Absolutes Give Us Confidence Series

The absolutes of religion concerning the after-life are:

Absolutely no after-life > You absolutely cannot know about the after-life because no one has ever reported back >There is absolutely an afterlife, but you cannot know absolutely which way you are going until you get there >There is absolutely an afterlife and you can absolutely know which way you will go.

When you consider the longing that God built into your heart, which one do you hunger for in your deepest part of your being?

Despite the vast different approaches to the after-life, every religious guru is absolutely sure he or she is right. But I am absolutely sure of this: we all can’t be right. Most of us who look at religion and its eternal consequences must be wrong. That is because there is such a thing as absolute truth, and if there is absolute truth, you have to find it.

Heading through April, I want to end this session about Absolutes we must be sure of. These are things we must find. I hope they will be an encouragement to you and a motivation to seek God deeper.

There is much in this life you cannot be absolute about. Stock market, how children and grand-children will come out, if a marriage will last, who will win the World Series early in the season…. One thing that seems the most important is, can we be absolutely sure of our eternal destiny?

There are people who I know who are absolutely sure they have found the way. There are others, however, who are struggling with legitimate doubts. If you are seeking to live intentionally in your evangelism, you will be tuned into what others believe, based upon how they live and what they say. This topic will present itself in your ministry and in your life; you family, your business, your friends…….

First, let me address: Is there absolutes? Let me illustrate the trouble here.

If we bought a new piano or a new organ and moved it into the sanctuary, we would need to tune it, or everything else, typically. The impression is that there are differences in how the instruments are tuned. If the new piano is tuned a little higher than the old equipment, then the key of B-flat is different on one instrument than the other. Or so it appears.

However, there is an absolute in music. The definition of B-flat is, in the scale just below middle C, B-flat has a frequency of 466.16 hertz (that is, the vibrations of sound rise and fall and return 466.16 times a second) and a wavelength of 75 CM (29.527575 inches). Every instrument is supposed to be tuned to this absolute pitch for B-flat. The problem was not the absence of an absolute in music, but the failure of instruments to meet that standard of absolution perfectly.

That is what Paul was saying when he asked if the Law was bad because it presented him exceedingly sinful. Romans 7:5-8, “For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. 7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.

The Law is absolute, and our sinfulness is exposed by the Law. Our performance is off-key. The absolutes in music should mean we could bring in any instrument in the world and play it with our piano. However, the piano’s failure to maintain tuning in comparison to the absolute makes bad music.

Our world depends upon absolutes. Science is supposed to be the study of absolutes in nature. Scientific formulas work everywhere in the world for every generation. Your medication, food preservation, fuel consumption in your automobile…. All depend on absolutes. It works each and every time it is done properly.

This is a way that God reveals Himself to us, showing us His nature. Just as water is H2O anywhere (HOH in formation), it is everywhere, and God is absolutely the same anywhere and to all generations.

Hebrews 13:8 - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Jesus wanted us to have some knowledge of the absolutes. He wanted His disciples to be certain and comforted by the absolutes He was preparing for us.