Editor's Note

T. Jarred Jung serves as resident theology faculty at East Asia School of Theology and is a Fellow at the Center for House Church Theology. He has a PhD from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

John Frame defines theology as “the application of Scripture to all areas of human life” (1). In this sense, theology is by nature contextual, applying Scripture to the time, culture, and situation to which the theologian speaks (2). The same is true for preaching. Exegesis is not exposition. A passage has not been exposited until it is brought to bear on the hearer’s contextual situation. Accordingly, J. Elem’s sermon on Enoch is a beautiful piece of expository theological preaching. From this sermon, one gets the sense of a pastor who seeks to squeeze the Bible for every drop of Gospel wisdom that it might offer his people in the unique struggles of their situation.

This is seen in two ways. First, it is demonstrated in the selection of the passage itself. Western churches gravitate towards what is practical and applicable, avoiding mysterious passages like those about Enoch and Methuselah. But this is a pastor who reads his Bible in detail, unwilling to consider any passage as incapable of offering gospel wisdom. Second, J. Elem not only squeezes the Bible for every passage, but squeezes the passage for all it has. This is seen by the applications that are offered from every angle he can find. He is guilty of taking more than some would say the text gives at points, but as a pastor he is profoundly concerned for his congregation connecting with God’s word and applying it to their lives.

Apart from being a fine example of expository theological preaching, J. Elem’s sermon offers a great introduction to Chinese house church preaching for the uninitiated reader. Born in a situation of persecution and suffering that makes this world unappealing, eschatology is never far from the mindset of the house church preacher. However, the eschatological nature of J. Elem’s sermon does not mean that he is stuck in the mid-to-late twentieth century at a time when China’s house churches were predominately underground, rural, and poor. Rather, J. Elem brings the eschatological bent of house church preaching to bear on the new China of the twenty-first century. This is a China where wealth is available, but the competition for it is fierce and unending. In the fight for their children to be top in society, parents often bribe for seats in top schools and spend inordinate amounts of money on the multitude of English tutoring and STEM centers that take up entire floors of urban shopping malls. Furthermore, the social situation wrought by the One-Child Policy where males greatly outnumber females means that wealth is the equivalent of the colorful plumage on a bird of paradise—the standard judgment of male worthiness for marriage is wealth. If you have no house or car, no wife will marry you. The societal stress that wealth places on the parents of both young and grown children— children whose success is often determinative of their retirement in a land with few social safety nets—is immense, and the Gospel’s call to not worship at the temple of wealth can leave the twenty-first century Chinese Christian feeling like a fish trying to swim upstream against a raging rapid. J. Elem, in recognition of this, shapes his eschatological call not to hope in an unappealing world, but to perseverance in a world whose appeal threatens the Christian’s very eternity. Money is not new to the West, and thus its people and pastors often struggle to identify how it endangers their faith. In the new wealth of China, pastors are confronted by new realities that demand an urgency—an urgency instructive to Western pastors whose flocks often exist in suburban sloth.

Apart from its eschatological theme, the reader will also notice the extent to which J. Elem pushes application. Application is not something tagged to the end of a long exegesis as an afterthought. Rather, Chinese pragmatism demands that the sermon must speak to life over and over again. Lest one believe that this means that the Gospel is lost in moralistic legalism, one must remember that the Gospel preaches a kingdom reality that demands the absolute loyalty of its citizens. Western preachers would do well to learn from J. Elem’s insistence not just on the grace that the Gospel offers, but also on the loyalty that it demands from those who receive that grace. Cultural idols always pull, never give ground, and it is the pastor’s job to call his people to battle to live a better story. J. Elem’s exposition of Genesis 5 is a clarion call to this better story, not only for his flock, but also for all of us.

About the Author

J. Elem served as pastor in a house church in Beijing and studied at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is married with a daughter and a son.

