I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it. Sermons
"Thou art coming to a King, Large petitions with thee bring; For his grace and power are such, None can ever ask too much." The psalmist had probably often noticed how the young birds open their mouths wide for the food which they know the parent bird will give them, and for which, therefore, they wait with such eager expectancy. And he points to this familiar fact, and bids his countrymen in like manner expect blessing from God, for God will not disappoint them. Now, on this subject, note - I. THAT THERE ARE SOME WHO NEVER OPEN THEIR MOUTHS AT ALL. They do not believe in prayer, they count it so much waste breath, and affirm that it avails no more than the piteous cry of the hare when she knows that the hounds are upon her. They urge that all things are governed by fixed law, and no desire of ours, however fervent, can make the slightest alteration. Or else, they say that if what we ask for be right for God to give, he will give it without our prayer; that if it be not right, then, as certainly, he will not give it: he knows our need without our telling him. But we have one short reply to all this, and we say to all such disbelievers in prayer - Have you ever really prayed? Myriads of believing souls there are who with one voice will affirm, "I sought the Lord, and he heard me;" and we prefer to believe these who know that God heareth prayer, rather than you who have never really prayed. II. THERE ARE OTHERS WHO OPEN THEIR MOUTHS, BUT NOT "WIDE," as we are here bidden to do. They pray, but they do not expect much to come from it. In words they ask for great things, but they do not really believe they will have them. Our Lord's command to us is, "When ye pray, believe that ye receive" (Mark 11:24). Now, in regard to temporal blessings, it may be that we cannot have confident expectation that we shall have the precise favour we ask for; but we ought to have such expectation that that which is really best for us God will certainly give. But in regard to spiritual blessings, such as deliverance from sin, for which, in words, we so constantly pray, we ought to expect the very blessing itself. "The blood of Jesus Christ... cleanseth from all sin;" there is, therefore, absolute warrant for expecting such cleansing; and we need not think, though practically we do, that the blunder of a little lad known to the writer, is really the truth. In repeating the General Confession, when he came to the words, "and there is no health in us," he substituted for them, "and there is no help for it." And that is what so many practically think. They remember their own grievous past, they know the force of long evil habit, and their own wretched weakness, and they see the persistence of evil and sin everywhere, even in the good; and they come to the sorrowful conclusion that "there is no help for it" this side the grave. They have no real expectation of deliverance, and, therefore, they do not get it. And yet people go on perpetually asking for it. The reason of their not having is that they will not open their mouths wide, and so God cannot fill them with his blessing. But - III. NONE EVER WILL, UNLESS THE CONDITIONS OF SUCH EXPECTATION BE FULFILLED. There must be: 1. A mouth to open; that is, power to believe. Now, we all have that, and use it every day about other things. 2. Need of God's blessing. Unquestionably there is that. 3. Sense of this need. Consciousness of it, and distress because of it. Hunger after God's blessing. 4. Will to believe. Trust is more a matter of the will than of the reason. "I will trust, and not be afraid." Refuse to doubt, resolve to believe. - S.C. 1. Health. The body without appetite for food is diseased; the intellect without appetite for truth is diseased; and the soul without appetite for righteousness is diseased. 2. Provision. The existence of any native desire, physical, intellectual, or moral, implies a corresponding object. Goodness, like the air we breathe, is ever at hand; it encompasses our path. If we really desire it, we shall have it. II. THE MORE HUNGRY, THE BETTER FED. "Open thy mouth wide," etc. The Great Father wishes His children to have the profoundest cravings, the largest expectations; for He has an infinity of blessings which it is His happiness to bestow. The more you desire from Him, the more you shall have. (Homilist.) 1. Warmth and fervency in prayer. 2. A holy fluency and copiousness of expression, so as to order our cause before Him, and fill our mouths with arguments. 3. Enlarged hope and expectation. II. CONSIDER THE IMPORT OF THE PROMISE. 1. If we open our mouths to God in prayer, He will fill them more and more with suitable petitions and arguments. 2. God will fill the mouth with abundant thanksgivings. 3. We shall be filled with those blessings we pray for, if they are calculated to promote our real good and the glory of God. III. NOTICE THE LIMITATIONS with which the promise requires to be understood. 1. Though God answers prayer, yet He will do it in His own time, and not always when we expect it. 2. He seldom answers prayer in the manner we expect. 3. He sometimes answers prayer gradually, and not all at once. 4. It is not our performance of duty, but the inviolable faithfulness of God that binds Him to the fulfilment of His promises. IV. INFERENCES. 1. It is no wonder that many continue in a destitute and hopeless state: they live without prayer, and so without supplies of mercy. 