Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 119 and reading for
our text, verse 162. I rejoice at thy word as one
that findeth great spoils. Psalm 119, verse 162. The psalmist
here, if it is David, knew what it was in warfare to, after a
battle, to go out and to gather the spoils. gather off those that were slain,
riches, gold, apparel, crowns, all that they had, all that were
the spoils of battle. We read when David went to recover
his wives and families from the Amalekites that they had taken
at Ziklag, they had great spoil and they sent it through all
the coasts of Israel. The spoils of the Lord, what
the Lord had given them from their enemies. We read of many times that they
spent days after a battle going over the slain and gathering
the riches. There had been a battle, there'd
been a deliverance, there'd been a victory, but then there was
the gathering of the spoiled. It is a very vivid illustration
We cannot help thinking of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ,
in that great warfare and battle and that which he accomplished
at Calvary, and that though he was slain, yet the benefits and
the blessings that flowed out from his death and his sufferings
Really, the Church of God, to the end of time, is gathering
of that spoil. How many times it is that through
the Gospel, through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, He
turns the work of the enemy to a blessing. He turns the fall,
the guilt of man, the sin of man, to be a blessing and a crown
of glory for the saviour of sinners. He is the one that takes the
wicked hands who crucified and slew our Lord Jesus Christ and
makes it to be that full ordained work and glory that is due to
the Lord to all eternity. We have the Lord Jesus Christ
extolled and lifted up in what he has done for his people, what
he has accomplished for them. Many of the blessings that the
people of God have, they come through those wrestlings, those
fights, with the adversary and in great trouble. Dear Jacob,
as he wrestled, or the angel wrestled with him, and he prevailed. He had power with God and with
men, and prevailed, and was given the name of Israel. And then when he saw his brother,
He who he was so afraid of, that he feared for the mother, the
children, the little ones. He saw him as the angel of God,
the Lord appearing for him. The Christian pathway is a pathway
of conflict. The children of Israel knew it
going through the wilderness, especially at the end. when Moab
sent for Balaam to curse Israel. But God turned the curse into
a blessing and they were blessed those three times instead of
cursed. We have the picture here of the
battlefield. We have the picture of the spoils
of war. of those things that are found
after such battles. And the David, the psalmist,
I believe here, he says, I rejoice at thy word as one that findeth
great spoil. When there was the famine in
Samaria, The city was shut up in great strains. And the Lord
caused the Assyrian army to hear a sound of a great company and
they fled. And there were four lepers sitting
at the entrance of the gate. And they said, if we go into
the city, there's the famine there, we shall die there. If
we fall out to the Assyrians, they can bark, kill us. And so
they ventured out and they found no man there, but empty tents
and great spoil. And they began to gather it all
and to hide it, to take it to themselves. And then they said,
we do not well. This day is a day of good tidings. Let us go. and tell the king's
household. The spoils that they were finding
were not just to be hoarded up and kept for themselves, but
the tidings of that spoil, of that great treasure, of that
which was waiting to be gathered, was to be known and told to the
king's household. And so they went in and told,
and all went out and were benefited from that great spoil. And yet
they did not need to fight in that battle. God fought for them. He wrought for them. He gave
them the spoil. He gave it them to gather. What
pictures we have. Why the psalmist is saying here,
Regarding the word of God, I rejoice at thy word as one that findeth
great spoil. It's a good thing for us when
we are given these illustrations and we can picture these things. David here could picture the
illustration very vividly. We can only picture it through
the words of this same word, the word of God. I rejoice at
thy word as one that findeth great spoil. I want to look with the Lord's
help at gaining some more help through this word. rejoicing at God's word, like
finding great spoil. The first thing is to notice
the source of this great spoil, thy word. The second is the finding
of it, the finding great spoil. And the third thing to notice
is the rejoicing at thy word. But firstly, the source of great
spoil. That's going back to the illustration. If it was a battle, the source
of that spoil would be those that were slain in battle. With those in Samaria, it was
what the Syrians had left. In each case, there is a source
where that is actually coming from. And here, we are told where
this source is, thy word. He doesn't say, I rejoice at
Thee word. The word of God, that would be
right. But Thy word. Jeremiah says, Thy words were
found and I did eat them. And they were to the joy and
rejoicing of my soul. And I want to really convey that
expectancy of finding great spoil in the Word of God. Sometimes
we can get so hardened and deadened, we get so used to it, and we
need it revived to think that within, the sacred pages of the
Holy Bible, the Word of God, Thy Word, God's Word, is great
spoil to be found, is great riches, is great treasures. Those that
were gathering it on the battlefield, whether they were poor or whether
they were rich, it didn't matter. They were just gathering at that
spoil, being provided for them. It was there, it was the result
of a conquest, a result of a victory. And we have here to expect within
the pages of the Holy Scriptures, great spoil. It's a blessed thing. Where God gives us, we might
say, a small compass. You don't have to look at all
of the books in the world, the commentaries, men's works, and
all what he's written about this or that. They just bring you
to the Word of God. And I do like it as well, when
we have the Word of God, there's many times you might read and
think, I wish there was more detail there. We're not told
much about that. like to be told of it more. And
some men speculate on it, or they write many books on it,
or go to secular writers, or historians, and they fill in
the gaps from the scriptures, and they write books for the
people of God. But God says that what is written is sufficient. John says that if all that the
Lord Jesus did was written, the world couldn't hold the books.