Walking With God in the Last Days

The phrase “walking with God” appears many times in the Bible. According to its literary meaning, walking with God is not complicated, philosophical, or difficult to understand. We can understand it in light of the most basic concepts of Christian faith; for example, we know that our sinful nature resists God to the utmost, but we have come to be reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus Christ; that we are at war with sin by the power of the Holy Spirit; and that we are now unhindered and in good communion with God, growing in spiritual maturity. This is the concrete substance of walking with God. These are also very elementary and fundamental truths.

The word "with" is a noteworthy word. What does it mean to walk with someone? For instance, if I say that I am walking with a brother, and you find out that he is in the north and I am in the south, it is not called walking together. "Walking together" means being inseparable like body and shadow. Walking with God is more than just having a so-called "good spiritual life." We often think of a person’s life as good and godly, but that is probably a very moralistic understanding, because walking with God is not moral, but a status of being in communion with the Lord which results in a deep rootedness in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a growing life, a sensitivity to Lord’s will, and a freedom to obey him at all times. Wherever the Lord is, so are those who walk with him (John 12:26).

We all desire in our hearts to live a life of "walking with the Lord," but personally I find it very difficult. When there were no difficulties from the outside, I felt that I could walk with the Lord very well, and my heart was stirred in the Spirit. But when difficulties came, I would feel, "Oh, I’m not very good at walking with the Lord anymore." It seems as if walking with God is the privilege of a small number of people, namely, only those who are special experts. We can even get to a point where we secretly reject this group of people who presumably have a privilege of walking with the Lord: These people are good, but they seem to be a little too good for the rest of us.

Enoch’s Prophecy

Let's look at two passages—Genesis 5:21-32 and Jude 14-16—about such a man who "walked with God." He is Enoch. There is very little written about Enoch in the Bible, but based on the details of these passages, it is clear that he was a very special man. He is described in Genesis 5 as a man who "walked with God" for three hundred years, and then "he was not, for God took him" (Gen. 5:24). He was taken straight to heaven, without passing through death.

Enoch’s walk with God had a very distinctive characteristic. Genesis 5:21-24 says, ”When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him."

Under what circumstances did Enoch walk with God? It was after he gave birth to Methuselah. This simple passage is astonishing to many people. We would be more likely to think that a person's walk with God would be like this: Enoch walked with God, and then he gave birth to Methuselah. Then after the birth of Methuselah, he began to be spiritually weak, and muddled along without any aim for 300 years, until finally, he repented. After his repentance, he felt that his children had become adults, and he finally had time to get close to God again. At this time, his spiritual life was revived, so God took him away. We would think that this is the normal logic (3). But that is not what the scripture says. It says that Enoch first lived to the age of 65, after which he gave birth to his first son, after which he walked with God. It was only after Enoch gave birth to Methuselah that he walked with God for 300 years. This leads to a question we need to think about.

Notice it does not mean that he did not walk with God before that, but that after the birth of Methuselah, Enoch’s relationship with God was significantly advanced. This demonstrates to us what a truly spiritual life is. A truly spiritual life is the reversal of the usual logic and reasoning, a completely opposite way of thinking. The usual logic is that when difficulties come and the outside pattern changes, the previous way of walking with God will change. But it is not so with the true spiritual life; when the outside pattern changes, the spiritual life of walking with God will be more elevated and prominent.

What were the characteristics of Enoch’s walk with God before he gave birth to Methuselah? The analysis of the original text reveals something. The name "Methuselah" means: "In the year of his death, things will be fulfilled/accomplished." It turns out that the name itself is a prophecy. We all know what will happen in the year of Methuselah’s death—the great flood. In other words, when Enoch gave birth to Methuselah, he gave his son this name because he knew that a major universal judgment would occur in the future, and that this judgment would be fulfilled in the year of Methuselah’s death.

So, we see that Enoch concentrated most of his attention on preaching the message of God’s judgment. We know that there are two universal judgments in human history, from Adam to the final advent of Jesus Christ. The first judgment was the Flood, and the second will be the final judgment. Was there anyone who prophesied these two judgments of God very accurately? It was Enoch! He prophesied the first time by the name of “Methuselah." And the book of Jude says that Enoch, the seventh grandson of Adam, prophesied: "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 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" (Jude 14-15). Since it is said here that the Lord is coming with millions of His holy ones to execute judgment, it does not refer to the great flood; rather, the prophecy is about the second coming of Christ. Enoch was a man who lived in the ancient times, yet he knew some details of the two judgments very well, and as a witness, he preached accordingly (4).

