I invite your attention to the
book of Leviticus, one of the five books written
by the prophet Moses, and in the book of Leviticus, locate
chapter 20. This morning's message is the
third in this series on Jehovah's names or Jesus' names. We've
been looking at what are called Jehovah's compound names. Those are names in which the
name Jehovah is coupled with some word that describes whom
or what he is. We have thus far considered Jehovah
Jireh, the Lord will provide. Jehovah Raphael, the Lord who
heals you. Jehovah Nissi, the Lord is my
banner, and today we consider Jehovah Kodesh, the Lord who
sanctifies you. Before I commence the message,
let me say a word. Brother Chris, you're right about
religion. It's interesting that the word
religion appears twice in the New Testament. Once in Paul's
epistle to the Galatians, where he says, when I was in the Jews'
religion, Then James in his epistle says, if a man seems to be religious
but does not bridle his tongue, his religion is vain. We are not followers of a religion. A religion involves what you
do rather We are of the way. We follow
someone. We are known for whom we follow
and not so much for what we do. Then another interesting point
that you made was, and you emphasized, was calling no man father. I
am currently reading, been reading for a few weeks, Philip Schaff's
eight-volume history on church history. And it's rather fascinating. He dealt a whole volume on the
medieval age or the dark ages. And the prevailing church during
the dark ages forbade its priesthood to marry. They had to live in
celibacy. Or so it was said. People were required to call
their priests father, but such was the sexual immorality of
these celibate priests that everybody knew what that word meant. Let us never be of such a sort
as that. We have one father. He's Jesus'
father. He's our God and Father, and
we're gonna learn something of Him today, God willing, considering
this name, Jehovah Kardash. Leviticus 20, and in verse number
eight, we read, sanctify yourselves. Now, to
sanctify yourselves means to separate yourself from sin, and
consecrate yourself to God. Those two aspects are required. Many people would try to live
apart from sin, and that is good to do so, but more is required. You may live apart from sin and
create a vacuum, and a vacuum sucks in everything around it.
There are two aspects here. Separate yourselves from sin
and consecrate yourselves unto God. Two things are involved
in that word, sanctify. Sanctify yourselves, therefore,
and be ye holy, for I am Jehovah your God, and ye shall keep my
statutes. Well, if you are sanctified,
you're gonna do what the Father says. You're gonna do what God
says, his statutes. Primarily, we may divide those
three, those statutes today into three or four. First, you shall
love Jehovah your God with all your heart and soul and mind
and strength. Jesus said this is the first
great commandment. Second, you shall love your neighbor
as yourself. Jesus said this is the second
great commandment. And then he said, on these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Every bit that
God requires is summarized in those two commandments. Love Jehovah with every fiber
of your being. Love your neighbor as yourself. Much easier said than done. Third
commandment comes from the lips of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. At the beginning of his ministry,
he said, repent and believe in the gospel. There's the third
commandment. Repent and believe in the gospel. If you do so, there is a fourth
commandment. Love one another, Jesus said,
as I loved you. Now, if you can live in accordance
with those four commandments, you have sanctified yourself
and you are keeping the statutes of Jehovah. He does not require
you to keep or try to fulfill the Ten Commandments. It goes
further than that. And furthermore, we are not required
to keep Sabbaths because Christ is our Sabbath. We're not required
to obey the ceremonial law found in the book of Exodus, nor the
civil law found in the book of Exodus. Our code of conduct is Jesus
Christ and following him and We sanctify ourselves We keep
Jehovah statutes and do them and then he said I am Jehovah
which sanctify you Now which comes first Does he sanctify you or do you
sanctify yourself I No one ever sanctified himself until Jehovah
first sanctified him. I am Jehovah who sanctifies you. He made them holy and Jesus Christ
is Jehovah Kodash. He is Jehovah who sanctifies
us. We read this in the epistle to
the Hebrews chapter 10 verses 10 and 14. where the sanctified
are assured that we have been sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Consider that. We have
been sanctified. We have been separated from sin. We have been consecrated unto
God by Jesus Christ through the death of his body and it was
done once for all. For by one offering he has perfected
forever those who are being sanctified. By one offering. His death for
us separated us from our sins, consecrated us unto God, and
I want you to note these particulars regarding it. He did it with
one offering. One offering. The offerings began
at Mount Sinai about the year 1440 B.C. That's about the date
of the exodus. 1440 years before the birth of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The law required offerings. One every morning. One every
evening. Two, double them on the weekly
Sabbath. On the new moons or the first
day of the month, more sacrifices. On the holy days and festivals, many sacrifices. Joined to these are all the sacrifices
that were made by All the Israelites individually If you'll take 1440 BC until
the year 30 AD When our Lord was crucified That's a many years
now subtract from that the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity,
but it was many years of Thousands and thousands and thousands
of animals were slain for the sins of Israel and never was
a single sin ever forgiven. Even on the Day of Atonement, Jehovah told them, I forgive you. but you better
have that priest back in here next year to do this again. I'll
pass over your sins for this year, but it's gotta be done
again. That is why in the tabernacle,
among all the pieces of furniture, there was not a chair. That priest
went in at sunrise, made his offering and stood there for
the rest of the day at the altar making sacrifices for the people
of Israel and never sat down. There was no chair in the tabernacle,
no chair. He did not sit down until the
sun had set and he went home. But in about the year 30 AD,
our Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, went into that tabernacle
not made with hands, and with his own blood offered before
God a sacrifice for sins. The scripture says this man made
one sacrifice for sins forever and sat down. The only priest who ever sat
down after making a sacrifice, he did it once for all. He will
never again make a sacrifice for us because the sanctification he wrought for
us cannot be lost. I recall hearing a man who professed
to be a devout believer, but something happened and he kind
of lost his temper and used some words he should not have used.
