Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Enoch and The Purpose of Faith

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Enoch is a very mysterious Old Testament figure. God took him right to heaven without him tasting death—because he walked with God. What’s so special about walking with God? In the garden of Eden, in the beginning of time, God took long walks with us every evening. And yet the minute human beings disobeyed God, they couldn’t stand intimacy with infinity anymore. Humans no longer walk with God. But suddenly, in Genesis 5, Enoch shows up and he still walks with God. What? It’s still possible? Yes, it’s possible by faith. Faith. You can do it too.  Being a Christian is not about a general belief in God—it’s about walking with God. To walk with God is to 1) walk in peace with him, and to 2) walk in the presence of God. Let’s look at these two aspects and then, 3) look at how these two are drawn together. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 9, 1994. Series: The Nature of Faith. Scripture: Hebrews 11:5-7. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. While some might think that Christian faith is just a blind leap, a closer look shows us that it requires deep, rational thinking. Join us all month as Tim Keller preaches on genuine faith, which requires both a deep conviction of the heart and a sound understanding of the mind. The scripture passage we're going to base our teaching on this morning is found in your bulletin. It's Hebrews 11 verses 1 to 7. The question we've been looking at each week is, how can you live a life of power?

And Hebrews 11, that's the 11th chapter of this particular New Testament book, tells us that the life of power is a life of faith. And the chapter gives us a series of character studies or case studies, and it shows us in each case how particular persons were able to achieve that kind of life of power and faith. Now, the one we're going to look at today is this mysterious Old Testament figure Enoch, and he is in verse 5 of the passage, and so I'm only going to read verse 5 out of this passage from Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 verse 5, by faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience

death. He could not be found because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And that's God's Word. Now, if you're a careful student of this passage, you will notice that for the very first time, by faith, because all of the case studies start that way, by faith Abel, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Moses, every one of the case studies starts by faith, and in every case, by faith Abel, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Moses. Every one of the case studies starts by faith, and in every case, by faith is connected to an active verb. By faith Abel offered, by faith Noah built, by faith Abraham obeyed.

But in Enoch's situation, it's a passive verb. By faith Enoch was taken by God. In other words, this verse does not tell us what Enoch did by faith that caused God to take him. He did something by faith, but we're not told what it was by faith. It was because of this thing that he did by faith that God took him. Now Enoch is a very mysterious character because we know very little about him. There's only three verses about him in the entire Old Testament. So it makes you wonder why would the Hebrews writer choose this guy as one of the great case studies.

And let me tell you why. In Genesis 5 verses 21 to 24, just three verses, you see it says Enoch walked with God. It says Enoch was the father of Methuselah and after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God and God took him. God took him right to heaven without him tasting death because he walked with God. So what we have, if you just put Genesis 5 and Hebrews 11 together, there's not much we know, but that's everything we know about Enoch. By faith, Enoch walked with God.

That's what he did that was so special. And it was so special that even though there's almost nothing told about Enoch in the Old Testament, the Hebrew's writer latches onto him as one of the great and stunning cases in all of history of a life of faith. What's so special about walking with God? Here's the answer. If you look up the word walk, you'll see that the first time the word walk shows up in the Bible is in Genesis 3, verse 8. And there we read this. It happened right after Adam and Eve disobeyed. It says, And the Lord God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife heard the sound, and they hid from the face

of the Lord among the trees. See, here's the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had just sinned, just disobeyed. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden and they were afraid. And they hid from the face of the Lord among the trees. Now you know what we learn from that verse? Something amazing. We learn that in the very beginning of time, in the world as it was original, in the original world, God took long walks with us every evening. When the breeze came, literally the Hebrew says, he walked in the garden in the breeze of the day, which in that part of the country it's when the breeze would come up. It would be in the evening. We were told that we used to take a walk with God

every evening. Now, get the gist of this, please. This is God, the Lord God, the Lord of the universe. If the 93 million miles from the earth to the sun were contracted into the thickness of a single piece of paper, then the diameter of just the Milky Way would be a stack of paper 310 miles high. And the Milky Way is just one little speck, one little dust speck in the vast universe. And this God created all that and holds it together with the word of his power. And this one, this one, every evening would come to us and say, let's take a walk. Let's go for a walk. I want to hear what's on your heart and I want to tell you what's on my heart.

