“David’s Spoil”

"David's Spoil"

BY C. H. SPURGEON, INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, APRIL 15, 1888.

"This is David's spoil." 1 Samuel 30:20.

We have earlier gathered spoil for ourselves out of David's behavior in
the hour of his sorrow at Ziklag and we will now turn to the other side
of this leaf in his history and receive instruction from the time of
his victory. But we must not do this till we have refreshed our
memories with the story of his conduct under distress. When he came to
the city he found it burned with fire, the property of himself and his
comrades carried away and what was worse, all their wives and their
sons and their daughters gone into captivity. In the madness of their
grief the people turned upon their leader, as if he had led them into
this calamity. He was the only calm person among them, for he
"encouraged himself in the Lord his God."

With due deliberation he waited upon the Lord and consulted the oracle
through the appointed priest and then, under Divine guidance he pursued
the bandits, took them by surprise, recovered all of his people's goods
and captured a large booty which the Amalekites had collected
elsewhere. David, who had been the chief object of the people's mutiny
and the leader of the successful pursuit of the robbers, most properly
received a special portion of the spoil and concerning it the words of
our text were spoken, "This is David's spoil."

We shall now look into this victorious act on the part of David with
the view of finding spiritual teaching in it. David may be regarded as
a very special type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Among the personal types
David holds a leading place–for in so many points he is the Prophetic
foreshadowing of the great and glorious Son of David. Whenever David
acts as the man after God's own heart, he is the picture and emblem of
the One who is still more after God's own heart– even the Christ of
God.

David, under Divine guidance, pursued the Amalekites who had come as
thieves to smite and to burn and carry away captives. The marauders
were overtaken and slaughtered and a great spoil was the result. David
recovered all that the Amalekites had taken. "And there was nothing
lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters,
neither spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them: David
recovered all." We are told several times over in the chapter that
nothing was lacking–"David recovered all." When our Lord Jesus worked
out our redemption, He recovered all and left nothing in the enemy's
hand. All glory to His name!

But over and above, David took great store of cattle and jewels and
gold and silver and so forth, which belonged to the Amalekites, and out
of this a bountiful portion was taken which was set apart as David's
spoil. David's men, in the moment of their despair, had spoken of
stoning him. But now, in the morning of their victory, with general
acclamations, they determine that David shall have, as his portion of
the spoil, all the cattle which belong to the Amalekites themselves.
And so, driving these in front, as they return to Ziklag, they say,
"This is David's spoil." I think I hear them, as they drive the
bullocks and the sheep before them, shouting right lustily, "This is
David's spoil."

Now, using David as the type of Christ, I want, if I can, to set all
David's men–all Christ's men–shouting with all their hearts, "This is
Jesus' spoil!" He it is of whom Jehovah says, "I will divide Him a
portion with the great and He shall divide the spoil with the strong."
He has a grand reward as the result of the great battle of His life and
death. We will even now award to Him the spoil and cry, "This is
David's spoil," feeling, all the while, as the Psalmist did when he
said, "You are more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey."

I. We begin with the first observation that practically all the spoil
of that day was David's spoil and in truth all the good that we enjoy
comes to us through our Lord Jesus. He has been given as a Leader and a
Commander to the people and every victory they win is due to Him and to
Him alone. Without Him we can do nothing and without Him we can obtain
nothing. All that we once possessed by nature and under the Law, the
Spoiler has taken away. By our own efforts

we can never regain what we have lost–only through our great Leader
can we be restored and made happy. We ascribe unto Jesus all our
gains–even as David's men honored their captain.

For, first, David's men defeated the Amalekites and took their
spoil–but it was for David's sake that God gave success to the band.
God's eyes rested upon His chosen servant, the Lord's anointed, and it
was not for the warrior's own sakes but for David's sake that God
guided them to the hosts of Amalek and gave them like driven stubble to
their sword. How much more true it is to us that every blessing, every
pardoning mercy, every delivering mercy, is given to us through Him who
is our Shield and God's Anointed! It is for the sake of Jesus that we
are pardoned, justified, accepted, preserved, sanctified. Only through
this channel does the mercy of God come to us.

