Temple Baptist Church - 11-28-2012
Philippians 4:20
Introduction:
A. As with most of the Pauline Epistles, Philippians ends with a Doxology or Praise. Doxology is defines as: a short hymn of praises to God in various Christian worship services, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns.
B. Philippians 4:20 has two different aspects of “glory” because of the context in which it is written. “Glory” can be either an attribute of God or something attributed to God and I believe both cases fit here.
1. There is the Glory Due His Person. Paul recognized who God was and glorified Him. We should do the same.
2. There is the Glory Derived from His Performance. In this chapter, Paul recognized what God had done and glorified Him for it. We should do the same.
C. I want to look at these two things as we finish this epistle. This will be an ongoing message so I am not sending it out as of yet.
1. His Glory Is Found In His Creation – What He made. Psalms 19:1-3 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. (I will not spend as much time on this as the Lord did as He created the heavens and the earth in 6 days! There is so much that could be said that even the scientists and astronomers cannot but skim the surface. The evolutionists try to explain it all without intelligent design but only when God is in the mix can the universe plus mankind be explained.)
The heavens declare the glory of God! The universe is, as far as humanity is concerned, limitless. Its vastness boggles the minds of the most intelligent of men. As I look into the heavens, I see the fingerprint of divine intelligence. Man not only cannot comprehend but also cannot imagine the greatness and vastness of God’s creation. We see God in the heavens as they proclaim His greatness; as they set forth His intelligence; as they demonstrate His wisdom; and implicate His fathomless power.
The sun is 93,000,000 miles away
The sun is 1,300,000 larger than earth
Betelgeuse is 248 times larger than the sun
Arcturus 25,600 times larger than the sun
Antares – a double star is 400,000,000 mi in diameter
- four time the distance from sun to earth
- Earth cold orbit the sun is half of Antares
Eplison – diameter is 10 times that of Betelgeuse
Or 2,150,000,000 miles in diameter
Scientist believe many are much larger
Our galaxy contains – 100 billion stars
At least a billion more galaxies
As many stars as grains of sand as on all sea shores
Light travels at the speed of 186,000 miles per second
A light year is 6 trillion miles
It takes 100 years for light to travel to earth from Betelgeuse
Our closest star is Alpha Centari - 25 trillion miles away
It takes light 4 ½ years to travel to earth
Takes 100,000 years for light to travel across our universe
God said the Abraham, “ Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them:”(Genesis 15:5) He again said, “And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven.” (Genesis 26:4) And once again, “As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured:”(Jeremiah 33:22) Isaiah wrote, “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:” (Isaiah 40:22) Surely the heavens do declare the glory of God. We have a big God.
The microscope declares the glory of God.
If the vast size of creation doesn’t impress us, then maybe the infinite smallness of creation will. Creation is built with molecules.
The molecules in ¼ ounce or a teaspoon of water
Contains 9,940,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 - 99422 or 9 Octillion, 940 sextillion
If each one of these were as big as a grain of sand
We could build a 6 lane highway from NYC to San Francisco
Atoms are much smaller and are inside the molecule.
Rearranging them we can have a million chemical compounds
We have over a hundred basic elements.
There are three major particles – protons
- neutrons
- electrons
Electrons circle around the nucleus a million times per second
Also down inside are - particles
- photons
- pions
- positrons
- neutrinos
- mesons
- anti-particles
- sub atomic worlds
Nuclear Energy: Scientists believe that the inside of the nucleus of the atom is a core surrounded by a fluctuating cloud of peons whirling around the nucleus in orbit millions of times per second. An infinitesimal planetary system inside an already infinitesimal planetary system so small that this core occupies only a thousandth of a millionth of a millionth of the speck within the atom, known as nuclear energy. One pound of nuclear energy converted to electrical energy would operate every electrical appliance in the world for one whole year.
The seas declare the glory of God.
The oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface and contain 97 percent of the Earth's water. Less than 1 percent is fresh water, and 2-3 percent is contained in glaciers and ice caps.
Earth's longest mountain range is the Mid-Ocean Ridge, which winds around the globe from the Arctic Ocean to the Atlantic, skirting Africa, Asia and Australia, and crossing the Pacific to the west coast of North America. It is four times longer than the Andes, Rockies, and Himalayas combined.
At the deepest point in the ocean the pressure is more than 8 tons per square inch, or the equivalent of one person trying to support 50 jumbo jets.
At 39 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of almost all of the deep ocean is only a few degrees above freezing.
If mined, all the gold suspended in the world's seawater would give each person on Earth 9 pounds.
If the ocean's total salt content were dried, it would cover the continents to a depth of 5 feet.
Undersea earthquakes and other disturbances cause tsunamis, or great waves. The largest recorded tsunami measured 210 feet above sea level when it reached Siberia's Kamchatka Peninsula in 1737.
The ocean averaged two miles in depth
Land averages ½ mile in height
If leveled water would cover the earth by 1½ miles.
God asked Job, “Who shut up the sea with doors”?