Walking with God, and yet we're shown that the minute that human beings disobeyed God, they couldn't stand intimacy with infinity anymore. You know a little bit about that. When you know you've wronged somebody and you see them coming, you go around the other way. You hope they don't see you. And what we're told when you read the book of Genesis, we see that starting in Genesis 3, we no longer could walk with God. We were estranged from God. We were alienated from God. And if you read just Genesis 3 and 4, your heart just sinks because the minute

we weren't able to walk with God, we weren't able to walk with anything else. The minute we were estranged from God, we were estranged from everything else. Because immediately you see psychological estrangement. We're rootless, we're wanderers, we're full of fears. And you see estrangement from creation. We're at war with nature now, and we still are. And you see us subject to disease and death,

so we're even estranged from our bodies. And you see immediately in Genesis 4, killing and violence. And we're estranged from each other. If you don't walk with God, you won't walk with anyone else. You'll be utterly alone. You won't even be able to walk with your own self. That's what Genesis 3 and 4 tells us. We no longer walk with God.

We're total loners. But suddenly Genesis 5 comes along and any objective reader, anybody just reading Genesis and maybe has never read any other part of the book of the Bible, if you're just reading along you get to Genesis 5 and when Enoch shows up you're suddenly absolutely startled because it says, Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. And you suddenly said, what? Somebody still can walk with God in spite of all this? It's still possible? It's still possible to have that estrangement so utterly healed that God actually takes him and he receives eternal life and he's welcomed

into the bosom of the Father? Enoch walked with God in the cool of the day and he's still walking with God in the cool of the day. How is it possible? That's the question. And you know what the answer is of the book of Hebrews of the verse we just said? It's possible by faith. Faith. You can do it too. Now walking with God is so seminal to everything that the Bible tells us about what it means to be a Christian. Being a Christian, Christianity is not about a general belief in God and it's not about just being a generally moral person. It's about walking with God. And walking with God therefore has an objective and a subjective aspect.

Walking with God has an objective and subjective aspect. In other words, we walk in peace with God and we walk in the presence of God. The objective, we have peace with God. The subjective, we have the presence of God. To walk with God is to walk in peace with Him and in His presence. Let me just take a look at those two aspects and then show you at the end how the two actually are drawn together, how one leads to the other. First of all, we're told, when it tells us that Enoch walked with God, when it tells us we can walk with God, it's saying it means that it's possible to be reconciled to God.

The Semitic word to walk, you'll see it used constantly, not only in the ancient usage, but even today, the word walk means more than just to physically walk, it means to be in partnership, and the hostilities are gone. Some years ago I was reading a book about labor management, the history of labor and management fights and strikes and all the stresses of that in the Pittsburgh area, in the steel mills and in the coal mines. And one interesting thing I remember reading was when the workers would talk about a bad mill and a good mill like this, they would say in the bad mill, the managers do not walk with the workers.

But in the good mills, they would say they walk with us. And see, that's exactly how the Bible uses the word walk means no longer adversaries, no longer hostile, reconciled. So when Genesis 5 tells us that Enoch walked with God, it tells us something amazing. We're reconciled with God. Now, why do we need peace with God and how does it come by faith? First of all, why do we need it? Because we're at war.

The fact that walking with God, the fact that Enoch, just the fact that he walked with God, means that he is one of the great heroes of the faith now. Walking with God is such an incredibly important thing because we're at war with him. Let me tell you how the war started. There's a war going on, and you won't understand walking with God until you understand that there's a war going on. In fact, you won't ever be able to walk with God unless you understand that there's a war going on. In fact, you won't ever be able to walk with God unless you admit that there's a war going on. How did the war start?

When Adam and Eve decided to disobey one of the things God told them. God must have told them thousands of things, but he also said, don't eat that tree, he said, and they disobeyed. And when they disobeyed one of the thousands of directions that God gave, something much more fundamental and profound happened than just the violation of one general rule. Here's what I mean. If somebody gives you ten things to do, if somebody tells you to do ten things, there's actually two things going on when they tell you to do those ten things.

