Romans 12, verses 1 through 3. Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your glorious word and for the Holy Spirit who not only inspired these things to be written down as they are, but has also safeguarded them and illuminates the minds of the believing that we might not only understand the logic that is here, understand the meaning of the words that are being used, but that we would also be moved by that spirit to change the way we think and feel and live to bring it into conformity with what your word has said. Thank you for that glorious ministry that is always going on. We ask that you do some more of that work on our hearts and souls this morning. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. Well, we've spent some quality time together in the important hinge verses of Romans. We saw those in Romans 12, 1 and 2. And today we begin to look at some of the specific calls to obedience that flow from the gospel. In response to the mercies of God and His wondrous grace, what can we do other than offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God as our reasonable service? Certainly this is what we do in response to the Gospel. And each day as we live by the Holy Spirit, who now indwells us, we're being transformed in the image of Jesus by the renewing of our minds. We saw that in Romans 12, 1 and 2. So it's not a far leap to come here to verse 3. It's easy to trace the logical connection between verses 1 and 2 and verse 3. Here's how it works. Those who are being transformed by mind renewal must attend to their minds the way you think is important to God. It begins with a, certainly if we're going to consider what it means for our minds to be renewed, it has to begin with a proper mindset or a proper understanding of oneself in relationship to God and in relationship to everyone else. There's actually a very rather simple litmus test that's present here in verse 3 to ensure that our mind is being renewed. It's actually seen in those who say their mind is being renewed, in them minding or thinking about things properly, and in particular, not hyper-minding as they think about themselves. We'll talk more about that here in just a minute. In a sermon entitled, The Call to Sober-Mindedness, we're going to see how verse three here of Romans 12 demands that Christ's people adopt the right mindset within Christian community. And we're going to note in turn, this is a very simple outline today, one, the classroom, and two, the lesson. We're going to consider the classroom, consider the environment, consider the setting, which this instruction is given, and then secondly, we're going to consider what lesson is being taught. Let's first of all just jump into this together. Let's look at the classroom together. There's two things I want you to note about this classroom as it's set up in verse 3. First of all, consider the standing of the teacher. For I say. That's how this starts in the Greek. For I say. Paul is offering these instructions to the church in Rome, and this is coming from the apostle, whose words carry therefore significant weight. For I say, Paul says. He's not merely offering advice. Here is Paul, the authoritative messenger of the Lord, proclaiming to the church how they are to think. And with the next phrase, though, Paul indicates that the office that he held was that which he was given by God's grace, by divine favor. He knew that who he was and how he was serving was all by the grace of God. Notice what it says here, through the grace having been given to me. For I say, through the grace having been given to me. Notice that in these words, Paul himself was going to encourage the church towards humility, towards a rightful sober mindedness about themselves. Notice that from the outset, Paul is modeling for the church what he calls the church to do. Paul knew that his own position was a matter of divine choosing, God's choice, God's gifting, God's enabling. I say, how? Through the grace given to me. Through the grace given to me, I have some words for you, church. Paul didn't earn his position. He didn't work his way up a corporate ladder. It wasn't his by his accomplishments. As a matter of fact, Paul looks back on his own life in Judaism and says it was all rubbish. He had to discard all of that as trash that he might gain Christ. It wasn't by his accomplishments, but by the free choice of God that he was given this responsibility of not only being one of God's children, but then looking after the church and delivering these instructions. Paul says this multiple times throughout his ministering. We see this recorded throughout his letters. For example, 1 Corinthians 3.10, he says, according to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation. So notice, what is he saying? He's comparing his ministry as that of building, an impressive building. He says, I'm laying a foundation that's going to be built upon, but how does he do it? According to the grace of God which is given to me. Or in Ephesians 3, 7 and 8, he talks about being made a minister, but how? According to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of his power. And then he says, to me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ. Paul says, I understand that my mission of bringing the gospel to Gentile peoples is all by the grace and gifting and enablement of God. The desire that I have to reach the Gentiles, the work that I'm engaged in, the gifts that I have, all of this given by what? The gift of God's grace according to the working of His power. Paul understood that he owed not only his salvation to God's grace, but also his desire and enablement within Christian ministry to God's grace. All that he was doing, all that he was saying, was itself an extension and the result of God's grace. Christian teaching certainly includes the call to humility. But for the call to humility to be