After the death of the apostles, God's people began to suffer
tremendous persecutions at the hands of wicked men, particularly
in and around Rome. One of those faithful men, a
man by the name of Ignatius, a man to this day renowned as
quite a theologian, was one of the first to be cast to the lions
in the Colosseum at Rome. And as he stood there awaiting
death and the lion pounced on him, Ignatius held out an arm. And as the lion took his arm
off, He was heard to say in a loud voice, now I begin to be a Christian. You see, the fact is Christianity
is not as the religious world reports it to be. It is not as
men naturally presume it ought to be. It is not a bed of roses. When I preach the gospel to you
and call you to believe Christ and follow Christ, I call you
to come to Christ knowing full well that you must take up your
cross and follow Him. You must take up your cross and
follow Him. That doesn't mean that you just
must endure things. We all have to endure things. The believer and the unbeliever
alike in God's providence suffer sickness, bereavement, domestic
difficulty, business problems. The believer and the unbeliever
alike go through the hard times of society and the nation. The
believer and the unbeliever alike have problems with husbands,
wives, and children. Those things are common to men
because we live in a world of sin. The believer has difficulties
other men know nothing about. The believer has a constant warfare
in his soul. The believer is a man with two
natures, and he hates what he is by nature and struggles with
it incessantly. The believer, as he seeks to
worship God and walk with him, seeks to follow Christ must set
himself in a position where he is in constant opposition to
the world around him. Relentless opposition. Opposition
primarily because of the gospel of God's grace we believe. And
you don't have to go around button-holding folks and trying to get them
convinced of things. People find out you believe the
gospel of God's free grace And they're automatically upset with
you because they know. They know. You don't believe
there's any good in them. They know. You don't believe
there's any such thing as righteousness performed by them. They know. You don't believe they have any
understanding of anything at all with relation to the things
of God. And that just doesn't sit well with folks. And when
you begin to proclaim the gospel of God's grace to people, you
meet with opposition. There are things that we must
do, by which we know we will suffer as the result. If I do
the will of God, I must walk in this direction. If I honor
my Savior, I must move in this direction. If I will walk by
the Spirit of God, I must do that which He requires of me,
and I want to. But he's going to get upset. He's going to get upset. These
folks aren't going to like it. Mom and daddy aren't going to
like it. Son and daughter aren't going to like it. Mother and
sister aren't going to like it. Well, step aside, because this must
be done. And whatever the consequences
are, I'm prepared for the glory of Christ, the interest of his
kingdom, the good of my own soul. I'm prepared to face the consequences.
But preacher, aren't you ever fearful at such times? Oh, yeah. I try my best not to let you
know it. I'm kind of like these boxers you see on television
facing off with one another. I try to give you a cold, glaring
stare and say I'm not going to flinch for anything. But the
inside, yeah, I know what fear is. Turn to Isaiah 41. I believe
I have a message for you. This is God's word to you, my
brother. This is God's word to you, my
sister. Verse 10. Fear thou not, for
I am with thee. Be not dismayed. for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that are incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be
as nothing. And they that strive with thee
shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt
not find them, even them that contended with thee. They that
war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught. For I am the Lord thy God. I,
the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee,
Fear not, for I will help thee. 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. Behold, I will make
thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth. Thou shalt thresh
the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills
as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the
wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them.
And thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the
Holy One of Israel. When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
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 the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness
the cedar, the shitter tree, and the myrtle, and the oil I
will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box
tree together, that they may see, and know, and consider,
and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done
this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it. I look at verse
14. Here's my subject. Thou worm, Jacob. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob. The purpose and object of God
in these verses is to silence the fears of his people in the
midst of great difficulty. to encourage us confidently to
trust Him, confidently to walk with Him, confidently to obey
Him in the teeth of every imaginable difficulty. You see, it is contrary
to the will of God, contrary to the faith God has given us,
contrary to the glory of our God, for you and I to be a timid,
fearful, anxious people. And so to suppress our fears,
he assures us of his constant, unfailing, never ceasing presence,
power, protection, and provision. Three times in verses 11, 13,
and 14, God says to you and me, fear not, fear not, fear not
thou worm, Jacob. Now I take that to mean he doesn't
want us to be fearful. Is that a reasonable assumption?
