Alright, let's open our Bibles
again to Psalm 81. The title of the message this
evening, God Fills the Open Mouth. I took my title from verse 10
which says, I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of
the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide and I will
fill it. I looked at that and I thought,
what is it to open our mouth wide? In this psalm, I see four
ways that God's people open their mouth wide and God will fill
it. The first one is let's open our mouth wide in praise for
who God is. Verse one, sing aloud unto God
our strength. Make a joyful noise unto the
God of Jacob. Take a psalm and bring hither
the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the
trumpet in the new moon in the time appointed. on our solemn
feast day. For this was a statute for Israel
and a law of the God of Jacob. God's people do praise the Lord
because God's given them a nature that praises him. God has enabled
his people to see him. We see the Lord. We see who he
is. We get a glimpse of who he is
by faith. We will praise him. But think who God is. You know,
we talk about God. Let's remember who God is. Let's
strive to make our praise, our speech about the Lord to be beautiful. David says, take a psalm. Just
take any of these psalms and talk about the praises of the
Lord. David here talks about singing
and playing music. He's talking about making the
praise of God beautiful. You know, let's not be like a
bunch of, you know, those monks that go around that low chant,
you know, nobody can understand. Let's make God's praise beautiful.
Now, you know, we all can't sing or play an instrument. Some of
us can't sing at all or play an instrument at all. But we
can use the abilities God's given us to praise Him. Let's use our
words to express praise of the Lord in the most beautiful way
we know how. in the best way we know how.
Whatever ability it is God's given us, let's use that. We
can do that. But let's be careful. Let's not
just use flowery words. You can get so flowery, you don't
say anything. Let's not just try to always
find the right religious jargon and repeat those things over
and over again. Let's make our words mean something. Let's really
say something honoring to the Lord. And I tell you, if you
really want to open your mouth wide in praise of the Lord, let's
live lives that are beautiful. Let's live lives that are lived
in a way that they honor the Lord. Let's have the way we live
our lives match our speech, match what we say. You know, nothing
is more beautiful than a life of faith. Nothing's more beautiful
than a life of love. kindness and generosity and gentleness
and patience. The apostle Paul said there's
no law against any of those things. You can just take those things
as far as you want. There's no law against them.
And David tells us not only is there a law against them, this
is God's commandment that his people praise him. Then let's
do that the best way we know how. Let's open our mouth wide
in praise of him. And God says he'll fill it. He'll
fill it with more praise. You know, we may think, well,
I can't praise the Lord very well. Well, tell you what, open
your mouth wide and do what you can to praise the Lord. And God
says He'll fill it with more praise. Now, the Lord's so great,
I got looking at the greatness of God and all
the ways that God's people can praise Him. And I got looking
at the notes that I had it jotted out and pulling them together,
I thought, I'm going to preach for three hours. We can't do
that. But let me give you just a couple. We can't name all of
the ways that God's people can praise Him for who He is. But
let me give you two. First, look at Psalm 71. First,
we can praise the Lord for giving us life. Psalm 71, verse 5. Thou art my hope, O Lord God.
Thou art my trust from my youth. By Thee have I been holding up
from the womb. Thou art He that took me out
of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually
of Thee. I am as a wonder unto many, but
Thou art my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with Thy
praise and with Thy honor all the day. Let my mouth be filled
with Your praise for giving me life God's given us physical
life. He's given his people spiritual
life. Now God did that, didn't he? We didn't give ourselves
either of those things. We can't give ourselves physical
life or spiritual life. So let's praise the God who gave
it. If we have that life God gave it, let's open our mouth
wide in praise of him for giving us that life. And you know, it's
impossible for us to praise the Lord unless he's given us life.
That's exactly, it's impossible. Scripture says, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. The only thing our mouth can
speak is what's in our heart. Well, by nature, the heart that
we're born with, by nature, all that heart can speak of is self.
It's full of self, it's full of flesh, it's full of sin. If
there's any praise coming from that old heart, you know who's
getting the praise? Self. But when God gives a new heart,
That new heart can only praise the Lord. So if we can praise
the Lord, if we have the ability to praise the Lord, then we got
to praise the Lord for enabling us to praise Him. It just goes
on and on and on, doesn't it? We praise the Lord because everything
is of Him. All right, second, look at Psalm
126. We praise the Lord because He's
given us freedom from captivity to the law. Psalm 126 verse 1. When the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. This was so
good, we thought it was too good to be true. It must be a dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue was
singing. Then said they among the heathen,
the Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done
great things for us, whereof We are glad. As former captives,
we ought to be able to make the praise of the Lord beautiful.