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of the living God, and that in believing, ye
might have life through his name. When I was at school, especially
trade school, with engineering, Many times we might ask our instructors,
we want to know a bit more, a bit deeper than what we were being
told that year. And you know the instructors,
they said, at the end of the year you've got an exam. What
you're asking us is not going to be covered in those questions.
That's for another year. Don't worry about that. You just
concentrate on what is needful this year. And the Lord in kindness
says to his people, if it is not written in these sacred pages,
you won't find that spoil that is promised. This is where it
is to be found. This is where in my wisdom, I
have put all that you need for salvation, for your souls, for
food, for believing, for warning, for admonition, Everything. There
is great spoil here. Every word of God is pure. All
scripture is given by inspiration of God. Yes, it is. And we count it, that there is
no error there. And there's nothing left out
there. Sometimes we come across books and they say, Old Testament
saints, they were in just darkness. They didn't really know and have
the light of the New Testament, and therefore, were you gonna
forgive them for writing that wrong and putting that wrong?
They overlooked that there's one author, and they wrote what
the Lord would have them to write. The Lord gave the word, and great
was the company of them. that published it. Do we have
the Word itself? We think of that when we read
it at home, read it in private, when it's read in the Word of
God. As we go over these pages, here
is a source of great spoil, great riches, great treasures. And
we may say that all of these come from the conquest that our
Lord Jesus Christ wrought, that which he accomplished at Calvary. And then we come, not just to
the red word, but the preached word. Paul, he says, I determined
to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified,
and the charge to us in the ministry is to preach the word. And is
it expectation that in that word that is preached shall be found
great spoil as well, from the same source? As far as the word
is preached, the Lord owns it and blesses it, and that we may
expect that that spoil is brought to us through the ministry, the
source is the Word. Another source is the Holy Spirit. Now we know the Holy Spirit is
the author of the Word of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. But our Lord said of the Spirit,
He shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I
have said unto you. When the apostles were to go
forth and preach, they had to tarry at Jerusalem until they
were endued with power from on high. The word that the Thessalonians
had, it came not with word only, but in demonstration of the spirit
and of power. And that spoil that is to be
brought forth from the word comes with the authority of heaven,
and it comes through the Holy Spirit. It comes also as the
Spirit is the remembrancer. We might have heard the Word
preached, we might have read it. We're going about our business,
our daily work, and the Word comes to our remembrance. Or
in time of need, we remember the Word of the Lord. And we
can expect, wherever that word is, that we can find that great
spoil. The blessed thing, to know where
the source of blessings is, where it comes from. If we don't know,
then we're liable to be left looking in all sorts of wrong
places, our expectancy in places where there shall not be those
blessings, riches and treasures. But God does not leave us in
doubt as to the blessings that you and I need and where we shall
find them. So firstly, the source of great
spoil, Thy Word. I rejoice at Thy Word as one
that findeth great spoil. But secondly, finding great spoil, how is it to be found? What is
this spoil that is found there? Comes to mind what Alan Kenz
said, late Alan Kenz, when he was asked some direction as to
how we should search the scriptures or how that we should understand
the scriptures. And he said, this may seem a
strange thing to say, but the first thing to say is read the
scriptures, read the Bible. And he realised what is a solemn
truth, that even many that attend the houses of God, many that
go by the name of Christian, they don't read their Bibles. Or they don't read them in a
meaningful, consecutive way. They don't read them with prayer
joined. with it, or to have this aim
and this desire to find from it this spoil. We just have our
reading, we just have our time of devotions without actually
having an aim. Each time, where is he? Where is the blessing? Where
is this spoil? in the portion that I'm reading. Finding this spore then is to
read the word and to attend upon the preaching of the word and
not neglect the means, the field where the spore actually is.
