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TREASURE AND TREASURIES

2 Corinthians 4:3-7; 1 Chronicles 28:10-12;

It will be very evident, dear brethren, that I seek help to speak of treasure. We have been speaking in our reading meeting earlier of very blessed things, and my desire is that what we have been speaking of is something that is known to you, something that you treasure. I feel very measured in speaking of that. God would have us value all that He intends to bless us with, so that it may not just be something that we hear and then forget, put aside, perhaps not be interested in. The divine intent is that you should treasure these things in your heart, and as such, you and I may be treasuries in God’s house, so that there is something that is stored up and kept, and under the Spirit’s direction and help, it may be brought out again. The point is that in God’s own ordering and His arranging, there is something of value that can be brought out as a result of your contemplating the glories of the Lord Jesus.

We were also speaking earlier of the gospel, and how it goes further than the meeting of our awful state and the darkness that we find in ourselves as sinners, as knowing what it is to be lost. I trust that there is no one here who is lost. But if you are saved, and as appreciating your salvation, maybe you are yet to come into the fulness of salvation, into the fulness of the things that God has in mind for you to enjoy. How poor are the things of this world. Satan would use them to blind you, to blind poor souls as to God’s intent for you, God’s purpose for you. What He has in mind is that you should appreciate the Man who is so glorious, the blessed living Lord, the One who has died for us, given His all for us – not only that we need to be saved, and be delivered from ourselves, but that we should appreciate the giving of the Holy Spirit. Our affections are to be filled with appreciation of the Lord Jesus where He is now – we are to know Him where He is now, to commune with Him and be filled with the glory of His radiance. You and I are to shine forth in the way in which we have been speaking of it, “the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, weak vessels. What I am naturally is totally incapable of appreciating these glorious things. The more we realise that we are earthen, the more we realise that we are fragile, the more it gives scope for the Holy Spirit to speak to us of Christ, to speak well of His glories. Reading of this treasure and these earthen vessels would remind us of Gideon and the conditions that he faced. He faced lockdown, he faced what it was to be in conditions of great limitation, but he used those conditions to advantage. He threshed wheat in the winepress. God allows these conditions that we, and mankind indeed, have been faced with, that there should be an accumulation of appreciation of the Lord Jesus in quietude, in considering Him, in reading the Scriptures and the ministry, all that is about Him and for Him, that there may be formed in my soul and in yours some further appreciation of His greatness and glory. There is provision, under the Lord’s hand and the ordering of the Holy Spirit, that believers, as treasuries containing that formation of such great value, should come to light and cause pleasure to divine Persons.

We read about that in Chronicles. It is a very remarkable passage of scripture, where Solomon was about to build the house. It was in David’s heart; he had accumulated what was for God in his affections. What we see here is that all that was to be set forward and arranged in the house was under the ordering of the Spirit, and it was put in David’s heart. David’s heart abounded in his affection for God, his affection for the ark. He was marked by dedication. We read here of the treasuries of the dedicated things. And there were other things that were seen here; there were the upper chambers and the inner chambers, and the mercy seat was there. You think of what that was – the display of the riches of the mercy of God. “Because of his great love wherewith he loved us” (Eph.2:4); the mercy-seat was there in evidence. We shall never forget, never lose our appreciation of the wonderful work of Christ and His precious blood being shed, so that you and I might not only be saved, but brought into divine blessing!

Then there were these chambers. In the type, they represent provision for believers to enter in to the appreciation of the exaltation of Christ, into an appreciation of what is secret, what is hidden, something that He would reveal to you. He is not only Saviour of the world, He is the Revealer of secrets, and you find that there is provision for that in these upper and inner chambers. And not only that, but believers are treasuries in whom that treasure is to be accumulated. There may be around one hundred or so souls here in this hall, and what God would have in mind is that each one should be a treasury. Each one should, whether in little or in much, treasure what we have been speaking about, what we read, what we converse over – the glories of Christ. And what you find here is that the arrangement of these treasuries and chambers is according to the pattern. Who arranges the pattern? Who gave the pattern? What we see here is that it was the pattern of all that David had by the Spirit. Think of how this is pleasurable to the Holy Spirit, that you and I might be vessels available for the service of God, available for expressing your appreciation of Christ, and that thus there is what is for God’s pleasure eternally.

