COUNTING THE GAIN
COUNTING THE GAIN
Two things I put before any one coming to the assembly: counting the cost and counting the gain. I should put counting the gain first. It is a question of affection.
The greatest gain is to be obtained by affection. As of wisdom, “she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her” (Proverbs 4: 8). The more anything is naturally attractive to you, the more you have to fear it, and often to avoid it: “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red” (Proverbs 23: 31) - that is when it is attractive.
The Lord lead you into His banqueting house, the untold joys there would comfort you unspeakably, and you would be able to say, ‘I have given up the only earthly attraction I had’. I am glad you feel that you have come to the right place. It is very striking the [p. 507] importance attached to the place of halting, as we find in Israel’s journey through the wilderness. The ark of the covenant moved out of its place to search out a place for Israel to pitch in.
I believe the locality is of the utmost importance - the tent of secondary moment. The Lord will surely find a tent for you if you are true as to the locality to which He has called you. The antitype of the ark is Christ in glory. How wonderfully blessed that the Man who was once down here, perfectly acquainted with the infirmities of our nature, should now search out a place for us in this wilderness.
It is a great thing to get near the Lord; then we become assimilated to Him morally. All the reading in the world, or even praying, will not produce assimilation to Him without nearness.
How seldom do we hear praise for being in the land (Deuteronomy 26), though one often hears a song of gladness for being out of Egypt!
I feel now when I pray for people it is that they may be near the Lord, as known in glory. It so detaches one from everything here, and at the same time, like the queen of Sheba, entrances one with Solomon!
God is bringing many sons to glory, but He is bringing them along the road of suffering. Suffering and glory are often linked together in the Scriptures. I do not think the Lord ever proposed to bring people to glory by any other road; you must not expect anything else. If you take the path of God’s will - the only path that leads to glory - you will find that it is paved with sufferings, but there is not a step in that road which has not been trodden by the feet of Jesus. The Leader of our salvation has been made perfect through sufferings. If the Leader has been perfected by sufferings it indicates the character of the path in which He leads. When there were those who came to the Lord and asked for glory, He said, ‘Are you prepared for the path that leads there?’ [p. 508] The company of many sons will be a wonderful company when they reach the glory, such a company as heaven has never seen, and one might add, such a company as heaven could not have produced! God’s purpose is to have a company in glory with tender hearts and with deep sympathies - with hearts like Him who is there now! He will have a people there with intelligence and affections suited to sons, that they may be all that He would have sons to be, and these sympathies and affections are largely developed in a path of suffering.
Being like Christ is the greatest sign and wonder that was ever seen in this world, and that is the testimony for today.