Save YOURSELVES From This Untoward Generation

“And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” Acts 2:40

For some reason, I like dictionaries — dictionaries that you can hold in your hand. I’ve had several over the years. I just picked one up yesterday at the local grocery store where they sell used books for a donation. They had a 1992 Webster’s dictionary. I snatched it up.

I decided to see what it said for the word “untoward.” This is what it says: “Not yielding readily; refractory; perverse.” What does “refractory” mean you ask (I did too). So I looked it up in said dictionary: “Not amenable to control; disobedient; unmanageable; obstinate.”

That’s how Peter summed up his observations about the times in which he lived. He readily came out with what he believed. He didn’t try to make it palatable so nobody would feel offended. I have to believe he knew the people’s attention would be focused like a laser on him and what his words clearly implied.

So, what was he saying? What did he mean? How did it all flesh out? Let me tell you what I think. I get to do that since this is my blog :-)

He’s saying: THERE’S NO HOPE. There will be no national revival brought about by God. God will be taking action and it won’t be pleasant.

This statement of Peter implies separation. “Save YOURSELVES from ….” With this statement a line of demarcation has been drawn in the sand. A choice of action must be taken.

This statement of Peter implies a personal rather than a national saving. YOURSELVES is personal, not national. If it were national Peter wouldn’t have said “from.”

This statement of Peter implies judgement. It’s a warning that says something bad is going to be happening and if you have any sense you’ll see the handwriting on the wall and remove yourself: temporally and spiritually.

Yeshua had already made it clear that things were about to change and weren’t going to be getting any better for a long time to come.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Matthew 23:37-39

Soon the Temple would be destroyed. People would die and others would flee for their lives. The Diaspora (of which we are still a part) would begin.

I’ve heard Bible believing preachers and talk show hosts express their hopes for a national awakening/revival. The hope is held out that God will turn our nation back to Him.

Folks, those days are over. Our nation has been, for a long time, past hope. We can only thumb our noses and give God the finger for so long before enough is enough.

We have to forgo the “kum ba ya my Lord” hope that since God loves America so much He won’t take it down. I fear we, as believers, have fallen prey to that false hope. And here’s why I think that. Our national heritage and our preaching has taught by implication that America is, in the eyes of God, equally as special to Him as His land Israel.

You know:

*In God we trust.

*One nation under God.

*God bless America

Land that I love

Stand beside her

And guide her

Through the night with the light from above

From the mountains

To the prairies

To the oceans

White with foam

God bless America

My home sweet home

God bless America

My home sweet home

As I’ve said before, we are presently living on our nation’s past spiritual laurels. Those days in which God totally stood behind America (if in fact He ever did) are gone. Patriotic warm fuzzies are, for me anyway, waning. And that makes me incredibly sad.

Abortions along with the moral decline and decadence of our nation cry out for God to take action. It’s almost as if we’re triple dog daring God to do something. (Click on it)

Peter was giving the people of his generation a heads up as to what they could expect. They had become “untoward.” That can’t signal anything good. Listeners would have sensed the smoke on the horizon and taken notice that they were being warned. Perhaps this, in part, is why there was such a response for salvation among the listeners of Peter’s sermon.

The reason our country experienced revival and reprieve from God in past generations is because of men like Jonathan Edwards who preached Hell Fire and Damnation … not the pathetic stuff that is coming from our evangelical pulpits today.

So, what are we to do?

Stop hoping for God to do anything on a major national level. Yes … God can still do anything He wants … except go against the precedent He has already established in His Word.

As individual believers, we need to examine ourselves and let God do what needs to be done in us. Also, we need to be bold like Peter and proclaim the straight forward truth as presented to us by God in His Word.

That’s what Peter did and look what happened. People realized their need for salvation and came to Yeshua. However, the nation wasn’t spared what Yeshua had already made clear was going to happen. Before long, judgment would fall. And it did.

We, perhaps, are in the final period of reprieve for our country. If so, then we as individual believers in Yeshua need to redeem the time for the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:16)