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The sermon centers on Revelation 5:10 and attributes the saints’ salvation and dignity entirely to the Lamb’s redeeming work. Those justified by Christ are presently kings and priests before God, with all believers sharing a priestly calling rather than a special sacerdotal class. Their priestly worship includes prayer, praise, service, and generous giving. Spurgeon also affirms a future earthly triumph and reign of Christ’s kingdom, while declining to define a detailed millennial scheme.
Theological center: Christ’s atoning death alone secures the justification, identity, priesthood, and future reign of His people.
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Primary texts: Revelation 5:10 · Romans 8:33 · 2 Corinthians 5:1
“And hath made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:10 “MUSIC has charms.” I am sure sacred music has, for I have felt something of its charms whilst we have been singing that glorious hymn just now. There is a potency in harmony. There is a magic power in melody, which either melts the soul to pity or lifts it up to joy unspeakable. I do not know how it may be with some minds, they possibly may resist the influence of singing, but I cannot. When the saints of God, in full chorus, “chaunt the solemn lay,” and when I hear sweet syllables fall from their lips, keeping measure and time, then I feel elevated, and forgetting for a time everything terrestrial, I soar aloft towards heaven. If such be the sweetness of the music of the saints below, where there is much of discord and sin to mar the harmony, how sweet must it be to sing above, with cherubim and seraphim. Oh, what songs must those be which the Eternal ever hears upon His throne! What seraphic sonnets must those be which are thrilled from the lips of pure immortals, untainted by sin, unmingled with a groan, where they always warble hymns of joy and gladness, never intermingled with one sigh, or groan, or worldly care. Happy songsters! When shall I your chorus join? There is one of your hymns that runs— “Hark! how they sing before the throne!” And I have sometimes thought I could “hark! how they sing before the throne.” I have imagined that I could hear the full burst of the swell of the chorus, when it pealed from heaven like mighty thunders, and the sound of many waters, and have almost heard those full-toned strains, when the harpers harped with their harps before the throne of God. Alas, it was but imagination. We cannot hear it now. These ears are not fitted for such music, these souls could not be contained in the body, if we were once to hear some stray note from the harps of angels. We must wait till we get up yonder. Then, purified, like silver seven times, from the defilement of earth, washed in our Savior’s precious blood, sanctified by the purifying influence of the Holy Spirit— “We shall, unblemished and complete, Appear before our Father’s throne, With joys divinely great. “Then loudest of the crowd we’ll sing, Whilst heaven’s resounding mansions ring With shouts of sovereign grace.” Our friend John, the highly favored apostle of the Apocalypse, has given us just one note from heaven’s song. We shall strike that note, and sound it again and again. I shall strike this tuning fork of heaven and let you hear one of the key notes. “And hast made…