By J.C. Ryle
"Enoch walked with God, and he was not--for God took him." Gen. 5:24.
You all wish to go to heaven. I know it. I am fully persuaded of it. I am certain of it. There is not one of you, however false may be his views of what he must believe and what he must do, however unscriptural the ground of his hope, however worldly-minded he may be, however careless when he gets outside that church door--there is not one of you, I say, who does not wish to go to heaven when he dies. But I do sadly fear that many of you, without a mighty change, will never get there! You would like the crown--but you do not like the cross! You would like the glory--but not the grace! You would like the happiness--but not the holiness! You would like the peace--but not the truth! You would like the victory--but not the fight! You would like the reward--but not the labor! You would like the harvest--but not the ploughing! You would like the reaping--but not the sowing! And so I fear that many of you will never get to heaven!
Well, you may say--"These are sharp words, this is hard teaching! We would like to know what sort of people they are, who will be saved." I shall give you a short and very general answer. Those who have the same faith as those holy men whose names are recorded in the Bible--those who walk in that same narrow path which all the saints of God have trodden--such people, and only such--shall have eternal life and never enter into condemnation.
Indeed, beloved, there is but one way to heaven; and in this way every redeemed soul that is now in Paradise has walked. This is the way you must yourselves be content to follow; and if you are really wise, if you really love life, as you profess to do, you will take every opportunity of examining the characters of those who have gone before you, you will mark the principles on which they acted, you will note the end they had in view, you will try to profit by their experience, you will follow them so far as they followed Christ.
Now, I purpose this morning to speak to you about the history of Enoch, who was one of the first among those who by faith and patience have inherited the promises; and I shall divide what I have to say upon the subject into four parts.
I. What was the character of the age in which he lived?
II. What was his own character?
III. What was the leading motive or principle which influenced him?
IV. What was his end?
God grant that you may all be stirred up to a diligent inquiry into your own state; may many of you, hearing how Enoch walked with God, be led to pray, "Lord, I would walk with You (I have sinned--but I repent in dust and ashes), Lord Jesus, I would be Yours, create in me a clean heart, guide me with Your counsel, and afterward bring me unto glory."
I. What was the character of the age in which Enoch lived? Now, respecting the age when Enoch lived, we know little--but that little is very bad. He was the seventh from Adam, and lived in the time before the flood. In those days, we are told, the earth was corrupt before God, and filled with violence. Every sort of wickedness seems to have prevailed; men walked after the vile lusts of their hearts, and did that which appeared good to them without fear and without shame. The children of Cain, after he murdered Abel, as far as we can learn, made no attempt whatever to keep God in their thoughts--like the prodigal son, they went afar off from Him and gave themselves up to worldly employments, as if they would keep the Lord out of their minds as much as possible. They got fame as founders of cities, like men who looked upon this earth as their home, and set all their affection on things below and had no desire after the new Jerusalem above, the city of the Lord God and of the Lamb. They became famous and skillful in all the works of this life: one was called the father of shepherds, and another the father of musicians--but we read of none that was a father of faithful lambs in Christ's flock, of none that was a father of children who made God's statutes their song in the house of their pilgrimage. And another was a teacher of artificers in brass and iron--but we do not hear of any who taught the good knowledge of the Lord. In short, they were all clever in finding out how to be rich and how to be merry and how to be powerful--but they were not wise unto salvation, there was nothing of God and His fear and His service among them.
Such were the children of Cain; and they seem to have been such pleasant company, so little disposed to trouble other people by talking about the soul and heaven and hell, that nearly everybody took after them, and the world was tainted and infected with their manners; insomuch that the few who still clung to the true God became separated from the rest by a line of distinction: they began to be called by the name of the Lord.
But even this separation did not last long. We are next told, that they who professed to be the sons of God began to think there was no harm in marrying people who cared nothing about true religion; they chose wives who were unbelievers--beautiful and agreeable, no doubt--but still enemies of God--and (as it has almost always proved when a Christian has been united to one that is not a Christian), the bad soon corrupted the good--or else the good did not convert the bad, and the families that were born of these unions proved earthly, sensual, and devilish; and in a short time the whole world was full of sin.
Consider, beloved, what a fearful proof you have here of the natural bent of man's heart towards wickedness! They had the recollection of God's anger against transgression fresh upon their minds; they had Paradise before their eyes, they had the angels of God keeping the way of the tree of life with flaming swords; and yet, in spite of all this, they sinned with a high hand. They went on much as the world likes to do now: they ate, they drank, they planted, they built, they bought, they sold, they made light of warnings. "What have we to do with the Lord?" they thought; "let us enjoy ourselves while we can." But God will not be mocked, and though He bore with them long and exhorted them by His servants, He dealt with them at last according to their works. And just as He will one day send the fire upon this earth, so did He send the waters of the deep: the flood came and cut them off in the middle of their revellings, and drowned the whole world--except for eight people.
Such was the character of the men before the flood; and in the middle of this age of wickedness Enoch lived, and Enoch walked with God. There were no Bibles then, no Prayer-books, no religious tracts, no churches, no ministers, no sacraments. Christ had never been seen; the way of salvation had never been clearly made known; the gospel was only seen dimly in the distance; it was not fashionable to think about religion, it was not fashionable to worship God at all, there was nothing to encourage people to make a profession. Yet in the middle of this wicked and adulterous generation this saint of the Most High did live! Enoch walked with God. It is almost impossible to imagine a more splendid proof of what grace can do for a weak, sinful man than is to be found in these words; in the world before the flood "Enoch walked with God."
II. I promised in the second place to tell you something about Enoch's character. You have heard he walked with God, and you know, perhaps, it is an expression of great praise--but I may not leave you here without trying to give you a clear notion of its meaning. People often get a habit of using words without exactly knowing what they mean, and a very bad habit it is. Now, I say that this walking with God has many different senses; it is an expression full of matter.
