@ReadingSpurgeon: Revelation 5:10 – The Kingly Priesthood of the Saints (NPSP1S10)

In this next sermon from the New Park Street Pulpit, C. H. Spurgeon takes us to a text where “just one note from heaven’s song” is sounded – Revelation 5:10 – “And has made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.”

He strikes the note of this song under 3 headings:

I. The Redeemer’s Doings

Those who stand before the throne ascribe their salvation from beginning to end to the Lamb.  “There is not a sin against me in God’s book, they have all been forever obliterated by the blood of Christ, and cancelled by His own right hand… Justification from first to last is of God.  Salvation is of the Lord alone.”

And He has made us what we are.  He made us kings and priests.

He did this back in eternity, “when He signed the covenant of grace.”  He was agreeing to become incarnate, “live a suffering life,” and “endure a death of ignominy.”

He did not stop there.  In due time He fulfilled the terms of the covenant of grace.  “Had it not been for the sufferings and agonies of Golgotha we would have had no blessing.”

“Our Saviour Jesus Christ finished the great work of making us what we are by His ascension into heaven.  If He had not risen up on high and led captivity captive, His death would have been insufficient… The resurrection of our Saviour, in His majesty, when He burst the bonds of death, was to us the assurance that God had accepted His sacrifice, and His ascension up on high, was but a type and a figure of the real and actual ascension of all His saints, when He shall come in the clouds of judgment, and shall call all His people to Him.”

II. The Saint’s Honours

They are Kings.  They have royal ancestry,“descended from the King of kings.” They have splendid retinue, “a company of angels.”  They have “a substantial palace” in heaven, and a crown of righteousness, though “they do not wear it every day” because “their coronation day is not yet arrived.”  They have a dominion “as being kings in Christ, have a right to the whole world.”

They are Priests.  Divinely chosen persons, who enjoy divine honours, and with a divine service to perform.  “Every saint of the Lord is a priest at God’s altar, and is bound to worship God with the holy incense of prayer and praise.” 

III. The World’s Future

“It is a subject so dark and I have read so many different views upon it, that it is all a phantasmagoria with me. I believe all the Bible says of a glorious future, but I cannot pretend to be a maker of charts for all time. Only this I gather as a positive fact, that the saints will one day reign on the earth.”

Spurgeon closes with a simple practical application about giving generously to the work of the Lord.  “Speak you to yourselves, “I am a king, I will give as a king gives unto a king.”