Bible Authority: Specific and Generic

Introduction

Good morning. Well, I thank Cody for the songs he led. You’ll see in a moment. Why, that was actually pretty difficult to come up with the songs he did. I commend the choices. And certainly who can argue with a holy, holy, holy God. Consider that when you start to date, at least as I understand American dating with whatever understanding that allows for, you try to put your best foot forward. And that applies to several different aspects. We do that in job interviews. You dress a certain way, you conduct yourself in a certain way. And in fact, you even have ready-made answers available for the questions that you may face. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t on a consistent basis, or perhaps I do, but normal people probably don’t walk around waiting to anticipate whatever question they may ask and have a canned answer ready to just give out and go through life that way.

Now, some of you may be weird like me, and that might happen more often than never. However, I want to go back to the dating for a moment and illustrate my point with something about myself. When I was dating Kashka, the poor girl, as Brother Earl Nose once said, I believe, it was something to the effect of, how did I find a blind I must have found a blind girl because she married me now? It’s of course because despite my physical appearance. However, my problems go deeper than that. When Kashka first met me, we were at Florida College, and of course, the regular supply of food there would be the cafeteria, yummy, right? Well, I would often choose pizza, cereal, and then probably the next day some pizza and cereal and maybe some fries and maybe some pizza and cereal.

Are you getting the drift of more or less what I ate there? And while Kashka understood I was a picky eater, it was after we were married that it was found how unwavering my commitment is to that limited diet. That’s something she has since found out and that we are working on wonderfully each and every day as she prepares the grocery list and to prepare meals. But what’s happened is sometimes we get used to each other, sometimes we find out things about each other that we didn’t know at first. Well, why? Well, because we put our best foot forward. May we never grow slack in our serving of God. May we never grow so comfortable with God that we stop trying to be the best that we can be, that we stop trying to serve him to the best of our ability.

Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 28. I’m gonna be there for just a moment this morning. But in Matthew chapter 28, you know what Jesus said beginning in verse 18 All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And so we get the idea that Jesus is saying to them, go. But before we get there, he has a message for them. What is it? What’s the preface to the statement in verse 18? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

And so, as Christians, as followers of Christ, we have this funnel with which we obey. It all comes to Christ. What Christ has said, we must do. I could ask you to say that back, but I think we all believe that firmly. What Christ has said, we shall do. And we’ve talked before about how there’s a diversity of churches around even the Central Florida area. And you say, well, how do we understand what the will of God is? What is the will of Jesus? How can we know what is important and that which isn’t, perhaps that which is cultural, that which is narrative. What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to understand? And we’ve talked before about how there’s three different ways of understanding commands that we can either be told what we must do, we can be shown, or it can be implied to us.

Now, some people criticize that standard of understanding the Bible, which is to say, in a different words, command, example, necessary inference. And they say, that’s made up. That’s man-made, that’s not God given. And I say this. I will ditch that method wholeheartedly the minute you can tell me how that’s wrong and what to replace it with without telling me, showing me, or implying anything to me. You can’t do that, you see how that’s just how we reason. That’s how we think. And so we have this basis for understanding. We have the very text of God’s will in front of us. And yet sometimes we still get hung up. Churches are still divided in and out of the same denomination or out of the same name on the sign of the building.

And you think to yourself, how can that happen? How can there be such divide? Well, if uh even a preliminary study of the New Testament shows there was divisions all over in the New Testament. Paul was astonished that the churches in the Galatian region had so quickly deserted that preaching that he had given them. In Acts chapter 15, some were trying to bind circumcision onto the Christians. And we look in retrospect and say, what was their problem? And what we see is there was division over what man was saying is important to God, rather than taking what God had said and making that important to man. So this morning I want to talk about something that divides churches, and that’s an issue of Bible authority. And I want to talk about specific and generic authority.

1. Specific Authority and Generic Authority

Just a moment ago, you were standing for two songs. And while I appreciate the effort of that, I know you were probably ready to sit down. And weren’t you glad there were some pews behind you? Where in the Bible do you read about pews? In fact, while I was in the back, I turned down the air a little bit. Does anyone have the passage about air conditioning in the New Testament church? What about this building? We’re going to have to consider that. If we’re going to be a church that does only what the will of God is, and we’re not putting man into God’s law, we need to understand if we can do this, if so, how? And of course, the all-important question of why. And so I want to start by talking about the specific authority.