And he was told, it appears you just lost your sanctification. Well, if it's our sanctification,
we will lose it. I've lost it a few times. but
that sanctification wrought by Jesus Christ never be lost or
else he must go purchasing again. He's made a sacrifice for sins
once for all. We therefore do not have here
an altar and a chalice and a priest making a sacrifice for sins. We do not have it. It is blasphemous
to do so. Why? It dishonors Jesus Christ
who made one sacrifice for sins forever and sat down. Then he
perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Our sanctification
is complete and everlasting. Complete and everlasting, complete
in the sense that you cannot add anything to it. Now think of that. What is my
sanctification? It is Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is my holiness, I cannot make myself any holier. Some speak of progressive sanctification,
making themselves holier. You cannot do so if Jesus Christ
is your holiness. You cannot improve on him. And
I would have you know that the word holier It's found only one
time in the entire scriptures and God says he hates it. I am
holier than thou, he hates it. Listen folks, if Jesus Christ
has sanctified you, he has become your holiness. Your holiness
is complete, perfect, everlasting. God made him to be wisdom unto
us, righteousness and sanctification holiness. Jesus Christ who sanctified us
is our sanctification. We cannot lessen it. We cannot
make it better. We cannot progress in it. We
cannot digress in it. He who sanctified us is our holiness. I'm so glad I do not have to
depend on my own. Second name we're looking at
today, Jehovah Shalom. Go to the book of Judges chapter
six. Judges chapter six. Jehovah so
long means the Lord is peace Now this was the name given to
given by Gideon To the altar that he made when
he saw the divine angel face to face Judges chapter 6 Okay, today on this point I'm
going to give you a rather extended exposition. On the preceding
point we looked at only one text, two verses. Here we're going
to be looking at a text in its greater context. It's not necessary
to do so, but In this instance, I think it is. And furthermore,
we have time. We're taking a leisurely pace
and going through this series. But we now have come to the era
of the judges. So let me introduce you to this
era. The Old Testament is divided
into various eras. The first era, Genesis 1 through
11, chapter 1 through 11, the primeval era deals with the creation
and the fall and the deluge. That's the primeval, the first
stages, the first days. At the end of chapter 11, we
come to Genesis chapter 12, and the second era in the Old Testament
days. The call of Abraham began a brand
new age. We call it the patriarchal age. It is the days of the patriarchs,
our patriarchs, our fathers, our archfathers, that's what
the word patriarch means, archfather. who are our patriarchs, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob. Those are our fathers. And to
another degree, Joseph, who is very prominent in the end of
the book of Genesis. Speaking of Joseph, I'll make
this one observation. The history or a summary of mankind
can be found in the first part of Genesis and in the last part. In the first part of the book
of Genesis, where do we find ourselves? In a garden in Eden. Now that's a good place, or it
was. In a garden in Eden. If you'll go to the final verse
in the book of Genesis, you'll read these words, in a coffin
in Egypt. That's where Joseph's bones were
put. That just about describes what
man does when he gets anything. He can start in a garden in Eden
where it's all perfect. Where does he end up? in a coffin
in Egypt. A coffin is a place of death,
and Egypt was a place of darkness. Well, that's the history of the
book of Genesis, folks. In the Garden of Eden, to a coffin
in Egypt. But then we come to the third
era in the book of Exodus. The word Exodus comes from the
word exit. It describes the exit or the
exodus of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, their
sojourn through the wilderness and coming to the border of the
promised land. This happened during the days
of Moses. Moses, the great prophet whom
God raised up called him on the backside of the wilderness. Though he was not a very good
speaking man, he evidently had some kind of a speech impediment.
