On our journey through the Bible, we uncover the remarkable stories of Enoch and Noah. Learn how these men of faith shaped the history of belief and offered a model of living by faith in anticipation of God’s promises. With heartfelt correspondence from listeners, we explore the profound impact of God’s word on families and communities.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faithful.
SPEAKER 03 :
Whether you’re a preacher or not, if you’ve got a family, they are your congregation. And that’s the message that Dr. J. Vernon McGee shares with us this time on Through the Bible. I’m Steve Schwetz, and as you open your copy of God’s Word to Hebrews chapter 11, here’s a couple of letters from families who ride the Bible bus with us. The first is a letter from a mom named Kelly in Pennsylvania. I always struggle to spend time reading the Bible since it gets overwhelming without a thorough knowledge of how the pieces fit together. But since we’ve discovered your series online, I now read through the verses with my children and then we listen to your lessons. Considering what many preteens are doing these days for entertainment, I’m so grateful that they have taken such an interest in studying with me. And we look forward to working our way through the Bible together each night. The blessings continue as the discussions can last long into the evening. What a wonderful way to spend our time. Thank you for bringing us together at the end of our busy days. You have improved our life and helped us to further our connection to God the Father. Strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and increase our hunger for the Holy Spirit. Well, thanks for your letter, Kelly. We are so glad to have your entire family as seatmates here on the Bible bus. And then here’s a note. This is from Debbie. She’s in Poway, California. My children are young, but they are always eager to hear Dr. McGee’s voice on the radio. They call him Papa McGee. Although I know they don’t understand what is being taught, I pray that the Holy Spirit speak to their hearts while God’s word is being taught. When they nap, I often go back and review. I feel they must hear God’s word spoken in our home. Well, what are you and your family learning as we study God’s Word together? You know we’d love to hear your story, and you can send your note using the feedback feature in our app. You can also email us at biblebus at ttb.org or mail it to P.O. Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. If you live in Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. You can also call and leave a message on our voicemail at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Let’s pray. Our gracious Father, thank you for the way that your word is changing the lives of individuals and families around the world. We ask a special blessing over those of us listening. Would you help us to love and lead our families in ways that inspire them to follow you? It’s in Jesus’ name we ask.
SPEAKER 1 :
Amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Here’s our study of Hebrews 11 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, friends, we’re spending a little time here with these first three characters in the 11th chapter of Hebrews that live before the flood. Last time we saw Abel, the way to God, the way of faith, and it’s the blood-sprinkled way, the way that is Christ’s. And Abel, before the flood even, in fact, right outside the gates of the Garden of Eden, he was given this way to God that pointed to Christ. You and I look back in faith. Now we come to this man Enoch, and we just mentioned him last time. In him we see the walk of faith. It’s the way of faith, Abel, and now In this man, it is the walk of faith. And I’m going to read verse 5 again. “…By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Now, let’s go back and look at the story of this man, Enoch. And we saw in this fifth chapter of the book of Genesis, just like walking through a cemetery and reading what’s on the tombstones. Only thing is, so-and-so was born, he lived, and begat a son, and he died. Becomes really monotonous, and it’s a rather sad story of Mankind today, it’s the same picture in this present hour in which we live. Things haven’t changed, friends. There may be an evolution in another area, but there’s certainly been none in this area. Man still dies. Oh, I know the lifespan has been extended a few years, but what’s a few years when you put it down by a thousand or eternity? Well, when we get to this fifth chapter of Genesis, we read in verse 19, and Jared lived after he begat Enoch 800 years. He begat sons and daughters, and all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died. That’s true of all of them up to this point. And then after Enoch, they all died. Even Methuselah, we’re told, died. But this man Enoch didn’t die at all. It says, “…and Enoch lived sixty and five years, and he begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and he begat sons and daughters.” And all the days of Enoch were 365 years, and Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Now, that’s the story of Enoch. Obviously, in the fifth chapter, we are following a very definite line. We’re following a certain genealogy, because we find that All of these begat sons and daughters, but we’re not told anything about them. One particular son is lifted out. Now, Jared had a boy by the name of Enoch. Now, we’re told Enoch lived 65 years. He begat a man by the name of Methuselah. Now, he had other children, but this firstborn apparently was Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah. I don’t know what he did before he begat Methuselah, but I assume he did not walk with God. Well, one day he went into the nursery and looked down in a crib and there’s a little fella and he’s just kicking as much as you please. And his name was Methuselah. Now, we always think of Methuselah being an old man who walked on his beard and got in his way. But actually, he was a little baby at one time. And this man Enoch looked down, and when he saw this little baby, it changed his life. He began to walk with God. I do not know what it was before. It could have been careless. It could have been a life that was lived in indifference and maybe an open sin. I do not know. The record doesn’t say. It just says that he walked with God after he begat Methuselah. But he looked down and saw that little fella, and he recognized his responsibility. Now, I read for you a letter that influenced a family to write to me, and they even called attention to the fact a little child shall lead you. Well, if the presence of a baby in a home… Won’t change your lifestyle, friends. Nothing