And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the LORD. – Isaiah 66:21

“I will also take of them,” the most unlikely and unfit, according to human judgment. “I will also take of them for priests and for Levites unto Me.” And where the service has not taken the form of preaching, we can remember some whom God hath made eminent in prayer. Never account prayer second to preaching. No doubt prayer in the Christian church is as precious as the utterance of the gospel. To speak to God for men is a part of the Christian priesthood that should never be despised. Surely, I have heard some prayers of those whom none would ever have expected to pray, such as I have not heard from those who, from their youth up, have been accustomed to the language of devotion—moved with energy and full of fervor, like Elijah. Or, shall I say it, they have become in spiritual force nerved as Samson was with physical strength. In their prayers they have seemed to take hold of the pillars of the temple of Satan and pull it down upon their enemies; they have been so mighty as to wrestle with God and prevail. God has taken of them—that is, even of the prayerless, and the careless, and the blaspheming—and He has made these to be priests and Levites unto Him. And in all other holy service I think I can recollect eminent men who out of weakness were made strong, from simpletons they were changed into sages, or, rescued from the dregs of infamy, they became paragons of virtue. In their unregeneracy as bitter fruit, apples of Sodom, that crumbled into dust and turned to ashes, yet so transformed by the renewing of their minds, that they bore the richest clusters of choicest fruit to the praise and glory of the Great Husbandman. “I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord.” There is the fact. You need not that I enlarge upon it. While a false priesthood still lives (and always will), God has His elect people, who are His royal priesthood among the sons of men, who are discharging regal functions and sacred offices among the sons of men in His name, and before His face; and these He oftentimes takes out from the least likely of mankind. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0992.cfm

And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the LORD. – Isaiah 66:21

Observe, according to the text, men have nothing to do with the selection; for here it is said, “I will also take of them”—not “their parents shall bring them up to it;” not “those who shall be looked out as the most fit and proper men on account of some natural bent and bias, or gift and talent, but I will take.” God’s priesthood in the world is a priesthood of His own choosing, of His own setting apart, of His own anointing. “He hath made us kings and priests unto God.” The church is a royal priesthood, not of man, neither by man, nor of the will of man, nor of blood, nor of birth: it is of God’s choosing. This sacred and consecrated band of priests and Levites, and all that serve God effectually and acceptably, are men whom He has Himself chosen to the work. He Himself hath done it, and only His own will has been consulted in the matter. In their case, it appears from the text, that whatever was unfit in their character has been overcome by divine grace. “I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord.” If God takes them for Levites, He makes them Levites; if He chooses them for priests, He makes them priests. So, glory be to His name, when He chose you, my dear brother, when He chose you, my dear sister, to be His servants, to be His priests and His Levites, He gave you the grace you wanted. He found in you no natural fitness, no suitability, but in fitness for sin, a suitability to go astray, and to become a brand for the burning; but if there be a fitness in you to serve Him on earth and in heaven, it is His grace that has done it. It is His grace speaking in all its wondrous majesty—”I will take of them for priests and for Levites”—which has effected in you the great transformation, making in you all things new, and thus qualifying you to become the servants of the Most High. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0992.cfm

