GOD'S OPERATIONS
GOD’S OPERATIONS
My thought is to seek to show the manner of God’s operations. You will have observed in the Scriptures that the Spirit operates in connection with a certain set of circumstances, and that the Lord operates in connection with another set of circumstances, and, finally, that God operates. And as you pass from one thought to another, the sphere of the operations extends. When God operates fully according to His own nature the sphere of the operations extends to the whole creation. He has rights as Creator, and when He is free to act according to His nature He asserts these rights. He has a right to operate according to His nature. One thing that gives the present period such a unique character is that it is the moment of God’s operations according to His nature as fully revealed. He operates “all things in all”, 1 Corinthians 12:6.
I need not remind you that God always operated from the outset. The book of Job is most interesting and helpful in this respect. It is remarkable, that in undertaking to enlighten Job, the great text-book of God was creation. He appealed to it, with the result that Job was convicted. God began by questioning Job, calling attention to the time when He began to operate. God asked, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?”, Job 38:4. But His operations then did not disclose His nature; they disclosed His power.
With this the beginning of Genesis fully accords. In giving an account of things Moses opens thus: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”, Genesis 1:1. The thought of the Spirit was to introduce God and His rights in creation. When Moses wrote, these rights had been disregarded, and men were [p. 490] worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator. Hence the Spirit of God takes up Moses and inspires him to write a testimony of God’s creatorial rights, saying, that in the beginning He created the heavens and the earth. And then we are further told that the earth being without form and void, and darkness upon the face of the deep, and then God operated to bring light and order into it.
An analogy to this is the soul of man as away from God. Man is God’s handiwork, but sin has brought chaos and darkness into his soul. God has no place there, and if God has no place in your heart chaos reigns there. The laws of the country in which you live do not regulate your heart. They may attempt to keep within bounds its tendencies, but they do not regulate your heart; complete disorder and darkness reign there if God’s rights are not owned. Now the Spirit of God in Genesis 1, hovered over the face of the deep, and so now He waits on opportunities to work in men’s souls. We do not always give Him opportunities, but one feels that if you come into the gospel meeting you give God an opportunity. If you are at all honest you come in for a purpose. God is always ready as the opportunity offers itself, and the first thing God does is to command light. God said, “Let there be light”, Genesis 1:3. It is a wonderful moment in the history of a soul when the command is given, “Let there be light”.
I allude to all that briefly to show you the character of God’s operations. God acts for Himself. He acts from His own motives, and He has His own great end in view in His operations. You may ask me what the end is. Well, the end in view in God’s operations in the soul of man is that that person should be conformed to Christ. You could not conceive of a greater end. God begins with Christ; He begins by bringing in a Man that is in every way in accordance with His ideal. The heavens were [p. 491] opened by God upon Jesus, and God pronounced His unqualified delight in Him. It was God virtually saying, This is my ideal. God has found His ideal in Christ, and all His operations now are to form souls after Christ. That is the idea in the gospel.
Now, I want to show you how God has operated so that the gospel might be extended from the narrow limits of judaism to the wide limits of creation. God has wrought to that end. I do not think you get any event in which this is more perfectly stated, than that which is related in this chapter. It commends itself to me as a most perfect statement to bring into evidence how God has operated so that the light of the gospel should be extended to us gentiles.
I wish to go into the matter in a little detail. A great many things had to be done, and one is struck with the minuteness of detail that is presented. Cornelius is taken account of outside judaism, and this is a distinct testimony to the sovereign activity of God outside Israel prior to the formal introduction of the gospel to the gentiles. Peter had to be taken account of in this, for he was the official holder of the keys of the kingdom, Matthew 16:19. As yet he was not prepared to use them to admit the gentile, but we shall see that God operated to lead Peter to do this. I want to show you how God formed Peter to open the door to the gentiles in suitable dignity. If the door is to be opened it must be opened wide, and with grace and good-will; opened by one who was won over to complete sympathy with God’s mind. The moment had come for it, and God was bent upon this great transaction.
We have to bear in mind that God’s testimony up to this point was associated with Israel. God had not definitely broken with Jerusalem; the activities of the Spirit through the twelve apostles were there.
[p. 492] I have often thought that God did not leave Israel until they forced Him to leave them; it was a wonderful testimony to His patience. Nothing can exceed the patience of God in regard to Israel. He bore with Israel after they had put to death His precious Son, and after the testimony of the twelve was refused He sent Paul throughout the empire, and in every city that Paul visited he went to the “Jew first”. Even when he went to Rome he sent for the Jews, not the brethren; and more than that, when the time came for God to bring in the gentile, and when He succeeded in securing the gentile for His pleasure, He invited the Jew to participate in His joy. He actually proposes to the Jew to participate in His holy joy in the returned prodigal. He appeals to the elder brother in Luke 15. He says, “This thy brother” (Luke 15:32), appealing to his affections, if there were any. The elder brother says, “This thy son was come” (Luke 15:30), not, my brother. There was not the least sympathy with the Jew toward the gentile.
