How to Walk With God

Genesis 5:21–24 (ESV) When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

What do we know about this man of mystery in the middle of a Genealogy from Genesis 5? We know far less than we'd like to since he never died! His incredible life is shrouded from our vision by the simple phrase repeated twice, "He walked with God."

We know a little more from some New Testament references:





Hebrews 11:5 (ESV) By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.


Jude 14–15 (ESV) It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

So now we learn:
1. He pleased God by faith.
2. He prophesied against the wicked.

Enoch did something many of us feel is impossible. He lived righteously in the midst of depravity. When everyone else was doing what was evil, Enoch was living rightly and following God closely.

How did he live so well in an age gone so bad? It must be argued that his vehement anger at sin is cooperative with his consistent walking with God. Walking with God will make you hate sin. The opposite is also true. Not walking with God will cause you to accept or tolerate it. If you want to be righteous, walk with God!

Now let's be honest, we often fail to do our best at walking with God.

But guess what? In Christ, God has chosen to walk with us!
The good news of the Gospel promises something that even Enoch didn't have. We have the Spirit of Christ who never leaves us or forsakes us. He is with us to the very end of the age. This is the result of the New Birth!

Notice Paul's phrase in Ephesians 2:








Ephesians 2:1–2 (ESV) And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—...

Then the change that comes FROM GOD:




Ephesians 2:4–5 (ESV) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

HE made you alive WITH Christ. His mercy, love and grace came to us when we did not seek it for ourselves...

Then later in the same chapter:




Ephesians 2:8–10 (ESV) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The new birth means you have been given a new walk! A walk that you could not produce in yourself. A walk that is from God. This is the hope of our Gospel. God has committed to us in such a way that good works have been prepared for us to accomplish by His saving grace applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. 

The key is to remember that! In Christ, you never walk alone. And the Spirit in us jealously watches over our walk.