Seeking once again the Lord's
help, I'd like to turn to the chapter that we read together,
Isaiah 41, and the text you'll find in verse
14. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob, and
ye men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Really to incorporate or to speak fully
on the text, we have to really look at verse 13 as well, which
is very similar. For I, the Lord thy God, will
hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee,
fear not thou worm, Jacob. Quite an unusual, illustration
really of the Lord's people that the Lord himself calls Israel
or Jacob, the people of Jacob, the children of Israel, a worm. And on the face of it, a worm
is something very insignificant, unimportant, something trodden
over, and something not really thought about. And when you look
into the work that worms do, they're very vital to the ecosystem,
for the soil, for the biodegrading of composts and things like that. And so the
worm, although insignificant, is something very useful. something
that has been created by God for a purpose, as with all of
his insects and creatures that he has made. There are what is
termed the clean-up crew, which in the oceans come and clear
all the dead animals and in the In the woods there are the flies
and the maggots and the worms which come and clear up everything
and help with God's creation. And so as we look at God calling
Jacob a worm, in the sight of God, Israel is insignificant
because God is so great. As David stood before Goliath,
he seemed insignificant. He says, am I a dog that you've
come to me with sticks and stones? And so when something is so great, balanced out with something else,
that something else becomes small and seemingly insignificant. But we know that the people of
Israel, Jacob, were not insignificant in the sight of God. They were
the Lord's people. They were the favoured people
of all the earth. They were the people that God
chose from all of the nations of the earth and set his love
upon them, not because they were a great people, a strong people,
a wealthy people, but because they were the least of all people. And so though they are the least
of all people, and they may be insignificant in the sight of
all the other people, yet in God's sight, were the ones that
he had set his love and his care upon. And so in calling them
a worm he's not disregarding them, he's looking at them as
something as to what they are, they're insignificant, they're
small yet they are useful in the hand of God. Often we have
been termed as Gatsby's worms. I think in some of his hymns
he uses that word, obviously in the first hymn, hymn number
one in Gatsby's, it says, Great God, how infinite art thou, what
worthless worms are we. that their whole race and creatures
bow and pay their praise to thee and there are other hymns in
which he uses the word worm but in using it he's magnifying God
and he is putting man in the right place. we said with prayer. Prayer puts people in the right
place, it puts them at the feet, it humbles them, it makes them
insignificant, it makes them in need of God and so when Gatsby
refers to them as worthless worms before a holy God we are worthless
worms. In the hand of a mighty God these
worthless worms become useful instruments in the hand of a
mighty God and just because Jacob is being referred to as a worm
it does not mean he is being disregarded because God puts
before him fear not thou worm Jacob. But sometimes in life
we can feel like we are worms. We can feel so powerless, so
useless, so unable to do anything that we feel like a worm in a
compost heap, a worm in the garden, unable to do anything. And this
is how Israel felt themselves to be. At this moment in time
they had been taken captive and taken up into Babylon. They were
in the hands of a mighty army, a mighty nation and they were
full of fear. They had no ability to fight. They had been overtaken. Everything
had been destroyed and they were taken captive and placed into
Babylon. They were like worms in the hand
of a great bird, unable to do anything. Yet God here reminds
them, although you are worms in the beak of a great bird,
yet you are still under my care. those that are round about you,
this great Babylon just worship idols. And so God as it were
stands as a judge and says keep silent before me. Like a judge
stands in the courtroom and as he bangs on the desk and he says,
silence, silence in the court. And so God, as it were, bangs
on the desk and says, keep silent before me. Although you feel
like a helpless worm, yet just remember who it is that these
people serve. Remember Abraham. verse 2 he says that it's God
who raised up the righteous man from the east called him to his
foot, gave him the nations before him and made him rule over kings. Who raised up Abraham? Who called
him out of the land of the Chaldeans, out of Ur of the Chaldeans? Was
God. God spoke to him, get thee out
of your land and I will send you to a place that you don't
know and to this land I will give it to you and to your seed. And so it's God. And so he called
them to remember all that God had done for them in the past. Yes, they were in Babylon. Yes,
they felt like a worm, unable to do anything. But he says,
cast your mind back and see how you have come to this place.