Today we say that man’s walk with God is very difficult. How on earth can a person truly keep walking with God, especially in the face of many difficulties? The most important thing is that he should carry a very strong sense of the last days (5) in his heart. Just like Enoch: before his child was born, he knew from his walk with God that there would be a devastating, universal judgment in the future; and after that, his life was dominated by this message.

Sometimes I think of Enoch as a rather stern person. A person who preaches many messages about judgment is unlikely to be a very kind person. The two men in the Old Testament who were taken up to heaven were Enoch and Elijah. Didn’t Elijah bring down fire from heaven? (6) He seems to have been a very stern man. Enoch was the same. This sternness did not mean that he did not have the love of God in his heart. Jesus Christ testified that those who truly belong to him have the love of God in their hearts. So, what does this sternness show? It shows in fact that he does not compromise easily. He did not compromise with men because he walked with God and was close to him.

In Enoch’s heart, "righteousness" was very important; at the same time, he had a very strong consciousness of the last days because he knew God’s prophecy: The year my child dies will be the year of the destruction of all mankind! God told Enoch about this, but did not tell him the exact year. The prophecy was finally realized in the time of Noah, the fourth generation of Enoch’s descendants. Although Enoch did not know the exact date, he carried a very strong sense of vigilance in his heart because of his walk with God: he knew that his generation would end in judgment; and because he knew it would end, he would live a completely different life from others.

What was the character of people’s lives in the days before the flood occurred at the time of Noah? Jesus Christ testified about this, saying, “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark" (cf. Matt 24:38). Eating, drinking, and marrying were considered by them to be all there is to life. "We still have to live!" became the theme song of their lives. They ate, they drank, they married. They had children, they built houses, and they threshed grain for food. They made these things the whole of their lives, and thought this was the normal pattern. Even if they had believed in Jesus Christ, they would have just wanted to live a normal life as believers. But living a normal Christian life does not mean that you must live a "normal life" of the world; it is a completely different concept. When Enoch knew there was going to be a judgment, he didn’t know exactly what day it was going to be, but he was actively preparing for it, and his eyes were not fixed on the "present life.”

Understanding the ending of this age does not make us wait passively, but rather, it helps us prepare more positively, while having a very strong sense of vigilance about the coming judgment in our hearts. Enoch lived with a strong sense of conviction and vigilance of the last age in his walk with God. However, living according to the logic of the world, such a sense of vigilance is often very weak, and it is even often discarded for reasons that seem extremely "practical."

Living the Good Life

The life of a person can be divided into different stages: childhood, youth, middle age, and old age. The beginning of youth is marked by going to college, after which you must find a job, get married (some serve the Lord in singlehood), have children, and then you gradually move into middle age and old age. Christians go through these stages as well. I have observed that it is often very dangerous for young Christians when they go through transitions into the next stage, especially when there are major life changes. When I go through changes in my life, I begin to secretly feel that I should change my life to be different from the past. The devil will often tempt you and whisper to you, "If life has changed on the outside, shouldn’t you change on the inside too? If you're having trouble adjusting to this external change, you should make some adjustments internally as well." Then gradually, we welcome real changes inside of us, leading to a serious crisis in our faith. In the past, those secular, worldly, and even sinful ideas did not affect you, because you were on guard against them. But when your stage of life changes, all of sudden you begin to think, "Are they actually okay?" What is more frightening is that those worldly doctrines that the world thinks are okay, suddenly become alive, refreshing, and reasonable in front of you, so gradually your principles also change.

We need to be careful so that when our external life changes, the principles of the gospel do not change as a result. If our inner convictions do not change, the external changes will, on the contrary, reinforce the unchanged principle of faith inside of you and it will captivate your life even more. What kind of mindset should we have? We should always be centered on Christ and His gospel.

