, That it's only when we're taken up into glory that will be for his delight and pleasure. Enoch had the testimony that he pleased God before his translation. His translation, no doubt, would be a picture of our being caught up to meet the Lord in the air. But we want to have that testimony, that exercise, to please the Lord before our translation. Oh, yes.
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We know that when we are translated and that there's going to be nothing of the flesh.
To displease the Lord. Never A wish or a thought unholy then but even now like Enoch. And that's what Enoch would would teach us, that to be pleasing to the Lord now. And you know, Enoch lived in a very ungodly world.
Maybe some here this afternoon are not aware of the fact that Enoch was a prophet.
We wouldn't know about it except for the little epistle of Jude.
But you tell us, tells us that Enoch, who is the 7th from Adam because Cain is dropped out.
That he prophesied that the Lord was going to come with 10 thousands of His Saints.
To execute judgment upon this ungodly world.
You see, Enoch lived in a world of ungodly sinners. That's what he says. He prophesied that God was going to come and judge this world of ungodly sinners. There were ungodly sinners in his day, but he walked apart from the world. He walked all together apart from this scene.
He walked with God.
But in a world of ungodly sinners.
And I have thought that Enoch, you might say what really gave him the.
Exercise to walk with God is he saw He could not walk with this world.
He could not walk with this world. He turned his back on the world, he said. It's an ungodly scene.
God isn't in it. It's not of God. Well, isn't that what John tells us All that is in the world? The lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life is not of the Father. No, God is not. He's working in this world, it's true by his grace and his goodness to save souls out of it. But God is not in this world. No, He has another world.
The Lord Jesus was turned out of this world, but God has taken him up into the world above, and he's.
Giving him the highest place and he's the center of that world. Well, Enoch was walking, you might say, in relation to the world outside of the world in which he was in physically.
He was physically in this world, but he wasn't walking according to it. He was walking apart from it.
He was walking in a cord, you might say, with heaven. So much so that.
That he walked right on into God's presence. He was walking out altogether. Apart from this theme. Well, I'm not suggesting.
That we take up any kind of a monkish attitude. There are those who try have tried that, you know, they've even built cities.
They go and start a community and they think by starting that community that they're going to to carry out to the Lord's desire to be separate from the world. No. As to our pursuits, we're very much in this world and God would desire it that it be so that we walk in and out among men, but we are morally separate.
That is, we don't have the same goals, the same purposes.
The same objects we have, different objects we have different goals. We have a different purpose in life.
And all of these things are associated with the world above where the Lord Jesus is, and not this world. That's what Enoch brings before us.
And that life that Enoch lived there was so pleasurable to God that he took him right up into heaven.
Because it was a life walked in separation from this ungodly world.
And in communion, that's the thought of Enoch over the training, that is.
And this is what God would find pleasure in his beloved people.
Now then we have after Enoch.
We have Methuselah.
But we know that Methuselah was the oldest man that ever lived, 969 years.
And his name. I find that some of the.
Hebrew authorities and their lexicons don't all agree.
But in my observation of it, the name means the man of the dark. Now I have seen where there are some who say have have translated that word Methuselah from the Hebrew is saying that when he dies it shall come. Well, in a way the two are similar. The man of the dart is the is 1 knot I would prefer. It really speaks of judgment.
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That is, that God is going to bring in judgment.
But.
He allows this man to live the longest of anyone.
Exhibiting the long-suffering of God.
You know, we had in our readings in Colossians chapter One how that we were to have patience.
We were to be strengthened according to the might of his glory unto all patients.
In other words, Methuselah would bring before us the fact that God is long-suffering.
Allowing this world to go on and we need to be patient too.
We want to have our hearts directed into the patience of the Christ, even as the Lord Jesus is patient.
He has not yet come.
And judgment is not yet fallen upon this world.
He's patient and so we would have that same spirit.
We would be patient. We would not get engaged in things that would try to set the world in order before the Lord, the one comes. Who's going to set it in order? The Lord Jesus is going to set everything in proper order. He's going to set to right every wrong in this world or judge it.
And we need patience. God is long-suffering. God hasn't brought it all to a close yet.
And so he looks for that enough to his people, like Methuselah, the longest lived of any of any one of these men, and then finally Lamech, the last one. Not that I'm ignoring Noah, but Noah really, you might say, culminates in Noah because Noah represents.
Finality in a way. When they come to Noah, God can rest. That's what the word Noah means. Repose or rest.
God can rest. He's brought to finality. And then Noah is brought over into a new earth.
It speaks of the fact that all of these things culminating in Noah are brought over into the new order of things when the Lord comes, because we are the first fruits of that new order. Lamech means overthrower. No, I would leave this last thought with you. Overthrower. It's really the thought of an overcomer.
Overcomer. And so we have much to overcome as the Lord's people in this world.
There's overcoming in the connection with the Christian testimony. We find that in Revelation 2 and Three.
The overcomers there are in regard to the condition of things that has come in.
To the professing Church on earth there is overcoming as far as the.
The profane and secular world is concerned overcoming the lawless spirit that prevails.
Overcoming the philosophy of man and all that man is built up.
And all that gummers, men in this world, you know, we find sometimes that it seems to be a characteristic of youth.
That they like to. They like to kick over the traces, so to speak. They like to.
To change things they like to overthrow, you might say what has been built up.
Well, in a way it might be a good spirit in a spiritual way for the people of God.
To overthrow everything that man has built up in this world in your own life. I don't mean going out and doing it in a in a literal way, but everything that man is built up morally and spiritually. Those principles that govern man in this world, overthrow them.
Young people overthrow them. The things that are taught in the schools that are not according to the mind of God overthrow them.
You can't get out of it. God's not trying to take us out of these things. He's not putting us in a corner of the world.
That's clean, you know it's a wrong fault. And if anyone has that, God is not trying to find a clean corner of this world to put his people in.
No, you're going to be in the midst, young people of evil in the school systems. Yes, it's evil, but overthrow be an overcomer. That's what God looks for. Don't be governed by the the motives and principles and pursuits that are found there, but be governed by that which is in the word of God and what you have learned at home.
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As being raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, well, I believe these men, these names, coming in as the seed of Seth, who took the place of Abel, following on in that line of righteousness. And so the people of God, you and I, have that privilege of being in some little measure for the pleasure and glory of God, as we take up these features and principles, and would be exercised by them.
Shall we pray?