Great Spoil

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 22, 1882,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"I rejoice at Your Word, as one that finds great spoil." Psalm 119:162.

IN the preceding verse David had avowed his reverence for God's Word in
the following language–"My heart stands in awe of Your Word." It is
clear that holy awe is perfectly consistent with intense delight. Fear
seems to stand far apart from joy and yet, in the experience of the
child of God, they are next of kin. We are familiar with combinations
such as this–"They returned from the sepulcher with fear and great
joy." "Happy is the man that fears always." "Serve the Lord with fear
and rejoice with trembling." These two emotions are like two notes
which, apart, are widely different, but sound harmoniously
together–the one is far down and the other is high up in the
scale–but they melt into one with sweet accord in the experience of
God's people. It is a blessed thing both to reverence the Word of God
and to have an intense joy in it. May we all know what the mixed
emotion means.

More than this, I will go the length of saying that unless we do have
deep awe of the Word, we shall never have high joy over it. Our
rejoicing will be measured by our reverence. If I think upon the Bible,
as some seem to do, as though it were an ordinary piece of literature,
I shall have no very special joy in it. Or if I rise no higher than
many critics of the present day and conceive the Holy Book to be, in a
certain sense, Inspired, but still to be marred with imperfection and
open to rectification by the growing intelligence of the age–if I have
such small reverence for the Word of God, I shall have a
correspondently little joy in it.

A man rejoices in gold rather than in clay because the gold is more
precious and, as the treasure rises in value, so his delight in it will
rise. The more, then, we think of the Scriptures, the greater will be
our delight in them if we see that they relate to us. "Your Word is
very pure: therefore Your servant loves it." If they become to us the
Infallible voice of Truth, that pure light which never misleads, that
metal which is entirely free from alloy–then will our joy in Holy Writ
overflow as we read in it the mind and will of our Father in Heaven!
And then shall we borrow the language of the Psalmist, saying first,
"My heart stands in awe of Your Word," and next, "I rejoice at Your
Word, as one that finds great spoil."

Observe, dear Friends, concerning this joy of David in the Word of God
which he reverenced, that he expresses it with a martial figure. My
text is quite a soldierly verse–"I rejoice at Your Word, as one that
finds great spoil." It is a figure taken from men of war who, after
they have overcome their enemy, divide the plunder among them. This
expression is most natural as coming from David. David had been a
soldier from his youth up and he knew personally and literally what it
was to divide the spoil and, therefore, he did not go far to find his
metaphor, but plucked it from the garden of his own life! How I like to
hear men both in prayer and praise speak like themselves!

I notice that if a sailor has been converted to God, he can, in cool
blood, utter proper sentences, such as one might borrow from collects
and forms of prayer. But if his soul grows warm within him, he ceases
to speak according to the books and begins to pray like an "ancient
mariner." When he breaks through the bonds of restraint and gets quite
free, he takes you among the rolling billows and many of his
expressions have a salt spray upon them, possibly also a suspicion of
yarn and pitch! You soon find that you have fallen in with a shipmate
whose soul has done business on the great waters.

So must it be with the soldier. If cold, dead propriety rules him, you
will not know whether he is a soldier or a citizen. But let him grow
enthusiastic! Let his very heart speak out and his speech betrays him!
Wars and rumors of wars are in his utterances. He sings and prays to
martial music! Therefore I like to hear David saying that his heart
rejoices at God's Word as one that finds great spoil, for it is his own
manner of speech and sounds fitly from a warrior! Do not cut away the
naturalness of yours utterances in prayer–never grow so strictly
proper as to pray like somebody else. You

may take a bird and teach it to pipe half-a-dozen set notes and it will
be thought to be a wonder–but no piping bullfinch in the world, to my
ear, sings so sweetly as the finches in my own garden, whose wild songs
are all their own.