effective, Note here, it must be delivered by teachers who not only can sound the call to humility, but also heed that same call. Now certainly, you know, anyone who stands up to say, well, I have accomplished humility, you know, instantly they've lost it, right? It's that one gift that the moment you think you have it, you know you don't have it, right? I've become such a humble person. In that moment, you're like, oh, no, wait, wait, what's going on, right? So certainly there's some sense in other words where we're always going to be on the journey towards understanding what does it mean to be sober-minded and to be a person of humility. But we all would understand what that would look like if the person who's calling others to humility did not demonstrate any of that same humility. If they were just prideful and arrogant and egotistical and all about themselves, then calls to humility would fall on deaf ears. Paul himself was making sincere calls to humility within the church, but notice how he models that same humility. Lloyd-Jones says, the apostles were not afraid to be humble. They had no need to dress themselves up or to sit on so-called thrones or to be removed as far away as possible from people. No, they were always among the people. I'm largely convinced that the only way you can make people think that you yourself are something holier than everyone else is just not be around people, you know? If I was just to, you know, sequester myself back in an office, come out, speak, and then go back to that office and never see anybody again, there might be a small chance that I could make you think I was super, super holy. But the moment I start doing things with everyone, right, the moment I'm involved in activities, all of a sudden, like, Man, did you see Jess on that one? That wasn't very nice. So do you hear what he said right there? All of a sudden, all of a sudden realize like, oh wait, you know, you mean Jess is also a sinner in need of God's grace? Yes. Yes. Notice that Lloyd-Jones has pointed out a very important point here, and that is that the Apostles themselves were still among the people. They were always among the people. They cared about the people. They knew that the people saw them, warts and all, also, because they themselves were in need of the same grace that they were proclaiming. They were in need of growing in the very humility that they were calling others to grow in. Paul is a wonderful example of this inaction. He repeatedly called believers to think soberly while he himself conducted his ministry out of a desire for continual humility before the Lord. You might ask the question, right, if there was anybody in church history who might struggle with humility. You could say, who's got quite the long list of accolades behind their name? And I'm not just talking like degrees and PhDs and stuff like that. I'm talking about like actual souls being saved, churches being planted. It's hard to think of somebody who could top Paul. It's just hard. Sometimes it's easy to be humble when you realize, well, I haven't done anything. It's easy. But Paul, this guy was prolific in the amount of stuff that he did. So the question is asked this, how did Paul maintain humility? Paul's calling others to humility, how did he maintain it? And again, it's just wonderful because we have so much of his writing to look at. Listen to Paul's own testimony and maybe you can piece together how it is that he maintained humility. 1 Timothy 1.15, it's a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all. 1 Corinthians 15 9, For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them. Yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Do you hear it? Do you see how Paul never forgets what the Lord rescued him from? Do you also notice that even in all of his labors, he never forgets that all of his labor is done by the grace of God? Notice how grace is just present throughout all of his descriptions. He remembers from where the Lord rescued him. He highlights the reason for his rescue was entirely owing to God's grace. Paul leads us in that example. He lived that way, and then he gives us some important passages. I think Ephesians 2 is just like one of those chapters of the Bible that would be well worth committing to memory or being very familiar with, at least the gist of Ephesians 2 is. I know most of us know Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10, but even the earlier verses in Ephesians 2, because I think what this chapter does for us is it helps remind us not only of the right mindset when we think about salvation, but the attitude that accompanies that mindset, the sort of gratitude which ought to be deep within our hearts when we think about what it means to be saved by grace alone. Think about that for just a moment. That means that we are saved not because of something we've done, but because of unmerited favor. Undeserved kindness has been shown to us. Ephesians 2, 1. You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead and our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. That passage is wonderful. It's one of those passages that often I think we find ourselves at least going to the language of Ephesians 2 when we're sharing the gospel with other people. But don't forget the original context there. He's talking to the church. He's not talking to lost people. How do we know he's talking to the church? He says, this is where you guys used to be. Do you remember this fact? You were dead. You were also following the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air. But you're no longer there. Why? Because God being rich in mercy. Because God's great love. Because God's grace. Do you notice that? Rich mercy, love, grace, all from God. This is the reason why you are no longer there. You see, Paul lived in light of God's grace, which had necessarily a humbling