THE TREE AND THE TREASURE
[p. 236] THE TREE AND THE TREASURE
Matthew 13:31,32; Matthew 13:44
I think, as things go on, many of us become more and more impressed with the difficulties of the path. We have all accepted a certain path, and there can be no doubt that in that path we encounter increasing difficulties. What I feel painfully is that a great many may have entered on the path, but have not faith for it. It is one thing to enter on the path, and those who are in it would not seek to put unnecessary difficulties before those desiring to enter it; but the point is, have all faith for the path? The position is difficult; the path is trying, and will undoubtedly expose people to reproach. Those who are in the path are encumbered by many who have not faith for it, and on the other hand, those who have not faith are not really helped. It is a day of great weakness, and it is extremely difficult to afford help to those who have not faith for themselves.
These things come home to one, because we do not get stronger and stronger, but weaker and weaker. Energy declines; everything in this world tends to degenerate. The path in that way becomes more difficult, and the difficulties are increased if we are encumbered by many who, though perhaps Christians, have not faith for the path. I wish everybody had, that there might be a stirring up in the path; that we might not be content simply with the fact that we are Christians, and brought more or less into the light, but that we might have faith for the path into which we profess to have been led.
I think we must maintain the idea of testimony. It is a word that has been very much in use amongst us; I do not care much about the word, but the point is, what is meant by it? If the testimony is not maintained [p. 237] I do not see what the value of our path is. It is good to walk in divine light, but as you cannot get the church restored, the thought of testimony must have a certain place. It has been said that if we are a testimony to anything, we are a testimony to the ruin. I think that to be a point of great moment. You will say, it is a poor thing to be a testimony to the ruin. I admit it; but I do not understand how, in the present state of things, we can be a testimony to anything else, and it involves a good deal more than we think. Some would say, What do you mean by the ruin? I mean that the church has assumed a form, here upon the earth, which was never according to the thought of God. The great mass of people have no idea of ruin: they are not ashamed of the present state of things; they would rather glory in it, and not think it a shame or reproach. If our eyes have been opened, we apprehend that the church has assumed a form upon the earth which is not according to the mind of God; and it is in that sense we speak of ruin. If Christianity in the world presented the form and character which God intended, there would be no question of ruin; but when things have assumed a form which God never intended, I can only look upon everything around as being morally ruined. If our eyes have been opened, our position is that we are more or less a testimony to the ruin. We do not accept the form which things have taken in the world, we do not appreciate the great worldly organisations into which Christianity has dropped: we stand in a way outside of them, and are thereby a testimony to the ruin.
But if that is the case, every one in the path needs to be there in faith. You want your eyes opened to the character of the moment, so that you should be intelligently in the path in which you are found. If we are there in faith, we are there intelligently; if we are not there intelligently, we are not really there in [p. 238] faith. Faith always indicates intelligence. It is a great point, not simply to be in the path, but to be in it intelligently. The great organisations are not of God, and hence, so far as we can, we take a path outside these things, and by that fact we are in witness to the ruin. Now I think every one of us must apprehend that this demands faith; not simply that people should be really converted and have the Spirit, but should have intelligence. If they continue in the path without it, they will simply be a hindrance and an obstruction in it. We should all seek to walk in the path in all possible grace, ready to help those who are in it, and who may have entered it without faith; but one fears there are many in the path who hardly want to be enlightened: they have come into it providentially, in connection with others, and have thus entered upon a path for which they have not faith.
Now I have made certain assertions, but I want to shew you that these things were foreseen of the Lord; they have not come in fortuitously. The Lord anticipated the state of things which has come to pass. It has often been to me a great comfort to apprehend in Scripture that everything was anticipated. It is one great principle which prevails in the word of God; that from the beginning God foretells what the end will be. When Israel came out of Egypt, God foretold the Babylonish captivity, and before they went into captivity God foretold the rejection of Christ. In the New Testament, so soon as the church was established upon earth, the Spirit of God speaks about the last times. So here: before the kingdom was established, the Lord tells us what would come to pass in the end of it, about the net being cast into the sea, and so on.
But I want to say a word in regard to the first parable I have read in verses 31, 32. I will refer you to the Book of Daniel for a moment, chapter 4: 10 - 12, 25, 26. I turn to these passages partly because they [p. 239] give us the idea referred to in the parable of Matthew 13, that is, of the tree, and partly because we get a remarkable expression there, that Nebuchadnezzar was to know that the heavens ruled. I want to touch on these two points for a moment. A tree is a conspicuous figure. The Babylonish kingdom was a conspicuous figure in the world; God allowed it to become that, and it sheltered the fowls of heaven. Now according to Matthew 13 the kingdom of heaven has taken that shape: it has become conspicuous, a thing of renown in the world, and has afforded shelter to the fowls of heaven. The kingdom of heaven has become a great earthly organisation. That is not what God intended, but it has come to pass. The kingdom of heaven really came in by testimony, hence the Lord speaks about its having its origin in a seed which is the least of all seeds. It must have been so, because there was no kingdom set up in power; it sprang up as the fruit and result of seed-sowing.