God sent him down to Pharaoh where he turned out to be one
of the greatest preachers that ever lived. God used the hand
of Moses to bring the plagues upon the Egyptians. God used
the hand of Moses to bring the children of Israel out of Egyptian
bondage. God used the hand of Moses with
the rod in his hand to bring the children of Israel through
the Red Sea and to drown their enemies therein. In the era of
Moses, God brought the children of Israel to Mount Sinai and
entered into a covenant with them. We call it the Old Covenant. In the era of Moses, the children
of Israel are ushered through the wilderness for 38 years and
brought to the very border of the land. Then Moses died. 120 years old, Moses died. That brings us to, it's now the
fourth era, right? Help me if I lose count here,
I'll keep my fingers up. The fourth era, the era of Joshua. Joshua was the lieutenant under
Moses. When Moses dies, Joshua becomes
the commander-in-chief of Israel. It is he who takes them through
the Jordan River, much like Moses brought them through the Red
Sea on dry ground. They crossed the river on dry
ground. They conquered the land under
the hand of Joshua. They took possession of the land,
and then Joshua died. And now we come to the era of
the judges, which will be followed by the era of the kings. The
era of the judges. Locate Judges chapter 17. Keep your finger there in chapter
6, but go to chapter 17. I'm going to show to you what
is probably the best commentary on the book of Judges in that
whole era. Judges 17, chapter 6. In those
days, there was no king in Israel But every man did that which
was right in his own eyes. Interestingly, it's repeated
in chapter 19, verse 16. No king in Israel, every man
did that which was right in his own eyes. Well, there is a recipe
for disaster. And it was, it was, every man
did that which was right in his own eyes. Moses had been a king in Jesuit. Joshua had been as a king to
the children of Israel. But now with the death of Joshua,
no king. The Lord says, I'll let you see
what you can do on your own. Well, it was disastrous. The
whole book of Judges repeatedly involves four S's. Four of them. First, sin. That's what happens when
every man does that which is right in his own eyes. They sin. Second S, submission. God sent the enemies of Israel
in to the land to put the people in subjection and submission. And after a while came the third
step, the third S, supplication. They prayed unto him. Oh, they
supplicated their souls unto Jehovah, and he heard them. And
then the fourth S, Salvation. Repeatedly, repeatedly. People
never learn from history. Repeatedly, we find it. Sin, submission, supplication,
salvation. And here it is in this instance. Judges chapter six. And the children
of Israel did evil in the sight of Jehovah. And the Lord delivered
them into the hand of the Midianites, or into Midian seven years. So
there you have sin, submission. There they are in that one verse.
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. And because of
the Midianites, The children of Israel made them the dens
which are in the mountains and caves and strongholds. And so
it was when Israel had sown that the Midianites came up and the
Amalekites and the children of the east, even they came upon
them against them. And they encamped against them,
Israel, and destroyed the increase of the earth, the crops, till
thou come unto Gaza, of the Philistines, and left no sustenance for Israel,
neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle
and their tents, And they came as grasshoppers for multitude,
like a plague of locusts. For both they and their camels
were without number, and they entered the land to destroy it.
And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites. And
the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, there's your third
S. Sin, submission, supplication,
they cried unto Jehovah. And it came to pass when the
children of Israel cried unto Jehovah because of the Midianites. That Jehovah sent a prophet unto
the children of Israel which said unto them Thus says Jehovah
God of Israel I brought you up from Egypt and brought you forth
out of the house of bondage and I delivered you out of the hand
of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all them that oppressed
you and Drave them out from before you and gave you their land Now
notice he has just mentioned the eras of Moses and of Joshua. Moses brought them out of Egypt. Joshua drove the enemies of Israel
out of the land, the Amorites in particular, and Israel occupied
the land. The Lord did this through these
men. And I said unto you, I am Jehovah
your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites
in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice.