The labored notes of the trained bird's little tune may be remarkable,
but are they not also somewhat grotesque and unnatural? The notes of
Nature more truly reveal the bird and are a fitter utterance for it
than the ditty it has learned so painfully. It is a pity that men
should speak with God in a constrained and artificial style–it far
more befits them to pray in their own natural manner! If you are
farmers, or artisans, or laborers, be not ashamed that your speech
should savor of yours calling. If you are soldiers, pray like soldiers!
Let your true selves speak out when you speak with God, for He is
Truth, itself, and needs not that you put on artificial manners in His
Presence!

Having thus prefaced my discourse, I come to look into this joy of
David over God's Word which he compares to the joy of a warrior when he
finds great spoil. To such overflowing joy we are not strangers–we
feel quite at home with the text.

I. Let me first observe that THIS GREAT JOY IS SOMETIMES AROUSED BY THE
FACT THAT THERE IS A WORD OF GOD. This is true if we regard the
Scriptures as a revealing of God. After going up and down in the world
searching after Deity, it is a great delight to come upon a Book in
which the one only living and true God has unveiled Himself to those
who care to behold Him. It is a great "find" for a man to discover
that, after all, he is not left in a fog to grope his way, but that God
has kindled a sun that honest hearts may walk in the light of and in
that light see all things clearly. I say that a Revelation of God is a
great discovery over which a man rejoices "as one that finds great
spoil." For, dear Friends, there can be no revealing of God except by
God Himself.

The Apostle Paul tells us very truly that the things of a man know no
man but the spirit of a man that is in him. You cannot read a man until
that man brings out somewhat from within and thus reveals himself. A
man must speak, or act, or we cannot know his mind. The chief means of
a man's revealing himself is by his word–language is the gate of the
soul. If the man is true and honest, his word will be a window through
which you may see his mind. Even so, says the Apostle, as the heart of
a man is only known to the man, himself, so the things of God knows no
man but the Spirit of God. The Divine thought must be hidden in the
heart of God forever until the Spirit of God is pleased to tell it to
us.

There is, therefore, an absolute necessity for a Revelation, since none
can, by searching, find God. This written Word is the Revelation of God
and when the Spirit of God shines upon it, we see the Lord as in a
mirror. Oh, but what a blessing that the Spirit of God should still be
with His people, bearing witness with the Word of God which He has of
old Inspired! What a comfort that we have this sure Word of Testimony
in which God has spoken to us in terms so distinct, so clear, so
unquestionable! He who feels the power of this Revelation in his own
soul may well rejoice "as one that finds great spoil."

Nor does our valuation of Holy Scripture depend upon this one view of
it, for we also prize it as the guide of our life. Often we come to
positions in which we know not which way to take. It is a great
discomfort to have to be questioning, questioning and forever
questioning! To hear within the soul the enquiries, "How?" "What?"
"Which?" "When?" and to be confused by dubious voices is a great
affliction–suspense is killing. How delightful to turn over the sacred
page and find in them a guide like that of the Urim and Thummim of old!
This Book tells us the right and bids us follow it! It teaches us the
way of wisdom and the path of understanding and it supplies motives for
walking in them. Submitting ourselves to the Spirit of God, we hear Him
speak in this volume and say, "This is the way, walk you in it."

As a bewildered wanderer in a forest hails the light in a cottage
window, hoping to find a guide there to set him on his homeward path,
so do we hail the light of Holy Writ which shines in a dark place. As
the mariner prizes his chart and compass, so do we welcome the Law of
the Lord. Tossed on the changing sea of life, our eyes are gladdened by
the clear ray of this pole-star of Heaven, the fixed Light of God! If
we had been left to blind reason, we would soon have stumbled into the
ditch–but with Inspiration to conduct us, we have a plain path before
us and we are glad. No longer in a perpetual quandary, guessing and
surmising, the way of life is definitely mapped out for us and we
pursue our route with confidence, knowing that, "Blessed are the
undefiled in the way, who walk in the Law of the Lord." This becomes
our daily song, "You shall guide me with Your counsel, and afterward
receive me to Glory." O happy man that finds such sure direction as
this! He can rejoice "as one that finds great spoil."

