INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE BLESSING
[p. 430] INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE BLESSING
Isaiah 51:1, 2; Acts 10:44; 1 Thessalonians 4: 17; Ephesians 2: 6
There is such a thing as individual blessing, and I have in mind that Abraham represents this thought. We could hardly find a more distinguished person to represent it. One who is the progenitor of millions, the father of all believers, is here taken to be alone — as Jehovah says, “I called him alone, and blessed him”, Isaiah 51:2. Many believers are unattached and elect to pursue a lonely, individual path, whereas there are companions for us, but Abraham was called alone. God had him in mind for great distinction and “called him alone, and blessed him”. Great glory was in the mind and heart of God when this event occurred.
Stephen, the martyr, begins his address to the Jewish leaders by saying, “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia”. “The God of glory!” The glory was not shining just then, but it would shine, and is shining now — “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. We are to behold that glory now. It enters into assembly services. “We all”, it is said, “... are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”, 2 Corinthians 3: 18 — a very simple statement which fits into what I have in mind. None of us is to be alone ultimately, though we may have to be according to the wisdom of God as Abraham was, for he was called alone. God had His own thoughts and waited His time for the display of them, but they were there. They were in His heart. We are told that in the days of Noah God had certain things in His heart. They were not disclosed. God has a right to keep His [p. 431] mind to Himself and so the mystery was not disclosed, the mystery “since the world began”; it was kept secret. God has a right to these matters, to keep things secret, and He has a right to take any one of us up as alone, it may be to discipline us, as the brethren are obliged to separate from us. That happened at Corinth. The grace of God superabounded in that case and the man that was selected for judgment was released earlier than it might have been expected. Paul himself, it would appear, was peculiarly affected that the release should come so soon. The Corinthians were not ready for it — they kept him in ward — but heaven had already acted in the case. The suggestion at the outset was that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, not saved here in time, in ordinary circumstances; but it was saved — the spirit was released and his body, too. Paul had tidings of this with great joy. The release from the sentence of judgment is God’s matter. The Lord Jesus has committed to His people the right of remission of sins. The Lord Jesus breathed into the disciples and said, “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them”, John 20: 23. Not that they will be, but they are! It is immediate. So it was that the man at Corinth was released, and did not have to wait for the day of the Lord Jesus.
The present day is the greatest of all days in the moral sense; it is a day of remission, and remission committed to the Lord’s people — the lovers of Christ, those whom He can rely on, those whom He can trust. There are very few, but they were there at the beginning and the Lord saw to it that they should be trustworthy and so communicated to them His own Spirit. Thus they would act according to heaven. So at Corinth this man, being awakened, had his sins remitted, though not yet by the saints. The assembly was not ready for the great matter, but [p. 432] heaven was. The apostle has to encourage the brethren at Corinth to act like heaven, because that is the position. The assembly is to reflect what is in heaven. Corinth was not ready for that. Many of us may not be ready for it; we may have grudges against each other and are not ready for forgiveness, whereas heaven is. The Lord says, “If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest ...” (Matthew 5: 23), as if God would wait until you get to the altar to remind you. It is not suggested that the man’s wife or his children reminded him — “If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift”. Leave it at the altar, heaven will take care of it. You will all remember how Abraham scared away the fowls that took his offerings. He took care of his offerings. Offerings to the Lord are to be taken care of — the altar is the custodian of them. The offering would wait our coming back to do the service of heaven. Seek thy brother’s forgiveness first. The whole scene in the sanctuary is to be marked by the spirit of forgiveness; none of us should be there with any unforgiven sins. None of us should be there having matters unsettled with our brother; the sanctuary should be free of all such things. Heaven is free. Joy is the order of the day in heaven. “Joy ... in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance”, Luke 15: 7.
So there is this idea of individuality and Abraham is selected of God to exhibit it. “I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him”.
Having said so much I should now like to point out that individual matters that need divine attention will be attended to by God. The epistle to the [p. 433] Romans unfolds to us the individual needs of the believer and how they are met. They should be met because God would have us attached. God has in His mind that every one of us should be attached. Many are unattached, remaining in an individual state, relation or circumstance, as it would seem in the person’s mind, for ever and for ever. But God would have us, those who are professedly believers, to be attached. Those who are unattached suffer accordingly; their countenances are not bright and free and happy if they have no true companionship. The other verses I have read are to bring out the blessedness of attachment according to God.
The epistle to the Romans is to bring out how individual needs are met. A believer (or even an unbeliever) is taken up as unattached in Romans; his position as such is accepted, and it is according to the mind of God that he should remain unattached until his needs are met.
I am under the impression that there are unattached persons here who should be attached — and perhaps attached persons who possibly may need detachment, but I am now seeking to bring out the thought of attachment. Acts 10 is peculiarly intended to help us on this line. Cornelius is an excellent example of what I have in mind. It is said of him “There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius ...”. This is an introduction by heaven of this remarkable man Cornelius. “A centurion of the band called the Italian band”. It is a heavenly introduction. Have you ever had such an introduction? It is questionable whether there ever was one who received such an introduction as Cornelius. Heaven is speaking to him and he is really unattached. He is a centurion, a military man, but he has already a place in heaven, a memorial in heaven. Cornelius had built up a memorial in heaven, and I doubt whether there ever was a man of his kind of which [p. 434] this is said earlier. An angel came to him and “when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord?” His answer is quite respectful, which is important if we are endeavouring to get light, or to be attached according to God. It was in the mind of heaven that this man was to be attached according to God. I want to show you how it came about.
