Knowing God by His Names: Jehovah Mekoddishkem

God calls his people to live sanctified lives. We are, according to the Scriptures, a peculiar people, and that peculiarity has always revolved around our desire to live a holy life.

Our sanctification is a journey. It isn’t a once-and-done event. Our justification happened at the cross for the purpose of our conversion. Sanctification is what happens between our conversion and eternity. In any journey there are curves and bends and detours. We can’t get to the end of our journey if every time we come to an obstacle we throw our hands up in defeat. We are to confess, as did William Carey — the first Baptist foreign missionary — “I can plod.” He is remembered as the father of modern missions, a man who by God's grace pioneered an awakening in the country of India. The whole quote is “I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.”

Our sanctification is a plodding affair. It’s putting one foot in front of the other day-after-day as we seek to flesh out our faith in a fallen world. The good news is that just as God was at work in our lives to justify us, so too, is he at work in our lives to sanctify us. God does not save us and then declare, “OK. I got you started in the right direction, it’s up to you to figure it out from here.”

I. OUR GOD IS JEHOVAH-MEKODDISKEM

1. the Book of Leviticus may best be described as a digest of God’s divine laws

a. it defines God’s essential character, and the essential character He demand of His people

b. that character can be defined by one word — holiness

2. in Leviticus, chapters 12-20 God lists laws that are to governs the civil, religious, and personal of conduct of His people

a. those laws emphasize personal and corporate purity

3. God is very clear about the need for holiness in the lives of His people

“Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God. 8 Keep my statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you.” (Leviticus 20:7–8, ESV)

a. if there is one thing that every Christian ought to be deeply concerned about it is our practical holiness of hear and life ...

b. our sanctification of character and conduct

1) other things may have their due and relative importance, but according to the repeated Word of Scripture, this is priority #1 for the believer

2) God has called us to and insists upon, holiness in the midst of His people

ILLUS. It is appropriate that his message falls a week after the release of a major report detailing the cover-up of sexual abuse among convention churches by the Executive Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

4. the name is used twice in the Old Testament

a. once here in the Book of Leviticus and again in the Book of Exodus

“And the LORD said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.” (Exodus 31:12–14, ESV)

a. notice that in both these verses it is God who sanctified His people Israel, made them holy, and set them apart as His own

b. the same is true of us today — as God’s people He chose to set us apart from the world in Christ, and then sends into our lives the Holy Spirit to help us to do what we could never do on our own — live holy sanctified lives

II. THE GOD WHO SANCTIFIES, IS AT WORK SANCTIFYING US

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, ESV)

1. simply put, sanctification is the day-to-day activity of God in every believer's life whereby God molds and shapes us into the express image of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ

2. God's goal is that our moral, ethical and spiritual life bear a striking resemblance to His that of His son

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29, ESV)

a. a "likeness" is not the thing itself

1) it is a reflection of the thing — like looking into a mirror

2) whatever you place in front of a mirror is going to have its image reflected back

b. the question is, when God looks at you what does He see?

1) if He does not see the likeness of Christ, something is definitely wrong in your spiritual life!

ILLUS. Those of you who are on Facebook may have seen the side-by-side photos that Mitch McCleary posted a couple of weeks ago. Day by day, Jackson McCleary is being transformed into the spitting image of his father. According to Mitch’s mom the behavior is also eerily similar as well.

3. spiritually speaking, that's what God wants for your life and mine

a. only its not a physical resemblance that God is concerned about

b. it's a moral and spiritual resemblance of His Son

A. SAINTS ARE TO BEAR A RESEMBLANCE TO JESUS CHRIST AND LIVE LIKE SONS OF GOD

"In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will." (Ephesians 1:5, NIV)

1. the question is, "How does God accomplish the work of sanctification in our lives?"

a. the answer is found here in the Scriptures

2. sanctification literally means "to separate” or “set apart"

a. we first see the concept in the Old Testament

1) the Hebrew word refers to things or even persons set apart for use by God for a special task or for special use

“With it you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the ark of the testimony, 27 and the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, 28 and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the basin and its stand.” (Exodus 30:26–28, ESV)

ILLUS. The best illustration in everyday life is the use of a family's good china. It's not something you use every day. It's only for those very special occasions. It's set apart — often in that expensive China hutch. Woe to the husband who uses it to feed the kids hotdogs when all the every day dishes are in the dishwasher.

b. in the New Testament sanctification carries with it the idea of separating one's self from moral or ethical corruption

“ ... hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil. 23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21–23, ESV)

c. in practical terms this two-fold definition reveals that the believer is to take positive steps in abandoning worldly ways of living and dedicate his or her life to God and emulate the life of His son

3. the goal of our sanctification then is to be conformed, day-by-day, into the image of Jesus Christ

B. OUR SANCTIFICATION OUGHT TO LEAD TO A PRACTICAL HOLINESS

1. in the New Testament the word sanctification can also be translated as holy

a. the ideas are the same

“but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”” (1 Peter 1:15–16, ESV)

2. the true believer will have a desire to live for Christ and pattern his or her life on the Word of God

“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,” (Philippians 1:27, ESV)

ILLUS. Chuck Colson writes in his book Loving God, "Christianity is not just a high-sounding ritual which we perform on Sundays. Christianity is abiding by Biblical standards of personal holiness and in turn seeking to bring holiness into the society in which we live.”

