KINGS: CHILDREN AND SONS
#00.125
(Part 3)
WHEN SONS OF THE NOBLE ARE KINGS
Contents:
The Lord's Day
In The Spirit of The Day
"He hath made every thing (1)beautiful in his time: also he hath set the (2)world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end" (Eccl 3:11).
Not every time, or season, shines with the brightness of God's beauty like it does in His time. When God's season is upon us, we walk in the glory of His shining; for in it He has taken from His eternal day and sprinkled that season with its glorious brightness.
Men of Adam, however, know nothing of God's season; for their souls are wrapped about with temporal things. Men's lives are absorbed with night and day, with the ages which are concealed in his heart. God, however, has to do with eternity, that unfathomable thing that is irrelevant to night and day, and they who are one with the Eternal One know the Day of the Lord. They have entered His rest, into that day where there is no night nor shadow of turning. And with open eyes they can see that which was, is, and is to come. The Sons of the Noble can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end, for eternity has been set in their hearts.
With those whose lives are laced tightly by the mind of flesh, the ages have been buried deep within their souls. The ages veil the mysteries of God. Paul said he knew a man who was swept into that throne-room where some of those mysteries were beheld. This man found it impossible to relate in human language what he saw.
Even after a thing has been touched and handled, it cannot be adequately brought forth to man's understanding. And to think Bible colleges are attempting it.
That which is steeped in carnality, in rituals, in toil, sweat and tears -- in Adam, if you please -- cannot find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end. Those who are born of Christ, and are yet children, have the same veil draped over their minds; for they have not come to the understanding of spiritual matters. They play church. They move in the mode of time. They play in the dirt. And when the wind blows from their favorite ministers, they are tossed to and fro and carried along by their every word and doctrine, whether good, ill, or nil. They are as unstable as chaff on the summer's threshing floor; for they look to people whose hearts are set firmly by the ages. This, of course, has brought no small amount of woe to the land.
But now we have cause to praise God! Long shadows are swiftly sweeping over that spent day of woe to the land. From the vantage point of the new day, we see the end of children sitting as kings.
When the Sons of God are manifested, they will open the mysteries from on high. Everything physical, and spiritual as well, will be touched by the glory of God manifested. With the reign of Sons, all things shall be brought into the light of Christ. They will bridge the gap. The wide gulf will be transcended and those glorious Sons will fuse the natural elements with the eternal. They will reach into the Lord's Imperial Day and distribute it freely to a lonely, dark, and lost world.
When viewed from above, and not from beneath, new concepts come concerning time and space. We see that in the fullness of Christ's Spirit we don't just move and have our being at the speed of light -- we become light, and with such, the element of time is no longer a factor. We become ageless and stop aging, and, of course, we would therefore never die. Let me remind you, Jesus said that "…whosoever LIVETH and believeth IN (into, Grk) ME shall NEVER DIE. Believest thou this?" (John 11:26). Some do not believe it.
I've said it before, but it bears repeating. I do not believe it is possible for physical matter, such as a human body, to travel at the speed of light. However, we, being in Christ, are not physical. We may be clothed upon by physical bodies, but our human frames are not what we are. We are light, and not earth, as Jesus made clear, "Ye are the light of the world... (Mat 5:14). And Jesus said the same about Himself, and again of us, by saying, "...I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). We are also told that "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit (light) and in truth." (John 4:24). Moreover, this light is not natural light, it is spirit. That which is natural merely signifies that which is spiritual.
The terms, light and spirit, are synonymous when referring to God, Jesus, and those who are relative to Him. They, therefore, are the only entities which can absolve time. Eternity becomes a reality! The past, present, and the future become one! It was in this that John must have been transported and placed, which is called the Day of The Lord, as he wrote in Revelation 1:10.
THE LORD'S DAY
"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet" (Rev 1:10).
It has been argued for centuries which day it might have been that John was speaking. Was it Saturday or was it Sunday? The Jews, Seventh Day Adventists, Seventh Day Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and a few others say it was Saturday. They site the law as their source of authority, which speaks of Saturday being the day of rest. It was also the seventh day when God rested from his work. However, the Roman Catholics, and most all the Protestants believe Sunday is the Day of the Lord; for that was the day Jesus rose from the dead, making that day His Day.
