Jesus quoted often from the Old Testament and I think validated everything therein when he did so. And this was the only, well it wasn't either the only one, it was certainly one of the many miracles to which he gave veracity and validity and authenticity by quoting from it. He said, as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the whale, so shall be the son of man in the heart of the earth, which he was. The way the Jews count time incidentally, any day is a part of a day. One minute till midnight tonight and all day tomorrow and one minute after midnight tomorrow night would be 24 hours and two minutes, but it would be three days in Jewish time. There is a documented case of a man who was swallowed by great fish and lived 27 hours and so certainly this could happen. You know the miracles are wonderful. They're hard for some folks to believe. I heard the other day how somebody said to me they just really didn't believe how the Lord actually literally split the Red Sea. You know, something like that really couldn't happen. But what had happened was in the translation of the, from the Hebrew, there is a reed sea up to the north, which is only four inches deep. It's a marsh and that's probably where they went through. And when I heard that I said, whoopee, isn't that a wonderful miracle? God drowned all of Pharaoh's army in four inches of water. Boy, that's terrific. That's terrific. The Lord can do anything, can he? I believe that. How many of you believe the Lord really split that sea? Say amen. Do you? All right. How many of you believe Jesus really walked in the water? Say amen. How many of you believe Jonah really swallowed a swatted whale? Say amen. Do you? All right. A whale swaddled Jonah actually is what happened. You think it isn't easy to get mixed up. When I announced the kids were going to sing tonight on A Whale of a Tail, I wasn't trying to be funny. I don't realize the name. And the name of it is A Tale of a Whale, right? Well, it's A Whale of a Tale of a Whale. That's what it is. And it was beautifully, beautifully done. Thank you, boys and girls, very, very much. There's some marvelous attendance. It's been a wonderful day all day today. I want for about 12 or 15 minutes to close tonight's service by giving a look for a little bit at our second in the series on the glory of God. So you can open your Bibles, if you will, please, to Psalms 19 .1, and we shall be looking there just in a moment. Let me remind your hearts for just a little bit that next Sunday morning is going to be Baby Day in our church, followed by Mother's Day. And we'll have opportunity to dedicate little ones that have been born in the last year. And so you will be being contacted by Mary Elizabeth Hedlund, our Children's Director, regarding that. But just come and call the office if you don't get correspondence and make sure that you know what's going on. It's going to be a beautiful service on a wonderful day next Sunday. And of course, you know that just two or three weeks, May will be over, four, I guess, actually. And believe it or not, summer is here. And I don't think there's a church in the world that experiences a summer jump like we do. We don't have a summer slump. We have a summer jump. And we, our folks just can't wait to get away and hurry up and get back. And then it'll be fall and soon Christmas will be here. And we'll be starting all over again next year. Before you know it, we'll all be dead. Okay, let's go on to something else. We have seen that the glory of God is intrinsic in his nature. You cannot add to it or you cannot take away from it. Now you can manifest his glory. You can reveal his glory, but you cannot, you cannot take from his glory. You cannot take from the glory of the sun. It is a brilliant yellow. It is what it is. It gives off heat and light and life and reflection. And no matter how many clouds you put in the sky and refuse to disallow men to see the glory of the sun, still the sun's glory is not lessened. It is simply not revealed. By the same token, every man in the world can take a mirror and reflect that glory of the sun to other men, but they do not add to the glory of the sun. There is no more power, no more light from the sun. It is merely reflected and revealed. Thusly is the glory of God. Now you and I know that God in Jesus Christ has implanted his nature in human beings. And when we trust him and live for him and love him and honor him, we reflect his glory to the world. We adorn, Titus says, the doctrine of God, that is to say the teaching of God, about God, the comprehension men have of God, but we cannot adorn God. We cannot add to what God intrinsically is. We cannot take away from the glory of God. We can refuse to let the glory of God be revealed, declared and manifest, but it is constant and it is intrinsic in his nature. Now, the apostle tells us that we are to glorify God in everything. Before we look at glorifying God in the minutest things, I want us to see one of the major things which reveals the glory of God. Turn in Psalms, the 19, verse 1, if you will, please. We're going to look tonight at Psalms, Philippians, John, and then over in Romans. So keep your Bibles open to both the Old and New Testament. Psalms chapter 19, if you will, please, and verse number 1. The heavens declare, that word is revealed, or manifest, or put on display, the glory of God. And the firmament showeth his handiwork. Now, the Bible tells us that there is more than one way that God speaks to man. He makes man to be conscious of the reality of himself through his conscience, through all of nature, through things that are around him. Then when men live up to the light that God has placed at their disposal through the heavens and through nature, and they respond to the awareness of God, I believe there are many biblical incidents to validate the fact that God finds a way to get the truth about God to men who really seek God. But how does God first implant in a man's heart the reality of God? The Bible says Jesus is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. So the Spirit of God is revealing an awareness of God through