He filled our mouth with laughter. We ought to be able to make the
praise of Him that set us free beautiful. So let's open our
mouth wide in praise and talk about the beauty of the Lord.
Talk about the beauty of His holiness. Let's open our mouth
wide and let's praise the beauty of God's wisdom. that enabled
him to be both just and justified. Let's praise the beauty of his
grace to guilty sinners. Twice in his first four verses,
he refers to himself as the God of Jacob. God saves sinners. God saves no count sinners. Let's praise him. Let's make
his grace beautiful. You know, we speak about God's
electing grace. Never speak of it as as an ugly
thing or as a thing that's not to be desired, as a thing that
we're apologizing for. That's God's glory. God chose
Jacob. It saved him. Made him rich. Let's speak of that in a way
that makes it beautiful. Let's talk about the beauty of
God's keeping power. His people will persevere to
the end. You know why? He will never leave
them, nor forsake them. Isn't that beautiful? Let's open
our mouth wide in that praise. And the Lord says he'll fill
it with more praise. All right, second. First, we open our mouth
wide, praising the Lord for who he is. Second, we open our mouths
wide, praising the Lord for redemption that's in Christ. Verse five. This he ordained in Joseph for
testimony. When he went out through the
land of Egypt, where I heard a language that I understood
not. I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were delivered
from the pots. Now you know the story of the
children of Israel. They went down to Egypt because Joseph
was down there. Joseph was second in command
during a time of the great famine across all the earth. And they
came to Joseph because Joseph could feed and care for his brethren. Otherwise they'd starve to death.
And Pharaoh treated Israel well. He gave them the land of Goshen.
He treated them well for Joseph's sake. Pharaoh treated them well
because he loved and respected Joseph. But Scripture said when
Joseph died, there finally arose a pharaoh that knew not Joseph.
And that pharaoh made the Israelite slaves. And they were there in
that strange land of slaves for more than 400 years. Can you
think how long? 400 years. They were there 430
years, most of those years as slaves. And then God heard the
cries of his people. He remembered the covenant he
had with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And God raised up a deliverer. He sent a deliverer to Egypt
to bring his people out of that land of bondage and to bring
them to the land that God promised their fathers, a land where they
would live in freedom and prosperity. Now, Moses was the deliverer.
But Moses wasn't the deliverer. Moses was just a servant. You
know, we're going to talk about God's, the praise. Let's be thankful
for God's servants. But the praise is not for the
servant. The praise is reserved for the master, for the savior,
for the deliverer. Moses wasn't the one that delivered
the people. God did that. He says here, I
removed his shoulder from the burden. I delivered his hands
from the pot. I am the one that came and set
my people free. Now, these verses are referring
to the day of the Passover when God himself came and set his
people free. And God gave us this picture,
the day of the Passover, as a picture of salvation in Christ. There's
freedom from bondage through the sacrifice of Christ. On that
night of the Passover, The firstborn in every home where there was
blood on the door lived. And the firstborn in every home
where there was no blood on the door died. Every one of them. And this is what that's teaching
us. There's salvation only in the blood of Christ. Only in
the blood of Christ, our Passover sacrificed for us. Christ was
slain for you. God's justice is not looking
God's justice will pass over you because God sees the blood. This is what he knows. Justice
has already been satisfied by the death of Christ, your substitute. The Passover teaches us that
salvation is in the blood. It's the blood, it's the blood,
it's the blood, it's the blood. It's not our works. It's the
blood. God said, when I see what? The blood, I'll pass over you. God didn't say, when I see your
faith, I'll pass over you. He didn't say, when I see your
good works, I'll pass over you. He didn't say, when I see you
following all the rules for the lamb, you know, that you picked
out the right lamb, it didn't have a spot or blemish, and you
watched it for 14 days, and you made sure it was all just right,
and you sacrificed at exactly the right time. It's not when
I see you following the rules that I'll pass over you. When
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. When I see the blood shed,
and the blood applied, I'll pass over you. Because that means
justice has been satisfied for your sin. The Passover teaches
us that salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all in Him. It's in His obedience. He's the
perfect Lamb. It's in His death. He's the Lamb
sacrificed. It's in His blood shed and His
blood applied. The Lord Jesus Christ saves His
people from their sin. Now there are times in the providence
of God, particularly in the Old Testament, something needed to
be done and God sent an angel to do it. There are times God
sent a prophet. There are times God sent the
priest. But when it came time for God to save his people, God
didn't send Moses and Elijah. He didn't send the apostles.