More than this, if you think of it, dear Friends, a word from God
apprehended in the soul is a sure pledge of mercy. Consider what words
those Words of God are–how full of love, Grace and tenderness. I will
not stay to quote the ex-

ceedingly great and precious promises, for they are, I hope, your daily
food. You know what great things the Lord has spoken concerning you.
But here is a thought worth pondering–these promises are backed by the
Word of God–no, they are, each one, the Word of God! When a man has
given his word, if he is an upright, honorable man, there is an end to
further questions–he has pledged his word and that is enough. Now the
Lord has given to His people His Word– His right honorable Word that
cannot be broken–which must stand fast forever and ever. Happy are
those who are willing to take God at His Word and accept His promise as
the equivalent for the thing promised, for what the Lord has promised
He will surely perform!

When a man grasps a promise of forgiveness, of acceptance in prayer, of
sanctifying Grace, of daily Providence, of Divine anointing, of comfort
in death, or of eternal Glory, he may well rejoice "as one that finds
great spoil." Within the Word of promise there lies the blessing,
itself! The Word is to the apprehension of faith, the substance of the
thing hoped for. That which is guaranteed by God–who cannot lie–is
already ours! Well may he rejoice that finds it! Notice, still further,
that Holy Scripture, when it comes to us with power as the Word of God,
is the beginning of communion with God. It will strike you in a moment
that when the Lord speaks to a man, communion has, in a measure, begun.

It may be that God speaks to a deaf ear, but even then it shows great
goodness and condescension on God's part that He should speak to men at
all, and especially to those who refuse to hear Him! But oh, if you
actually hear the voice of God in His Word–if it sinks into your soul
by the accompanying power of the Holy Spirit–what remains, then, but
for you to answer the Lord and to let Him speak again? This Bible
talks–"When you awake, it shall talk with you." This is God's side of
a heavenly conversation which ought to be kept up throughout all the
days of our pilgrimage. God says this and that in the Word and we in
prayer, in faith, in holy action reply to Him–and then He speaks again
and we answer Him again.

When you are alone and wish to have communion with God, you probably
begin with prayer. Do so. But sometimes you feel that you cannot pray.
Very well, do not try. Say, "I desire to converse with God but if I
cannot speak I will listen to Him speak." Get down the Bible. Read a
Psalm, or some precious portion of Holy Writ, and after God has thus
spoken to you, the conversation has begun! God's Words will suggest
heart-words with which you can speak to the Most High. If it does not,
read some more, till at last, within your spirit there is communion
with the Eternal One. Oh, what a bliss it is that God does speak to any
of us–to me–a poor, worthless, sinful creature! How highly favored is
man to have a word from the great King!

Many would give their eyes to be spoken to by a monarch, but here we
are spoken to daily by the King of kings if we are but willing to
incline our ear to His sweet voice! And this is the commencement of a
communion which may continue throughout life and consummate itself in
everlasting Glory! Personally I can, sometimes, realize my text in a
peculiar sense, when the Word of God becomes to me the instrument of
usefulness. How often do I look around me anxiously for the next theme
of discourse! My mind enquires, What shall I preach to the people? What
shall be my message? With what shall I feed my Church? This is a trying
question after 28 years preaching to one congregation!

At last a passage comes home to my soul with power. I have found it.
What joy fills the preacher's heart! No warrior was ever happier when
he heaped up the mountains of prey. You meet with a person who is
anxious–you want to say the right Word of God to him and, therefore,
you prayerfully look all around until a text suggests itself, which
proves to be the exact word for the person whose good you are seeking!
Have you not felt great joy in handling such a passage as the
instrument of usefulness? Have you not been ready to cry like the old
Greek philosopher, "I have found it! I have found it!"? Have you not
wanted to be off to tell it not only to the one person you are anxious
about, but to 50,000 more?

Ah, yes, you have rejoiced as one that finds great spoil. You see,
then, that there is a distinct a joy which comes to the man who gets
God's Word into his soul–a joy which arises out of the fact that there
is a Word of God which comes to us as the Revelation of God, as an
Infallible Guide through life, as the pledge of Divine mercy, the
beginning of Divine communion and the instrument of usefulness! Upon
all these things we might profitably enlarge, but time would not allow
it, so I beg you to follow me to the next point. May the Holy Spirit
lead our minds.

