Please turn with me and your Bibles to Galatians 3.28. Galatians 3.28 will be our main text this morning. Galatians 3.28, letter from the Apostle Paul to the Galatian believers. There, he writes, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Let us pray together. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would renew our minds afresh this morning. We pray that you would engage our minds with our incredible salvation in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. and that may stimulate a right view, not only of ourselves, but of one another as the local church. We ask, Lord God, that your thoughts, your mind in Christ would become a part of us. that we would rightly have fellowship and unity in the church. We ask that your will for the church would be fulfilled in our local assemblies. We ask, Lord, that you would shine the light of the gospel, not in just a theoretical, theological way, but in a practical way in our lives through this text. In the name of your son, we pray, amen. One of the reasons why I have always enjoyed watching the Olympics is because it really unites our nation together. And I think a lot of us would agree. And what I mean is this, you have all kinds of sports represented in the Olympics. And right now I'm thinking more of the Summer Olympics. And with each sport, you kind of have different parts of America represented. And this is what I mean. For something like swimming or volleyball, It's naturally a more middle class sport, right? But then with maybe track and field and basketball, among other sports, you have athletes who come from a more inner city background, representing the nation's inner cities. And now what's beautiful is that you can be watching the Olympics in the suburbs, but when the United States wins in track and field or basketball, you're all for them, right? You triumph with them. You rejoice with them. And vice versa, you can be in the inner city and rejoice when our nation wins in swimming or volleyball. We're all united in the losses as well as in the wins. Why do we do that? It's because for two weeks, at least, for two weeks, the United States uniform is all that really matters to us as we watch on the television. The red, white, and blue is all that matters to us. as the Olympics happens before us. As long as an athlete is wearing that uniform, we root for them, we endure loss with them, and we triumph with them. So, for two weeks, all the differences that divide our nation seemed to not exist. They seem to be an illusion for just two weeks. It's as if skin color, political affiliations, and economic statuses all go out the window during the Olympics. We're all united together. And during the Olympics, the only identity that matters is that this athlete that I'm watching on my television is with us, is with our nation. That's how we interpret what we see in the Olympics. You might as well say there, when we're watching the Olympics, there's neither black nor white. There's neither white collar or blue collar. There is no male and female for you are one in the United States of America. In a similar yet greater way, the only identity that really matters in the church is that someone is in Christ. That identity overrides all other earthly differences, and it creates a transcendent unity among us. And this was one of Paul's goals in writing this epistle to the Galatians. We can kind of think of Galatians maybe as a theological piece. We tend to think about it more as a doctrinal treatise on the justification by faith, but it's much more than that. It's most definitely that, a doctrinal treatise. Paul definitely goes on a theological mission in this epistle. But that's not his only intention. That is not the only goal that he has in mind, to make some clarifications about theology. That's not the only thing that he has in view. He does fight off heresy that someone has to subscribe to the Old Testament law in order to gain righteous standing before God. And he does make bold statements against the Judaizers, these false teachers even saying that if anyone, if anyone is preaching to you guys a gospel contrary to the one that you received, let him be accursed, let him go to hell, right? Those kinds of statements are unique to Galatians because there is this theological anger, you could even say, to the Apostle Paul. Nonetheless, this letter is not just about doctrine. It's more than that. Paul isn't stuck in a lecture, in a seminary classroom. If this really was just a doctrinal treatise, Paul would have, I would say he would have stopped writing after chapter four. He would have penned those first four chapters and just be done with the whole thing. But that's not what he does. At that point, because by the point of chapter four, he would have covered pretty much everything in regard to the heresy. He would have fully covered the promise of Abraham. He would have covered the role of the law as a law that exposes our sinfulness so that we would therefore look to a Savior who can redeem us, namely Christ. He covered all of that until chapter 4, but he keeps writing a couple more chapters because he wasn't done. There was more that he wanted to communicate to these believers. There was a deeper goal in him writing this epistle. He wrote it with a view towards Christ honoring fellowship and unity among the people of God. He proclaims the salvation of Christ with a view towards practical changes and transformation in the life of the church. He believed that if these Galatians truly understood their common salvation in Christ and really let it sink into their hearts, they would experience life with one another in a brand new way. This goal, if you look over to chapter five, verse six, this goal can be summarized in that verse where he says, in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love. He's concerned about loving Christian relationships taking place in the church. Look down to verse 13 of that same chapter, chapter 5. For you are called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Verse 14. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, it should not be of any surprise to us that in our verse, Galatians 3.28, you already see glimpses of this goal in mind, in the mind of the Apostle Paul. You can see in this verse, he has a view towards fellowship and unity. And that's what we're gonna focus on this morning. Before he does delve deeper into this subject of loving Christian fellowship in chapters 5 and 6, Paul, here in our text, emphasizes key truths that make that kind of fellowship even possible. Therefore, for our time, I want to focus on really just two things from our verse Galatians 3, 28. One, I want to reinforce our common salvation in Christ. And then secondly, I want to lay out the effect of that common salvation in Christ. So first off, let us establish our common salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. The verse again, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. I would like us to focus actually on the second half of that verse. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Because this second half explains why, explains why we can experience the first half of this verse. Note the four, underscore four in your verse. Note, there is no Jew, Gentile, slave free, male, female, four, you are all one in Christ. So what does it mean? What does it mean that we are united in Christ? That we are all one in Christ? This is my definition for this morning. It means that all of God's people, regardless of differences in ethnicity, class, or gender, all of God's people have experienced the same salvation from the same Savior. Look at the previous verses leading up to verse 28, starting in verse 26. This is to review what all of God's people, regardless of background, what we all have experienced in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 26, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. In verse 26, Paul confirms that the person who has believed in Christ is granted entry into the family of God. That's why he calls us sons and daughters of God there. Then he goes on to clarify in the next verse why he can give us such titles, why he can call us sons and daughters of God. Verse 27, "...for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Let me first clarify what Paul is saying in baptized. The word for baptized, as many of you probably already know, literally means to be immersed. Being immersed. Nothing in this context of Galatians 3 suggests that there's water baptism in mind here. That's what I would contend. And I'm getting that more also from a helpful cross-reference if you're taking notes. This is 1 Corinthians 12. Verse 13, where Paul also says there, for in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Therefore, I take it as we are all immersed into the body of Christ, into the church of Christ. He's saying that every single person who has been placed in the church, immersed in the church by the work of the Holy Spirit, he or she has put on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I really like the NASB translation for this verse, verse 27, because it's more vivid when it comes to the language of putting on Christ. This is what it says in the NASB translation. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. And when you take this statement in the larger context of Galatians chapter 3, you realize that Paul is actually still applying the metaphor that he has been using thus far. And it's the metaphor of the law being a strict guardian or tutor to us. Look down at verse 24. And then verse 25, verse 24, Paul is referring in this context to tutors in the ancient Greco-Roman world who watched over a child until that child reached adulthood. until that child reached maturity. These tutors were known to be rigid and strict, and this caused the children in that day to look forward to adulthood, which is different from our culture. They were looking forward to adulthood, and there was a unique practice going on in that day for males, for boys who became men. There's a unique practice, and I think Paul is alluding to this practice when he says, we have clothed ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. Because for young men in that day who were recognized as men for the first time, they received what is called the toga verilis, the toga of manhood. So Paul is essentially saying we are no longer spiritual children under the guardian of the law because we have placed faith in the Son of God and we now wear the garments or you could say the toga verilis of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can be called sons and daughters of God because the righteousness of Christ is on you, has been placed on you, is clothing you. God can call you his son because his eternal son's righteousness is on you and covers you and clothes you. This is our common salvation. Amen? We have all received in Christ this righteousness from the Son of God. All the people of God can attest to experiencing the saving work of Christ in this manner. Regardless of culture, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of education background, nationality, all of God's people can say that this is my story. That His robes are now mine. His robes for mine. That's our story. John chapter one, verse 12, but to all who did receive him, Jesus, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God. The eternal Son of God ushers in sons and daughters of God into the family of God. He ushers them in from every tribe, every tongue, and every nation, from every ethnic group, every social class, We are one in Christ because we have a common salvation. We have a common story through the same Savior. The passengers on United States Airways flight 1549 