He didn't send an archangel to save his people. God himself
came in the blessed person of his son, he personally came to
save his people from their sin by his obedience and by his death,
by his sacrifice. God himself did that. Look back
at Exodus chapter 12. Same thing happened on the night
of the Passover. God didn't send some avenging
angel, a mysterious angel. God himself came. Exodus 12 verse
12. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night, and I will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt,
I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And the blood
shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And
when I see the blood, not when an angel sees the blood, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague shall
not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt.
And when you tell this story, here's what you tell, verse 26.
And it shall come to pass when your children shall say unto
you, what mean ye by this surface? That ye shall say, it is the
sacrifice of the Lord's Passover who passed over. He did who passed
over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote
the Egyptians and he delivered our houses. See, this is something
that God himself did on that day of the Passover. And the
same thing happens when God saves his people. He himself and the
blessed person of his son came to save his people by his sacrifice,
by his blood applied. And after that picture, after
that picture of the Passover, when God passed through the land
that night, you know what the Egyptians did? They were never
for letting the children of Israel go. They were letting their free
labor go. After that night, they thrust Israel out. They told
them, don't wait till morning. Get out right now. And don't
you come back. You know what that's a picture
of? That's a picture of the law saying,
get out. You've got to go free if Christ
died for you. There's no greater gift God can
give son of Adam. Then God's saving our souls through
the sacrifice of his precious son. Then let's praise God for
it. Let's open our mouth wide and
not take any credit for it whatsoever. You know, God's blessed this
congregation for years and years and years and years. Brother
Henry is our pastor for more than 50 years. And here we've been here all
these years. Janet was talking to a woman recently who's come
out of false religion, and she had some questions, and Janet
answered them. She said, well, she said, if
you really want to find out the answer to something, she said,
go into Sermon Audio and listen to Henry Mahan. She said, have
you ever heard him preach? And Janet said, I know Brother
Henry real well. He was my pastor for 38 years.
And that woman, her mouth just hung open. And she said, I cannot
imagine such a life. God has blessed this congregation
beyond measure. Let's be sure we don't take any
credit for it. God hasn't blessed us because we've done something
right. Somebody else did something wrong. No, sir. It's just because he's
Lord. It's because of His goodness,
because of His mercy, because of His grace. Then let's open
our mouth wide and praise Him for His grace that would redeem
and save and keep such a people as we are. We can't take any
credit for this. The only thing you and I ever
contributed to this matter of salvation is our need of a Savior. We contributed our sin, which
required a Savior to come and put it away. That's exactly what
Christ did. He came and accomplished this
work of redemption for his people. He gave himself a sacrifice that
would put away the sin of his people. Then let's open our mouth
wide in praise. And I know it'll always be insufficient. I know it will be. But let's
open it wide anyway and praise him with what we got. And God
said he'll fill it with more. Open your mouth wide in praise
and he'll fill it. All right, here's the third thing.
Let's open our mouths wide in time of trial and trouble. Verse
seven, Psalm 81. Thou callest in trouble and I
delivered thee. I answered thee in the secret
place of thunder. I proved thee at the waters of
Meribah. Now, when we're in trouble, we
find ourselves in trial. Let's not try to find a way out
of it, our own selves, And then if we can't find our way out
of it, then we go to the Lord in prayer. Let's call upon the
Lord first. That's the first thing we do.
Call upon the Lord. But let's not call upon the Lord
and then run out and see if we can find a way out of it. Then
take your burden. The songwriter said, take your
burden to the Lord and leave it there. Leave it there. Leave it in his hands to do.
Let's call on the Lord and then wait on Him to deliver us. God says here, you called in
a time of trouble and I delivered thee. Then let's call. Let's call and let's keep calling.