II. Secondly, let us remark that FREQUENTLY THE JOY OF THE BELIEVER IN
THE WORD ARISES OUT OF HIS HAVING HAD TO BATTLE TO OBTAIN A GRASP OF
IT. Read the text again–"I rejoice at Your Word, as one that finds
great spoil." Covered with sweat, dirty with dust, bleeding from many a
wound, wearied and faint, the fighting man has conquered the enemy and
now he staggers forward to seize his portion of the prey, finding new
strength in

the joy of victory. Did you ever have to do that with God's Word, for I
have had to do many times, and I will try to describe the battle as I
know it.

"O my Soul, you have trod down strength." We have had to fight over
certain doctrines before we could really come at them. Learning
doctrines out of books, or merely learning them as matters of
catechism, is never enough. Such teaching is all very useful and
helpful, but the sure way to learn a doctrine is to have it burned into
your soul as with a hot iron. "Oh," they say of me, "that man speaks so
dogmatically." I cannot help it! Why should I speak with bated breath
when I feel absolutely certain of what I say? If I were not certain, I
would hold my tongue until I was. I could not dare to come here to talk
of matters which may or may not be true! I dare not thus waste your
time and thought. I have not only found the Doctrines of the Gospel in
God's Word, but I have tested and tried them in my own experience–and
they have been so powerfully operative upon my own soul that I must
speak as I find.

To me the things I preach are as assured as my existence! In fact, they
are a part of my existence, since they are my life, my hope, my joy and
strength. I am positive in speech because I am assured in mind. Nor can
I see the gain which would accrue from the opposite style of speech. Of
what use is this cloudy doubt? Unless a man speaks up to the best of
his knowledge and belief, most positively, who is likely to believe
him? Wise men will bid the speaker make up his own mind before he can
hope to influence other minds. I have no doubt about the existence of a
God. Have you? If you have, do not set up to be a minister for God by
any manner of means!

I have no doubt about the mediatorial power of His precious blood. Have
you? If you have, do not pretend to be a Christian teacher, for your
whole weight will be on the wrong side! Faith receives more stabs from
waverers than from avowed skeptics. Sowers of doubt are no friends to
the Gospel, for men are saved by faith–nobody was ever saved by
unbelief. "We know and have believed the love which God has towards
us." "I believed, therefore have I spoken." But how do we get to this
assurance? Why, by fighting our way to it! A doctrine of God's Word
comes before us. Our heart exclaims, "Yes, this seems to be the
teaching of Scripture and, therefore, I must believe it." But carnal
reason rebels and conjures up a phalanx of difficulties, while our
proud human nature revolts from a Truth of God which is so little to
its taste. These things have to be battled with.

Faith has to bring all the faculties of the children of God upon their
knees and to say to them, "Be quiet! Listen while God speaks–let God
be true and every man a liar, and every faculty in the man a liar,
too–sooner than God be distrusted." This is the victory we have to
strive after–the triumph of a firm belief in the veracity of God. A
doubt rises, then another and another, like a flight of bats when a
dark cave is startled by the blaze of torches. Away they fly and light
seizes on their dreary realm! Some minds have, for a time, to contend
with doubts, army after army. Do not wonder if you have to strive,
even, to blood, till your very soul bleeds over the doctrine! But
rejoice that when once you thus win it, you will doubt no more and the
Truth of God will become doubly precious to you ever afterwards!

You have gained the Truth by fighting for it and, therefore, you cry,
"This is my spoil and none shall rob me of it." Take away the giant's
head from David? He is not to be so defrauded! Did he not cut it off
himself? Did he not throw the stone which sank into the Philistine's
forehead? So when a man has slain a thousand doubts in conflict over a
doctrine and has, at last, come to assured belief, straightway he
rejoices "as one that has found great spoil." What a fight there is,
sometimes over a promise. Have you ever entered into such a contest? O
gracious promise, most suitable to my case! How it would comfort my
soul! But may I appropriate it? The devil says, "Certainly not!" He
pushes us back from it. Our feeble hope assures us that it is too good
to be true to us.

