Titus chapter 3, and let's begin reading in verse
8. Titus chapter 3 and verse 8. This is a faithful saying, and
these things I will that you affirm constantly, that they
which have believed in God might be careful The world really is
even anxious to maintain good works. These things are good
and profitable unto men. But avoid foolish questions and
genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law, for
they are unprofitable and vain. A man that is an heretic after
the first and second admonition rejects knowing that he that
is such is subverted, is warped, is sinned, being condemned of
himself. When I shall send Artemis unto
thee and Tychicus, be diligent to come unto me to Nicopolis,
for I have determined there to winter. Bring Zenos, the lawyer,
and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanted
unto them. And let Ars also learn to maintain
good works for necessary uses. that they be not unfruitful.
All that are with me salute thee, greet them that love us in the
faith. Grace be with you all. Amen. We've been studying here in verses
4 through 7. I thought it was a very profitable study to me.
We looked at those things that were in God that saved us and
that justified us and made us heirs of heaven. and give us
a good hope of eternal life. And we found out that those things
were the kindness of God, and the love of God, and the mercies
of God, and the grace of God. And he tells us there that they
were in Jesus Christ. They were through Jesus Christ
toward us, only through Christ. And he ends that with, last week
we looked at it there in verse 8, and he said, these things
are profitable to us. What's profitable to us? When
we study about the salvation that's in Jesus Christ and the
saving attributes of God, that's profitable to us. That'll do
us eternal good. It's good for our souls. And
it's not only good for us, profitable for us, you know, it's profitable
for the lost. We got a message, we got a positive
message for lost people to tell them. you know, about this salvation,
this great and free and full salvation. But now he goes on
here in verse 9 and he mentions some things that are not profitable. He mentions some things that
if you and I get caught up in and caught up with, they'll leave
us empty. They'll leave our hearts empty
and sometimes they'll empty out the church. And He gives us these
four things here in our text in verse 9. The first one is
foolish questions. Avoid these foolish questions.
Avoid genealogies. Avoid contentions. And avoid
strivings about the law. That's what I want to look at
just for a few minutes with you. I won't keep you very long, but
I want to look at these four things. And I've noticed as you
look at the Scriptures and read the Scriptures, you find these
things all through the Scriptures, especially in the epistles to
the churches where he was writing to the pastors like Timothy.
But let's look at the first one. The first one is to avoid shun,
flee from, foolish questions, foolish questions. Now there's
nothing wrong with asking questions. We ask questions all the time.
Our children ask questions. That's good. And there's some
good questions in the Bible that is asked. We can think, I can
set you off the top of my head and think of some good questions.
What think ye of Christ? That's a question our Lord Jesus
Himself asked, isn't it? That's a good question that all
of us ought to ask and all of us ought to attempt to answer.
What think ye of Christ? What must I do to be saved? Oh,
that's a good question, isn't it? And He was told what He must
do. What must I do to be saved? And
here's another one. You can think of this one. What
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his
soul? That's a good question. And here's another good one.
Doest thou believe on the Son of God? So there are some good
questions that deserve answers and the answers needed to be
meditated upon. Here's a silly question. Here's
a foolish question. And this is asked sometimes by
our enemies. Can God make a rock that he can't
pick up? That's a foolish question. Try
to answer that. A fellow asked me that one time,
and I said, yes. And went on about most things.
Left him standing there staring. He said, yes. You know what they
want you to say. Well, no. Well, then God can't
do everything. It's just a foolish question.
Don't even deserve an answer at all. There's a lot of them. Science, the atheists, especially
the atheistic science, which most of them are anymore. or
many of them are anyway, they meditate these questions and
when they get in debates with people, they ask these silly
questions like this. And Paul said they're foolish
and avoid these questions. There are some good questions,
but what makes them foolish is their motive. Not only sometimes
a foolish question, but the motive makes the question foolish. Let
me give you three examples of that. The Pharisees came to the
Lord Jesus and they asked a good question. It was a good question
and it helps us to know what the Lord Jesus thought about
this. They said, Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar? Should
we pay taxes to Caesar? That was a good question and
it helps us the answer. Yes, we should. That was the
answer. But it was a foolish question and here is what made
it foolish, the motive behind it. The motive behind it. The Scripture says this, Why
tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? That's what made it a foolish
question. Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might
entangle him in his talk. And that's the question they
asked, just to entangle him, just to tempt him, just to get
him in trouble, just to win an argument. So when a question
is asked with that motive, It's a foolish question because
the motive is foolish. I just want to get the advantage
of somebody. And you know those questions
all the time. People will ask you questions just to put you
down, just to try to entangle you in your talk. Paul says it's
a foolish question. Secondly, here's another example.
