In The Garden
"AWESOME - JUST AWESOME!"
Sunday Message
Pastor Wayne Clabaugh

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Scripture: "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;" Hebrews 1:3 (KJV)

Well Good morning and WELCOME to this edition of the Sunday Message!

Our text for today speaks of something far more powerful, far more significant than a temple made with hands. Our text speaks of the "glory" of the Lord.

When was the last time you thought about the GLORY OF THE LORD? When was the last time you thought on THE AWESOMENESS OF HIS PRESENCE? When was the last time you experienced HIS ABSOLUTE HOLINESS AND POWER? When was the last time you bowed to HIS MAJESTY and REALIZED HIS GRACE? We're going to talk about today, but before we do, listen to this song entitled GLORIA by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, and I'll be right back after the song with today's message.

(Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir - Gloria)

As I said at the opening of today's program, our text today speaks of something far more powerful, far more significant, far more magnificent than a Temple made with hands. Our text speaks of the "GLORY" of the Lord.

I want to break this down into three main headings today and they all come directly from this wonderful verse found in Hebrews 1:3. We begin with

"Who being the brightness of his glory," Hebrews 1:3a

The Bible tells us in Hebrews the first chapter . . .

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;"

Then today's text...

"Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;" Hebrews 1:1-3

So what is the brightness of His Glory exactly? Is it in the sun, or the moon, or the stars? Is it in the whisper of the wind as it cools the evening twilight, or in the gentle lift of a sparrow in flight? Is it in the vastness of the ocean, or the moonlit horizons which signify the awesomeness of the eternal everlasting arms of a mighty Creator? What is the brightness of His Glory exactly?

Is it in the magnificent excellence of His preeminence, dignity and Grace? Is it in the Majesty of God alone - a kingly majesty which belongs to Him as the supreme ruler, and the absolute perfection of Deity? Is it in that most glorious condition, that most exalted state with which the Father has raised Him after He had achieved His designated, and chosen work on earth? Is it the Glorious condition of blessedness into which He has appointed and promised that true Christians shall enter after their Savior's return from Heaven? What is the Brightness of His Gory?

"The brightness of His Glory", has always been, and always will be in the "expressed image" of the person of God the Father. Hallelujah To His Name!  The Great I AM! What is the Brightness of His Glory? It is in the fullness of the Father, in man, through Christ Jesus! Now Go ahead and dance in the spirit! Hallelujah!

In the early stages of the Tabernacle, the glory of God was always veiled as even the priests would be consumed to look on the face of God's glory. The high priest had to go through weeks of preparation, preparing himself to be holy enough to enter into the veil and stand in the midst of God's glory. He would even have the other priests continually read the Word of God to him for hours before the sacrifice, as he knew that even one impure thought would not be tolerated in the presence of the GLORY OF THE GREAT I AM.

This "presence" - this "fullness of God the Father", could not be expressed in man before Christ. It would consume him. So God the Father took the WORD that was with Him even in the beginning, and He dropped Him by the "seed of creation", and the power of His Holy Spirit into the womb a virgin, and and declared throughout the Heavens the glorious news that Emmanuel "God with us" had come. Oh My Lord is this awesome or what? Then, to further His wondrous plan, He SACRIFICED His ONLY Son Jesus, so that the whosoever will might enter boldly into that throne of Grace, that Holy of Holies, inscribed upon the walls of man's heart.

"Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, (MY,MY,MY...) who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Hebrew 2:8-10

In light of what we have learned so far today - how could one NOT fall prostrate before God, and just cry Holy, Holy, Holy? Oh friend He is whatever you need Him to be today! Are you out of money? He is your finance - call on him. Are you sick of body, and need a healing? It was by His stripes that you and I were made whole. Are you sick in your spirit, and need to be set free? God has provided the sacrifice, and is Name Is Jesus. Praise His Name!

But Wait... move wit me now from the brightness of His Glory into

The Express Image of His Person!

"Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,"

Allot of emphasis is placed on the "image" that we present on a daily basis. Nowadays, many men spend as much time in front of the mirror as the ladies do, and in some cases think they are prettier. What ever happened to the rugged "Old Spice" kind of guy that seemed to swoon the ladies in a natural way? Anyway, you get the picture.

The image we portray is the image that is received. Often our image is one painted from the recesses of a sin-sick mind, or a dysfunctional background. It's not a pretty picture my friend.

But what's worse are the ones who have created their own image out of the makings of what they know someone wants them to be. For the rest of their natural lives they will be trapped by the status quo "cage of hopes", that never seems to amount to anything. Every step they take, every answer they give, is determined by the fictitious "mind-meld" rehearsed over and over as to the response that they think the hearer will favorably acquiesce to. It doesn't matter what they really think . . . it's what is acceptable to their "image-maker" that counts.

It has been said, that 90% of the world's population doesn't really feel that they have the right to create their own image. To be a Winston Churchill, or a Teddy Roosevelt, a Jimmy Carter, or a Ronald Reagan takes intestinal fortitude. At the whimsy of the Politically Correct awareness groups, touted by the main stream media as the direction all should secede to, most have put their true feelings on the back-burner. Many Americans, living in a land which banners the slogan "One Nation Under God", have accepted preconceived notions contrived by journalists, and playwrights, that paint the Gay lifestyle as just another life-form to be embraced. All the while working at us through sitcoms, (supposedly good family entertainment) trying to make promiscuity, and sleeping around "acceptable", as long as everyone is a consenting adult. This is the image that many are subscribing to today, and carry with them a faultless retort of "I'm only Human."

