This is the continuation of Brother Spurgeon’s treatise, much needed in these days of confusion in the body of Christ, at least in our neck of the wood!

“This kingdom which we have received has come to us by grace alone, we could not have earned it, or merited it, or won it by our own strength, but the Lord has given it to us in Christ Jesus. He has taken the beggar from the dunghill and set him among princes. He has lifted us up from the ruin of the fall and redeemed us from the misery of our ungodly days, and he has enriched us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus: shall we not serve him out of gratitude for such inestimable benefits? No crack of the whip shall drive us to his service, for we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. No fear of hell, no hope of deserving heaven shall urge us on to please our Lord. Nay, rather this shall be our song:—

“Loved of my God, for him again
With love intense I burn:
Chosen of him ere time began,
I choose him in return.”

Gratitude is the only fountain of acceptable service; without it the streams are far too defiled to flow in the paradise of God.

A large measure of the splendour of our kingdom lies in this that it is a “kingdom that cannot be moved.” Other kingdoms go to pieces sooner or later. You and I who are in middle life can remember kingdoms that have been blown down by the wind, or toppled over at the blow of one brave man’s sword. Empires that have rivalled Caesar’s in apparent strength have been swept down like cobwebs. As houses made of a pack of cards, so have dynasties fallen never to rise again. There was one year in which our great caricaturist pictured kings and princes out at sea in little cockboats, tossed up and down by the wild waves of revolution. So frail was their tenure of power at that moment. Even today, I warrant you, the last office I should choose would be that of an emperor in any country: a man might wisely prefer to take the post of a common crossing-sweeper rather than be a king, or even a president. As for the Empire of Russia, who would court its deadly honours? If those who deserve the severest imaginable punishment for horrible crimes were compelled to be autocrats, it would be a punishment too heavy. What must be the strain upon the mind, the constant fear, the awful unrest of a man who has the sole control of millions, and has deadly foes upon his track? Glory be to God, our kingdom cannot be moved! Not even dynamite can touch our dominion: no power in the world, and no power in hell, can shake the kingdom which the Lord has given to his saints. With Jesus as our monarch we fear no revolution and no anarchy: for the Lord hath established this kingdom upon a rock, and it cannot be moved or removed. When the sun and moon are blown out in darkness, and when the stars fall like the withered leaves of autumn, the kingdom in which we rejoice shall enjoy perpetual prosperity, as it is written, “Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.” Receiving such a kingdom, what are we bound to do? I would fain cast silver chains about you to hold you fast to your Lord. I would fasten anew these silken bonds upon you to bind you to your God. You have received a kingdom. You can never pay back the millionth part of what you owe. Today, however, let the sweet love of Christ constrain you to judge that if he made you kings it is for you to crown him King with all your hearts, and if he has given you a kingdom that cannot be moved by you, it is for you to be “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.”

Is it not a splendid thought that when we do anything for God, though it be but the simple offering of a prayer, or the helping of a fatherless child, we may do it with all the holy dignity of princely priests. A certain set of men arrogate to themselves exclusively the title of priests, and so deny the priesthood of every believer. In this they act like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, thrusting themselves into an office which belongs not to them, and intruding out the true priests of the living God. Has not the Lord said to all his people, “Ye are a royal priesthood”? As for any who receive a supposed priesthood by laying on of hands of bishops we know nothing of them, except that they do err, not knowing the true dignity of every believer: they intrude into this priesthood so far as they pretend to possess priestly power beyond the meanest child of God, for all that believe in Jesus are this day made priests unto him. With what sacred orderliness, and saintly carefulness ought we to serve God, because we serve him not as common persons, if we are indeed in Christ, but we worship him as priests and kings. One of our early Saxon kings was rowed down the river Dee by Kenneth of Scotland, and seven other vassal kings, who each one tugged an oar while their lord reclined in state. The King of kings this day is served by kings; each man, each woman among us is made royal by the very fact of holy service. Let us labour for God not as slaves, but as kings! Alas, I confess that sometimes I have not served the Lord as a king: I have put on the ragged robes of my unbelief, and I have come up here mourning and groaning when I ought to have arrayed myself in royal apparel and served my Lord with joy and gladness. Some of God’s own saints forget what they are, and where they are, and they go to his service as if it were a toil and a drudgery, labouring as if they were galley-slaves, and not rejoicing as princes who wait upon a great king. Brethren, your high dignity should make you joyful, and you should perform the Lord’s service with intense delight because of what he has done for you. It should be heaven upon earth to be allowed to do anything for Jesus. “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably.”