Back to that portion of scripture
that Brother Gabe read in 2 Timothy, and while you're turning back
there, let me say this. Especially to the young ones
here, the little ones, there is a time and a place to ask
questions. There is. If somebody came up
to you and they had a little pill or something and said, here,
take this. You'd be wise to say, what is that? And if you have
a funny feeling about it or you're not sure about it, you don't
have to take it. You don't have to do it. Ask
what their motive is. Why do they want you to take
it? So there's a time and a place for questions. There's no doubt
about that. There's a time and a place for
questions about what we believe. It's all right to ask those questions.
Our pastor doesn't mind being asked a question. Some of these
gray-haired folks have been around a little longer. Maybe they've
heard the answer. Or the Lord's taught them an
answer to something. It's not a bad thing to ask questions. However, there is a time to refrain
from asking questions. There's a time not to ask questions.
about certain things. Certain types of questions would
be better left unasked. God's Word clearly teaches this
simple principle about asking certain types of questions and
why. It'll be for our good and the good of all God's people
if we learn this lesson. Now let me show it to you here
clearly in 2 Timothy 2, verse 23. It says, and unlearned questions, avoid. That means don't ask them. Don't
ask them. It says, knowing that they will
gender strife. Gender strife, you young folks,
that means that it'll upset you or it'll upset them. And the
last thing God's people want is to be upset about anything.
We want peace. We just want to be able to worship
our Lord and go about our business. We don't want strife and trouble.
Turn a few pages over to Titus chapter 3. What we just read
is that foolish and ignorant questions will make trouble for
me if I ask them and for all my brethren. So what constitutes
a foolish or an unlearned question? And God clearly answers that
in his word here. In Titus 3, if we look, there's
two categories here. In Titus 3, verse 9, it says,
avoid foolish questions. That's pretty clear, isn't it?
There it is again. Avoid foolish questions. And here it tells
us what they are. Number one, it has to do with
genealogies. And number two has to do with
contentions and strivings about the law. That's the two categories,
genealogies and striving and contention about the law. And
here's why. They're unprofitable. It won't
get you anywhere. You can invest all the time and
energy you want in those questions, and it won't bring you any return
on that investment. And it's also vain. It'll be
all about yourself. He's just asking questions that
are all about us, actually. Now, let me make a comment or
two about these two categories of questions. First of all, about
the law. It says that leads to strife
and contention and trouble for me as the asker of the question
and for those that I raise the issue with. It's going to lead
to that kind of trouble. All anyone needs to know about
the law is what God's Word teaches about the law. And you want to
hear what that is? Let's see if you don't agree
with this. What God's Word teaches about the law, number one, is
that it's perfect. It is perfect. You go through
it, it's perfect. Period. The second thing God's
Word teaches about the law is you and I can't keep it. No matter
how hard we try. You ever get up in the morning
and go, well, now, okay, I'm not going to do that. I am not going to
speak harshly to my wife. Not today. Not today. Give it
about eight minutes, maybe. What? Hmm? And here we go. Whatever it is we resolve, I'm
not going to, I'm going to honor my folks. Today I'm going to
be a good girl. Well, it might not quite work
out like we think always, right? We can't keep the law. Period. The third thing about the law
God's Word teaches is that the man Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ,
he did keep the law. He kept it perfectly. Period. And then here's the last thing
I want to point out about this. If the Lord Jesus Christ kept
it for me, then I kept it. It's all going to be alright.
I don't have to ask myself any more questions about this law
thing. If he kept it for me, I'm alright. It's going to be
well. And if he didn't, No amount of questioning is going to change
anything or help me in any way, period. I just need to hush the
questions about this law and listen to someone God has shown
how I can get into the Lord Jesus Christ and have that law kept
for me. Now, this category of questions
about genealogy, now that's a big word, but genealogy is the questioning
or tracing of generations. It's going like, okay, who was
my dad and who was my granddad and my great granddad and so
on and so forth. You can go back as far as you
want. And it says questions about genealogy are vain. There's two categories here.
Turn back to 1 Timothy 1. There's two types of genealogical
questions. To question my own genealogy
is one area of this, and that's to ask where did I come from.
And that's one of the most foolish things we can waste time on when
God's Word clearly answers the question for us. To spend time
looking at my own genealogy is nothing but pride looking for
someone we can point to and say, See, that's where I came from.
Those are my relatives back, so on and so forth. I'm the son
of the daughter of so-and-so, and he's an important person.
