Many saints in the Lord’s recovery can testify that they are not merely wheat, but something more solid, valuable, and precious. Before certain brothers and sisters came to the Lord’s recovery, they were wheat. Outwardly, they were rather bulky and showy. But during the years they have been in the recovery, they have been constricted and reduced. They have become smaller year by year. When you were bulky, you were soft and light like cotton, easily ruined by a little water. But after you are reduced, constricted, and transformed, you have the assurance that you are more precious to the Lord. Many of us can testify of this. We in the Lord’s recovery are not as bulky as we used to be. Instead, we are constantly being reduced, transformed, and made more solid. After you have become as solid as a precious stone, not even a flood can damage you. Instead of damaging a precious stone, water only makes it more clean and valuable.
If we examine Christian history, we shall find those who belong in the categories of the treasure and the pearl. The parables of the treasure and the pearl refer to the overcomers throughout the centuries. As an illustration of the genuine believers, the Lord uses the example of wheat grown from seed sown in the field. This, however, is a general illustration of the genuine believers. The Lord uses other illustrations to describe the overcoming members of the church. They used to be lifeless grains of sand. But they wounded Christ, the oyster living in the death water, and stayed at Christ’s wound, where they participated in the secretion of Christ’s life. This not only enabled them to be regenerated, but also caused them to become pearls. This is more than a seed sown in a field to produce wheat; it is something that has become precious through the secretion of the life of Christ.
We have pointed out that the treasure no doubt refers to precious stones. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the church life and the kingdom life, for in this city the church life is combined with the kingdom. The building of New Jerusalem is mainly of the pearl gates and the precious stones which form the wall and its foundations. All this is set upon a golden base that upholds the entire building. In this message we are focusing on the pearl gate and the treasure wall. The pearl refers to the church, and the treasure, to the kingdom.
The church and the kingdom are spoken of in Matthew 13 in a mysterious way in parables. But in chapter sixteen the Lord speaks a clear word to His disciples regarding the church and the kingdom. In 16:18 He says, “On this rock I will build My church,” and in the following verse, “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens.” In these verses we see the church and the kingdom. In order to understand the treasure and the pearl in Matthew 13, we must consider the church and the kingdom in Matthew 16. If you pray over these two chapters, you will spontaneously see that the treasure is the kingdom and that the pearl is the church. Both the treasure and the pearl are in the New Jerusalem.
According to Matthew 13, the Lord Jesus sold whatever He had and bought the pearl. Acts 20:28 says that the Lord purchased the church with His blood. This means that on the cross He sold all He had and bought the church. This verse is a strong proof that the pearl in Matthew 13 is the church, for the pearl was purchased by the merchant. No doubt the merchant is the Lord.
We enter the realm of the kingdom by being regenerated, by being born again (John 3:5). Regeneration is related to the pearl, for the pearl is produced by the principle of regeneration. By being reborn we enter into the sphere of God, into the realm of the kingdom. After we were regenerated, we began to live by Him. Because we loved Him, we wanted to stay under His control and be restricted by Him. Many of us have experienced being restricted on every side. We are not limited by man, but by something inward that is invisible—by the life under the heavenly ruling. We may try to do certain things, but we are restricted from doing them by a mysterious, invisible, inward control. Our relatives or schoolmates are free to do those things, but we cannot do them. Something invisible exercises an inward control over us, and we live under this control. This is the treasure, the kingdom life.
Before we became Christians, we were sand. But we have been regenerated. This means that something living has entered into us. As more life juice is secreted over us, we become precious and begin to live under a mysterious control. This is the experience of the pearl and the treasure.
The local church in the Lord’s recovery is a pearl. But in the eyes of the Lord, this church must also be a treasure hidden from the world. Neither the worldly people nor those in Christianity know what we are doing. But deep within we know that we are living a pearl life and a life under an invisible control. We are the pearl and the treasure.
The first four parables of chapter thirteen do not fully cover us. We are not just the wheat or the fine flour. We are more precious, solid, and genuine than this. We are the pearl and the treasure. This is the church life with the kingdom life in the Lord’s recovery. If we did not have the second group of parables, we would not know where we should be. I am happy to say that I am no longer in the first group—I am in the second. Can you say this? Are you simply a believer who has a little of Christ? If this is your situation, then you must be a genuine Christian in Christendom. We thank the Lord that we are not in Christendom. Praise Him that many of us are the pearl and the treasure in the Lord’s recovery!