So the answer was, “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God”. He had a memorial up there. He had not gone up there himself yet (he would go), but he is fitted for heaven already. We speak of those who have gone to be with the Lord as having gone to heaven, which is hardly accurate; it is better to say that they have gone to be with the Lord. Cornelius is undoubtedly marked out to be in heaven. It is a heavenly time, and Cornelius is coming into this. Others had come into it among the Jews, a few among the gentiles, but not any Corneliuses. He is intended to be a leader. But what I am dealing with now is that he is building up a memorial in heaven. Many have memorials on earth now, military ones, but Cornelius had built up a memorial in heaven and yet he had not the Holy Spirit. We could hardly say he had peace, or was justified in the ordinary sense in Romans, but he was building up a memorial in heaven, which indicates what a dispensation we are in. God is working in His own way. Apollos was taken to two persons to be shown the way of God more exactly. Many of us are very inexact about God.
If we are clerks or bank managers we are accurate enough, but when it comes to scriptural things we are very inaccurate. Aquila and Priscilla took Apollos to them and showed him the way of God more exactly, so Cornelius is signalised in this way as having a memorial in heaven before he had the Holy Spirit. There are many questions raised about [p. 435] this, but the answers to them all are in the Scriptures. This man was building up a memorial in heaven and in that sense was preparing for attachment.
I go on now to the attachment in verse 44: “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word”. Cornelius had a number of persons when Peter came, and he said, “we are all present”. Heaven saw the intent of their minds; it was not to speak about this brother or that brother, or this event or that, but to hear Peter — the evangelist of heaven, the messenger of heaven. It was that Peter should say things by which this man should be saved, and his companions should be saved, that they should all be released from encumbrances and no longer remain unattached, that they had come together. It was a great time; a time that extended far beyond that house of Cornelius it extended out to the gentile world — we are benefitting from it in this room tonight. Perhaps you have never heard about this before; but what I am saying is the truth. However many questions there may be in minds here, it is for each of us to take it up and see that it is true. Cornelius did not yet have the Holy Spirit; he was not redeemed, but God was building up for him in heaven a memorial. This is Cornelius’s memorial and he deserves it. The word as to him is, “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God” — not simply to heaven, but “before God”. Peter’s word was that he should be saved. He should tell words to Cornelius and his company as to how they should be saved; that is, relieved of everything that would encumber them morally.
What I want to show you now is that “while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word”. That is to say, heaven did not wait for Peter; heaven is greater than Peter, greater than all the apostles. It is a [p. 436] question of God. So it is that “while Peter yet spake ...” and he spoke well, I need hardly say. He was now announcing in Cornelius’s house, and they were all there together in one place, just as at Pentecost. We should be together in affection, but here in Cornelius’s house they were all together actually. They had come to hear the gospel word by which they were to be saved, one of the greatest matters, and in effect it was the opening of the door to the gentiles. It was Peter using the keys of the kingdom. He was to use those keys to let in these people; to let them into the kingdom of heaven — the kingdom of God. It was a question of being attached.
“While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word” — not simply, ‘which heard Peter’. It was a question of hearing and speaking the word of God. Timotheus preached the word, which is in a sense greater than preaching the gospel. The gospel is glad tidings, but the word of God has power in it — “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”, Hebrews 4: 12. The word of God is a peculiar thing, and, while these people were listening to the word that Peter was saying, “the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word”.
These are Peter’s words, but the word is the word of God. “While Peter yet spake ...” — at that very minute — it was one act, and it says “fell”, which would connect with the statement in Luke’s gospel that the prodigal’s father fell on the prodigal’s neck. It was the gracious intervention of heaven on account of these people in Cornelius’s house that they might be sealed and possessed by the Holy Spirit, that He might be in them and they might form the assembly. Hence they were attached.
If there are those here who are unattached in that [p. 437] sense I would ask you to hasten to become attached, become attached in God’s way! Attachment in that sense is the collective idea. You have been on individual lines too long, you are not getting the good of the brethren. Perhaps you have been obliged to alienate yourself from them. There is a way of recovery so that you should again become attached — it is by the Holy Spirit, who fell on these people while they were listening to Peter’s words.
Now in Ephesians we read, “... even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. The word ‘together’ is what is in mind. We are made to sit down together, meaning that no christian should, or does if he is intelligent, think of going to heaven by himself. We are to go together, a much more blessed thought. It is due to God and the brethren that we should think of the brethren in that way, that we are all going up together. “Hath raised us up together”it is an anticipative thought, not actually true yet, but it is true in order to bring out the great facts of the dispensation. We are viewed already as seated in the heavenlies. “Raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. But in view of the ages to come it is that “he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus”. The title is that our place is in heaven; our place is in the assembly here below de facto, but our place is in heaven, and it is that when the time comes we should show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Now finally I want to speak of what is to happen at the coming of the Lord. “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them ...”. I want to call attention to the word ‘together’. This should preclude any thought of being apart or unattached. Our feelings toward each other should be so intense that we are glad when the opportunity arises to be together. “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them ...”. One might say, Well, it is a blessed end to go anyway; but the thought is that we are going together, being caught up together and being with the Lord for ever and for ever. The great event will soon happen. “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord”. May God bless His word to us all!