influence on him. If you understand grace rightly, it does not cause you to be boastful. It doesn't cause you to be puffed up. If you're becoming puffed up or boastful, you're not thinking about grace. Because it's not by the merit of what you've done, it's what Christ has done on your behalf. You've been given a gift you didn't deserve and you couldn't earn. There's no place for boasting there. So consider, here's the standing of the teacher. This is a man who's giving instruction. He should be listened to anyway because he's the Apostle Paul, but Paul understands himself. The reason he has that position is not by something he's earned or done, but by the free grace of God. He demonstrates that very humility that he's asking and demanding from us. Secondly, look at the situation of the students. Consider the situation of the students. He says here, So, for I say, through the grace that was given to me, to everyone, note here, no one is exempt from this exhortation, to everyone, and notice the next phrase, among you. To everyone, no one's exempt, among you. In other words, what does that mean? It means every single individual who's also amongst other people. Christianity is a community thing. This is a moment where I kind of preach to the choir a little bit, because at least on some level, you believe that because you're here this morning. If you didn't believe it at all, you'd be sleeping in this morning, you know? Whether you're a Christian or not. If you're not, I understand. Why would you go to church? Like, you don't love God? Why would it matter? But if you are a Christian, sadly there are some Christians who think, you know, I don't need community. I'll just do my own thing over here. Especially those who will claim that they've been very greatly hurt by other Christians, which they'll usually say by the church. The church hurt me, and so I'm done with the church. The Bible is full of so many let us commands. It's a full salad bar of lettuce, right? Let us commands, all kinds of let us commands. And there's all the one another's in scripture too, right? We talked about that last year, family camp, all these one another statements. How do you do the let us's or the one another's if you're not among people, among believers? Robert Mount said it right. Lone ranger Christianity is a contradiction in terms. Lone Ranger Christianity is a contradiction in terms. Those who claim, here's the way you can simply put this, those who claim they love Jesus, but don't love the church, are themselves engaged in a contradiction. Why? Because if you love Jesus, you'll love what Jesus loves. And guess what? Jesus loves the church. He shed his blood for the church. He came to rescue the church. He loves his bride. Now that doesn't mean that there aren't any problems in the church. There certainly are. Many people will say, if you ever find a perfect church, don't join it because you'll make it imperfect, right? Because we all have our own imperfections. We all bring all of our stuff with us. As much as you might want to not carry baggage around with you, we're carrying some baggage, right? And there's stuff that comes with that. I love one of the proverbs, you know, with the ox comes great productivity, but also with the ox comes a dirty barn, right? There are dirty barns that happen with oxen, and there are dirty churches, right? Why? Because they're sinners. They're sinners saved by grace. We have problems. We have a whole host of problems. But the solution to I got hurt at church doesn't then mean I hate the church. If you love Jesus, you must love the church. Why? Because Jesus loves the church. If you love Christ, you love what Christ loves. And you'll hate what Christ hates. And I'll tell you what, He loves His bride. And He's not done with His bride, is He? He's refining and fashioning her. Guess what? That means that there's going to be a lot of times in which we're going to have to work through problems together. Imagine that, right? We're going to have to say we're sorry a lot. We're going to have to forgive a lot. And while we're going through that process, guess what? We'll be reminded of just how wonderful the grace of God is. That he has forgiven us of all of our sins. That he continues to work and fashion us. That he hasn't given up on us. That's one of the things I loved about that Valley of Vision prayer that I read this morning. It's in there, it's a bit of confession and then also petition all wrapped together. Did you hear it in there? Where it says things like, oh, I have to confess that I have not been very gracious to others, but please don't stop being gracious to me. And that sounds almost like a contradiction of terms, but it is the truth of the matter. We fail the standard that God always applies to us. He's perfect in keeping the standard, and He shows grace when we don't deserve it. And meanwhile, we, the ones receiving grace, can be sometimes the most ungracious people. Isn't that sad? It's very sad. But this is the point. We can't then respond to those sorts of things by saying, I'm done with the church. Why? Christians are transformed within community. Love manifests itself as we develop deeper friendships with each other, pray for one another, care for one another, sharpen one another as iron sharpens iron, refine one another, forgive one another, and serve one another through the gifts that God has given, which we'll see more about in coming weeks. God's work of redemption involves people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. See, Revelation 5, 9, worthy are you to take the book and break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. So note here that God's work of redemption involves people of every tribe, tongue, and nation, and he intends for the church's unity and love for one another itself to be an evangelistic tool. He expects the communal love that we experience