That must count for something, right? That's all that's about. And it's so silly. My uncle, Bob, for whom I was
named, see, that's my genealogy. He married during World War II
a lady from England when he was over there. And when she got
over here, Betty, she wanted to know about the coffees. And
she started tracing it back, and you know what she found out?
We're related to the Earl of something or other in England.
Okay? Now let me tell you what I take
from that genealogy. You know what I know about it?
That Earl's dead. He didn't leave us any money.
And we don't have any property in England. That's what I know
about that. How foolish is it for me to keep
looking at it, or thinking about it, or trying to trace it back?
I didn't get any nobility from the Earl of whatever. I'm just
a coffee. Then one of my brothers got into
genealogy. And my dad's name is A.R. Coffee. That's it. A.R. Well,
he found out. A.R. came from A.R. Umbel, his
granddaddy. And you know who A.R. Umbel was?
He's the guy that started Standard Oil. It was Umbel Oil back there. Those coffees were somebody.
Now, you know what I came away from that with? A.R. Umbel's dead. And his parents,
what were they thinking when they named him Archillus Rudolphus? That's why he was called A.R.
Who would do that to a child? The other thing I found out,
we don't own any oil wells now, and no money came down to us.
It's gone. Now how silly and vain is it
for me to chase after that genealogy? It's just, do we see how silly
it is? Look at 1 Timothy 1 verse 4. It says, neither give heed
to fables and endless genealogies. That Earl is just a fable to
me. Archillus Rodolphus is just something I heard about, nothing
more. Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies. All
they do is minister questions. They make more questions, rather
than godly edifying, which is in the faith. Want to spend our
time doing something worthwhile? Look in the Scriptures. See what
it says about genealogy. You know what God's Word says
about my genealogy? It says I'm the son or the daughter
of Adam. and we are as such fallen, depraved,
sin-sick people. We're born helpless and hopeless
by nature, period. To question that truth is at
best foolish, and at worst, it's totally self-destructive. Our
inheritance is a nature of sin, period. Now, the second type
of question concerning genealogy is far, far more important and
to question it is far worse than to question the genealogy of
ourselves. Do you know what that is? To
question the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Luke
22 with me. Despite the fact that Jesus Christ
clearly declares who He is and who His Father is, Men continuously
and constantly questioned him when he lived on this earth.
They never stopped asking him about his genealogy. Look at
Luke 22, verse 66. This was after they brought him
out of the soldiers' hall when he'd been beaten. And as soon
as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests
and the scribes came together. That means everybody was involved
in this questioning. And they led him into their council,
saying, here's the question they asked him, Art thou the Christ? Tell us, tell us. Are you the
Christ? Tell us. And he said unto them,
If I tell you, you will not believe. Why not? Because you're not my
people. And if I also ask you, you won't answer me, nor let
me go. If I ask you who you are, where
you came from, you don't want to hear that. You don't want
to hear you're a sinner. And hereafter shall the Son of
Man sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then said they
all, Art thou the Son of God? They're questioning his genealogy
here. And he said unto them, Will you
say I am? And I'm not disagreeing with
you. And they said, What need we any
further witness? For we ourselves have heard of
his own mouth. And you know what they did? They
took him out and crucified him. Killed him for saying, I'm the
Son of God. didn't like the genealogy of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And to this day, the whole matter
of unbelief centers on questioning, or men trying to deny by questions
this simple truth, Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Period. Now, find Micah. Now, go to the
end of the Old Testament, work backwards, and go through several
of the minor prophets, Zechariah. I'm cheating because I wrote
down the page number. Go back to Nahum and then you'll come
to Micah chapter 7. Before we start asking any questions,
let's answer a question that's asked by God in His Word here. You see in Micah 7 verse 18,
here's God's question for us. Who is a God like unto thee? That's a good question, isn't
it? Who's a God like this God? And God never asks a question
He doesn't give the answer to. And look at the answer. He says,
Who's a God like unto thee that pardons iniquity? That's the
God I want. a God that pardons iniquity,
because I got plenty of that. And he says, who's a God like
this that passeth by transgressions of the remnant of his heritage?
If we're the children of God, he passes by. You know, that
whole thing about the Passover, what that's about is God said,
you know, those people down there in Goshen weren't any different
than the Egyptians in terms of their sin. But what God did is
put blood on the lintel in the doorpost, and he said, when I
come through, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Who's a God like this that passes
over the transgression of his people? He retaineth not his
anger forever. I was thinking about that phrase,
and I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I'm embarrassed to
admit a lot of things, but I remember recently I was thinking about
this. When I was 10 years old, a good friend of mine's name
was Casey Becker. And I was over at Casey's house.
