JEHOVAH-M'KADDESH - THE LORD WHO SANCTIFIES
Part of The Names Of God
February 26, 2020

JEHOVAH-M’KADDESH - THE LORD WHO SANCTIFIES

Text: Leviticus 20:7-8
7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.
8 And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.

1. The Revelation Of The Name

  • Leviticus is the book of the of life for Israel because it sets out God’s desire and plan for His people to live in continual fellowship with Him.
  • It comes after Exodus, the book of redemption. It is here we see that after redemption God sanctifies His people.

  • The book of Leviticus gives precepts and principles about how followers of God are to fellowship with Him in intimacy.

  • God had a plan and a purpose for bringing the Jews out of Egyptian bondage (redemption). And He has a plan and purpose for redeeming us also.
  • We will live out God’s plan to the highest degree when we align our lives in proper connection to Him. And that will require our separation to Him through the process of

    .

  • The term sanctify occurs in the Bible some

    times in various English forms - dedicate, consecrate, sanctuary, hallow, and especially the word holy.

  • Its primary meaning is to set apart or .
  • The name Jehovah M’Kaddesh means “I am the God who sets you apart unto me.” “I am the God who sanctifies you.”

2. The Revelation Of God’s Nature

  • Because God is holy He Himself is set apart from and is above all

    . (Dt. 4:35; Isa. 44:6; Isa. 45:21; 1 Sam. 2:2)

  • The most fundamental attribute of God is His

    , His sinlessness, His purity.

  • It is true that God is love, but the love He displayed was for the very purpose of making us fit to enter into His holiness.

3. The Revelation Of God’s Demands

  • God demands that a redeemed people live , thus God Himself sanctifies us positionally (Heb. 10:10) and requires we live it practically. (1 Pet. 1:14-15)
  • Why? Because God is Holy.

  • God reveals in this name the most transcendent attribute of Himself, His holiness. (God is above all creation and creatures.)

  • God reveals in this name His most desired intrinsic attribute, His holiness. (God demands that we participate in His holiness.) (2 Pet. 1:4; Eph. 4:24)

  • God demanded that Israel be separated

    God and separated heathen people. (cf. 2 Cor. 6:17-18)

  • Why? Because man becomes like the God he

    . The heathen worshipped lewd and crude gods involved in every type of immorality.

  • God didn’t want the Canaanites’ standards to become His people’s standards once they arrived in the Promised Land.

  • In order to stay in the Promised Land and stay in fellowship with God, they had to remain set apart unto God.

  • Sanctification is the process of God setting us apart from sin and unrighteousness and to His person and purposes.

  • What Israel faced is not much different from what we face today. We too live in a pagan culture. We must understand the principle of separation and the importance of it. We must also understand that the separation of ourselves must be based on the Word and will of God not on our own whims.

  • When God reveals that He is Jehovah M’Kaddesh, the God who sanctifies, He declares that the people He has redeemed will separate themselves from sin because they bear His nature. To live according to the standards of the world would profane His holy name.

4. The Revelation Of God’s Desires

  • Jehovah M’Kaddesh sanctifies us so that we will be pure from sin and able to

    Him. However, we cannot effectively serve God until we have purity in our lives.

  • God doesn’t sanctify until we consecrate our lives to Him.

  • The effect of his sanctifying work is directly tied to the depth of our consecration.
  • Your consecration comes before His sanctification. (Lev. 20:7-8)

  • Consecration is an act of the will to

    oneself to the service of the Lord.

  • In the OT when a person was consecrated (such as a priest) he was dedicated to the service of God.
  • Consecration is something we do. It is our part. It is what we do so that God can do what only He can do -

    us for his glory.

  • Transformation is the practical outworking of God’s sanctification in your life. But note, that in order to experience the fullness of God’s sanctifying power within, we need to consecrate ourselves to Him.

  • We have to place our lives on the altar before Him. (Rom. 12:1-2)

  • When consecration to God is absolute, our attitude toward God becomes totally

    .

  • God becomes the God of our hands, feet, eyes, ears, tongue, money, car, homes, possessions, career, family, etc. He becomes the God of our entire life.

  • Too many believers today put only a portion of their life on the altar, a portion of their time, talents, and treasure, but God wants it all. Paul says this is our reasonable act of service.

  • God wants all of us on the altar as a living sacrifice.
  • A sacrifice is literally a dead thing. So the truest interpretation of the term “living sacrifice” is a living dead-thing. We are to be

    to God and His desires all the while simultaneously being to our sinful nature and our own will.

  • This is God’s desire, that we be dead to sin and alive unto God; His power working in us to transform us and set us apart for His service.