When a question is asked out of the motive of pride or self-promotion,
Even the disciples got caught up in this. The apostles of the
Lord, James and John, came to the Lord and said, Grant us that
we may set one on thy right hand and one on thy left in thy kingdom.
And the Lord Jesus said unto them, You know not what you ask. Ask it out of self-promotion.
It makes it a foolish question because the motive is bad. Their heads were so swollen.
And you know if the Lord had said, one of you can sit on my
right hand and one on my left, you know what the next question
would have been? Which side am I on? Which side am I on? Self-promotion. Self-promotion. When people ask you a question
just to answer it themselves, that's just pride. Have you ever
had anybody come up and ask you a question knowing that they
didn't want an answer from you? They were setting you up so they
could answer it themselves. That's pride, isn't it? It makes
it a foolish question. And haven't we all been guilty?
Well, maybe not you, but these apostles were, and your pastor
has been guilty of that junk. But it's pride, isn't it? It's
pride. Here's the third thing. When a question is asked from
vindictive motives, Lord, will you that we command fire to come
down out of heaven and consume them? Now that's what James and
John said. Boy, these fellows. I've sometimes
wished the Lord had said, yeah, go ahead, and sat there and watched
them. What would they have done? You
know, can you see them out there running around? I don't know
what they would have done. But He said, you don't know what
spirit you are. Lord, will you command You want us to command
fire? You don't know what spirit you've
got. You vindictive fellows. And if you and I get together
and say, boy, we've got some enemies and let's pray the Lord
kill them. We don't like them and let's pray the Lord punish
them. Wouldn't that be awful? And we go to the Lord and say,
Lord, would you please punish my enemies? And the Lord would
say, what a foolish question. Avoid these foolish questions. What's wrong with foolish questions?
Well, look here in 2 Timothy, just back over to your right,
over to your left, 2 Timothy chapter 2, and look in verse
23, what Paul says about it. 2 Timothy chapter 2, but
foolish and unlearned questions, that word unlearned means stupid.
And I'm not allowed to say that around the house. I ain't supposed
to say it here because my wife don't like me to say that. But
that word unlearned means stupid. Look it up in your concordance.
It means stupid. Foolish and stupid questions
avoid. Why? Because they do gender strife. They stir up hard feelings, don't
they? When you just got these silly questions, they'll never
profit a thing. And look here what he says in
verse 22, ìFlee useful lust, but follow righteousness and
faith and love and peace with them that call on the Lord out
of a pure heart.î Weíve got enough to keep us busy, havenít we?
Besides thinking up some foolish questions to ask people or listening
to foolish questions to ask people. Weíve got enough to keep us busy.
Brother Mahan said this, he said, ìAvoid foolish questions which
contribute nothing to godliness. It is necessary to seek in order
to find, but there is a limit to seek it. We bow to things
God has revealed and leave the secret things to Him.î So a lot
of questions don't even have to be asked, do they? We just
don't know the answer to them anyway. We leave them with the
Lord. So that's the first thing. The second thing Paul talks about
to avoid is genealogies. But avoid foolish questions and
genealogies. Genealogies. We would call that
the family tree, wouldn't we? You know, you get online now
and they've got, you know, you can find out who your dad, was
from and your grandpa and your great-great-grandpa. And Mary
Bell, bless her heart, she used to stay on the Internet sometimes
hours a day. She did this for years, looking
up her family tree. And sometimes I'd go down and
she'd have a blue million photographs and articles and everything on
her family. She just kept going back and going back. Donnie told
her one day, he said, if you're not careful, you're going to
get all the way back to Adam. all the way back then, you're going
to find out where you really came from and who your parents
really is. But it's genealogies, it's studying our ancestry. They say Mormons, I don't know
if this is so, I've been told this, that Mormons have a whole
mountain of genealogies that they keep. If you need to know
where you came from and you've got a A great-great-great-great-grandfather
that he died lost, do you want to be baptized for him? They
can pull up his genealogies and say, yeah, here he is. And you
can be baptized. They call it being baptized for
the dead, don't they? Genealogies, genealogies. There's nothing
wrong with tracing your family tree. I tried to trace mine and
couldn't get back past my dad's grandma. But there's nothing
wrong with that until we bring it over in to our religion. Until we bring our family tree
and try to hold it up before God as something to be approved
by. Has anybody ever done that before?
