A Life with Love Is Pleasing

After Adam and Eve came Seth and then Seth had a son named Enosh and then men began to call on the Lord.

To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Genesis 4:26

It was not until the seventh generation after Adam that Enoch was born. Enoch obtained the witness that he was pleasing to God.

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. Hebrews 11:5

The Lord says that Enoch prophesied and that he also lived by faith. There is not much more we know about Enoch other than that he obtained the witness before his being taken up that he was pleasing to God and that God took him up so that he would not see death.

It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. Jude 14-16

Who were these men that Enoch prophesied about so many hundreds of years earlier. These were ungodly men who did ungodly deeds in an ungodly way. They also spoke ungodly things about our Lord Jesus Christ.

For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude 4

These ungodly people whom Enoch prophesied about were people who turn the grace of God in licentiousness. Licentiousness is basically saying that because we are “under grace” we can do whatever we want to do. We have a license to sin. We are not under the law but under grace therefore, we are free to do whatever we think is right. This also characterized the children of God in the Old Testament when they were at one of their lowest points.

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Judges 21:25

The people also were warned about this earlier.

You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes; Deuteronomy 12:8

What also characterizes these ungodly people who will experience condemnation?

These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. Jude 16

The ungodly are grumblers, who find fault in others. They also follow after their own lusts and speak like they “know it all”. They are also manipulators through their flattery, which is the characteristic also of the immoral woman.

But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” Jude 17,18

How can we keep from being deceived by these ungodly people who come into the church? The best way is to remember the words of Scripture that the Lord gave to us through His apostles.

These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. Jude 19

Not everyone who is in the church is part of the church, which is, the body of Christ.

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Jude 20.21

The Lord tells us through Jude to build ourselves up in the faith. We need to pray in the Spirit and keep ourselves in the love of God. We keep ourselves in the love of God by keeping His commandments while waiting anxiously for His mercy when we comes again or when we go home to be with Him.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 24,25

Our faith is in Him, who is able to keep us from stumbling and to make us stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy. To Him alone belongs all glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever.

But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21:36

Jesus, Himself, said that we need to pray that we may have the strength to escape what is coming and to stand before Him when He returns.

If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, Then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan? Jeremiah 12:5

If you find yourself falling and struggling now in a relatively time of peace, what will you do when the persecution for being a Christian gets even greater? Strengthen your heart in the Lord Jesus Christ through time with Him in His Word and prayer while you can so that you may stand before Him when He comes again. Seek to be pleasing to the Lord just as Enoch was. There is a good possibility that the people that Enoch talked about also lived in his day. Enoch lived by faith and obtained the witness that he was pleasing to God. The Lord did not allow him to see death. The wages of sin is death. This is what it means to be kept from falling and stumbling in the Christian life. The Lord is able to keep you also from seeing death. When you love someone you want to please them.