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Love In Action
THE PREPARATION FOR THE LORD’S COMING
NOTES OF ADDRESSES GIVEN
BY
PASTOR O. STOCKMAYER
“Seeing that ye look for these things, give diligence that ye may be
found in peace, without spot and blameless in His sight.” ~ 2 Peter
3:4
(These Notes are published with Pastor Stockmayer’s
permission, but as he has not revised them, he does not hold himself
responsible for them.)
LONDON:
JOHN SNOW & Co., 2, IVY LANE, E.C.
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Content
Chapter
I. A Desert Place
II. Heavenly Songs
III. Seeing God
IV. Habitations of God
V. Grace which Bringeth Salvation
VI. Giving Christ His Place
VII. The Nature of the Bride
VIII. The Reason For “Revelation”
IX. The Remnant and the Firstfruits
X. The Living Sacrifice
XI. Discerning the Lord’s Body
Appendix
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Love In Action
A
PREPARATION FOR CHRIST’S COMING
NOTES OF BIBLE TEACHING
GIVEN BY PASTOR O. STOCKMAYER, AT DOVER, APRIL, 1895.
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I.
A Desert Place
“And the
Apostles gather themselves together unto Jesus; and they told Him
all things, whatsoever they had done, and whatsoever they had
taught. And He saith unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a
desert place, and
rest awhile. For there were many coming and going, and they had no
leisure so much as to eat, and they went away in the boat to a
desert place apart” (Mark 6:30, 32).
[The Scripture quotations throughout
are taken from the Revised Version unless marked A.V.—ED.]
Let this room, dear friends, be “a desert place apart;” let
sin, the world and the flesh be kept outside; let it be a place
where disciples may meet with their Savior without distraction,
assured that He has many things to say to them. Let us be alone with
Him, forgetting friends, and neighbors, and everything else. I think
you are here because you have heard the Lord’s call; “Come with Me
into a desert place. Do not be ‘careful about many things’ just now,
for I have undertaken to care for your wife, your husband, your
children and friends; and I have something to say to you.”
The disciples had done many mighty works and wonderful things in
their ministry; but this was no reason why they should go on
preaching and teaching. It was now the moment for them to meet the
Master, and tell Him all they had done and taught, for the Lord had
blessed their ministry, their teaching and their doing. Is it so
that, because of all the calls that come to you to do and to teach,
you no longer have time to sit at the Master’s feet, and tell Him
what you are doing and teaching? That is just as if a merchant,
because his business is increasing more and more, should no longer
have time to look after his books, and make out a balance sheet; so
doing, he would very quickly become a bankrupt. Your teaching and
your doing, yes, even the most simple duties in the household and in
daily life, will lose their value and their true character, if you
no longer have time to speak to your Lord about them, and to listen
to all He says to you. He would teach you to rectify the lines of
your ministry in Gospel, or in household work, or in whatever sphere
of duty you may be engaged, that you may come to teach and to work
always in His presence, learning to recognize the slightest movement
of His hand, by which He shows you when to stop, and to come apart
with Him. You will be better able to teach, and to work for the
beloved ones around you, when you hear that call which Mary heard,
and which Martha could not hear: “Come to My feet, and leave
everything to my responsibility.” Oh, when the Master gives you a
hint and you hear His voice, do not hesitate; He is the
Master, you are His steward; and when He calls, the most
urgent human calls, even to Christian work, must, be silenced, and
you must come apart with Him.
The disciples had not even time to eat. “There were many coming and
going,” when Jesus said, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert
place, and rest awhile.” You know what happened? The people went on
foot round by the north shore, while they were crossing the lake;
and when they reached the other side, thousands were there already,
waiting for Jesus; and He “had compassion on them,” and taught them;
and the disciples were disappointed. Jesus, our Lord, could never be
disappointed, because He took everything straight from His Father’s
hand, not only out of submission but out of love: Jesus “welcomed”
the multitude (Luke 9:2).
When you need to meet with your Lord in a desert place apart, be
ready to leave everything in His hands; the time or the manner in
which He shall satisfy your longing to be alone with Him to hear
Him, how He shall renew your spiritual provision, and satisfy your
hunger with Himself. There is no better, higher, deeper rest for
one who is wearied with hard work, doing or teaching for the Lord,
than to hear Him teach and to see Him work. The Lord’s doing rests
us from our doing, and His teaching rests us from our teaching.