We read where one man said, if any man thinks that he has confidence
in the flesh, I'm over. I was circumcised the eighth
day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew
of the Hebrew." He could trace his family tree all the way back
to Abraham, Abraham's grandson and his children. I'm out of
the tribe of Benjamin. Whoopee! That's what he said.
Paul, what good did that do you? When you come to stand before
God, and you come to figure out how you're going to be saved
and justified, what good did that do you? It did me no good,
he said, didn't it? He said, I had to count it lost.
I had to count it done that I may win Christ and be found in Him,
not having my own righteousness. Genealogies does us no good,
does it, in the spiritual realm? It does us good when we read
the Old Testament and then the New Testament, Matthew and Luke,
where it gives the genealogies of the Old Testament, because
we can trace our origin back. We know where we come from, don't
we? We didn't come from monkeys. We never had tails we swung in
trees by. We came from Adam and Eve. God is made of one blood, all
nations of men. We know that, and He's given
us genealogies to teach us of that, hasn't He? Every one of
us, every one of us, are brothers and sisters in Adam. I remember
my dear, dear neighbor. He was just 17 or 18 years old
and hanging himself, but me and him went down one time to hear
Scott Richardson preach, and Scott shook hands with him and
dressed him as brother. He said, How are you, brother?
And he said, Scott, I'm not a Christian. And he said, well, if I miss
you in Christ, I'll get you in Adam. You're my brother. You're my brother. All of us
are just one blood, aren't we? And we know that because we can
trace it all the way back. So it's good. I'm glad we have
the genealogy. But there's another reason for
it, too, and probably just as important, if not more so. We
know that Jesus Christ was made of the seed of David. We know
He came out of Abraham according to the flesh. We know He came
out of David according to the flesh. He was made of the seed
of David according to the flesh. We can trace His lineage back. He was a real man who had a real
mother. And He was declared to be the
Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness. So I appreciate the genealogy. I just, they're no use for me
in any other way but those two ways that I know of. And I sure
can't trace mine back. I told you a minute ago. My dad
said his grandmother, he said she was a poor woman and a homely
looking woman and said, this is what he told me. Now I'm just
telling you what he told me. He said she was so homely and
poor she had to get her kids any way she could. And she had
eight of them. And none of them knew their last
name. So I can't go back and say, boy,
look at my family. But you know something? When
it comes to my spiritual family tree, I can look up to heaven
to my Eternal Father and say, there's my origin. There's my
origin. Everlasting Father, my Eternal
Father. But other than that, it ain't
no sense getting mixed up in all of these genealogies. It's no sense in it. Leave it
alone. And you know, they had a lot
of trouble with this, especially in the Jews, and they still have.
They're still searching for the genealogies because they lost
them so many during the war and all this. But back here, they
really, really search for them. Third thing here he mentioned
is this, and we've studied on this in different places in the
Scriptures, contentions. contentions. This is a much stronger word
than just being in disagreement. The Apostle Paul and Barnabas
had a strong disagreement. Remember that? Barnabas wanted
to take his nephew Mark with him on the missionary journey.
Paul said, no, we took him on the first one, and he forsook
us. I don't want to take him again. And Barnabas said, I'm
taking him. He's my sister's son. I love
him. He's young, and he needs another chance. Paul said, I
ain't taking him. And the disagreement was so sharp that they had to
part ways for a while. They got back together later,
but they had to part ways. Barnabas took Mark and went off
into Cyprus, and Paul took, who was the fellow he got in jail
with? Who? Paul and Silas. He took
Silas, didn't he? And went and got in jail. And
got whipped. But they had to go their separate
ways. Old John Bunyan used to say, there's saints in this world
that you ain't going to have much fellowship with until you
get to heaven. And I think that's right. I think
it's right. Sometimes you're just disagreeable.
They're disagreeable people. There's a little poem that said,
to dwell with saints in heaven above, oh, that will be glory. to dwell with saints we know
below." Now that's a different story. They get so sometimes,
don't you? Some of them ain't going to have
too much fellowship with them, you know, with us until we get
there. But this word in our text, this
contentions, it's much stronger than just a disagreement that
all the saints could fall into. But it means a strife, a debate,
quarreling, And this word here is plural, contentions, avoid
contentions. So it may go right to the attitude. Somebody has a quarrelsome attitude. They feel a need to be contentious. They just feel a need to quarrel
and a need to cause strife and stir up strife. They feel a need
for that. That may be it here. It's listed in Galatians 5.19,
the very same word, as a work of the flesh. Listen to this
same word. The works of the flesh are manifest,
which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred. Man, that's some bad stuff, isn't
it? And then contentions, strife, Debate. Variance is the word
that he uses there. I know a man, and some of you
know him too, know of him at least, and everywhere he goes,
he stirs up trouble. I have known different pastors,
and I've experienced his contention. He's got to be debating. He talked with a dear pastor.
