T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 4

Sanctification for God

Will you follow with me thoughtfully through a number of places and passages in the Word of God, beginning in the book of Exodus chapter 32, at verse 25: "And when Moses saw that the people were broken loose, (for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies) then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Whoso is on the Lord's side, let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him."

In the book of Numbers, chapter 8 at verse 9: "And thou shalt present the Levites before the tent of meeting: and thou shalt assemble the whole congregation of the children of Israel: and thou shalt present the Levites before the Lord. And the children of Israel shall lay their hands upon the Levites: and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for a wave-offering, on behalf of the children of Israel, that it may be theirs to do the service of the Lord. The Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks: and offer thou the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, unto the Lord, to make atonement for the Levites. And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for a wave-offering."

In the first book of the Chronicles, chapter 15 verse 2: "Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath the Lord chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him for ever." Verse 12: "And said unto them, Ye are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, unto the place that I have prepared for it. For because ye bare it not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not according to the ordinance. So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. And the children of the Levites bare the ark of God upon their shoulders with the staves thereon, as Moses commanded according to the word of the Lord."

Prophecies of Malachi, chapter 2 verse 4: "Ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant may be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might fear; and he feared me, and stood in awe of me." Chapter 3: "Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, he cometh, saith the Lord of hosts. But who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap: and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto the Lord offerings in righteousness."

Book of the Revelation, chapter 1 verse 2: "...who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ..." Verse 5: "...from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood; and he made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father; to him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever." Verse 9: "I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus."

If you have been thoughtful in passing from one passage to another, through them all you will have discerned a common link and basis in every one. In the Old Testament: the links in the chain of the history and ministry of the Levites in relation to the Lord's testimony. None but the Levites ought to carry the ark of the testimony. Those passages lead us over into the New Testament and right at the end we find ourselves once more in the presence of this central thing of God's mind and interest: the testimony of Jesus. And it is significant and important to be noted that we pass straight on from chapter one of the Revelation into what is in chapter two and three, concerning the overcomers; a message to every church and in every case the issue is: "to him that overcometh."

It seems perfectly clear that this whole matter right through the Scriptures is the matter of that service of peculiar importance and value to the Lord: the bearing of His testimony. It is that which is called 'the service of God'. If we want to know what the Levites really are in representation and spiritual significance, that is made perfectly clear for us in the first three chapters of the book of the Revelation. The churches were brought into being by God for the testimony of Jesus. That is, I think, beyond dispute. They are, wherever they are, meant to be the vessels of that testimony. But here in these representative churches of the whole dispensation, in these first chapters of the Revelation, we find the churches, in general, failing in the matter of the testimony of Jesus.

Perhaps we have not been sufficiently impressed with this fact: that the book opens with the emphasis upon the testimony of Jesus. Really, the introduction to the whole book is that very phrase.

John tells us quite clearly that he was where he was, and that means that what he saw and what he set down in writing in Patmos related to the testimony of Jesus. He says that quite emphatically and quite clearly: it was for the testimony of Jesus. That phrase governs this book on its first page, and runs right the way through the book.

You can only understand the whole of the book of the Revelation if you see that everything there is centered in this that is called the testimony of Jesus. That is the explanation. Everything is accounted for by that. Then, when that is laid down as the foundation and the introduction to the whole book, the first movement of the Spirit, "I was in the Spirit"... the first movement of the Spirit is to the churches which, as we have said, were brought into being for the testimony of Jesus. That is what the Levites came into being for. Their whole history right the way through, related to the testimony - in type and figure of course, in the Old Testament as represented by the Ark of the Covenant, or the ark of the testimony. In spiritual meaning it's the same in both Testaments. They came into being as a people right at the very centre of the Lord's people in relation to the Lord's testimony.

You want to know what the essential service of the Lord is? It is that; it is the bearing and maintaining and carrying forward of the testimony of Jesus in the history of this world. I repeat: the Levites came right in for that very purpose, and it is that that explains their existence and their history. I go back again and if you want to know what the Levites represent in this dispensation, in our own day, they are presented to us in those who overcome.

If it is true that the purpose of the churches was to be vessels of the testimony of Jesus wherever they are, then when the churches are approached (and in every case, in every case, the final word is: "to him that overcometh") it is, I think, unmistakably clear and obvious that it is in such people, those who overcome, that you have the Levitical principle, service, and purpose carried on, carried forth. They are the people who are put in trust with the testimony. That is clear in both Old and New Testaments. They are the people who, in the first place and in the last place, are the people who react against all departure from what is called 'the testimony of Jesus.' They are the people in whom God's full thought concerning His Church is represented.

Saying these things I am saying a great deal supported and backed up by the Word of God. Whenever the Lord was going to take a new step, whenever a crisis was reached in the onward march of God in eternal history, the Lord called for the Levites to come to the fore and to sanctify themselves. They are the people of the crisis and of the crises, all the way through. We could say that the Lord was at a loss and a disadvantage when the Levites were out of their place and out of their condition. The Lord was unable to go on until the Levites came into their place and sanctified themselves. That, I think, is clear if I only touch on one or two of the instances of which we have read.

We do recognize that a very serious crisis was reached there at Sinai. Moses was in the Mount and, as we have read, the people broke loose. And that is a tremendously impressive bracketed sentence: "...they would be made a derision among their enemies". You can see through that, we can see through that: there is one thing that the enemy and all the hosts of enemies in the heavenlies are set upon, which is to make the church a derision in this universe. A derision. The universe could sneer at it saying, "That's your church, is it? That's your church."

When they had broken loose, everything in that onward march of God from Egypt to the land was brought to a standstill and the crisis turned upon the Levites, the prospect opened up through the Levites. There could be no movement forward, everything was in suspense until the Levites came forward and took up this issue of a derision among their enemies. They took responsibility to answer that challenge, to deal with that thing and get it out of the way, that the people of God should go on.