who survived the landing on the Hudson River will forever be united because of the saving act of one man, Mr. Sullenberger. The 1,200 survivors of the Holocaust who were saved by Oskar Schindler because he employed them in his factories, they were forever united because of the saving act of one man. So it is for us, but in an infinitely grander way. We are forever united, truly, because Jesus Christ gave himself for us. for our sins to deliver us from the wrath of God. We are a part of the same family and our entry into this family was through the same Savior. We all cry out to the same Father. We can all say that we've died to sin, that the rule and dominion of sin is no longer on us. We can say that we now live to God in Christ and that we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and therefore we can be declared righteous as Jesus before the throne of God. Not by anything we have done or accomplished, but by all that He, Jesus, has given us. We may usually think of justification of faith, this doctrine that Paul is ingraining so deeply in this epistle, and any other salvific doctrines. We can think of all these doctrines as rightly as bulwarks against heresy, right? We're defending ourselves against heresy. But also keep in mind, it's a bulwark against disunity, against disunity and fractions in the Church. All of us have been redeemed by the same Christ. Therefore, by virtue of our saving relationship with the same person, we come together as one. And we come together in a particular way. This leads us to our second heading, the effect of our common salvation. The effect of our common salvation. Look at the first half of verse 28, Galatians 3, 28, once again. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female. To make it even more clear, let me reorder the words because this is basically what Paul is saying. You are all one in Christ Jesus. You have the same salvation through the same Savior. Therefore, there is neither Jew nor Greek. Therefore, there is neither slave nor free. Therefore, there is no male and female in the body of Christ. I'm going to use a term that might be a little confusing at first, and I hope to clarify it in a second. I call this the effect of spiritual blindness. Spiritual blindness. Blindness from a spiritual perspective. We become spiritually blind to the earthly differences among us. Let me clarify what I mean by that. We obviously are not completely blind to the distinctions among God's people, right? We're not blind. We can see, obviously, that there's differences. And the Word of God is not blind to these distinctions. Even the Word of God tells the people of God to actually live in light of these distinctions. Just think of a few examples. In Acts 15, 20, Converted Gentiles were to especially, obviously more than Jewish Christians, they were to take more attention to avoiding pagan, idolatrous practices. Because that's who they were, that's their background. That's what they came out of. They had to live in light of their ethnic background. In Ephesians chapter 6, we see Paul telling slaves to obey masters and masters to be kind to their slaves. They had to live in light of their social class. In Titus 2, older women. These are all familiar texts. Older women are told to train young women on being faithful in the home. Ephesians 5, husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the church. They had to live in light of their gender. So the Word of God is not blind to these distinctions in that sense, in our practical living. So Paul isn't saying these distinctions are completely irrelevant. They are relevant, in that sense. But, and this is the emphasis for us this morning, they are irrelevant, they are irrelevant when it comes to viewing a fellow believer's spiritual status before God. Whether you are a Jew or Gentile, whether you are white, black, Asian, Hispanic, whether you are rich, middle class, or poor, whether you are male or female, young or old, college educated or high school educated, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. and all have been justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." There is no ethnic, social, or gender barrier for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The offer of the gospel is for all people, for all people have sinned against a holy God. By understanding that my brother and sister in Christ is a sinner just like me, who needs Christ just as much as me, our differences ought to go into the background. That's the idea. Our common salvation allows us to see each other primarily, primarily as sinners redeemed by Jesus. I love what my friend, who's a pastor, Pastor Anthony Kidd said on a podcast a few weeks ago. The podcast's topic was how Christians should address racism. He used a very clever word that I found to be very helpful. He said, we need to keep preaching the gospel because the gospel is the great equalizer. It puts every skin color, every culture, and every class on the same plane. Guilty and needy before the throne of God. And just pause, think to yourself, just pause and think about the universality, the universality of sin around this world. across all the cultures, across all the social classes, across all the ethnic groups. Generally, you'll always see prostitution, drunkenness, religious hypocrisy, child abuse, domestic abuse. You can go on and on on the list, right? You can find these in every pocket of society. They're there, and obviously it can vary to degree and how it looks and how it's expressed, but they're there pretty much in every nation, in every society, every culture, every people group. Therefore, all cultures, all social classes, all ethnic groups desperately need the redeeming work of Christ. They all equally need Jesus, because we are all equally sinful, therefore equally needy. And we need to be wary that as we live in this world, Christ didn't call us, right, to come out of this world. He expects us to live in the context of this sinful, fallen world in our workplaces, in our families, in our schools, in our neighborhoods. But as we do that, be very, very careful and thoughtful and be on guard because the world's message, indirectly or directly, is to make these earthly identifications primary. They want us to make ethnicity, culture, and class the most important thing when we look at each other. And let me just as an aside, let me clarify that it's not bad at all to identify according to your culture, your background, your ethnicity. It is bad, however, I would say, if it becomes the primary identification marker. It's secondary tertiary. It's healthy for the believer. But the world's agenda is to make those earthly identifications and distinctions primary to you. But as a church of Jesus Christ, we have a renewed mind. we have a renewed mind, we have a different perspective, we don't see the way, we don't view the world the way that the world does. And this is one of those ways in which that is shown. It's not an accident, I didn't even contend that, that Paul says this verse, verse 28, right after verse 27 where he emphasizes that we are clothed in Christ. I take it this way, Christ has so overwhelmingly covered us that it is as if all other earthly distinctions have to take a back seat. It's like there's so many layers, layer upon layer upon layer of the righteousness of Christ, that everything that's underneath that, all our earthly identities, in a sense, they become so hidden, you can't see them anymore. They're buried underneath Him, as we are clothed with Him. we consider one another to be in Christ, to be so entrenched in Christ that we don't, in a sense, see the differences between us anymore. So when you come across a fellow brother or sister in Christ, ethnicity, class, and gender should not should not be the main factors in your characterization of them. The main factor should be that they have been saved by the same Savior who saved me. In other words, you shouldn't think, oh, that's a white man who happens to be at my church. Oh, that's a black lady who happens to be at my church, an Asian guy who happens to be at my church. No, that's a brother and sister in Christ. Bold font. Caps, all caps, brother and sister in Christ should come across your mind. The light of Christ's righteousness shines so brightly as it covers us that it crowds out any other primary identity you may want to give somebody. In 2 Corinthians 5.16, after he says that we have died with Christ and now live for Christ, Paul said this, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh, according to earthly distinctions among the people of God. Instead, and this is the next verse, 2 Corinthians 5.17, instead we see new creation, new creatures in Christ. You can't even say this. I'll put it this way. God has created a brand new race. God has created a brand new race that's transcendent over this world. A race that transcends all the people groups of this world. Therefore, there is transcendent, almost inexplainable unity and fellowship in the church. Transcendent unity and fellowship can be created by the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, I still wanna give a sobering precaution. It's a reality check. Some of this that I'm saying sounds probably a little bit idealistic, because frankly it is. It is a little idealistic, because we mess up. Having the gospel alter our vision of each other, can be easier said than done. I'm not gonna delve into all the details. I mean, there could be an infinite list here. Case in point, though, a few case in points. Case in point number one, the history of racism in our country, and how it not only existed in a secular field, but how it invaded churches, even churches who supposedly had sound doctrine. Case in point number two, just think about James chapter two. This is a church where the apostles are at, the church of Jerusalem. And it's in James chapter two that he has to address, hey, you guys are treating the rich folk way better than the poor folk. Even in a church with the engagement and the presence of the apostles, he had to address that issue of favoritism based on poor or rich. Case in point number three, And we're seeing this more now, but this has always been around, whether it's publicized or unpublicized, the abuse and or negligence of women and children in the church. In all those cases, at some point, the church folk, we're talking about, we're not talking about the world here, we're talking about in the context and the framework of a local church, these things have occurred. At some point, the church folks stopped viewing each other primarily, primarily as sinners redeemed by Christ, but began to sinfully label and treat each other according to earthly labels. And all that happened in the context of churches. And it still happens. So let that be a sobering reminder to us that we really do need to be proactive and intentional This doesn't happen when we're passive, is what I'm saying. We have to be proactive and intentional among our fellowships so that we rightly see one another in Christ. I wanna close with an encouragement slash challenge. Turn to Galatians chapter two, verses one through three. Galatians chapter two, verses one through three. The context for this text is Paul bringing Barnabas and Titus to Jerusalem, where the other apostles are, to contend that circumcision does not contribute to righteous standing before God. Verse one there in that chapter. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem and Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. That's the key right there, taking Titus along with me. You can keep reading. Verse two, I went up because of a revelation and set before them, though privately before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. Now this is the big text right here, verse three. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised. This proved that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised to be saved. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek." In light of that, I think writing Galatians was a bit personal for Paul. He had a real brother that he loved, not just the brother who he had normal church acquaintances with, but this was a brother who he preached with, did ministry with, right? He had somebody who was a part, and a deep part of his life, who was dear to him. He had a dear brother in Christ who was being threatened to be labeled according to his ethnicity, and not by his faith in Christ. So can't you imagine as Paul's writing this verse, Galatians 3.28, that he has to have brother Titus in mind? He's probably thinking, I don't think of Brother Titus as a nasty Gentile associated with nasty paganism and temple worship and temple prostitution. I think of Brother Titus and I see a sinner who has been redeemed by Christ, the same Christ who saved me on the Damascus Road. That's what he's thinking. So let me ask this question. Do you have a Titus in your life? What I mean is this. Do you have a fellow Christian who is so different from you in many ways, but through your common salvation in Christ, you can have sweet, transcendent fellowship with that brother or sister? That kind of sweet, joyful, precious experience is made available to you in the gospel. It's right at your fingertips. All you gotta do is be proactive and intentional. Make time, put effort to forge those kinds of transcendent friendships among God's people here at Grace Baptist. Friendships and fellowship that cannot be explained apart from the fact that you love the same person, Jesus. So I ask again, do you have a Titus in your life? Can you say you have a Titus type brotherhood, sisterhood, group in your life? Are you pursuing to have Tituses in your life? I personally have been so blessed. It is amazing to think about how God has blessed me. to give me friendships with people who I never would have befriended if it wasn't for the gospel. As I was preparing, I was just thinking, man, I was thinking about the spectrum of brothers that I've met, and not just met, but had fellowship with, did ministry with, did evangelism with, and I could call today and we would just talk like, you know, it hasn't been four years. because we have that common salvation. I was thinking about that spectrum. It's like, man, I can go from guys who are former gangsters to guys who are pharmacists. The whole spectrum. Black, white, Asian, Hispanic, probably a few more that I've forgotten. It's amazing to just think of all the friends and brothers and sisters that I've met just because of Christ. and how precious, more precious even, than my quote-unquote normal relationships are. I was thinking just this morning, some of the most sweetest conversations I've had in terms of fellowship, in terms of rejoicing over the gospel, they've been with grandmothers of the faith, just older sisters I would never talk to outside of the context of, man, we have the same Savior. I'm encouraged to To see diversity here, and I'm not just talking about, you know, just, you know, ethnicity, but just different life stages, age groups. Testimony, and take that, don't take that for granted, it's a testimony of God's grace upon this church, amen? And it's not normal, or it's not common, I should say. But just because you sit in the same building once or twice a week, it doesn't mean necessarily that you're in deep fellowship with one another, across the lines that we're discussing. I thought of something that our pastor, Jim Sevastio, kind of says once in a while, because it's important. He always reminds us, and we have two services like you guys, so it's not like we're, you know, We have one hour of church, and that's it. We have a pretty good Lord's Day. But he'll say this periodically, and it's really helpful. He reminds us, don't think this is a preaching center. Don't treat this like a T4G. Don't treat this like a conference where you get your two sermons and your. But treat this, yeah, most definitely as a place where you can under the sound of the gospel and be edified and built by the word of God. But understand this family. It's just one another. God has it here. So let that word from Pastor Jim, I'm not taking credit for it, let that just kind of help you see where you're at. Are you treating the Lord's Day as a preaching center, this church as a preaching center? When you get your sermons, you feel pretty edified individually. but you are not ingrained in the life of the church. Let this word from Galatians challenge all of us to step outside your circle, even in the same local church, and forge Christ-bought relationships among God's people. May our churches be characterized by a transcendent fellowship and unity that is solely rooted in our common salvation in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we understand that things that we're exhorting ourselves to do, that you have exhorted us to do, They are impossible for our flesh to accomplish by our own strength, our own wisdom, our own will. We cannot do these things. We can try for a little while, but they cannot be sustained. So we ask for your grace. We ask for your spirit, the spirit of Jesus Christ to be among us, that we may thoughtfully, proactively apply your gospel. And that we may not just be thrilled when we see the theological beauty that is shown in Christ, but also rejoice in the fellowship, the unity, the family that we can experience in Christ. We ask that you give us an appetite for that. We ask that you give us an appetite to rightly apply the gospel in ways that will manifest or magnify the gospel in ways that the world cannot explain. In Jesus Christ we pray, amen.