3. I cannot help but believe that God is more impressed with the babe in Christ who knows little about the Word but who puts what little he or she knows into practice, then He is with the believer who has great Biblical knowledge, but never puts into practice what he or she has learned

III. THE RESULT OF OUR SANCTIFICATION

“even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love” (Ephesians 1:4, ESV)

1. the result of our sanctification is that God sees us as blameless

A. THE HOLINESS TO WHICH GOD CALLS US IS A BLAMELESSNESS

1. there is one Greek verb in this text which takes three English words to translate

a. it is [He] has chosen us

b. everything in the verse hinges on this one verb

2. the rest of the verse is composed of adverbial amplification

a. I did not intend to give you a grammar lesson, but in order to see the height and magnitude of this verse I must do it this way

3. the adverbial phrases answer many questions for us

a. "How did God choose us?"

1) he chose us "in Christ"

2) God knew we could never make ourselves holy

3) holiness is not something sinners can attain to even though we are sinners saved by grace

4) our holiness is in Christ or it is not at all

b. "When did He choose us?"

1) He chose us before the foundation of the world

2) before God said, Let there be light He had you on His mind, and had written your name down in the Lamb’s Book of Life

c. "Why did He choose us?"

1) the last phrase of verse four tells us

2) He chose us “that we should be holy and blameless”

3) to be blameless before God does not mean to be without fault

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,” (Philippians 1:9–10, ESV)

4. what's the difference you ask between faultlessness and blamelessness?

a. oh, a big one

b. it has to do with the way God looks at us through His Son

1) when you accepted Jesus Christ as Savior you accepted his atonement — the fact that he paid the price which you and I should have paid for our sin

2) Christ's death cleanses you from the unrighteousness of your sin

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 3:23–24, ESV)

c. because we are in Christ Jesus, God no longer holds us accountable for our sin

1) does God see our sin?

2) of course He does — God sees everything

a) as members of a fallen race we shall never be free from the clogging infirmities of our inherited sinful nature

b) but thank God that all our sins and faults do not preclude the possibility of a real inward cleansing of heart before God

ILLUS. Carl Bates, once a professor at Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY, explains it this way. A father and his son were watching a parade. The boy was looking through a red window pain at the bright red uniforms of a marching band. He looked up at his father and said, "Daddy, look at the pretty white uniforms!" The father looked at his son and said, "No, the uniforms are red."

"No, they're white, bend down here and look daddy." The father bent down and looked at the red uniforms through the red window pain and, sure enough, the uniforms looked white. One of the laws of optics is that when you look at something red through a red filter it appears white.

3) when God looks through the shed blood of His son at my sins He sees me as white as snow

a) He sees me as blameless even though I am still filled with faults

B. PRACTICAL HOLINESS IN THE BELIEVER'S LIFE IS A WITNESS TO AN UNHOLY WORLD

“but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” (1 Peter 3:15–17, ESV)

ILLUS. You probably don’t recognize the name Telemachus. He was an early 5th-century Christian. Even though much of Rome had adopted Christianity by that time, the Gladiatorial competitions where still being held in amphitheaters across the empire. Early Christian history records that on January 1, 401 AD Telemachus attended a Gladiatorial death match and at some point jumped down to the arena floor and tried to stop the fight. He implored the people to end the fights. Fox’s Book of Martyrs says that one of one of the gladiators stabbed Telemachus to death, but that the sight of his death "turned the hearts of the people.” The Emperor Honorius was impressed by the monk's martyrdom and it spurred him to issue a historic ban on gladiatorial fights. Gladiators never fought again in the Roman Empire.

1. Telemachus’ good behavior shamed an entire amphitheater of people and brought an end to a brutal and bloody sport

IV. THE POWER OF GOD TO SANCTIFY

“for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13, ESV)

A. IT IS GOD WHO SANCTIFIES US

1. our initial sanctification is based on union with Christ

a. but our on-going holiness of life progresses only as we cooperate with God in the process

2. God's Holy Spirit is a sanctifying agent

“But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:15–16, ESV)

a. God's Word is a sanctifying agent

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17, ESV)

3. our hearts should have the same characteristic

a. just as that flower could not control its habitat, so we cannot help it that we have to live in a world filled with evil

b. but God's grace can keep us so clean and unspotted that though we touch every side, it will not cling to us

c. if we want the Lord's full blessing and approval, we must heed the admonition,

"...keep thyself pure" (1 Tim.5:22).

d. by the cleansing power of His Word and the sanctifying influence of His Holy Spirit, it is possible for the Christian to remain "clean in a dirty place."

It is not difficult in our world to get a person interested in the message of the Gospel; it is

terrifically difficult to sustain the interest. Millions of people in our culture make decisions for

Christ, but there is a dreadful attrition rate. Many claim to have been born again, but the

evidence for mature Christian discipleship is slim. In our kind of culture anything, even news

about God, can be sold if it is packaged freshly; but when it loses its novelty, it goes

on the garbage heap. There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is

little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long

apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.