A thousand doubtful suggestions assail us, till at last the soul, by a
desperate effort, seizes the portion and holds it against all comers.
We drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron! We take
possession of their strongholds. Then does a man rejoice over a promise
when he has believed it in the teeth of a thousand improbabilities and
proved it to be true! He feels that he took the blessing out of the
hand of the Amorite with his sword and with his bow, and from now on it
is a peculiar portion to his soul and he rejoices over it, "as one that
finds great spoil." It is a good thing to mark your Bibles when you
have received a promise. Mark the margin with T and P–and let it stand
for "tried and proved." Mark the passage which the Lord fulfils to you
with some private seal, bearing witness to its truth!

David set his own hand to the margin in many places as, for instance,
when he exhorted us to wait on the Lord and then added, "Wait, I say,
on the Lord." May that which is written with ink in the Bible be
written with Grace on our hearts! May the public promise become a
private promise to each one of us by the living experience of our own
soul!

Sometimes the hardest fight is round a precept. God has bid us do this
and that, but carnal ease cries, "Let the precept alone!" And love of
self says, "That command is too humbling! Pass it by." But oh, when you
can battle with yourself and win the victory till your heart cries, "I
will delight myself in Your Commandments, which I have loved," then
your rejoicing will be great, indeed! What a joy to conquer yourself!
What bliss to master your surroundings and all the peculiarities of
yours disposition and temperament, so as to come to love the same
precept which a little while ago was irksome! How the Believer loves
the Law when he has fought down his rebellious will, vanquished his
obstinacy, crushed his pride, fettered his levity and yielded himself
wholly to the Word of the Lord! Holy Spirit, give us this joy!

A sharp warfare often goes on over the threats. I have had many a
wrestling match over them. A voice whispers in my ear, "that threat of
God is too severe! That sentence of Scripture is too harsh." Certain of
my Brethren carry a bit of pumice stone with them and rub down the
rough texts. Whenever they find God speaking in wrathful indignation
against sinners, they meet His terrors with a "larger hope." Things
that are revealed belong to me, but things that are not revealed seem
to belong to them! They have many learned ways of softening down
disagreeable Truths of God. Now, if I find my mind quarrelling with any
line of Scripture, I say to my soul, "You are wrong, or else you would
be in accord with every Word of the Judge of all the earth." If I
cannot yield unfeigned assent and consent to the justice of God, it
does not occur to me to alter the Scripture, but to school my own heart
till it bows before the thunder of Divine judgment!

I try to get my heart into such a state that I can say, "If my soul
were in God's place, this is exactly what I would say to the ungodly!
This is precisely the measure I would deal out. For it must be right,
it must be just or Jehovah would not so deal with men." When you are
thus agreed with God, you will rejoice as one that finds great spoil,
for you will be confident that to the toughest problems there is a
gracious answer–and for the direst difficulties a sweet solution! It
is hazardous to take the soul out of texts of Scripture and to attempt
to give them souls of our own invention! Let us learn God's meaning and
then become friends with it. Grow accustomed to the terrible texts
till, like Daniel, you feel safe even in the lions' den! The doctrine
of Eternal Punishment is no longer difficult for me to believe since I
am confident that it is taught in the Scriptures. The difficulties of
it are for God to solve and there I leave them, being well assured that
in some way, or other, all that He does will be consistent with His
justice and His love! Not without a battle does one consent unto the
darker side of sacred Writ, but that once fought, there is rest.

Yet, once more, this is true about the Word which reveals Christ. We
know not Christ aright till we are conformed to what we know of Him. If
Christ is lovely, we shall not understand that loveliness till we are,
in a measure, lovely ourselves. The pure in heart see the pure and holy
God because every man sees what he is. When the lady said to Mr.
Turner, "Sir, I have seen that spot many times, but I never saw that
which you have pictured." "No, Ma'am," he replied, "I dare say you have
not. But don't you wish you could?" Just so, the artist's eye sees what
another eye cannot–and the pure in heart see in God what nobody else
can see because they are like God. When our minds become molded like
the mind of Christ, then we understand Christ! If there is anything
about the Character of our Divine Exemplar which staggers us, let us
pray our way into it!