Fear not! Fear not! Fear not thou worm,
Jacob! Though your enemies may be many
and mighty, fear not! God's greater than your enemies.
Though your afflictions are painful and protracted, fear not, the
Lord God will deliver you. Though your path of duty may
be demanding and may be dangerous, fear not, your God will uphold
you and help you. Though the fulfillment of God's
promises may not be seen, though they may appear to be far off,
Though the promise tarry, wait for it, it will come. And God
says, fear not, for not one promise of God shall fall to the ground.
All right, now let me make five statements, and I want you to
see them clearly. First, understand this. The Lord God addresses us as
worms because we are, every one of us, weak, helpless worms before
God. He said, well that's not very
pleasant, what do I explain the meaning of the word? The word
is maggots. Now there's not many things that
make my skin crawl, but on these hot days if I've been out of
town for a couple of weeks and Shelby's been taking in garbage
like she normally does, and it's piled up out there in the garage,
and I go pick it up, those filthy disease-ridden, disease-spreading
maggots. Just make my skin crawl. Nobody wants to be near one.
And yet this is what the Word of God uses to describe us. And it's a perfectly accurate
description of every one of us. The humanist, the moralist, the
religious self-righteous Pharisees is not me. We all like to by
nature relate to that idiot who ran for president a few years
ago, Mr. Jackson. I chose my words deliberately.
He went around giving pep rallies. I am somebody. I am. Say it with me. I am somebody.
I am somebody. Yeah, you are. A worm. A maggot. That's all. Nothing else. We'd
love to sing that hymn Isaac Watts wrote several years ago,
300 years ago or more. Alas, and did my savior bleed
and did my sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? I'll tell you what, if you go
to a religious bookstore and pick up hymn books or sheet music
and try to find a copy of that hymn, you won't find one in a
hundred that's written that way. Because we don't like to be called
worms. And these days, you know, folks almost take it to be a
compliment and say we're all sinners. And so they change it
to read, for a sinner such as I. That's because they don't
understand that sinners are just worms before God. You see, a
worm is a dirty, despicable thing. A worm is weak, helpless, a creature
that is utterly incapable of in any way defending itself.
A worm belongs to and is at home always in the muck and mire of
the earth. Go to any barnyard and dig in
it when it's moist and you'll find worms perfectly content. A worm, being easily trampled
all, easily crushed to death, is constantly exposed to danger.
A worm, I guess you could safely say that's the most useless,
worthless creature on God's earth. Not worth a thing. Whoever thought
about stepping on a worm. Whoever paused and wept because
he had crushed a worm to death. who ever gave any consideration
to a worm that was somehow destroyed. When God declares that a man
is a worm, he means for us to understand just this. You and
I, all of us by nature, in the totality of our beings, are wretched,
weak, worthless creatures. And I call you now to take your
place before God just that way. A worm. I'm not going to do that. You may not now. And you will perish forever.
