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

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Corinthians 15:57

This (earthly life) is the battlefield; there (in heaven) is the triumphal procession. This is the land of the sword and the spear; that is the land of the wreath and the crown. This is the land of the garment rolled in blood and of the dust of the fight; that is the land of the trumpet’s joyful sound—that is the place of the white robe and of the shout of conquest. O, what a thrill of joy shall shoot through the hearts of all the blessed when their conquests shall be complete in heaven, when death itself, the last of foes, shall be slain—when Satan shall be dragged captive at the chariot wheels of Christ—when He shall have overthrown sin and trampled corruption as the mire of the streets—when the great shout of universal victory shall rise from the hearts of all the redeemed! What a moment of pleasure shall that be! O, dear brethren, you and I have foretastes of even that. We know what conquests, what souls’ battles we have even here. Did you never struggle against an evil heart, and at last overcome it? O, with what joy did you lift your eyes to heaven, the tears flowing down your cheeks, and say, “Lord, I bless Thee that I have been able to overcome that sin.” Did you ever have a strong temptation, and did you wrestle hard with it, and know what it was to sing with great joy, “My feet slipped; but Thy mercy held me up?” Have you, like Bunyan’s Christian, fought with old Apollyon, and have you seen him flap his dragon-wings and fly away? There you had a foretaste of heaven; you had just a guess of what the ultimate victory will be. In the death of that one Philistine, you had the destruction of the whole army. That Goliath who fell beneath your sling and stone was but one out of the multitude who must yield their bodies to the fowls of heaven. God gives you partial triumphs that they may be the earnest of ultimate and complete victory. Go on and conquer, and let each conquest, though a harder one and more strenuously contested, be to you as a grape of Eshcol, a foretaste of the joys of heaven! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. – Colossians 3:24

Do you know what is the deliciousness of work? For although we must complain when people expect impossibilities of us, it is the highest enjoyment of life to be busily engaged for Christ. Tell me the day I do not preach, I will tell you the day in which I am not happy; but the day in which it is my privilege to preach the Gospel, and labor for God, is generally the day of my peaceful and quiet enjoyment after all. Service is delight. Praising God is pleasure. Laboring for Him is the highest delight a mortal can know. O, how sweet it must be to sing His praises, and never feel that the throat is dry! O, how blessed to flap the wing for ever and never feel it flag! O, what sweet enjoyment to run upon His errands, evermore to circle round the throne of God in heaven while eternity shall last, and never once lay the head on the pillow, never once feel the throbbings of fatigue, never once the pangs that admonish us that we need to cease, but to keep on for ever like eternity’s own self—a broad river rolling on with perpetual floods of labor! O, that must be enjoyment! That must be, indeed, a heaven, to serve God day and night in His temple! But you have served God on earth and have had foretastes of that. I wish some of you knew the sweets of labor a little more, for although labor breedeth sweat, it breedeth sweets too—more especially labor for Christ. There is a satisfaction before the work; there is a satisfaction in the work; there is a satisfaction after the work, and there is a satisfaction in looking for the fruits of the work; and a great satisfaction when we get the fruits. Labor for Christ is, indeed, the robing-room of heaven; if it be not heaven itself, it is one of the most blissful foretastes of it. Thank God, Christian, if you can do any thing for your Master. Thank Him if it is your privilege to do the least thing for Him, for remember in so doing He is giving you a taste of the grapes of Eshcol. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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