And nor the throne of grace asking for the Lord to show you that
treasure, reveal it to you. Great spoil. There's expectancy
of it, isn't there? You might say, well the psalmist
here, he is Old Testament. He does not yet know in the full
light of the coming of our Lord the fulfilment of all that is
foretold in the Scriptures. But we read when our Lord died
again and again, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. In other
words, the Lord says, this is already written. It is already
told, and I am fulfilling it. And when the Lord met with the
two on the way to Emmaus, He began at Moses and all the
prophets, and in all the scriptures, he spoke to them of the things
concerning himself. And as he did that, their heart
burned within them. And afterwards, he revealed himself
to them in the breaking of bread. Philip, when he preached the
eunuch again, was given his text by God in Isaiah 53. The preaching of our Lord from
that beautiful chapter where he's spoken of as the lamb, that he is led as a sheep to
the slaughter. As a sheep before his shearers
is done, so he openeth not his mouth. And you know, that dear man,
he found Christ there. The eunuch was blessed there.
That great spoil he found there, through the scriptures that at
first he couldn't understand, and then was opened up to him
through the preaching of the Word. If we think of the literal battlefield,
when the kings went out to fight, very often, as David found, when
he was at Ziklag and the Amalekite came with Saul's crown in his
hand, the kings, they brought their crowns upon the battlefield. We say, before our Lord, though
he fell, yet he conquered. through death and through rising
again. The scriptures, they speak of
crowns, many crowns, but two crowns especially. The apostle
speaks when he writes to Timothy of a crown of righteousness.
How vital that we find that crown in the word of God, not our righteousness. but the righteousness of the
Lord. That told in Jeremiah. This is
the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. And the same name wherewith she,
the church, shall be called the Lord our righteousness. And to
be crowned with that, a righteousness not our own, but the Lord's. And then the apostle speaks,
Peter does, of a crown of glory that shall be given to the people
of God. All that love is appearing, what
a blessed crown to be given, to find a crown of glory that
fadeth not away We think of finding, finding
people. You think on the battlefield
as they went through, maybe looking for a particular one, the king
maybe, or some important person, and suddenly coming across them.
We think of what Philip said to Nathanael, we have found him,
of whom the prophets did write. Jesus of Nazareth. And Nathanael says, can any good
thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip says, come and see. And as he came and saw, he found
that the Lord had already seen him underneath the fig tree before
that Philip called him. The same effect that it had with
the woman at the well of Samaria. Come see a man that told me all
things that ever I did is not this, the Christ." Those that
find such a saviour, such a redeemer, such a one in the scriptures
of truth, to hear John the Baptist say, behold the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world, and we find him. Those are sacred
times. I remember well that time reading
the passage where there wrestled a man with him to the breaking
of the day. And I was reading just like I
regularly read in my home. And the Lord so shone on that,
a man. That was the Lord Jesus Christ. pre-incarnation, that has wrestled
with God and with men, and has prevailed. And we have many such
appearances. And the first time that dawns,
the first time you realise that, the first time you see in a text,
in a word, what you did not see before, and you maybe have read
that portion many, many times, it may be under the preaching
of the word, And for the first time, the light is shone upon
it. Many of those who have been called
by grace, who have been brought up under the sound of the truth,
have said, we never heard that before. And if we've been their
preacher, we say, but I've preached that many times. But they didn't
have ears. And they didn't have eyes. And
it was hidden from them. And they didn't realize it. But
when the Lord opened their eyes and opened their ears, he caused
them to find it. You think of perhaps another
illustration of Ruth gleaning in the field, and there is left
for her those handfuls of purpose that she finds. He is not handfuls
of purpose, but it is spoils, the spoils of war is that which
the Lord Jesus Christ has, through his victories, left for the people
of God to view it and to see it. We think of the end of Deuteronomy,
and the blessing, thine shoes shall be iron and brass, and
as thy days, so shall thy strength be. And to find these precious
things in the Word of God, the slain, the spoiled, to find shoes
of iron and brass, but to find that in the spiritual way, the
strength and help of Almighty God. The Lord says in John 10
and many other places, I give unto them eternal life. They
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of mine
hand. To find in the sacred word, Peter,
he says, and the Lord said, will ye also go away? He says, to
whom can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. To find those words, they are
life. They are life to the soul, eternal
life to the soul, food for the soul, You think of one of those
aspects of the spoil that was being found in the Syrian camp. It was not gold, not apparel
that was so precious then. It was the flour. It was the
food. It was what they hadn't got.