Remember Abraham. Remember how I called Abraham
from the land of idol worship. brought him out of that darkness
and brought him to the promised land. How I gave him that great
promise that in him all the nations of the earth are going to be
blessed. Genesis 12 it says, and the Lord,
now the Lord had said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land
that I will show thee, and I will make thee a great nation, and
I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be
a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse
them that curse thee, and in thee shall all the families of
the earth be blessed and so Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken. Do we know how the Lord led Abraham
as he wandered in the promised land that would be his, as he
gave him Isaac, as he offered him up as that sacrifice and
as he continued to walk with him and
here in our reading he calls him my friend. And so Abraham was the friend
of God and he tells the people of Israel through the prophet
Isaiah, cast your mind back and remember that I brought Abraham
away from these idols and now you're being held by a people
that worship idols. He says in verse 16, And thou
shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the
whirlwind shall scatter them, and they shall rejoice in the
Lord, and shall glory in the Holy One of Israel. He tells
them that this is what is going to take place. In verse 6 it
says, And they helped everyone his neighbour, and everyone said
to his brother, Be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the
goldsmith, and he that smootheneth with the hammer, and smote the
anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering. And so he fastened
it with nails, that it should not be moved. But thou, Israel,
art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham,
my friend. And so he compares himself to
these gods that have been created with men's hands. And we see
it in the scriptures. One cuts down a tree. One part
of it is taken for making bread. Another part is taken for making
an idol. And so God compares himself to
these false gods. He tells them, you speak to these
gods. Tell them to tell us what happened before. Tell them to
tell us what is going to happen. And at the end of the chapter
it says, And so in their captivity, as they are so afraid of the
great powerful Babylonians, God reminds them of his greatness. It is him that put them there
because of their rebellion. He sent them prophets and they
didn't listen and so the king of Babylon was used as an instrument
in God's hand to punish the people of Israel. But even in their
punishment God comes with his prophets to encourage them and
to help them and to reveal himself to them in their midst of trial. And to remind them that he is
the one true living God. I the Lord, the first and the
last, I am he. It should be the Babylonians
who are fearing, who are afraid. They are the ones who are worshipping
gods made with hands. But the people of Israel worship
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And it's to them He encourages them to don't be afraid. And how often it is even in our
own lives that it's the Christians that are the ones that are afraid.
The people of the world, they don't seem to have any fear.
They are able to put things to the back of their minds. They
don't fear judgment. They don't fear offending God.
They don't fear breaking the law. They don't fear about what
will happen tomorrow. They seem to live with no fear. And yet it's the people of God
who are troubled, the people of God who are afraid, the people
of God who are perplexed and downcast. But it's always been
so. The scripture says some trust
in chariots and some in horses, but we will trust in the name
of the Lord our God. And their trust is in these objects. these objects seem to be able
to numb the mind to fear to give them a hope about tomorrow and
about the end. But God speaks and he says although
you feel like a worm, Jacob, I am going to help you. had no need to fear. God had
allotted a time for their judgment. God had allotted a time for their
punishment and he was going to raise up men to come and deliver
them. After as it were their sin had
been dealt with God was going to come and deliver them and
bring back bring them back to Israel as he has promised to
Abraham all those years ago. That Israel could not be completely
destroyed. There had to be that line coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he raises up men of God
to assist the people of God. And he does so in a miraculous
way. As it was prophesied regarding Cyrus the king. God was going
to raise up this ungodly king to use him as a means to help
his people. In Ezra we read of Cyrus the
king of Persia The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the
kingdoms of the earth and he hath charged me to build him
a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. You remember that the
people of Babylon as they entered into Jerusalem they destroyed
the temple. And so the first thing that is
going to be built is the temple. And Cyrus, this ungodly king,
is being used of God to provide the means to build this temple. And so he sends Ezra and some
of the others to begin building the temple. And as they then
build the temple, the Lord sends Nehemiah to build the walls of
Jerusalem. In Nehemiah chapter one. Nehemiah has visitors and they
describe the destruction of Jerusalem. And they said, unto me, the remnant
that are left of the captivity there in the province are in
great affliction and reproach. The walls of Jerusalem is also
broken down and the gates thereof are burned with fire. and it
came to pass when I heard these words so I sat down and wept
and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the
God of heaven. I wonder if when we read about our persecuted
brothers and sisters in Christ and as we read about the effects
of the of Western culture upon the church,
how does it affect us? And we see the church almost
wasting away and we feel insignificant like worms in the sight of Great
Babylon. What effect does it have on us?
