ACTS 11 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 328] ACTS 11 (NOTES OF A READING)
Ques What is the import of the great sheet?
CAC It sets forth what God is doing at the present time, cleansing all sorts of unclean persons.
Rem Peter sees them in the sheet.
CAC There is a wonderful movement going on now which has its origin in heaven and its destiny in heaven. None will go into heaven but who are in the vessel.
Rem I suppose Peter had a very limited idea of the gospel.
CAC He needed to be brought into the present mind of heaven. He was no doubt aware that the grace of God would go out to the gentile world from such scriptures as Isaiah 66: 18 - 21, and also that the Jews, the Israelites, would be brought to Jerusalem “as an oblation ..., as the children of Israel bring an oblation in a clean vessel into the house of Jehovah”. This was another kind of vessel, “a certain vessel descending like a great sheet”, coming from and going back to heaven. Peter had never heard of that before nor could he be expected to.
Rem And it is universal, “letdown by four corners”.
CAC A vessel “like a great sheet”. No one who knows God would think that He would be satisfied with anything small. In Acts 2: 11 they hear “the great things of God”, and in Luke 14: 16 - 23 He makes “a great supper” and “many” are invited and the house is to be “filled”. There are many creatures of all kinds in the vessel but they are all cleansed. There is nothing common or unclean in that vessel. It is a serious question whether we are in the vessel or not.
Rem God had effected the cleansing.
CAC God is very active in the cleansing of those who have been common or unclean. Nothing that is common would do for God. “Nothing common ... shall at all enter into” the holy city (Revelation 21: 27).
Rem “But ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6: 11). They are dignified.
CAC There are ten very unclean animals there: fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, those who make women of themselves, who abuse themselves with men, thieves, covetous, drunkards, abusive persons, rapacious (verses 9 and 10). And the apostle goes on to say, “And these things were some of you; but ye have been washed” etc. They had been unclean, but they had been washed and now had their places in this vessel.
Ques As to “no difference”, were all such once?
CAC There is a difference, but all are unclean. There are four things: quadrupeds, four-footed beasts, which might be useful, such as the horse for instance; wild beasts, such as you would be afraid of; creeping things, grovelling in the dirt; birds of the air, having high notions.
But if all are unclean and shut out from God’s presence, there is not much difference. Some men are “wild beasts”, some are “loathsome”, whilst some are respectable, but all are unclean and all must be cleansed by God. None have any place in this vessel but those whom God has cleansed. And there are millions in it now.
Ques How did they get in?
CAC They get in by the operation of God.
Rem One by one. “It came even to me”.
CAC The reality of it comes home to each soul. Each of us has to do with God. We come in as Cornelius did. Cornelius began to pray; it does not say when he began, perhaps when he was a boy.
Ques Was he born again then?
CAC He was seeking God and His blessing. Look at Acts 9, Ananias practically says of Saul, ‘I dare not go to [p. 330] him. He is a wild beast. He has been devouring the saints’. But what does the Lords say? “Behold, he is praying”! He is in the vessel, he is cleansed.
Rem Like the tax-gatherer, “O God, have compassion on me, the sinner” (Luke 18: 13).
CAC Yes, and every one who really desires to have blessing from God, having an exercised conscience and fearing God.
Rem And such are not only in the vessel, but will go up with it.
CAC There is a movement from heaven when any sinner repents, from the creation of the world till now. God moves from heaven. That is why they are so happy in heaven “for one repenting sinner”, because they know it came from heaven (Luke 15: 7, 10). God has cleansed him. When anyone has owned that he is all wrong and desires blessing from God, then he is cleansed and in the vessel.
Ques Why does it say it was “let down by four corners”?
CAC God would teach Peter that He was going to work in all four corners of the earth, that He was not limited to the Jew or to Israel, and that He was going to cleanse all those He worked in and make them ready to hear the good news that He has to send to them about Christ.
Rem Made ready for it by the work of God. “Now therefore we are all present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God” (Acts 10: 33).
CAC If God did not prepare souls for the gospel it would not be much good preaching it to them, but He does, and all is certain and secure; they are secured for heaven as having a place in that vessel.
Rem Outside of it there is no security.
CAC It should be a great exercise to all men to make sure and to be concerned as to having a place in that vessel. The Lord says to Paul in Corinth, “I have much people in this city” (Acts 18: 10). These were the very people of [p. 331] 1 Corinthians 6. God would secure from those unclean people something for Himself. He is visiting the nations to take out of them a people for His name. He is invoking His name among the Gentiles, “on whom my name is invoked, saith the Lord, who does these things known from eternity” (Acts 15: 17, 18).