For example, once upon a time, I was alone and I did not have a job or a spouse. At that time I was Christ-centered and my life, time, and energy were all oriented and organized around serving the Lord. Once I got a job, my life changed, and I became work-centered. And then later, I got married, and I started doing what the world does, saying, "You have to decide, do you want to focus on your family or on your career?" Sometimes Christians discuss this question like unbelievers do. In fact, neither should be considered the most important, but the gospel of the Lord and His church should be the most central and the most important.

After that I had children, and it became very natural to think that children should be at the center. Chinese people especially like to put children at the center, saying that they are the little emperor or princess. After the child is born, the whole family is centered on him. This culture naturally affects Chinese Christian parents, and children even slowly take the place of God and become idols.

I often tell some brothers and sisters that young Christians must pass several hurdles in life: the work hurdle (in some cases, graduation and work together), the marriage hurdle, and the child hurdle. Some people were in a good state of faith until they faced these hurdles, but as soon as they faced these three hurdles, their state of faith fell apart. I even know of more extreme cases where people have given up their faith. Why is this the case? The core question of passing these three hurdles is: When your external identity changes, can you hold on to the unchanging one in your heart and not be tempted by the devil to start wavering and be used by him? Has your inner identity shifted? This is very important. Is my inner identity, my first identity, still Christian? Or has my first identity become my profession after I have a job? Or has my first identity become a parent after I had children? Whether or not we can keep this priority after going through an external identity change actually determines whether or not our faith can stand firm.

But the more fundamental question, to put it more simply, is whether you live your life for the Lord and the gospel, or whether the Lord and the gospel are there to give you a better life. I once heard a preacher say, "Christians in our generation should really fight against money to the last drop of our blood!" Though I felt indignant hearing it, now I think he was right. It is true that many people love money and mammon more than they love the Lord. I believe to this day that almost all of us need to fight money to the last drop of our blood. Never believe that money is neutral. But what I have learned recently is that it is not just money we fight, but something much more fundamental, which is "life." The real battle is whether a true Christian should be devoted to their earthly life or the gospel and mission. Is it life for faith? Or is it faith for life? The battle on this point should shed blood at every step! Unfortunately, Christians often fail.

Some may question: Are you saying we cannot even live our lives? But in fact, this is where many Christians fail: they take their own lives too seriously. I ask my brothers and sisters: Why have there been so few missionaries from the Chinese church? One of the biggest reasons is that we think too highly of our own lives in our hearts. Everything must bow down in the presence of the word "life." Even service of the Lord must yield in front of life. Why? Because life is sine qua non (without which there is nothing, essential). But what about "the Lord and the gospel?" Although I know in my heart that I can’t live without those things, it seems like I can live without it for a while, at least in my flesh. This is a battle we need to fight. Perhaps you will say, "If I cannot even have a good life, should I not die?" But what did Jesus Christ say? If anyone wants to follow me, what should he do? "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). The cross is "death," not "life." So, do not ever think that you can "threaten" God with death, because God has never said, "Well, if you are at the risk of losing your life, forget about it. We will stop from here, lest people say that the Christian faith is merciless." Never! It is not true.

Of course, there are those who would say with a deceitful heart, "Isn't a good faith in the Lord reflected in things like doing better at work, or being better at raising children, or better at dealing with people?" That sounds persuasive. But when you think about it, you realize that the danger of speaking this way is that the gospel gradually becomes a service to people’s lives, and the gospel no longer has a transcendent character. The sense of mission in the gospel, and the transcendent visions of "the world is passing away along with its desires" and of "this light momentary affliction" are fading. The church will soon lose its power!

Children Reveal Our Idols

Earlier we talked about Enoch’s 300-year walk with God after he gave birth to his son. Speaking of having a child, it occurs to me that after having a child, every Christian would want to give the child a good name, preferably with a spiritual meaning. But let me ask you a question: When you name your child, do you really expect him to become what his name represents? Or is it just intended to be an external sign? For example, if someone names his child Peter Wang, does he really want his son to be a man like the Apostle Peter? Do you really want your son to leave his family and even his life for the sake of the gospel? Do you really expect your child to practice the meaning of the name given? Do you expect that he will become a saved person in Christ, and really be used by God?