We must get to be like He and, oh, when we do, then every line of that
dear face will be conspicuously and transcen-dentally charming to us
because we have come to it through suffering! The inner experience of
many a child of God lies much in conflict and contention–and scarcely
an inch of Scripture is truly gained without fighting for it foot to
foot with those who would rob us of our inheritance! Canaan was given
to Israel by the Lord, Himself, by a Covenant of Salt, but we all
remember the long list of enemies that already occupied it. What is the
name of them? Hivites, Hittites, Periz-zites, Jebusites–I will not
trouble you with more, so many and so ugly are the names of those who
would keep back the Believer from his portion in the Covenant. One of
old said, "They compassed me about like bees: like bees they compassed
me about" and yet he added, "But in the name of the Lord will I destroy
them."

May it be our resolve that we will take every part of the Word of God
to be our heritage and rejoice over it "as one that finds great spoil."

III. We shall now tarry a moment upon a third thought which is
altogether different from that which has gone before. AT TIMES THE JOY
OF THE BELIEVER LIES IN ENJOYING GOD'S WORD WITHOUT ANY FIGHTING

AT ALL. In the text I am not sure that fighting is certainly mentioned
or necessarily implied, though it is highly probable. David says, "I
rejoice at Your Word, as one that finds great spoil," as if he fell
upon it all of a sudden, like the lep-

ers at the gate of Samaria who, to their surprise, found all the way
they traversed covered with garments, gold and silver vessels! They had
not lifted a finger in war, yet they found great spoil–like the man in
the parable who, when he was plowing, found a treasure hidden in the
field. He had never looked for it, but he had great joy in discovering
it.

In infinite mercy the Lord makes His Word open up before His people
when they are not seeking it, according to the promise, "I am found of
them that sought Me not." Have you ever experienced what this means and
have you not rejoiced as one that suddenly finds spoil? The Word of the
Lord is often as spoil found, not fought for. The promise lies before
me on the way and I find it–and by the Law of the Kingdom of Grace it
becomes mine for the finding. There it is and the Spirit of God reveals
it to me! And I take it, asking no leave whatever, since all Covenant
blessings are free to us when we are free to take them. Our warrant for
feeding at the banquet of love is the fact that God has set before us
an open door and we are invited to enter in! What joy is this!

This spoil, however, must have cost somebody else most dear, though it
has cost us nothing. If we did not fight for it, somebody else fought
for it once. Ah, what a fight was that! Let Gethsemane and Calvary
tell. What joy there is in seizing the spoil which Jesus has left us as
the result of His life's warfare! We have not trod the winepress, but
yet we drink the wine! The blessing is free to us, but it cost Him
groans, tears, bloody sweat and death! "This is David's spoil." Look
down and see the mark of the victor's feet! See you not where the nails
went in? The Crucified One has been here and smitten all our
adversaries and left this spoil for us poor creatures to divide among
ourselves! Great is the spoil–all the spoils of death and Hell! All
that father Adam was robbed of is recovered from the robbers! Life,
light, peace, joy, holiness, immortality, Heaven–all these are brought
back by our great Conqueror who has taken the prey from the mighty and
brought back the lawful captives, leading captivity captive!

O, Brothers and Sisters, we rejoice when we get a hold of the precious
treasures of the Word as Jesus Christ's spoil, fought for by Himself
and then distributed to us! What a joy there is in our heart when we
remember what foes our Lord overcame to gain all this spoil for us! Sin
has been routed, Death has been slain and Hell has been stripped of its
prey– our direst enemies are broken in pieces and the crown of their
head is crushed by Him who is the Seed of the woman–the Messiah of
God! Whenever a passage of Scripture sings to you of itself, sing with
it before the Lord! Whenever in reading, the verse seems to leap out of
the page into your bosom–there let it lodge forever! Whenever in
hearing the Word of God it darts into your heart, then will you
understand what David meant when he said that his soul rejoiced over
God's Word "as one who," by a happy, blessed find, "finds great spoil."