Each cubic mile of ocean water contains:
93,000,000 dollars of gold
8,500,000 in silver
5 billion dollars of chemicals
Plus the wealth of lobster, oyster, crabs, & fish
Waves continually oxidize the water
Currents keep the temperature steady (some clockwise) others counterclockwise.
The Antarctic Ice Sheet is almost twice the size of the United States.
The balance and beauty of nature declares the glory of God.
The majesty of the mountains.
The beauty of the rivers and woodlands.
The sweeping aura the plains.
The wonder of a flower and the glory of a tree.
The warmth of the sun or the chill of a wintery wind.
The feel of rain and snow on your cheeks.
The glory of the sunrise over the ocean.
The beauty of the sunset over the mountain’s peaks.
The wonder of the four seasons. Spring’s budding; summer’s warmth and beauty; the foliage of fall; and the whiteness of a winter’s day.
The balance of nature. As ships and places have gyroscopes for balance, God has put checks and balances in nature.
Bats and birds keep insects in check
Large fish eat smaller ones.
Worms are eaten by frogs
Frogs are eaten by snakes
Snakes are eaten by hawks
Hawks also keep the mouse population in check
Rats and mice have 5 or 6 litters each season
They usually average 10 per litter
Thankfully they have enemies like the fox, coyote, badger, skunks, weasels, wild cats, hawks, ravens, crows, snakes & lizards.
1 adult fly will lay 500 eggs = be grown in a week
Unchecked in 6 months 50’ deep over earth
There are over 1,000,000 different kinds of insects
60,000 different kinds of spiders – most eat flies
1 frog will eat 50 flies per minute
A swallow will eat 2,000 mosquitoes per day
Wren will eats it’s weight in flies per day
Cod fish will lay 4,000,000 eggs per season
Oysters lay 100, million eggs per season
Sunfish lay 300, million eggs per season
Fish eat eggs and smaller fish to check this
In nature there are Patterns
In nature there are Designs
In nature there are Colors
In nature there are Shades
In nature there are Hues
In nature there are Shapes
Cherry blossoms in Washington, DC in Spring
Orange blossoms in Florida
Sunrises and sunsets (caused by dust particles)
Human makeup declares the glory of God. David wrote, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: (Psalms 139:14)
Man has a body which is world conscious
Our eyes are miniature TV cameras
Our ears are miniature grand pianos
We have a built in PA system self-adjusting volume
Living cover (skin) built in air conditioner
Heat control set at 96.8
30 trillion cells
Each with 46 chromosomes (reproductive = 23)
Each with 3,000 to 39,000 genes – seeds of inheritance
Each with a DNA string that would take 500 volumes of 100 pages to describe.
The average human brain has about 100 billion nerve cells.
Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles (274 km) per hour.
The thyroid cartilage is more commonly known as the Adams Apple.
The only joint less bone in your body is the hyoid bone in your throat
It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
Your stomach needs to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it would digest itself.
It takes the interaction of 72 different muscles to produce human speech.
The average life of a taste bud is 10 days.
The average cough comes out of your mouth at 60 miles (96.5 km) per hour.
Relative to size, the strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.
When you sneeze, all your bodily functions stop even your heart.
Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.
Children grow faster in the springtime.
It takes the stomach an hour to break down cow milk.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
Blondes have more hair than dark-haired people do.
There are 10 human body parts that are only 3 letters long (eye hip arm leg ear toe jaw rib lip gum).
If you go blind in one eye you only lose about one fifth of your vision but all your sense of depth.
The average human head weighs about 8 pounds.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
In the average lifetime, a person will walk the equivalent of 5 times around the equator.
An average human scalp has 100,000 hairs.
The length of the finger dictates how fast the fingernail grows. Therefore, the nail on your middle finger grows the fastest, and on average, your toenails grow twice as slow as your fingernails.
The average human blinks their eyes 6,205,000 times each year.
The entire length of all the eyelashes shed by a human in their life is over 98 feet (30 m).
Your skull is made up of 29 different bones.
Your ears and nose continue to grow throughout your entire life.
Hair is made from the same substance as fingernails.
The average surface of the human intestine is 656 square feet (200 m).
A healthy adult can draw in about 200 to 300 cubic inches (3.3 to 4.9 liters) of air at a single breath, but at rest only about 5% of this volume is used.
The surface of the human skin is 6.5 square feet (2m).
15 million blood cells are destroyed in the human body every second.
The pancreas produces Insulin.
The most sensitive cluster of nerves is at the base of the spine.
The human body is comprised of 80% water.
The average human will shed 40 pounds of skin in a lifetime.
Every year about 98% of the atoms in your body are replaced.
The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet (9 m).
You were born with 300 bones. When you get to be an adult, you have 206.
Human thighbones are stronger than concrete.
Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
There are 45 miles (72 km) of nerves in the skin of a human being.
The average human heart will beat 3,000 million times in its lifetime and pump 48 million gallons of blood.
Each square inch (2.5 cm) of human skin consists of 20 feet (6 m) of blood vessels.