What does that mean? This is where an act is required, and the means of obeying is expressly specified. I’m going to go to example in a moment, but we understand a specific command. That is, take out the trash now. What are you to do with that? Take out the trash. When? Now. Right? Generic authority. Where an act is required, but the means of obedience is not expressly specified. If I were to say, go to publics and get some cheese. Now, you’re likely to hop in your car and drive over to Publix. However, if you live like my parents do right across the street from Publix, you also could very readily walk across the street. Now, is that violated the idea of going to publics and getting cheese?

Certainly not. So the act is required going to the store and picking up the item, but the means of obedience is not expressly specified, and thus we have personal liberty or generic authority to do that. We’re going to go to some examples. Open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 6 now, your Old Testament. Go to Genesis chapter 6. I want to make this very plain this morning. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5, we have one of the most tragic verses in the scriptures when it says, The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

Do you note the problems with mankind there? The Lord saw that wickedness was great in the earth. He was grieved, he regretted that he made it. Verse 7. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. And thus we find in the midst of tragedy, in the midst of man’s great wickedness, God not only recognizes, but will reward those who found favor in his sight. Noah the righteous man. And so we see in verse 9, these are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.

Noah walked with God, and Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. So what’s the problem here? Well, in our narrative, in our understanding of this text, who is at fault? Mankind. How much are they at fault? A whole lot. To the point that they even grieved God. And the point that he was so, as verse 13 in the English Standard Version renders it, determined to make an end of all flesh.

Why, as we already read, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And yet, with going back to verse 8, where Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord, in verse 9, he was blameless and a righteous man. He was given a way, a path to be spared, this destruction of the corrupt and the wicked. Well, what was that? It was, of course, in verse 14. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood, make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. And so go back with me in your minds. You know Noah’s going to build an ark. I hope you knew that’s where that story was going. And so here we are. What is the specific authority? What was specifically told to Noah to do here?

Well, first of all, he was to build himself an ark. That is very specific. He wasn’t to build himself some type of underground bunker. He wasn’t supposed to do anything but build an ark. Do we see that? And so the second one is he was to use gopher wood. Is that specific? Yes. So he had to do two things. He had to build an ark, and he had to use gopher wood. Obviously there’s more to it, but for the purposes of this study, we see the specific authority, the outlined command is given. And so we have generic authority, though, the tools to build the ark. Have you ever thought about how all that gopher wood that encompassed the length and width of the ark stayed together?

Did you ever consider how it was put together? If God had just made an ark appear, we wouldn’t really have that problem. But what was Noah supposed to do? He was supposed to build the ark. Well, how is he supposed to do that? Well, let’s read and see if we can find out in verse 15. This is how you are to make it. The length of the ark, 300 cubits, its breadth, 50 cubits, and its height, 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, and which is the breath of life under heaven.

Everything that is on the earth shall die. Did you see all those tools that Noah is supposed to use? I hope not. Because they aren’t there. Now, did Noah violate commands of God to put together an ark of gopher wood if he used anything besides his own two hands? Well, if anyone’s worked with wood at all, and I haven’t, but I know even this much, if I take two blocks of wood and I keep trying to stick them together, I’m going to get really mad really fast because it’s not going to stick. It’s not going to stay. I need something to both connect them and perhaps something to even warp them or to cut them to match the dimensions of my intended project. And so we understand there’s generic authority.

2. The Disciples Must Go

But go back to Matthew chapter 28. We started there this morning and we see an example of a specific authoritative claim. The disciples must go. There was no option on this. We saw this in the story of Jonah. What happens when you disobey God when he says, go do something? Does it end well? Absolutely not. The disciples were told to go, and they were to teach. That’s specific. They could not run and hide. They could not go somewhere else like Jonah tried. They were to go.