They couldn't live upon gold and apparel and all those things,
but food. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Do we hunger and thirst after
that, being such want that those in Samaria were, so that when
they found that spoil, it was so precious to them. Life-giving
food for the soul. The Lord says in John 10, John
6, except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of
Man, ye have no life in you. How vital. The Lord said later
on in that chapter, the words that I speak unto you, they are
spirit and they are life. Those are the words of the gospel.
all that centre in what our Lord accomplished at Calvary. Job, he says, deliver him from
going down into the pit, I have found a ransom. Imagine amongst the spoils in
that way, one that is under the sentence of death, one that is
hearing that without the shedding of blood there is no remission,
Undefined, I found ransom. I have found an answer. I have
found a way that my sins can be put away. I have found a way
that God can be just and yet take a sinner to heaven and bless
that soul. We think of the Christian pathway,
not just the salvation, of a soul but the pathway as well as Paul
sets it before us in this same analogy of a warfare in Ephesians
6. He says in verse 11, put on the
whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil. He says, for we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places." So then he gives the whole armour
of God that we are to take unto ourselves. And where do we find
that? But in the Word of God, and it actually is the Word of
God. And so we read, stand therefore
having your loin skirt about with truth and having on the
breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield
of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation. and
the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always
with all prayer and all supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. The whole armour
of God is found in the Word of God, is found in these spoils
in that which comes from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God, and our Lord is the author and finisher
of our faith. We find also in the sacred word
the captain of our salvation. He who met with Joshua, He was
to go through and with them into the Promised Land, the Captain of the Lord's Host. There are many precious spoils
found in the Word of God, and they're found like for those
that came out of Samaria, who were impoverished and weak and
dying, and helpless and have nothing. And yet there is treasure. There is just what they need.
There are the spoils, the spoils of war, the spoils of the conquest
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. What he has purchased for his
people, through fighting a battle they
could not fight, through dying and living again, finding great spoil. I want to look lastly at rejoicing
at the word. Our text says, I rejoice at thy
word. As one that findeth great spoil. It's a real test, isn't it? Do we rejoice at the word? Are we finding that which we
really need? Not something just interesting,
but something that we really need. Our soul longs after, hungers
for, is in need of, and it has that effect. It causes us to
rejoice. We read in Acts, in Acts 8, of Philip coming and preaching
in the cities of Samaria, in verse five. Then Philip went
down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. How simply that's stated, isn't
it? Christ was preached to them of
Samaria. I hope we're able here, and that
which you've heard earlier today, that Christ is preached, is lifted
up, is set forth as the only name given among men, whereby
we must be saved. The gospel, in that he has come
and lived the life we could not live. He's died the death that
we could not die. He's paid the debt we could not
pay. And he's risen from the dead.