We see here that there are treasuries of the dedicated things. I can only speak very, very feebly about dedication, but there are many persons in Scripture of whom we can speak in relation to dedication. Think of David himself, who was marked by dedication. The psalmist gave no sleep to his eyes, or slumber to his eyelids until he found out a place for Jehovah. Behold, he said, we found it in the fields of the wood (Ps.132:4,6). What dedication we see in David. We can think of others in whom there was a dedication which was so pleasurable to the Lord Jesus. We see it in the widow woman who cast in all that she had. In the eyes of all those who stood around, the religious man, two mites was nothing, but in the eyes of the Lord Jesus it was really Himself all over again that He saw in that woman. We should never forget that woman; she gave all that she had. We see what the Lord Jesus did for the pleasure of acquiring the pearl, the assembly, in all its preciousness; He gave all that He had. What is seen in that woman in her dedication was precious to Him. He drew attention to it, He spoke of it because it was so precious to Himself.

We can think of Mary too. She sat at the feet of Jesus, she gave of her time to sit there. She was criticised for it, but she gained from it. She gained in His presence, sitting at His feet. She gained from appreciating where those feet would go and what would happen to Jesus, and she stored up that ointment of great price. She was learning; she had kept it and she would not use it for anything else until the very moment when it was just right for her to bring it out to anoint the feet of Jesus. Think of how she glorified Him – how precious that was to Him. She was criticised, but it says that “the house was filled with the odour of the ointment”, John 12:3. She represented a treasury of the house in her appreciation of the Lord Jesus. Are you like that? Am I like that? I would search myself as to whether there is any dedication with me. That is the intent of the Lord Jesus, the intent of the Father, the intent of the Holy Spirit, that you and I should be treasuries placed there in the house, kept guarded. We were speaking in the home earlier about keeping our hearts more than anything that is guarded (Prov.4:23). So there is what needs to be guarded and kept in relation to what is precious, a precious appreciation of the Lord Jesus in all that He is in His glorious worth.

I read from Malachi because there we also see dedication regarding what is brought into the house. There is a response from God, an appeal of God to His people. It was a day which was marked by apathy, a day that was marked by weariness on the part of the people generally. But there was this appeal, and an answer to it. The appeal was, “Bring the whole tithe into the treasure-house, that there may be food in my house”. There was something to be brought in; it was in principle to be brought into the company of the saints, brought in as an appreciation of Christ. And the answer to it is that there was a pouring out of what was in heaven. The “windows of the heavens” – what a fount of supply it is. We are to prove God; “prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I open not to you the windows of the heavens, and pour you out a blessing”. How able God is to pour out a blessing. We read in Ephesians that God “is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think”, Eph.3:20. God is there, ready to pour out a blessing. If you bring in some appreciation of Christ, He has the answer to it – great blessing.