IV. My fourth head is the principal one and I need all your attention
while I dwell on it for a short time. THERE IS

A JOY ARISING OUT OF THE VERY FACT THAT HOLY SCRIPTURE MAY BE
CONSIDERED TO BE A SPOIL. I

will show you that in five particulars. First, a spoil is the end of
the uncertainty. Whenever a fight begins, it is questionable who will
win. While it rages, the result still hangs quivering in the balances,
but we know who has won the battle when the victor begins to divide the
spoil. No question now remains–the debate is ended. Blessed is that
man who has found in Scripture a spoil in the sense that he has come to
the end of uncertainty and arrived at something without doubt.

All men that think crave after certainty and gradually settle down to
one standard or another. I have heard of two brothers, equally honest
and thoughtful men, who commenced life at the same point, but parted in
their search after a foundation firm and strong. One of them, at last,
gravitated to the church of Rome, for he thought he discovered
certainty in an historical church and in one at the head of it whose
utterances are regarded as infallible. I do not envy him his ideal
certainty–it seems to me to be a mass of fraud–a great historical
imposture. The other brother found his resting place in his own reason,
or in the fact that he could not be sure of anything. There is a
certainty in being certain that you are not certain of anything–but
certainly it is not a certainty which would afford comfort to me–for
my reason would be to me a sorry guide for eternal things, since even
in everyday concerns it has misled me!

We must find certainty somewhere, or believe that we have found it, or
else we shall be, of all men, most miserable. If a man has no standard
of infallibility outside, he tries to find it in himself and becomes
his own pope–and depend upon it, a pope in England is as likely to err
as a pope in Rome! I would not give two pence for the two of you and if
I threw myself in, it would not add an extra farthing to the value.
When a man has in experience fought up to confidence in the Word of the
Lord, or has had it effectually laid home by the Holy Spirit to his own
soul, then he reaches the end of the

controversy so far as he, himself, is concerned–he is dividing the
spoil, for he says–"We have known and believed the love which God has
towards us."

Of course, people come round and say, "You are mistaken." Our answer
is, "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. It may not be
certainty to you, but it is to me." If a man should assert, "Oh, that
medicine is all quackery," he has a right to speak his mind, but his
decision is not final. "Not so," cries another, "I have been ill
half-a-dozen times and on each occasion I have speedily recovered
through its use! Call it quackery if you like, it is no quackery to me,
at any rate, for I am certain about its good effects." So is it when a
man has, at last, by the application of the Spirit of God, felt the
power of God's Word over his soul. He says, "I am not going to fight
that battle again. I am sure of the Truth of that Scripture." Such a
man is restful about that matter.

I would to God that all of you had this certainty as some of us have.
How horrible it is to grope in the eternal fog, to flounder in primeval
chaos seeing no road or landmark; turning this way and finding it night
and the other way equally darkness; to the right, disorder; to the
left, questions! Oh, to get to know that God loves me and that I love
God! To know that Christ has redeemed me, my sin is put away and to
feel all this witnessed in my soul by the Holy Spirit! This is to
rejoice in the end of uncertainty as one that divides the spoil!

The next idea that comes out of the figure of spoil is this. It is the
weakening of the adversary for any future attacks, for when they divide
the spoil they say to one another, "The invaders will be here again, no
doubt, before long, but they will not have this great gun to turn upon
us–we have spiked it. Their stock of ammunition will be somewhat
diminished by the capture of their magazines and they will not have
this huge chest of gold with which to purchase more martial equipment,
for we have taken it from them. We have weakened the adversary. Have we
not entered their strongholds? Have we not captured their
quadrilateral? They may again take up arms, but their force is broken."