as Christians within the body of Christ to be an ongoing witness to a watching world that does not know that love. John 13, 35, by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. So think for just a minute. Let's say that you are one of these quote-unquote Lone Ranger Christians and you say you hate the church and you have no love for the church, guess what the watching world sees when you say, I hate the bride of Christ. Are they drawn to Christ from that? John 17, 21, Jesus prays in his high priestly prayer that they may be all one, even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. Note here, Jesus says, a testimony that the world would note that Jesus was actually the Son of God is by the behavior of his bride, the church, the way they love one another, the unity they experience with each other. And the church is meant to not only function communally as it relates to the gospel, but to be the context in which ongoing sanctification occurs. There's so many passages we look at for this. I'll just pick one. This is Philippians 2. So then my beloved, just as you, oh by the way, all of these you's, just in case you need to know, they're all y'alls. That's how y'all go. They're all your plurals, okay? So listen to it this way. So then my beloved, us Texans can understand this, just as y'all have always obeyed, Not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. Work out y'all's salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in y'all, both to work and to will for his good pleasure. Y'all do things, all things, without grumbling and disputing, so that y'all will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom y'all appear as lights in the world." Again, notice here that These use all throughout this whole passage are just, they're plurals. And certainly that means it has individual impact on you individually. You're individually responsible before God to strive after holiness and to do so without grumbling and complaining, all of that. But notice, y'all are supposed to be doing that. That means all of us together corporately pursuing this together. It's also be the place of edification. Ephesians 4 does the same thing, listen to this, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by whatever his joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Notice, we are built up, we are edified, we are encouraged in community. We are building up itself. The church is building up itself in love. It is growing in love. Why? By the proper working of each individual part. You'll see more examples of that in coming weeks here in Romans 12. So having established the classroom setting Paul was teaching, the church is to listen and learn, let's now consider what lesson is being taught. Point two, the lesson. And I have three things to mention underneath this lesson. First, the prohibition. A common practice that's found in Scripture, which a lot of confessional statements follow, a lot of catechisms follow this, a lot of theological statements follow this as well, and it's for good reason they follow this. It's that you establish truth by advocating for what is right and condemning what is wrong. Advocate what is right, and condemn what is wrong. There's a wonderful clarification that affirmations and denials provide, both of them. Notice what happens if you remove one or the other. Denials, without affirmations, don't prescribe or describe what the positive direction into which your energy ought to be invested. If all you ever hear are don'ts and you shouldn't do that, you never hear what it is you're supposed to be doing. And there are certain people that might land in one category or the other. Maybe I could argue that it is typically the case that heresy hunters and discernment bloggers usually are high on denials and small on affirmations. In other words, they love sniffing out heresy. And again, there's a time to sniff out some heresy, absolutely. But those who are just unhappily desirous to find where everyone else is in error, but they never put forward what the truth is, there's a problem. There's a problem. When everything is just a refutation of error, the listener might be left wondering, what is the right belief or behavior? What am I supposed to do? It's like if I spent the whole morning here today criticizing eight people and how they did evangelism, but then I never talked about how I did evangelism, there's a problem. I remember one of the famous lines, I think it was Moody, who suddenly came up to him and said, I don't really like the way you evangelize. He said, well, how do you do it? And he says, well, I don't. He said, well, I like my way better than yours. There's a little bit of that, right? There's a little bit of a helpful correction. Is there some wrong ways about doing things? Absolutely. Those need to be called out. Yes, that's part of what we're supposed to do. But if that's all that we do, there is a problem. But let's think the other way. What does it mean to always be affirming but never denying? to always being saying yes and never saying no. What often happens with people who just make a bunch of affirmations and never come around to say, no, actually, that's not right. If they don't say that, what ends up happening is usually a lot of ambiguity. There's usually, at the end of those kinds of speeches, you have very little clarity about the position of the person there. And again, if I was going to just like, you know, what's a good example of that? Well, the whole, you know, politicians in general. They're really good at making affirmations and they are very hesitant about making denials. What's your position on fracking? Again, if I have to say something in particular that's of absolute denial, then it just draws a line in the sand. You see, affirmation without denials gets a little wishy-washy. It allows a lot of ambiguity. It allows a lot of