Let's open our mouth wide and let's confess our need of Him. Lord, we need you. Lord, help
us. Lord, save us. Let's open our
mouth wide in submission. This is God's will. This is God's
will for me. And it's right. It's best. And I want to be thankful. Lord,
make me thankful. This is best. You know, the Lord
said, you have not because ask not. Let's open our mouth wide. Let's lay our heart out open
before the Lord and not hold anything back. confess, freely
confess our need of Him, our dependence upon Him. God says
here, you called and I answered you in the secret place, in the
heart. Now God not, well, this is just
my experience. I take this for what it's worth. In a time of trouble, I've not
found a time where we call upon the Lord and He immediately removes
the problem. Have you? I've not found a place
like that. But God will answer in a secret
place. He speaks to the heart of His
people. He comforts the heart of His people. In Psalm 51, we
read to open the service, David said, make me to know wisdom
in the hidden world. Speak to me in the heart. Now
when God does that, the situation from the outside is not going
to look any different. The trial is just the same as
it ever was. The fire is burning just as hot as it ever was. But
our reaction to it is going to change. God spoke to the heart
in a secret place. And he mentions specifically
the waters of Meribah. Now what is that all about? Well,
turn back to Exodus 17. The waters of Meribah teach us
where to look in time of trial. and who to trust in time of trial. Exodus 17 verse one. And all the congregation of the
children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after
their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord,
and pitched in Rephidim. And there was no water for the
people to drink. Wherefore, the people did chide with Moses and
said, give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them,
Why chai chi with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?
And the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured
against Moses and said, wherefore is this? Thou hast brought us
up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with
thirst. And Moses cried unto the Lord saying, what shall I
do unto this people? They'd be almost ready to stone
me. And the Lord said unto Moses, go on before the people and take
with thee of the elders of Israel and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest
the river, taking thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand
before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite
the rock, and there shall come water out of it that the people
may drink. And Moses did so in the sight
of the elders of Israel, and he called the name of the place
Massah and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of
Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord
among us or not? Now, I guess it's easy for us
to be hard on the children of Israel at that time, but you
imagine how bad this situation looked to them. They wandered
out into the middle of the desert and there's no water in sight.
Apparently there was a rock nearby, but there's no water in sight
and they're thirsty. They're going to die of dehydration
if they don't get some water to drink. Now the lesson to you
and me is this. The situation we find ourselves
in is going to be bad. But don't look at how bad the
situation is. Look to Christ. Trust Christ. He's the smitten rock. Don't
trust our own abilities to find a way out of this problem. Look
to Christ. He's the smitten rock. Now it
might sound like religious jargon to say, look to Christ. But brother,
Christ is enough. In every situation, Christ is
enough. No matter the trial. There may be a lot of things
this flesh has got to have, but I'll tell you one thing the believers
got to have. I must have Christ or else I die. Then look to Christ. If you look to him, you'll find
comfort for your soul. You'll find hope. You'll find
strength. You'll find peace. Open your mouth wide in need
of Christ, and He'll fill it with water from the rock. Christ
is that rock. He was smitten for His people.
When He was smitten, out flowed life-giving water. Blood to justify,
water to sanctify. Open your mouth wide in need
of Him, He'll fill it with water from the rock. And I'll show
you in a minute, that's gonna be mighty sweet-tasting water.
But read on, verse 8. Then came Amalek, and fought
with Israel and Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose
us out men, and go fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand
on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua
did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses
and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came
to pass that Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed.
And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses'
hands were heavy, And they took a stone and put it under him,
and he sat there on. And Aaron and Hur stayed up his
hands, the one on the one side, the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until
the going down of the sun. And Joshua disconfited Amalek
and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said
unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in
the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance
of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and
called the name of it Jehovah Nisi, the Lord by a banner. Now, this was a strong, well-trained
army that came up to attack Israel. And that's going to happen to
you and me too. And we're going to be out of our league. But
don't look how strong the enemy is. Look to Christ. He's our banner. Look to Christ,
lift it up. Look to Christ lifted up on the
cross. You'll find comfort for your
soul. If you look to Christ lifted up on the cross, you'll find
the forgiveness of sin. That's how God forgives sin.
That's how God puts my sin away through the sacrifice of Christ.
If you want comfort for your soul, look to Him lifted up.
In time of trouble and trial, you feel like everything's so
dark. and you feel like I can't leave
the house, I can't go out among people, it's just the worst thing
I can imagine. Remember what the writer to the
Hebrews said, let's not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
You'd be amazed how often you come to the worship service,
preaching service, the preaching of Christ. You'd be amazed how
often that comforts your soul. That's how God feeds and comforts
and strengthens his people. Open your mouth wide in need
of Christ and He'll fill it. He'll fill it with exactly what
you need. And you know, the reason the
Lord sends trials our way is to increase our faith in Him,
isn't it? Well, that brings me to the fourth thing. Let's open
our mouths wide in faith in Christ. Back in our text, Psalm 81 verse
8. and I will testify unto thee.