the Holy Spirit, through conscience, and through the universe. Man is aware of the fact that there is someone, something to whom he is, higher than he, to whom he is responsible. And then when he has that hunger, we go to him and say, the answer to this need in your life is Jesus Christ. Now, part of the great plan of God is that the reality of God's glory be manifest, declared, revealed, put on display through the firmament in the heavens. The heavens declare, reveal the glory of God. I don't know if there's life on other planets or not. It's one of the most consistently asked and most interesting speculative questions of all. I don't know. Nobody knows. But I don't really think there is. Sometimes people say, well, then God wouldn't have gone to that much trouble. Well, it is no trouble for God to speak the worlds into existence. But the Bible does make very clear that they are there, not for the purpose of inhabitants, though that may be a reality, but not declared, but to put on display the glory of God. The heavens make men re -understand that God is glorious. They do not make God glorious. They declare, they reveal that there is a higher power and that he is a glorious being. Now, practically, the Apostle Paul says to us in Philippians 1 .20, Wherefore, whatsoever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. Now, this is not a license for us to get fat or to go drink a lot. I suppose he was talking about water after all. But he says, whatever you do, do, whether it be as menial and mundane as even eating or drinking, there must always be a conscious aura of the fact that everything, even the minutest, even the most insignificant, like eating a piece of bread or drinking a glass of water, is done with the glory of God in mind. Let me ask you this. Do you do what you do to the glory of God? Does your job reveal the glory of God? Is God glorified by the kind of business that you run? Is God glorified because you pedal a Schlitz beer and you drive a beer truck? You say, well, I'm not sure. Then you ought to go dig a ditch or do something else that you are sure about. Do all things to the glory of God in the selection of an automobile or a home. He is not saying go out and eat and go out and drink. He is saying that when you do do such mundane and insignificant things as eating, as sleeping, the everyday things of life, always see to it that the glory of God is in full view. We have seen that the very first principle of man is that man is created to reveal, to glorify God, to declare and express the glory of God and to enjoy him forever. Jesus tells us a little bit about how to glorify him. I want us to see in context, very simply, two or three things. In the next two or three Sunday nights, we're going to look at 12 practical things to do to glorify God. Not to make him glorious, but to declare to the world that he intrinsically is a glorious God. Number one, the first basis, of course, is that we glorify God in life by aiming everything we do at his glory. By constantly setting before us, even the most mundane things, the fact that God would be glorified in every thought, in every act, in every moral decision that is made. Turn over with me, if you will, please, to John chapter 8, verse 50. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. That will be the fourth book in the New Testament, John chapter 8, verse number 50. And I'll be turning and finding mine right along with you. Because Gerald stole the place where I usually put all my notes. All right. Jesus said, And I seek not mine own glory. There is one that seeketh and judgeth. Jesus Christ himself said that everything I do, I do to the glory of God. That was why he came. That was the purpose of his life. Jesus warned in the Sermon of the Mount that men are not to be like the hypocrites. He said, Don't be like the hypocrites who sound a trumpet before you in the synagogue. And when they come in, you know, they would, Can you imagine a man coming to church like that, bringing an entourage of trumpeters and to make a fanfare? And when it was time of the offering, he'd walk up to the platform and say, Look here at me. Da -da -da -da. Plunk, plunk. And drop a few coins in. And everybody would look at him. And Jesus said, Don't be like the hypocrites who do things like that, that they may receive glory from men. For behold, I say unto you, they have their reward already. There must always be in plain view the glory of God. And listen, the glory of God is something that is manifest, that results as a byproduct of a life that is committed to glorify him. It's not something we work up. It's not something we plan and devise. It is a natural process, which is the result of a life, which is aimed at the sole desire to glorify God. One day, D .L. Moody was coming into class where he used to teach his students on Friday at his school. And he had said that some of the students came to him and said, Dr. Moody, look at us. Do you know where we've been? And he said, Oh, no, where have you been? And they said, We've been in an all -night prayer meeting. Look at us, Dr. Moody. Don't our faces shine. Dr. Moody said, Moses knew not that his face shone. It is a byproduct, a natural result of the process of a way of life, which makes one decision, that everything I do from this day forward will be done to aim in full view with the concept that I have set the Lord ever before my face. And beyond dinner and breakfast and clothes and purchases and business and dating life and everything, there is always the view of God, the image, the overshadow, the picture of God surrounding my every thought and every mental image. We glorify God by aiming our lives at Him. And that is not easy to do. How many times have I gone off to preach somewhere? And, you know, I would think, Oh, I hope they like me. And, you know, I hope so many people come down the aisle. You know, that's an occupational hazard of an evangelist. I used to suffer from that. We would always, you know, if 50 came or 100 came or 200 came, and the more results that you had, the more the preachers wanted you to come and preach. And it's always in your mind