In Acts 11 the spirit of the elder brother is fully manifest, even in those who were professed believers. They of the circumcision at Jerusalem contended with Peter, but the apostle justified himself by saying that it was God who acted. “What was I”, he says, “that I could withstand God?”, Acts 11:17. As it was, Peter and the other apostles were tardy as to the admission of the gentiles, but God would have Peter act with Him. He would have the door opened, not simply to what was established in Jerusalem, but to what was established in heaven. What have I been admitted to as a gentile? Into what sphere does the door open? Why, it is into the whole heavenly system. The gentile was not simply admitted to what was established at Jerusalem; that was not a complete idea; it was connected with Jerusalem; what the gentile is admitted to is the heavenly system, but before the gentile was actually admitted [p. 493] the four-cornered sheet had to come down from heaven.
I wish to dwell for a moment further upon the manner of God’s dealings with Peter. He would have Peter. I think it ought to be a great point with every one who preaches the gospel as to whether it is a question of helping souls merely, or of being with God. Now God wishes to have every minister in sympathy with Him. He loves to work with us if we want to work with Him. Do you think God would have left Cornelius without light? Certainly not; but Peter was the appointed key-holder and Peter must go and admit Cornelius, and God operated in Peter so that he goes in full sympathy with Himself. One good mark about Peter is that he was praying. Even although he little understood the mind of heaven, at any rate he was in the position of a servant; he was praying. He went up to the house-top to pray. It is a very good place to go to. We read of the Lord being alone in prayer. The service of God requires power and that power is in God, and hence Peter to that extent was equal to his position; but that was not all. Peter was hungry. God had that advantage over Peter. God is the Creator and He reserves to Himself His rights in the creation. If He has so constituted us that we become hungry, He can use our hunger. It was well that Peter was hungry. If he had gone to sleep, he would not have seen such things. Peter fell into a trance while he was hungry, and God has His opportunity, and lets down the sheet. Cornelius was not there, nor his messengers. Peter was there; the sheet was for Peter; to educate Peter. It was to convey to Peter that the mind of heaven was not the mind of Jerusalem. He knew the mind of Jerusalem, but he was not acquainted with the mind of heaven. The gospel expresses the mind of heaven. There is no respect of persons there. One wonders whether the saints are [p. 494] acquainted with the mind of heaven. It is common enough to hear what London thinks, what Berlin thinks, what Paris thinks, but what is the mind of heaven? Well, the wonderful thing that came to light is that the mind of heaven is in sympathy with the man upon the earth. It was as if God said to Peter, The gentiles are all mine. I have created the gentiles. He is the God of the gentiles as well as of the Jews. Well, Peter had not acknowledged that; that was new instruction to him; God would impress upon him what the mind of heaven was, so that if he opens the door to the gentiles, he opens it in suited dignity and grace. I love to think of entering the door opened by Peter; it is not only that he is the one chosen of Christ to open it, but he opens it in the full light of the mind of heaven.
What have we been admitted into? I take account of myself as taken up by God and introduced into a heavenly system. In Acts 9 we learn that God’s authority is no longer at Jerusalem; it is in the hands of Christ in heaven. Saul acknowledges Him as Lord there; and then he preaches Him in Damascus as God’s Son. What I understand by the Son of God in that connection is that He will not take up anything that was established by another. He must be supreme. Hence the Son introduced a system altogether His own. He has His own kingdom, His own city, and His own house. Everything is formed and planned and carried out by the Son. In chapter 10 God shows that the mind of heaven is toward the gentiles. Peter opens the door to all that. I do not say that Peter understood the Son of God, but he opened the door for the gentile to enter into all that light. In being admitted into the divine, circle do we see the magnitude of it? It is a heavenly system. It is established and centred in Christ in heaven.
God has completely secured Peter, and Peter [p. 495] goes on to Caesarea. Everything is so far perfectly arranged. Cornelius is also ready, God did that too, it was God’s operation. We have little thought of the watchfulness, the vigilance of God, waiting for opportunities to operate for us. Now He had Peter, and Cornelius is ready, but not only that, Cornelius has a company ready. The gentiles are to be admitted as a company; it would not do for God to bring in only Cornelius; that would not represent the prodigal properly. One man could scarcely represent the gentile any more than one man could represent Israel. The Jews were brought in collectively, and so the Holy Spirit comes upon the gentiles collectively.
So far, as I said, the operations are perfect; God’s apostle is now in Caesarea. He is going with a free heart, and he “opened his mouth”. Cornelius is there and his relatives and friends. It gives us an excellent idea of a gospel meeting. A great thing in a gospel meeting is to get relatives and friends. One sees how Cornelius appreciated what God had to give. He know but little of it, but he knew something of God. He was accustomed to pray to God, and he knew that there was something worth hearing. He not only waited for Peter himself, but he had a company. A remarkable gospel meeting that! And who arranged it? It is a most remarkable instance of God arranging things for the furtherance of His ends. The company was there, and Peter goes and preaches to them. God had qualified him. Do you think Peter could have spoken to these gentiles with such freedom if he had not seen the sheet let down from heaven? Could he have spoken to them with such power if he had not been with God In His service? God intended that the message should come to the gentiles in a sympathetic vessel. Peter opens by explaining what God had shown him. It is remarkable how he understood the vision, he [p. 496] understood what God meant by the sheet; he knew by it, that he was to call nobody common or unclean; he understood that God was now operating in a universal way, and that He was about to bring in the gentiles and give them part in His heavenly system; and Peter opens his mouth.