The Lord God says, "Not for your sakes do I this, O house of Israel! Be
ashamed and confounded for your own ways." And we, in response to that,
can answer, "Not unto us, not unto us but unto the name of the
well-Beloved be praise and honor and glory forever and ever!" Since
everything comes to us because of Christ Jesus, we may say of every
Covenant mercy, "This is David's spoil." On this blessing and on that
favor, yes, on them all, we see the mark of the Cross. These are all
fruits of our Redeemer's passion, the purchase of His blood. Again we
say with gratitude, "This is David's spoil."

Moreover, David's men gained the victory over Amalek because of David's
leadership. If he had not been there to lead them to the fight–in the
moment of their despair they would have lost all heart and would have
remained amidst the burning walls of Ziklag a discomfited company. But
David encouraged himself in the Lord and so encouraged all his
desponding followers. Drawing his sword and marching in front, he put
spirit into them–they all followed with eager step because their
gallant leader so courageously led the way.

This is exactly our case, Beloved, only we are even more indebted to
our Lord Jesus than these men were to David. The Lord Jesus Christ has
been among us and has fought our battle for us and recovered all that
we had lost by Adam's Fall and by our own sin. It is written of Him,
"He shall not fail nor be discouraged." You know how He sets His face
like a flint, how stout-hearted He was to accomplish the work of our
redemption and how He ceased not till He could cry victoriously, "It is
finished"–

"Our glorious Leader claims our praise For His own pattern given."

Following at His feet, we, too, fight with sin. Treading in His
footsteps, we, too, overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Have
you ever heard Him say, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world"?

And you, dear Brothers and Sisters–whatever victories you win,
whatever spoils you divide–will acknowledge that it is through Jesus
that you have conquered. They said of Waterloo that it was a soldier's
battle and the victory was due to the men. But ours is our Commander's
battle and every victory won by us is due to the great Captain of our
salvation. Let the crown be set upon His head, even on the battlefield
and let us say of every sin that we have overcome, every evil habit
that we have destroyed, "This is David's spoil."

We had never won this victory if Jesus had not led us–we have it for
His sake. We have it under His leadership. Without exception, all the
saints on earth and in Heaven confess this to be true–

"I ask them from where their victory came?

They, with united breath,

Ascribe their conquest to the Lamb,

Their triumph to His death.

They marked the footsteps that He trod,

His zeal inspired their breast,

And, following their incarnate God,

Possess the promised rest."

I will not say more upon this point but only ask you to remember that
by nature we had all lost everything. We lost the garden with all its
Paradisiacal joys. Lost this world, the very earth bringing forth
thorns and thistles to us. Lost life, lost hope, lost peace, lost the
favor of God. But Jesus has recovered all. All that the first Adam lost
the second Adam has restored. David recovered all and Jesus has
recovered all. We ourselves were lost. But Jesus has brought us back
from the hand of the enemy. He has given us ourselves, if I may use
such an expression–and now we who were dead are alive again–the lost
are

found. Once, every faculty of ours was being used for our own
destruction but now, sanctified by the Grace of God, all is being used
for God's glory and for our own ripening and perfecting.

Jesus has recovered us for ourselves and for our God–the prey has been
taken from the mighty and the lawful captive has been delivered. Yes,
and our Lord Jesus has recovered for us the future as well as the past.
Our outlook was grim and dark, indeed, till Jesus came. But oh, how
bright it is now that He has completed His glorious work! Death is no
more the dreaded grave of all our hopes. Hell exists no longer for
Believers. Heaven, whose gates were closed, is now set wide open to
every soul that believes. We have recovered life and immortal bliss. We
are snatched like brands from the burning and made to shine like lamps
of the palace of the great King.

We are set up to be forever trophies of the conquering power of Jesus,
our glorious David. Look at all the saints in Heaven in their serried
ranks and say of them all, "This is David's spoil." Look at the
blood-bought Church of God on earth–the ten thousands that are already
washed in His blood and following at His feet–we may say of all this
ransomed flock, "This is David's spoil." Each one of us, looking at
himself and all his past and all his future, may say, "This, too, is
David's spoil."

Christ has done it, done it all and unto His name let the whole host
shout the victory. I feel as if I could stop the sermon and ask you to
sing but it will be better if I content myself with repeating the
hymn–

"Rejoice, you shining worlds on high,

Behold the King of Glory near!

He comes adorned with victory,

He made our foes before Him flee.

You hea venly gates, your lea ves display,

To make the Lord the Sa vior's way!

