This is just one of the many names of God. Yahweh M’Kaddesh means to sanctify, to set apart, to dedicate and to make holy. We can see examples of this throughout scripture. God sanctifies places, things, times and people. We will look at a few.

Leviticus 20:8 “Keep my decrees and follow. I am the Lord, who makes you holy.”

We see in Genesis where God set the seventh day apart as sacred.
Genesis 2:2-3 “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”

And then we see in Leviticus 23:1-5 “The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.” 3″There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of Sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the Lord.

God sanctifies days and times/seasons.
So, what this is saying is that we need to have a day of rest. Most Christian’s recognize Sunday as their day of rest. If we are able we need to cease from our labors. Enjoy the day, worship the Lord. RELAX! Now, of course, there are people in professions that they are not able to get Sunday free. I suggest that the day you do have free spend it relaxing, thinking on God minded things, reading his word. Make it your worship day.

God sanctifies places and things.
Joshua 6:19 “But all the silver, and the gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.”

Leviticus 27:14 “If anyone dedicates their house as something holy to the Lord, the priest will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priests then sets, so it will remain.”

God sanctifies people.

Leviticus 20:26 “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. ”

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

We see that Yahweh M’Kaddesh is holy, set apart above all else in the universe. God is it. There is no other God, no one else who created the Universe. It was not a big explosion that happened. We did not crawl out of some sort of goo begin. Did not happen people! God is Sovereign over EVERYTHING!

Deuteronomy 4:35 “You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God, beside him, there is no other.”

1 Samuel 2:2 “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.”

We go on to see that Jesus Christ is sanctified.

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet he did not sin.”

Hebrews 7:26 “Such a high priest truly meets our need one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.”

Now how does this apply to us? We are being sanctified.

Three aspects of sanctification are:
1. Positional-Justification
2. Progressive-Sanctification
3. Permanent-Glorification

The very moment we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and are born again the sanctifying, justification starts in us. We are no longer dead in trespasses and sin, but alive in Christ Jesus. We read this in 1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.”
Our stand before God has changed at the moment of belief and it will never change. 1 Corinthians 15:50-52 “I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery; We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

One of these days there will be a trumpet sound that will split the sky, Jesus will first raise the dead…those who have fallen asleep, who was saved, set apart for him. They will meet him in the air. No unbeliever will be raised and go to Jesus, they are dead, they did not accept Jesus in this life and their eternity is hell, forever!

But it tells us that once the dead are raised, those alive, who are his, born-again, believers will be caught up to meet him. Now that is exciting! It could not happen except that we were changed at the moment of conversion and set apart for his kingdom. Nothing fowl and dirty can enter into heaven.
Our glorification will happen at that time.

Now before that happens is where we are being sanctified. It is our progressive growth in Christ. As we walk this earth as believers we are being made more like Christ. It begins when we are saved and continues until we leave this earth. If there is no redemption there is no sanctification.

We are sanctified because of Jesus.
Hebrews 10:10 “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
He died in our place, we deserve death, but Jesus paid the full price for us.

So, how does our sanctification happen? There are different ways.
1. It happens by the word of truth. We read in John 17:17-19 “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth. 18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so, have I also sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”

Sometimes we must be sanctified through chastisement and discipline. Which simply put is a punishment, a scolding.

Hebrews 12:10-11 “They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we might share in his holiness.11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

I can assure you there have been many times when I have needed and experienced the discipline of the Lord. It has made me stop and look at my life and my actions and know in those times that I am not behaving in a way that honors the Lord.
And for me when those times have come it gives me a peace in knowing that I am his, I matter, my growth in him matters. He cares about me!

We read in Psalm 139:23 ” Search me, O God and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts.” When we ask the Lord to search our hearts, be prepared. He will bring to light any secret sin that lies there. He sees and knows what we do not. Usually a person knows the “big” things they sometimes do. The sin that displeases the Lord, but often times we do not see the sin lurking in our hearts, but if we ask, he will reveal it and when he does it needs to be repented of. He sees into our deepest thoughts and intent.

Bottom line we are to be holy, but we cannot be holy on our own. We need the inner working of the Holy Spirit we need Yahweh M’Kaddesh to do what He does in making us fit for heaven.

Romans 12: 1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Bottom line, we need to be holy to enter heaven. We cannot do it on our own. Without Yahweh M’Kaddesh we would be in trouble. He does the work in us that we cannot do in ourselves. He makes us fit for heaven and eternity with Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Isn’t it wonderful that God knew we could not do it on by ourselves? We cannot save ourselves, keep ourselves, make ourselves holy or get ourselves to heaven, so he covered all the bases for us. We can rest in his saving and changing power. And in those times of discipline, move closer to the Father, it makes it hurt much less and remember it is his love and faithfulness to see us through and his absolute holiness that moves him to chastise us. We are his…thank you Lord for your sanctifying, changing power at work in me!

Study it, God wants us to read his word. To know the power at work in us. We will one day stand before him. Be ready my friends, be ready.