The sooner or later you're going to take your place as a worm
before God. Take your place as a worm. It will be good for you. It will help you to get along
with one another. Did anybody ever see two worms
fighting? I'm not talking about a pretense
of humility. I'm not talking about a show
of religion. I'm talking about take your place before God. Worms
don't fight. And besides that, you can't claim
the promise that's given in this text unless you meet the character
of the one to whom the promise is made. And the promise is made
to worms. That's the first thing. God's
people, all of God's people recognize that we are indeed worms. Men
and women who by the grace of God have been made to know themselves
for what they are, weak, wretched, worthless worms, for us to be
called worms, to be called maggots. I ask you to forgive me and ask
God to forgive me. I don't always act this way. But this I know in my soul. For
us to be called maggots, babiestas, is to insult that lofty creature
who never sinned against God and compliment us. We are weak,
worthless, wretched creatures. That's the first thing. Now here's
the second. There's hope for worms. Vile,
base, disgusting as we are, we take our place properly before
God in the dunghill as worms. But there's hope for worms. Turn
to Psalm 22, I'll show you. Remember this 22nd Psalm, our
Lord Jesus is here speaking. We hear in these words the conversation
Actually, it wasn't a conversation because there was no word spoken
from the Father. It was just the Lord Jesus crying
out unto God, His Father, as He hung upon the cursed tree
when He was made to be sin for us. And this is what He says
in verse 6. I am a worm. I am a worm. The Son of God, when He was made
to be sin for us, as He hung upon the cursed tree as our substitute,
became a worm. Sunk in the mire of the dung
heap of all our iniquity, He became a worm so that He might
lift worms from the dung heap of fallen humanity. He says,
I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men. Despised of the people. He was abased so that we might
be exalted. He was cursed that we might be
blessed. He was made to be sin, that despicable
thing, that we might be made the righteousness of God, the
delight of the Father. He was crushed to death under
the penalty of sin, that we might be raised to life and freed from
sin. The worm is a weak thing, but
a worm does have a mouth. He has a mouth by which he is
able to bore his way into the heart of a hard tree. Just dig right into the heart
of that tree. Well, how did he do that? Because
he doesn't give up until he gets the moisture, the protection,
and the food he's got to have. Turn to Luke chapter 11. These worms whom God calls Jacob,
his own elect, have a mouth in their souls. and crying unto God, they're
able to penetrate the very heart of the Almighty. Relentlessly
boring to the very heart of God, finding in Him the food, the
moisture, the protection we've got to have. You're familiar
with the story, Luke chapter 11 verse 5, our Lord gives this
parable. He said unto them, Which of you
having a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say
unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves, give me three loaves.
For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me. Now the Lord is
talking about the work of God's grace in a man. He says this
man comes and he goes and knocks on the door and says, Friend,
Give me three loaves. I've got to have three loaves
because a friend of mine, and this friend that's come is God's
holy law. Oh, what a friend the law is.
The friend's come demanding something. He's demanding three loaves from
me. He's demanding righteousness. He's demanding satisfaction.
He's demanding of me a new nature. And I have, look at this, nothing
to set before Him. And he from within shall answer
and say, trouble me not, the door is now shut, my children
are with me in bed, I cannot rise and give them. And the Lord
God often does just that to sinners. He often says, no, no, don't
bother me, I won't hear you. not to drive them away. Oh, okay, well I'll go on then.
I asked for mercy and you said no, so I'll go on to hell. You
don't need any mercy. You don't have any need. No,
no, no, no. I asked for grace but God wouldn't
answer me. I'll go on to hell. You didn't ask for any grace.
You don't need it. Don't want it. Wouldn't have it if it was
given you. No, no, no, no, no. So this friend turns to go away,
and he says, wait a minute. God's law is still standing in
my house, demanding righteousness, satisfaction, and a holy nature
that has never sinned. And I don't have anything to
set me free. I've got to have these three
lows. Read on. Verse 8. I say unto
you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his
friend, yet because of his importunity, because he's in desperate need,
because of his utter desperation, he will rise and give him as
many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. That is, as a desperate, needy
sinner, ask, and ask, and ask, and ask, and it'll be given you.
And knock, and knock, and knock, and knock, and it'll be opened
to you. Seek, and seek, and seek, and seek, and you shall find.
For every one that asketh, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth.
None except it. And to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. Pastor, how do you know this
is talking about salvation and grace? Read on. If a son shall
ask bread of any of you, that is a father, will he give him
a stone, something that looks like bread but is not? Or if
he asks a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent, an eel, something
that looks like a fish but is not? Or if he asks an egg, will
he offer him a scorpion? Again, something that looks like
an egg, but it's not. Of course not. Of course not.
If ye then, being the sinful, vile, wretched, weak, evil things
you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask for him? You got to have some bread. Have
you got to have it? Have you got to have righteousness
before God? I mean, got to have it. Have
you got to have atonement for your sin? I mean, you got to
have it. Got to have it. I'm not talking
about wanting to be a good father. I mean, must you have righteousness
and redemption and a holy nature that you can't possibly produce?