During a 24-hour period, the average human will breathe 23,040 times.
Human blood travels 60,000 miles (96,540 km) per day on its journey through the body.
Our liver does over 500 functions to keep us well
They could remove one lung, one kidney, 2/5 of our liver, part of the brain, most of our stomach, all 10 finger, 10 toes, finger nails, toe nails, both eyes, both ears, both arms, both legs, all our hair, teeth, gall bladder, spleen, tonsils, one kidney, and our appendix, and a person could still live.
Man has a soul which is self-conscious
We can:
Love or hate –peace or anxiety
Have trust or unbelief – hope or despair
Satisfaction or frustration – elation or despondency
Mercy or vengeance – pride or humility
Courage or severity – pliability or nobility
Meanness or gratitude – envy or goodwill
Steadfastness or vacillation – zeal or lethargy
Righteousness or unrighteousness –
Independence or dependence
Man has a spirit which is God conscious.
Without the Spirit we cannot see (Jn.3:3)
Without the spirit we cannot hear (I Cor.2:14)
With Him we see the invisible (I Cor 2:9)
With Him we can hear the inaudible
With Him we can bear the intolerable
With Him we can understand the impossible
With Him we can attempt the unthinkable
Exodus 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (In six literal 24 hour days, God made it all and man has been trying to figure it all out ever since! What a God!)
2. His Glory Is Found In His Provision. In the previous message above, we found the greatness of God’s intelligence, wisdom, and power which shows His ability to perform. He created the heavens, the earth, and all that in them is with all of their perfection. That same intelligence, wisdom, and power shelters and showers blessing upon God’s children. In chapter 4, we find both needs and plenty.
a. The allows His children to have hard places in this life because it is in these times that we find our strength, safety, and supply in Christ Jesus. God’s people have suffered through the centuries but I believe that eternity will prove that He was bot with us and for us in every circumstance of this life.
b. Paul is ascribing glory to God for both the hard times and the good times; for both the times of necessity and the times of plenty. I believe that the lesson for each of us is not to be a “fair weather” Christian. We hear of “fair weather” friends who are there when you do not need them and vacate the premises when you do. I have seen so many who served the Lord when the going was easy and gave up the ship when things “went south.” The Lord is good all of the time.
c. The Lord does not protect us all of the time from circumstances but He does protect us in our circumstances.
d. We need to give God glory because of what He does for each of us.
1) Give Him glory because He is with us in our hard times because He said, “I will never leave thee!” Like Job, we do not always perceive Him because we are human and our circumstances shroud His presence. But our perception has nothing to do with His presence. His presence as assured to us through promise and God never breaks His promises. Our fears are baseless when our all-knowing, all-powerful, ever present Saviour is on hand. He never slumbers nor sleeps.
2) Give Him glory because He protects us in our hard times because He said, “Nor forsake thee.” As I look back through the years, I have been well protected and can lay my head on my pillow in peace knowing that Someone is watching over me while I am helpless. We saw His intelligence, wisdom, and power in the first part of this message as He created the heavens and the earth along with all that in them is. If He can do that, and He did, then He can certainly take care of you and me when we need Him to.
3) Give Him glory because He provides where He guides because He said, “All your needs.” I am nothing special but I know what it is to give up our home, job, friends, family, security, hopes and dreams and step out by faith based upon one verse of the Bible (Matthew 9:38). Hebrews 11:13b-14 says, “Not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.” To pull up stakes and move to a place never dreamed of beforehand and serve and love a people never met. God is able and willing to care for each of us as if we were His only child. You can count on Him.
4) Give Him glory because of His mercy and grace. We certainly have not been rewarded according to our iniquity. I find God’s dealings with His children amazing as He is completely holy and yet He is completely forgiving. He is completely righteous and yet He is longsuffering and merciful. No license to sin here but an eternal gratitude for 1 John 1:9 and His 70x7 in forgiveness.
5) Give Him glory because of the sonship bestowed upon us. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” One of the greatest causes of our glorification of the Lord is that of adoption. Sonship is a wonderful thing but, with our natural children, we did not know who or what we would get when the children were born. I know that every good parent is proud of their children and would have chosen them if the opportunity was there. Adoption is different. When adopting, you normally know who and what you are getting.
3. His Glory Is Found In His People. 1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
a. Glorify God In Your Walk - 1 Corinthians 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
b. Glorify God In Your Work - Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
1 Peter 2:12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
c. Glorify God In Your Woes – Job 1:21-22 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. 22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
1) In Trials - Psalms 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
2) In Persecution - 1 Peter 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
3) In Poverty - 1 Timothy 6:6-8 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
4) In Sickness - John 11:4 When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
5) In Death - John 21:19 This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.
d. Glorify God In Your Worries - Romans 4:20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
e. Glorify God In Your Whippings - Joshua 7:19 And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.
Hebrews 12:11-14 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. 12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; 13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. 14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
f. Glorify God In Your Worship - Psalms 108:1 O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
Psalms 22:23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
Psalms 62:7 In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
Romans 15:5-6 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: 6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