2. If God thus fills the souls of unnumbered millions, how full must He Himself be! (B. Beddome, M. A.) 1. "I am the Lord" — the Lord of the whole earth. 2. I am "thy God" — thy covenant God. 3. I "brought thee out of the land of Egypt." He appeals to what He has already done on our behalf. II. THE INVITATION: "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." The invitation consists of an instruction and a promise: the instruction is, "Open thy mouth wide"; the promise is, "I will fill it." 1. The instruction instructs us in two things — the manner of prayer and the measures of prayer. The manner of prayer is this — "Open thy mouth." The measure of prayer is this — "Open thy mouth wide." 2. The promise refers to both temporal and spiritual blessings. (P. Prescott.) I. WHAT IT IS TO OPEN THE MOUTH OF THE SOUL WIDE TO CHRIST.1. A sight of wants. 2. A sense of need. 3. A holy dissatisfaction with all things beside Christ. 4. The soul's removing its desires from off vanities, and fixing them on Christ for satisfaction. 5. An assumed expectation of salvation from Christ. 6. A hearty willingness to receive Christ as He offers Himself in the Gospel. II. SHOW HOW CHRIST FILLS THE SOUL SO AS NO OTHER CAN DO. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." This promise imports — 1. Such a suitableness in Him to the necessities of the soul, as is to be found in no other. 2. A sufficiency in Christ for all needs. 3. A cominunication of this suitable sufficiency unto that soul which opens its mouth wide to receive it.(1) Christ gives Himself to that soul, so that such an one might say (Song of Solomon 2:16).(2) Christ gives them all good with Himself (Romans 8:32; Psalm 84:11). 4. The soul's satisfaction upon that communication. When all the cisterns are dried up, the believer has enough, He can rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of his salvation (Habakkuk 3:17). He can say also with Paul (Philippians 4:18), "I am full"; and no wonder, for the soul having Christ, has —(1) A fulness of merit to look to (1 John 1:7).(2) A fulness of spirit in Christ to take away the power of sin (Revelation 3:1).(3) A fulness of grace in Him, lodged in Him as the common storehouse of all the saints (John 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:30). (T. Boston, D. D.) I. THE ONLY SOURCE OF FULL SATISFACTION FOR HUMAN LIFE.1. There is a recognition here of the vastness of human need. "Open thy mouth wide." Man has — and this is one of the evidences of his greatness — a vast capacity for desire. The mouth of desire in man is not satisfied though all the treasures of the earth be poured into it. 2. The words imply that man's vastest desires are not awakened until they are consciously turned God-ward. Israel will open its mouth "wider "if it turn to God than if it forsake Him. There is enough of desire for God in every man to make this world unsatisfying, but in the worldling this desire is Undeveloped and shrivelled. The life that is fixed in God expands, and its desires become richer and vaster. God fills us, not by lessening our desires, but by enriching them. 3. The words imply that nothing less than personal union with God can satisfy the life. "I will fill it." II. THE CONDITION OF RECEIVING FROM GOD. "Open thy mouth wide." Probably the figure is taken from the feeding of young birds in the nest by the parent bird. The picture is one of simple dependence and trust. Proud self-sufficiency shuts out the fulness of God. The first step to strength is to realize our own helplessness, simply to "open the mouth wide," that God may fill it. III. THE MEASURE OF RECEIVING. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it "According to the capacity for reception, so is the gift. We have to recognize natural differences of capacity. As an eaglet differs from smaller birds, so men differ from men. All are not, and cannot be, Isaiahs and Pauls. But, on the other hand, a man's receptive power may have its development hindered by his own worldliness or negligence. His spiritual desires may be narrower than they ought to be. Faith, love, and hope grow larger through service. (J. Thomas, M. A.) In our text we have God coming very near to His people, and coming near them to encourage them to come nearer to Him. We have the Lord speaking to them, that they may speak to Him. He opens His mouth to them, that they may open their mouths to Him.I. GOD ENCOURAGING HIS PEOPLE by saying, "Open thy mouth wide." 1. I suppose that the Lord means by this exhortation, first of all, to help us to get rid of the paralyzing influence of fear. A man, in the presence of one whom he dreads, cannot speak boldly; and if he has been guilty of some great crime, and stands before one whom he regards as his judge, he is like the man in our Lord's parable, "speechless." A man on his knees, conscious of his sin, fearing the justice of God, would very naturally be unable to speak; and to encourage him God says, "Open thy mouth; be not afraid." 2. Next, "Open thy mouth wide"; that is, speak freely in prayer to God, be not hampered in thy pleading. I have known children of God who have felt a terrible awe in the presence of the Lord. We want freedom, and liberty of access to God, when we come before the mercy-seat; and the Lord therefore encourages His people to break loose from all their shackles when He says, "Open thy mouth wide." 3. It must also mean, ask great things: "Open thy mouth wide." The greater the thing that you ask, the more sure you are to have it. With men it is, usually, the smaller the favour you crave, the more likely you are to obtain it; but with God it is the other way. There is nothing greater to ask for than Christ, and thou mayest have Christ for the asking, for God has already given Him to all who believe. 