The Unity of Believers

Galatians 3 and the Unity of Believers

You'll turn in your scriptures with me to, well, two texts actually will provide us with at least the beginning of our thoughts together this morning. Galatians chapter 3 will be the first that we will look at.

Galatians chapter 3, beginning at verse 24. Now as most of you can tell, today is an unusual day. It's only happened a couple times in the years that I have been an elder here that I got the call. I was told many years ago when I was lovingly referred to as the utility elder.

Also the traveling elder has been a term that I've gotten as well, and I can understand that one looking at my frequent flyer account, which will be increasing greatly just next month in fact. But I was told, you know, it's always good to keep a sermon in the back of your Bible.

Now of course Pastor Fry knows that this is my Bible and you really can't put anything back there. So when he called on Saturday and said, I'm not feeling so good, he's come a long way. He said, might find some of your sermon note thingies in your smartphone thingy.

So he's moving along. He's really, you got to understand that's a huge, huge move to even admit that I might have sermon notes electronically with me. We're having an impact. It's taken some time, but we're having an impact.

So I got the call this morning. And I'll be perfectly honest with you, we will this evening, Lord giving guidance, continue in Deuteronomy. I've worked ahead in that, and in fact was thinking about getting to that the last time that I preached, but we didn't.

So I did have some of that material, but I'll be honest with you, it's some of the toughest we've ever had to deal with. It really, really is. And so I thought, you know, not a lot of time, but let's consider what the Word of God says on this subject of our unity in Christ.

Justification by Faith and the Unity of the Church

Let me explain why by looking at Galatians chapter 3, verse 24, therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise.

Now this is a well-known text. It is right in the middle of Paul's discussion of the meaning of justification, the unity of the church that comes from the fact there is only one way of salvation, and that is by faith in Jesus Christ.

It's not circumcision, old covenant law, and then into the new covenant for the Jew, and then something different for the Gentile. It's not that the Gentiles are farther from God and the Jews are closer to God because they've taken a different route.

We must understand that in both Romans and Galatians, Paul has an extreme concern of the division of the church along these fault lines. We can see why there were fault lines. We go back to Acts chapter 15.

We go back to how the Jerusalem church responded to the news of what Paul was doing amongst the Gentiles, and what happened in Antioch, and what happens with Peter, and Paul having to face Peter publicly and rebuke him, as we are told in Galatians chapter 2.

We know how important an issue this was of people bringing a tradition into the church that said, well, and for the Jews, it was an ethnic identity. It was religious, but it was also ethnic. You have to enter into this old covenant, and you'll notice even at the end of what is said here, if you belong to Christ, then are you what?

You are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise. Now, to this day, that kind of language is scandalous to a Jewish person, absolutely scandalous to a Jewish person. We are not Abraham's descendants, not from their perspective.

That is a, what is the term that's used today when you steal somebody else's culture? I forget what the term, cultural appropriation, that's what it is, okay. I don't know what that is, but there is a video about it.

I don't know if any of you saw it from California. There was a guy, it looked like he was wearing a dress to me, honestly, but he had dreadlocks, and there was a video of a black young lady accosting him in a hallway at some uber-liberal university in California.

Are there any non-uber-liberal universities in California? That probably wasn't even descriptive at all, was it? But anyway, and she was going after this guy for cultural appropriation of dreadlocks, as if they were actually culturally designed by one culture or something like that.

And it went viral this past week. Well, let me tell you something, from the Jewish perspective, man, have we been guilty of that for a long, long, long, long time. Because that's just, no, no, no, no, you have to be one of Abraham's descendants.

No, the scripture says, Abraham's descendants are those who have the faith of Abraham. And Abraham was the father of the faithful, and since he believed before his circumcision, that he can be the father of Jews and Gentiles who are united together in what?

In one faith. And so it is in that context that you have verse 28. Well, verse 27, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free man.

There is neither male nor female. You are all one in Christ Jesus. Now, this text has been twisted and perverted a lot over the past number of decades. There are many people who think that, well, if there's neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, you're all one in Christ Jesus.

And there is no recognition of gender any longer in the Christian church either. And so those who are promoting transgenderism, cisgender, I've lost track of the language that's being used today, I don't know how anybody can keep up with it, but those people promoting a complete overthrow of the Christian worldview enunciated by, oh yes, Jesus himself in Matthew chapter 19, God made them male and female.