near Maya when he heard that just the walls of Jerusalem are
broken down and that the people who are there building the temple
and had began to live around about are suffering persecution,
they are afflicted and reproached and the wall is broken down he
couldn't stand it. It broke him down. He wept and
he mourned for certain days. It affected his external countenance
so much that the king asks him, are you unwell? What's the problem? Obviously some people knew but
it didn't have the same effect. Oh that the Lord would raise
up some like Nehemiah, that are so affected by what they see
in the church, so affected by the the walls that are crumbling,
seemingly crumbling down, that we are drawn to prayer and weeping
and mourning, that God would move. And the king says to him,
why are you sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing else
but sorrow of heart. then I was very sore and afraid. And so the king commissions Nehemiah
to go to Jerusalem and to begin building the wall. So the temple
is built and they all work together and they build the wall, the
wall goes up and then at the end they bring out the book of
the law. They ask Ezra, a scholar of the
word of God to come and to read and so they build him a pulpit.
and he begins to read. And as he reads there are men
in the congregation who are explaining all of that Ezra is saying. It
has been said that some may not have understood the Hebrew language
and so it was being translated. Things were being explained. And as the book of the law is
read to the people of God There is a revival. Their hearts are
broken. They're concerned by what they
are reading and they weep and they mourn over their sin because of what they saw in God's
Word and what they saw in themselves. We've often said that the Word
of God is like a mirror. It shows us who we are. It's meant to have an effect
upon us when we read it. As we look into the mirror and
we see we've got maybe a spot or a pimple and we don't like
it, we want to get rid of it. And so when we read from the
Word of God it reveals to us our spots and our pimples, our
uncleanness and we are broken. We want to get rid of them. We
want to confess. We want to remove that sin. It's
exactly what happens in Nehemiah's day. Ezra read the book of the
law and the word of God convicted the people and brought them to
repentance and sorrow over their sin. So the Levites stilled the people
saying, hold your peace for the day is holy, neither be grieved. There was a blessing that they
had been convicted. Jesus tells us that there is
joy in heaven over one sinner that is brought to repentance
over their sin, over one sinner that sees their need of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So it's a day of rejoicing when
the Spirit of God moves over the congregation to bring people
under a conviction of their sin. And so God knew exactly what
he was going to do. The people of God did not know
what God was going to do, so he encourages them to trust in
me, the true and living God, and to reject the pride and the
self-confidence and the lack of fear of those who trust in
idols. though you're a worm yet you
belong to the God of heaven I'm the God of Abraham the God
of Isaac and the God of Jacob you are mine and you have nothing
to fear everything seemed against them
but everything was in the hand of mighty God And so he encourages
them. You are my servant. You are my
servant. I have chosen you and not cast
you away. Fear not. I am with you. They're in Babylon. They think
that God maybe is only there in Jerusalem. But he's with them even in Babylon.
He's with them in their captivity. He's sending his prophets to
encourage them, to give them hope that these things are going
to come to an end. I am with thee. Don't be dismayed.
I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. I will
help thee. Yea, I will withhold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. So these are great promises given
to the people of God to encourage them while they're in their trial. everything seemed against them
and sometimes in our trials it may seem that everything seems
against us and not only will it seem that everything seems
against us but it can seem that even God is against us. Things can be so dark and difficult
and hard We can think in our minds that God has turned away
from us. But it's impossible. God never abandoned Abraham. God never abandoned Isaac. God
never abandoned Jacob. God never abandoned the children
of Israel until they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
with them all the time. and he will not abandon his own
people who are found in him by Christ. So he encourages them
in their pathway. He says I will hold your right
hand just like a father holds the hand of his children. when
he sees that they are scared, when he sees that they're worried
and concerned, when he sees they're in danger, he puts out his hand
to them as they're going to cross a road. He says, hold my hand. It is a comfort. This is a help,
reassurance to the little one that their father is there. And
so God says, I am going to hold you by the hand. Yes you're in
trouble, yes you're afraid, but don't worry I am here holding
your hand. It shows nearness, it shows compassion,
it shows love. And then he speaks. Not only
does he hold the hand of his people, he speaks to them. It's
not a love without words, it's not words without action, it's
all together. a God of love, a God of compassion,
of mercy. I will hold your hand saying
to you, fear not. I will help you. Sometimes you see worms and they've
got stuck in puddles. Now worms can't swim although
they can breathe underwater. that they need help. So you can
pick them up and put them onto the soil and they'll go on their
way. They're unable to help themselves. And the Lord's people are often
unable to help themselves. They've lost all hope. They've
forgotten that the Lord is holding their hand. They've forgotten
the fear knots. And so he says, I will help you.