room. And again, if you're a politician, you kind of like room, right? I want lots of people to like me. The moment I say no to something, they're like, oh, well, he's against that. Again, this is the world we live in, but this is a problem within the church if we do one and not the other. Both ought to be present. Both instruction and refutation. Both pointing out error and pointing out what is true and right. So notice how he does it here. He gives us the negative and then he gives us the positive. First the prohibition. Not to think above what is necessary to think. Not to think above what is necessary to think. In this little verse, four times a form of phrenain comes up. The word in Greek, it means to think, or to understand, or to judge, or to regard, or to consider, or to have an opinion. Happens four times this word, a form of this word happens. Two times it happens in the infinitive, to think. And then two times it happens with some sort of word smashed onto the front of it. And so here in this first case, we have one of those infinitives, to think. Do not think above what is necessary to think. So there's the to think, but think above. There's one of these amalgamations, one of these combination words. The word in Greek is huper, is put to the front of that word. So it means to above think, or to hyperthink. Sounds like hyper to us, right? So don't hyperthink. is what he's saying here. There's a prohibition about not thinking more highly than you ought to. To not think more highly than is necessary to think. What is this a warning against? Pride. It's a warning against arrogance. Question, why do you have to warn against this? Answer, because there are few things that are more destructive to community than bombastic arrogance and conceited pride. How long do you want to be in a community with even a few voices that are just all about themselves? How long does that last? How well does that go for anyone? We are not to think more highly than is necessary to be thought. We had several proverbs read this morning. Ryan did a great job working us through several of those. Proverbs 16, 18, core one, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling. Pride goes before destruction, haughty spirit before stumbling. So get this, if that's true of you individually, it is also true of you communally. Pride damages you individually, but I can guarantee you pride damages community. It just does. It's hard for us to enjoy a wonderful us if the interest of I and me has far outscaled considerations of community. If I and me means so much that us doesn't mean much, the community doesn't mean much. See how this works? Now, that principle sounds right, but let's talk about how that plays itself out. Karen, you don't mind me using an example today. I know Karen has been not feeling well and not been able to come to church a few Sundays, so she wasn't feeling well this morning. And the first thing out of her mouth was, I just didn't want to miss church today. I just didn't want to miss church today. Yeah. And that comes from somebody who's struggling with some health issues and is still doing all she can to be here, right? Because she values this. She values what is the community of God. And then you start to think about, what are the times when I'm like, oh, I kind of have a little crick in my neck. Maybe I'll just sleep in today. Or, oh, it's kind of hard. middle of the week, I have to change my arrangements in order to be there on a Wednesday night. You know, like, you just think about this for a minute. Like, if this really grabbed a hold of you inwardly, and you said, I really am convinced that what God wants to do with us communally, as a community, means so much, then the considerations of I become smaller and smaller, and the considerations of us become bigger and bigger. And as us becomes bigger and bigger, pride becomes smaller and smaller. Because I'm not thinking about me, myself, and I as much as I otherwise would be. Lloyd-Jones says, nothing so proves our essential sinfulness as the fact that we'll even abuse the gifts, the highest gifts of God, appropriate them unto ourselves and cause them to militate against the interests of the church. He says, nothing shows our sinfulness more than we'll take the gifts that God has given us and use them against the church. The gifts that he's given us to use in service to the church and building up the church, we can use those very gifts to destroy the church, to try to break it apart. And there's a problem. So what's the prescription? The prohibition is don't hyperthink. Don't think above what you ought to think. So what's the prescription? To think so as to think soberly. There's the prescription. To sober think. Not hyperthink, but sober think. The last part of this verse, we have, again, this interesting construction. It's an amalgamation of two words, sophos and phrenane. So, sophrenane means to think in one's right mind, or to think wisely, or to think self-controlled, or to put a moderate estimate on oneself, to think soberly. The word happens only two times in the New Testament. It happens here, and the other time that it happens, it was kind of humorous because I offhandedly mentioned this verse at camp, at the beginning, Titus 2.6, where the instruction, it's the one instruction given to young men. It's like young women, old men, old women, and then young men are mentioned, and the one thing to young men is be sober-minded. I chuckle about that because it reminds me back in the day I was at a youth retreat with one of my friends, and one of my friends was preaching through Titus 2, and so every time I think of this verse I think of him. But he commented that this is the one and only instruction that was given to young men, and he said, number one, it's as if he, first of all, the Lord knew that men do better excelling it just being given one goal than