Those who are seeking to overthrow that are saying, well, see here, all of those distinctions are done away with. No, that's not what the text is saying. But what the text is saying is that through faith in Jesus Christ, verse 26, for you're all sons of God, what?

Through faith in Christ Jesus. The ground is level at the cross. There aren't any super-Christians. Men are not more Christian than women. The slave was not a lesser Christian than the master. The Jew not more than the Gentile.

The ground is level because there is only one way of salvation. Now this was revolutionary and it was radical. Because what it meant was, think about the one command that we in this church very carefully avoid.

Greet each other with a holy kiss. Don't even bother trying. I'm Scottish. Okay? It ain't happening. Think about that for a moment, what it meant in that day. Think what it would have meant in the Christian congregation of the first century to read Paul's word.

There could not have been any division amongst the people of God based upon economic standing, master-slave, Roman citizen, non-Roman citizen, upper class, lower class, or any form of racialism at all.

Because you were to greet one another with a holy kiss and that indicated absolute equality before God amongst the saints. That's revolutionary. That was absolutely revolutionary in that day. But that's what you had in that, and that's what made it so scandalous to the Romans too.

Not only were these atheists, remember they did call us atheists. Why did they call us atheists? Because we said the gods did not exist, there was only one God. So we got rid of all the gods, so they called us atheists.

Not only are they atheists, but there is this bowing before another kurios, Jesus, rather than Caesar. And there is this equality amongst them. And there is this love amongst them. And so, for centuries, all sorts of false rumors about impurity taking place amongst the Christians, which, by the way, was one of the reasons Paul said to the Corinthians what he said to the Corinthians about the women and their hair.

Because the temple prostitutes in Corinth shaved their head. The women would grow their hair out so that the people don't go, oh, look who's going into the Christian meeting. There's sort of a background to it that we need to understand.

Anyway, the point is that what we have in verse 28 is not a command that says, look, if you're Jewish, forget about everything you learned as a Jewish person. No. And it's not a doing away with male and female roles, because Paul even talks about male and female roles within the church.

What it is saying is there is absolute equality before God because there is only one way of salvation and it is through faith in Jesus Christ and it doesn't matter what race you are, it doesn't matter how much money you have, it doesn't matter how big your house is.

We all stand before God on an absolutely equal basis and the reason that there can be love and harmony and peace amongst not only the believers in a local fellowship, but that I can experience that very same harmony and peace and will, Lord willing, in Cape Town, South Africa in a matter of weeks, in a small Irish town about an hour outside of Belfast on the North Sea a few days later.

How can I go from literally one end of the earth to the other end of the earth and fully expect that in both places I will be able to stand, open the Word of God and speak about the things of God and not have to give a single thought to my race or theirs.

Why? Because there is a unity and harmony that comes from a recognition that each one of us as believers has been forgiven of our sins in the exact same way and we all are going to the exact same place to do the exact same thing and that is to worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This text cannot be twisted to get rid of the beauty, and I'm going to use a buzzword here but I'm going to try to fill it with true meaning, of the diversity, yes, diversity, I can almost not even pronounce it anymore, it's been so badly twisted, but the diversity in the body of Christ.

I am thankful that God saves different kinds of people and because of my traveling, let's just put it this way, I have a feeling I'm a little more comfortable in a wider range of worship situations than Brother Fry.

I just think that I am because I've been exposed to so much more and I love the fact that I can think about speaking in chapel or in the church in Kiev, Ukraine and there is these little Ukrainian women and they're listening to my dear brother Nick as he translates for me into Russian and I don't think they blink.

I'm not sure they're breathing but then as I'm leaving and the first time you do it you sort of wonder, did I just completely bomb this? I mean there was just, there was no reaction at all, but then they've got their little head scarves on and they're going out the door into the cold of Kiev, been there in December and oh that wind just cuts right through you.

I bought one of those surplus Russian fur hats because man they work, they really, really work and that's why they've got them and I'm getting ready to go out and the little old lady comes by and she says to Nick something I can't repeat because of all the languages I'll tell you the one that just, it's like Teflon is Russian.

It just bounces off of me. I know that God is Bolg, what a great name for God, Bolg, but other than that and she says something to Nick and then she goes on and Nick leans over and she says, she was deeply blessed by what you said.

Who would have known? And some of the churches in South Africa, I didn't need them to tell that, I could tell from the pews they were deeply blessed by that because they were verbally participating, okay?