4. I think that it also means that we are to feel intense desires: "Open thy mouth." Whenever a man speaks with very great earnestness, he opens his mouth widely. 5. Exercise a great expectancy. Consider — (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) II. Observe GOD USING TWO GREAT ARGUMENTS. "Open thy mouth wide" — 1. Because of what God has done. Child of God, this text belongs peculiarly to you. "I am Jehovah, thy God." He has revealed Himself to thee; He has chosen thee, and thou hast chosen Him. Now, canst thou not open thy mouth wide to thine own God, to Jehovah, the great "I am" the boundless, the infinite, the Almighty God, canst thou not speak freely to Him? And then it is added, "I am Jehovah, thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt." Now, that is the greatest thing that God could do for His people, and, if He has done that, will He not do the lesser things? 2. Because of what God will do. "I will fill it." The story goes that the Shah of Persia, a strange man altogether, on one occasion said to a person who had pleased him very greatly, "Open your mouth," and when he had opened his mouth, the Shah began to fill it up with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and all sorts of precious stones. I feel morally certain that the man opened his mouth wide. Would not you do the same if you had such an opportunity? Now, the Lord says to each of His own people, whom He has so highly favoured, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Suppose you open your mouth wide in prayer. "I cannot," says one. Well, open your mouth, and God will fill it with prayer; and then, when you have prayed the prayer that He has given you, He will fill it with answers. God gives prayer as well as the answer to prayer. Only open your mouth, and, as it were, make a vacuum for God to fill. God loves to look for emptiness where He may stow away His grace. When you have done that, then open your mouth with praise. The praise of God is something like Mr. Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress.' He began to write, he says, and he does not know how he wrote so much; but he quaintly says, "As I pulled, it came"; and you will find it is so with the praise of God. Praise Him, and you will praise Him. If you do not praise Him, you never will praise Him. If you do not begin, you will never keep on; but once open the sluices of gratitude, and the streams will flow more and more copiously every hour. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." ( C. H. Spurgeon.) 1. Labour after a great sense of need. You are weakness itself, and emptiness itself, and a mass of sin and misery, apart from God your Father, and Christ your Redeemer, and the Spirit the indweller; and when you know this, then you will open your mouth wide. 2. Seek after an intense and vehement desire. "He that prays to God without fervour asks to be denied." 3. Ask for large things, remembering the greatness and goodness of God, and the great pleas you have to urge when you come before Him. 4. Ask for enlarged capacities. If we had more room for the Lord's gifts, we should receive more. II. THE PROMISE. "I will fill it." You might expect such a promise as that. You could not think it possible for the Lord to say, "Open your mouths for nothing." It would not be according to His usual way of procedure. He does not set His servants praying and then say somewhere behind their backs, "they shall seek My face in vain." Tantalus belongs to the heathen mythology, not to the Christian's experience. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." 1. It is a promise only made to those who do open their mouths wide. 2. It is a promise given by One who can fulfil it, and will. How? (1) (2) (3) ( C. H. Spurgeon.) 1. That you must avoid as though it were death, the idea of spiritual finality, in the attainments of grace. Never think you have enough of God and God's Spirit. Never be satisfied with any successes you have reached in holiness. Never pause in your career, saying to the deceived and languid soul, "Rest and be thankful." But press on ever to higher, nobler, and more spiritual heights. 2. That there is a law of progress implanted in our nature, which has no limitation. No man here can tell how high he can go in excellence — how far he can reach in godly purity. In the very idea of immortality is implied somewhat that is limitless and unconfined; and so we can by God's grace stretch out further and further, until we are lost in God Himself. O grand and noble acquisition! O blessed and heavenly consummation! (A. Crummell, D. D.) 1235 God, the LORD Ask what I Shall Give Thee. 1Ki 3:05 How Christ is the Way in General, "I am the Way. " Religion Pleasant to the Religious. The Heart's Desire Given to Help Mission Work in China. The Fifth Day in Passion-Week - Make Ready the Passover!' Spiritual Hunger Shall be Satisfied The Second Coming of Christ. Covenanting Adapted to the Moral Constitution of Man. Man's Inability to Keep the Moral Law How Does it Come? The Nature of Spiritual Hunger Justifying or Sanctifying Grace Psalms |
    |