Now watch carefully. The people cried unto Jehovah. And what did he do? He sent a
prophet to remind them why they were in their sad situation. He did not say, okay, I'll come
save you again. He did not say that. He told
him, you deserve what happened. There's a prophet who is the
bearer of bad news. This prophet, whomever he was,
he here is not named. He came with bad news, you people. Rebelled against the Lord and
now you expect him to hear you But that is not the end of the
story And there came an angel of Jehovah Actually that word
and should be the and This is the angel of Jehovah. Now we
have looked at him before. This is that same angel of Jehovah,
the divine presence. In the scriptures, Jehovah calls
him the angel of my presence, meaning that if this angel is
in your midst, my presence, Jehovah says, is with you. He's the angel
of the messenger of the covenant. He's the one who brings the new
covenant unto us. He is Michael the archangel. Michael means prince with God
and Jesus Christ is that prince. The archangel is the highest
angel that Jehovah has. He's Michael. He's the one who
was the watcher over Israel in the book of Daniel. He's the
one who led in the defeat of Satan in Revelation chapter 12. This is that angel of Jehovah
who appeared to Moses in the burning bush on the backside
of the wilderness at Mount Horeb. And he said, I am Jehovah your
God. I am the God of your fathers,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I am who I am. I am. This is that angel. This is the
divine angel. And he came, now watch, he sat
under an oak tree which was in Ephra. Just sat down there, had
a seat. Jesus took a seat at the well
of Samaria and waited for a woman to come to him. This angel took
a seat under an oak tree and waited for a man to come to him. This pertained unto Joash the
Abriazrite, and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress
to hold it from the Midianites, were taking everything they could
find. And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him and said unto
him, Jehovah is with you, thee, thou mighty man of valor. Now this is interesting. Gideon's
name means warrior. I would think that it is probably
unlikely that his mother gave him that name or his father gave
him that name on the day he was born. He probably had proven himself
to be such a man of valor, and this name was given to him. And
here is Jehovah. saying, Jehovah is with thee,
thou mighty man of valor. And Gideon said unto him, O my
Lord, if Jehovah be with us, why then is all this befalling
us? Now watch carefully. The angel
said, I am with thee. Gideon. Gideon says, if you are with
us, why is all this going on? The angel did not say, I am with
all the people. Gideon, I am with you, and right
now you're the only one with whom I am. Gideon says, why then is all
this befallen us? And where be all his miracles
which our fathers told us of, saying, did not the Lord bring
us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken
us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And
the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this thy might. And thou shalt save Israel from
the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? I have sent you. I have equipped
you. You have all the authority and
the power you need. Now go and do what I told you
to do. Go and do it. And Gideon said to him, oh, my
lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is
poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. So
here is a man, no nobility. He has no high position. Manasseh means he may have lived
on the other side of the river. His father house is not prominent,
and he's the least man in it. Men would say, not the kind of
man God uses. Oh, but it is, it is. Later on, Israel will be Fighting
against the Philistines There is a man in Bethlehem named
Jesse He's got a good number of sons
Worthy men of valor They all go to war They all joined
the army of King Saul except for the least in the family. His name is David. Somebody has
to take care of the sheep. Well, you don't send the firstborn
out to keep sheep, the strongest and the biggest, no. You send
him off to help King Saul. Jesse, who's gonna keep your
sheep? My least son, David, he'll do it. Now bear in mind that
David is not just a lad, he's a young man. He was capable of
fighting with a bear and a lion or so he said, and I believe
what he said. He delivered the sheep, he fed
them, led them, and Israel goes off to war. And the Philistines
come out with their champion who says, let's have a one-on-one. Each man representing his camp. Goliath was a giant. I mean a
giant. Close to twice as tall as I am. Or at least two-thirds. But he's
a big fellow. And he's heavily armed. And Saul
looks at him, and he's the champion of Israel. Saul is head and shoulders
above the others, but Saul says, I'm not going. Nobody else is
going. And here comes the young man,
David, delivering bread and cheese to his brothers. He hears that giant out there
challenging Israel. And David is a little upset.
How come nobody's going after him? Well, nobody here is equipped. Nobody's able. That's Goliath. David said, I may be the least
man in this camp, but I will go. And he did. And he brought
down the Goliath giant. You see, God can use small and
insignificant Men to do great wonders and here it is with Gideon
Least in his father's house and Jehovah said unto him now watch
carefully. This is still the angel speaking And the Lord said unto him through
the mouth of the angel of Jehovah, Surely I will be with thee, and
thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. And Gideon said unto
him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a
sign that thou talkest with me. Depart not hence, I pray thee,
until I come unto thee and bring forth my present and set it before
thee. And he said, okay. The angel
said, I will tarry until thou come again. And Gideon went in
and made ready a kid and unleavened cakes of anipha, of flour, the
flesh he put in a basket, probably the bread with it. And he brought
the broth in a pot and brought it out unto him, the angel under
the oak, and presented it. And the angel of God said unto
him, take the flesh and the unleavened cakes and lay them upon this
rock and pour out the broth. Pour it out. I put a whole lot of trouble
into making that broth. Yeah, pour it out. It will be
your drink offering. It will be your drink offering.