O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me, there shall no strange
God be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange God.
I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land
of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. Now, when
I first read this, the picture that came to my mind was baby
birds in a nest. You know those baby birds that
are first born? They just sit there Their mouth is open, their
eyes closed, and their mouth open. And they just don't close
that. They're just waiting. You know why they do that? They're
waiting. You know what they know is going
to happen? They know this. Mama's going to come fill that
open mouth. They know it. And Mama gets there with food.
And you know what that baby knows? It's going to be good food. It's
going to be exactly what I need. That baby never says, let me
see what you got there. Where'd you get that? What's
the ingredients for that? Is that something I like? The
baby bird never asks that. And they eat whatever mama puts
in their mouth. Because they know she's giving
them what's best for them. They know it's going to be enough
for them to grow on. The baby bird doesn't try to
help mama out, do they? They just sit there and wait for mama
to come fill that open mouth. You know what that is? That's
childlike faith. God give me faith like that.
Childlike faith in Christ. Just stay still. With a wide
open mouth waiting for Christ to come fill it. Knowing He's
going to come fill it with good food. He's going to fill it with
Himself. Childlike faith, trust that Christ
will be enough. To sit there with an open mouth
trusting He's going to be all I need. He's all I need to be
saved. He's all I need to grow in grace. He's all I need to
be strengthened. He's all I need to be comforted.
Well, then let's open our mouths wide in faith, trusting that
God will fill us and He will. Look at Psalm 103. This is what God does for those
with that wide open mouth of faith. Psalm 103 verse five. Who satisfied thy mouth, who
satisfied thy wide open mouth with good things so that thy
youth is renewed like the eagles. Well, what are the good things
that the Lord uses to fill the wide open mouth of his people?
Verse three, he fills it with forgiveness, who forgiveth all
thine iniquities. who healeth all thy diseases.
God fills the mouth of his people with the forgiveness of sins. He fills the mouth of his people
with the healing of all of our sin sicknesses. He fills it with
Christ. Christ came, he took the sin
of his people and his own body on the tree. He took our wounds,
our bruises, our putrefying sores and sacrificed himself and by
his stripes were healed. He took the sin of his people
away from them, and they've got an open mouth. You know what
he filled it with? His righteousness. He made them the righteousness
of God in him. There's nothing better than that. In verse four, he filled them
with redemption. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. Christ redeemed his people from
destruction by being crucified in our place. And then he fills
their open mouth. He just covers them with his
love and loving kindness and his tender mercy. He fills them
with the best things. Right now, back in our text,
verse 15, Psalm 81. This is what he would feed everyone
who has this open mouth of faith. He should have fed them also
with the finest of the wheat and with the honey out of the
rock should I have satisfied thee. The Lord fills that hungry,
wide open mouth with the finest of wheat, with Christ, the bread
of life. He fills that hungry, wide open
mouth with sweet things. My grandmother, my mother's mother,
taught me this lesson real well, and I've never unlearned it.
That's why I have my mind. A meal is never finished till
I got something sweet. God has something sweet for His
people. He fills their mouth with His mercy, with His grace,
with His righteousness, with His peace. He fills them with
the sweetness of the sacrifice of Christ. That's what the honey
out of the rock refers to. Faith in Christ opens its mouth
wide and confesses Christ is the only Savior. He's the only
God. There's no idol there. In God's
people, there's no idol. God-given faith is not going
to waste its time with man's false religion, with the religion
of the flesh and will-worship. Look at Matthew chapter 8. I
want to show you two examples of this. God-given faith opens
its mouth wide and confesses complete trust in Christ alone. And there's two wonderful examples
of this I want us to look at quickly. Matthew 8 verse 5. And when Jesus was entered into
Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him and
saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy, grievously
tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I'll
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I'm not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof,
but speak the word only. And my servant shall be healed.
I know that. For I'm a man under authority,
having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, go and
he goeth. And to another, come, and he cometh. And to my servant,
do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled
and said to them that followed, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say
unto you that many shall come from the east and west and shall
sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer
darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus
said unto the centurion, Go thy way, as thou hast believed, as
you've opened your mouth wide in faith, as thou hast believed,
so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed that
very hour. He opened his mouth wide in faith.