And you know how kids carry on back and forth. And his brother
walked in the room a couple years older than us. And we were going
back and forth. And all of a sudden, he walked
up to me and just out of the blue went wham and hit me in
the face. My eyes swelled up like huge,
nearly knocked me cold. You know what? I'm still mad
at Casey Becker's brother. I don't even remember his name,
but I'm still mad at him. Why? Boy, that anger doesn't
go away. But who's a God like this? Do
you see what it said right there? He will cast, I mean, he will
retain not his anger. He's not mad at us anymore. That's
a miracle, isn't it? He's not mad at us anymore. Despite
all we've done. Despite the fact that we hit
his son in the face and killed him. Because he delights in mercy. He'll turn again. He'll have
compassion upon us. He takes pity on us. He'll subdue
our iniquities. He'll cast all our sins into
the depths of the sea. That means He can't find them
anymore. Our sins don't exist in God's sight. Who's a God like
that? I'll tell you, not the God of
Islam or whoever it is over there that's, phew, mm-mm. Thou wilt perform the truth of
Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our
fathers from the days of old. Who's a God like unto this God?
Nobody. Nobody. Turn to Exodus 15, and
this same question is asked with different words. Exodus 15, verse
11 says, ìWho is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods, little
g?î Thereís no God in this world like the God of this word. Who's
likened to him? Who's like thee? And he's described
here again what makes him different. He's glorious in his holiness. And he's fearful in praises. He does great wonders. How can
we read through the wonders of what our God has done and think,
who's like him? There is no God like this. Nobody. And God's little gods of other
religions, they're pretenders. They pretend, they claim to be
what they're not. Question those gods, if you will,
but not this guy. Because he's who he says he is.
He's able to do what he promises. Find Romans 3 with me a minute
here. Romans chapter 3. All the questions about the law
are answered if we just see the Lord Jesus Christ, if we see
that He's a God like none other. In Romans 3, look at verse 19.
Now we know, those to whom it's been revealed, now we know that
what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under
the law. that every mouth may be stopped.
No more questions. No more questions. I don't have
any questions about the law. I can't keep it. Christ did.
I need to be in Him. And all the world may become
guilty before God. If we ever see ourselves as guilty
under the law, we don't have a bunch of odd questions about
it. We just need to find the one who kept it for us. Now,
turn to Psalm 86 with me. Apologize for having you turn
a lot, but I want you to see that the answers to the question
are in the Scriptures. God's question to man in the
Scriptures, who's a God like unto thee? Look at Psalm 86 verse
8. Among the gods, little g, there's
none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there any works like
unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made
shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify
thy name. Why? Thou art great, and doest
wondrous things. Thou art God alone. If we see
that there's no God but this God, all the other genealogies,
I mean, you know, they're just unimportant. It's just vain searching. Exodus chapter 3. Isaiah said, ìThereís none beside
thee. Thereís no god like unto the
true and living God.î And then, if we have to ask a
question, this is a really good one from Godís Word. This is
a good question to ask ourselves. In Exodus 3, Moses found himself
on a mountaintop. There was a bush burning, and
he approached it, and boy, God spoke to himself, revealed himself
to Moses, and said, ìTake your shoes off, youíre on holy ground.î
He showed him who he was, and then he said, ìNow you go down
there and tell Pharaoh to let my people go.î What was Mosesí
reaction? Look what he said in Exodus 3.11.
