Affirming the Absolute Negative
Notes
Transcript
Affirming the Absolute Negative
Affirming the Absolute Negative
So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
I. Introduction
I. Introduction
It is in the world of high science that the concept of absolute zero lives.
In this place, the grail of absolutes is that of zero.
When we think of zero, it is usually in the context of the deep winter, and zero is something we don’t see much of here.
However, in the halls of the laboratory, there is a place that is much closer to zero.
It is -460 degrees, given a few tenths of a degree.
The reason it is so important is that it is here that all heat producing mechanisms finally grind to a halt, and heat no longer can be made or obtained.
Defined for science by Sir Walter Thompson, the Baron of Kelvin,
sometime prior to 1907, he figured out this point with minimal tools at his disposal.
It was achieved only in 1995, many years after its discovery.
Only with precise expensive tools can you achieve the temperature of absolute zero.
In a world of changing times, there is something very comforting about absolutes.
This absolute zero remains a high water mark for the world of science.
There is a space of time in our lives where the world appears to be shaken to its foundations in our lives,
yet we stand not on the shifting times of sand,
nor in the cold reaches of this world,
but we stand on the hand of God.
We need the absolutes.
We need the absolutes.
I bring this word tonight so that your faith will be strengthened.
I speak to you tonight that miracles, signs and wonders are not dead.
Neither is God dead, asleep, not listening to you, gone away, hiding or otherwise avoiding you.
He has your number and he knows precisely where you are.
The absolutes of this world, that of absolute zero and any other were first defined by God a long, long time ago.
As his world is held in the palm of his hand, he knows where you are.
So tonight, as I pick up the word of God,
I bring to you what seems to be a contradiction of terms,
a confusion of what seems right, but just bear with me, as God opens up the anointing to us here in the house tonight.
I preach to you tonight “Affirming the Absolute Negative.” I have not come with confusion, but with hope.
I. Text
I. Text
Our text tonight brings us all to a point in scripture where Jesus has been hung on the Cross, and is at the point of death.
It is from this perspective that I extract a portion of His words that day. “It is finished.”
It is in those words of promise that we find ourselves tied into because if those words are not spoken, then we have a critical problem. . .
I am a gentile and not a Jew, and my chance of salvation is very poor.
It is in this context that I would bring to you a word from the Lord here tonight. I just wanted you to know that Jesus loves you and cares for you.
A. The Affirmation of the Absolute Truth
A. The Affirmation of the Absolute Truth
Scripture is full of times when someone will declare something obviously to be true.
Truth in this context is determined by the past.
That is if it happened in the past, then it is a positive truth.
I can say I walked to church tonight. . .and that is a truth that will never change,
because if I walked to church tonight, it will be true forever.
That is why we have Peter saying
That is why we have Peter saying
Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
It was at the point when Peter could affirm this absolute positive that God was pouring out his spirit on the Gentiles. He could see that with his own eyes.
It was much the same when Elijah’s servant’s eyes were opened.
It was much the same when Elijah’s servant’s eyes were opened.
He could not have attested to the fact that there were more for him than against him unless he seen it with his own eyes.
You see, in order to affirm something that is truth, you only have to see it one time.
It was the same as Aaron and Hur holding up the hands of Moses in Exodus 17
It was the same as Aaron and Hur holding up the hands of Moses in Exodus 17
they could see that the battle was in their favor so long as the hands of Moses were lifted.
There have been occasions in your own life where you have seen things that only God could have provided and those are absolute truths.
The quail had to fall once and then it was an irrefutable fact that they had fallen.
Manna came everyday except the Sabbath, and that remains an irrefutable fact.
The Holy Ghost fell. . . . they knew it just like we know it.
They spoke in tongues just as we do today, and that is irrefutable Absolute Truth.
There has been miracles in this church and that is irrefutable truth.
There has been miracles in this church and that is irrefutable truth.
The list could go on here. . .but for something to be true, it only has to happen once.
It is not hard to affirm a truth in this sense.
I know its true because someone saw it happen.
It is good to go back and remember the absolute truths, because you can take comfort in knowing that it happened, and no one can take that away from you.
There are times in your life where Satan will attempt to cloud your mind with maybes, mights and almosts’
but I remind you of a day when your sins were washed away. . .
I remind you tonight of a touch that no one else but you felt,
but you know that something changed in your life.
There is absolute truth in our lives and you have witnessed it.
