If you turn to the twelfth chapter of
the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, of
the third verse, the twelfth chapter of the
Epistle of Paul to the Romans, chapter three,
the twelfth chapter, verse three, for I say
through the grace given unto me to every
man that is among you, not to think
of himself more highly than he ought to
think, but to think soberly, according as God
hath dealt to every man the measure of
faith.
In the two preceding verses of this chapter,
as we found, the Apostle Paul is giving
exhortations which obviously apply to all without any
distinction.
You could not think of any differentiation as
the exhortations of the first two verses bear
upon all believers.
Because all believers, without any difference whatsoever, ought
to present their bodies a living sacrifice, wholly
acceptable unto God, which is the reasonable service.
And all believers must be exhorted to be
not conformed to this world, but by the
renewing of their mind that they may prove
what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God.
But you will notice that the Apostle Paul,
at verse three, makes a very significant change.
And he proceeds, for I say through the
grace given unto me to every man that
is among you, not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think.
And it is quite apparent that the Apostle
Paul, in this particular verse and in the
verses which follow, is going to deal with
the differences which exist among believers.
Now that's quite apparent, because even in verse
three he says, according as God hath dealt
to every man, that is, to each one,
a measure of faith.
They don't all have the same measure.
There's difference.
There is the distribution on the part of
God, according as God hath distributed his own
or her own measure of faith.
And then he says, for as we have
many members in one body, and all members
have not the same office, they don't all
have the same function.
And then, so we being many are one
body in Christ, and every one member one
of another, having then gifts different according to
the grace that is given unto us, whether
prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion
of faith, or ministry, let us wait on
our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching,
or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that
giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he
that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy
with cheerful.
There is the distribution of offices, the distribution
of gifts in the Church of God.
And I take it that that is why
the Apostle Paul says at the beginning of
verse three, for I say, through the grace
of God given unto me, and he is
no doubt appealing there to the particular office
that was given unto him in the Church
of Christ.
And it is in terms of that office,
or by virtue of the authority with which
he was invested in connection with that office,
that he proceeds to give exhortations in their
various offices, in their various...
And the grace that the Apostle Paul speaks
of here is very likely the same grace
as he refers to elsewhere when he says,
that to me who am less than this
grace given, that I should preach among the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And when the Apostle Paul, in this chapter,
and in other parts of, in other epistles,
in other parts of this epistle, assigns to
each one in the Church of God his
own particular place, and prescribes for the Church
of God the various offices that are to
be exercised in the Church of God, it
is in pursuance of his apostolic authority that
he is doing that.
If any other person of the Church of
God would speak as the Apostle Paul speaks
in some of his epistles, it would be
downright presumption that the Apostle Paul is conscious
of his apostolic authority, is conscious of the
authority delegated to him by the great head
of the Church, and he is prescribing for
the Church in all ages, that government and
discipline, as well as that ministry by which
the Church of God is to be carried
on and governed.
And consequently, there was a necessity that the
Apostle Paul at this point should make some
allusion to the authority with which he was
speaking.
And consequently he says, For I, through the
grace given unto me, to every man that
is among you, You see the difference at
this point between what you have at the
beginning of verse three and that which you
have at the beginning of verse one.
For at the beginning of verse one, the
Apostle Paul based his plea upon the tender
compassions of God.
For he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
through the mercies of God, that is, through
the tender compassions of God, that your bodies
are lifted.
And of course, that kind of plea is
not by any means abrogated or suspended at
the third verse, but the Apostle Paul now
finds to introduce an allusion to his own
particular office in the Church of God and
the grace that was given to him to
perform that office.
So he says, For I say, through the
grace given unto me, to every man that
is among you.
Now when we are thinking of the differences
that exist among believers, and when we are
thinking of the different offices, the different graces,
the different gifts that God bestows upon the
various members, what is the most important
consideration that has to be urged?
Just ask yourself, what is the paramount virtue?
What is the paramount grace that people must
exercise when they are thinking of the different
functions particular individuals perform?
Well, it is humility.
Humility.
And that is what Paul alludes to here.
To every man that is among you, not
to more highly, there is always the danger
that when a particular person is endowed by
God with particular gifts, that he is or
she is so liable to become so absorbed
in the gifts which he or she possesses,
that he or she will consider himself or
herself more important than others.
It's always that danger.
The danger of becoming, as it were, inflated
with pride.
The danger of selfless.
The danger of overbearing.
You know, the Apostle John spoke of a
certain person who loved to have the preeminence.
And you know, always that danger, because it
will appear sometimes in very subtle and deceitful
forms.
It might even appear under the garb of
humility.
The danger of self-assertiveness, of overbearing, of
being unwilling to recognize one's particular place in
the body.