However, how were they supposed to go? Did Jesus say? Well, if we read our New Testament, we understand there were several ways that people got around. And we know several ways. Even Paul, for example, would have moved around. Consider that they might have walked. They might have sailed. They might have been on an animal. That will suffice. Why? Because they said go. Now here’s the important question. Here’s the rub before we get into some applications for churches today. Is walking, sailing, or riding an addition to the Word of God. Now, Jesus didn’t say go and walk around to all the nations. He didn’t say go and sail around all the nations. He didn’t say go sail, walk, or ride to all the nations. He simply said, go.

3. The Law of Specificity and the Law of Silence

And so for a church that prides itself on doing only what God has commanded, doing only what Jesus has said, recognizing that Jesus is the head of the church, that all authority in heaven on earth has been given to him, we need to have an answer to this question of why do we do what we do if the Bible doesn’t say so? And that answer is it is under generic authority. Now there’s a reason for that. There’s two laws, you might call them, or two sides of a coin. If you’ve ever taken out a coin, I don’t have one with me, I should have.

If you were flipping it, you might call heads or tails. Well, on one side you have what I might refer to as the law of specificity, and the other side a law of silence. Well, what do those mean? Basically, it’s very simple. Law of specificity. If God says something, you must do it, period. That one’s pretty straightforward, right? It rules out all other things. When Noah was told to build an ark of gopher wood, that specific command outlawed oak, pine, cedar, other types of woods. Are we with me? Now, if there’s the law of silence, what does that mean? Well, it’s not different than the law of specificity. It’s the other side of the coin. God did not have to say in his instructions to Noah, don’t use pine, don’t use cedar, don’t use steel, don’t use any other product that’s not gopher wood, whether it’s a type of wood or a completely different type.

The law of silence and the law of specificity speak very clearly and plainly for us to understand. And so consider as we move forward into some examples here. That aids help obey the requirement. And so how do we use aids? How do we use pews and song books and tools? Well, we’ve already answered that. It falls under generic authority. Are these additions to the word of God? Or do they fall under the scope of what we can use in our decisions and how we carry out the commandments of God? Certainly they follow under the ladder. An example of that, tools helped Noah build the ark. However, there’s also additions. Now I asked before very clean plainly, are these things like pews an addition to the word of God?

Because we know that additions are out there, additions and subtractions, and we’re going to see some of those. But what we have to understand is there is a difference, and we can see that in the examples. For example, tools helped Noah build the ark. That fits under generic authority. Why? It doesn’t violate his command to build an ark of gopher wood. Now, putting milk in the Lord’s Supper violates the command. Either we have replaced an element or an emblem of the Lord’s table, and that certainly would be wrong for both addition and subtraction purposes. Or we’ve added to it in something that does not, is not commanded, and in a way that is not part of Jesus’ commands to us. We are to partake of what at the Lord’s Supper?

4. The Lord’s Supper

Bread and the cup. Milk is not of the bread or the cup. Although if you were smart, you could say what’s in the cup, but we know that’s not milk as well. So we see that there’s a difference in that which changes or alters the requirement that is specific, and those which help us obey that specific requirement. So let’s start there with the Lord’s Supper. Look with me in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. I know this is real exciting stuff this morning. However, it is very important to our walk as Christians and our understanding of obeying God that we get this down. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 23, Paul writes, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. So what is the specific authority? The listed elements. Now I could add from what Jesus’ words in Luke chapter 22 and verse 19 to the bread, and even sticking in our context here in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. There is a manner in which is specified. We must do it in remembrance of Jesus.

And certainly the following verses in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 help us frame our understanding of where our minds should be during the Lord’s Supper. But let’s stick with something basic and say, what is the specific authority? The bread and the cup. Now, if you notice, we don’t just have a bunch of bread sitting on the floor or a bunch of juice, if you could have it, soaked into the carpet. We serve it with trays. The juice is in little cups. Now, you don’t read about that necessarily, although you do read about the cups, technically. But do you read about these gold trays? Do you read about the table that we set them on? Not this table, not those trays, but those operate under generic authority. Why?