You know I could tell and there's everything in between. I mean I've preached in a reformed Baptist church in Inverness, Scotland, right near Nessie, yes indeed, right up there on Inverness, right next to Loch Ness and they're almost as quiet as the folks in Kiev but in a different way, in a different sense because they won't even talk to you when you leave.

You just simply have to hope and pray, you know, it's just that Scottish thing, I'm not really sure but I've learned to appreciate all of it and I go down to Sydney, there is not a bow tie in all of Australia.

They were banished and burned, a huge bonfire, they're gone and I'm in an Anglican church, I mean ornate stuff all over the place, the Sydney Anglicans, extremely conservative and Aaron Seed, justification by faith, the old rile type Anglicans, I mean there are brothers, they're great down there but they're all wearing t-shirts, seriously, I mean a button down shirt is what you do for a funeral without a tie, okay, I mean it's just so different but we're all united together because of one faith in Christ Jesus and that's what's being said here.

The Worshiping Multitude in Revelation 5

I went a little longer on that one, turn with me to Revelation chapter 5, Revelation chapter 5 and here we have the beauty of a heavenly vision and it's a short chapter so let me just read it, I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book written inside on the back, sealed up with seven seals and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals and no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it and I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it and one of the elders said to me, stop weeping, behold the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals and I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders, a lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth and he came and took the book out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne and when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints and they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, you have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God and they will reign upon the earth and I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders and a number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing and every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them I heard saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever and the four living creatures kept saying amen and the elders fell down and worshiped.

What a tremendous picture given to the early church of the beauty of worship in heaven. They were suffering such persecution. They were a small group of people persecuted, despised by the powerful Roman Empire and yet they are given the promise that in heaven itself God is still upon his throne.

God still rules and reigns and there is one who has been found and he is worthy to open the book and he is the lamb standing as if slain. Obviously a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and when they had taken the book the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints.

I just stop for a moment. I don't understand any kind of system of thought that would read in these texts a distinction. A distinction for example between the 24 elders. Well what were their backgrounds?

Where are they from? What color are they? The scripture doesn't say a word about it because it doesn't matter. They are the 24 elders. They could be rainbow colored. It would not matter. They are the 24 elders and they are focused upon the worship of God and they bow down and say the prayers of the saints and that's anything.

It's not the saints from one nation. It's not the saints from a certain socioeconomic strata. The fact that these bowls are full of incense which are the prayers of the saints shows that the saints are absolutely equal with one another.

There is not one bowl full of the saints prayers from one race and another race and another race. They are all together because they are just saints. I don't understand how there could be anyone who could read into this a distinction and then listen to the song that they sing.

Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Now let's be honest, most of the time, those of us amongst the Reformed, about the only reason we find ourselves in Revelation 5, 9 is because it's an excellent and important text in regards to the issue of particular redemption.

And it is very clear that through the death of Christ, there is a purchasing for God of a specific people. You purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. It does not say you purchased every tribe, tongue, people and nation and toto.

It doesn't say that. It's not preaching a universal peanut butter atonement that just simply makes redemption a possibility. No, very clearly. You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God.

It's God who forms the people of God. It's the triune God who does this and the work of Christ is in specific and perfect harmony with the will of the Father in electing people from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.

And so the elect comes from all the world. That's why the gospel has to go into all the world. That is why every single movement that has ever sought to limit and restrain the extent of the proclamation of the gospel has had to be resisted and destroyed within the church.

You see that inclination even as early as in 1 John. When John talking to his audience says that this is the end of the world and this propitiation is not for us alone, but for the whole world. In other words, don't get into this idea that, well, we've got it and so let's just be happy with it and keep it to ourselves.

No, it's a message that has to go to everyone because God is still drawing his people unto himself and once he has drawn that last one of his elect unto himself, he's going to wrap all of this up. And so there is an expansion, this massive expansion of the scope of the promises of God that was seen in the old covenant.

It was prophesied. Jesus talks about it, but now the Holy Spirit has come. Now that Jesus Christ has been slain, the message of the gospel has been given to us and we are to go into all the world. And no Christian ever has to give a second thought, a second thought to the idea that, well, is this one of the elect?

I don't know. I need to do some fruit inspection. Is there some evidence in this person's life that the Holy Spirit is active? We aren't given that kind of capacity. We're not given that kind of ability.

Man, if I tried to do that, a lot of places I go to minister, I'd be wrapping up my sermon in ten minutes because it's just like, oh, well, I'm not getting anywhere with these folks. I just might as well move on.

