Genesis 5:21-24
[21] Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah.
[22] Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters.
[23] So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.
[24] Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
This is Genesis Lecture [96].
In today’s scripture, Enoch walked with God when he lived on this earth; he also saw the image of God from time to time.
Until he was able to do so, he received refinements.
There was a process for him to remove even the evil in his nature, and to fill his heart with goodness and love.
Just having been born with a good heart-field didn’t make him sanctified and he did not come into whole spirit automatically either.
In the last lecture, I explained one of the things why Enoch was able to come into spirit and whole spirit.
I said, first of all, that Enoch enjoyed storing up goodness.
Not only to the word of God, but he also obeyed to the word of his parents, and he made peace with all his brothers.
No matter what the situation, he didn’t show himself off, but he always considered others and yielded.
Second, Enoch loved God foremost of all.
From when Enoch was young, he heard about God from his parents, and from his grandparents.
He heard who God is, and how He created this world.
He also was taught why man had to live on this earth, and how man settled it.
The more he heard, the more and better Enoch wanted to know God.
He became more desperate to see God.
How can I know God better? How can I feel Him more deeply within me? He always thought like this.
On the contrary, he had little desire to look at the world and take in the world.
He always thought of God, and he did the things that would be pleasing before God.
As he distanced himself farther from the world like this, his longing heart for God grew up more and more.
It was just as 1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Is there anyone among you who might ask, “Back then in his days, there were not as many things to take-in in the word as there are today. Wouldn’t it have been much easier at that time to cut off from the world?”
The ‘world’ that the Bible mentions doesn’t refer only to the pleasure of the world.
Anything that is given great prominence than God, or anything that is regarded more important that God in your heart belong to the ‘world.’
Therefore, your family or friends can also fall into the category of the ‘world.’
If you give your family or friends your heart that should be given to God, or if you waste the time that is deserving of God, it is also to love the world more than God.
Enoch was the foremost among his brothers to love his parents and obey them.
He also had a close relationship with his brothers.
However, Enoch loved God more than anyone, and he loved God more than anything else.
When compared with his love for his parents and brothers, Enoch’s love for God was far greater.
Enoch always thought about how and by what means he could be in deeper communion with God.
He put into action whatever came to his mind.
After he knew that he could feel the love of God when he was praising God alone better than when he was with his family and friends, He stayed alone.
He turned to nature and the natural world, looked up to the sky, and missed God.
He wished to communicate with God, and he enjoyed praying.
It was in such times as these Enoch was happiest.
His actions were like this even before he walked with God, and he did it even more after he began walking with God at the age of 65.
Let me introduce Enoch’s confession to God before he became 65 years old.
It was the confession he made with his longing heart for God while he was looking up to the sky and nature around him
In his confession, you can see how much Enoch longed for God even before he walked with God.
[Enoch’s Confession]
Until now, there have so many teachings from the forefathers
As I am alone at this time looking at the trees and the things around me, I think to myself once again, “Who created all this? Who made anything so vast as this?”
The One inside me, the One who created all these beautiful things, the One who created the grandfather of my grandfather, and even his grandfather;
The Father Who created this world that unfolds limitlessly before me, Who thought of us and loved us, and Who allowed for me to stand here today;
I am thinking of Him.
When I am alone, I look up to the sky and draw the Father’s face.
When I take a rest standing on the ground, my heart is touched as I feel the Father’s providence and His greatness.
I now open my lips, and praise the ‘Father’ Whom I feel from what I have learned from my forefathers.
Day by day, I come to love Him more, and my longing heart for Him grows ever greater.
I still think to myself, “What is He like!”, even though I learned from my forefathers about Him.
My longing heart for Him grows greater and even greater; this longing becomes too deep
What does His face look like?
What kind of smile does He have?
Who is He that sent us here to hear the breath of this earth and to feel the sky, and the stars in the sky
Even in the air that I breathe, I feel His breath…
My Father, who opens my lips to praise Him and to make this confession of what I have come to know, What kind of a being is He?
How can I meet Him? How can I meet the One who stays in such vastness of the vast space, and how can put Him into my heart?
With such a longing heart, I draw my Father again and again; What is He like?”
Brothers and sisters.
As you listen to his confession, can you feel how much Enoch missed and loved God?
There is also a confession in Psalm 42:1, which reads, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.”
We can feel such an earnest longing for God in Enoch’s confession.
As God the Father listened to this confession, He was touched.
And so He revealed Himself to Enoch in various ways.
It was just as the Lord said in John 14:21, “…and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”
In his life, Enoch could always find the love of God.
Whenever God was touched at Enoch confession and expressed His love for him, Enoch’s love for God grew even greater.
And so, he could fill his heart with a better and more complete love. As a result of this love, Enoch was able to reach whole spirit.
If you also cut yourself off from the world out of love for God just as Enoch did, you can quickly come into spirit.
If you force yourself to cast off the world as you desire the goal of spirit covetously, you may feel it difficult.
You naturally become distanced from the world as you do only the things that can please God for you love God the Father from the depth of your heart; this is the right way.
This is the way to easily and eagerly cast off the world.