Laden with spoils from earth and Hell,

The Conqueror comes with God to dwell.

Raised from the dead, He goes before;

He opens Heaven's eternal door–

To give His saints a blessed abode,

Near their Redeemer and their God." II. But the most interesting part
of our subject is this–all the booty was practically David's spoil but
there was a part of it which was not recovered but was a clear gain.
They recovered all they had lost and over and above there was a surplus
of spoil from the defeated foe. Now, in the great battle of Christ on
our behalf He has not only given us back what we lost but He has given
us what Adam in his perfection never had. And I want you to dwell upon
that–because this part of it is peculiarly our Lord's spoil. Those
good things which we now possess over and above what we lost by sin
come to us by the Lord Jesus. Now that the Son of God has come into the
field He is not content with restoration–He turns the loss into a
gain–the Fall into a greater rising.

And first, dear Friends, think–in Christ Jesus human nature is lifted
up where it never could have been before. Man was made in his innocence
to occupy a very lofty place. "You made him to have dominion over all
the works of Your hands. You have put all things under his feet." Man
would have enjoyed that dominion had he never fallen but he never could
have obtained what he has now gained, for, "we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with
glory and honor."

And we see in Jesus human nature joined in mysterious union with the
Godhead. I never know how to speak about this miracle of the Divine
incarnation. We are men and women, poor creatures at our very best. Yet
in Christ Jesus our dignity is perfectly amazing. Angels excel in
strength and beauty but no angel was ever joined to the Godhead as
manhood is now united to God. The nearest being to God is a man. The
most noble existence–how shall I word it?–the most noble of all
beings is God. And the God-Man Christ Jesus, in whom dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily is with Him upon His Throne.

It is a wondrous honor, this–that manhood should be taken into
intimate connection, yes, absolute union with God! For listen–through
Jesus Christ we are this day made the sons of God which angels never
were. "Unto which of the angels said He at any time, You are My Son"?
But He has said this to us. Christ took not up angels but He took up
the seed of Abraham and He has made the believing seed of Abraham to be
the sons of God. Listen again–"And if children, then heirs. Heirs of
God." God's heirs! What a word is this! How simple but how sublime! I
know how to say it but not how to expound it!

It does not want explanation and yet its depths are fathomless. Every
Believer is God's heir–the heir of God. Could this have been and there
been no Fall and no redemption? Children and heirs are more than was
ever spoken of in Eden. Yes, listen yet again. Now we are one with God
in Christ Jesus. For it is written concerning our Lord, "We are members
of His body, of His flesh and of His bones." Close as the marriage
union is, yet Paul declared, when he spoke of it, "This is a great
mystery– but I speak concerning Christ and the Church." Unfallen
manhood was never declared to be one with the Son of God and yet
through the Covenant of Grace this is our position.

We are joined by vital, real, conjugal union to Jesus Christ the Son of
the Highest, very God of very God. And this is an elevation so
transcendent that I feel bowed down beneath the weight of glory which
is revealed in us. The most glorious being next to God is man. A sinner
most shameful, once, but now in Christ a child accepted and honored!
What can I say of this but, "This is David's spoil"? This is what Jesus
brought us. It came to us by no other way or method. Neither do we know
in what way or method it could have been given to us but by the will of
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is given to us through Jesus
Christ, our elder Brother and our covenant Head and unto Him let the
glory of it be ascribed world without end.

Another blessing which was not ours before the Fall and therefore never
was lost but comes to us as a surplus, is the fact that we are
redeemed. You sang just now that verse–

"Never did angels taste above Redeeming grace and dying love."

It is clear that you could never have known free grace and dying love
if Jesus had not come to redeem you. Unfallen intelligent spirits will
say in eternity, "Do you see those beings bowing nearest to the eternal
Throne? Do you see those well-beloved creatures? Who are they?" Spirits
that have lived in other worlds will come crowding up to the great
metropolis and will say one to another, "Who are those courtiers–those
that dwell nearest to God? Who are they?"

And one spirit will say to another, "They are beings whom God not only
made as He made us but whom the eternal Son of God redeemed by blood."
And one shining one will say to his fellow, "What is that? Tell me that
strange story." Then will his companion delight to say, "They were
saved because the Son of God took their nature and in that nature
died." "Wonderful! Wonderful," his friend will answer, "How could it
be? Was there suffering for them and pain for them and bloody sweat for
them and death for them on the part of the ever-blessed Son of God?"
The answer, "It was even so," will be news full of astonishment even to
the best instructed celestial mind.

