We are considering at the present time, as most of you will remember, the words found

in Paul's Epistle to the Romans in Chapter 12, and especially verses 3, 4, and 5.

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 doth tell to every man the measure of faith.

For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body and all members have not the same office so we being many are one body in christ and

every one members one of another now we have dealt already with the third verse so we are in a position

to start this evening on the fourth verse.

You remember that in dividing up and subdividing the message of this chapter,

I was able to show how in that third verse the Apostle introduces his subject and lays down his first principle, which is the principle that everything is of grace.

That's why we should think soberly, not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, but to think soberly, because it is God

who has dealt to every one of us the measure of faith or of grace, if you like, that we have.

Now that was his first principle. But now we come to look at the second principle, which,

in a way, of course, enforces the first principle.

And that is this doctrine concerning the church as the body of Christ.

This is both a doctrine and an illustration.

The two things are here.

And what we've got in these two verses is just that.

In verse four, he works out his points that he feels are essential to his argument

in the analogy concerning this nature of the church

in terms of what is true of our physical bodies.

Then having done that, he applies it in the fifth verse.

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