Enoch, the Man Who Disappeared
(Chapter 10 from Dr. Hyle's excellent book, Kisses of Calvary)
“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”--Gen. 5:24.
Only twice in the Bible is it ever said about anyone that they walked with God. One man who walked with God was Noah; the other was Enoch. Noah and Enoch were the only two who were saved from the flood. Noah was preserved through the flood; Enoch was lifted out before the flood--a type of what is going to take place when Jesus comes again.
The flood is a type of the Great Tribulation period, the time when Jesus shall call us out of the world. Only the unsaved shall be left, and for seven years the world shall be cast into terrible bloodshed, disease, famine, and death. Blood shall run as high as the horses´ bridles. The Bible says that hailstones weighing one hundred and fourteen pounds shall fall. One-half of the world´s population shall be killed. Water shall be turned to blood. The sun shall refuse to shine. The Bible says that in those seven years man shall know horror and heartache and bloodshed such as was never known before.
Now the flood is a picture of that time. Two men were saved out of or from the flood. First there was Enoch; he was lifted out of the flood. That´s a picture of those of us who belong to the bride of Christ. Before the tribulation period starts, we shall be lifted out of the world and shall be caught up in the air to meet Jesus.
The other person who walked with God was Noah. Noah was preserved through the flood. Noah represents the Jewish people who will be preserved during the tribulation period.
But now Enoch walked with God and Noah walked with God. There are several things we can know about Enoch´s walk with God. We know Enoch and God got along together. They agreed with each other, for Amos 3:3 says, “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” We know another thing. Enoch was saved because Enoch had faith in God. The Bible says in I John 1:7, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” We know Enoch was saved by the blood, for it says he walked with God.
I. THE BEGINNING OF THE WALK
Now I want to speak on this subject: “By Faith Enoch” or “A Three-Hundred-Year Walk.” I want to divide it into three different phases: first, the beginning of the walk; second, the walk itself; and third the end of the walk.
Now notice if you would please, the life of Enoch from age 65 and up. Actually life began at 65 for Enoch. When old age came, Enoch began to live, because at 65 Enoch began his walk with God. Now what was it that made Enoch walk with God?
At the age of 65 Enoch trusted the blood. He did exactly what Abel did, in that he brought a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice. Enoch placed his hand on that blood sacrifice, and by doing that he was saying, “I am a sinner. I am condemned. Something innocent must die in my stead, and the blood must be shed.” Enoch trusted in the blood, and that blood pointed to Jesus Christ. By placing his hand on this innocent substitute, Enoch was simply saying, “I believe in the coming substitute.”
They were saved back in those days just like we´re saved today--by faith in Jesus Christ. I read a lot of books that talk about “this gospel and that gospel” and “folks were saved this way in the Old Testament and this way during the life of Christ, and this way after Pentecost.” That´s all foolishness. Everybody who will ever go to Heaven will be saved the same way--that is, by faith in Christ. Everybody who ever goes to Heaven, whether it be Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, Elijah, Elisha, or anybody else, will be saved just like you and I were saved--by trusting in a Substitute. That Substitute is Jesus Christ. You and I are saved by looking to Christ--looking back to Christ. Abraham was saved by looking to Christ too-looking forward to Christ.
And so Enoch was converted just like you have been converted, if you have. He was converted by looking forward to the coming sacrifice, the Lamb of God.
But what made Enoch do it? That´s easy. Perhaps one day Enoch came home and his wife was knitting. He said, “Honey, what are you doing?”
“Well,” she said, “I´m making a little sweater.”
He said, “What size?”
She said, “Size one.”
He said, “Who for? Is somebody having a shower?”
“No.”
“Well, what--what--what´s the deal?”
“Come here; I want to tell you something, sweetheart.”
And he said, “Oh, no! No! We´re going to have a baby! A baby! Oh, my!”
He realized that a baby was going to come. God came to him no doubt, and told him that a baby was going to come. God promised Enoch that the flood would not come until the baby died. They named the child Methuselah, which means, “When he is dead, the flood shall be sent.” It was 969 years after Methuselah was born that the flood came.
Perhaps Enoch got to thinking about his wife´s message that they were going to have a baby. He thought, “My baby! I had better think about God now. I´m 65 years old and we´re going to have a baby. I had better be doing some thinking here. I want that baby to have a Christian home and I ought to be a Christian.”