Spirits will look at us with wonder and say, "What strange beings are
these? Others are the work of God's hands but these are the fruit of
the travail of His soul. On others we see the marks of Divine skill and
power but here we see the tokens of a Divine sacrifice–a Divine
blood-shedding." Truly, we may say of our redemption, "This is David's
spoil." That you and I should be such wonders as we must be in being
redeemed beings is, indeed, something given to us by Jesus over and
above what Adam lost. And throughout eternity all the sacred
brotherhood of the redeemed by blood will be princes in the courts of
God–the aristocracy of Heaven–for "He has made us kings and priests
unto God."

We shall be creatures who have known sin and have been recovered from
its pollution. There will be no fear of our being exalted with pride,
or drawn away by ambition as the now-apostate angels were. For we shall
constantly remember what sin did for us and how grievous was our fault.
We shall forever remember the price at which we were redeemed. And we
shall have ties upon us that will bind us to an undeviating loyalty to
Him who exalted us to so glorious a condition. It seems to me wonderful
beyond expression–the more I consider it, the more I am astonished. A
spirit that has never fallen cannot be trusted in the same way as one
that has fallen and has been delivered and has been newly-created and
blood-washed and has been gifted with an abiding and eternal character!

Such a being shall never fall because it is forever held by cords of
love eternal and bonds of gratitude infinitely strong. Cords of love
which will never let it waver in holy service. It is a work worthy of a
God to create such beings as we shall be– since we shall be securely
bound to voluntary holiness. And our wills, though always free, shall
be immutably loyal to our Lord. As the twice-born we shall be the most
noble of God's works. We shall be the first fruits of His creatures. We
shall be accounted as the royal treasure of Jehovah. Then shall we sit
with Christ upon His Throne and reign with Him forever. "This is
David's spoil."

We receive blessings unknown to beings who have never fallen. I
sometimes murmur to myself–and sweet music it has been as I have
quietly murmured it–we are the elect of God. Election is a privilege
most high and precious–what can exceed it in delight? This also is
David's spoil. We are also redeemed from among men–the redemption of
the soul is precious. "This is David's spoil." We are covenanted ones,
with whom God has entered into bonds of promise, swearing by an oath to
keep

His Word–this, too, is David's spoil. Where had you ever heard of
redemption, election, covenant and such-like words if it had not been
for the blessed Christ of God who has redeemed us by His blood?

Sing, then, you who have received back your lost inheritance–and sing
more sweetly, still, you who have been blessed with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenlies according as the Father has chosen you in
Christ Jesus. Sing aloud unto His holy name–and say of your special
privileges–"This is David's spoil."

Again–to my mind it is a very blessed fact that you and I will partake
of a privilege which would have been certainly unnecessary to Adam and
could not by Adam have been known and that is, the privilege of
resurrection. We shall die unless the Lord should suddenly appear. I
would not have you, Brothers and Sisters, look upon the prospect of
death with any sort of dread. I know that death is associated with
pain. But nothing can be more absurd. There is no pain in death–pain
belongs to life. Death, even naturally, puts an end to pain. But death
to the Believer is undressing as His Lord undressed–putting off
garments of which, I think, we need not be so very fond, for they do
fit us ill.

And oftentimes, when our spirit is willing, it is hampered by these
garments of clay–for the flesh is weak. Some look with intense delight
to the prospect of the Savior's coming–as a means of escape from
death. I confess I have but slender sympathy with them. If I might have
my choice, I would prefer, of the two, to die. Let it be as the Lord
wills. But there is a point of fellowship with Christ in death which
they will miss who shall not sleep. And it seems to me to have some
sweetness in it to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, even though He
descend into the sepulcher. "Where should the dying members rest but
with their dying Head?" That grave of our blessed Lord, if He had not
meant us to enter it, would have been left an empty tenement when He
came away. But when He came out of it, He left it furnished for those
that should come after Him. See there the grave clothes folded up for
us to use!

