Save Yourselves!

Acts 2:40 AV

40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

Ezekiel 18:32 NLT

32 I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign Lord. Turn back and live!

Save- deals with salvation. Salvation in the Old Testament was often associated with deliverance from external evils. Often times throughout Old Testament scripture we see that Israel and later Judah would often be plagued by external evils in the form of nations coming against them to war against them.

In particular, the book of Judges tells of how God would send judgement against the Israelites for their idolatry in the form of foreign nations fighting against them and raiders taking away their goods. The scriptures declare that the hand of the Lord was against Israel and that they were in great distress. So God would raise up judges to deliver/save them, God had pity on them and had compassion on them. I need to stop right there to let everyone know that God is a compassionate God that loves us and wants to help us and that sometimes he’ll put you in situations that are deemed to correct us and get our attention, and/or cause us to return back to Him. God is a love and compassionate God that is slow to anger and full of mercy.

I strongly believe that God has allowed external things to happen in this current era that we live in so that people can be saved. What external things? Covid-19, injustice of our black brothers and sisters, sometimes family struggles, work-place troubles, community troubles.

Then there are internal evils- sins, addictions, bad habits, depression, suicidal thoughts, psychiatric issues, disabilities, illnesses.

We must understand that the idea of salvation not only involves deliverance from external evils, but we should also consider the fact that salvation is also a spiritual work.

More-so the Old Testament dealt primary along the lines of deliverance from external evils whearas the New Testament dealt with the internal evils. Matter of fact, one of the reasons why God had to keep delivering the Israelites from external evils time after time after time was because of the internal evils that resided on the inside of them.

When God saves you, He straightens you out, that’s what salvation truly was in the Old Testament sense. God took the crooked parts of your thinking and your actions and straightened you out!

Save Yourselves! You need to be saved, you need to be delivered today, and there is only one person who can deliver you and that is Jesus Christ! Jesus is a mighty deliver you out of anything, He can deliver you from bad habits, He can deliver you from negative thinking, He can deliver you from addictions, He can deliver you from a bad attitude! Someone may have some things that happened to them in their past that you need to be delivered from, anger, bitterness, rejection, low-self esteem.

When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost it affected everyone who heard the preaching of the gospel. What did Peter preach exactly?

The explanation of the phenomenon of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

That God endorsed Jesus by powerful miracles, wonders, and signs.

That Jesus Christ was the plan that God used to redeem humanity back to himself.

That they killed Jesus, but that God resurrected Him from the dead.

That King David prophesied about the resurrection of Jesus.

That God raised Jesus to a high place of honor (being equal with God) and that God made Jesus both Lord and Christ (Messiah).

When Peter finished preaching they realized that they needed to do something about the current state that they were in. They realized that a change needed to take place but they didn’t know how to go about that change. The Holy Ghost which is the Spirit of God that searches the heart and knows the mind knew what needed to be said to these spectators when they realized what they had done and Peter under the unction of the Holy Ghost told them what they needed to know to be made right with God. They believed the gospel, they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, now Peter told them REPENT of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins! That message still applies today, God is calling men, women, and children to repentance! He’s calling you to take his name on through water-baptism in the name of Jesus Christ! Then you can receive the promise of the blessed gift of the Holy Ghost!

You must understand that merely apologizing to God is not enough to make you right with God. You need to turn to God, you need to turn from your sins and save yourself. I know “Save Yourself” is a oxymoron, because in a sense you can’t exactly save yourself in the sense of believing in yourself or putting confidence in your own flesh and your own abilities to live a good life. You’ll never be able to save yourself that way. The only way that you can save yourself is by turning your life over to Jesus Christ!