First of all, you have to decide your relationship to the directions, but you also have to decide your relationship to the person. You could do those ten things because the person tells you and strictly because the person told you, or you could do those ten things because they make sense to you to do. And even though both of those scenarios that I just mentioned would look on the outside the same, underneath they're totally different in their motivation because you assumed a different relationship to the person that's done the telling. You see, in the first case, if you do those ten things because the person told you, you

have set up a relationship. You're the servant, and that person's the master. That person has the right to decide what goes on. But if you do those ten things because it makes sense to you, you are the master, and that person, in a sense, is an advisor, is a counselor, in a sense is a servant of yours. On the outside, the two different approaches look very much the same. Underneath they're fundamentally different.

They're based on two different definitions of your relationship with the person. Now when Adam and Eve decided to just disobey one rule. They didn't just disobey one rule. There was a cataclysm. Our entire position in the universe changed. What they were doing was they were saying, I can take you as an advisor, Lord God, but not as a king. And the moment they just made that one decision, just say, I'll obey a thousand

999 things that you say but not the last one what they said was I want the mastery I want the kingship and everybody knows that when two parties claim the throne of the same Spot there's a war When two parties claim the same spot there's a war. And that's the reason not only is that true that happened to Avonive, but every single time you or I, looking at the Ten Commandments, every time you and I are dishonest, every time you and I are impure, every time you and I are selfish, every time you and I are impure, every time you and I are selfish, every time you and I disobey one of those commandments in any regard, or, or, even if you arrogate to

yourself the right to decide whether or not you will obey. See, even if you obey, though underneath you have arrogated to yourself the right to determine whether or not you will obey. You see, these things aren't just violations. They are coup attempts. Every sin is an act of sedition. Every time you use your body, you use your mind, you use your tongue in a way that pleases you, instead of a way that pleases the expressed will of God.

You are committing treason. You are assaulting God's position. You're claiming the mastery. You're claiming the same turf that he claims. You. And as a result, there's a war. Do you see that? Now, not all, but most wars operate like this. I would say from my understanding of history and looking at things, most wars operate like

this. The wars always have two parts. One side is warring unjustly and using force unjustly, and one side is using force justly. One side's the aggressor, and one side is just simply standing up for what's right. Now, it's not all perfect, but by and large, usually, both parties are not, you know, one party tends to be the aggressor.

And you know what's interesting, the aggressor always has got to use propaganda to convince itself internally that it's really the defendant. In other words, you can see how the Nazis spoke to themselves about their war against Poland and particularly against the whole Jewish race. And you can even see it in the way the Iraqis talk to themselves about why they invaded Kuwait. It's always the same. The aggressor, the one warring unjustly, sits there and says, it's really your fault. You're out to get me.

You're causing my problems. You're threatening me. If I don't make a move, if I don't claim the kingship, if I don't claim this territory, you're going to wipe me out." So what do they do? They say, it's really your fault. You caused this war. You're out to get me.

And that's the reason why we can invade and rape and pillage all of your villages, you know. That's the reason why we can do it, because it's really your fault. Now, my friends, you don't know your own heart unless you realize that that is our attitude toward God. When we claim the mastery of our lives, when we claim the kingship of our lives, we insist all we're doing is taking what's right, because after all, God is out to get us. That's how it started. You know why Adam and Eve disobeyed God?

The serpent came and they told him a lie, propaganda. The serpent came and said this, Has God told you not to eat of that tree? God is out to get you. He's trying to smother you. He's trying to hold you down. You've got desires in you. You've got aspirations and He's keeping you from them.

God does not desire your best. If you obey everything God did, you will never be all you're meant to be. God does not want love you. God does not want your joy. God does not want your fulfillment. Seize the day. Create your own reality. After all, you have a right to do what you want. It's your life. It's your life. That is propaganda. In other words, it's your fault, God. God. There's no greater hope for you today than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, his resurrection is the key to understanding the whole Bible and the greatest resource we have for facing

the challenges of life. Discover how to anchor your life in the meaning of the resurrection by reading Tim Keller's book, Hope in Times of Fear, The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter. Hope in Times of Fear is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel UnLive share Christ's redemptive love with people all over the world. Just visit gospelunlife.com slash give to request your copy. That's gospelunlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now, that's exactly what happened. Here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

Now that's exactly what happened. God shows up and he sees Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve are right now, everything is in shambles. They feel fear on the inside. They know that their bodies are falling apart. They know that their relationship is falling apart. Everything is falling apart because they're estranged from God. And God comes and says, what happened?

What does Adam say? It was this woman you gave me. And God turns to Eve and says, what happened? And he says, why did you let that snake in here? It's your fault. My problems are your fault. Yes, we're rebelling against you, but we couldn't help it. We're only defending ourselves.

You're out to get us. Now, friends, unless you understand that deep in your heart that lie has sunk. It's what we call our sinful nature. What do you think your sinful nature is? Your sinful nature is a belief, it's character assassination against God. It's the propaganda that says, he's out to get me. I've got to be in charge of my own life. If I don't, I'll be smothered. He doesn't love me.

He doesn't care for me. That's propaganda. It's your fault. And that has sunk into our hearts from the beginning and it's still operating. Look at two different kinds of people. Let me give you an example of two kinds of person. In fact, an awful lot of you fit into one of these categories or another, I know. Some of you, here's the kind of person that moves to New York City out of a pretty traditional background and says, finally I'm gonna be able to swing. Finally, I was

raised in a narrow traditional home, maybe in a church, but Christianity is too confining. And traditional morality, they're too confining. I finally am free to do what I feel is right for me. But here on the other hand, you've got a person who is very religious, very devout, very moral, but always feeling bad about him or herself. Always feeling down. Always feeling unworthy. Always feeling anxious.

Always feeling discouraged. You know what the two have in common? One is very irreligious, one is very religious. You know what they have in common? They both believe the lie. That God doesn't love them. That God's not out for them. The first person says, if I obey, you know, I feel this sexual

feeling. If I don't give in to that, I'm going to lose out. Over here is a person who says, God doesn't love me. He doesn't really forgive me. I'm too unworthy. I try and I try and I try and my life still doesn't go well. They both believe the lie. They're both saying, God, it's your fault. You're out to get me. Through religion, through irreligion, they're both basically still not admitting how much at war with God they are. And they're at war with God because they're saying, it's all your fault. Now, you know, the religious people won't admit that a lot of their anxiety, an awful lot of their depression, an awful lot of that feeling of unworthiness is really that anger. The irreligious people will admit, why does God let the things happen that he does? You're mad sort of overtly.

Here over here, you're mad sort of covertly. You're mad consciously. You're mad unconsciously. You're all mad. Because you all believe the same thing. Propaganda. It's his fault. And you are claiming the right to be your own kings.

And there's a war. But now listen, if there's an aggressor who has to war unjustly, there's always someone who has to war justly. If you're attacked, if justice is trampled on, then the other side has to go to war just to stand up for what's right. And therefore, the Bible says the reason we need to be reconciled with God and it needs to be a two-way reconciliation, not only does our heart need to be turned, but God's heart needs to be turned. Why? Because God has a problem with us too. It's not like our problem with him.

It's a legal one, not an emotional one. It's not like our problem with him. He's not vindictive or vengeful. He is so superior to us, he could have wiped us out a long time ago. But what he has done in his restraint is he's passed sentence on us. And he said,

as he's passed sentence on us. And he said, if you want to rule, you'll have to rule outside the garden. You can, listen, you can serve in the garden or you can rule in the desert. It's one or the other. And so out you go, a strange from each other, a strange from nature, estranged from your body, estranged from your own soul, estranged from everything. Out you go. And His wrath lies on us, the Bible says, and He's put a sentence on us. Now how is it possible to be reconciled? Enoch walked with God. And you know, you have to go back to this because Abel and Enoch and Abraham, all they knew, all they knew was the promise God gave to Adam and Eve. And Adam and Eve didn't know much either, except that God came to Adam

and Eve and said, you're out in the desert. I'm putting a sword in front of the garden. You can't come back in. You're under sentence of death. You need to be cut off. That's your penalty. But I will send someone and he will be bruised. He will be wounded. But he'll get you back in. Now all Enoch knew, all Abraham knew, all Abel knew, all Noah, was that somehow God was going to send somebody who was going to be wounded and hurt. And that would be the way in. But we know. My word, think of the faith they had just in that. And we know. You know what we know? Second Corinthians 5 verse 19 to the end. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins to us. So we are Christ's ambassadors, says Paul.

