Our Heavenly Vocation (continued)
The Purpose of Our Vocation
We come to the third temptation, and satan is now moving his position. He is gradually being uncovered and it is now going to be manifest wheat it is he is really after. He himself knows what he has been after all the time, and he has been moving steadily towards it. He took the Lord Jesus up into a very high mountain. I do not know, of course, how that was done, though I do not think that it was done literally. I think that the Lord Jesus was seeing all this in a spiritual way. However, in that high mountain satan showed the Lord Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and said: 'I will give You all this if You will fall down and worship me.' Ah, now it has come out! satan knows what Jesus Christ has come into this world for, and that is to bring in the Kingdom of God. He knows that this One is destined to be the Divinely-appointed Lord of the universe. If satan knew the Scriptures in Deuteronomy and Psalm 91, he also knew them in Psalm 2, which shows the final exaltation of God's Son. satan knew that before the world was. His demons know this One, for on one occasion they said to Him: "What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the Most High God?" (Luke 8:28). So the ultimate issue is world dominion, and that is the one thing that satan is against, for he is the god of this world and he is not going to have that position taken from him by anyone.
But see how clever he is! 'I will give it all to You without You having to go to the Cross. You can have it all without suffering if only You will do one thing - put me in the place of Your God and worship me. And if You do that I know quite well that You will not get the kingdoms of the world. "my" kingdom is established, and what You came for will be defeated.' That is what lies behind it all, but what is satan really saying? 'Compromise with me as the prince of this world' - and if we compromise with this world we are going to lose our spiritual dominion now and afterwards. You see, it is the Church that is going to reign.
There are some things in the Bible that I do not understand. For one thing I do not understand what Paul meant when he said: "Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? ... Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). I do not really understand that, but I do know that it is in keeping with the whole revelation of the New Testament: "If we suffer with Him, we shall reign with Him" (2 Timothy 2:12). He will give us the Throne with Himself.
That is what we are called to, and is the purpose of the vocation: to govern this world in the place of satan. Is that not a tremendous thing? That is the destiny of the Church. So satan sees that the way to defeat that destiny is to compromise with the world, but you cannot cast out satan by satan, nor can you cast out the world by the world. The Church has tried to do that, and it has lost its position and its power. It is in a poor state today, and the reason is that it has compromised with this world. It may have had a right motive - trying to win the world on its own grounds - but you will never overcome the world by worldly means and methods.
"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God only." You must give Him the supreme place in this universe. 'And Him only shalt thy serve,' not satan, nor the world.
What is the service of God? Remember Mary's service - bringing the Lord into His right place, taking ground for the Lord and holding it for Him. But what a battle! The enemy and all his powers are set against it, but thank God for the anointing! It is said that the Spirit which had come upon Him "drove" Him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, but it does not say: 'to be defeated by the devil.' He was anointed to test out the strength of this great enemy and break it, and the anointing carried Him through in victory.
Dear friends, we have the anointing. Let us believe in it! There is nothing impossible with the anointing: "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6).
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(The End)
(Next: "Union with Christ)
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