multiple. Here's one thing. Young men, here's one thing for you to focus on. Just focus on this one thing. I know you can't deal with two or three or four. Just one thing. One thing, young men. Be sober-minded. And if there's one thing that young men need to be admonished with, it's probably this. Be sensible, be self-controlled, be sober-minded, think before you jump, you know, that kind of thing. It was really funny because at that very same camp, it was like as if, you know, the illustration plays itself out beautifully because there was this like floating pier dock thing that was there on the little pond. And a group of junior high boys thought it would be really cool to run down this hill, jump onto the dock, and see if it would push out into the water. If we get enough momentum, and we all land on that thing at the same time, we could probably push this thing out and all that. And lo and behold, success. They all ran down the hill. We see them all jump onto the pier. And it pushes out into the water. And then they realized, we don't have swimming suits. And we don't have anything to paddle ourselves back. And there they are, floating out on an island in the middle of the lake. Yeah. Be sober-minded, right? I'm sure that we could go around the church and remember some moments just like those young boys had. Some less than sober-minded moments in our lives. Can you think of some? Some less than sensible moments in life. Hopefully with some age and some experience comes some wisdom. Hopefully some further sober-mindedness. That's at least if you're a wise person. A wise person would continue to grow through those mistakes and would learn from those mistakes and think a little bit more soberly the next time. The metaphor that's interesting here is that it kind of suggests the idea of intoxication, right? The prescription to mitigate against Christians being egoholics is to be sober-minded. Don't be all about yourself. A drunken man is unable to exercise proper judgment. Why? Because his inhibitions have been impaired. He doesn't see the world as it is. He becomes more impulsive. He becomes less cautious. He becomes full of thoughts of his own grandeur. Things that he knew that he can't do, all of a sudden he can do! Right? Because all of that has been removed from him. And the point here is this. Rather than being intoxicated with yourself, be sober-minded. Be sober-minded. Moose said, we are to view ourselves in accordance with a true and objective estimate, the product of a renewed mind. Do you see the connection here between 12.2 and 12.3? This is the production of a renewed mind. A renewed mind leads to a sober mindset. a sober thinking position. Robert Haldane said, Christians are here directed to make a sound and moderate estimation of their own gifts, which will preserve them from both extremes. On the one hand, from overrating and on the other, from unduly depreciating their attainments or talents. Unlike this world system, the Bible heralds humility as a core virtue. You don't hear many people making a big deal like, Well, that presidential candidate is really humble, you know? Look at this humility in play. Like, you know, that just seems like, like, that's, that's ridiculous. You can't, you can't be present and be humble. Like, how can you do that? Because that's the world we live in, right? The world that we live in loves, you know, push yourself forward, be strong, be bold. Who cares what anybody else, who you have to run over in the process, right? So, but meanwhile, the Bible celebrates humility as a core virtue. Notice the prohibition and prescriptions in Philippians 2, which we had read a few moments ago as well. Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose, now listen to how this is going to happen. How is it going to happen? By doing nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. But, here's the flip side, so don't do it yourself, it's just your empty conceit. Here's the affirmation, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Next one, prohibition, do not merely look out for your own personal interests. Prescription, also for the interests of others. This is how we do battle against the me monster. We think about others. We consider their interests. We put them before ourselves. We consider them more important than ourselves. Colossians 3 talks about humility being put on. Ephesians 4, 1 and 2 talks about humility and gentleness and patience. 1 Peter 5, 5 talks about being clothed with humility towards one another. It also calls us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. James 4, 10 says to humble yourself in the presence of God, and he will exalt you. Okay, so prohibition, don't hyperthink. Prescription, sober think. Don't hyperthink, sober think. Okay, so now we understand, here's the rules, this is what we're called to do, this is what it means to be renewed in our mind. So last question, how do we do it? How does this happen? We've already kind of teased it out a little bit, but let's finish with the last phrase that's here, and we finish with the postulate. Now, I'm using that word, I thought about, ah, should I use it? Maybe just use principle, but I really like postulate, and for this reason. One, I have to deal with this word in my pre-calc class a lot, so there you go. Number two, I wanted to define this word for you because I think this word is a helpful word as you think about it here. Here's Webster's Dictionary's definition of a postulate. It's a thing suggested or assumed as true as the basis for reasoning, discussion, or belief. This is a thing suggested or assumed to be true, in this case, this is the Bible, is true, thing that is true, and as a result is the basis for further reasoning, is the basis for discussion, is the basis for belief. So what is the postulate that is undergirding this prohibition and prescription? Stop