There is one verse from which they draw to gain support: "And upon the first day (Grk. omits day)of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight" (Acts 20:7). For some, this is compelling evidence for meeting the first day of the week, and justification enough to call it the Lord's day. However, there really isn't enough weight in this verse to take the liberty to do so, much less to make it a mandate, nor is there sufficient evidence to make it a world-wide doctrine by which to imprison people.
Just because the disciples did certain things does not sanctify them, and neither does it make them mandates as rules everyone should follow for all time. If we use every act of the early disciples as a premise by which to live, we would be shaving our heads and sacrificing animals. For that is what Paul did.
People may not like to hear this; but Paul shaved his head and sacrificed animals, and this was after his conversion. What he did was a testimony that he compromised by taking the advice of the elders in Jerusalem. They pointed out the many thousands of Christian Jews who were zealous of the law, and if he would sacrifice some animals for the sins of the people, it would bring the multitudes together. He, therefore, made a vow with four men, shaved his head, went into the temple, and sacrificed animals. I know you don't believe me; but read it for yourself in Acts 21:14-26.
Even so, we see the same happening today for the sake of unity. Bringing everyone together seems to be more important to some than abiding in the Truth by which we were saved and brought this far. The larger scale of bringing unity is called the Ecumenical Movement. They are compromising just about every truth known for so called unity. To be frank, there is no unity without Christ.
Paul compromised one time, and it must have tormented him greatly. At least, we can assume he was tormented by it; for he wrote most sternly to the Galatians about falling from grace. In his admonition he pointed out how they were trying to perfect by the flesh what was begun in the Spirit.
One thing is for sure, after he had gone back to the law and sacrificed the animals, signifying that the crucifixion of Jesus was not enough, he was not writing from the result of inspiration -- he was writing from experience.
Have I made my point? Hopefully, it can be seen that if a student of Christ did something during the first century, and it is recorded in the Bible, does it make it an eternal law? I should think not, otherwise, we would be shaving our heads and slaughtering animals on a bloody altar.
Therefore, just because some of the disciples were meeting together the first of the week does not suggest Sunday is the Lord's Day. Most likely, the reason for meeting when they did was more for convenience than anything else. Since it was in Troas, Greece, and the influence of the populace was pagan rather than Jewish, most of the people were home from work on Sunday. But since we were not there, it is doubtful we will ever know with any degree of certainty.
While the legal strategists and scripture pundits have argued over which day is the Lord's Day, they have missed it altogether. Both have been as far from the truth as the east is from the west.
Revelation 1:10 is the only place "The Lord's Day" is found in the entire Bible. The Greek words, kuriakos hemera, are not found anywhere else either. There is one other place where the single word, kuriakos, is used, and that is in connection of the Lord's (kuriakos) Supper (1 Cor 11:20).
"The Day of The Lord" is used twenty-five times throughout the Bible; but it has nothing to do with a single day of the week. It is in reference to an event wherein man has lost control of his destiny, to the all encompassing power and might of God. And it is not a picnic, or a time to sing soul-solacing hymns of Some Glad Day...I'll Fly Away.
The Day of the Lord is always filled with wrath, blood, tears, darkness, destruction, distress, desolation, vengeance, gloominess, captivity, and death. The Day of the Lord is not in relation to the Day wherein John found himself. Although he saw vials being poured out upon the earth, and the day spelled out the end of all flesh, this Day was a day of Great Glory. So much so, that he fell down as dead before the one he turned to see. The Lord's Day is the day that the Sons of the Noble sit as kings in the earth. To carnal men, it is a day of wrath; for it is the Day when man has lost control to the reign of the King of kings and the Sons of the Noble.
Saturday or Sunday is not an issue here. The Lord's Day speaks greater things than the natural sequence of time. It is good to lay up stores on the first day of every week as God has prospered you (1 Cor 16:2). Paul instructed the people to do that so there wouldn't have been a collection plate passed around when he arrived. There are sensible and orderly things to be done; but let us not confuse a day on the calendar with the Imperial Day, regardless of how practical and beneficial it might be.
