Now in the Old Testament, It's very interesting to me. As I was studying this name of God, God as Savior, you really don't find the name Savior found very much in the Bible at all. In fact, in the King James, you only find it 37 times. In the Old Testament, it is so few. I think maybe like some 13 times. Very small amount. So why is it that God makes it so few times that he calls himself by this in the Old Testament to the people of Israel? Well, it must mean that there's a special meaning behind it. There's a relevance to this name. The actual word for savior in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word yashah, which is basically the idea of to be open, wide, or free, to be safe, to free, to secure, deliver, help, preserve, rescue, or be safe. So you have the idea there. I think it's interesting. It means being free, being safe, being delivered or rescued. You know, and I think we understand that's what Savior's talking about. Now, in the Old Testament, the word yeshah is translated, it can be translated saved or salvation. Obviously, it's translated Savior, the name of God that we find in the Bible. And again, it only occurs just a handful of times, not very much at all. Now, if God has a specific reason for giving us this name, what kinds of reasons does he give us? When he calls himself by the name Savior, what is he talking about? What relevance does it have to the passage or to the verses or to, you know, to the prophecy or to the preaching that he's saying? Well, we'll look at a few verses. You don't have to turn to all of these, but these are just some things that I found that were the three most crucial times that God would use this name Savior to talk about himself. Notice first of all that God uses this name Savior because he's the rescuer from personal enemies. for personal enemies. And I think the most, really I should say the greatest example of that would be in the life of David, the life of King David. I'll read a few verses here from 2 Samuel 22, verses 1 through 4. You can turn to that if you'd like. 2 Samuel 22, 1 through 4. This is really a psalm in the book of Second Samuel, which he repeats in the book of Psalms, actually. And what's so interesting about this psalm is it's in a time in David's life where God has conquered all of David's enemies, including King Saul. So let's read the first four verses here. And David spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul. And he said, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, the God of my rock, in him will I trust. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my savior. Thou savest me from violence. I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies. Now, do you remember how David in his life was always on the run from King Saul? Before he even becomes king, before we know him as King David, he's constantly being chased after by Saul because Saul is pursuing his life. Saul's trying to kill him. And when God had finally ended Saul's reign, and when he had dealt with all of David's enemies, all the people who were attacking David, David could say, that God was his savior, his deliverer. He sat down, he wrote this beautiful psalm. In fact, it's one of the longer psalms that he writes, some 50 verses. But he calls God by so many names. I mean, you can tell that David had such a deep personal walk with God. Look at the names he calls him. He calls God a rock, a fortress, a high tower, a shield. And of course, the name we're studying tonight, a savior. He's the one who could rescue David from all of his troubles. Now, if you study the life of David, David's a very sensitive person, isn't he? You can tell when he's writing his Psalms, if you read them and study them, you look at it and you're like, wow, this man is in deep emotional turmoil. You know, this man is going through some really hard things. He talks about how he cries unto the Lord and he makes his supplication to God, and he uses all these terms and phrases that shows he's a very emotional person. And when people are attacking him, he's feeling the stress, he's feeling the pressure. But who did he turn to to deliver him from all that pressure? His Savior, the one who could rescue him from all of that pressure. Even when people were trying to take his very life, he could still say, God is my Savior. He's my rescuer. I don't have to fear. He found strength and encouragement knowing that God was his Savior, the one who would deliver him when he called out to him. That's the first primary use of this name Savior. The second one that I see in scripture is that God is a rescuer from national danger. God's a rescuer from national danger. If you kept your finger there in Isaiah 45, just a couple chapters before in Isaiah 43, I'm going to read verse 3 here. Isaiah 43 and verse 3, notice what Isaiah, the prophet, writes. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for thee. I'm also read Hosea 13, 4. Hosea 13, 4 says, Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me, for there is no Savior beside me. Notice that God uses his name, Savior, to talk about when he delivered Israel from the Egyptians, right? You notice when God speaks to these prophets, like Isaiah and like Hosea, he reminds them of their past, right? He says, hey guys, do you remember how I parted the Red Sea for you? Do you remember how you used to be slaves in bondage to the Egyptians for 400 years? Do you remember how I sent 10 plagues against the Egyptians so that you could actually escape and be freed from Egypt? He says, do you remember all these things? And then he points to their sin and says, look at what you're doing. To the same God that rescued you, delivered you, look at what you're doing. You're sacrificing to idols, you're committing immorality, all these horrible things, and God's saying, look back to me, I'm the one who saved you, I'm the one who delivered you and rescued you from your condition of slavery. And really, it's easy for us, even as Christians, to be like Israel, isn't it? God does some wonderful miracles in our lives. He protects, you know, us individually. He protects our families. He protects us in the home, at the workplace, at church. And yet, it's so easy for us to pursue other gods, other things that are worldly, other things that distract us and get our attention apart from God, when he's the one who delivered us. He's the one who protects us day in and day out. You know, God might, for example, provide