And he makes intercession for us in heaven. when Philip preached in that
city. We read, the people with one
accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and
seeing the miracles which he did. Those miracles that accompanied
the apostles, that gave the authority that they did these things and
preached this word by the Lord Jesus Christ as the word of God
was being established and settled and set forth. But we read this
in verse 8, and there was great joy in that city. When they heard that, the apostles
heard in Jerusalem that they in Antioch had received the word
of God, they sent Barnabas and Barnabas he saw the grace of
God and he was glad. He's glad when he saw the effect
of God's grace, the effect of the treasures of the Word of
God, those who've received of the spoils that flow through
our Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel, its design is that
there be an effect in sinners' hearts and in sinners' lives. and that it should make glad
those that are sad, that it should fill those that are hungry, that
it should make those to rejoice when they find those blessings
and treasures that are found in the Word. How often the reality
of the blessing of God is not so much that we can say, well,
it was this text was blessed to me, or it was this what the
minister said, or this word, but what the effect was upon
us. In Acts 2, then they that gladly
received the word were baptized. The effect of the eunuch was
to make him desire to be baptized. The effect here in finding great
spoil was to rejoice at that word. It didn't leave unmoved. The effect of the two on the
way to Emmaus was to make their heart to burn within them. And sometimes we can remember
the effect but not the word, and sometimes it is. And it was
with me when the Lord blessed my soul. There was no word, but
it was just the effect. The burden of sin released. The blessed liberty and freedom
and change and weight lifted. Later on, yes, through the word. But many times I felt that. dowing
burdened and crying to the Lord for days. And then a great peace,
Lord, why this peace? And then the Lord drop in the
word, if the sun shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Telling why the peace was there,
why the effect was there. How glad we are when the Lord
gives relief and gives help in that way. Rejoice at thy word, as one that
findeth great spoil. Really, there's a preparation,
isn't there? Our Lord spoke of those in the
parables, the woman with her lost peace. And she swept the
house, and when she found it, she called all the neighbours
to rejoice. He was teaching about repentance,
joy in heaven, but you know there's joy on earth. When those who
have felt lost know that they're lost, when they find the Saviour,
or the Saviour finds them, and they find those precious words
that are left there for such poor sinners, and they rejoice
at those words. They rejoice at what they have
heard and what they have received. I rejoice at thy word. Maybe
you've come this evening seeking and saying and praying, Lord,
give me a token, Lord, for good. Set thy seal upon thy work in
my heart and in my life. Give a true token as to what
Rahab said, where he is. A true token. Have you ever rejoiced
at the Word of God? Has it gladdened your heart?
Has it made you leap as it were as a heart? Have you felt it
is that which my soul has sought after, longed for, desired? He satisfies the longing soul. And needy sinners find in the
Lord Jesus Christ that which glads their soul. I mentioned
that of dear Job, deliver him from going down into the pit.
I have found a ransom. Wouldn't you rejoice? Wouldn't
I rejoice if we had the sentence of death so feelingly on us? And there was a way found. But
that could be completely removed. The threat of it, the burden
of it, the cloud of it, the terror of it, wouldn't be rejoiced. I hope some of us have rejoiced. But maybe rejoice and know it
again. Maybe this evening we think back,
and we think, if only I knew that now. If only I had that
still. May it raise up a prayer in our
hearts. Lord again, may I find in thy
word great spoil. May it again have that effect
to cause me to rejoice. When the Lord appeared to the
disciples in the upper room, we read them were the disciples
glad when they saw the Lord. They rejoiced to see him. arisen,
appearing to them. But what is more remarkable,
when the Lord ascended up into heaven, they weren't to see him
anymore here below. But they had his promise that,
Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. By
his spirit and by his grace, they returned and were daily
in the temple. praising God, they're rejoicing. Why? Because they understood
at last God's plan. They could see clearly what had
been accomplished, what had been done, what had been finished. The Romans hadn't won the victory. The Jews had not won the victory. Christ had won the victory. Their
scriptures had been fulfilled. The work of redemption had been
done and now it is being done in the hearts of the people of
God as they through this same sacred word that was fulfilled
again and again at Calvary is brought into their hearts and
they find it and they rejoice at this word. May we be able to join with the
psalmist in this. Not just read the psalmist, rejoiced
at thy word, but I, I rejoice. And you know it's not in past
tense, is it? It's not I rejoiced at thy word,
I rejoice at thy word. Now, I rejoice at thy word. as one that findeth great spoil. It will never wear out, you know,
dear friends. The blessing, the provision,
our dear Saviour in the sacred word. Heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my words shall not pass away. And it is a provision
for the Church of God while time remain. It points them to the
Saviour, and they find the Saviour there, and they find great spoil
there, great blessings that come to them through Jesus' precious
blood. May that be our happy portion. I rejoice at thy word as one
that findeth great spoil. Amen.