“The Case for Christ: - K/G: Treasures New and Old” 

In the passage found in Mt 13:51-52, Jesus had asked the disciples the question of: ‘Have you understood these things?’ after He had expounded about the Kingdom of God.

‘Have you understood My teaching concerning the age in which you are to live and serve Me?

Have you understood the underlying principle of it yet?

Have you understood what God is after - the things of His divine purpose, of his divine program, of His divine plan?’

Do you really know what God is doing?

Has any of My teaching of His Kingdom taken hold yet?’, He was asking them.

With such a searching question, they would be reminded of how Jesus had told them that it was the Father’s good pleasure to give His servants the kingdom of heaven. (Lu 12:32)

This was in God’s heart from the beginning of time. We know from the Scriptures that this is what He was always doing: expressing His desire to be their God and they His people.

Listen to what He said to them through Jeremiah, the prophet: ‘...But this thing commanded I them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people: and walk in all the ways I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’

The psalmist, in Ps 107, gave a good picture of the spiritual and moral conflict that took place among His people during that time of history.

He spoke of the character of man and how his mismanaged pursuits, troubles, and wrongdoing came upon man because of his own foolish way of thinking and acting.

Because God’s moral laws and spiritual principles were generally ignored, men reduced themselves to their own misery.

They bound themselves in the distress and in the torture of their own doings, slaves in their own bodies, held in such oppression that they could not shake it off of themselves.

But the psalmist showed how God stepped in with one promise after another, with one act after another, to draw them into the right course.

His character and acts shown were indications that He yearned to break down those human chains of bondage and misery.

He yearned to give them a clear revelation of Himself - but they would not let their eyes and ears be opened to take it!

There was no opening to God’s desire for them to walk in His Kingdom as His people.

They just kept right on walking in their ‘own counsels and in the imaginations of their own hearts’, and ‘went backward instead of going forward.’ (Jer 7:24)

They flatly rejected the word of the Lord! They reckoned themselves wiser than God. It is no wonder they were never able to take any forward steps! (Jer 8:9) 

To strengthen and complement the revelation of Himself to the world, in His great love, He sent His Son, the Messiah, the Christ.

It was Jesus Who came to impel people to move ahead - to go on in God’s purpose.

He it was Who patiently showed His disciples the mind of God for them - what He was trying to do in and with them by expounding and opening up to them the ways of God’s kingdom.

They were to move forward with Him. He would conduct them into it.

The age they would enter would not be any different insofar as spiritual and moral conflict goes.

It would be the same conflict with the same outcome of human moral and spiritual failure, just as it had been down through the preceding age.

But it was through Him, the Messiah, the Christ, that the world would be shown how reparation was to be made for them so God’s heart’s desire could be fulfilled in them.

And their hearts’ desires fulfilled in Him!

Thus, Jesus went about preaching the kingdom of God, doing many gracious and mighty acts, revealing Himself as the King of kings and Lord of lords - revealing the signs of God’s kingdom upon earth.

And the more humble the people were who felt how deep their miseries were because of their own moral evils, the more they would discover that kingdom of their heavenly Father as Jesus was proclaiming it.

Jesus’ works, His acts, His words were all parts of the same divine sovereignty, parts of the glad news of the kingdom of heaven.

They were all parts of the one revelation of God given to man!

And that revelation is the same today, for Christ Jesus is the same - yesterday, today, and forever!

And as He went about preaching the kingdom of God, He kept moving forward in it, declaring the government of God in Himself for them. 

And, He started gathering out people to serve God in His kingdom - servants, who, in turn, would declare the government of God, that is now in Christ, to the world.

We saw last week one of the metaphors He used to describe those servants in Mt 13:51-52.

He described them as being ‘scribes’, an office given to those taught of the kingdom of heaven, an office similar to a wealthy householder dispensing treasures new and old from his storehouse.

Let me read it once again just to refresh our memories: Mt 13:51-52 - Mt 13:51-52. 

‘Jesus said unto them, ‘Have ye understood all these things? They say unto Him, ‘Yea, Lord’.

Then He said unto them, ‘Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure new and old.’
 
The whole picture is of the owner lavishly spreading out from the storehouse of his wealth treasures necessary for the supply and government of his household.

And the treasures he brings forth are ‘treasures new and old’.

And, now, His servants represent Christ in their teaching of God’s kingdom in Christ to the world.

They are ‘householders’ who bring out of the storeroom, ‘treasures new and old’.