The pastor was very timid, really, until you stirred him up. But
he said he'd come out of the pulpit and the other guy would
meet him, wanting to fuss, wanting to debate. And he never would
stay anywhere long. He just went from place to place.
And now he doesn't go anywhere, as far as I know. I think that's
the attitude that the Apostle Paul is talking about here. Avoid
being contentious. Look over here in James chapter
3. We looked at this I think just
the other night, but let's go back and look at it again. Look
in James chapter 3. Almost all of these New Testament
writers, they mention things like this. And look how he says
it here in verse 13. James chapter 3 and verse 13. Who is a wise man endued with
knowledge? And he's endued with knowledge.
Boy, he has knowledge. And he's among you. He worships
with you and serves the Lord with you. You know him well.
Let him show out of a good conduct, a good conversation, his works
with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envy and
strife, there's the same word, strife, If you have that in your
heart, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom
descendeth not from above, but is earthly, it's sensual, it's
demonic. For where envy and strife is,
there is confusion, disorder, turmoil, and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above,
look at this, it's pure. We want wisdom, don't we? We
want wise men. Where does wisdom come from?
God gives it. It comes from above, and it's
pure. It's pure. And then look at this,
it's peaceable. It'll give us peace. The difference
between knowledge and wisdom, sometimes knowledge puffs up,
wisdom doesn't. It's peaceable. When it comes
to your heart, it's peaceable. And when you're around others,
it's peaceable. You don't stir up contention
if you're wise. It's gentle when it deals with
others. It's easy to be entreated. It's
full of mercy and good fruit without partiality and without
hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. Can you imagine what
it was what it was like in the early church when contention
rose. Some of these fellows come in
among them, contention was just stirring things up and how sad
it was. It just disturbs the peace, doesn't
it? It disturbs the peace of the church. Contentions, contention. Avoid contention. The last thing
the Apostle tells us of is this, strivings about the law. This word means controversies,
fightings, fightings about the law. And when you look at the
New Testament, the epistles, you know the believers themselves
never had any falling out about the law. They seemed to understand
it when the Lord saved them and gave them some knowledge. It
was those self-righteous people, the legalists, teachers and preachers
that came in from the outside. that got the controversy and
the fighting stirred up, I want to show you some scripture. Look
over in Acts chapter 5. Look in Acts chapter 5 and look
in verse 1. This is the first controversy
really that ever got stirred up about law and grace. within the whole church, the
Gentile and the Jewish church together. And look what happened. Let's just read some here. Let's
begin reading in Acts chapter 15. Look in verse 1. And certain
men which came down from Judea, Paul and Silas, they came back
here to the church where they had taken off from. And certain
men came down from Judea, from Jerusalem, And they taught the
brethren and said, they taught the Gentile brethren, except
you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be
saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas
had no small distinction and disputation with them, they determined
that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to
Jerusalem and to the apostles and elders about this question. disputing with each other. The
church was in perfect peace about this. They were disputing with
these outsiders, these legalists and separatists who come in.
And they said, We'll go up to Jerusalem to the apostles about
this question. In verse 3, And being brought
on their way by the church, they passed through Parnassi, Samaria,
declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great
joy unto all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem,
they were received of the church and of the apostles and elders,
and they declared all things that God had done with them.
But there rose up certain of the set of the Pharisees, which
believed, they believed historically that Christ had come and died,
rose again. But they didn't believe His grace.
They are mixing up law and grace. And here is what they said. It
was needful, it is necessary to circumcise them and command
them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came
together to consider of this matter. And when there had been
much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren,
Then he goes ahead and rehearses how the Lord had chosen first
of all to send him to the Gentiles and then he says in verse 9,
he put no difference between us and them, purifying their
hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt you God
and put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples that neither
we nor our fathers were able to bear? But we believe that
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved
even as they. It wasn't the church. It was
these Pharisees that come in that didn't understand the law
and didn't understand the grace of God. But look on down what
he said. James says, let's write them
a letter. Let's write a letter to the Gentile
churches and explain to them what's happened and what God's
required. And then in verse 22, Then pleased it the apostles
and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own
company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, surnamed
Persebus, and Silas, chief men among the brethren. And they
wrote letters by them after this manner. The apostles and elders
and brethren sent greetings unto the brethren which are of the
Gentiles in Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia. Forasmuch as we
have heard, that certain which went out from us, which were
not of us. If they had been of us, they'd
no doubt continue with us. They went out from us, and they
have troubled you with words, subverting your soul, saying
that you must be circumcised and keep the law, to whom we
gave no such commandment." So it wasn't the believers striving
and fighting about the law. It was these outsiders. These
fellows that come in among them trying to mix it all up. And
so they wrote this letter and sent it by the hands of Barnabas
and Saul. And here's what the letter said,
verse 25. It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one
accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas
and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent, therefore, Judas
and Silas, who also shall tell you the same things by mouth.