Rem They are taken out and put in this one vessel.
CAC They are taken out to be for God and for heaven at the present time.
Ques Is it “one flock” now?
CAC They all become sheep, clean animals, cleansed by God.
Rem There is preparation in that way for the gospel.
CAC A work of God. The Lord says in John 10: 16, “And I have other sheep which are not of this fold: those also I must bring”. He brings them by giving them exercises and convictions. God’s cleansing work may begin very early in life. You are cleansed in your thoughts and are sorry about your sins and do not run greedily after the lusts of the world. We must not think that God does not work in a little child. It is the fruit of movement from heaven when anyone really says before God, ‘I have sinned’. We look out for such, whom God has washed and cleansed. However bad a man may have been, God can wash him.
Rem It has been said that the same word is used in the original in “the Holy Spirit fell upon them” (verse 15) and in “his father ... fell upon his neck” (Luke 15: 20).
CAC Yes, it is God’s embrace. But before that they received these wonderful “words”. “Peter, who shall speak words to thee whereby thou shalt be saved, thou and all thy house” (verse 14). We are saved by words. Those words all speak of God’s actings in Christ. He sent the word to the sons of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, who went about doing good and healing all oppressed of the devil, because God was with Him; and He is now Lord of all (Acts 10: 3638). And the wonderful testimony was “that every one that [p. 332] believes on him will receive through his name remission of sins” (verse 43). These are very precious words. We hear what God has done in Christ. Everybody who receives these words is saved by the words. As Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15: 1 - 6 in regard of what he had delivered to them “according to the scriptures”, “the glad tidings which I announced to you, ... by which also ye are saved, (if ye hold fast the word which I announced to you as the glad tidings)”. God has put wonderful power into words because they are words that tell me about Christ. It is the light of God’s salvation in Christ, true on the part of God and of Christ. When I believe it I am saved by believing, freed from all the dark and deluding influences of the world and from myself, and by faith directed to God and to Christ. If I receive the words, I am saved by them. The Holy Spirit falls on saved people and cleansed people. Saved people have the light of God’s salvation in Christ.
Rem The cleansing is of God and the gospel is of God.
CAC The words speak of Christ. “To him all the prophets bear witness that every one that believes on him will receive through his name remission of sins”. Those are the words. And they are just as true this minute as when Peter said them. These Gentiles were cleansed. Cornelius had prayed and he was one who feared God and wrought righteousness; that is, he sought to do what was right. They were saved: their hearts were purified (Acts 15: 7 - 9) and the heart-knowing God bore witness to them in giving them the Spirit. We do not know each other’s hearts, but God knows whether our hearts are really purified or not, whether we have repented and turned to Him and received Christ and our hearts have been purified from all the vain things in the world. I am sorry to say that I used to go to what are called ‘innocent entertainments’ and on one occasion I paid for my ticket to go in, but while waiting for the entertainment to begin I thought to myself, ‘This is no place for me’, and I got up and went out. I never regret losing that money!
[p. 333] You find you cannot go on with foolish and sinful things. Why? Because God has come into your view in Christ to purify you from all uncleanness and put you into the vessel. God sees where there is a heart purified. My heart once ran after the things in the world, ran greedily, but a time came when I could not because my heart was purified. The Holy Spirit is God’s witness to a purified heart. God loves to give the Spirit to a purified heart. God’s wonderful words concerning Himself and Christ are received, the heart is purified (the link with the world broken) and then you get the gift of the Spirit, which is God’s embrace. The prodigal, coming to himself, said, “I will rise up and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned”. The father saw him while he was yet a long way off, and he ran and fell on his neck and covered him with kisses. God throws His arms around the one who repents. “Yea, he loveth the peoples” (Deuteronomy 33: 3). That word “loveth” means “to lie in the bosom”. God takes the prodigal and he is enfolded into the bosom of God. What a God we have to deal with!
Rem We heard of a case where a servant of the Lord was reading Luke 15 to a lady who was very ill. When he came to verses 14 - 16 he heard her whisper. ‘That’s me’. He went on reading and when he had read verse 20 he said, ‘And that’s God’. God is waiting to hear “I have sinned”.
CAC I doubt whether there is one here in whom God has not worked from heaven. Perhaps we have never let it out. I would not have let anyone know of my exercises at the time for anything — that is Satan’s power. But what God works from heaven goes back to heaven. I never gave up praying every day that I might be saved ‘sometime’. Those were movements of desire that were wrought from heaven. By and by the movements of heaven triumphed. There are the ‘four ropes’ going back to God’s immutable counsel. God gets the victory. The movements of heaven leading souls to repentance have their result, and by and by all goes back to heaven.