5. Singing Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

They help us carry out the specific authority of taking the Lord’s Supper, the listed elements of it, taking the emblems that Jesus has commanded. And so we see that aids would be things like cups. Trays, and yes, even servers would be an aid. You don’t read about people coming down the aisles of the pews, handing out the drink and handing out the piece of the bread that we partake of. That is an aid. Now, in addition would be milk, cookies, etc. Again, whether you are replacing elements or adding elements, you have altered the commandment of Christ. That is a no no. We cannot do that. But now let’s look into a couple more fun ones here to conclude this morning. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 19, you know it, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Well, what’s specified here? Singing and what to sing. You notice that sometimes we forget about that last part. What are we supposed to be singing? Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. I gotta tell you, I don’t remember the last time I heard a trumpet playing the words of Psalm 23. Or a trumpet playing it is well with my soul and coming across with the words. Consider that we have two specific commandments there to sing and what we are to sing. Now, the generic authority for this is the vocal arrangement of it. For lack of more precise terminology, if you open your song books, you’ll see all kinds of different musical arrangements. It’s written differently. Sometimes we have parts that come in at the same time. Sometimes they come in at different times.

Sometimes we have verses that start with one part and they add in another success successively as we go along. Is that a violation of God’s law? What about the very song book that those songs are contained within? You see, this is important to understand because we can drive ourselves crazy with the extent of what we could and could not do if we don’t understand that we were meant to obey the commandments. God did not give specific commandments so that we would be caught, tied, and burdened with how can we do this without adding any type of 21st century technology? This morning, the songs were where? Up here. Where’s the authority for that? It’s an aid to help us do what? To sing and to help us sing psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs.

There’s very specific things we must do in our praise of God because God has deemed it so. And thus that which helps us obey that in that alone is operating under generic authority. In additions would be instrumental music or other types of music. I submit these two examples, these two lines of argument for why instrumental music is not generic authority. Now, it’s certainly not specific unless the verse would be held up. However, consider if you were in an a cappella music concert, and one of the groups got up there with a guitar, a piano, and a trumpet, how would that go over? That would be unsuccessful. So we understand that there is a type of music that is singing only. Now, the arguer says, okay, but the Bible doesn’t say a cappella music.

6. Church Buildings and the Command to Assemble

Well, here’s the question there. What scripture authorizes playing? Until that scripture is produced, singing is all that we do have listed. If someone is playing, it’s particularly an instrument that takes wind, they are not singing, and that is a fact. So consider, unless the scripture can be produced that we must have instrumental music, it is an addition. It is a change to the kind that is commanded. That is a song which we sing. And songs that we sing need to have a specific purpose. I want to talk about this one to conclude this morning and then make some final thoughts. What about church buildings? I think this is one that makes us stumble a little bit. Have you ever thought about where the Bible authority is for church buildings?

Where did the people often meet? In fact, perhaps most often. I haven’t studied it and counted, but what screams to mind if you were to ask, where did the first century Christians meet? In homes, right? In rooms. Now, this is a big room, but this isn’t someone’s home, as it were. This isn’t my home. This isn’t the elders’s home. So, how do we have this church building? Have you ever thought about that? Perhaps more discouraging is there is a group of people that is being divisive over this issue. If you don’t know that, that is happening. People are saying we must meet in homes. You might know it as the house church movement. Clever naming, right? Now, how do we get there? What do we need to understand then?

Well, what is the specific authority? You don’t read about Jesus saying, Go and build your church buildings at this height and this width, like God told Noah to build the ark. So why do we have church buildings? Is it because everyone else does? Well, there is a specific command that we must obey, and that is to assemble. Look in 1 Corinthians with me. We’re going to go through several passages pretty quick, but I want 1 Corinthians to get into your mind of how Paul addresses them and what it means to the church. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, beginning in verse 17, but in the following instructions, I do not commend you, because when you come together, it is not for the better, but for the worst.

Verse 18. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part. For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. Now, note this phrase, you’re going to hear it again. When you come together as what? As a church. When you come together to eat, in verses 32 and 34. Note. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Verse 33. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home. So that when you come together, it will not be for judgment.