finances when you really need them to pay bills, or he may keep us out of harm's way when we're traveling to and from our work, but we're still prone to disobey him. May we be a people who, because we love the Lord and because he's rescued us from terrible danger, we show our gratitude to him and our thankfulness by returning our love to him in obedience and by trusting him. Well, that's the two main areas. Now, really, more the focus of the message tonight, and that's really God is who is the rescuer from our sin. God is who is the rescuer from our sin. Let's go back to Isaiah 45. We'll read just a couple of verses here. Isaiah 45. Again, you have Isaiah the prophet. talking, or I should say writing and prophesying to the nation of Israel. And a lot of these in the latter chapters of Isaiah are talking about the Messiah, about the one who would come. And here's some of the things that Isaiah writes. Let's turn here to verses 14 and 15. Read those quickly. This is a prophecy that Isaiah is writing down, Isaiah 45 in verse 14. Thus saith the Lord, the labor of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia, and of the Sabians, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine. They shall come after thee. In chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee. They shall make supplication unto thee. saying, surely God is in thee, and there is none else. There is no God. Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior. So here Isaiah is simply prophesying of a time in the future when Gentile nations, non-Jews, would come to the nation of Israel in chains, apparently, and they would beg to worship the true God. They would beg to worship Jehovah. Which is really interesting to me. Now, the Gentiles will one day realize that there is no other savior. There's none else besides God, right? That's what the verse was talking about. Now, let me ask you, what do the heathen nations need to be saved from? Is it personal enemies? Is it national tragedy, national danger? He's talking about their sin. See, the greatest need that the Jews had, the people of Israel, and the Gentiles had, their greatest need to be delivered from was their sin. And here he says, I'm going to give it to the heathen nations, the Gentiles. If the Israelites won't accept it, I'm going to give it to the Gentiles, to the heathen. And I'm going to show them that there's no other God besides me. Even if you look down at Verses 21 and 22, I'll read those quickly as well. Tell ye and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none else. There again, you have in those verses the idea, I'm the only savior. God is the only one we need to look to. And he's telling these Gentiles, you can come to me and I will save you from your sin because that is your greatest need. He even talks about in that passage there, about how they were worshiping false gods and they were committing all these sins against God. And he says, I will save you. I will deliver you from them. Now, we see in the Old Testament, through the lens of the Old Testament, who God the Savior is. Let's look quickly at what God the Savior looks like through the New Testament. Turn, if you will, in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1. Familiar text in the Christmas story here, but something we definitely need to see about God being our Savior. Now, we know that God is our Savior. We need to be rescued from our sin, right? That's primarily what we need to be delivered from. Okay, well, what was God's plan to rescue us from our sin? How is God going to accomplish this rescue mission to deliver us when we really need it desperately? Well, if you see here in Matthew 1, let's read here in, excuse me, verse 21. And as you know, this is talking about Mary. You have the angel talking to Joseph and he tells Joseph this. And she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. How is God going to accomplish this? Through Jesus Christ. Right. Jesus Christ was going to be the one to save us now in the New Testament. Just again to go on the more technical side of what the word means Savior. It's the word so tear in the Greek and it just means deliver that is God or Christ Savior. Okay. So pretty simple definition right doesn't doesn't expound a lot. It just it's the idea. It's talking about Jesus. That's the only thing that it can refer to. It's talking about the Savior. Now in the New Testament here it has one meaning. And the name Savior here refers to God's power to save us from our sin, right, to deliver us. The same problem that we found in the Old Testament we find in the New. All of us are sinners, and all of us need this deliverance. Except God's focus is not just on Israel anymore. He says now, I'm going to provide salvation for every nation, for all people. And everyone can come to the Lord through Jesus Christ and find that salvation. Every man needs a savior from sin, and God offers salvation to all through his son, Jesus Christ. So when we talk about Savior in the New Testament, what are we talking about? Well, mainly salvation from sin, deliverance from the wrong things that we do. And first of all, it's through the penalty of sin, right? And I think this is more a review for all of us, but it's good to review the gospel, isn't it? In fact, the Bible says that it's the power of God and salvation. So for believers, let's be encouraged about what the gospel has already done for us. I'm going to read some verses here from Acts, from the book of Acts. Acts chapter 4, verse 12. Neither is there salvation in any other, this is Peter preaching, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Jesus is the only way we can get saved. Acts 5, 30-31 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom he slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. So you see how God's New Testament solution for an Old Testament problem was to send his only son into the world as a perfect sacrifice for our sin. In fact, the very name of Jesus we looked at in Matthew 1, the very name means Jehovah saves. He's talking about deliverance. The fact that all of us need deliverance from our sin. Now, the crime that we've committed against God in our sin deserves an eternal punishment, right? Because we've sinned against an eternal God. And that eternal punishment is an eternity in hell. And that is what Jesus has rescued us from. So even as we pray tonight, let's be reminded of what God has already done. You know, we just came out