The bed is prepared for our slumber. The napkin is laid by itself
because it is not for the sleeper but for those who have lost His
company. Those who remain behind may dry their eyes with the napkin but
the grave clothes are reserved for others who will occupy the royal
bedchamber. When great men died in olden times their servants took away
the tapestry or hangings of their chambers. But if those hangings
remained it was for the convenience of guests who were invited to
occupy my lord's rooms. See, then, our Lord expects us to lie in His
royal bedchamber for He has left the hangings behind Him! To the
retiring room of the tomb we shall go in due time. And why should we be
grieved to go? For we shall come forth again–we shall rise from the
dead.

"Your brother shall rise again," was Mary's consolation from the
Master's lips. It is yours. We are not going to a prison but to a bath
wherein the body, like Esther, shall be purified to behold the King. It
is our joy to be sure that, "as the Lord our Savior rose, so all His
followers must." We do not know much about the resurrection of the body
and therefore we will not attempt to describe it. But surely it will be
a delightful thing to be able to dwell forever in a body that has been
in the grave and has had fulfilled in it the sentence, "Dust you are
and unto dust shall you return," but which has been raised again by
that same power which raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.

We shall inhabit a body which shall no more see corruption, or be
subject to weakness, or pain, or decay but shall be like the glorified
person of our Lord. Oh, there is sweetness in the thought that we shall
in this forever have fellowship with our risen Lord! Children of the
resurrection, dread not death! Your faces are turned to the sun. Press
forward to the light eternal and fear not to pass through the
death-shadow–it is no more than a shadow. If you cannot leap over the
grave you can pass through it. It shall be your joy to rise when the
morning breaks and to be satisfied. For you shall wake up in His
likeness. As for the resurrection, "this is David's spoil," this is
Christ's gift and benefit. The resurrection from the dead is the
peculiar glory of Christianity. The immortality of the soul had been
taught and known before, for it is a Truth of God which even reason
itself teaches.

But the resurrection of the body comes in as the last and crowning
effort of our spirits–and "this is David's spoil." Let me not weary
you. The topic might well interest us on several occasions. It is too
large to be confined to one discourse. Our singular relation to God and
yet to materialism is another rare gift of Jesus. God intended, by the
salvation of man and the lifting up of man into union with Himself, to
link together in one the lowest and the highest–His creation and
Himself. Shall I make it very plain? These poor substances–earth,
water and the like–they seem far down in the scale. God makes a being
that shall be, as an old Puritan used to say, half soul and half
soil–even man who is both spirit and dust of the earth.

We find in him water, salts, acids, all sorts of substances combined to
make up a body and married to this is a soul, which is brother to the
angels and akin to Deity. Materialism is somewhat exalted in being
connected with spirit at all. When spirit becomes connected with God
and refined materialism becomes connected with a purified spirit by the
resurrection from the dead, then shall be brought to pass the uplifting
of clay and its junction with the celestial. Do you not see how God, in
the

perfecting of His gracious purpose through the resurrection of the
dead, causes His glory to be reflected even upon what we regard as poor
material substances, gross and mean?

Try and get at my meaning again. Quakers, whom I greatly respect, get
rid of the two ordinances by denying that they are of perpetual
obligation. They banish Baptism–they put away the Lord's Supper. I
have sometimes wished that I were able to agree with them because my
whole spirit and tendency are towards the spiritual rather than the
ritual. But if anything is plain to me in Scripture, it is that Jesus
Christ did command us to be baptized in water in the Triune name and
that He bade His disciples remember Him in the breaking of bread and in
the drinking of the cup. The danger of men's making too much of outward
forms was encountered for some wise purpose. It was, I think, because
God would have us know that even the material, though it can only enter
the outer court, is still to be sanctified unto Himself.

Therefore, water, bread and wine–all material substances–are used not
only as symbols but as tokens that all created things shall be ennobled
and sanctified. Look, Sirs, "Creation was made subject to vanity, not
willingly but by reason of Him who has subjected the same in hope."
Through man's sin this outward world became blackened, darkened and
degraded. But God intends, through man, to lift up the nethermost
extremities of His creation into a greater nearness to Himself than
they ever could have reached by any other means. And this is how it
comes about. We are taking up with us, as it were, the earth which
makes a part of ourselves.

