Address—J.A. Kaiser
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We've been very thankful.
If I can speak on behalf of the local brethren for.
The ministry we've enjoyed here this past weekend and.
As I was listening to the reading meeting, I just made the second one yesterday.
2 Words seem to be preeminent in the Titus chapter 2.
They were both referred to quite a bit. Those two words were sobriety and good works.
And.
Thinking about that since that time.
Two Bible characters have come to mind which kind of exemplify that, and with the Lord's help, I'd like to direct our attention to.
These two and we perhaps we can glean a little something for our souls. Genesis.
Chapter.
5.
The first one.
Genesis chapter 5 and verse 21.
And Enoch lived 60 and five years and begat Methuselah.
And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and 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.
Twice in this little passage it says of Enoch.
He walked with God.
I can't imagine a more sobering experience.
And yet.
A more joyful experience.
The word sobriety is not found in.
Titus chapter 2 or in the book of Titus, but there are numerous references to gravity.
To being sober, to sober speech and sober behavior and that sort of thing.
And.
I think of Enoch.
Now Enoch was a family man. He had a son named Methuselah.
We're not talking much about Methuselah's spirituality.
We don't read much about any of Enoch's friends. Doesn't even mention his wife. Does Enoch walked with God?
Could any of us ever ask?
For a better epitaph than that.
Is there anything greater that could be said about any of us than?
He or she walked with God.
We know the history of this world.
It began very good.
In the following chapter we find that God declared that it was very corrupt.
Enoch was in that transition phase.
You and I are living in transition phases too. Time when this earth is daily growing more corrupt.
It's a day that calls for individual faithfulness, and that's what Enoch is, a picture of, a person who individually walked with God.
Now it's a privilege to walk with God together, and 1St Corinthians we find the expression that we are laborers together with God and there's such a thing as collective fellowship with God. That's a wonderful thing. But then later in First Corinthians, it says in First Corinthians 7 referring to a person who's in difficult circumstances.
Maybe you should look at it for a moment.
One Corinthians 7.
1St Corinthians 7 verse 21 Art thou called being a servant?
Perhaps a slave. Care not for it, but if thou mayest be free, use it rather.
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For he that is called in the Lord being a servant, is the Lord's freeman likewise also.
He that is called being free is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price. Be not the servants of men. Now look at first Corinthians 724. Brethren, let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God. That's the best of companionship.
That's the best of fellowship. It's the place of power.
Three times in the Gospels we read.
From the lips of the Lord Jesus. With God, all things are possible. And so I'd like for us each to remember. Take this simple thought away.
We don't read of anything great or dramatic that Enoch did, except that it does mention in Jude that he prophesied.
We don't get detail of his life life like we do of Abraham or some of the other patriarchs.
It's all summed up.
In this little phrase.
He walked with God.
And would to God.
That would sum up our lives.
And so Enoch perhaps brings a force, the character of soberness or sobriety that was brought before us in Titus. Now there was also another aspect in Titus brought before us another thing which was highly commanded. It's mentioned seven times in the book of Titus. In one way or another it's referred to, and that is good works.
Good works.
This world has come to a place where it despises.
Mere good works. The world wants something flashing, something fancy, something dramatic.
Something impressive.
And we see gods the evaluation of our Lord in Mark chapter 14.
We find another example of a nameless person who did a good work, Mark 14 verse three, and being in Bethany in the House of Simon the leper as he sat at me, that's the Lord Jesus.
There came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard.
Very precious.
And she broke the box and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste of the ointment made, for it might have been sold for more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor.
And they murmured against her, And Jesus said, Let her alone, Why trouble ye her she hath wrought.
A good work on me, for ye have the poor with you always, and whenever ye will, ye may do them good.
But me ye have not always. She hath done what she could.
She has come beforehand to anoint my body for the bearing.
Now there's another wonderful epitaph. She hath done what she could.
Could anyone ever say more of you or me than that?
She hath done what she could.
This was not the Queen of Sheba.
It was this was an unnamed woman she came in and I believe by the leading of the Spirit of God, certainly with an appropriately.
A tuned heart. She came in, She took what she had, A box of ointment.
And she anointed the Lord's head with it.
And she was misunderstood.
She was criticized.
She was despised.
But she had the God's mind about it.
And the Lord said of her, She hath done a good work on me.
Now that's what we had in in Titus chapter 2. Good works.
Not necessarily something greatly appreciated. Not necessarily something great in the eyes of the world.
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But the Lord said of this, And when she hath done what she could, you know that reminds me of the story of the widow and 2nd Kings 4.
The prophet came to her and said, what do you have in your house?
What do you have handy?
And that's what God used.
The Lord puts us each in different circumstances.
The world may despise us, we may not have anything great in the eyes of the world.
What we can each do?
What we can.
We can each take the little things the Lord has given us and used them for Him.
The little opportunities because you know, this thing this woman did was fairly private.
It was strange, but she had the right motive.
And the Lord said that she hath done a good work on me.
Do you and I have that same condemnation, that same commendation?
About what we do every day, that we have done a good work on or for the Lord.
Now the world looks for us to do great works.
A work that has the Lords Commendation is a great work.
Any work done with his approval is a great work.
Hath wrought a good work on me.
She hath done.
What she could.
So let's think about Enoch in this unnamed woman and these two simple statements. Enoch walked with God.
She hath done.
What she could.
Two statements that cannot.
Be excelled.