Now as to the meaning of the kingdom of heaven, I do not connect it with the expression I read in Daniel that “the heavens do rule”. I think that Nebuchadnezzar had to learn that in spite of all he thought of himself, the heavens ruled, and so they do. You get great dynastic changes taking place in the world; and they appear to be the workings of men; but what is behind all that is that the heavens rule. The Most High gives the kingdoms of men to whom He will. To our observation it would appear as though all these things were the fruit and result of human forces, but God makes men to feel that the heavens rule. But that is not to my mind the idea of the kingdom of heaven. What I understand by it is the moral sway of that which God has been pleased to set in heaven, and that is, a Man. The kingdom of heaven is the reign of grace, and that reign is brought about by the setting of a Man in heaven. God has been pleased, on the ground of redemption, to set a [p. 240] Man in heaven, and that Man is the appointed luminary and Head to man here upon earth. That is the basis of Christianity. The practical working of it is that the one who believes is righteous, even as Christ is righteous. Grace reigns through righteousness in the Person of Christ in heaven, and the one who believes has come under the sway of grace, and is righteous as Christ is.
It is a great point to be in the light of the glory of the Man whom God has set in heaven, to be thus in divine light down here. It is a great point for the natural man to be in the light of the sun. We know what the effect of sunshine is in a room, how everything is brightened, how we are all gladdened by the rays of the sun. So it is in the light of the Man whom God has set in heaven; He represents the reign of grace, and our souls are in that light. The testimony came down here into the world like a seed. It had to be sown in the earth, and what has come up is not entirely according to the seed; what has come out of the earth is this great tree. The testimony of Christ has been adopted by man down here, and been made to serve his ends, and the outcome is the mustard tree, a great conspicuous system which affords shelter to the fowls of heaven. Now my point is that this is not according to God. The Lord foretold all in detail; there are parables I have not read, but I say without hesitation, all is not according to God’s mind. When the Lord spoke of the tree, there was nothing of the kind; nothing but a small seed; but He foresaw what it would come to. In this country we see a great State church, under the name of Christ; we see also other great bodies, which, though they have departed from the State church, are still great organisations; all go to make up the mustard tree. But that is not according to the mind of God; hence it is morally a ruin. A great tree is an object in the eye of man, but if it is not according to God’s mind it is a [p. 241] ruin morally. It is not the ruin of the mustard tree, but the mustard tree itself is a ruin, because it is an organisation which is not according to God’s mind.
But perhaps some would say, How do you know it is not according to the mind of God? Well, let us look at the second parable I have read, verses 44 - 48. In verse 44 you get the thought of “treasure”, in verse 46, a “pearl of great price”, and in verse 48, “the good”. I think all ought to be ready to allow that evidently here we get something which is according to God. It is not a “tree”, or “leaven”, but “treasure”, “a pearl”, and “good”. I touch on the first parable in connection with one important point: when the treasure was found, it was hid. If I interpret the parable aright, the man who found the treasure is Christ, and the reason why I should judge that it refers to Christ is that the man bought the field. The field represents all men, and buying the field suggests that Christ has a right and title in regard to all men. He has bought all men, because when He came He found that there was a treasure hid among all men. Christ came down to earth and began to look around and He found there was a treasure here. How it came to be a treasure is not my point; but when He came close to men He found a treasure. The treasure was something very insignificant in the Lord’s day — only a handful of people; but it was a treasure. I cannot tell how it is that diamonds exist in the earth, but they do exist, and when Christ came here, He found a treasure; and He did not make it a great, conspicuous tree, but He hid it. He bought the field, died for all, but His mind in buying the field was the treasure, which He did not allow to come into publicity or manifestation.
I bring that forward to substantiate the proposition I previously advanced, that the mustard tree is not according to the thought of God. This parable makes that point plain. The treasure was hid, and it was not [p. 242] the mind of the Lord that the treasure should come into manifestation. It was in His mind that the treasure should be here simply and only as a vessel of spiritual light. There is a day when the church comes out in manifestation, when it comes down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God. Nothing will suit save the glory of God. The heavenly city will be public and conspicuous enough then; and the Lord intended that the treasure should wait for that moment, that until then it should be hid, and if known upon earth, that it should be known morally as a vessel of light. I suppose all will accept that; and if you do, you will understand how little we can glory in any of the great organisations. The mustard tree may be glorious enough in the eyes of men, but it stands condemned in the eyes of those who have intelligence; because it is not according to the mind of God. If not, then it is really a ruin; and if we understand anything about the latter parable, our position down here in the world is that we are a witness to the ruin. What else can we be a witness to? We cannot be a witness to the church when the church is here. I am prepared to stand here in the place of reproach, even though my kindred leave me, and I be bereft of all, I would stand apart and bear the sorrow, but I would not approve in any way the mustard tree. I would stand apart from it with all the spiritual energy which the Lord would afford to me, because it is not according to the mind of God. I would seek to be maintained in the thought that Christ has bought the field, and the treasure is here, but hid. We are to be in the reproach of Christ, not in honour, or glory, or worldliness; in the sense that the treasure is here, and that we have part, by the work of God, in that which, in the eyes of Christ, is a treasure. It is a wonderful consideration, that Christ gave Himself for all, that He might possess the treasure. When He came to earth, He found a treasure, and for joy thereof, went [p. 243] and sold all that He had. Think of Christ having joy when He found a few here drawn to Him of the Father!
I put these things forward because the two parables present such a striking contrast, and we have to see that the one is not what is according to the mind of God, although things have assumed that shape; but that in the other, we are let into the secret of the Lord: and it is a great honour and privilege to be in the secret of the Lord, although the knowledge of it, and seeking to maintain it, may expose us to reproach in the world. We may find one and another dropping off, but these things do not greatly oppress me, because I feel that the path in which we are called to walk is a path which demands that we shall not merely be Christians, but have divine intelligence for the moment in which it has pleased God to set us down here.
I would that all, even the youngest, might be stirred up, so that they might not only be in the path providentially through connection with others, but for themselves, in the sense of what Christ in heaven is to the church and the church to Him.