to a little bit. I hope enough come to make a good report in the standard or look good in the brochure. I hope I get enough offering this week. The crowds are big enough that I won't have to kill myself next month. I can have off a little bit. And, oh, I hope everybody thinks I did good. I go to so many places where they say, John, we've spent thousands of dollars, and you're the closing speaker, and you're the keynote speaker, and everybody's here. And, oh, I hope I don't let them down. But, you know, I think if I am really where I ought to be, all I care about, whether anybody comes or not, is that I don't let the Lord down. And that's not easy for us to do. I wish we were perfect. I wish we didn't live in human bodies, but the truth is we do, and we have to wrestle with it. So always beyond the crowd and the invitation, behind our date, behind our business life, behind choir rehearsal and officers' meetings and everything that we do, there must be the image of God and looking at it from God's perspective. And so we glorify God by making an initial commitment to aim everything we do in life toward His ultimate glory. Secondly, secondly, we glorify God. I think when we reflect an interest in His sorrows as well as in His triumphs. David sinned, and David suffered himself, and his friends suffered, and his family suffered, but the greatest encroachment of all was that that came on the name of the Lord. And that's what broke his heart, and that's something that David could never undo. I want you to turn, if you will, over to Psalms chapter 69, verse number 9 for a moment. Psalms chapter 69, verse 9. This too is a messianic verse. Jesus quoted from it. That's what it was quoted by or happened in the life of Jesus. That's what makes it a fulfillment of prophecy in the life of Jesus, the Messiah, I have personally. Thus it is called a messianic verse. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. Jesus had a temper. Does that surprise you? There's nothing wrong with having a temper. Men ought to have a temper. They shouldn't let their temper run loose. It shouldn't go wild. It shouldn't be uncontrollable. There are times that you need to have a temper. There are things worth getting mad at. And one thing worth getting mad at is when the things of God are held in low esteem, when the house of God and the work of God and the Word of God and the name of God are in reproach. We ought to have a holy zeal and a holy anger and a holy temper. Jesus one day went into the house of God, the synagogue, and they drove out the money changers in his temple. Now a lot of folks think that means you shouldn't sell books and records in the church. That's not the point. The point is that they were shortchanging the people who came from all over the world to give. And so they had to give in Hebrew money, but they didn't, in Roman money, but they didn't know, of course, the value. So you've been in a foreign country, you know, you can give them two dollars and expect to get two dollars back, and you get about 16 cents worth of change back, and you say thanks and don't really know the difference. They were shortchanging the people. And Jesus stood there for hours and watched it and didn't say anything, and he just let it boil inside of him. And he took a few grain, a few weaves of straw, and he began to weave together a whip. And when he had it long enough and strong enough, he didn't say a word. He just walked over to where the money temper changes were and picked it up and started popping heads and kicking over tables and throwing out coins and tossing them out on the street. He wasn't, he wasn't, his temper wasn't out of control. He had a holy zeal. That's the verse that he quoted here from Psalms when he said in John, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. You know, we talk about having a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and what we mean is that Jesus Christ bleeds when we bleed. And when we're discouraged and rejected and downtrodden and hurt and misunderstood and sorrowful, Jesus is hurt and sorrowful because he pleads with us. And I think that's good and rejoice in that. But I would submit to you that it is spiritual infancy when we rejoice in the fact that he suffers when we suffer, but that it is spiritual maturity to rejoice in the fact that we can suffer when he suffers. And he suffers when his name is reproached and his house is defamed. I go sometimes in churches and the halls and the bathrooms and see words written where they shouldn't be. I think that's about the worst thing you can do. And I hope that no young man or woman of God in this house will ever do such a thing. But we desecrate his building and we need to take care of his building and we steal his money and we blaspheme his day and we make havoc of the Lord's day. And he is sorrowful. But I think it means to empathize with him that we hurt when people distreat the Lord and the things of God. I think God is glorified in that because the nature of God is revealed in the heart of a man who does so. Well, let me suggest to you, if I may, one other thing. I think that we glorify God. We do not make him glorious. We declare like a mirror shining the image of the sun and we manifest to the world that he is glorious when we are willing to do his will at any cost. You remember in John chapter 21, Peter was boasting and Jesus was trying to get his feet back on the ground and tell him how things really were. And he said, among other things, Peter, when you are old, now you go where you want in so many words and do what you want, but when you're old, you're going to be led about where you would not. You're going to go places where you don't want to go, like a child is led with its arms out. And then the writer, John, the beloved apostle inserts, this he said, declaring what death by which he should what? Glorify God. He said he was revealing that even by that, no, that by particularly doing the will of God at any cost and in the face of any obstacle, paying any price to human personal suffering to do the will of God, that God would be glorified in that. Now, why does that reveal