We are drawing up with ourselves the earth in those simple symbols with
which we worship God. We are ourselves lifted up as spirits and we are
soon to be lifted up as spirits enshrined in purified bodies and thus
we bring the whole creation of God into nearer contact with Himself.
Hence it is that we are called "kings and priests." What can the dead
earth do in worship till there comes one who worships God as the
world's priest? What can the fields and woods and hills say in the
worship of God? They are dumb till a tongue attempts the holy task of
uttering their praise. You and I are made of such stuff as the world
around us and yet we are the compeers of angels.

We are brothers to the worm. And this body of ours is but a child of
mother earth on which it lives. See, then, how mother earth worships
God through us and dull, dead matter, finds life and song. Behold the
mists and the clouds become a steaming incense of praise to God through
men like ourselves, who, because Christ was slain, have been made kings
and priests unto God.

I wish you would, rather than listen to me, try and muse upon the
wonderful position which redeemed men do now occupy and will occupy
forever and ever. For my own part, I would not change places with the
angel Gabriel–not if he gave me his swift wing to boot–for I believe
that an infinitely greater honor belongs to the least of God's children
than to the very highest of God's servants. To be a child of God–oh,
bliss!–there is no glory that can excel it. But all this is a special
gift to our humanity through our Lord Jesus. "This is David's spoil."

Our manifestation of the full glory of God is another of the choice
gifts which the pierced hands of Jesus, alone, bestow. Principalities
and powers shall see in the mystical body of Christ more of God than in
all the universe besides. They will study in the saints the eternal
purposes of God and see therein His love, His wisdom, His power, His
justice, His mercy blended in an amazing way. They will admire forever
those whom God loves and delights in, those whom He keeps as the apple
of His eye. Those whom He rejoices over and of whom He has said that He
will rest in His love and He will rejoice over them with singing. Truly
it has not entered into the heart of man to guess at the glory of God
in the saints–the exceeding glory which shall be revealed in us
through Jesus Christ our Lord. "This is David's spoil." Oh, come, let
us sing unto the Lord, let us magnify the name of Jesus Christ!

III. I close with the most practical part of my sermon–that which we
willingly give to Jesus may be called His spoil. There is a spoil for
Christ which every true-hearted follower of His votes to Him
enthusiastically. We have already seen that all things which we have
are of Christ and that there are certain special gifts which are
peculiarly of Christ. And now, what shall be David's spoil from you and
from me?–

"First, our hearts are His, alone, forever.

Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it,

Seal it for Your courts above."

Of every believing heart it may be said, "This is David's spoil." You
and I must give ourselves tomorrow to earning our daily bread and our
thoughts must go, to a large extent, after earthly things in the common
pursuits of everyday life. But our hearts, our hearts, are as fountains
sealed for our Well-Beloved.

O mammon, you shall not have them! O pleasure, you shall not have them!
These are David's spoil. Our hearts belong to Jesus, only. "My son,
give Me your heart," is an Old Testament command but under the New
Testament manifestation of love

we fulfill it–"for the love of Christ constrains us. Because we thus
judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead–and that He died
for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves but unto Him which died for them and rose again." Let it be
so that our whole heart is the sole possession of Jesus! We will
neither rend it, nor cast lots whose it shall be, for "this is David's
spoil."

Now there is another property I should like King Jesus to have and that
is our special gifts. I know one who, before his conversion, was likely
to sing and he often charmed the ears of men with the sweet music which
he poured forth. But when he was converted he said, "Henceforth my
tongue shall sing nothing but the praises of God." He devoted himself
to proclaiming the Gospel by his song, for he said, "This is David's
spoil."

Have you not some gift or other, dear Friend, of which you could say,
"Henceforth this shall be sacred to my bleeding Lord?" Some peculiar
faculty? Some choice piece of acquirement not generally possessed?
Something in which you excel? I would that you had at least some little
garden of flowers or herbs which you could so reserve that therein only
Jesus should pluck the fruits. Say of the best gift you possess, "This
is David's spoil." Is it not well to consecrate some part of the day
and say, "This hour is Christ's"?

"I have my work to do, my business must be seen to–all is Christ's.
But, still I will reserve a special season and wall it in, like a
private garden, in which, with prayer and praise and meditation, I will
commune with my Lord, or else in actual service I will honor His name."
Say, "This is David's spoil." Come dear Heart, what do you mean to give
Him? Surely you have some natural faculty or acquired skill which you
can lay at His feet.

