Matthew 11:25-30; Matthew 13:44-46.
You notice the Scripture I read opens with the words "At that time." We are introduced to an utterance of the Lord Jesus Christ to His Father.
It was a special moment. Even John the Baptist began to doubt; and he sent his disciples, saying, "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" He had been told that the One upon whom he should see the Spirit descending and abiding was He, and he "saw and bare record that" Jesus "was the Son of God." What could have made the difference in John's thoughts? He saw the Lord rejected in this world, and that in spite of all the good He did in the world. The Lord Jesus came, as it were, piping the news of grace, and they heard it not; people did not believe Him. A few fishermen of Galilee believed on Him, but none of the leaders. Do they receive Him now? Not at all. Don't you think He felt it when He was here? Ah, He did feel it, and He feels it still, and He is conscious of it. The Lord Jesus Christ did not go amongst the ranks of angels to find companions, but He came amongst men in the streets and lanes of the city. The Lord wanted saved sinners to be His companions in eternal glory.
Are you answering to His mind? Do you know what it is to be walking in company with a Christ that the world will not have? We can give joy to His heart by being true to Him. People may be very grateful to the Lord for what He did for them, without being near Him. The Father loves to teach us about His own Blessed Son. Do you know how precious Christ is to the Father, and what it must have been to God to see His Son rejected on the earth? The Son turns to the Father at that time of His rejection, and thanks Him that whilst the wise of this world did not receive His things, He had revealed them unto babes who did not know the ways of the world. I have been converted for fifty years, and I know of nothing more blessed than to take all my blessings from the hand of my precious Saviour. It was to the babes that the Father revealed the preciousness of Christ; not to those who care for what is going on in this world today. He says to them, I will tell you what I think of my dear Son. Men rejected Him, but the Father so loved Him that He put everything into His hands; and when He puts any thing into the hands of His Son, He will never let it drop; and He has put you into His hands, and He will not let you drop either. If the Lord Jesus Christ spoke words of grace to any poor sinner on earth, it was as One who knew all the love of the Father's heart. I want to engage your hearts with two things; on the one hand the world rejecting Christ, and on the other that solitary Man, the Object of the Father's love, He who could tell all the secrets of that love, and yet was rejected. Now He turns round and says, "Come unto Me." I want this test for those who do know their sins forgiven. Have you ever come to Christ as the Object of the Father's love outside the world? He stood outside it all and said, "Come unto Me." There are numbers of Christians who know the work of Christ, are clear of judgment, and have a title to heaven, but they have not found the company of Christ outside the world. I believe there is many a weary and heavy-laden saint who has not the sense of having everything in Christ outside the world. The "rest" is to be found in His company. When God made this universe, what do you think He made it for? He made it that He might have His own delight in the work of His hands for His glory, and He is going to have a company of poor sinners, saved and made like to Christ, in whom He will have His own eternal delights.
God wanted Himself to be known by His creatures, that they might be acquainted with Him. How? His own Blessed Son came down to make Him known. Then He took up men, saved them, and became their life, their righteousness; and all created intelligences will see, in Christ, and in the saints in the likeness of Christ, what a blessed God He is. I wish you to get into the company of Christ so that you may know you are part of that company, the church, in whom all the lineaments of Christ are to shine out to the glory of God for ever. I will give you an illustration. In the morning you may see the countless drops of dew upon the grass, and each dewdrop is like a little sun. It is nothing but a drop of water, but it reflects the sun. So will it be with the saints - each will be a reflection of Christ. Every believer is nothing but a little particle himself, but all will be like Christ. What will that be for God to look at? If you look at the New Jerusalem in Rev. 21, there is nobody seen in it. It is the dwelling-place of the glory of God and of the Lamb; and they dwell in it. The New Jerusalem is the saints. It is all Christ, but Christ shining in the saints, the metropolis of glory, and God dwells there.
I may be only a little bit of the jasper wall, so to speak, but it is all one crystal vessel lighted up with the glory of God. I want you to see what God is making: a dwelling-place where He will rest for ever and ever. The evangelist goes and finds a poor sinner, one that Christ will put into that heavenly city, and a pastor or teacher builds that soul up in Christ, that all that is of Christ may be formed in that soul. How is that done? All the teaching in the world would not do it of itself. If by God's power I am able to put your soul in contact with Christ so that you get near Him, it will make your face shine. You cannot get into the company of Christ without being formed into His mind. You will find in His company He is everything to you. I want to commend Christ to you so that you may want His company, and so that you may be separated from the world, which can only debase us.
If you get into the company of that blessed Christ, His company will form you. I want the feeblest believers to have the sense that Christ is everything to them. You find all you want in Christ, and you cannot get it anywhere but there. That lowly, rejected Man stood outside this world with only a few poor disciples and said, "Come unto Me." If you get into the company of Christ you will get into contact with all the world of glory, even while you are here.
Read 2 Cor. 5:1-5: "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. … Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God." These verses shew what God has wrought us for. All that is of Christ in your heart the Spirit of God has written there, and it is all in accord with heaven. All that is wrought of Christ in you belongs to heaven, and soon He will take us there in bodies which are heavenly. The power for forming your body for heaven all comes from heaven, and God wants you to know Christ now as life, and righteousness, and all else.
The Son of God takes you in all your emptiness, and fills you so that you may be entering into all the joy of heaven now. He is going to have you in His own likeness, and He wants you for His own joy now; but for that you must answer to His mind. Christ found a treasure in the world, and you, as saints, are part of it. He gave up all that He had to possess you. He bought you. What is Christ's treasure in this world? Are you a part of it? Do you believe you are very precious to Him? When He took you up as a poor, lost sinner it was not for what you were, but for what He could make you.
God took a handful of dust to make a wonderful being - man: and he goes back to a handful of dust! God is going to make a wonderful thing in glory, and He takes up a poor degraded sinner to make him an heir of glory, something suited to Himself.
It is all hidden now, but I know that Christ is written on your heart, dear believer, and Christ's thought is to build up in your soul all that is of Himself, so that you may say there is no place like His company. I want your heart to understand that you are His treasure. The Spirit of God devotes Himself to the graving of Christ in your heart.
The pearl is one; it is to shew the unity of the thing. Every colour in the various flowers is a ray of the sun, just a reflection of the light in the sun, but it takes all the colours of the various flowers to shew it out, and so it will take all the saints in glory to shew out the beauties of Christ, but all are one. The Church is one. Christ bought the pearl because He saw His own beauty in it, and He will shew out His own beauty and glory for ever in that scene of eternal delights. May we each one seek to answer to the heart of Christ! If you come to Christ you will find yourself in the company of those who have that same Blessed Person before them. Have you found that Blessed One who is outside all that is in this world? That Blessed Christ! Do you know Himself, and is your heart connected with all that world of glory? May something more of Christ be found in your hearts, and may you know that you are part of His treasure here for His name's sake.
T. H. Reynolds.