I will give you the strength that you need to go through this
trial. I'll give you the ability and
the perseverance and the stamina needed to go through this difficulty
that you are passing through. I have promised that there is
an end to it. Although you have lost all hope,
yet there is an end to it. And I will bring you out. I have
my men ready. I'm raising them up to bring
about a deliverance. And I will bring you again to
Jerusalem. Fear not thou worm Jacob and
you men of Israel I will help you saith the Lord. Now it matters
doesn't it who says I will help. Often thought if you're drowning
at the side of a in a swimming pool and you see a little child
there and they say don't worry I'll help you you're going to
be quite discouraged. because you know they don't have
the strength, they don't have the ability to dive in and to
save you. And so the one who is offering
the help must have the ability to help. And so the Lord has that ability
to help. He calls himself here Lord as
we looked at the I am He shows himself as the one true
living God, the almighty God, with whom nothing should be called
impossible. And it's him that says, don't
fear. It's him that says, I will help
you. Why? Because I'm your redeemer. It was God who redeemed Israel
from Egypt. He used Moses as his worm to
accomplish his will. But it was God who brought them
out. He redeemed them. And it's God who redeemed his
people from their sin by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Redeemer. He paid the price. He paid the Yeah the price of your release
from the captivity of sin. He redeems his people by shedding
his precious blood so that they may go free. His life is offered
as a substitutionary atonement, as a payment to release his people. And so he is your redeemer. It's not just anybody who's saying
I will help you. It is the one who has paid the
ultimate price for the consequences of your sin who says I will help
you. He is revealing to you himself
again. He revealed himself to you once
you knew that you were loved with an everlasting love, and
now he is revealing himself to you again. Don't fear, you worm. I will help you, saith the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. God will help. And he proves through the whole
of the scripture that he does help his people. He demonstrates
to them how much he loves them. He demonstrates to them. Yes,
they have to be brought low. Yes, they have to be taken into
captivity. Yes, they have to feel themselves
to be as worms, insignificant, unable, full of fear. But then
he comes. Then he comes with a fear not.
I will help you. I will bring you out. as the
Holy One of Israel. And then he says, I will make
you. Restoration. Something that has been battered
and bruised over time needs restoring. Yes there's that restoration
to rightful place, rightful fellowship. But there's also that restoration
that needs to take place. We think of old cars. Time takes
its toll. Weather, journeyings takes its
toll. And they need to come under the
hand of a restorer. Taken apart. Cleaned. Put back together again. Sprayed. New seats. New insides. Restored. And then they're put on show. When you look at an item that
has been restored we would like to see a before and an after. We look at how bad it was and
then we see what it has become. Sometimes you can't even begin
to imagine that this what is seen before you did originally
look like that. Such is the work of the restorer
that he restores it to almost new condition. And God is able to do that with
his people. We often go back to Peter, don't
we? When Peter denied the Lord Jesus Christ and was brought
to sorrow over his sin and ran away, yet the Lord restored him,
changed him. But he had to go into that place
of being crushed He had to go into that wormly condition to
see himself as nothing before he is then raised up to be the
mighty preacher on the day of Pentecost. The people of Israel had to go
into Babylon to remove their pride, to remove their dependency
upon idols to then become and trust in the true and the living
God. These things have to take place
because God is a restoring God. I once worked on a Volkswagen Beetle. I bought it off my brother and before I began to put it
together I had to cut it apart. There was rust hidden behind
filler. All the filler had to be ground
off and cut out and plates had to be welded in. And in the end
I couldn't, the job was too big. I scrapped it. But God doesn't
scrap his people. Yes, there has to be grinding
off. Yes, there has to be cutting
out. Yes, there has to be plates welded in. Yes, there has to
be places sprayed over and restored. He never gives up on his own
people. They will be brought through
much tribulation, but they will make it to the promised land. and the people of Israel had
to go through the Babylonian experience before they were revived
under the preaching and the reading of the word of God in the time
of Ezra and Nehemiah. They had to go through that.