Moreover, while our whole selves must be yielded to the Lord Jesus
there is one thing that must always be Christ's–and that is our
religious homage as a Church. Somebody says that the Queen is head of
the Church. God bless her. But she is not head of the Church of Christ!
The idea is blasphemous–headship "is David's spoil." Jesus Christ is
Head over all things to His Church and nobody else can take that
position. No one may dare to take the title of "head of the Church"
without an usurpation of our Lord's royal right.

Certain teachers of the Church claim authority over conscience and
assert that they are infallible. I have heard it said that they are
supreme guides but I do not believe it, because, "This is David's
spoil." We have one infallible Teacher and that is Jesus Christ our
Savior. We yield obedience to His every word and demand that others
should do the same. Whatsoever He says to us by His Spirit in the Word
of God is to us infallible Truth and we cease to dispute when Jesus
speaks. But no man else shall dictate doctrine to us, for "This is
David's spoil."

Jesus Christ must be sole Rabbi in the midst of His Church. We call Him
Master and Lord for so He is. I would have you keep your conscience for
Christ alone. Take care that no book ever overlaps the Bible, that no
creed ever contradicts the form of sound words contained in God's own
Word–that no influence of minister or writer supplants the guidance of
the Holy Spirit. Your soul's obedience and faith belong to Jesus
only–"This is David's spoil."

Lastly, have you not something of your own proper substance that shall
be David's spoil just now? That was a blessed act when the woman broke
the most precious thing she had–her box of alabaster and let the
perfumed nard stream down the Savior, anointing Him for His burial. She
felt that the precious perfume was "David's spoil." There was no waste.
In fact, no other gift ever went so completely to its purpose without
being taxed on the road, for Jesus had it all. Kindly did He observe
the loving honor which she paid Him. What if the ointment were sold and
given to the poor? Yet it could never be so economically used as when
it was all devoted to Him.

I do think it so pleasant sometimes to give Jesus Christ distinctly a
gift from yourself of somewhat that you will miss. It is good to give
to the poor but it has a daintier sweetness in it to do somewhat
distinctly for Him, for the spread of His own glory and the making
known of His own fame. "The poor you have always with you"–abound
towards them in your charity whenever you will–but to your Lord at
special seasons dedicate a choice gift and say, "This is David's
spoil."

There was a poor woman once, whose little fortune could be carried
between her finger and her thumb–her fortune I said, for it was all
she had. Two mites, I am told, was all it came to. She took it–it was
her all and she put it in the treasury. For this was "David's spoil."
It belonged to the Lord her God and she gave it cheerfully. I do not
know whether since the days of the Apostles anybody has ever given so
much as that woman. I have not. Have you? She gave all her living. Not
all her savings but all her living. She had nothing left when she gave
her farthing–she loved so much that she consecrated all her living.

We sometimes sing–

"Yet if I might make some reserve,

And duty did not call,

I love my God with zeal so great

That I would give Him all."

But do we mean it? If not, why do we sing falsehoods? There was a man
who, in the Providence of God, had been enabled to lay by many
thousands. He was a very rich and respected man. I have heard it said
that he owned at least half-a-million. And at one collection, when he
felt especially grateful and generous, he found a well-worn sixpence
for the plate, for that was David's spoil! That was David's spoil! Out
of all that he possessed, that sixpence was David's spoil! This was the
measure of his gratitude!

Judge by this how much he owed, or at least how much he desired to pay.
Are there not many persons who, on that despicable scale, reward the
Savior for the travail of His soul? I shall not upbraid them. I shall
not urge them to do more, lest I spoil the generosity of the large
gifts they mean to bring. Let a hint suffice. For us, who are deep in
the Redeemer's debt, who have had much forgiven, who every day are
bankrupt debtors to the measureless mercy of infinite love–for us no
paltriness will suffice. We must give something which, if it is not
worthy of Him, shall, at least, express the truth and warmth of the
gratitude we feel.

God help us to be often setting aside this and that and the other
choice thing and saying, "This is David's spoil and it shall be a joy
to my heart to give it!" We shall find much sweetness in buying our
sweet-cane with money and filling our Lord with the fat of our
sacrifices. It is Heaven for a true heart to give largely to Jesus. God
bless you, dear Friends. May we come to the table of communion and meet
with our glorious David there and feel His praises making music in our
hearts! Amen.