The Bible tells us in John 1:14 that

"...the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

It goes on to say in our text today that Jesus

"Was the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,"

While that means that when we come to Him, and ask for His forgiveness that we are not only saved, but we have the mind of Christ, and therefore have the exact representation of God the Creator living within us . . . there is also a responsibility to

"...work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmuring and disputing: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;" Philippians 2:12-15 (KJV)

Oh my friend - God will keep for himself a HOLY SEED!! When most of those that have a place and a name in Zion, and in Jerusalem, think that they have arrived, they shall be cut off by their unbelief. Those only that are holy shall remain.

When the Son of man shall gather out of His kingdom every thing which offends, sinners will be destroyed and consumed; but they, by the Spirit of grace that are reformed and converted - in "His Image" will be saved.

"The brightness of His Glory, and the express image of his person" attends man as a Spirit of burning, quickening and strengthening the affections. . . making men zealously affective in a good work. "The brightness of His Glory, and the express image of his person" gives one an ardent love for Christ and souls, and an impassioned zeal against sin, that will challenge men "on" with the resolution to turn away ungodliness from their heart's door; and accept every affliction to serve as a furnace, to purify them from dross; and to allow the convincing, enlightening, and powerful influences of the Holy Spirit, to gradually root out their lusts, and render them Holy as He is Holy. This is the only image that will stand the test of time. How does this happen?

By The Word Of His Power

"and upholding all things by the word of his power...,"

The Story is told of a young father who was walking in a field with his two young sons when a bee from one of his hives made a beeline for his oldest boy Richard and stung him just above the eye. Richard quickly brushed it away and threw himself in the grass kicking and screaming for help. Then the bee went straight for Marvin his youngest boy and began buzzing around his head; and the next thing the young father knew, Marvin was also lying in the grass, yelling at the top of his lungs. But his dad picked him up and told him to stop crying. "That bee is harmless," he assured him. "It can't hurt you. It has lost its sting." Then he took the frightened lad over to his elder brother, showed him the little black stinger in his brow, and said, "the bee can still scare you, but it is powerless to hurt you. Your brother took the sting away by being stung."

That is what the third part of verse three is telling us here today.

" ...upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high". Hebrews 1:3c

In doing a word study on this particular passage, I found that it referred to Christ's sufferings of enduring the cross. Not just because He was ordained to do so; not just because He was the only one that could; but because of the "all things" of the verse. The "all things" referred to men and women of every nationality and race. Men and women who were dead to rights and headed for hell, in danger of eternal flames, and punishment. The "all things" had specific names etched into the very heart of God, of which the writer of this devotional was one, yet out of His Goodness and Mercy - He declared it to include "the whosoever".

When He left the Garden bound - it wasn't because they had overpowered Him. It certainly wasn't because Judas or the High Priests had contrived such a clever plan that Jesus was "caught". It had everything to do with the "upholding of all things" mentioned in this verse.

Jesus himself said it in Mt:26:31

"All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad."

He knew that the "all things" were still in sin, and so it was for the "all things" (you and me) that He endured the Cross, and by the Word of His Power - purged us of our sins.

What was the Word of His Power that afforded us redemption? What gave Him the assurance enough to say "it was finished", and to sit down at the right hand of the Father?

He had taken the stinger! Just like the illustration a bit ago ... Christ had taken the sting of death in our place, and the bible tells us That God has given us the Victory through our Christ Jesus our Lord.

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." I Cor. 15:54-57

That "Word of His Power" became the "anchor of the Soul". That Word of His Power became a residing virtue inherent within the child of God that prompts them to "dare to believe". That Word of His Power became the catalyst to performing miracles, and wonders that are not derived of the works of man, but stir from the "sat down at the right hand of God" AUTHORITY!

Oh dear child of God - do you get it? By accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have not just accepted the Son of God - but you have embodied within you the combined authority of the Godhead!!

The Bible says that when you arise every morning, that His Grace and mercies are renewed toward you. Everything He did on Calvary that applied yesterday - applies double today. There is nothing you cannot do in Jesus Christ, for the very spirit of God that hovered over the waters, and began to stir at God's command, is the same spirit that resides within you today. The Very God that said let here be light, and systematically created the earth and all that is on the earth, and the heavens, and all that is therein, resides within you, and will be what you need Him to be for you today. The Very Christ that has conquered sin and the grave, and has had all things put into subjection under Him walks your journey with you today, and there is nothing, nothing that is too big for Him to handle. There is no sin too great that He has not covered it. There is no stain too deep that He cannot wash it white as snow.

"By the Word of His Power" We LIVE and MOVE, and HAVE OUR BEING! Hallelujah!

Let's pray: Oh Father God:
How I praise you for your redemptive work at the cross of Calvary. How I praise you that you sent your Son with my name on His lips, and how unworthy I feel that He said "For Wayne . . . for the ' whosoever will ' I do this." It is Finished. O Hallelujah! I give you Glory Lord Jesus - and I worship you this morning for your "living power" that flows through me. I praise you for the blood, and I praise you for the deluge of your Precious Holy Spirit, which fills me with healing, and blessing, and power to great and mighty works in your name. I praise you for your anointing that you have placed on my life, and I only ask that you would take more of me Holy Spirit. Fill me to the brim, and make me "hot" with your fire of passion for souls. Let this stirring within me burst forth in celebratory witness of what you have done in my life in such power, that all who I come in contact with will say, " I want what he's got." I will not forget to give you the Praise and the glory, In Jesus' Name, Amen.