IN THE SPIRIT OF THE DAY
When we read Revelation 1:10 from the renderings of most translations, it is difficult to glean much truth. "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day" -- doesn't do much more than cause people to think of a day on the calendar, such as Saturday or Sunday, depending on one's religious persuasion. The Greek, however, does not imply such a thing. Note, "I was in spirit in the Lord's Day." John was not merely praying and happened to be moved from natural thinking to spiritual thinking. He was transferred from his natural state of being to that of the spirit of the Lord's Imperial Day! His position moved from natural to spiritual, from Adam to Christ, from darkness to light -- from time to timelessness. He was relative to the Eternal Godhead. Time ceased to be a factor. Its temporal chains fell away and every limitation was lifted. The Lord then said, "Come up hither," and from the balcony of the third floor he was able to see the whole parade of time from the first century of that day to the last.
With the element of time, light and darkness make days; but in the Lord's Day there is no darkness so time ceases. Moreover, when observing from on high, the dark days of man are not a factor concerning eternal things; for darkness and light are the same to the Sons sitting in Christ as Kings. It was in this, in the Lord's Day, that the Spirit drew John's attention and placed him. He became spirit, and was in the Spirit of that Day!
It was more than a revelation to him, that is, as we think of the word, revelation. When we hear the word, revelation, we think of coming to some spiritual understanding of one of the mysteries of God, and this is true. It was by revelation we were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. We came into Sonship, and have been brought this far from revelation. All these revelations came to us from the Spirit that spoke expressly to us.
However, there is another form of revelation. That form comes from experience, by being in the midst of the unfolding mystery -- by living it. Revelations that come by way of living angels of experience will never die. They become a part of the person which will be manifested in the earth. Such cannot be thought or taught. It may be related in human terms of signs and symbols; but the reality of them cannot be imparted by way of teachings. That must be why John conveyed it to us in symbols in his letter we call, the Book of Revelation. Symbols speak volumes, but there are certain things that simply cannot be learned except by way of experience.
For example, try to explain love. The closest we can get is to say: God is Love, or Jesus crucified is love; it is that wonderful feeling parents have for their child, or that fuzzy feeling a boy has when he kisses a girl for the first time. But for one to adequately explain love -- impossible! Nonetheless, I can say with assurance, that anyone who is filled with love, whether natural love or spiritual love, they know what it is, and it is a simple thing for others to see it in them. Their lives radiate love; but even they would find it impossible to explain.
And so it is with the Lord's Day! It is something that has to be lived. You won't find it taught in seminaries or from the most learned pulpits, at least, not in the pure form that John was raptured into. And once there, as it was with John, it is a simple thing to hear the Lord's voice and to see things impossible to utter in human language. The best we can do, I suppose, would be to say -- IT IS FINISHED!
What tremendous things John saw in that day, yet to him it was this day. Some of which he saw were placed in print as a record for succeeding generations to learn from as the Spirit opened it to them, while he was told not to write about other things he saw.
When a man prophesies, he generally does it from what he hears by the Spirit, or he can tell what he sees. If he repeats what he hears by the Spirit, he is being a messenger. However, if he sees an event and declares what he sees, he becomes a witness. With spiritual matters, he, therefore, becomes spirit, and can stand in a future day in the same way John stood in the Lord's Day. When you prophesy, is it due to inspiration of the Spirit, or is it from being carried into a certain day and event? Either way is good, but the latter will have a much greater impact upon those involved.
Paul, or someone he knew, was caught up to the third floor where he could view things that few people had ever had the privilege of seeing. He called it the third heaven (2 Cor 12:2), and what he saw was not lawful for him to write. Actually, it was not possible to put into human language. Griesbach in the Emphatic Diaglott renders the latter half of verse 4 -- "He…heard indescribable things spoken, which it is not possible for a man to relate."
Perhaps some of you have seen things in the Spirit, and when you tried to relate them to others, there were simply no avenues or ways to approach such a feat. What you heard or saw was probably so crystal clear in your spirit that you felt a child could grasp it, and it would be easily told to others, so you thought, but not so. When you shared the revelation of what you had so clearly witnessed, you most likely felt as if you had defiled it in some way by attempting to bring eternal truths down to human levels of understanding. And this is probably so. This, I believe, is what Paul was referring to concerning seeing things that were unlawful to speak. They were literally unutterable, and to attempt to do so would offend spiritual properties of God's most Holy Day.
