The Nothings of Silence (Part 4) by Dr. Rod Mattoon

About this sermon

* 1 Samuel 10:27- But the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no presents. But he held his peace. Self control can help a person to remain silent when he really wants to speak up and give someone a piece of his mind. In this passage, we find that Saul was declared to be king of Israel. There were some, however, that rejected his authority and lacked confidence in his abilities. Saul’s response to these scorners was silence. He held his peace which demonstrated his wisdom and self control in this matter. * Proverbs 18:7—A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul. Fools have a way of putting their foot in their mouths and choking on it. They speak before they think, which in turn, leads to their destruction. Their words can also cause great harm to others. For example, in 1899, four newspaper reporters from Denver, Colorado, set out to tear down the Great Wall of China. They almost literally succeeded. The four met by chance on a Saturday night in a Denver railway station. They represented the four main newspapers of Denver, and the editors had sent them out to dig up a story for the Sunday editions. They were each at the railway station hoping to snag a visiting celebrity. To their mutual frustration, no celebrities showed up. One of them declared that he was going to make up a story and hand it in. The other three reporters laughed. They went over to a hotel to have a beer. One said he liked the idea of faking a story. Why not have each of them do it? And instead of four fake stories, why not one huge one? They had another round of beers. A phony domestic story would be too easy to check on, so they thought up a foreign story. China was distant enough, so they agreed to write about China. One of them came up with this story: “A group of American engineers stopped in Denver in route to China. The Chinese government decided to tear down the Great Wall. The Americans were bidding on the job. What was the reason for the demolition? The wall is being torn down to symbolize international goodwill and to welcome foreign trade.” Thoroughly sloshed and drunk as a skunk, the reporters left the hotel. The four papers all carried the story on the front page. The Denver Times trumpeted: "GREAT CHINESE WALL DOOMED! PEKING SEEKS WORLD TRADE!" It was phony, but other papers across America picked it up. Then those around the world picked up the story. When the Chinese themselves learned that the Americans were sending a demolition crew to tear down their national monument, many were indignant and others were enraged. Particularly incensed were the members of a secret society, a group of Chinese patriots that despised foreign influence. Inspired by the story, they exploded in revolt. They attacked the embassies in Peking and slaughtered hundreds of missionaries throughout the country. Within two months, 12,000 foreign troops invaded China to protect their citizens. The bloodshed which followed, sparked by a journalistic hoax invented in a barroom in Denver, became the international incident known to every high school student as the BOXER REBELLION. Folks, words are powerful. Nations have risen and fallen because of the tongue. Lives have been inspired and cast down by words. Choose them carefully lest they lead to ruin and destruction. In this fourth message on the Nothings of Silence, we continue to look at the causes of silence such as self restraint as well as the consequences of silence. This message was preached on Sunday night, March 13, 2022 at Lincoln Land Baptist Church.