For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon
you no greater burden than these necessary things, that ye abstain
from meats offered to idols, and from blood, from things strangled,
and from fornication, from which, if ye keep yourselves, ye shall
do well. Farewell. And when they had dismissed,
they came to Antioch, and they gathered the multitude together,
and they delivered them an epistle, which when they had read, they
rejoiced for the coming." They rejoiced for the coming. Let
me show you some more scripture. Look in Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1 and look
in verse 7. He said in verse 6, I marvel
that you are so soon removed from him that called you to the
grace of Christ and to another gospel, which is not another,
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. It wasn't the church that was
having the trouble over law and grace. It was others that came
into trouble. Look in chapter 4. Look here in verse 9. Chapter 4 verse 9. But now, after
you have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn you
again to the weak and baggerly elements, whereunto you desire
again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and
times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon
you labor and vain. And he goes down in verse 17.
They zealously affect you, but not well. Yea, they would exclude
you that you might affect them. Look in another place. Look in
chapter 5 and look in verse 7. You did run well. When did they
run well? When they received the gospel.
They embraced the Gospel. They believed the Gospel. They
just kept their eyes on the Lord Jesus, rejoiced in Him and loved
Him, followed Him in faith. Paul said, You ran well then.
What happened? They had these people come in
with circumcision, the ceremony law, and feast days and holy
days, and they got all that stuff mixed up. And now he said, You're
not running so well. You're not running so well. And
verse 8, this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole bun. I have confidence in you through
the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded. But he that
troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And
I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer
persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. I would they were even cut off which have come among
you and troubled. One more place, look over in
the 6th chapter in verse 12. As many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only lest
they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For
neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but
they desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. You and I have never been fighting
over the law, have we? We've never been fighted over
the law because we understand it. We absolutely understand
it. What does the Bible say? We know
that the Bible talks about the ceremonial law and the priesthood
and the sacrifices and the holy days and everything. You and
I know from the Scriptures those were given to the Jewish nation
alone. They were never to the Gentile
people. And in A.D. 70, all of that was taken away. It came to its end. The temple's
gone. The priesthood is gone. The sacrifice
is gone. The feast days are gone. And
you know something? They'll never be restored. They'll
never be restored. The good that they do us now
is reading them and seeing Jesus Christ in them. That's the good
that they do us. But they're gone. And for somebody
to come back and start this stuff, You need these days, these days,
these days are gone. And if somebody comes and says,
oh, we've got to start doing this, we'll probably run them
off, won't we? They're not going to come here
and start a fight with us. We're not going to fight about
that because we don't fight about it. The moral law. What about the moral law? Well,
you and I believe this about the moral law. By the law, it's
the knowledge of sin. It is the knowledge of sin. I
had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not
covet. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. What is the purpose of the law?
To prove our guilt, to search our hearts and show us our sin,
and to drive us to Christ, to be saved by Him and by Him alone. So we are all in agreement with
that article. And the third thing we're in agreement about is this,
the moral law. We love it. We love it. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man. Now, I know where I stand on
the law being a rule of the believer's life. I know that. Sometimes
I'm not plain enough on that. But it doesn't matter which side
of that you're on. If you believe that you're absolutely
free from the law in every sense, and it's not your rule of life,
or if you believe the law is your rule of life as a believer,
it makes no difference. We're true believers because
every true believer loves the law of God. Here's the law. Love the Lord
your God. How could anybody not love that?
Here's the law, love your neighbor as yourself. We all love that,
don't we? I delight in the law of God after
the inward man. Here's our problem. We see another
law in our members, warring against the law of our mind and bringing
us into captivity to the law of sin. You and I are poor, dumb, gentile
dogs, and yet we know enough to keep the law and the gospel
in its place. And we don't fight about it,
do we? We don't fight about it. We just don't. We don't. So there's those four things.
There's those four things and God help us never to get mixed
up in them and to see them come and just cut them off in our
own hearts because they won't do anybody any good. Anybody
any good at all.