I. +The Church of Jerusalem was in extreme poverty.+--1. Because the
poorer sort received the Gospel. 2. Because the richer were deprived
of their riches for their profession of the name of Christ.
II. It is the office of pastors and teachers, not only to preach and
dispense the Word, but also +to have care of the poor.+
III. +Satisfaction, recompense, and restitution are the way to life+
by the appointment of God.--1. He must restore who is the cause of
any wrong or loss to others and all that are accessory.
2. Restitution is to be made to him that is wronged and bears the
loss if he be known and alive; if he be dead, to his heirs; if all be
dead, to the poor. 3. The things to be restored are those which are
of us unjustly received or detained, either known to us or unknown.
4. As to the order of restitution, things certain must first be
restored, and things uncertain after.
IV. It is not enough for us to give good words and wish well, but we
must in our places and calling +do our endeavour that relief may be
sealed to our poor.+--1. The charge was great to maintain the altar
of the Lord in the Old Testament; the poor come in the room of the
altar. 2. The poor represent the person of Christ. 3. Compassion in
us is a pledge or an impression of the mercy that is in God towards
us, and by it we may know or feel in ourselves that mercy belongs
unto us. The observing of the commandment of relief is the enriching
of us all.--_Perkins._
_Christian Duty to the Poor._--1. It is frequently the lot of those
who are rich in grace to be poor in the things of the present life,
and driven into such straits as to be forced to live upon some
charitable supply from others, God seeing it convenient hereby to
wean them from worldly contentments that heaven may be more longed
after and more sweet when it comes. 2. Though those who are our own
poor, within the bounds where we live, are chiefly to be relieved by
us, yet in cases of extremity the poor who live remote from us are
also to be supplied. 3. Ministers ought to press upon the people, not
only duties which are easy and cost them nought, but also those that
are burdensome and expensive, especially that they would willingly
give of those things they enjoy for the supply of others who
want.--_Fergusson._
_The Poor Representative of Christ._--One evening at supper, when one
of the boys had said the grace, "Come, Lord Jesus, be our Guest, and
bless what Thou hast provided," a little fellow looked up and said,
"Do tell me why the Lord Jesus never comes. We ask Him every day to
sit with us, and He never comes!" "Dear child, only believe, and you
may be sure He will come, for He does not despise our invitation." "I
shall set a seat," said the little fellow, and just then there was a
knock at the door. A poor frozen apprentice entered, begging a
night's lodging. He was made welcome, the chair stood empty for him,
every child wanted him to have his plate, and one was lamenting that
his bed was too small for the stranger, who was quite touched by such
uncommon attentions. The little one had been thinking hard all the
time. "Jesus could not come, and so He sent this poor man in His
place: is that it?" "Yes, dear child; that is just it. Every piece of
bread and every drink of water that we give to the poor, or the sick,
or the prisoners for Jesus' sake, we give to Him."--_Memoir of John
Falk._
_Remembrance of the Poor recommended._
+I. The nature of the assertion.+--1. Remember the work of the poor.
2. The deprivations of the poor. 3. Our remembrance of the poor
should be founded on a personal acquaintance with their
circumstances. "Indeed, sir," said a person of large property, "I am
a very compassionate man; but to tell you the truth, I do not know
any person in want." He kept aloof from the poor.
+II. Obligations to comply with the recommendation.+--1. The dictates
of humanity require it. 2. The demands of duty. 3. The rights of
justice. 4. The claims of interest.
+III. Answer objections.+--Such as: 1. My circumstances are
impoverished and I have nothing to spare. 2. Charity must begin at
home. 3. I have a right to do what I will with my own. 4. The poor do
not deserve to be remembered.--_Beta._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 11-21.
_A Fearless Defence of Fundamental Truth--_
+I. Does not hesitate to impeach a distinguished Church dignitary of
inconsistency.+--"But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him
to the face, because he was to be blamed," etc. (vers. 11-14). Peter
had been accustomed to mingle with the Gentile converts on the ground
of perfect social equality. Influenced by the fierce bigots of
legalism, who insinuated that the circumcised occupied a superior
status to the uncircumcised, he withdrew from the social circle of
the Gentiles and confined himself to that of his Jewish brethren. The
pliability of his impulsive nature led him into this as into other
mistakes. To create a social distinction between Jew and Gentile was
to undermine the Gospel. Paul saw at a glance the threatened peril,
and it needed all his tact and courage to confront it. Though it
meant a public impeachment of the sincerity and consistency of one of
the most venerated apostles, the champion of the Gentiles did not
hesitate. Alone, even Barnabas having for the time being deserted
him, he stood up boldly for the truth of the Gospel.
+II. Is the opportunity for an authoritative restatement of the truth
imperilled+ (vers. 15-18).--In these verses the apostle again sets
forth the fundamental doctrine of justification by faith, without the
works of the law. The Judaisers contended that to renounce legal
righteousness was in effect to promote sin--to make Christ the
minister of sin (ver. 17). Paul retorts the charge on those who made
it and showed that they promote sin who set up legal righteousness
again (ver. 18). The reproach of the Judaisers was in reality the
same that is urged against evangelical doctrine still--that it is
_immoral,_ placing the virtuous and vicious in the common category of
sinners (_Findlay_). "The complaint was this," says Calvin,--"Has
Christ therefore come to take away from us the righteousness of the
law, to make us polluted who were holy? Nay, Paul says--he repels the
blasphemy with detestation. For Christ did not introduce sin but
revealed it. He did not rob them of righteousness, but of the false
show thereof."
+III. Is made more impressive by showing the effect of the truth on
personal experience+ (vers. 19-21).--In these words the apostle
indicates that his own deliverance from the law was effected by being
dead to the law--being crucified with Christ; and that his own
spiritual life was originated and sustained by a living faith in a
loving and self-sacrificing Christ. "Legalism is fatal to the
spiritual life in man. Whilst it clouds the Divine character, it
dwarfs and petrifies the human. What becomes of the sublime mystery
of the life hid with Christ in God, if its existence is made
contingent on circumcision and ritual performance? To men who put
meat and drink on a level with righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Ghost, or in their intercourse with fellow-Christians set points
of ceremony above justice, mercy, and faith, the very idea of a
spiritual kingdom of God is wanting. The religion of Jesus and of
Paul regenerates the heart, and from that centre regulates and
hallows the whole ongoing of life. Legalism guards the mouth, the
hands, the senses, and imagines that through these it can drill the
man into the Divine order. The latter theory makes religion a
mechanical system; the former conceives it as an inward, organic
life."
+Lessons.+--1. _The leaven of error is not easily suppressed._
2. _True religion has never lacked a race of brave defenders._
3. _Experimental religion is the best guarantee of its permanence._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._