We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God, for God made him sin who knew no sin, that we might be the righteousness of God in him. What's Paul saying? God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against him. Put it this way. Both sides of this war, fighting against each other, struggling against each other, both sides converged on the figure hanging on the cross. Both of us emptied all of our batteries, emptied all of our ammunition. Both of us converged on him, blasted him to pieces.

Yes, that's what the Bible says. God was in Christ reconciling us to himself. He made him sin who knew no sin. Don't you see both sides? God came in with his legal justice and he made Jesus Christ into a desert. And he cut him off and he descended into utter spiritual darkness. But not only did God put his part of the war on him. We did too. If you look and see the attitude of the people around Jesus Christ, they made fun of him. They mocked him because we're counter kings.

We're threatened by real kings. We're counter kings. We're threatened by real kings. We can get a hands on someone who threatens our control of our lives. That's exactly what we do. And they mocked him. We mocked him. They speared him.

We speared him. And so you see both sides converged on him. And as a result, we're told that God has poured out all of the penalty on him. Somebody says, why does God have to pour out his penalty? Listen, it's justice. It's justice. One side is warring unjustly, but one side is warring justly. If you went to court because somebody wouldn't pay you some large sum and the judge said,

why, why can't you just forget it? You'd say, because I want justice. You can't have a social order if you just say, let's just forget all the debts to law. You can't even have a society. In the same way, do you want God to be less just than your local circuit court judge? God is just.

He had to do something. You can't discard that sentence. And he didn't. He poured it out. And as a result, when Paul says be reconciled, you know what that means? Here's what has to happen. First of all, you have to admit that you have been at war with God. And secondly, you also have to admit, not only that you've been at war with God unjustly,

you have to admit he's been at war with you justly, that he has the right to cast you out. And not till you see those two things and admit those two things, will you suddenly find that what Jesus did on the cross affects you. Don't you see the logic of this? If there's anybody here who says, I don't believe that I'm that mad at God, and I don't believe that God's that unhappy with me. I don't believe that I'm really just trying to lead my life and that I'm trying to do a coup attempt. I don't believe that I am revolting against him. I don't think I'm that bad. I don't

think he's that unhappy with me. When you look at the cross, you will never walk with God on the basis of it. It won't move you. It won't thrill you. It won't melt you. It won't change you. It won't make your heart go out to him. You can be moral. You can just believe. You can believe in all the doctrines. But if you don't believe you're at war with God unjustly, and if you don't believe God's at war with you justly, if you don't admit that, you'll never ever, ever see what he did for you and it won't change you and it won't bring you out. See, what you should be doing, and this is what happens to a person when you admit the

warfare and you see what Jesus did. You have your heart changed. You go out to him and do what Adam and Eve should have done. You run out and you say, Oh my Lord, alas, something's happened to me. My heart is dark. I can't see. Everything around me is falling apart. I can hardly see you. Will you take my hand? Will you help me? Will you walk with me? Adam and Eve wouldn't admit that they were at war with God, and so when he came and offered them help, all they did was say, you're out to get me. Don't

be like them. Be reconciled. Walk with God. Now, that's not all that we're promised. There's one more thing that we're promised. Walking with God is not just being at peace with God. It's enjoying peace with God. Walking with God is not just—now listen—it's not just the objective. The Bible tells us that when you receive Christ as Savior, your warfare has ended, you're at peace with God. Your sentence is put behind you. You're acceptable in His sight.