He didn´t do anything about it then. Several months passed. He planned for the baby, and many times no doubt he said, “You know, I still believe I ought to do something about God.”
Let me say this, brother. If you´re planning a baby, you´d better do something about getting saved. It´s not fair or right for anybody to have children who does not have a Christian home. If you´re not going to be a Christian daddy, just let somebody have your young ones. They´re better off with someone else, if you´re going to raise them for the Devil. Your baby has every right to a Christian home that any other baby has.
So Enoch got to thinking, “I ought to be a Christian.”
Then one day his wife said, “Honey, we had better go down to the hospital...”
The nurse came out and said, “Enoch, you have a fine boy. What shall we name him?”
He said, “Name him Methuselah.”
Enoch went down and looked in that little window at the hospital. They held that little baby up and he said, “That´s the prettiest little baby I ever saw--and the biggest.”
The nurse said, “He´s 23 inches long.”
Enoch said, “That´s probably a record.”
“And he weighs 9 pounds.”
“That´s tremendous.” And Enoch got to thinking, “I ought to be a Christian. I know I ought to be.”
Enoch got alone after he had looked at Methuselah and he said, “Dear Lord, the time has come. Now I´m going to do it. I´ve put it off long enough. The time has come. I´m going to be saved.” And so Enoch got saved then and there and gave that child a Christian daddy.
When my wife was giving birth to Linda, a young man was waiting with me and we were sweating it out together. We were excited. While we were waiting there together, this fellow was walking the floor. I was an old veteran getting my third child, so I said, “What´s the matter?”
He said, “I´ve been in Korea, I´ve flown 30 missions, and I´ve been in war, but I ain´t never seen nothing like this before!”
So I told him about the Lord, and he was saved outside the room. When his wife came out I told her that he was saved and that the little baby had a Christian daddy before it was ever born. Just before the baby came into the world, the daddy received Christ.
Methuselah was that way. We are supposing that Methuselah received a Christian daddy about the time he was born. When Enoch saw that little baby, we imagine he said, “I want to be saved. I want to be a Christian.” And so Enoch walked with God and was saved then by faith in Jesus Christ.
II. THE WALK ITSELF
Enoch walked with God. We know he was growing in grace because when you walk it means progress; you´re going somewhere. So Enoch grew in grace. He walked with God. He progressed with God.
We, too, need to grow. We need to go before God, get on our faces and say, “O God, give me power,” waiting on God in prayer and supplication and begging God for the power of the Holy Spirit.
People say, “Well, let´s wait upon the Lord.” Well now, if you do Bible waiting-upon-the-Lord you´ve got to go out in the woods somewhere and hang unto God and know what it is to bang on the door and say, “Lord, I want Your power. I want Your power.” That´s the kind of waiting the Bible is talking about.
And so finally Enoch walked with God. And let me say this: he walked alone as far as the world was concerned. Enoch lived in such a wicked day that God saw the imaginations of man´s heart were continually wicked and God said, “My spirit shall not always strive with man.” For 120 years He sent Noah, the Preacher of Righteousness, to warn the people that the flood was coming, that God was going to destroy the world, that sin would be punished, and that they had better get inside the ark. Enoch lived in that kind of day. Enoch lived in a day that was so wicked, God destroyed the world except for eight people, plus Enoch who was raptured and then taken into Heaven. And so Enoch walked alone.
Now may I say this: If you walk with God, you walk alone too. I say to preachers wherever I preach, “If you want to know what it is to walk with God, you had better get used to folks giving you the cold shoulder. If you walk with God, you had better get used to folks slandering you and calling you all kinds of dirty names. If you walk with God, you had better get used to people lying about you and you had better get used to going to bed weeping at night. If you walk with God, you had better get adjusted to this thing of being criticized by a world that hates Christ. When you really walk with God, that means you can´t participate in such things as drinking, dancing, smoking, movie-going and card-playing. You had better get used to those folks´ cold shoulders, dear friends.”
The reason most folks never walk with God is that they are not willing to walk alone. Stephen walked with God. Stephen saw the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the Father, but he had to get outside the city and get stoned to death to do it. Paul saw God and walked with God, but Paul was outside the city of Lystra stoned and left for dead as he was caught up into the third Heaven. John the Beloved walked with God, but he walked with God on the Isle of Patmos, exiled for the testimony of the Word of God. He walked with God, but he did it alone. Isaiah walked with God. Isaiah saw the Lord high and holy lifted up and his train filled the temple, and Isaiah said, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King.” But Isaiah had to stand out on the street corner and preach by himself while folks were hissing and stopping their ears. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walked with God. They said there was one like the Son of God in the fiery furnace also. But they had to get in the fiery furnace to walk with God. Daniel walked with God, but he had to get in the lions´ den.
