Sermon Central
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There Is No Other Gospel
Contributed by Kraig Pullam on Feb 18, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: Paul's discourse in the opening 10 verses of his letter to Galatia seeks to convey Who we are in Christ, the essence of the Gospel of Christ and the characteristical underpennings of a lifestyle saturated in and by the grace of Jesus Christ.
No Other Gospel by Kraig Pullam
Introduction
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Four score and seven years, means 87 years. It refers back to the year 1776, when our nation declared independence from Britain. I think Lincoln was trying to grab people’s attention by saying “Four score and seven years ago”. More people got involved, and listened to his speech, because it sounded more interesting. Lincoln was saying that 87 years ago our ancestors developed this nation. He is saying that the people need to pay attention to the war, because the same people who fought for the development of their nation are now fighting each other.
On January first, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The Proclamation was issued during the American Civil War. The first proclamation- issued the November before- said that the slaves in Confederate states were free. For some slave owners, this statement was “too vague.” Which states were 100% “Confederate?” The second proclamation- issued by Lincoln- clearly stated specific states that were under effect. It freed thousands of slaves, even the day it was put forth.
The purpose of the Proclamation
It was meant to end slavery, in the USA. Some slaves were not freed until years later. This was because it took years for the news to get across the whole country. All the little towns in the “middle of nowhere” couldn’t know. The states the were stated in the proclamation were; Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. The Emancipation Proclamation is one of the most important documents in this country’s history. It brought freedom, and hope, to thousands of people.
Though the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863, it had minimal immediate effect on most slaves’ day-to-day lives, particularly in Texas, which was almost entirely under Confederate control. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its slaves.
What makes freedom so elusive?
What makes liberty so precious?
What makes the gift of emancipation so invaluable and priceless?
Patrick Henry is noted to have said: GIVE ME LIBERTY OF GIVE ME DEATH
What a joy it is to be free!
What a delight it is to know that we aren’t imprisoned to a system or a nation that employs our bondage and holds us captive to a system of oppression and tyranny.
• This may be a mute point to those of us who were born in the 20th or the 21st century; but most of us are just a few generations removed from slavery therefore let me pause long enough to ask this question—what if you were born in slavery? Bondage? With chains?
I thank God that we live in a society and nation and world that allows us to have freedom of speech and the ability to come and go as we please.
• But just as we are thankful to be free physically, how much more should we delight in the fact that we are free spiritually.
I am here to declare that if you have accepted Jesus Christ into your heart and into your life; if you’ve confessed with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ; and if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus Christ from real death—you are saved and you have been truthfully, rightly and unequivocally set free!
Christ came to set those who are IN HIM…free from the law and oppression.
How sad and frightening it is, that there are some under the sound of my voice who are still in bondage.
- Somebody will leave here today with less than enough.
- Somebody will walk away today in guilt and wallowing in the corrosive power of your human shame
- Somebody here today will leave in pure defeat/rascality.
- Someone will continue to live the coming week in trifling duplicity, rascality, addiction, depression, discouragement, despair, confusion, stupidity, pride and every other fickle and foolish way.
But my brother and my sister—the reality is that you don’t have to!
The good news today is that Jesus Christ—the Life, Giver, King Himself has come to set you free!
Free from:
- the curse of the law
- the reign of sin
- the tyranny of death
- the clutch of man-made approval
Picture It:
• You are a native descendant of Tarsus, the place of your birth, being the capital city of Cilicia, a Roman province, traveling along the south-east coast of Asia Minor.
• You were born under privileged circumstances; for you were a product of Jewish and Roman vestige. Biologically, you were born of Jewish and Hebraic ancestry. More specifically you were and are apart and parcel of the Jewish Tribe of Benjamin, the Israelite nation.