So far, I have explained two reasons why Enoch was able to come into whole spirit.
That is; he enjoyed storing up goodness, and he loved God foremost.
God is spirit and goodness and love are the original attributes of God.
Therefore, the more you fill your heart with goodness and love, the more closely you will resemble God.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you may remember this well and come into spirit and whole spirit quickly.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
As you listened to Enoch’s confession, didn’t you find something strange?
That is, Enoch called God ‘Father.’
Generally speaking, the people of the Old Testament days dared not call God ‘Father.’
They couldn’t even call the name of God.
But Enoch called God ‘Father’ with great dignity.
From this fact, we can see how close God the Father and Enoch were.
People have been able to call God ‘Father’ since Jesus took the cross.
As Jesus was hung on the tree and shed His precious blood, He redeemed mankind from their sin.
Since He was sinless, He resurrected and ascended into Heaven.
Those who believe this in heart received forgiveness thanks to His precious blood.
God send the Holy Spirit to them and accepts them as His children.
John 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.”
And Romans 8:14-15 says, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!””
As spoken, the one who is led by the Spirit of God is the son of God, and he can call God ” Father”.
Adam, who was created as a living spirit, could also call God, “Father” when he lived in the Garden of Eden.
This was because while he was there, he was led by the Spirit of God.
Besides, Adam knew that it was God who created him and raised him, and it was natural for him to call God ‘Father.’
Moreover, Adam was created in the image of God, he could call God Father proudly.
When he was driven out this earth after he committed sin, however, the situation changed.
Due to the wall of sin that separated him from God, and for the fact that he was losing the image of God, he could no longer confidently call God, ” Father”.
He was too embarrassed and sorry to call Him ‘Father.’
As its result, even his descendants that he gave birth to on this earth couldn’t call God ‘Father,’ but they called Him ‘Jehovah.’
In this situation however, Enoch, the seventh generation of Adam, called God ‘Father.’
It was possible because Enoch filled his heart with goodness and love to resemble God to a large extent.
In addition, it becomes evident that he was able to communicate with God intimately.
Enoch could clearly see that it was God that created the whole universe as well as Enoch himself.
Therefore, he could not help but to call God ‘Father.’
Since God acknowledged Enoch as His child, Enoch was able to call God Father with confidence and dignity.
By the way, God the Father desires to be called ‘Father’ not only by Enoch, but also by all people.
Even in the Old Testament days, God wished people could change into the true children who could call God Father.
Hence, we can see that those prophets who had clear communication with God also called God Father.
Isaiah 63:16 says, “For You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us And Israel does not recognize us You, O LORD, are our Father, Our Redeemer from of old is Your name.”
Isaiah 64:8 also says, “But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.”
Especially Jeremiah 3:19 says, “Then I (God) said, “How I would set you among My sons And give you a pleasant land, The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!” And I said, “You shall call Me, My Father, And not turn away from following Me.””
God adopted the Israelites as His children, and He gave them the land that was more beautiful and pleasant than any other country.
And He wanted them to call God ‘My Father’ and not to turn away from following Him.
However, the Israelites worshiped idols, and brought destruction upon themselves.
They lost their country to gentiles, and they were held as captives for about 70 years.
Can you confidently and proudly call God ‘My Father’?
Thankfully, you and I who live in this age of the Holy Spirit, can call God ‘Father.’
Galatians 4:6 says, “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!””
The one who received the ‘Spirit of His Son that God sent forth’ can call God “Abba! Father!”
However, the reality is somewhat different.
Just because a person receives the Holy Spirit does not mean they can call God ‘Father.’
There are those who they call onto God who cannot even let the word ‘Father’ pass their lips.
They just say, “God!,” or “God the Father.”
When you give your personal prayer, if you cannot call God ‘Father,’ it proves that you don’t feel much intimacy between you and God.
1 John 1:7 says, “but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another…”
The deeper your relationship with God becomes, the easier it is to call God ‘Father.’
On the other hand, those who don’t live by His word, those who walk in the darkness; they don’t have fellowship with God.
Therefore, when they pray seeking for something, they feel too ashamed to call God ‘Father.’
Those who love God from the depth of their heart and live by the word of God; they are inspired by the Holy Spirit to call God ‘Father’ though they are not taught to do so.
By the way, in an official occasion, or when you give representative prayer, it is more proper to call God ‘Father God’ or ‘God the Father.’
It is because there are people who have weak faith.
They don’t know well enough whether the ‘Father’ being called refers to the actual biological father, or to God!
Besides, in an official place, it is appropriate to call someone by his official title instead of by his name.
Say, you are the son of the president of a company. Then, isn’t it proper to call your father ‘President,’ instead of ‘father’?
Let me make another remark here. Though you call God ‘Father,’ it doesn’t make you His ‘true child.’
God the Father should be able to recognize you and call you, ‘My Son,’ or ‘My daughter.’
That is, you must cast off every form of evil, sanctify yourself, and resemble the heart of God the Father.
Only then when you call Him ‘Father,’ will He respond to you immediately and bless you.
I pray in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that, as you hear this message, all of you may become His true children like this.
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