else will. The preacher won’t be able to say very much. And I’m sure that what I have to say would not affect you at all. But God gave you that little fella. And these little ones have a way of speaking for God. And they don’t say a word. They come out of the everywhere into the here and there. They seem so fresh and somehow or another they bring a message from God and certainly Methuselah did for this man Enoch and changed his lifestyle and he had other children. But this man Enoch didn’t die. It says he walked with God. And he was not, for God took him. And now you have the walk of faith. And when we get back now to the 11th chapter of Hebrews, we read, “…by faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death.” Before his translation, he had this testimony. He pleased God. His walk pleased God. Because he walked by faith, not by rules and regulations. But he walked in a manner to please God. He believed in God. And he walked in a manner that pleased him. And then God took him. He didn’t die. He was translated. This is the first rapture that’s in the Bible. Only one man was raptured. He was removed from this earth’s scene and was taken away. Now, you’re going to have quite a picture here, by the way. It has, I think, a spiritual message. There are those that believe the church will go through the Great Tribulation, and they use Noah as an example. Now, Noah represents not the church, but he represents those that are in the world that are going to be saved during the Great Tribulation, and God’s going to keep them. You say, who are they? Well, I can identify them. 144,000 of the nation Israel, And then a great company of Gentiles. They’re not in the church. We’re told that before the winds of the great tribulation began to blow across the earth and the four horsemen of the apocalypse began to ride, that 144,000 out of the nation Israel were sealed. And then another company, and that is a great company of Gentiles. And they are represented by Noah. God can keep you in the great tribulation. But it’s not a question of whether God can keep the church. He could. The question is, does he? What does he say? Well, he says that he’s going to remove the believers. He told the church in Philadelphia, I’m going to keep you from that hour that’s coming on the earth. It’s going to try the whole earth. Well, what hour is going to try the earth? The only one mentioned in scripture is the great tribulation period. There’s none other mentioned. So apparently this great company of both Jew and Gentile are to be kept. Noah represents them. But you see, these folk that use Noah as an example of the church, they forget about Enoch. Enoch didn’t go through the flood. He was translated. He was not in the ark. God could have put him in the ark, but he didn’t. He could have kept him during the flood, but he didn’t do that. He removed him. And that’s what he’s going to do with the church. And so Enoch represents the church. And he was translated. I like that word translation because it means you take something out of one language and you put it in another. I listened to the tape. of our broadcast in South America in Spanish. And I listened to the introduction, the song, How Firm a Foundation’s in Spanish. And believe me, they got a quartet down there that really does a fine job singing. I can’t understand a word they’re saying. But then there’s the announcer comes on. He has a marvelous voice. And then the man giving my messages, he’s reading them. But you’d never know it. And he’s doing an excellent job. Someone said, the manager of the station wrote down, said, we have everything except your Texas accent. Well, I like the way he did it. And that was a translation. It was taken out of one language, put in another language for South America. Well, may I say to you that Enoch was translated out of one sphere of life and translated into another. God took him. And the best way I know to describe it is to describe it as a little girl did that came home from Sunday school. And a mother said to us, said, what did the teacher tell you about today in Sunday school? And the little girl said she told us all about this man, Enoch. And you can see that was not a modern Sunday school because the kids weren’t playing. And building something and listening to a little story about little Sam or little somebody else on the good neighbor policy. This was a good old-fashioned Sunday school that taught the Bible. And so the little girl said that all about Enoch. And the mother says, well, what about Enoch? And she told it this way. And friends, I couldn’t tell it any better than this way that the little girl said. She said that Enoch lived a long time ago and God would come by every afternoon and say to Enoch, Enoch, would you like to take a walk with me? And Enoch said, yes, he’d like to take a walk with God. And so every day God would come by Enoch’s house and Enoch would go walking with God. And said, one day God came by and said, Enoch said, let’s take a long walk today. I want to talk to you. And so they started out. Enoch got his coat and everything and even his lunch. And they started walking. And they walked and they walked and walked. And finally, it got late. And Enoch said, my, it’s getting late. We’re long ways from my home. Said, maybe we better start back. And God says, Enoch, You’re closer to my home than you are to your home. So you come on, go home with me. And so Enoch went home with God. Now, friends, I don’t know how to say it any better than that. And that’s going to happen one day with the church. Church walking with God like Enoch did. And one day, one day, God’s going to take us home. The Lord Jesus is coming. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. We that are alive caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Friends, that’s the way the little girl told it, and that’s the way I think it is. Now, I want to drop down to verse 7 because we have now the third and last individual who walked by faith and lived by faith and came by faith to God before the flood. These were antediluvians, we call them, and it was Noah himself. Verse 7 now, and I’m reading, By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and he became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” Now you have in Noah the witness of faith. Abel was the way of faith, Enoch the walk of faith. Now you have the witness of faith, and this is Noah. You see, we’re told here he saved his house. Now, many of us have been accustomed to say that Noah preached 120 years and never made a convert. Actually, that’s not quite accurate. He sure did win his family. He led every member of his family to the Lord. And that was really something. I think probably, again, we better go back to Genesis and look at this one for just a moment. We’re told that in verse 5 of chapter 6 of Genesis, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil and that continually. This is a sad commentary on mankind. Man surely got away from God in a hurry after he got out of the Garden of Eden. But we’re told that there was one man left. Verse 9. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation. Now, that means that he was a nice fellow and paid his debts and did a lot of nice things. No, it says here also, and Noah walked with God. But how did he walk with God? Well, the writer to the Hebrews tells us, by faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with prayer, prepared an ark for the saving of his house, and so on. Now, this man, Noah, believed God, for God told him that he was going to destroy the earth with a flood. There’s some that believe that up to this point it hadn’t even rained, and that’s probably true. And way up on dry ground, away from even the Euphrates River, Why, this man Noah began to build a boat. In fact, it was way up near Mount Ararat. And so he began to build a boat because God said there’s going to be a flood. And God gave him the instructions for it. It wasn’t that clumsy looking thing that you were given a picture of in Sunday school. I was when I was a little boy. My thought was I sure would hate to have been in that boat. I think it was a very modern looking equipment, by the way. The size of it and the construction of it. And the way in which it was built, it would conform to modern shipbuilding. The length of it, we’re told, was 300 cubits. The breadth of it, 50 cubits. The height of it, 30 cubits. I’m told that today’s shipbuilding conforms largely to this pattern. It didn’t have one little window in the side. It says, “…a window shalt thou make in the ark, and a cubit shalt thou finish it above, and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof, with lower second and third stories shalt thou make it.” Now, the window… went all the way around the top, and the roof came down over it, of course. But that was that open space, so that there was plenty of open space. And there were three decks that it had. 300 cubits would mean 450 feet long. It reveals the fact that these men were good builders in that day, shipbuilders as well as building palaces and that type of thing, forts. And we know today that it was possible for this type of a construction in that day would be something they’d be familiar with. And this man began to do what I’m sure the population in that day considered a very foolish thing. I’m of the opinion the Gray Lines ran a tour out to where he was building the boat, and I’m sure it was a popular one. I’ve always wondered what it was that brought the three boys, Hamshem and Japheth, the three sons of Noah, back home. These boys, I’m sure, had moved away and started their own business down in Babel. I suppose Ham was a contractor, probably a very successful builder himself. And one day, he was meeting with the Builders’ Convention, construction, you know, Contractors’ Convention. The man there began to tell about the trip that he’d made up in the North Country and that the man up there was built in a boat and how ridiculous it was. And everybody agreed, including Ham. But Ham all of a sudden knew his dad lived up there and he’d heard some things and he asked the contractor the question. He said, by the way, did you get the name of the man? He said, yes. Said, what was his name? Said his name was Noah. And I think Ham turned white when he heard that. And he stood up and he said, listen, man, He said, that’s my father that’s building that boat. Now, he said, I agree with you, it’s foolish. And I laughed as you laughed, but said, you don’t know my dad. He said, my dad walked in the fear of God, the living God. I’ve gotten away from it. But he says, if my dad says a flood’s coming and that God has caused him to give out a message, a warning, He said, you can just put it down and a flood’s coming. And God spoke to him because I was brought up in that home. And I know this, that I might cut short corners, but my dad wouldn’t. My dad never told a lie. My dad lived for God. And if you don’t mind, I’m going to get me a saw and a hammer and I’m going up there and help him build. I think that Shem and Japheth had a similar experience and they heard about it. And they went back to help their dad. Why? Because this man had a witness. This man, Noah, was a real witness for God. Friends, may I say this to you very candidly? The most important thing that you can do is to witness to your own family. And not by everlastingly giving them the gospel. but by living it before them and letting them see that you have a reality in your life. Always think of the story that Gypsy Smith told years ago. He’s holding meetings in Dallas, and a lady came up to him and said to him, said, Gypsy, I’ve been called a priest. And he felt about women preachers about like I do. And he said to her, said, by the way, you married? She said, yes. Says, how many children do you have? She said, I have five. He said, isn’t that wonderful? Said, God’s called you to preach and he’s already given you a congregation. My friend, may I say to you, whether you’re even a preacher or not, whoever you are, if you’re a child of God and you’ve got a family, that’s your congregation. God gave you that congregation. And Noah won his. Now, nobody accepted the Lord outside. Nobody believed him outside, but his family did. They knew him. And we’re told that he saved his whole household. That’s what the writer here says, that he saved his household. And that’s a wonderful thing that he was able to do that. He prepared an ark for the saving of his house. Why? By his witness. May I say to you, you have the way of faith, the walk of faith, and the witness of faith in these three antediluvians. Now, next time, we’re sure going to see the man who is the one that represents faith in the Bible, and that’s Abraham. We’ll be looking at that next time. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
Learn more about what it means to walk with God by visiting the library of resources available at ttb.org. Or if we can help you find something in particular, just call us. 1-800-65-BIBLE is the number. I’m Steve Schwartz, and as always, I’ll meet you back here as the Bible bus rolls along.
SPEAKER 02 :
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Through the Bible is a five-year study of God’s entire word, and together we discover God’s purposes in history and our lives, found only when we believe in Jesus Christ. Do you know him yet?
