The Silence Of The Scriptures 8-9-26 AM
I. Two important principles concerning silence.
a. We use silence in our normal understanding of language.
b. Surely God would expect us to use it to understand Him.
c. Wedding invitation - June 6, 7 PM @ Blackwater Macedonia.
i. One date is specified -we know not to show on the 5th or 7th.
ii. The invitation doesn’t have to list all the other dates.
d. The time and place are specified.
e. The 1st principle is: if one or more options out of a category are specified, silence about all other options in that category excludes them.
i. Pharmacists fill a prescription based on what the doctor writes not what he did not write.
ii. Builders build according to size of what architect drew not what he did not draw.
iii. Notice this Biblical example - 1 Samuel 13:13 - Leviticus 1:7.
f. Did you notice a category in which invitation was silent?
i. The invitation said nothing about dress.
ii. All options are open because the invitation says nothing about it.
iii. If it said formal attire then everything else would be excluded.
iv. I do need to be careful as to appropriateness and modesty but everything is open as to dress.
v. A biblical example - the Lord’s Supper - the day is specified but not the time.
g. Second principle is if a category is left open with nothing specified, we may choose any options in that category.
II. Old Testament evidence of silence prohibiting.
a. Genesis 4:3-4.
i. Abel’s offering was by faith (Hebrews 11:4) - which comes by hearing (Romans 10:17) - not what was left unspoken.
ii. Cain’s was what he wanted to give and was rejected.
b. Noah constructed the ark by faith (Hebrews 11:7), which is defined for us in Genesis 6:22.
i. This idea is often ridiculed - one man said here he goes pulling out Noah’s worn out saw.
ii. The question still remains, would Noah have been saved changing divine directives?
c. Nadab and Abihu were destroyed for not respecting God’s silence (Leviticus 10:1-2).
i. God had told them from where their fire was to come (Leviticus 16:12).
ii. They ignored that command and obtained fire from somewhere else and were destroyed because of it.
d. Deuteronomy 10:8 - only the Levites were mentioned.
i. Was this silence prohibitive?
ii. Yes, because of 1 Chronicles 15:2 - implies no one else.
iii. They were to carry it by poles (Exodus 25:12-14).
iv. David decided to move by a new cart (2 Samuel 6:3).
v. This was a sin because as David later confessed…(1 Chronicles 15:13).
e. Exodus 20:2-3.
i. Jeremiah was told to tell people to amend their ways (Jeremiah 7:3).
ii. Jeremiah 7:31 tells us about their ways at that time.
iii. Notice Wayne Jackson’s statement about this: A comparison of this passage, with the original law forbidding idolatry, plainly shows that a practice which the Lord has not commanded is equivalent to an explicit prohibition. The Bible is it’s own best commentary.
f. Why was Moses kept out of Promised Land?
i. Was it not because He failed to listen to the silence of God?
ii. God had told Moses to strike a rock to obtain water in the past (Exodus 17:6).
iii. The second time God was going to give water out of a rock to the Israelites had a different command - to speak to the rock (Numbers 20:7-9).
iv. Instead, Moses struck the rock like he had done in the past and God punished him for it (Numbers 20:10-12).
v. If Moses had respected the silence of God on this issue, Moses would probably have made it into the Promised Land.
III. New Testament evidence of silence prohibiting.
a. 1 Corinthians 4:6 - we are not to go beyond the things which are written.
i. If we go beyond what is written, we have gone into silence.
ii. Again, what is God saying when He hasn’t said anything?
b. Notice 2 John 9.
i. There is an objective body of truth.
ii. To step beyond, whether something mentioned specifically or in the realm of silence is sinful.
c. Colossians 2:22-23 - will worship.
i. Vine says it is voluntarily adopted worship whether unbidden or forbidden.
ii. Thayer says it is worship which one devises and prescribes for himself.
iii. If I can, with divine approval, operate in the realm of silence, why can I not devise and prescribe for myself what I want?
d. The Hebrews writer stated the superiority of Jesus over the angels.
i. One of his points was one may not place angels in the same class as God’s Son.
ii. Why not - because of what is said in Hebrews 1:5.
iii. When God is silent, man can‘t presume upon God.
e. Notice Hebrews 8:4.
i. Why could Jesus not function as a priest on earth?
ii. Hebrews 7:14.
iii. God through Moses spoke nothing about priests from the tribe of Judah.
iv. Silence amounts to no authority
v. This argument has never been answered by those that say silence allows.
IV. Consequence of rejecting this principle.
a. The consequence is I can do nearly anything I want.
b. Notice statement from Rubel Shelly from around forty years ago: “If it were the case that anything not expressly forbidden in the New Testament is permissible in the Christian religion, then we could not only use pianos to accompany our singing but beads to aid our prayers, crucifixes to focus or devotion, and hashish to enhance our sensitivity. We could also initiate an organizational network similar to that which has been protested so strongly in Catholicism or begin financing church projects w/bingo games (where legal) on Tuesday evenings. Not one of these things is explicitly forbidden in the New Testament, and no one who denies the legitimacy of the authority principle as outlined above can consistently argue against any of them.”