“And He began to teach them many things.” If you desire to know the
lacking, the failure in your teaching, you must hear the Lord
teaching. The disciples could have gone on all the afternoon,
telling the Lord the story of what they had done and what
they had taught, as they began to do on the other side of the
lake; and so they would have lost the benefit of His teaching. But I
think the disciples had not yet learnt to welcome the
multitudes. They thought that the afternoon was far spent; and now
the evening was coming on, they would like to have, at last, what
had been promised them. So they came to Him and said, “The place is
desert, and the day is now far spent; send them away, that they may
go into the country and villages round about, and buy themselves
somewhat to eat.” And the Lord said, “Give ye them to eat.” Having
taught, He now works. Oh, may we hear the Lord Himself teaching and
working, plucking up and destroying, planting and building,
according to His own mind! Let us learn to be apart with Him. Even
if thousands and thousands are present, nothing can hinder disciples
from being alone with Jesus, if they are listening to His teaching
and observing His working, and their souls shall be satisfied
beyond all they could expect.
Let us be very careful to honor this place, a place set apart,
wherein to meet the Lord. Be careful so to use these days with
Jesus, not only in the meetings but in your houses, in your going
out and corning in, that we may have a true consciousness of
waiting upon our Lord, and that each day and each meeting we may get
nearer to our Lord than we were the one before. These disciples, who
were expecting to rest when they crossed the lake, had no idea in
what different circumstances they would cross that same lake for the
second time that night. No one has any idea in what situation in the
world he may be at this time next year; let us therefore, I beseech
you, learn to value and use the precious opportunity while separated
for a time from our work.
I will come now to another time when the Lord took His disciples
apart into a desert place. It was after the healing of the epileptic
in the valley, when He had come down from the mount of
transfiguration.
“And they went forth from thence, and passed through Galilee; and He
would not that any man should know it.” Why? “For He taught His
disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered up into
the hands of men, and they shall kill Him; and when He is killed,
after three days He shall rise again. But they understood not the
saying, and were afraid to ask Him” (Mark 9:30-32).
This time the Lord did not permit any man to know where He was going
with His disciples: He had a purpose. It was the most solemn hour of
their life; He had to teach them things which hitherto they had
never been willing to bear, although, more than once, the Lord had
tried to open their ears to them. Now, He separated them from the
multitudes, and from everything else, that He might speak to them of
that very thing of which Moses and Elijah had spoken with Him on the
mountain top: “His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem”
(Luke 9:31). Six days previous to this, when He saw that Peter was
under the influence of the Holy Ghost, for flesh and blood could not
have revealed to him the things he said, He used that moment to lead
him to deeper things. Jesus told him that He should be delivered
into the hands of wicked men and be crucified. And from that same
heart, which had given forth a revelation of God, came a revelation
of Satan; and Jesus, perceiving it, said, “Get thee behind Me,
Satan: thou art a stumbling block unto Me: for thou mindest not the
things of God, but the things of men” (Matt. 16:13-23). The
disciples would not hear of Jesus dying. Perhaps Peter felt that if
the Master had to go this way, he had to follow Him, and he was
unwilling to lose his life. But the Lord Jesus Christ could not
spare His disciples this teaching; and now He took it up again.
The Lord may purpose a very special teaching for us during these
days. Let us be careful; let us give Him time, and let us take time
to commune with Him, not with one another. The disciples “were
afraid to ask Him,” although it was the very purpose for which He
took them apart. He does not go on teaching if you do not seize the
opportunity, when alone with Him, to say, “Search my heart, and my
household, my Christian work, and all my life; let me know if there
is any new teaching that has not risen upon my horizon.” They
understood not, and they would not ask Him. It would cost them their
life to ask Him! They would not have a revelation about Isa. 53.
They would not give up the hope of a Messiah who should sit on the
throne of David. They would not sacrifice their human hopes to
follow the Lamb, or be satisfied with a Savior slain as a Lamb on
Calvary.