God's not doing anything. And then there'd be a lot of other places I'd be going, oh, the Lord's really moving and in fact it was just a bunch of emotion and there wasn't any actual application or any remembrance at all.

It's not up to me. It also means it doesn't matter where I am, it doesn't matter where I am, I don't have to give a second thought to who I proclaim the gospel to based upon what kind of clothes they're wearing, what kind of education they've got, or how much melanin they have in their skin.

Race, education, all that stuff. It's irrelevant because I have the promise that God's going to draw his elect people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. There can be no barriers to the gospel.

It doesn't matter what language. It doesn't matter what history was about. I did that, I think I told you, I did that ancestry .com DNA thing. I mean, I know that I'm Scottish because I've already traced some of the genealogy, but hey, it ain't very expensive anymore.

In fact, on sale you can get for 79 bucks and you send in your DNA sample and I'm sure the NSA takes its part and has a whole profile on you and satellites are tracking you based on your DNA profile and everything like that, but you get this little thing where it breaks down your background, where you're from.

And I was, I was, you know, I was a kid. I did get some surprises. I was, I was, you know, predominantly Scottish and I knew that that was coming. But we discovered my dad, man, we thought he was the primary source of my Scottish.

My mom was the primary source of my Scottish. My dad's a Brit. Now for a Scottish person, that's shocking and offensive. It really is. I mean, I have an internal conflict now, you know? I mean, a whole part of me is fighting with another part of me.

It's just, it's just all the time. And then guess who came in third? The Germans were crying out loud. Thankfully, that would be far enough back before the last century so we don't have to worry about, you know, that Germany, but.

Now, it has never crossed my mind, never crossed my mind, before I found out about the British part, to for a second, go, well, you know, I'm not sure, you know, the English were so nasty to my forebear.

I mean, and historically they were. I mean, they enslaved the Scots, they killed the Scots, they massacred the Scots. The Scots also sort of once in a while would return the favor. But, you know, it's never crossed my mind that I should somehow feel some kind of dislike toward an Englishman because historically I know that my ancestors and his ancestors may have stood across a field wearing coats of armor and then went at each other swinging pickaxes and everything else at each other.

It's just never crossed my mind. It's just not something that I think of. There are still some people in England that think that way, though. I'm not really sure how that works, but it's never crossed my mind.

And especially when you talk in terms of the body of Christ. Let's say there was something in the not so distant past where two people groups had been at war with one another or one had enslaved the other.

Once you both recognize there is no other way of salvation but one way. You have been purchased with the blood of Jesus. His blood has made you from every tribe and tongue and people and nation a kingdom of priests to our God.

Once you have that foundation, how can anything that's happened in the past be made definitional of how we should see one another? How can that be? It doesn't mean that you get to ignore history. But I would say this, that as a Christian, the very first thought, the way I've expressed it recently, the very first lens through which you must look at all of the world is the redemptive lens of Scripture.

That's the first thing. The very first thing you should see when you look at someone else. When you're in the church, the first thing you see is a fellow redeemed believer who is going to be made a king and priest to God on the very same basis as you and that is the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

That's it. That's it. There should be nothing else. Sadly, a lot of places there are other things being put in the way. And it always results in division. But when I look at Scripture, when I travel around this world, when I stand in a mosque in Erasmus, South Africa, and I look out over that audience, I can tell you with absolute honesty in my heart, when I had that opportunity in October of 2013 to stand in front of the Abu Bakr Siddiq Mosque in Erasmus, South Africa, and proclaim the Gospel to that people, and they were seated closer to me than you are to me.

They're seated on the ground on the carpet. As I think back, looking at those people, and of course there's a video of it so I can go back and look at it, and I saw that there were white Afrikaners there.

And they're seated right next to black Africans. And right behind them is an Indian. And I mean there's a huge Indian population in South Africa. Linasia, just south of Soweto. Apartheid finished, ha ha.

Still very, very much a reality in South Africa as far as where people live. So I've debated in the mosque in Linasia, and almost everybody in the audience was Indian. Indian Muslim. But as I looked around, I saw about the only race I can't remember seeing in that mosque was probably Asian of some sort.

You know, maybe Chinese or Japanese or I think there might have been some Indonesians there now that I think about it. So maybe there were some from the Asian area. There weren't any Eskimos. Let's go that way, okay?

That's a pretty safe one. But there was a huge wide variety of people there. And I was talking about how we're made right before God. And I know I have an opportunity here for many of these Muslims. They have never heard this.