So he did so. Then the angel of Jehovah put
forth the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the
flesh and the unleavened cakes. And there rose up fire out of
the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then
the angel of Jehovah departed out of his sight. He's gone.
He's gone. And when Gideon perceived that
he was an angel of Jehovah, Gideon said, alas, oh Lord Jehovah,
alas, meaning woe is me. Woe is me, why? I have seen an
angel of Jehovah face to face, meaning I have seen God face
to face. Jesus says he who has seen me
has seen the Father Jesus Christ is this divine angel of Jehovah
and Gideon saw him Gideon saw him before Mary and Joseph did
They saw him incarnate in human flesh Gideon saw him as the angel
of Jehovah. Alas, woe is me! And Jehovah
said unto him, Peace be unto thee. Fear not, thou shalt not
die. Then Gideon built an altar there
unto Jehovah and called it Jehovah Shalom. Unto this day it is yet
an offer of the Abraezites. It's still there Jehovah Shalom
What's the meaning? When Gideon looked at that altar
he knew this Here I Saw God face to face and I lived to tell it
only because Jehovah gave peace to me and he is my peace. Jesus Christ is our peace. We
read in the prophecy of Micah chapter five, verse five, that
this one shall be peace. Notice it does not say, the prophecy
does not record that he shall bring peace, nor that he shall
make peace. No, it says he shall be the peace. I want you to know that Jesus
Christ, he is what he does. He sanctifies. He's the sanctification. He redeems. He's the redemption. He brings righteousness. He is
the righteousness. You can go down through all these
gifts that Jesus Christ brings and all of them are Him. And
here in this instance, He who brings peace is the peace. This one shall be peace, the
prophet Micah said unto us. And Paul the Apostle in Ephesians
2 verses 14 through 17 declares, he himself is our peace. Now note the context in which
he says it. Jesus Christ is himself our peace. It is in the context of describing
the Lord's people as one indivisible body made up of Jews and Gentiles,
which was not done in the former era. Jews and Gentiles were naturally
enemies against each other. But when Jesus Christ came, he
broke down the middle wall of partition. What was that middle
wall of partition? Gentile proselytes were allowed
to walk into the temple complex in Jerusalem. They could walk
in. Now here's a Gentile proselyte
And a Jewish believer, they're both believers, but one's a Gentile
proselyte. They both walk in through the
front door of the gate of the temple. They come into the first
part of it. They walk through it. And then
they come to the second gate in the temple complex. And the
Gentile can go no further. The Jew can, but the Gentile
cannot for this reason. There is a placard on the wall
that reads, any Gentile passing this gate will do so under penalty of death. He's a member of the Jewish religion,
but he's a Gentile proselyte. He cannot go further than this
wall. It is a wall of division. Paul says in Jesus Christ, he
has abolished the wall of division that separated us. Jesus comes
to that wall with Jewish and Gentile believers. There's the
placard, the Gentile cannot come through. Jesus just kicks it
over and says, now come on in both of you. He does it for all
his people. He broke down the middle wall
of partition. He is our peace. He made peace
between Jews and Gentiles. Not only did he make the peace,
he himself is our peace. Then he did something else. He took Jews and Gentiles who
were separated one from the other, brought them together in peace
by bringing peace and becoming their peace. Then he said, come
along with me. And he brought them to his father.
He has presented us as one body to His Father. And the Father
looks down upon them and says, peace be to you. And there is
peace because Jesus Christ is at peace. I tell you we have
a peace that this world cannot give, this world cannot take
away. Every believer in Jesus Christ
has this peace. He is our peace. We sleep when others cannot. We are happy when others fret.
Yes, we have our troubles, but we also have our peace. and he
is Jesus Christ. Oh God, our Father, we thank you not only that you
are Jehovah, but also that through Jesus Christ
you are Jehovah who sanctifies us, and through Jesus Christ
you are Jehovah who is our peace, We thank you that we can have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we thank you
that our Jesus Christ sanctifies us unto you. Bless, we pray this
word, to your glory in Jesus' name we pray, amen.