He said, ìMoses said unto God, Who am I? Who am I?î Now thereís
a question. Thereís a question worth looking
into and asking. Who am I that I should go unto
Pharaoh, that I should bring forth the children of Israel
out of Egypt? Who am I? This is a question. Find Galatians 6 with me. This is a question that if we
look through the Scriptures at the saints, we'll find asked
over and over again. David said, Who am I, O Lord
God, and what is my house, that you should look upon me? Jeremiah
said, ìAh, Lord God, I cannot speak, having seen you.î No more
questions in his mind. Heíd seen the true and living
God. That shut him up. Then what was it? Mephibosheth
came. He was brought and he said, Phibeshev
said, Who am I? He said, What is thy servant
that you should lookest upon such a dead dog as I am? He viewed himself as a dead dog. Oh my. And that's part of our
problem is when we say, Who am I? And why we need to ask that
is that by nature, you know what we think? If somebody comes up
and says, Who are you? Who are you? You know what our
answer is? I'm somebody. We think we're
somebody. Oh, and that's so self-deceptive. In Galatians chapter 6, do you
see verse 3? What does it say? For if a man
think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives
himself. And that's all of us. What was
that guy's name, Theodos, who was the leader of 400? He said,
thought himself to be somebody. Well, the Lord showed him he
was. He killed him and all 400 of
those other guys. I know how all of us by nature
answer the question, who am I? We think we're somebody. But
the Apostle Paul progressed from I'm an apostle to less than the
least of all the saints, the oh, wretched man that I am. And if we ask ourselves, who
am I? That's where we'll arrive one day. Now, look at Matthew
22. Our Lord was constantly questioned
during his earthly ministry. Finally, finally, he asked a
question of those who questioned him. It put a stop to their foolish
and unlearned questions about his genealogy. In Matthew 22,
look at verse 41. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, saying, and here's the question of questions,
What think ye of Christ, whose son is he? And they said unto
him, He is the Son of David. Now, they got it partly right,
but mostly wrong. The Lord Jesus Christ was promised
to come through the lineage or the genealogy of David. And they
said, Well, He's the Son of David. Well, in and of itself, that's
fine and true. But that's not who, when you
say, What think ye of Christ? He's not the Son of David. He's
the Son of God. That's the genealogy that matters.
Do we see that? And look what happened when our
Lord, when they answered him and said, the son of David. He
said unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord,
saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
till I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David then called
him Lord, how is he his son? Now look what happened. And no
man was able to answer him a word, neither doth any man from that
day forth ask him any more questions. All God's got to do to make us
stop asking foolish and unlearned questions is show us who we are
and show us who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And then, turn a few
pages back to Matthew 1, and when we see that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the miraculous only Son of God, that He is God,
We see that in his word, look at verse 18 of Matthew 1, now
the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wife, when as his mother
Mary was the spouse of Joseph, before they came together, she
was found with child of the Holy Ghost, and down to verse 21,
and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins, that's
who he is, Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken of the Lord by the prophets, saying, Behold, a virgin
shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall
call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted, is God with
us. When God shows us that about
the lineage and the law-keeping ability of the Lord Jesus Christ,
He'll shut us up about those areas. Christ came to keep the
law for His people. As God in human flesh, he could
do that. Jesus Christ came to die for his people who couldn't
keep the law. And as God, he could do that.
Now, that puts an end to foolish and unlearned questions about
the law. What think ye of Christ? Let me clarify something about
that. I thought about that. What think ye of Christ? Let
me tell you what that does not mean. It does not mean what's
your opinion. What's your opinion of who Jesus Christ is? That
is not what that means. The question is not, is he the
Son of God? No, that's an established fact.
Everybody's going to find out one day that's who he is, if
not now. The question is better and more
clearly seen by us as being this. Since Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, do you believe and embrace that truth? That's what it means,
what think ye of Christ? Do you believe that? Do you embrace
that? God's people do not reply with
questions about genealogy and law keeping when asked that question.
That's all been settled. Rather, when God's people are
asked, what think ye of Christ? They rejoice in the knowledge
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And they're so glad He
is. They rejoice in that truth. God's
people aren't left to wonder who He is. God's people aren't
trying to figure out who He is. God's people have been given
the answer. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Who's the Son of God? Who is
Jesus Christ? What do you, what do you, what
think that ye of Him? He's God. He's done for me all
I need to have done. We don't come here to question,
but rather to rejoice in who He is. Somebody who has been shown who
we are. Who am I? Not good. Who's been
shown who? Jesus Christ. Who's a God like
this God? Nobody. And what think ye of Christ?
Here's where we arrive. Here's what we say. I think,
and by that I don't mean it's my opinion, I'm convinced, I've
been totally converted, I've been turned from all the foolishness
about genealogy and the law, I've been turned, and I've repented,
and I'm going to Him. That's what I think. I think
because I know, according to the Word, I've been shown, I'm
so glad He is God. I'm so glad He's my Savior. I'm
so glad He's my sacrifice. I'm so glad he's my righteousness.
I rejoice that he's my living head, that he's altogether lovely. He's my guardian, my husband,
my creator, my substitute, my king, my mediator. He's my Messiah,
prophet, priest, brother, shepherd, sovereign, teacher, resurrection.
He's my inheritance. I don't need what the earl had.