It is not easy for a person to be saved, and it is even more difficult for him to serve the Lord in the future. It takes a lot of prayers and vigilance on the part of the parents. But what is even more crucial is whether the parents’ own faith in the gospel can be a powerful witness before their children.

I have often studied and thought about the history of revival in the Chinese church. In the last generation of revivals, although there were many blessings, it must be said that there were also many failures. Too many sins and fleshly lusts were mixed in. We know that it is a very common phenomenon that there are a large number of believers whose children do not believe in the Lord, and even those who say they believe are very vain and rarely attend church. What is going on here?

There may be many reasons, but one common reason that I have observed is that the parents’ state of faith is actually not as good as they outwardly profess it to be. Some believed because they experienced signs and wonders, and some believed because of a moment of enthusiasm or because they were persuaded and dragged by others. Although these believers of the previous generation saw signs and wonders and believed in the power of God, they were not really devoted to the Lord and the gospel in their hearts, so there was a big problem with their own faith. Usually, they would tell their children, "You must be a good believer." But when it came to the critical moment of life decisions, they would often tell their children another set of things, such as, "It is important to study." Or "It is important to have money to buy a house." You see that in their hearts they do not really honor the Lord nor put the gospel first. Some brothers and sisters who seem to be very godly say they love the Lord, but when it comes time for their children to get married, they are most concerned about things like "Is that person rich?" and "Can they afford to buy a house in the future?" Therefore, how much better can we expect their children to be in terms of faith? For either the children will see their parents’ functional disbelief in the gospel and will not believe themselves, or they will follow their parents’ example and become "nominal Christians" who appear to believe but care nothing about the gospel but everything about worldliness.

Someone might say, "That is because all people have a soft spot when it comes to children." A man once said to me, "You know what? The most godly person would become weak and worldly when it comes to their children’s interests." Brothers and sisters, that is not true! Rather, this time happens to be the best time to test the maturity of one's faith. The maturity of one’s faith is often revealed by the choices he makes when faced with major decisions. Can you choose well before marriage, before parents, before children, and before work? It is before these decisions that the reality of your faith is revealed.

So, no matter how many excuses parents make for their functional unbelief, the result is the unbelief of their children. The inconsistency in the faith of the parents is a very important reason why there is so much unbelief among the "second generation" of believers. I do not mean to say that if the parents are godly, their children will necessarily be believers. Not really. Because there are counterexamples in the Bible, I do not think that is the case. But the state of a child’s faith is often determined by the purity of the faith of the previous generation. Parents who are not of good faith are very likely to swallow the bitter fruit of their children’s unbelief. This means that perhaps later in eternity you will find yourself in a different place from your children. You are in Christ, back in the arms of Abraham, back in the love of the Father, while the one or the ones you love so much today will be in that place of eternal suffering. This is a very terrible eternal finale. This bitter fruit will never go away.

Do you really see a vision in your child? Do you really see him through the eschatological lens of the gospel? Do you really want him to be saved first and foremost from the future judgment, and pray for this urgently? Do you really believe that growing in the Spirit is also the first priority for him in preparation for the Lord’s return? Do you believe that it is still a good thing for him to suffer at the hand of the Lord for serving God in the gospel? A brother said before, "I myself am willing to suffer for the Lord, but my son cannot afford to buy a house." I found that he started by trying to help his son to buy a house, and then gradually he himself also became unwilling to suffer.

Ultimately, it is also a matter of faith. When you strive to walk with God and do whatever it takes for the gospel, you are actually putting your children in God’s hands. God himself will be responsible according to His good pleasure. Either way, we are willing to surrender to God’s sovereignty. But instead, when we get our priority upside down by focusing too much on our children for a seemingly valid reason while neglecting our own walk with God, we will find that the end result is nothing like you originally envisioned.

