Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3279
“Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He has poured out His soul onto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors: and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” Isaiah 53:12.
[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text is #2070, Volume 35—CHRIST’S CONNECTION WITH SINNERS THE SOURCE OF HIS GLORY.]
OUR great concern is concerning Christ. “For Him shall constant prayer be made.” It does not much matter what becomes of us, the common soldiers, so long as our great Captain is to the front. As the men of Napoleon’s Old Guard could defy death for themselves, but were always anxious about the emperor, so every loyal soldier of Christ feels that the one question in the present conflict is, “How goes it with the King?” Is He crowned? Is He exalted? Is He winning His way among the sons of men? Brothers and Sisters, it may be that our star is waning. Does it matter if Hssun is reaching its noon? It may happen that the company with which we are associated is not so much to the front as it used to be, and the regimental flag is in the rear, but what of that? Let us do the best we can to retrieve its honor but, after all, the main consideration is the royal standard. Where is that? “Let my name perish,” said Whitefield, “but let Christ’s name last forever.” Such a feeling should actuate us all! What are we, my Brothers and Sisters, and what is our father’s house? What if ten thousand of us should fall merely to fill a ditch for Him to march over? What if He took the whole of us and crushed us to the dust—if He were lifted an inch higher, it were none too costly for such an One as He is who has redeemed us unto God by His precious blood!
Our first and last concern is about the result of our great warfare in regard to Christ. And my text will be consoling to your hearts in proportion as you are consecrated to Christ. If you are a worker for Jesus and your heart is tremulous for the cause of God—if you feel dismayed at times and often anxious about the progress of the Kingdom—such an assurance as this will be like a voice from the Comforter, Himself! It is the Father who speaks and He says, concerning the Well-Beloved, “Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong.”
I. The first great Truth of God taught us here is that THE VICTORY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS SURE!
Sure, first, because these words are a Divine promise and every word of promise that comes from God is established. “Has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” God has said, “I will divide Him a portion,” that portion shall be divided. If the Lord has declared that He shall divide the spoil with the strong, who is he that shall keep Him back from the prey? We might have doubted if His Word had been a prediction as to the probabilities of the life of this religion or of that. We might have supposed that the religion of Christ would be crushed out by rougher faiths that could use carnal weapons, or that its exceeding spirituality might cause it to wither away in an atmosphere so uncongenial. We might, I say, have had some trembling because of the Ark of the Lord if this had been a mere influence or opinion! But we have none, now, for as surely as this Book is the Infallible Word of God, so surely must Christ win the day! As surely as God cannot lie, so surely must He, upon whom the Lord laid the iniquity of men, rise from all His sorrows to a glorious victory!
The text is a promise placed very singularly in connection with facts which have been accomplished. We are told that Christ shall divide the spoil with the strong, but that promise is set side by side with the declaration that He is “brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opens not His mouth.” Just as surely, then, as that part of the prophecy is fulfilled in which Christ suffers, so surely shall that be fulfilled in which He triumphs! You have no doubt whatever about His being taken from prison and from judgment, about His making His grave with the
wicked and with the rich in His death. Well, the same Book and the same Chapter which contains the prophesy of those sorrowful facts contains this prophecy—that He shall divide the spoil with the strong! Therefore the ultimate victory of Christ is made sure by a Divine promise!
Notice, moreover, that it is the Father, Himself, who here puts forth His hand to guarantee the victory He writes, “Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great.” “I will do it. I will see that He conquers. I will see that He has the reward of His labor. My own right hand and My holy arm shall so be with Him that He shall tread down His enemies and He shall take from them mountains of prey.” Who is this that says, “I will divide Him a portion”? It is He at whose voice the earth trembles—