Lord, I know if you say it, it'll be done. And the Lord filled
it, didn't he? Now look at John chapter 4. John 4 verse 46. So Jesus came again into Cana
of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain
nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that
Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto him and
besought him that he would come down and heal his son, for he
was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, except
you see signs and wonders you will not believe. The nobleman
said unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. He didn't know
what to say about this, except you see signs and wonders you
will not believe. All he knew to do is open his mouth wide
in faith and confess faith in Christ. If you come, my son will
be healed. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy
way, thy son liveth. and the man believed the word
that Jesus had spoken. He didn't have to go see a miracle
to believe. He believed the word Jesus had spoken unto him, and
he went his way. And you know how we know for
sure this man believed the word that was spoken to him? His son
is appointed that. He didn't go straight home and
check it out, to see if what the Lord told him was true. He
didn't go to the next day. Look, read on, verse 51. And
as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him,
saying, Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of the hour
when he began to amend, and they said unto him, Yesterday. That
man went on his way, did some business, spent the night, had
a nice stay, went home the next day. Yesterday, they said, the
seventh hour, the fever left him. So the father knew that
it was the same hour in the which Jesus had said unto him, Thy
son liveth. And he himself believed. and
his whole house. This man opened his mouth wide
in faith and God filled it. He asked for physical healing
and the Lord filled it. He and his whole house were made
spiritually. Now, back to our text. We've
got to look at the rest of these verses before we can quit. This
is a precious promise from our Lord. Open your mouth wide and
I'll fill it. But we have a serious warning
from the Lord too. If you insist on your own way, God will give
you that too. Verse 11. But my people would
not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me. So I
gave them up under their own hearts lust. I gave them exactly
what their hearts lusted after. And they walked in their own
counsels, in their own way. Oh, that my people had hearkened
unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways. I should soon have
subdued their enemies and turn my hand against their adversaries.
The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto
him, but their time should have endured forever. Now that's a
sobering warning, isn't it? We won't have God's way. We won't
open our mouth wide in faith to receive what he would give
us. Then God would give us our own way. We'll walk after our
own counsels, walk after our own way, the way we think is
right, which will always be the way of death. Now I want you
to notice something here. The description of the people
who won't listen to God. Verse 15 calls them the haters
of the Lord. Now faith has to do with submission
to God. Faith, saving faith, submits
to the righteousness of God. That means we quit going about
to establish our own righteousness and we submit to the righteousness
of Christ. The only righteousness I'll have
It's Christ alone. The Apostle Paul said the problem
with his unsaved, his lost brethren was this. It's not that they
didn't know the right ceremony, the right form of religion. It's
not that they didn't have the word. It's they would not submit
themselves to the righteousness of God. And anyone who won't
submit themselves to the righteousness of God and quit trying to have
some of their own righteousness added in the mix, that person
hates God. They hate God. It's not that
they don't understand. They hate God. It's not that
they don't understand how a sinner is made righteous. They hate
God. They hate God's way. It's not
that they see another way and that way works too. You're all
going to go a different direction and wind up in the same place.
No, sir. They hate God. Salvation is all
Christ or no Christ at all. Salvation is all of faith, or
it's all of words. No in between. Then our prayer
is this. That's my prayer. Lord, open
my mouth wide in praise. Open my mouth wide in praise
for the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Open my mouth wide
in times of trial. Not to gripe and complain, but
to open my mouth wide to confess my need for Christ, and open
my mouth wide in faith, confessing that Christ is all, so you can
fill it, so you can fill it with Christ. God, help us to open
our mouth wide. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, we are humbled at
the awesomeness of your word. What glorious instruction you
condescend to give your people to open our mouth wide. You'll feel it. What a precious
promise. Father, we pray you'd fill us
with your salvation. You fill us with Christ. You
fill our open, hungry mouth with righteousness. As the heart pants
after the water broke, so our heart pants after thee. Oh, our
God, Lord, fill us with Christ. Fill us with your gospel. Enable
us to see more of the Lord Jesus Christ. Enable us to believe
him and to believe him more, to trust him and to trust him
more fully. Use your word to bring much glory
to your name. Use your word to save your people,
to fill that open, hungry mouth, the comfort and edify your people,
we pray. is in the precious name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, we pray and give thanks.