from VBS. We have the Kohl Awards this week. Let's be reminded of what Jesus has already done for us in our lives by saving us, by rescuing us from our sin. That's the greatest gift that we've ever received in eternity in heaven with him. That eternal peace of knowing that I'm right with God and there's nothing between me and God. He has not condemned me. He has not judged me because What am I clothed with? The righteousness of Christ. When I stand before God, who vouches for me? Who's my advocate? Who's my attorney before the courtroom of God? It's Jesus. And he says, you're free, you're delivered. There's nothing else you need to do, you're already free. Before we close tonight, one more thing that I'd like you to see. Let's turn to Romans chapter six, their final passage. Romans chapter six. In the book of Romans, Paul has already kind of laid the foundation for what salvation by grace through faith is all about. He tells us how we're all sinners, Jews and Gentiles. All of us deserve punishment for our sin. We're all guilty before God. And yet, God has provided salvation, deliverance, by sending his son Jesus to die on the cross, to justify us, to declare us righteous in God's eyes through the blood of Christ. Now we get to Romans 6, which is a Christian growth passage. It's not talking about salvation. It's talking about how we grow as believers. See, through salvation, meaning having an eternal relationship with God, knowing Jesus as your Savior, the first step, God dealt with the penalty of sin, right? We're no longer penalized. We're not punished anymore. We're free from that. And yet we as Christians can still struggle with our sin day by day, can't we? We still know that we make wrong choices. We make decisions that are sinful, disobedient to God. Okay, well, is there any deliverance from that? Does God provide freedom? Does he rescue me from that? And God says, yes, I do. I've provided deliverance even for the present power of sin in your life. Romans chapter 6, let's look at verse 18. And then we'll also read verse 22. Verse 18 of Romans chapter 6. Bible says, being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Verse 22, but now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit into holiness and the end everlasting life. That's amazing. Right in the beginning of those two verses, you have that idea that we are freed. We're rescued. We're not bound by sin anymore. God has broken those chains, and now we're free to serve him. We're free to live righteously. We're free to obey him. You know, there's this idea that because I'm free in Christ, because we have grace, I'm allowed to do what I want, right? God says no use the liberty that you have in Christ your freedom to do what's right. That's what your freedom is for. That's what grace is for God has given you his favor his love. He's given you salvation so that you can use it to serve him. And God says we don't have to be bound by sin in Jesus. You have everything you need to defeat sin in your life today. You have absolute victory over whatever sin that you can name. Whether it's an angry spirit or a quick-tempered tongue or a rebellious heart against God, whatever it is, God says, I already have victory over it. You just need to accept it by faith like you did eternal life. Day by day, as you wrestle through the sins in your life, as you're growing as a believer, God says, take the grace that I've given to you as a Christian, day by day, and grow in it. And watch me do miracles. Now, I think one of the things we probably struggle with as Christians the most is prayerlessness, right? We know we don't pray like we should. I know this is something the Lord's even been dealing with me about. You know, in my prayer closet, what does my prayer life look like? And really, if I were to be honest, I don't see as many miracles as I should. I don't see God work as much as He should. Why? I don't ask Him. I think we looked at that on Sunday, right? Pastor Obermiller talked about how ye have not because ye ask not. If we will not pray, then the unsafe family members that we're burdened for, we're not going to see them saved. We're not gonna see people reached because of EBS. We mentioned on Sunday as well about investing in people. You think that there'll be much profit in our investment in people's lives if we don't pray for them? It won't happen. And believe me, I'm just as much convicted by that as any of us would be. Because the truth is, if we don't pray, if we don't get on our knees before God and say, God, I absolutely need you to work in this situation, then really it won't happen. And it's not because God doesn't want to. No, on the contrary, God's willing to pour out a blessing on us. But he can't, he has to withhold it because I don't pray, because I don't ask. You and I have the privilege of joining him in his divine purposes for prayer. And if we will look to him, if we will obey him in this regard, then he's going to pour out a blessing. Jesus has already won the victory over my prayerlessness. The question is, am I going to take that by faith and say, Lord, I'm going to take some steps this week by your grace to pray by myself individually. We'll pray here together as a group here in just a moment. We'll be praying through our missionaries, certainly praying for the event tonight and the rest of the week for the Kola Wars and the Ohio team. But let's look at ourselves first. Let's look at our own hearts. Let's ask God to search us. Let's ask God to take the sword of his word and pierce our hearts and show us what's really there. Have we been praying like we should? Do we see the miracles that God wants to perform because we're praying? Or is there a lack of God's work because I'm not before the throne like I should be? Well, God says there's hope. In fact, there's more than hope. He's ready to do things that we couldn't even imagine. Jeremiah 33, three, my favorite verse, call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things that thou knowest not. You can't ask God for too much. He has so much that He wants to do. Let's, as we go to prayer tonight, let's ask the Lord to really touch our hearts with what He wants to do through prayer. Let's ask Him to give us the deliverance that He's going to provide, because He is a delivering God. He's our Savior, not just from the penalty of sin, more importantly for our day-to-day lives, from the power of sin today. He gives us victory for every step of the way.