“Saints show how precious Christ is to them, in that He is their heaven. Have you never heard them, when dying, talk about their joy in the prospect of being with Christ? They have not so much rejoiced because they were escaping the woes of this mortal life, nor even because they would rest from their toils, but because they would behold the Lord.
Often have we seen the eye sparkle, as the dying believer said, ‘I shall see the King in His beauty before many hours have passed.’ When saints quit the world, their last thought is that they shall be with their Redeemer; and when they enter heaven, their first thought is to behold His glory.
To believers Jesus is heaven. The Lamb is the light, the life, the substance of heavenly bliss. We long to be with Christ. Many of us could say with David, ‘Although my house be not so with God; yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire.’
Christ is to us the covenant, and in Him we find the foundation of our first hope, and the topstone of our highest joy. Is He not, indeed, precious to us?”
–Charles H. Spurgeon, “Christ Precious to Believers” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. XXXVI (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1890), 184-185. Spurgeon was preaching on 1 Peter 2:7 and delivered this sermon on March 30, 1890 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle.
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