Although John was caught up to that eternal realm of the third-floor balcony, and was given instructions to write in signs what he saw, on one occasion He was told to seal it up and not to write. That was when the seven thunders spoke (Rev 10:3-4).
Wouldn't you love to know what they uttered? I would. But, as it was with what Paul saw and heard, it is doubtful that such things could be related on a human level. Even if perchance we could hear and speak them -- who would believe us? For you see, that which John saw was never put into print. Therefore, that portion was never written where it could find its way into the Bible. (3)Cherubim are not even there to keep the way; for without the letter of the word there is no need for their protective service.
With such being the case, people would be hard-pressed to believe what you might have to say concerning those wonders. If you can't point to the chapter and verse where it is written, not many will receive it. But it's no matter, since it is impossible for anyone to convey it in human terms anyway. Yet I will tell you this -- that which anyone speaks or manifests from the Lord's Day into man's day, will bring with it quite a shaking. Earthquakes, lightning, fire, hail, and brimstone will sweep across his day like the scourge of hell; but it will be from heaven. His day will forever be changed and swallowed up by the Eternal Day which the Sons of Noble will bring.
Some have ascended to that same third-floor balcony as did John, and I am sure they not only hear and see the same seven thunders for themselves; but they will be those thundering heralds. They stand in the Imperial Day of the Lord -- which is presently round about us and in us all. When it is right, when they know to sound, they shall thunder from the heavens of the Lord's Imperial Day of Light and Life into the perilous day of darkness and death.
Although the seven thunders are words that may not be able to be spoken, they can be manifested as living epistles and be known and read of all men. This is, no doubt, the thunders the earth will hear -- the lives of the Sons of the Noble sitting in manifestation as kings on the earth.
Let us draw our attention back to Revelation 1:10 where John said, "I was in spirit in the Lord's Day." First, a day speaks of a frame of time. It can be twenty-four hours with the evening and the morning making a complete day. It can also be the twelve hours during the time the sun is shining. A day is also known in the scriptures as a time-period which is initially marked by a particular event and closes with another. It is a quality and character of life, such as -- we are children (Grk, huios, sons) of light, and children (huios, sons) of the Day, we are not of the night, nor of darkness (1 Th 5:5). This indicates that the Spirit of Christ Jesus is our light. He is our Day. He is the Sun/Son in our heavens, and time has nothing to do with this Day.
Without His Spirit there would be no Lord's Day. It is His Spirit and His doing that gives it the characteristic to be called the Lord's Day. The Sun/Son which shines is His Spirit radiating from above all heavens, bringing His Day. It is His Spirit that moves where it will through the earth, which brings about Christ's bidding in His Day. His Spirit is the lightning striking the earth of carnal man, and it is the Spirit of His mind which carries His voice of thunder to be heard when the Sons of the Noble sit as kings. There is nothing in His Day that is not His Spirit: Love is Spirit, Light is Spirit, Power is Spirit, Counsel is Spirit, Knowledge is Spirit, Understanding is Spirit, Wisdom is Spirit, and Day is Spirit. Simply put -- God is Spirit!
Anyone who is IN the Lord is IN His Spirit, and therefore, he is IN the Lord's Day! To be in the Lord's Day is to be in the Spirit of His Day. This is where John found himself to be -- in the Spirit of that Day! Moreover, it would have been impossible for him to be in the Spirit of that Imperial Day without being in the Day.
The Lord's Day is when He who is the Lord, namely, Christ Jesus the Son of God, reigns supreme and everyone and everything is made subject to Him. That was the day wherein John found himself when he was in Spirit. His body was on the Isle of Patmos, but he was in the Lord's Day. Let others believe it speaks of Saturday or Sunday if they want, and let them bow and give themselves to either of those days; but let us be true to our calling and be in the spirit of that day and live therein.