It is a wonderful thing to see a mouth opened by the Spirit. I never think of preaching without referring to the Lord, as seen in Luke 4. There Luke depicts for us the first gospel scene in which Christ figured. The attendant in the synagogue hands Him the roll of the prophet Isaiah, and He stands up to read. All that was done in evangelical dignity. He reads only what is evangelical, and He says, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21), and He sat down. We are told that the eyes of all those who were in the synagogue were fastened upon Him. There is the Preacher, and His manner, His reading and His speaking are altogether lovely; they are altogether in accord with the message. There was no disparity between the message and the Preacher. We are told that they marvelled at the words of grace that proceeded from His mouth. Peter opened his mouth, and communicates to the gentiles what God had done. The point in this passage is that God had been operating. Peter says, “The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ”. Peter gathers up the ministry of Christ and gives us a synopsis of it, and the point of his remarks is this, that God was doing things. God had sent Jesus, He had anointed Him, and Jesus went about doing good, for God was with Him.
Peter delivers his message, and God now does something. You must distinguish between God’s sovereign operations in your soul before the gospel is presented and the gospel itself. The preacher does not effect any work in your soul. Peter could effect nothing in Cornelius’ soul; all he could do [p. 497] was to open his mouth, and in opening his mouth he communicated the gospel. Now God comes in. God is not content with enlightening the gentiles. He embraces them. I refer to the gift of the Spirit. It was taking the gentiles as it were, into God’s holy embrace. He embraced the prodigal. Have you ever felt the divine embrace? Nothing more is to be said after that. Supposing God gives the Spirit to a black man? There is nothing more to be said. After He gives His Spirit to a man we must bow to God. God is no respecter of persons. We are His offspring, says Paul. He has made of one blood all the nations of the earth. Why should I make a distinction? God is making none. The sheet contained all kinds of animals. If God gives His Spirit to a man, God has honoured that man; you cannot conceive a greater honour than that God should actually give His Spirit to a man, and that man is suited for God now. He is no longer an alien; he has the Holy Spirit of God. Such persons are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens. That is what the gentile is, because God has given him the Spirit. Cornelius and his company did not say anything; the fact is, they had no opportunity, because Peter was speaking. There was no after meeting. No opportunity to make confession; but then there is no need of that if God is acting and looking on. God knows what is going on in your heart. He knew perfectly what was in these gentiles. He would not have given His Spirit if He had not. The gentiles were morally cleansed and He knew it, otherwise He would not have given them the Holy Spirit.
Now what one notices is that if the elder brother had been there, there would have been an objection. But, thank God, he did not go down with Peter. It is a very inapt thing to take people along in the service of the gospel who are not sympathetic. Peter went out from a very wonderful atmosphere,
[p. 498] the atmosphere of heaven, and he was accompanied by people who were sympathetic. They did not complain, although they were astonished at the gift of the Spirit coming on the gentiles. It is a great thing to be in sympathy with God. And so Peter says, as it were, ‘I can say nothing, all I can do is to administer to the gentile the right of baptism’. He had preached, and God had done something. That is what I want you to get hold of. God has given His Son for us, and He gives His Spirit to us. There is no gift greater than the Spirit. There was nothing left for Peter, but to baptise them. He commanded them to be baptised in the name of the Lord. Baptism does not introduce us into the house, the Spirit introduces us into the house. Before they were officially acknowledged as in the kingdom, God had put them in the house. What I see in it is this, that God is so desirous of having them that there was no waiting. While Peter was speaking the Holy Spirit fell upon the gentiles.
If you have listened to the word of God and your heart is touched, God knows it; do you not think that God is looking into your heart? There is no creature that is not manifest in His sight; not a creature. He is looking into your heart. You need not tell Him anything. If you want salvation, you must confess Christ as Lord. You have to raise the standard of Christ in the region of the enemy, but God knows what is in your heart. I often think of the prodigal when he was returning; God saw him first, when he was a great way off; it refers to the state of the soul. “When he came to himself” (Luke 15:17); that also refers to the state of the soul. God is the first to take notice of it, and then He moves. God moves toward us. He ran to meet the prodigal, and embraced him, and put him into His house. God moved out to these gentiles, and then He gave them the Spirit. He ran to meet them, and embraced [p. 499] them, and put them into His house without a question; and Peter formally and publicly admits them as to their having title to all that Christ is. That is the position in which we stand. What I have indicated is the great position and blessing accorded to all who believe the gospel now. The ground is laid for Paul’s ministry. Directly Christ has gained Paul the door must be opened for him, and hence the ground is laid in this chapter for the ministry of the apostle of the gentiles.
May the Lord grant that we may know what God’s operations are, and to count upon them. He has not ceased to operate; and may each unsaved one believe God’s testimony as to Christ, and so come into His favour, and enjoy the great privileges and blessings of the heavenly system, for His name’s sake.