Galatians 4:9-12 KJV
(9) But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
(10) Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
(11) I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
(12) Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.
I.vs.9, God already knows everything about us. We should stop trying to convince him of ourselves and start trying to learn more of who He is.
A. The reason most people follow a religion is because they are to afraid to give up control of their lives to God. Religion allows them to glory in their flesh and maintain control over their lives. (Self Righteousness)
B. By excepting Christ as our Savior, we realized that our own works could not please God and that only faith in the sacrifice of Christ and His resurrection could save us.
C. This applies to our walk with Him as well. When we listen to Him and apply it in our life He is working thru us. When we go off and do things on our own it is self righteousness. The issue is who is being elevated us or Him?
Philippians 4:6-7 KJV
(6) Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
(7) And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:11-13 KJV
(11) Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
(12) I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
(13) I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
D. You can do all things through Christ when He is the one doing the leading.
Psalms 118:8 KJV
(8) It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV
(5) Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
(6) In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
II.vs 10, The observing of days, months, times and years.
A. The Galations were taking up the Jewish religious calendar as a guide to godliness. The Jews observed different feasts and Sabbaths that have nothing to do with Christianity.
Feasts Of Israel
1.Feast of Passover
2.Feast of Unleavened Bread
3.Feast of Firstfruits
4.Feast of Weeks, or Harvest (Pentecost)
5.Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah)
6.Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)
7.Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles (Sukkot)
Sabbaths Of Israel
1.The Weekly Sabbath (Saturday)
2.The Sabbatical Year (Seventh year)
3.Year of Jubilee (Every Fiftieth Year)
B.The Feasts and the Sabbaths were for the Nation of Israel before the resurrection of Christ, to help set Israel apart from the secular Gentile nations of the world.
C.The idea of the Sabbath began in God’s creation activity.
Genesis 2:1-3 KJV
(1) Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
(2) And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
(3) And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
D.God’s Sabbath rest had been broken by Adam and Eve’s fall and the beginning of human sin. So God went to work on His great plan of redemption for mankind. It was this great work that the Lord came to earth to consummate on the cross of Calvary.
III.Jesus refused to obey the Sabbath rules.
John 5:1-18 KJV
(1) After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
(2) Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
(3) In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
(4) For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
(5) And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
(6) When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
(7) The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
(8) Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
(9) And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.
(10) The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.
(11) He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.
(12) Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?
(13) And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.
(14) Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
(15) The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.
(16) And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
(17) But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
(18) Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
IV. The Lord Jesus rose from the dead on a new day, Sunday, the first day of the week.
Matthew 28:1-7 KJV
(1) In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
(2) And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
(3) His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
(4) And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
(5) And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
(6) He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
(7) And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
A.When Jesus rose he put an end to the Jewish Sabbath. The old testament believer found his rest in a day, the new testament believer finds his rest in Christ.
Hebrews 9:14-17 KJV
(14) How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
(15) And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
(16) For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
(17) For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
Matthew 11:28-30 KJV
(28) Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
(29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
(30) For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
B.The believers in Christ had then adopted the first day of the week as its weekly day of worship.
Acts 20:7 KJV
(7) And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
1 Corinthians 16:1-2 KJV
(1) Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.
(2) Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
C.Even the observance of the first day of the week is not a mandatory rule.
Romans 14:5 KJV
(5) One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Colossians 2:16-17 KJV
(16) Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
(17) Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
D.Christianity is not just for “special times”, it is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
V.vs.11, “I am afraid of you” is another way of saying “I fear you will or have been deceived”, same as:
2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV
(3) But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
A.Paul was afraid they would do nothing with the faith he had passed on to them……..