Longing for the Lord to Appear

F.L. Gosden

Taken from The Gospel Standard

The church at that time was in a state of affliction and under the hiding of God’s face. Their hearts were made tender as that condition of a self-procured desolation was discovered unto them, and the church confessed, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” It would appear when things were exceedingly low that there was a period in which there was a seared conscience and a restraining of prayer, for the prophet goes on to say, “And there is none that calleth upon Thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee.” And then he gives the reason, “For Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because I of our iniquities.”

There was an awakening. It is mercy, my friends, when we are made conscious of a bad state and humble ourselves under the judgments of God, and our hearts, like that of , Josiah, are made tender. I would commend a consideration of Josiah’s case. They were indeed evil days, but Josiah’s heart was made tender, and we read this: “Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I have also heard thee, saith the Lord” (2 Kings 22:19).

Oh, how desirable, and what a blessing it would be if the Lord would awaken us as a nation, if He should raise up men in places of authority with such a gracious, spiritual disposition of soul, to mourn and humble themselves, with a tender heart as did Habakkuk,“O Lord, I have heard Thy speech, and was afraid” (Habakkuk 3:2).

Oh, how desirable, and what a blessing it would be if the Lord would awaken us as a nation, if He should raise up men in places of authority with such a gracious, spiritual disposition of soul, to mourn and humble themselves, with a tender heart as did Habakkuk, “O Lord, I have heard Lhy speech, and was afraid” (Habakkuk 3:2).

But in this chapter, the church manifested two things which are outstanding. There was only one remedy—“Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down.” In an earlier chapter the prophet expresses the same thing: “Until the Spirit be poured out upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.” There is no remedy, my friends, for the desolations that cause so much grief and mourning in godly souls, other than a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

“Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens!” Our sins and provocations in the nation, and especially in the church which is dear to the Lord, provoke Him to make the heavens as brass, and we cannot rend them. Oh, what a mercy it would be if this prayer should be given and answered, “Rend the heavens”! There sits the exalted Redeemer, the glorious Head of the church, having finished the work of redemption that His Father gave Him to do. There He sits in all divine authority of His divine Person, and all the authority of His work whereby He satisfied the law, vindicated divine justice, and glorified His Father. He is there on behalf of His Church, and here is a prayer, a prayer unto an exalted Saviour, “Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens.”

Then, too, there are the heavens of God’s Word. Except the Holy Ghost does open it, rend it, and take the vital truths from the Word of God and make it an experience in the heart of His people, it is a sealed book. The Word of God contains the glorious gospel, and there are the heavens of the church of God, the ministry. The Holy Ghost’s mighty power throughout the ministry is intimately connected with the salvation of sinners, and it is only the Holy Ghost that can make the truth effectual and the Word of God to “have free course, and be glorified” (2 Thessalonians 3:1).

The second outstanding thing is this (oh, to have good ground for this confidence): “But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father.” Nothing can alter the relationship that God in Christ is to His people, and those relationships could never have been, apart from the matchless condescension of God’s dear Son incarnate. Only so could there be any relationship, any vital union between sinners and Christ; only so could there be a new and living way to God, and the church, here, recognized that. Nothing can destroy what God has done. It is done forever.

“But now, O Lord” — unworthy as we are, basely as we have backslidden, though our iniquities have carried us away like the wind—“Thou art our Father; we are the clay.” Oh, what a mercy to be clay in the hands of the heavenly Potter. Naturally, we are as hard as the nether millstone and can never be melted, but if we are vessels of mercy, these two blessed experiences in the eighth verse take us in: “But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we are all the work of Thy hand.’

Well, my friends, we have much to mourn over in the church of God, but, oh, that He might so sanctify our condition, awaken us out of sleep, and grant to us that gracious counsel that he gave to the church at Laodicea: “I counsel of thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire.” There is beauty in this sad chapter. Oh, look at the prophet—you can almost see his eyes filled with sorrow. There is one remedy, and only one: “Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down.” May the Lord give us that prayer and answer it.

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