The term in this verse, I was, is worth noting. The Greek word from which the two words are translated is egenomen. I comes from ego, and was is derived from enomen. Enomen is a compound word, en-homou. En means in, and homou means at the same place or time and relates to being in company with, i.e., in relationship to. That which John was in the midst of at the same place and time, and in company with and relative to, was the Spirit. He was so relative to the Lord that he saw things that were already present, but for everyone else it was yet to be. To him there was no distinction between today and tomorrow; for He was in Spirit in the Lord's Day.
Furthermore, we have no record that he ever left that day, even as there are no authentic records of his death, so we are told. I am persuaded that if a person abides in the Lord's Day that he will never see death; for there is no darkness, no night, and no death in that Day. The Sun/Son never sets in His Day. And His Day is speaking to another day (Psa 19:2-8) and bringing them together as the one Day of the Lord.
The angel of the Lord told John some things. For one, that the things he would be seeing and hearing were at hand (near) (Rev 1:3), and if not immediately at hand, they were very near. It would make one wonder, if those things were at hand two-thousand years ago, why is the church still waiting for them? Think about it, at least until the answer begins to dawn upon the horizons of your understanding.
I'll give you a hint: John being relative to the Spirit saw things of that Day so near that he could touch, see, and hear them. There were natural events that indeed took place soon after he saw them; but for the Lord's Imperial Day, it was on another level. A few verses farther down we see that John came to that place and time, or timelessness, of the Spirit.
It seems that before John started his discourse of what he witnessed after being engulfed by the Spirit and placed in the Lord's Day, he cleared the path of understanding by speaking of Christ as the Eternal One. He wrote: "John…unto you, and peace from Him which IS, and which WAS, and which IS TO COME…even from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth…" (Rev 1:4-5).
Who do you suppose are the kings of the earth? In answer, they are the same kings of Revelation 5:10. "And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." The kings of the earth in Revelation 1:5 are certainly not the children of which we noticed earlier, and neither are they the converted world leaders such as Bill Clinton, Queen Elizabeth, Muammar Qaddafi, Saddam Hussein, and the likes. No not at all. Not by any stretch of the imagination. The kings of the earth are none other than the Sons of the Noble, and they shall reign on the earth.
The Son's reign is much more than what Adam had. He was given authority to reign over ever creature of the earth; while the Sons are given dominion of the heavens as well. God is the possessor of heaven and earth(Gen 14:19), and all He possesses is given to His Sons to rule (2 Pet 1:2-4, Rev 21:7). This dominion does not stop with mere men and the creatures, but also reigns over every sickness, disease, spirit, and profane thing.
John went on to write: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which IS, and which WAS, and which IS TO COME, the Almighty" (verse 8).
From the perspective of the third floor, John not only saw the entire parade of the ages; but he saw Jesus filling them all. His perspective enabled him to see that which was from the beginning to the end, from the creation of it all, to its subjection to sin and death, and finally to the salvation and restoration of the total. What a view! It sure beats sitting on our little stools in front of the hardware store watching one float pass by at a time, as Brother Eby related(4).
As the apostle of love was snatched up in spirit into the Imperial Day, he heard a voice behind him "Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last... (Rev 1:11). Or, we could say, "I am presently Alpha and Omega, the first and the last," not I was Alpha and shall be Omega. Again we hear Him announcing all three elements of time and bringing them together as one.
When we rise to the third floor of the hardware store, it becomes increasingly difficult to nail our Lord down to a specific period of time. He is everywhere at all times, and even beyond. He is the Eternal God, the Forepart and Consummation of all time and space, the Beginning and the Ending of it all. After we are called higher in Him, He expands greatly, at least in our sight. No longer can He be contained and known only in our little world and fleeting seasons of events. He is more than what we might see from our little boardwalk or elevated stoop. It is then that we see Him in His grand splendor before us. He is in the past, the present, and in the ages to come. He is already victorious over all. He is reigning triumphantly on the earth -- and not alone. He is coming with His reward, the kings of the earth, and they reign as one. Brethren, when we stand in His Day, it is a simple thing to say -- IT IS FINISHED!
Elwin R. Roach
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1. beautiful; from the root yaphah, bright
2. "The World Hebrew Olam = Ages; or the world (in relation to time)" (E.W. Bullinger).
3. Secrets Of The Cherubim series free upon request.
4. See #99.122, To Whom Are We Relative (Part 5), free upon request.