I sometimes find it intimidating to raise a child because I do not know what will happen to him in the future. I cannot be in charge of everything, good or bad. I am not even in charge of whether he will be converted or not in the end. So what should we do? We can only rely on God with fear and trembling, and with urgent prayers. Moreover, we ourselves should remain as Christians before the Lord and follow him wholeheartedly. There will be many trials, and we may try to find many excuses to avoid them. But the result of avoidance is that in the end you will swallow the bitter fruit you have sown. Thus says the word of God, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:7-8). Some will taste the bitter fruit very soon, and some will do so years later. Excessive attention to our children is harmful though it may seem to be helpful. Such temptation is insidious, because we would rationalize it, thinking, “Isn't it normal for my child to be dependent on me?” But without us noticing it, we gradually miss the mark in our walk with God in the gospel.

We spend a lot of time talking about our children and related issues. Methuselah is to Enoch as our children are to us today. How we deal with our children is quite important to our continued walk with God in the gospel.

Living for the Next Age

How can we walk with God in spite of the external difficulties and pressures that are constantly pressing on us? The answer is that the focus of our attention must be on the kingdom of God. It is proper for a man to work hard, to use his hard-earned resources to make a living, and to eat everything he has earned by his hands. And for those who do not do so, Paul says that if anyone refuses to work, he must not eat. But if all the attention is put on that, it can become a big problem.

We see another person from the passage we have just read, Lamech, the grandson of Enoch. Lamech later gave birth to a son named Noah, and when he named Noah, he said "Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands" (Gen. 5:28-29). The reason for "the painful toil of our hands" is that the Lord cursed the earth, and since Adam sinned, the earth has been cursed, so that everyone must sweat to make ends meet. The name "Noah" means "comfort" and “rest." The fact that Lamech named his son "comfort" shows his desire to find rest from "the painful toil of our hands."

The same is true for us today. You should not think that people in ancient times did not work hard, in fact they worked just as hard. There are many people who think, "People in past times had time to concentrate on following Jesus and think about heavenly things all day long. But now in modern days we are too busy, so it is reasonable that we cannot be like them." However, this is absolutely an illusion! As much as we labor today, so did the people in the former days.

So where do people today find rest? I must first ask this question. How did God give rest through Noah back then? If you simply answer this question now you will find: It is terrifying! How could the relief God gave be a flood? What does it mean? It means that true relief and comfort exists only in the salvation from which rest comes. There can be no rest until then. Only the ark itself is our consolation. The same is true for people today. The true consolation does not exist in the various ways we get it now, but when the day comes that the Lord, who is mightier than the flood, comes with millions of angels, then and only then will we have consolation.

So, let's always remember our first identity, which is our Christian identity. You are a person defined by the gospel, and do not forget that we are living in the last days. If you lose sight of it, your faith will collapse, and God will take this seriously. So what do we need in this age? We need faith.

Some say only people of a certain mindset or personality can do this. But this is definitely not a matter of so-called personality or mindset! There are those who would justify themselves by saying that each Christian has a different gift, understanding, or even lifestyle. This mindset is just one of the many ways. But are there really many truths? There is but one. It’s not a matter of mindset, personality, or lifestyle. Those are all excuses. It is a matter of faith!

Our faith is not a flat faith. If you believe what God has promised, you will be blessed; it is a living faith. We are in the last days, and in the tension that comes with it. We are guests and sojourners on earth. Our days on earth are short, and we must go to meet the Lord in the future. Moreover, the Lord may come again at any time. This is true! There are many signs of the last days that have been revealed. I sometimes think: This is quite scary. What if the Lord really returns while we are still alive? But on the other hand, that time will be a time for us to hold our heads high in triumph.

The age we live in is an age that must be faced with great seriousness and vigilance. The word of God and the vision God has given us will be fulfilled. But before it is accomplished there will be a war. To win the battle, we must have faith. Faith is taking seriously what God has told us but we have not yet seen. It is even more true than what you can see with your eyes! Just like when Methuselah was born, God has already inspired these things and had them written for us. And all four generations from Enoch to Noah lived in this vision. They were face to face with this judgment and they arranged all their lives with the premise that it was true and would be fulfilled. Since we know all this, we should not be like the people in Noah’s time, trying to live a very ordinary life, but we should be like Noah, and overcome this wicked age.