Oh yes, you want to walk with God in some quiet, devotional sense. You want to walk with God in some aesthetic sense, without getting your nose busted and everybody criticizing you and lying on you and telling dirty things about you.
Yes, everybody wants to see the Son of Man in the fiery furnace, but nobody wants to get in the fire.
Everybody wants to see the lions get lockjaw, but nobody wants to go into the lions´ den.
Everybody wants to see Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father, but nobody wants to get stoned to death like Stephen did.
Everybody wants to see the third Heaven, but nobody wants to go outside the city and get stoned like Paul did.
Everybody wants to see God in His glory, but nobody wants to preach to hissing people like Isaiah did.
Everybody wants to see the power of God like John did on the Isle of Patmos and see great prophetic truth of the revelation of Christ--everybody wants to see that, but nobody wants to get criticized and exiled to Patmos.
I say as I have said before, if you really walk with God, this old world that killed Jesus Christ will not be a friend of yours.
So Enoch walked with God alone in a wicked day. He denounced sin. Jude, verses 14 and 15, says he mentioned the ungodly deeds of the people. “Oh,” he said, “the ungodly things they have ungodly committed.” He also preached the second coming as he walked with God.
III. THE END OF THE WALK
Now let´s hasten on to the biggest thing I want to say, and that is the end of the walk. We´ve seen the beginning of his walk, back there when Methuselah was born. We saw him as he knelt at the maternity ward of the hospital and said, “Oh, I´ve got a boy, and I want to be a Christian daddy, and I want to give my heart to Christ.” We saw him there. Then we saw him as he walked with God. Now let´s see the end of the walk.
Enoch was 365 years old. He had walked with God 300 years. He was 365 years old when God came and took him home. A little girl put it better than anybody could put it: “Mamma,” she said, “one day Enoch and God took a walk together. They walked and they talked and they talked and they walked until finally Enoch said, ‘Oh my, dear Lord, it´s getting late. I´d better go home.´ And the Lord said, ‘Why Enoch, we´ve been walking so long together, I believe we´re closer My home than yours. Why don´t you come home with Me tonight?´”
And so Enoch went home with God. They walked together and Enoch went home with God.
“Enoch...Was Not; for God Took Him”
So God took Enoch--Enoch was raptured. He did not die. The end of the walk took place when Enoch was taken up by God into Heaven. He did not die at all; He was carried across. That´s the end of the walk. Hebrews 11 says, “They could not find him.” Now you picture that.
Enoch didn't come home. At five o'clock, let us suppose, Mrs. Enoch was preparing some pork chops with thickening gravy, black-eyed peas, okra, and biscuits. As she prepared the meal, she looked out the door for Enoch. He usually came about this time, but she looked down the street and he wasn't coming. “Well, I wonder where Enoch is? I wonder where he is?” But no Enoch.
I'm satisfied that about six o'clock she said, “Well, how do you like that? I've been slaving here all day long behind the stove and he doesn't have enough thoughtfulness to even call me and let me know!”
She said to the grandchildren, “Where´s granddaddy?”
They said, “Don´t know, don´t know.”
She called the office and said, “Have you seen Enoch?”
“No, Enoch hasn't been in today.”
“He hasn't been in! He left the house this morning.”
“Well, he hasn't been in today, and we´ve been wondering where he was.”
So she called his friends, she called the relatives, she called the children, she called everybody, and asked, “Where´s Enoch? Have you seen Enoch?” She couldn´t find him. She finally called the police department. “My husband´s missing. He´s not at work, he´s not at the relatives´ houses. He is not home. He´s gone.”
The police department called the television station. The television station reported: “We interrupt this telecast to bring you a special announcement. A man is missing--Mr. Enoch, one of the outstanding businessmen in our area. He has not been seen all day. He did not show up for work; his wife said he didn´t show up at home. The friends do not know where he is. Mr. Enoch is about 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighs 180 pounds, and he´s baldheaded. (A man 365 has probably gotten baldheaded, don´t you think?) Be on the lookout. Anybody knowing whereabouts of this man, Mr. Enoch, please contact the police station or call Westmore 2-0711 immediately.”