So I have to be clear. I have to be straightforward. And I told them, nothing makes me any better than you. I have no right to stand before you. I was under God's condemnation. The only reason that I have peace with God today is because of what Jesus Christ does.

I was working through Titus 2, 13 -14, which is very similar to what we have here in Revelation chapter 5. And I can say to you with absolute witness before God, it never crossed my mind in looking at that audio to think about what race they were.

Because I don't have a different message for one group than another group. If you don't understand your need before God, that's the main thing I have to communicate to you. Because if I waste my time with anything else, you may never end up actually hearing the Gospel.

And so it was so freeing to be able to stand before them simply as a fellow bearer of the image of God. And say, here's man's need. It's your need. It's my need. And it doesn't matter what color we are.

It doesn't matter how much money we have. It doesn't matter what our passport says. All those things are irrelevant. Here's the need. And here's the solution. What a tremendous power there is to the Gospel.

That's why man has never yet been able to design a barrier to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You know we have tens of thousands of brothers and sisters suffering horribly in North Korea right now. Suffering horribly under that oppressive regime and yet somehow they're still there.

The Spirit of God still draws his people to himself, even calling them to a life of horrific suffering. Something tells me a lot of them are going to have a lot closer spot to the throne than some of us have had it real easy.

Not they're better Christians or more Christian, but the point is when it comes to reward, what have they given up? Everything. From the very start. There is no super Christian. The ground is level at the foot of the cross.

We can rejoice all we want in the diversity that comes from the fact that God has chosen his people from every tribe there's none been left behind. Every tongue, some of which I can't even begin to understand.

Every people, every nation. We can celebrate that they bring such beauty to the church. You know, I'm going to get an opportunity in September. After many, many years we're going on another cruise. Yep, I'm looking forward to that.

And on that cruise there's always, when it's a seven day, there's always a formal night. Always a formal night on the cruise. And much to my dear wife's consternation and suffering, but she's patient.

For formal night, I wear a kilt. Oh yes, I have two genuine kilts made in Glasgow, Scotland. And on formal night, that's what I wear. Now, I enjoy my Scottish. And there's nothing wrong, I don't think there's anything in these texts that say that I should not recognize my Scottish heritage.

However, if I look down upon someone else for not being Scottish, that would obviously be a problem. And I don't. And I don't celebrate the sinful aspects of Scottish heritage. I'll be perfectly honest with you.

Many of my forefathers were stinking pagan. And they engaged in all sorts of pagan activities. And pagan rituals. And there's all sorts of pagan shrines and things like that that dot the landscape in Scotland.

And I don't celebrate those things as a Christian. And so I recognize that there is an appropriateness of looking to history. I teach history. I like looking at history. Of knowing where I came from. Appreciating my ancestors.

But I also look at them through, first of all, the lens of redemption. And I remember telling a very Scottish pastor over in Southern California about my heritage. And I said, well, we're not really sure, but on the one side, whites are related either to the McGregors or to the Laments.

And I remember without a hesitation, he said, oh, he says, I hope it's the Laments. He said, McGregor is a bunch of pagans. Well, okay. I'll take that. Even if I find out it was the McGregors, I'm not going to celebrate the pagan aspects of things.

I'm not going to look down at somebody else. I'm going to take the good. I'm going to enjoy the appropriate. But I'm always going to look through the lens of the redemptive. That must be the first and focusing lens.

The fact that I am a Christian and I am a part of the one people of God, not the people of God that is defined by anything other than the fact that we all will bow the knee. We all will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

And that he will be honored and glorified. When every created thing in heaven and in earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them will say to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.

If you say that, you are my brother. You are my sister. Let us not allow anything else to divide us in that single allegiance to the one, the redeemed. Let's pray together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your word and we thank you for the extensiveness of your grace.

We thank you that in your sovereignty you have chosen to draw your people from every tribe, tongue, people and nation and make them one people. One redeemed people whose focus is upon the worship of Jesus Christ.

We ask that you will unite your people in their love for you, their love for the gospel, and especially at this time when the world is expressing such hatred toward your truth. Lord, may we, your people, demonstrate that we are unified as we love one another.

We thank you for the peace you've given us in this fellowship. We ask that you will continue that, that you will keep our hearts focused upon what is important, upon love for your word, a proclamation of that truth.

We thank you for this day. We do pray for those who are not with us this day due to sickness, that you would lift them up and restore them to us. We pray these things in Christ's name.