hyperthinking, start sober thinking. What's underneath it? What's building that thing up? What's causing this to happen? Look at the last phrase. As to each, God has dealt a measure of faith. There it is. Here is the postulate. This is the thing that is true and therefore is the basis for the foregoing reasoning. There's considerable debate, though, by theologians as to how to interpret this last phrase. And there are some very renowned scholars that land on both sides of like a two-way we can handle this phrase. And so I'd like to present both lines of argument. And I want to tell you from the outset that I find either of them to make sense contextually. That either one fits, and either one kind of lands us in a similar place anyway. But I want you to just at least think about it for a moment. See where you might land in this regard. The first way we can handle it is this. Paul might be saying here, this might be what he's saying at the end. And he's setting up for the coming verses by explaining that conceit or pride or arrogance has no place in God's economy. Why? Because God is the one who distributes whatever we all have. And everything is given for the mutual edification of the body, so there really is no place for egotism. God's the one distributing. He distributes however he wants. There's no reason for anyone to go like, well, look what I got, because you were given it. What you have wasn't yours. God gave it to you. And he gave it to you to build up the body, not to destroy the body. So when you think about this, and God gave it, and if he gives differing gifts and differing amounts of ability and opportunity and capacity for service, then everything is truly owing to God. Because God's the one who divvies out his gifts. God is the one who distributes measuring amounts here of faith. Schreiner understands this passage that way. He says, Paul acknowledges elsewhere that believers have different levels of faith. See Romans 14.1. And thus one cannot dismiss this idea as anti-Pauline. What prevents pride from cropping up is a sober estimation of one's faith. This sober estimation is based on the truth that God apportioned to each one a measure of faith. Pride is eliminated when one recognizes that the faith that I have is a gift from God, not the result of my own virtue. MacArthur says similarly, a measure of faith seems to refer to the correct measure of the spiritual gift and its operating features that God sovereignly bestows on every believer. Every believer receives the exact gift and resources best suited to fulfill his role in the body of Christ. This would encompass all the sensitivity and capacity and understanding that we need to rightly and fully use our uniquely bestowed gift. So we're seeing here faith as a word that's kind of holding on to this idea of all the sensitivity, capacity, understanding to rightly fulfill and use the gift that God has given to us each individually. So under this view, the idea here is that God is divvying out different measures of faith And, but God's the one sovereignly divvying that out. So there's no place for arrogance or pride. He's given us what we have. And note, you'll see in the following, and that's why I say these, both these make sense contextually, because you'll see in coming verses, we don't all have the same gifts. We have differing gifts. Okay. On the other hand, Paul might instead be saying something more like this, that the best way to combat pride and arrogance, and to return our thinking to its proper place, is to consider the standard that God is distributed by, and that is faith. All that any of us need to do is to make our appraisal on the basis of faith. And in this sense, faith is a gift given to every believer. If we remember that all of us, and all that we have, is not ours in the first place, and even our faith is itself a gift from God, see Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10, then pride and arrogance will be rooted out. The great standard, or the great equalizer, is God's grace. Faith itself is a gift from God. Let me give you a couple of examples of how this is kind of played out by a few commentaries. The Read Mark Learn commentary explains this, quote, When we see ourselves in the perspective of God's mercy, 12.1, In the honest and unflattering light of the gospel, as taught in Romans 1.18-11.36, we see that we are sinners who have been saved by grace alone, that all boasting therefore must end. Romans 3.27, where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. Daniel Doriani said, the measure of faith is the standard that the gospel provides. The gospel is the standard by which we measure ourselves. We gain a realistic self-appraisal when the gospel measures us. Moose said it. It is the faith which believers have in common as fellow members of the body of Christ that Paul here highlights as the standard against which each of us is to estimate himself. So notice here, the way that they're understanding here measure is not in the sense of like we're all getting a different measure of faith from God, but the measurement by which we should judge ourselves is on the basis of the standard of faith. And all of us, if you're a believer, have been given faith. So we all have the same thing, faith. And on that basis, it should remove all boasting. The main difference between the two views is whether Paul is explaining God's decision to make a differing distribution of faith, and by that they mean gifting talentability, or is he pointing us to the standard which is unchanging? Faith is itself a gift from God. But either way, I want you to note that either way, whichever way you go on this, what's behind all of this It's the same principle that we've seen kind of highlighted throughout our study of Romans, the sovereignty of God. God is the one who is sovereignly bestowing these gifts. And if we recognize that he's the one