I need what Christ has. He's my surety. He's my wisdom,
my sanctification, my goodness, my... He's my sweet psalmist.
He's my blood offering. He's my... You can go on and
on. Every time we come here, all we want is for Him to show
us one more time, who is He now? Who is He? And what am I again? Yeah, that's right. And who is
He? Oh, I'm so glad He's that. I'm so grateful, so happy that
He is. Why? Did I mention He's my joy? He's my gladness? The more I
can just hush up, be still, and not ask foolish questions, just
listen to God's Word preached by faithful men sent by God,
the more convinced I'll be, the more content I'll be, the happier
I'll be. I'll find peace. Why? Oh, did
I mention He's my peace? He's all I need. No question
about that. Let me close with this. Turn
over to 2 Peter 3. And you folks know I'm not here
tonight saying, don't ask any more questions. That's not the
point. Gabe doesn't mind if we've got
a sincere question, if the Lord's raised something. We were in
the study back here and Dickie read a portion of scripture and
it raised a question a little bit, caused us to think about
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's not a bad thing. That's
all right. If you have a query, get in the
Word and the Lord will show you the answer. But peace is not
found by asking foolish questions. Peace is found in answering God's
questions. Who am I? Who is He? And what
think ye of Christ? There are things in the Word
of God that are hard to understand. I'm going to show you that in
just a minute. There are things in the Word
that are hard to understand. Thank God we're not required
to understand, but only to believe. I don't understand the depth
of my depravity, but boy, I believe it. Who am I? I believe what
God's Word says about me. How can we understand Jesus Christ
is God in the flesh? How can we understand that? We're
not required to, but to believe it, we must. There are things
that are hard to understand. Thank God we're not required
to understand but only believe. Questioning or wrestling with
what we don't understand about genealogy and the law is unprofitable,
it's contentious, it creates strife, and all who worship God
with a sincere heart and a childlike spirit of belief will in time
have all their questions answered. I'll tell you what, if God doesn't
answer them tonight or tomorrow, He will in eternity. If we'll
just wait, wait on Him, He'll show us all we need to know.
Look here at this scripture in 2 Peter 3, verse 15. And account that the longsuffering
of our Lord is salvation. Now, let's not just skim over
that. We need to acknowledge, believe, and enter into the fact
that our Lord suffered on the cross, and that's our salvation. What happened there is ours.
He suffered through this life being abused and mistreated,
but he kept the law all the way. That's our salvation. Even as
our beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom given
unto him, hath written unto you. What Paul wrote to these churches
and preached was that Jesus Christ is salvation. He taught who he
wrote and taught who he is, who we are, and what to think about
Christ. As also in all his epistles,
speaking in them of these things, now look at this phrase, in which
are some things hard to understand. A lot of things we don't get,
do we? No, but we don't have to get them, we just have to
believe them. Which they that are unlearned and unstable, they
wrestle with. They raise questions. And as
they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction. folks
who bring continually can't get past these foolish and unlearned
questions. It's bad evidence. Bad evidence. But now, watch this. This is
really sweet. If we can get a hold of this
next verse. Ye therefore, beloved. Now this is God's people he's
talking to here. He said, seeing you know these
things before. You know the truth that Paul's
preaching to you. Beware, lest you also, being
led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. I want us to notice something
there. He doesn't say, I'm going to cut you off. That's what we
do. Boy, somebody fuss and argue with us and keep questioning
and raising things and making life hard for us. Boy, we'd cut
them off, wouldn't we? Happens all the time. Cut them
out of the will. Get him out of here. That's not
what God does. He says, even if you do, get
all caught up in genealogy and foolish questions, all right,
about the law. He says, even that. He says,
I'm not going to cut you off. He said, it'll just be that you
fall from your steadfastness. You know what steadfastness is? Where are you going? To Him.
Where are you heading? To Him. What's that question
about who my granddaddy was or about who Christ... You can see,
you can get sidetracked from your... but God won't cut you
off. Even if we are so foolish and get involved in crazy stuff
like that for a while, okay? He'll reel us back in. Thank
God he will, because we're all prone and apt to do that. And
let's be kind to one another. If somebody comes up and asks
a foolish question and we see it's foolish, well, let's try
to answer it and just don't say, hey, dummy, that's a foolish
question. I mean, we don't have to go there, do we? No. But look
at verse 8, grow in grace. and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. You know how we grow in that
grace? We come here. Somebody tell us the truth about
who we are, who Christ is, and what we ought to think about
the Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and
forever. Amen.