And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the LORD. – Isaiah 66:21

Now, the priests or Levites were persons set apart to be God’s peculiar property. When the firstborn were spared in Egypt, God claimed the firstborn to be His own, and He took the tribe of Levi to represent the firstborn; they were to be the Lord’s. Though all Israel belonged to God, yet the tribe of Levi was especially selected and particularly appointed to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; and of this tribe of Levi, chief among them the house of Aaron, to minister in the sanctuary as priests. So now, glory be to God, He takes out of all nations a people that are to be peculiarly His own—His own by election, as He chose them—His own by redemption, as He bought them—His own by endowment through the regenerating and sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit. “They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels;” His own, therefore, before time, and after time shall close. “I will take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord.” Being thus set apart as the Lord’s property, the priests and Levites lived only for divine service. While others were engaged with their trade or upon their farm, the Levites were attending to the tabernacle or temple, and the priests in their courts were slaughtering bullocks and lambs, and offering them to God; or they had other duties of a kindred order, by reason of the charge given them of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel. Anyhow, it was in sacred things that they were occupied; so now, it is the duty of every man to serve the Lord; but, alas! man will not; and therefore God takes unto Himself a people out of all nations, and kindreds, and tongues, and He ordains them to stand before Him continually, to wait on His commands, and to do His bidding. Thus, He puts upon their shoulders His easy yoke and weights them with His light burden, and they become His willing servants—that their life may be for His glory, and that their desire, as well as their duty, may be to serve Him with heart and strength so long as they have any being. In this sense, then, happy is the man who is set apart to the divine service, a priest and a Levite unto God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0992.cfm

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1John 3:2

You look forward to your experience in heaven, you sing—

“Then shall I see, and hear, and know
All I desired or wished below;
And every power find a sweet employ
In that eternal world of joy.”

You are expecting to see His face, and never, never sin. You are longing to know the secrets of His heart. You believe that in that day you shall see Him as He is and shall be like Him in the world of spirits.  Well, beloved, though Christ does not manifest Himself to us as He does to the bright ones there, have not you and I had manifestations even while we have been in this vale of tears? Speak, beloved; let your heart speak; hast thou not had visions of Calvary; has not your Master sometimes touched your eyes with eye-salve, and let you see Him on His cross? Have you not wept for joy and grief when you saw Him bleeding out His life from His heart for you and beheld Him nailed to the tree for your sakes! O yes! I know you have had such manifestations of Him. And have you not seen Him in His risen glories? Have you not beheld Him there exalted on His throne? Have you not by faith beheld Him as the Judge of the quick and the dead, and as the Prince of the kings of the earth? Have you not looked through the dim future, and seen Him with the crown of all the kingdoms on His head, with the diadems of all monarchies beneath His feet, and the scepters of all thrones in His hand? Yes, you have, and therein you have had foretastes of heaven. When Christ has thus revealed Himself to you, you have looked within the vail, and, therefore, you have seen what is there, you have had some glimpses of Jesus while here; those glimpses of Jesus are but the beginning of what shall never end. Those joyous melodies of praise and thanksgiving are but the preludes of the notes of Paradise. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0989.cfm

…to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. – Ephesians 1:6

I suppose that a great part of the joy of the blessed saints consists in a knowledge that there is nothing in them to which God is hostile; that their peace with God has not any thing to mar it; that they are so completely in union with the principles and thoughts of the Most High; that His love is set on them; that their love is set on Him; that they are one with God in every respect. Well, beloved, and have we not enjoyed a sense of acceptance here below? Blotted and blurred by many doubts and fears, yet there have been moments when we have known ourselves as well accepted as we shall know ourselves to be even when we stand before the throne. There have been bright days with some of us, when we could “set to our seal” that God was true; and, when afterward, feeling that the Lord knoweth them that are His, we could say, “And I know that I am His, too.” We had such a clear view of the perfection of Christ’s righteousness that we felt that God had accepted us, and we could not be otherwise than happy; we had such a sense of the efficacy of the blood of Christ, we felt sure that our sins were all pardoned, and that they never could be mentioned unto us in mercy for ever. And, beloved, though I have spoken of other joys, let me say, this is the cream of all of them, to know ourselves accepted in God’s sight. O! to feel that I, a guilty worm, am now received in my Father’s bosom; that I, a lost prodigal, am now feasting at His table with delight; that I, who once heard the voice of His anger, now listen to the notes of His love. This is joy—this is joy worth worlds. What more can they know up there than that? And were it not that our sense of it were so imperfect, we might bring heaven down to earth and might at least dwell in the suburbs of the celestial city, if we could not be privileged to go within the gates. Seeing that heaven is a state of acceptance, we, too, can know and feel that acceptance, and rejoice in it. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0989.cfm