I. It is necessary that men should be assured and certified that +the
doctrine of the Gospel and the Scripture is not of man but of
God.+--That the Scripture is the Word of God there are two
testimonies. 1. One is the evidence of God's Spirit imprinted and
expressed in the Scriptures, and this is an excellence of the Word of
God above all words and writings of men and angels. 2. The second
testimony is from the prophets and apostles, who were ambassadors of
God extraordinarily to represent His authority unto His Church, and
the penmen of the Holy Ghost to set down the true and proper Word of
God.
II. It is necessary that men should be assured in their consciences
that +the calling and authority of their teachers are of God.+--To
call men to the ministry and dispensation of the Gospel belongs to
Christ, who alone giveth the power, the will, the deed; and the
Church can do no more than testify, publish, and declare whom God
calleth.
III. +The Gospel which Paul preached was not human+--he did not
receive it, neither was he taught it by man; and preached it not by
human but by Divine authority. 1. Christ is the great prophet and
doctor of the Church. His office is: (1) To manifest and reveal the
will of the Father touching the redemption of mankind. (2) To
institute the ministry of the Word and to call and send ministers.
(3) To teach the heart within by illuminating the mind and by working
a faith of the doctrine taught. 2. There are two ways whereby Christ
teaches those who are to be teachers. (1) By immediate revelation.
(2) By ordinary instruction in schools by the means and ministry of
men.
IV. +They who are to be teachers must first be taught,+ and they must
teach that which they have first learned themselves. They are first
to be taught, and that by men where revelation is wanting. This is
the foundation of the schools of the prophets. All men should pray
that God would prosper and bless all schools of learning where this
kind of teaching is in use.--_Perkins._
_The Gospel a Divine Revelation._
+I. It is not constructed by human ingenuity.+--"The gospel which
was preached of me is not after man" (ver. 11).
+II. It derives no authority from man.+--"For I neither received it
of man" (ver. 12).
+III. It is not acquired by mere mental culture.+--"Neither was I
taught it."
+IV. It is a direct and special revelation from heaven.+--"But by
the revelation of Jesus Christ."
_Apostolic Assurance of the Supernatural Character of the
Gospel._--1. It is the custom of the adversaries of the truth, when
they have nothing to say in reason against the doctrine itself, to
cast reproach on those who preach it, and to question their call and
authority to preach, that so they may indirectly at least reflect
upon the doctrine. 2. As none may take upon him to dispense the Word
of God publicly unto others without a call from God, so there are
several sorts of callings: one of men and ordinary when God calls by
the voices and consent of men; another of God and extraordinary, the
call of the Church not intervening. 3. It is required of an apostle
to have the infallible knowledge of the truth of the Gospel and this
not wholly by the help of human means, as we learn at schools and by
private study, but mainly by immediate inspiration from the Spirit of
God. Paul shows that the Gospel was not taught him of man; and this
he saith, not to depress human learning, but that he may obviate the
calumny of his adversaries who alleged he had the knowledge of the
Gospel by ordinary instruction from men only, and so was no
apostle.--_Ferguson._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13, 14.
_A Zealous Ritualist--_
+I. Is conspicuous for his adherence to religious formalities.+--"For
ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion"
(ver. 13)--_of my manner of life formerly in Judaism._ Saul of Tarsus
was a full-blown ritualist, and a master-leader in the art, setting
the pattern to all his contemporaries. He did not play at forms and
ceremonies. Their observance was to him a matter of life and death.
An intense nature like his could do nothing by halves. The
listlessness and pictorial parade of modern ritualism he would have
denounced with withering scorn. Religious formality has for some
minds an irresistible fascination. It appeals to the instinct of
worship which is latent in all, and to the love of æstheticism which
is shared by most in varying degrees. The votary deludes himself into
the belief that signs and symbols represent certain great truths; but
the truths soon fade away into the background, and he is in turn
deluded in regarding the outward ceremonies as everything. Formality
is the tendency of the mind to rest in the mere externals of religion
to the neglect of the inner life of religion itself. It is the folly
of valuing a tree for its bark instead of its goodly timber, of
choosing a book for its ornate binding irrespective of its literary
genius, of admiring the finished architecture of a building
regardless of its accommodation or the character of its inmates.
"There are two ways of destroying Christianity," says D'Aubigné; "one
is to deny it, the other is to displace it." Formality seeks to
displace it. Ritualism may be of use in the infantile stage, either
of the world or the individual. It is a reversion to the petrifaction
of ancient crudities. A robust and growing spiritual manhood is
superior to its aids.
+II. Violently opposes the representatives of genuine piety.+--"How
that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and wasted it"
(ver. 13). Animated by extravagant zeal for the religion of his
forefathers, the bigoted Pharisee became the deadliest enemy of the
Church of Christ in its infant days. Indifferent to personal peril or
to the feelings of the oppressed, he prosecuted his work of
destruction with savage energy. He was a type of the Jewish fanatics
who afterwards thirsted and plotted for his life, and the forerunner
of the cruel zealots of the Inquisition and the Star Chamber in later
times. The curse of ritualism is excessive intolerance. Blinded and
puffed up with its unwarrantable assumptions, it loses sight of the
essential elements of true religion. It sees nothing good in any
other system but its own, and employs all methods that it dare, to
compel universal conformity. It admits no rival. It alone is right;
everything else is wrong, and all kinds of means are justifiable in
crushing the heresy that presumes to deny its supreme claims. "Christ
and Ritualism," says Horatius Bonar, "are opposed to each other, as
light is to darkness. The cross and the crucifix cannot agree. Either
ritualism will banish Christ or Christ will banish ritualism."
+III. Is distinguished by his ardent study and defence of traditional
religionism.+--"And profited in the Jews' religion above many my
equals in my mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the
traditions of my fathers" (ver. 14). The apostle had studied the
Mosaic law under the ablest tutors of his day. He knew Judaism by
heart and won a distinguished reputation for learning and for his
strict adherence to the minutest details of traditional legalism. He
was one of the ablest champions of the Mosaic system. The zealous
ritualist spends his days and nights in studying, not the Word of
God, but the sayings of men and the rules of the Church handed down
by the traditions of past generations. Divine revelation is ignored,
and human authority unduly exalted. His studies are misdirected, and
his zeal misspent. He is wasting his energy in defending a lifeless
organism. No man can honestly and prayerfully study God's Word and
catch its meaning, and remain a mere ritualist.
+Lessons.+--1. _Ritualism is the worship of external forms._ 2. _It
breeds a spirit of intolerance and persecution._ 3. _It supplants
true religion._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._