Every doubt a man conquers by resting on the Infallible Word of God has
weakened the power of unbelief within him and strengthened his faith.
Blessed is that man who has so trusted in his God that doubts are now
but as the grasshopper which is only a burden to the feeble. O the joy
of saying, "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is
able to keep that which I have committed unto Him." Or to cry with the
once-blind man, "One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see!"
Tasting and handling of the good things of the Kingdom of God, we rise
into a region of fact and leave suppositions and quibbles far below! In
this lies a part of the joy of taking the spoil–we hope for less
disturbance of heart, less peril of intellect, less struggle of soul
from this time forth. The horns of the adversary have been broken and
they cannot harm us as before.

Next, in dividing the spoil there is always a sense of victory and so
there is in believing God's Word. In getting firm hold upon the
faithful Testimony of our God, we achieve a conquest over doubts,
fears, disquietudes and all our proud judgments of God. There is a
sense of conquest when we overcome our passions and propensities and do
the Lord's bidding according to His precepts and statutes. When that
which at one time was difficult, if not impossible, becomes easy and
delightful, then we wave the palm branch over a defeated enemy! When
the mind is brought into subjection to all and every revealed Truth of
God, then have we done more than if we had taken a strong city! "This
is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." May we have
more of it and go from strength to strength, doing valiantly in the
name of the Lord!

Again, in dividing the spoil there is profit, pleasure and honor. I am
not about to justify the deeds of war, for these I hate–as to plunder
and chaos, such as have been indulged in by the general run of
conquerors–they are detestable crimes! Men have made themselves worse
than devils to men. No calamities have ever befallen nations that are
so much to be deplored as the atrocities of war! I use the warlike
metaphor, but condemn the fact! Men conceive, when they divide the
spoil, that there is honor in it. Look at the crowds that gathered
along the Via Sacra when the Roman conquerors came down from the Apian
Way, passed under the arch and marched towards the capitol! Then did
the populace crowd the house roofs and the chimney tops that they might
see a Scipio or a Caesar expose his captives and display his spoils.

They shouted till they were hoarse and wearied themselves with applause
at the sight of the spolia opima which were borne in the procession.
Thus men judge of plunder in war. See how Napoleon thought to glorify
himself by placing in Paris the works of art which he had taken from
the capitals of Europe! What are most trophies but stolen goods, or
that which is purchased by them? But when you and I lay hold of Holy
Scripture, then have we grasped a prey more precious than royal
treasures, a prey which we may hold with justice and honor! When we can
say that the things which God has

revealed are ours, then we are rich beyond a miser's dream and when we
can hold them against all comers! Then that which we believe becomes
our honor and gives glory to us and glory to faith and chief glory to
Him who worked our faith in us by His almighty Spirit!

Last of all, the spoil is a prophecy of rest and so is that delightful
dividing up of the Word of God and the appropriation thereof by faith.
"Ah," said the Romans when they spoiled old Carthage, "we shall never
see another Hannibal at our gates, nor dread the ships of Carthage in
our seas." They had overcome their most potent adversary when they
utterly spoiled her–and then they looked for a long period of peace.
And that is the joy of receiving the Word of God! When we can believe
that Jesus took our sin and suffered for them on the tree, we are no
more troubled as to the guilt of sin! When we believe that our heavenly
Father overrules all things for the good of His people, then sorrow and
sighs, fear and frets flee away! Well may he rest who sees even evil
made to work for his good!

When we believe that Jesus died and rose again from the dead, then the
fear of death which haunts so many receives its mortal wound. Knowing
the meaning of the word, "He that believes in Me, though he were dead
yet shall he live," the dread of death has no more dominion over us!
The appropriation of the Divine promise, as the soldier appropriates
his share of the booty, is to us the prophecy that the war is over! We
may rest, now, and be quiet. And oh, what joy, what blessedness is
this! How I would that all those who are here present were believers in
my Master–first in Jesus the great Incarnate Word–and then in this
book, the written Word of God and that you did not only believe these
things to be true, but took them to yourselves as warriors take the
spoil!

Happy and blessed would you be and your rejoicing this day would be as
the joy of harvest, or as the shouting of them that divide the spoil!
God grant it may be so, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
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"Verily, Verily"