Then later in the chapter, we see what was found as being pleasurable to God, and indeed a treasure to God; not only that we should have treasure but that there should be treasure for Him. It is the result of conversations between God-fearing people, between those who spoke often one to another. It is a great joy when someone phones you in the middle of the day and speaks of his or her appreciation of the Lord Jesus, something that they have gleaned: it cheers you up. And not only does it cheer you up, but it is also observed by God. There is something for His own pleasure, something that He observes, something that He writes down as recording that. It is for His pleasure. Think of God writing: “a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name”. To think upon His name means that we seek to honour Him as those who name the name of the Lord Jesus in withdrawing from iniquity. Think of what that means; I feel searched as speaking about it. There are those who “thought upon his name. And they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure”; that is, there is communion with divine Persons as to the greatness of Christ. “And they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure, saith Jehovah of hosts …”. What a company – believers formed through the work of the Holy Spirit. This literally speaks of a coming day, yet we can apply it to our day as seeing that there is what is formed and pleasurable to the heart of God. He goes on, “… in the day that I prepare; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him”. We as believers can think of this in the light of sonship, in the light of what is so precious to the heart of the Father. And there is a suggestion here of the opportunities for conversation, opportunities to meet together, to read the Scriptures together and to draw upon one another’s impressions in our hearts as under the control of the Holy Spirit. This is pleasurable to God; in conversing thus, we are serving God that there should be a return to Him of what is pleasurable to Him.

In Colossians we see what is in the assembly – what is seen as gathered, what is there that is treasured. Paul writes of the combat that he had for them, and finishes this section with a warning against being deluded by persuasive speech. There was that which needed to be guarded. The reference to the assembly, the mystery of God, and to what is so precious that is to be found hidden in it, is followed by this reference to what needs to be guarded against. There was the mind of man to which the Colossian saints were in danger of becoming vulnerable. In Laodicea, the Christians there were vulnerable to being lukewarm. May we be preserved, dear brethren, from being lukewarm – I speak more to myself than to anyone else here – so that we may go on in life and liberty and joy, and in searching for what is of Christ.

So Paul writes with an end in view – “to the end that their hearts may be encouraged”. Listening to the prayers of the dear brethren locally and elsewhere regarding this meeting, their desire was that there should be encouragement, for God is the “God of all encouragement”, 2 Cor.1:3. If any here are feeling down, feeling depressed, then turn to the God of all encouragement. Paul writes that they might be fully assured. That would link on with what we read of in Malachi about proving God for yourself, being assured of divine blessing. What you find is that wisdom and knowledge are found treasured in the assembly. The word ‘assembly’ does not come in here; it is spoken of as “the mystery of God”. There is what is hidden. That does not mean that it is mysterious; it means that it is there as protected, and yet to be known, because there we see “the full knowledge of the mystery of God”. It is something that you can prove, something that you can treasure, something that you can make your own. I believe it is experienced to its greatest extent among believers who appreciate what the assembly is in God's sight, among those who appreciate communion with God.

In drawing attention to these scriptures, we can think of the queen of Sheba. Mr James Taylor snr spoke of her as typifying an Ephesian Christian¹. Think of how she came to Solomon. Firstly, she had many things that needed to be solved, she had many questions about her own circumstances. How much we can prove of the Lord Jesus as wisdom – wisdom about what might trouble us personally, what might affect my household or affect my local gathering, what might affect assembly matters. We find the solution to it all in the Lord Jesus. He is the One who has the power to resolve everything, the One who has the answer to everything. I can bring to Him every question that I might have. Do I depend upon Him? The queen of Sheba, in the type, proved that. But then that was not the end of the matter; I think she came into the upper chambers, she came into the inner chambers, and she saw Solomon in all his glory. In that section in 1 Kings 10, we see wisdom mentioned four times in those few verses, and she saw that wisdom for herself. You might think, ‘Well, we turn to the Lord for wisdom’. How that is truly seen as we seek it! As we come and settle our minds on what is above where He is, being engaged with Himself, we see the full wisdom of Christ. And so wisdom and knowledge come together, these things which are hid – the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

May we frequent what the upper chambers and the inner chambers represent, that we may behold Christ as Solomon in all His glory, that we might be contributors, and that we might be available to the Holy Spirit to bring out, in His own time and in His own ways, what is precious. Paul says, “he that sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap eternal life”, Gal.6:8. How the Spirit would bring out the treasuries that are found in your heart and in my heart. May it be so, for the Lord’s name’s sake.

Sidcup

15 January 2022

J Bruce Ikin

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