You see how utterly inconsistent and even inconceivable
it is in the human body for the
hand to boast itself, or for the eye
to boast itself, or for one part of
the body in any way whatsoever to boast
itself against some other part of the body.
And that, you see, is what the Apostle
is pleading.
For we have many members in one body,
and all members have none.
So we, being many, are one body in
Christ, and every one member, so that instead
of exhorting ones, instead of self-assertiveness and
overbearingness, we ought to recognize our mutual interdependence,
our mutual dependence, that we are members one
of another.
And if one member is honored, all the
other members, or if one member suffers, all
the others suffer with it.
That is what is done in the human
body.
If you have a toothache, it may not
be a very important ailment at all, but
if you have a toothache, your whole body
suffers.
If you have a...
Well, your whole body contributes to that, and
your whole body rejoices in this.
The whole body rejoices in that.
And that's what Paul...
that we should recognize, and
that the whole body is not one.
It is very frequently, in connection with office
in the church, that this vice of pride,
of overbearingness, appears.
And it has become, of course, a very
great vice of the Christian church, that certain
persons have tried to elevate them to positions
of particular eminence, particular freedom, in the government
of the church.
And don't let us think that because we
are Presbyterians, that we are immune to that
vice.
It has frequently appeared in the history of
Presbyterian churches, and even a part of them,
in their self-assertion, have allocated to them,
to every man that is among you, not...
You know, the great trick of this vice
is what has appeared.
For there you have one man who has
presumptuously allocated to him supreme eminence in the
church order, has claimed for himself, and has
even claimed for himself, that when he speaks
ecstasy, he speaks infinitely, and that he is,
as it were, the very...
That, of course, is the extreme application, the
extreme development of that particular vice against which
the Apostle Paul is warning us in this
particular text.
To everyone that is among you, not to
think of himself more highly, but you know
there is another vice, and perhaps that is
the companion vice, that so frequently appears even
in the church of Christ.
And that is, that because of the fear,
people don't think, and that's the next virtue
that the Apostle Paul enjoys.
Not to think of himself more highly than
he ought to think, but to think soberly,
but to think soberly, but to think literally,
so as to think soberly, but to think,
so as to think soberly, according as God
hath dealt to each one.
And what is this vice?
Well, it's the vice of a false humility,
a false humility.
For by a person whom God hath placed
in the church of Christ, and to whom
God may have given certain gifts, not perhaps
very prominent gifts, but certain gifts, and that
person, from a false modesty, is not willing
to take an underestimation of the grace of
God.
And that is likewise a vice.
If we are not to think more of
ourselves, we nevertheless ought, according to
the grace that God has given to us,
and act accordingly.
There is a vocation that God gives to
each individual in the body of Christ.
A certain vocation, a certain position, and that
person is to take his position and exercise
the grace God has given to him or
to her in that particular way.
So as to think soberly, there is the
danger oftentimes of people failing, sometimes because
of falsehood, sometimes perhaps, sometimes
because of evil laziness, and sometimes because of
the fear of men, people failing to exercise
the function or the office that God has
assigned.
And that is the other vice of not
thinking.
If God has given a measure of faith,
if God has given a gift, He has
given that measure of faith to be exercised.
He has given that gift that it may
be exercised.
We must remember that there is a certain
responsibility devolving upon us in the Church of
Christ for not to sit by idly.
It would be true that God has not
appointed women, for example.
According to His old institution, He has appointed
men.
And in the last analysis, there are women
in the Church, so
that as far as rules, there
are certain functions that women, just as well,
they are members of the Church, and therefore
they have to discharge their responsibility, their function,
always in the place that God has assigned
them, but nevertheless in that place, and according
to that measure of faith.
And that is what the Apostle Paul is
enjoining in this particular passage.
But to think, so as to think soberly,
according as God has dealt to everyone, to
the woman, as a measure of faith.
And as you proceed to examine this passage,
you will find that the gifts that God
has, that the Apostle mentions, and that God
has distributed, include every member of the Church
of Christ.
Having then gifts differing according to the grace
that is given to us, whether prophecy, let
us prophesy, or ministry, let us wait on
our ministering.
For he that teacheth on teaching, or he
that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, he
that ruleth, abhor
that which is evil.
What I have been stressing, the unity
of the body, the Church, that is the
visible Church, each perhaps diseased,
and the whole body is afflicted with that
disease.
If that is true in our physical body,
and if a particular person doesn't exercise, then
and there, how
the members of the body of Christ are
mutually to support one another, mutually encourage one
another, so that in the unity of the
Spirit, in the unity of the faith, and
of the knowledge of the Son of God,
and to a perfect man, and to the
measure of the statue of the fullness of
Christ.
Let us pray.