who, by grace, has given these things, then it completely eliminates any room for us to boast or any room for us to become prideful and arrogant. The only time we become prideful and arrogant is when we forget that all we have is a gift from God. Haldane said, There's a great parallel verse to this idea, I think it's found in 1 Corinthians 4-7, where it says, Who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you have not received it? What do you have that you didn't get as a gift from God? And if you got it as a gift, how dare you boast about it as if you didn't get it that way? It was all a gift from the Lord. Lloyd-Jones says, if you grasp the principle that all the gifts come from God, that it is He and He alone who decides what gifts everybody is to have, and that you are to be different, then you will immediately be able to control your thinking about yourself. The gifts are not ours, and therefore they are nothing about which we should boast. We have not produced them, we have not generated them, they are not the reward for anything that we are. They're purely the result of God's grace. You see, verse 3 connects with the preceding material in its emphasis upon our minds. A renewed mind thinks differently about oneself. It connects to what is to come, because what this verse is doing is setting the stage for us understanding the idea of spiritual gifts. and how they're to be used within community, within the family of God. In coming weeks we're going to see this connection further as we delve into life in Christian community and recognize that varying spiritual gifts are to be employed within the body of Christ. And those gifts are different by God's distribution. will consider 1 Corinthians 12. Some people think that Romans 12 is a summary of 1 Corinthians 12 or 1 Corinthians 12 is like an expanded outline of Romans 12. Some of that usually happens by the way you date the books, but I would argue that 1 Corinthians was before Romans. So Romans is probably a summary of what he said in 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians, whereas I would say that Romans is kind of an expansion of what he says to the Galatians in the book of Galatians. So anyway, we'll look at 1 Corinthians 12 together quite a bit in coming weeks. We'll also look at 1 Peter 4.10. There's a really important principle that's found there, so we'll look at this in coming weeks. There's much that we have to say about our work together as Christ's people, but we're only going to benefit from all of those lessons if we catch this one. If you don't have the proper attitude, the proper demeanor, if you don't have a position of humility, then everything else will be thrown out of whack. We start talking about gifts and gifting and how those are used. If it's not handled from a position of humility, all of this is given to us. If that demeanor isn't about us, if we don't have a sober-mindedness about us, then all that will happen is what? You'll become inflated in pride. The more you think about the gifts that you have, if you forget that they're gifts, you'll become more and more about yourself. And it will destroy the entire enterprise that we're on. For that reason, verse 3 is very, very important. For this work to transpire, we have to not think too highly of ourselves. We can also say, by the way, to not think too lowly of ourselves. That can also be another danger. It's not the particular danger that's being listed here, but maybe I'll just mention quickly, there's a problem if you think too lowly of yourself also. Think about the sort of inactivity that happens from Christians who go like, I don't have anything to give. I don't have any gifts. That's not appropriate either. We're to think soberly, to think rightly about these things. And just as pride and arrogance can be a problem, so can some sorts of positions where you just denigrate yourself. So we have to be cautious to neither denigrate nor exaggerate any gifting that God has given, but recognize that they're all gifts. from him is always the danger of going wrong in thinking, either by thinking too highly of any one person, to think any one person to be indispensable, that would be wrong, but it would also be wrong to think too lowly of any person, to think any person with an in the body crisis insignificant. Both those positions are untenable. MacArthur said, the humility that God requires and honors does not overestimate or underestimate his gifts, but estimates them rightly and uses them rightly. What you'll see in coming weeks, even more important than identifying gifts that God has given, is the employment of the gifts that God has given. And you'll see this emphasis both here and in 1 Corinthians 12. The importance is not just that gifts exist, But are the gifts being used? They're meant to be used in building up the body of Christ, but it must happen from this demeanor, from a sober-mindedness. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for your love and grace, and thank you for the helpful lesson that you've given us today. I'm sure all of us have known the struggle with hyper-mindedness, of thinking above what we ought to think about ourselves. And I pray, Lord, that you would root that out, that you would help us to identify when it rears its ugly head, when I, me, myself, becomes prominent. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to replace that with thoughts of community, of putting others' needs before our own. and certainly that a proper dose of medicine would continually be delivered to us as we contemplate and as we pray about, as we read about, as we sing about your grace. Lord, we thank you for the marvelous gifts you have given us. We thank you that all that we have is a gift from you. We pray, Lord, that you would be honored as we go out from this place and live for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.