Now what happened? Through their fear to ask Him, they lost the
privilege of that wonderful journey, and very soon they fell into
the flesh. Instead of speaking to the Lord, they spoke one to
another, and very soon they began disputing who should be the
greatest among them; and Jesus was silenced. Has He not been often
silenced by Christians walking together and meeting together in holy
gatherings? They were occupied with one another, and if we compare
Luke 9, with Mark 9, it is very clear that Jesus was silent until
they reached Capernaum. When He was in the house He asked them,
“What were ye reasoning in the way? But they held their peace: for
they had disputed one with another in the way, who was the
greatest.” When the Lord prepares an hour in which to guide you
deeper into the truth, and you do not understand, and are afraid to
ask Him, do not be astonished if you fall into the flesh as the
disciples did.
It often happens that Christians are not yet walking in
sanctification, from purity to purity, because they have not yet
made up their minds to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes. These
meetings, dear friends, are not for such. It would be a mockery and
delusion to sit on these seats and listen to the truth, if you are
not prepared to obey it. It is a sin against the Holy Ghost and
against the Word of God, to come to holy gatherings without being
decided to follow the Lamb fully. Do not introduce the flesh, and
self-life into this room, making the air heavy and testimony
difficult. Let it be a place clean from the flesh and sin, that it
may be possible, and through our Lord’s infinite mercy, even be a
new opportunity, of coming into a truly new position before God and
man. Then you may be sure that God will speak to us, and lead us
into all the truth.
If you turn to Luke 18 and Mark 10 you find that once again, before
arriving at Jericho, our Lord said the same things to His disciples,
and still they understood not, and still they were afraid to ask
Him. So it was not surprising that just when the Lord had redeemed,
not only Israel but the whole world, two disciples were complaining
to Jesus Christ, the Savior, on the road to Emmaus: “We hoped that
it was He which should redeem Israel. Yea, and beside all this, it
is now the third day since these things came to pass.” They had no
idea that Holy Scripture was already being fulfilled, because they
also were unwilling to be instructed by Jesus Christ on that one
point. That evening, after He had left them, as they went over all
that had happened in the way, they said, “Was not our heart burning
within us, while He spake to us in the way, while He opened to us
the Scriptures” (v. 32)? Before His death their heart did not
burn; it was shut against the meaning of such Scriptures concerning
His death and resurrection. Now that they are accomplished, the
Risen One can in the power of this Divine fact, open their minds,
which had been shut like those of the twelve apostles in that most
blessed hour when Jesus had taken them apart to a desert place, to
speak about this very thing. “Then opened He their mind, that they
might understand the Scripture” (Luke 24:32, 45).
Do not blame the disciples; they would not because they could not;
Christ must break through the gates of death before any human mind
could willingly open to such prospects. But we are children of the
New Covenant, and from year to year, from month to month, and from
day to day, we proclaim Jesus Christ who died and rose again; and
we are guilty if we do not fully open our minds, and let the
Holy Spirit fully open to us the Scriptures about the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. I hope the Lord may open another
chapter to us in these days. Those who have gone with Him through
death, and now live a resurrection-life, are being prepared for new
teaching which yet is not new, that through the grace of God, and by
the wonderful work of the Holy Ghost, they may be made ready for His
coming.
The Church of God is awakened now as never before, to the
expectation of the Lord’s coming. There are many meetings held about
it in London and other towns, much interest is felt, but one hears
little about the preparation for the Lord’s coming. It is to them
that wait for Him that the Lord will come a second time,
apart from sin, unto salvation, (Heb. 9:28); and they, who have this
hope set on Him, purify themselves even as He is pure (1 John 3:3).
If they do not so purify themselves, their hope is not a living and
a real hope; they are deceiving themselves, they will not be ready
to receive Him, and they will be “ashamed before Him at His coming”
(1 John 2:38). He will, He must have a Bride without blemish, a
people thoroughly sanctified by the Holy Ghost, without reproach,
“kept” (1 Pet. 1:5) at His coming. We speak in vain of
sanctification if we have not gone through justification: we speak
in vain of the redemption of the body, and of the coming of the
Lord, if we have not gone through sanctification. |