Your sins no longer can bring you into condemnation. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But real walking with God means day in and day out. I know Scott made a reference to it. Walking with God is step by step, bit by bit. It's taking that peace and working it into your life. It means, for example, how did Stephen, who was about—he was being condemned by this court, this earthly court in Acts chapter 7, and the kangaroo court, they had condemned him to death and

they were about to stone him. How did he deal with that? How did he keep himself together? It says he looked up to heaven and he saw Jesus Christ standing, having at the right hand of the Father as his advocate, as his surety, as his mediator. And you see, when Stephen thought about the fact that God loved him perfectly in Christ, he wasn't upset at all about the fact that God loved him perfectly in Christ. He wasn't upset at all about the fact that down here he was not only being condemned when he's about to be executed. He practiced the peace. That's walking. It's not just simply saying, I know I'm at peace with God. It's handling the criticism, going to God in prayer, dealing with the difficulties of Christ, continually saying, I am at peace.

It doesn't, come on hell, come on world, it doesn't matter what you send me, it doesn't make any difference, because I'm his. Now the more you practice that peace, the more finally in the end, you'll actually experience his presence. And this is how I'm going to leave you, and I hope that this will leave you with a kind of yearning. The Bible tells us that the objective will become the subjective, depending on how much we're willing to actually walk. To actually take the PC. The word walk means...

Walk is very often used, not only in the Bible, but even today, in contradistinction to talk. Don't just walk, don't just talk the talk, walk the walk. Don't just believe it, live it out. And if you do live it out in the way that Stephen did, in the way that we're saying right now, eventually God will actually do to you what he did to Enoch. he will bear witness in your spirit that he's pleased with you. You will feel his presence. You're not a Christian unless you feel something of his presence. The thing that made Enoch so amazing was that he seemed to have it all the time. Because we have peace with God, we can actually begin to have the reversal of the curse and

start to actually sense and feel the presence of God when we pray. Yes, yes. Listen, C.S. Lewis put it this way. Let me end with this quote. He says, let me describe our spiritual longing. Sometimes when we hear the music or relish a landscape, we feel what Keats called the journey homeward toward habitual self. You know what I mean.

For a few minutes, we have the illusion of having belonged to it. Then we wake to find we're mere spectators. Beauty has smiled, but not to welcome us in. Her face was turned to us, but not to see us. We have not been accepted. We have to see us. We have not been accepted, we have not been welcomed, we have not been taken into the dance. It doesn't notice us. Now a scientist might reply, since most beautiful things are inanimate objects, it's not very surprising that they take no notice of us. Of course, true, but it's

not the physical objects I am speaking of, but that indescribable something of which they become for a moment the messengers. We long to be acknowledged. We long to meet with some response. We long to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and the reality. That is our secret, our inconsolable secret. For glory means acceptance by God. Response, acknowledgement, welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we've been knocking all of our lives through Christ will open at last. This is the language of the New Testament. We can be left utterly and absolutely outside if we don't acknowledge we're at war with Him. Repelled, exiled, estranged, finally and unspeakably ignored, or we can be called in, welcomed, received.

Apparently then our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fantasy but the truest index of our real situation. Dear friends, Christian friends, don't follow God so far off. Practice the peace you have. Practice the objective and you'll know the subjective. If you don't have the same subjective sense of walking with God, it's simply because you're not practicing in your prayer and in your closet, in your private and in your public the peace you have.

And if there's anybody here who doesn't believe they're at war with God, let me tell you, your life is a walk. Every action you're taking is leading you somewhere. That's why it's a walk. You're either going to the garden or to the desert. It doesn't matter how moral you are, you can be moral and still be your own master. And if you are, you're putting little marks on your soul that is going to turn you into a monstrosity which right now you only meet in a nightmare, the desert. One way or the other, you can get in. I implore you, be reconciled to God. Let's pray.

Now, Father, we ask that you would help us to know, every one of us to know, what it means to walk with you, so that we someday, like Enoch, can be just taken into your bosom. We do want it. I pray, Father, that people here who are skeptical of this thesis might recognize in that final quote, the desire to get into the music, the desire to get into the landscape, the desire to get into beauty, is an acknowledgement that we're cut off from something. And this is the only way back in. Father, we all want to walk with you.

Help us to do that. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. that. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel in Life podcast. It's our hope that today's teaching challenges you to go deeper into God's Word. We invite you to help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more great Gospel-centered content by Tim Keller, visit Gospelinlife.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 1994. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. you