In the book of Revelation, Jesus speaks to seven churches, and He has very precious promises for each overcomer. But what does it mean to overcome? Victory is "to overcome and to triumph over.” As we have just learned, Enoch did not walk with God until Methuselah was born. The scripture did not say that Enoch fell away after Methuselah was born. Why? Because true victory must be overcoming external circumstances. In the book of Revelation, there are only two of the seven churches that are not rebuked by God, and one of them is the church of Smyrna. What were the characteristics of the church in Smyrna? The great tribulation. You see that this church, which was tested by the greatest persecution, was the most triumphant church. On the contrary, the churches that did not lack anything and had everything in abundance failed completely in the end.

The churches and Christians who will triumph are born under the circumstances of having to overcome great external difficulties. Newly emerging hardships and trials are not excuses for unbelief and avoidance, but rather opportunities for us to face them so that we can bear fruit more abundantly. Paul says that Christians "have this treasure in jars of clay,” so that the treasures in them can overcome the external difficulties. As the outer vessel continues to decay, the light and glory from the inner vessel will shine brighter (2 Cor. 4:1-15). Of course, there will be a cost, which is inevitable. But the promise we will receive in the end will be greater than that cost. At the same time, we must be careful because God has a very serious warning for those who withdraw in fear.

Now although Enoch received the prophecy, he did not live to see the day when it was ultimately fulfilled. He was taken up by God before that day. He is just like Elijah, who was lifted up to heaven without dying. Hebrews 11:5 says, "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.” Today we have the same prophecy, and it is even clearer. Now that we know this prophecy and the day of our Lord’s return is near, dear brothers and sisters, let us no longer be carried along and be "driven and tossed by the wind” (James 1:6), nor let us be intimidated by the difficulties before us. We should also think seriously about the possibility that Satan may attack us not only in a very big way, but in some small ways as well. This will require us to be always alert and to be vigilant in all things. Immediately after the Lord Jesus described the world by saying, "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark” (Matt. 24:38), he then commanded His disciples, including us, to set ourselves apart from the world. How do you do it? Through good preparation, with the alertness and readiness of the time, for the judgment of the end times.

"Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect" (Matt. 24:42-44).

One of the most important aspects of vigilance is to always have the gospel of Christ dominate our lives and beware of any changes in circumstances that may cause this dominance to be diluted or ignored. Be alert to the big things: What happens if persecution comes? Be alert to the small things as well: Why am I spending so much attention on my children lately that I feel out of order? With vigilance, I think our lives can be built up. Some difficulties, though great, can eventually become real and eternal benefits in our lives, if we press on before the Lord Jesus Christ in a watchful spirit and experience victory by faith.

The original article in Chinese was edited from one of the author's sermons and originally published in Church China magazine.

Notes:

1. See John Frame, Theology in Three Dimensions: A Guide to Triperspectivalism and its Significance. Philipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2017, p. 71.

2. This is brought to light by the missiologist Harvie M. Conn, “Theology and Theologizing: A New Course,” Eternal Word and Changing Worlds: Theology, Anthropology, and Mission in Trialogue. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984.

3. See the Editor’s Note for an explanation of why a child’s birth could cause so much temptation or distraction for modern Chinese parents.

4. J. Elem’s translation of the name “Methuselah” is possible but far from certain, and his subsequent interpretation of Enoch’s prophecies is not widely accepted in scholarly circles.

5. Most mentions of the end times, or the era when God will return to judge all peoples as described in Revelation and other prophets, are translated as “the latter days” in the ESV (see Isa. 2:2). There are also other possible renderings such as “the last days” and “the last age”, etc. The study of the end times, eschatology, is also referenced in this piece.

6. See 1 Kings 18, 2 Kings 1.

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