the glory of God? Because Jesus came as God in the flesh, and that, as we have seen, was the purpose for which he aimed his whole life. It'll cost you something to be a Christian. There are things to be lost. There are things to be left. There are things to be given up. There is a price to be paid. But it is like unto Jesus who gave his all, wow, that the glory of God might be revealed. And it was done no more than when he paid the ultimate sacrifice of himself on the cross. Turn again with me, if you will, please, to John chapter 12, verses 27 and 28. Matthew, Mark, before the cross, of course, was praying in the garden. He was a will. He had a will. He was a man. He was God. He was the man God and the God man. And he came to the garden to die for the sins of the world on the cross. And he could have escaped it. He could have gotten out of it. He could have said no at the last moment. And Jesus prays, now is my soul troubled. But quickly adds, what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, but for this cause came I unto this hour. This is why I came. Then he adds, Father, you see, here he has resolved in his heart to do the will of God, even to the death of the cross. And he seals it when he prays, Father, glorify thy name. And in those words, in those three minutes, Jesus Christ resolved the last conflict of his soul and said, I'm going through it. I'll do it that the Father may be glorified. And the Father spoke back from heaven. And a voice came saying, I have both glorified it in what you have done and been, that is, and parenthetically, and will glorified again, parenthetically, in what you are about to do. By going in to the will of God at any cost, the Father was glorified. And that's the way we reveal his glory, whatever the price is, because that's what God did in Jesus Christ. And I submit to you that there is no more godly characteristic about a young person or a man or a woman than that at any cost. They simply make up their mind and give themselves to a commitment to do the will of God. You say, well, I would die for Jesus. Oh, listen to me. We heard Marie Mathis tonight, fresh back from Vietnam, telling us the stories about how people are this very moment dying for their faith in Jesus Christ. We have in the Marquee a little something this week that says, Cambodia today, Vietnam tomorrow, America next, God save us. Don't you think that that can't happen here? And I'm not a prophet of doom, but I believe that in most of our lifestyles we shall see that it will happen here. The time will probably come that the sheep are going to be separated from the goats and many of us may be called upon. You see, when they go into a country for a takeover, and many things like moral decay from within and suspicions on governmental integrity, all of these things are a part of the plan. They always follow. Believers, Christian leaders particularly, are marked many years in advance and are among the first. They're talking about pitting the poor Vietnamese because they're going to suffer under communism because of their identity with us. Well, that's glorious, but I remind you that 56 ,000 Americans died and 150 ,000 were wounded because of our identity with them as well. But you see, the time has come for them, the time will come for the world, if Jesus tarries his coming, that all of us for identity with Jesus Christ may be called upon to pay the ultimate sacrifice. And I submit to you that nowhere in this world does a man reveal the glory of God except in the ultimate sacrifice of dying for him if need be except one thing. You say, there's an exception? I believe there is because you see, you die in but a moment. Don't worry about being able to do it. You don't have martyr's grace until you become a martyr. You can do it. God will do it any when the time comes, if it comes. But I'll tell you something you have to do every day for 10 or 20 or 50 or 60 years, and that's live for him. And that's where the rub comes in. Let me finish by asking you to turn with me to Romans chapter 12. This is the first two verses that I ever memorized as a Christian and two of the most thrilling in the Bible. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, book number 6, Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. Hang on a minute. Moses said to God, reveal to me your glory. Show me your glory. And God showed him his goodness and his mercy and his power. The glory of God, remember, is the sum total of his attributes, which are goodness, mercy, love, and power. The mercy of God, therefore, is the glory of God. I beseech you, therefore, let me give you a Bassanio paraphrase, if I may, as the revealing by the revelation of the glory of God that you present your bodies a death body on a cross, a firing squad body in Vietnam, a persecuted body in America. Listen, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove, that means to know, comprehend fully, what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. But, you know, some folks who have lived fairly average lives might find martyrs, grace, and die heroic deaths. But I doubt that the glory of God would be revealed in that nearly as much as the Dale Moores and Joe Skaggs who have 30 and 40 years gone to the jungles, unknown to this world, but known only to God as a perpetual living sacrifice. You say, am I supposed to go to the jungle? Yes, you sure are. And it's called Lee High School and University of Houston and Exxon in First City. It's called Houston. It's called Texas. There's a moral jungle out there. And I say to you that nothing will reveal the glory of God more than men and women whose lives are a living sacrifice, whatever the cost, to do the will of God in every situation to declare and manifest to the world His glory. Shall we stand and pray? Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you've called us to be mirrors, reflectors, revealing to the world God's glory. Thank you and help us so to do faithfully in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing. We're going to sing. We're going to sing. We're going to sing. We're going to sing. We're going to sing. Thank you.