They looked and looked and looked for him--but he was not found. What happened? Enoch walked with God and God took him. He was caught up in the air to meet the Lord. He was raptured. He was taken. He was lifted up.
That's a picture, my precious friends, of the rapture of the church.
Unsaved People Will Be Left
Did you know that there is going to be a day when those of us who walk with God are going to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air? Did you know the Bible says in I Thessalonians, chapter 4, verses 13 through 17:
“For I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep...we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not preceed them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
The Bible speaks of a time when the dead shall rise from the grave to meet the Lord in the air. The Bible speaks of a time when those of us who are alive and saved shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. And we shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
This event is dateless, timeless, signless. We know not when it will be. It could be tonight. It could be tomorrow. It could be next year. It could be right now. We do not know when it will be. Jesus said, “In such a time as you think not, the Son of Man cometh.”
The angels do not know when it is. Not an angel in heaven knows when Christ is going to come back. Gabriel does not know. Michael does not know. Abraham doesn´t know. The apostles do not know. No one knows. Even Jesus Christ Himself while on earth seemed not to know. God the Father knows. In Heaven Jesus Christ is waiting to come back and receive the saints up in the air.
Someday, bodily, the saints will be lifted up and shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The Bible says that people shall look for us just like they looked for Enoch, and we shall not be found. Now you think of it, dear friends. You picture it.
Christians Will Be Caught Up Alive When Jesus Comes
A man goes to work in the morning. While he's at work, his wife is taken in the rapture. That man comes home in the evening and his wife is gone. His children are gone. He says, “Where are they? Where's the wife? Where are the children? Where have they gone? Where are they?” He picks up the telephone and calls the neighbors. “Have you seen my wife?” He calls the mother-in-law. “Have you seen my wife?” He calls his own folks. “Have you seen my wife?” He calls the schoolteacher. “Where are the children?” He calls the friends. He calls the pastor. “Where´s my wife? Where are they? They're gone.”
If you refuse and reject Jesus Christ, and you say “no” to the Gospel, you will be left, and you'll go to Hell because you said “no” to the Gospel of Christ. The day is going to come--it might be tonight--when Jesus Christ shall take all the Christians out of their homes, their offices, their schools, their business places, their places of recreation. We shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and you, if you are not saved, shall be left. It could happen right now. If right now Jesus said, “Come forth,” and the voice of the archangel shouted, and the trump of God sounded around the world, Brother Ken would be taken. The choir would be taken. All of you who are saved would be taken. The only ones who would be here are those of you who are not prepared and are not saved.
There would be a hush--then “COME FORTH.” And all of a sudden, you'd say, “Where´s Brother Hyles?” God is not going to take just the Baptists when he comes, or just the Methodists, or just the Presbyterians. He's going to take just the saved. Just the saved. All the saved Baptists will go, and all the lost Baptists will stay. All the saved Presbyterians will go and all the lost Presbyterians will stay. All the saved Catholics will go and all the lost Catholics will stay, including the priest either way. If he's lost, he will stay just like everybody else. One day, when the trumpet sounds, up we'll go.
Let's picture it for a few minutes, if you would, please. imagine at the factories and mills tomorrow morning many not reporting for work. Telephones off the hook. Nobody to answer, no operators. In many cases, churches left with vacant pews.
Imagine, if you would, please, a husband getting up in the morning. The alarm clock goes off and the husband hears it. He wakes up and says, “Honey, what time is it?”
She's not there. he looks over in the bed and she is gone. The Bible says, “Two shall be in the bed. One shall be taken and the other shall be left.”
He says, “Honey, are you cooking breakfast?”
There's no answer.
“Sweetheart, sweetheart, where are you? Honey?” He notices that her gown is there on the bed. He notices that her garment that she slept in is right there beside him.
He gets up out of bed, and he says, “Well, I guess she has gone to the store to get some bread for toast.” He walks into the children's room and says, “Children, time to get up. Time to get up Johnny.”
Johnny's clothes are there, but Johnny's gone. “Johnny. Johnny, are you in the bathroom? Are you in the kitchen? Johnny, where are you?”
No answer.