There is something dramatic that changes in your life when you have an experience that the world didn’t give you, and to quote an old song, “the world can’t take it away.”
But as the day ends, the truth is that absolute, irrefutable truth is bound up in the past. I mean that we can only attest to the fact that it did happen.
Truth and faith are much different things. One dwells in the past and in the present, and the other dwells in the future.
Absolute truth, something that I have witnessed with my eyes can never be taken from me. That is the beauty of truth.
B. Affirming the Neutral
B. Affirming the Neutral
There are times in scripture where the principle of an absolute neutral happens.
Solomon would wax eloquent when he recorded in Ecclesiastes
To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up;
A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away;
A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;
A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace.
It is in these august words from scripture that Solomon so ably points out to us the fact that there are certain times that we will have in our lives.
There is a certainty of the scripture, yet it is neutral.
it neither favors nor refutes the simple facts that every human life will traverse this terrain.
The beauty of this fact is that you will not eternally be in the bad times, but that you will go on to a time of plenty.
Moses would say this in Genesis
“While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”
There is something powerful about knowing what I am going through will not last forever.
There is comfort in knowing that if I am in the winter of spirit, that spring is coming along.
Winter can last a long time. . .but it is a fact that winter can’t last forever.
It seemed that way to a prophet sitting by the brook Cherith, and yet the ravens fed him on a regular basis.
GOD HAS NOT FORGOTTEN YOU AND NEITHER IS HE GOING TO.
Some have weathered the sun and the wind that will dry out your bones in the desert place of summer,
but there have been oasis for you to recover in when you thought you were on your last leg.
I have come to reassure you that God’s work and way will continue on.
It may be hot and seeming to go on forever, but I am telling you that it can not go on forever.
It is a promise from scripture that it will not last forever.
Sometimes the neutrals of the scripture seem to carry heavy weights, there is a promise hidden in the absolute neutrality of the words that are contained there.
We often wander around in the seasons where it is very hot and very cold, but I just wanted you to know that there is an end in sight, if you will not faint.
Paul must have had such experiences with going through the changes of seasons in his life.
And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
Don’t let the neutrals of life take you down.
Rely on the hand of God, as He said he will never leave you nor forsake you. . . .
C. Affirming the Absolute Negative.
C. Affirming the Absolute Negative.
There are absolute positives that we can say and affirm.
These are absolutes that we look back on and assure ourselves of.
There are absolute neutrals that are listed in scripture that are neither positive nor negative.
They are temporary at best and don’t last forever. We can witness that these are true simply by observation of the past and the present.
But what of the absolute negative?
Only One can make this sort of statement of the Absolute Negative.
It is not based on the past.
It is not based on the present.
It is solely based on the future.
And the future, despite all of the conjurers and palm readers, is solely the domain of God.
When he said “IT IS FINISHED,” He was saying it is over.
The crushing weight of sin that held people bound was over.
The Law was over.
The ceremonial lamb for sin was over.
When the veil rent in two it released the Spirit from behind a veil and it came bounding out for all to partake.
Martha:
Martha:
Martha, the sister of Lazarus, made a statement.
in essence, she was saying a negative that was not hers to say.
Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
What she was saying is Jesus if you would have been here he would have never died. . . .
Ah Martha, don’t you understand that it isn’t for you to say what will never happen?
Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Mary makes the same mistake. . .
but Mary, don’t you understand that it isn’t in your power to affirm an absolute negative?
Jesus says Hey Lazarus come forth
Some of you are lamenting what will never happen in your life. . .
You have a dead Lazarus in a grave, but you don’t hold the ability to say what will never happen. Only God does.
Oh there was another man who had it all wrong too.
He had lain on the steps of the pool for so long that he had given up on the healing, but
Here’s his words
The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
I have no man. Have you ever said that?
“I don’t have a way out of my problem?”
Only God can affirm an absolute negative, because only he can see the future.
There WAS A MAN...
In fact, there IS a Man from Galilee ...
and he is coming to relieve you of the Nevers of your life. . .
II. Conclusion
II. Conclusion
I do know of some of the things that He said as nevers. . .but I don’t know of one that I can use myself.
He did say instead of a negative that
Greater things than this shall ye do. . . .
I want you to know that this church isn’t dead,
but it is alive!
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
What I want here tonight is for you to lay down
your nevers,
your nots,
your no’s
and let God control the future. . .
This glorious church is going on despite the naysayers and the nevers. . .