And how are they ‘new and old’ at the same time? 

With this one revelation of God given, these treasures are ‘new’ and ‘old’, in the sense that the news of the kingdom always was - since it is eternal - but it is now declared and secured by Christ.

It is not ‘new things’ that have taken away the ‘old things’.

That thought opposes what Christ taught of new wine being put into old wineskins which destroys the old skins.

The Scripture clearly teaches that He did not put the old away - He fulfilled it and preserved it. (Mt 15:17-20)

Putting the old away is definitely not the thought here in ‘treasures new and old’.

Let me give you a rather homely illustration of something of the meaning here.

We have some orange trees in our backyard, as some, if not all of you, have.

We have had them for nearly thirty-five years now.

Of course, the roots are old, but each year, the blossoms and the fruit come new.

You see - the two are necessary for growth and maturing: one completes and complements the other.

If we were to destroy the old roots, there would be no new blossoms nor fruit coming each season.

And - if they did not appear each season, we would know that the tree is dead.

So, it is with the spiritual ‘treasures new and old’: one completes and complements the other, making them both necessary.

‘Treasures new and old’ - they are old in their unseen, eternal values; they are new in their seen and temporal practice and fruit they produce.

This interrelation is the ground for testing truth: spiritual ‘treasures new and old’ always work hand in hand.

That which is ‘fresh’ and ‘quickens’ and that which is 
‘ancient’ and ‘eternal’ come together as ‘one’ - match each other, complement each other, and consummate each other.

So Jesus told His disciples: ‘You are going to represent Me, the great Householder. You are to be the householder of this age.

You are to be the householder managing the ‘house’ with the understanding of My kingdom and open up ‘treasures new and old’ - treasures that prepare for the Kingdom of God in Me.’

That is the perpetual responsibility of such who understand the way of the Kingdom.

Yes - that is the work of the people of the kingdom of God in this age - ‘scribes’, ‘householders’, instructed of the kingdom of God.

As the church preaches and teaches Christ and His redeemed Kingdom, it will then always stand in a true representation of Him.

And as it does, as disciples instructed in the kingdom bring forth ‘treasures new and old’ from the treasure-house, that and only that will save individuals and society and nations.

So - I ask you - do you not recognize in this hour in which we live, how much we need to emphasize supremely the kingdom of God in Christ?

If this is the church’s firm belief, it will never say to men, ‘It does not matter what you are doing, everything is going to be all right.’ 

No - we will say to them, ‘You must submit to Christ, to the King of the Kingdom.

Yes, your salvation has come by the Cross, but the Cross is the place of the throne of the Christ of the Kingdom. 

And this old eternal truth now in Christ is what you need to recognize and submit to.’

Yes - that is what we will say to them!

For we so clearly see that these ‘treasures old, ancient and honorable treasures, are crowned with the majesty of the eternities.

And we see these ‘treasures new’, blessed with the healing of the Cross, the cleansing blood of Christ, the power of the Spirit - treasures which no one ought to be without in this world!

Yes - and it all goes back to God’s promise to Israel of the coming Christ who would conduct His people into His kingdom. It is found in Hosea 14:5-9.

In closing, I would like to read this passage to you: Hosea 14:5-9.

Let your heart listen to it very carefully as I read it through.

God is speaking after He has just said how He will heal and love them so freely.

And He spills out how it will all be in His kingdom that the coming Christ would reveal.

And He says: ‘I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth roots as Lebanon.

His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

They that dwell under His shadow shall return; they shall revive as corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’

You see - Ephraim had seen the best now and there certainly was no desire to go back to worshipping idols.

How did he come to this realization?

God went on to say of him, in v 8: ‘I have heard [humbled] him, and I will strengthen him: [To him] I am like a green fir tree [that shelters]. From me is thy fruit found.’

And then He made the statement in v 9 to summarize:

‘Whoso is wise, let him understand these things? whoso is prudent, let him know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, [straightforward] and the just [the righteous] shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall [stumble] therein.’

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I leave it here for tonight.

But - let me admonish each of us to let the breath of heaven, the higher spirit of life, that connection of God in Christ, quicken all of us to move on forward in and with Him.

Remember - it is God the Father’s very good pleasure to give us, too, His kingdom in the Messiah, in Christ, Who was sent to be the way into it.

So, I would urge each of us to take advantage now of the opportunities we have to progress onward in Christ where all things are well.

May the Lord bless this to our hearts in a new and a living way this week!

Amen! Let us pray!