About the other things I will give directions when I come. Do you get that Paul’s talking to them about coming together? But look at 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 23. If therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? And here now, even the Bible skeptic who says that coming together was for the fellowship meal or the Lord’s Supper, or whatever you want to call it, they see that there’s a problem with that. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, in what context is he talking about them coming together? What issue is at the surface here? Their use of spiritual gifts. Note in chapter 14 and verse 26. When what then, brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation.

When you come together. Who is this to? Christians at Corinth. What was Paul taking for granted that they were doing? Coming together. What was their problem with some of what they were doing? They weren’t coming together in the way they should. What should they be doing? Coming together. Whether it’s in regards to the Lord’s Supper, whether it comes to their use of spiritual gifts, they were to come together. And note this is all besides the passage in Hebrews chapter 10 and Acts chapter 20 that we go to so often. This is not some doctrine that we have wrangled out to fit in with denominations around us. Church buildings are authorized because the church is authorized and commanded to assemble together. That is a necessary understanding of God’s will for us.

And may that never change. And so we see generic authority is to rent, borrow, or buy. If you look through the New Testament, there are numerous different places that they meet. It would appear from Acts chapter 19 that Paul even had people meeting in the school of Tyrannus. Now, consider, if we have this authority, what can we do with that? Well, if we can rent, borrow, or buy a building, can we use electricity? Well, is that an aid or an addition? You don’t read about electricity really in the New Testament, do you? Well, why do we have it going? Because it makes us comfortable? Is that reason enough to do something? It helps us obey the specific command. When the church was to come together, it wasn’t to have a party.

That was not the design. We were to come together because we had things like the Lord’s Supper. We needed to sing songs of praise, to pray together, to encourage one another, to stir one another up to love and good works. There is a purpose for the coming together that was not social in design. And so what we need to understand then is if we are operating under the specific authority of to assemble, we can do that which doesn’t, which doesn’t differentiate from those commands we are to assemble. If we get distracted from singing, from praying, from taking the Lord’s Supper, the way that was specifically commanded of us. We have violated the commandments of God. But if we are doing things like having pews, electricity, and classrooms even, those are aids.

Why? They aid in the church’s work. What is the work of the church? Benevolence, evangelism, and edification. I sincerely hope that when we go into our Bible classes, there will be edification happening. There will be personal edifying. People will grow. Perhaps even evangelism if there are those here who are visiting from the community. Are we spreading the good news? Does this help us do that? Now, and I want to conclude with this additions. Social halls. There’s a big discussion over kitchens and the like in church buildings. Well, after all, the only argument I think that has a shred of sense to it is, well, the church does have benevolent needs, and what if you have needy saints to take care of to feed? Well, let me ask you this.

What if I knew that next week we were going to have 25 baptisms? Should the church then put in a swimming pool for the baptistry? If not, why not? Now remember, things that make us uncomfortable don’t make it wrong. But we need to understand what is specific authority when God has specifically and expressly identified what we must do and how we must do it. What is the church to do? Be benevolent, edify, and participate in evangelism. What is generic authority? When something is specified and the way in which to obey that command is left in general to our discretion. What is the problem? A social hall, a kitchen, a swimming pool speaks to purposes that are not those of the church expressly. That’s the difference in the church building a hospital and paying for a needy widow to stay in the hospital.

Conclusion

There is a difference in the service rendered and the actual institution which provides that service. That’s common sense. We understand that if I go into the hospital, I’m not buying Florida Hospital. I’m participating in their needs. Let us prayerfully and carefully consider what the will of God is and how we can understand it and to be consistent in how we live out the commandments of God. Will you pray with me at this time? Our dear God, our most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for the clarity of your will. We thank you for loving us and giving us a way into salvation through Jesus the Christ. We pray that we live each and every day mindful and prayerful, that we will serve you to the best of our abilities, that we will walk the narrow way, and that one day we may be told, Enter in thy good and faithful servant.

May we have the heart like you would have us have. May we serve as you would have us serve. Forgive us of when we do wrong, O Lord, and help us to be ready, able, and have the faith to say, Lord, come quickly. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. We’re now dismissed to our Bible classes.