But God encouraged them in that by showing them that these gods
that they had been worshipping, these gods that belong to this
great Babylon, they are nothing. God is the true and living God,
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And he says, when the
poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue
faileth for thirst, I the Lord we'll hear them. Remember how
Elijah mocks the prophets of Baal. He says your God can't
hear. Maybe he's gone on a holiday
because they can't hear. But God can and does hear the
cries of his righteous people. And he says, when they cry for
water, I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will
not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places
and fountains in the midst of valleys. I will make the wilderness
a pool of water and the dry land springs of water. I will plant
in the wilderness cedars and all manner of trees. That's exactly
what he did. He brought about a great revival
and that which was barren and dead was revived and restored. He opened, as it were, the windows
of heaven and poured out his spirit upon the nation of Israel
and revived them. And that's what we need. We need the Lord to move in our
lives, to stir up, to pour out his spirit on us as individuals,
that we may bear fruit for his honour and glory. Once we've
been down in the depths, once we've been in the dry and barren
place, we need that pouring of water upon the dry ground We
read on Wednesday in Isaiah 44, Fear not, O Jacob, my servant.
And thou, Jes Ruan, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water
upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I
will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine
offspring. And they shall spring up as among
the grass, as willows by the water, watercourses. when we were in Kenya and you
may have seen it on the news even in the Sahara Desert of
the rain that came there. But it can be completely dry,
grass that can be just brown and then the rain will come through
and within a few days a barren wilderness can become a beautiful,
green, lush oasis. Those dry riverbeds, those dry
dams, those dry fields can be filled with water and with grass,
teeming with wildlife once again. Just a move of God. No man can
do it, but a move of God. And he's able to change everything
in a moment. And he did so for the people
of Israel. He changed their captivity, brought
them out of Egypt, brought them out of Babylon. And he's able
to change people's captivity in the darkness of this world.
Just by a move of his Holy Spirit can bring them into fellowship
with him. A work that we can't do but God
can do. He can restore his people. They feel dry. They feel insignificant. They feel like a worm. Yet he
can restore them and comfort them and help them by speaking
to them, by holding their hand, by comforting them with his words,
by reminding them that they are not trusting in chariots and
horses. They're not trusting in dumb
idols. but they are trusting in the
true and living God. Often we forget. We can be so absorbed with our
own trouble we forget that God is there. We need our faith to be reignited,
increased. We need him to pour that river
of water to open up that fountain within our hearts, that out of
our bellies will flow those rivers of living water. For I, the Lord,
will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help
thee. Fear not thou worm, Jacob. Don't
be offended by being called a worm. A worm is useful, yes, insignificant,
weak, but very useful. and God is able to take weak,
insignificant people and use them for his honour and glory.
Look at Abraham, look at Isaac, look at Jacob, look at Moses,
look at Peter, look at Paul, look at church history. Don't
be offended by being a worm of the Lord Jesus Christ. You worm,
Jacob. I will help you, saith the Lord,
thy Redeemer. Holy One of Israel, I will make
thee. May we prove that that he is
making us and restoring us and bringing us back or to that condition
that he wants us to be. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. Just one notice to be added on
to this morning is that church members are reminded we have
a meeting tomorrow evening at 7.30. Our closing hymn is hymn
number 15 from Hymns of Worship. We love the place, O God, wherein
thine honour dwells, the joy of thine abode, all earthly joy
excels. Hymn number 15 from Hymns of
Worship to the tune 955. We love the place, O God, Where
in thine honor dwells The joy of thine abode, All earthly joy
excels. We love the house of prayer,
Wherein Thy servants meet, And Thou alone art their, Thy chosen
flock to greet. We love the Word of life, The
Word that tells of peace, Of comfort in the strife And joys
that never cease We love to sing mellow Of mercy's brilliant gain
But oh, we long to know O Jesus, give us grace, on earth
to love thee more, in heaven to see thy face, and with thy
saints adore. Dear Lord and Heavenly Father,
we thank Thee for the promises of Thy Word. We thank Thee, Lord,
Thou God who is near at hand. We thank Thee for those fear
nots which encourage Thy people when we forget who Thou art. And we pray, Lord, that even
this night Thou hold our right hand and say unto us, fear not
that Thou art with us. We pray thou be with us now as
we depart from each other to be with those who will remain
and sit around thy table. I do come and commune with us
there we pray. Now may the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with us
each now and for evermore. Amen.