He goes over to the little bed. He looks down to see if the baby is covered. The cover is turned back and there's the beautiful gown the baby slept in. many times he has played with her little toes as he has put the gown on her. That little gown is lying there in the crib. He says, “Where´s the baby? Where's the baby? Honey? Johnny?”
He looks all over the house. They're not there. He looks out at the car, and the car is sitting where it was the night before. Not a light has been turned on in the house. Not a fire has been lit. “Where are they?” he says excitedly. “Oh, could she have left me? Could she have taken the children and gone?” He picks up the telephone and calls her mother's house but there's no answer....
You say, “Preacher, fantastic!”
Fantastic, my eye. You wait and see! Some of you folks sitting right here, you hear me preach and you shrug it off. Your wife's saved, your family's saved, and you're lost. You wait. You wait. There'll be a time when you'll say, “Where are...oh...no!...I heard Brother Hyles preach about this one time. I'm going to call him.”
You pick up your telephone and dial Temple 8-8174. The phone rings and rings and rings. You say, “I wonder where he is.” You call the office and the phone rings and rings and rings. You say, “I know what I'll do. I'll turn the radio on. At 9:15 he comes on the air.” And at 9:15 there's no voice. You say, “Brother Hyles is gone. He's gone. O my God, I waited too long! I waited too late!”
You waited too late, my precious friend. You go ahead, you just go ahead and say “no” and laugh at me and make fun all you want to, but you wait. One of these days when we're gone and you're left, you're going to give a million dollars for every dime you have if you could have one chance to sit and hear me preach once again.
Picture again: Here's mother. A good mother, but not a Christian mother. She has the children off in school. She's been preparing for them to come home. They're supposed to come home about 3:15 from school. The mother begins to look for them about 3:10. She has some hot soup and some hot chocolate prepared for them when they get home. 3:10 comes; they're not there. 3:15 and they're not there. 3:30--still not there.
She goes out in the front and looks down the street to see if they're coming. But no children are in sight. She wonders where they are. Finally 3:45 comes and no children. 4:00 and no children. She's frustrated. She calls the school, and somebody answers who is up there and says, “Oh, we're having many calls. The line has been ringing all day. All afternoon--many calls, many calls, many calls.”
“But where are the children?”
“We don't know where they are. We don't know. They're gone.”
The mother gets frantic. She calls the police station. The line is busy. It's busy again, it's busy again, it's busy again. She rings the operator. The operators are so busy they don't know what to do.
“Oh,” she says, “it couldn't be. I'll call the pastor. I'll call the church.” She picks up the telephone and dials WE2-0711. It rings and rings and rings and she says, “Somebody´s got to be there. That's what we pay those folks for. Oh no! Oh no! I heard Brother Hyles preach one time about the great kidnapping when all the saved will go up. He told me I should be saved. I said, “I won't do it. Oh no! Oh no!”
Go ahead Mother, go ahead and say “no” and not get saved. Go ahead and laugh off the Gospel. Go ahead and put it off. Go ahead and ha-ha the Bible. Go ahead and make light of the Bible. yes, they made light of the Bible in Noah's day too, but they gurgled while they did it. Go ahead and say it is an old-fashioned, old-fogey Book--go ahead. But the Bible says there will be a time when there will be two at school; one shall be taken and the other shall be left. Two shall be grinding at the mill; one shall be taken and the other shall be left. Two shall be in the field; one shall be taken and the other shall be left. And if you are lost, you´ll be left.
Again picture it: It´s morning. The little mother gets up to rouse the children. To me there's nothing more precious than the children in the morning time. She goes in to see those little old squinty eyes and pretty little hands, and to watch the little things stretch. But when the mother walks in, the children are gone. Ah, those precious children! She went to the jaws of death to have them. She risked her own life to have them, and one day she suffered that life might come. Those precious children she loved.
But she said “no” to the Gospel. She said “no” to Jesus Christ. She put off the Saviour. She said, “I´ll not be saved yet.”
“oh,” she says, “were they kidnapped?” But their clothes are there. The little gown is there. The pajamas are here. “Where are the children?” She calls the police station. No answer. Line's busy.
Then it dawns on her. Brother Hyles preached a sermon one night and said that those who were saved would be taken and the others would be left. Too late. Too late.
Funerals are interrupted. Planes crash. Cars go wildly into each other. Madness prevails....
What if it were now? Would you be ready? Bow now and turn to Jesus by faith and...like Enoch...walk with God...so you, too, may be taken.
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