You stay right at the door of mercy and God give it. You seek
and you'll have it. You ask and you'll have it. You
knock and it'll be given you. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. Oh, don't refuse to take this
name worm. Back here in Isaiah 41. Being a worm identifies us
with the Son of God in his most glorious character as the sinner's
substitute. Worms are not proud creatures. No matter where they're found,
no matter how they may be used or abused, they're just worms. That's all. No matter what kind
of clothes you put on them, no matter what kind of cologne you
put on them, no matter how you fix them up, no matter where
you put them, they are just worms. And they've got nothing to be
proud of. Now here's the third thing. Sons of Jacob we are. That makes us worms. And there's hope for worms because
Christ became a worm. But there's something more here. Rex, we are worms of God's choice. He says, fear not, thou worm,
Jacob. He speaks as though he were talking
to one man, but clearly he's addressing all his people. God
calls us his people, Jacob. Jacob. I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Jacob. Jacob,
this one who was made a prince with God. Jacob, this one whom
God blessed when he had broken his thigh. Jacob was a man wretched,
weak, and worthless in himself. But Jacob was a man chosen, called,
and blessed of God. Jacob was a man with whom God
was always. Jacob was a man to whom God had
bound himself and obligated himself by a covenant. Someone wrote,
gladly I own, I am a worm, weak, wretched, and worthless. If God
might take me as his own and tell me I am his. Now here's
the fourth thing. Though we are just words, we have absolutely no cause for
fear ever. Now I'm preaching this to me
as much as I am to you. In verse 14, all three persons
of the Holy Trinity avowed themselves to help this wretched, weak,
worthless worm called Jacob. Fear not thou worm, Jacob. And
ye men of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord, Jehovah,
God our Father. And thy Redeemer, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, the Holy One of Israel, God the Holy Spirit. If God be for us, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. Imagine that. God's for us. God's for us. Then who can be
against us? In this passage that we read
earlier, the Lord God makes 11 astounding, tremendous promises. Now, I can only just scoot across
them, but let's scoot across them pretty quick. Are you lonely
and alone? God says, fear thou not, for
I am with thee. I'm not a loner, and I'm not
usually a man who feels alone, but boy, sometimes I do. I mean,
I can be in a packed stadium and be totally alone, can't you?
I can be around a thousand people and be absolutely by myself because
I've got nothing in common with any of them. Are you alone? No,
no, not me. God says, I'm with you. I'm not
only a God within reach. I'm with you. He says again in
verse 10. Are you dismayed? Look at your
enemies. The greatness of your trial.
How can I get through this? Be not dismayed. I am thy God. I'm for you. I'm for you. I'm for you. At the risk of being misunderstood,
I want to refer to some personal experience. I'll tell you what
I've observed since God saved me in these past 35 years. I'm
talking about things I have observed as a young man and things I continue
to observe. I've observed men, plot, and
scheme. When I was in school, I attended
schools where the gospel of God's grace was absolutely hated. I
saw fellows all around me get kicked out of school because
they mentioned the word election on campus. And this may surprise
you, but I was not inclined to keep my mouth shut about it.
I was not at all inclined to hide what I believed. And I saw
God's foil plans. I mean, I've seen men get together,
grown men, you wouldn't think they'd do this, grown men, professors,
get together and figure out ways to get rid of that troublemaker.
What are you going to do? Well, there ain't a thing I can't
do. No, a thing I can do. What can you do? Nothing, except
wait on God. Oh, maybe that's the best thing
to do. Maybe that's the best thing to do. And God turned their
plans upside down. I've seen the Lord God Take those
who've opposed the work of the gospel and seen God turn it upside
down. Seen them turn their plans. They
lay a snare and God takes them in their own snare. They dig
a pit and they fall into it. But what do you do with such
fellows? Nothing. Nothing. When men and women set themselves
against you, don't answer them, don't respond to them, ignore
them. Ignore them. If you can't do
it inside, at least do it outside. Ignore them. Just ignore them.
I try to practice that. And I'm getting pretty good at
it. I can ignore pretty good. Ignore them. God will take care
of things. Look at his third promise. Verse
10. He said, but preacher, I'm so weak. Me too. I can't. Me either. I will strengthen
thee. There's a fourth one. That I'm
destitute. God says, I'll help you. Here's
the fifth one. Again in verse 10. I feel like
I'm about to fall. Indeed, I have fallen already.
The Lord says, I will uphold thee. Now watch this. I love
the way he put it. I will uphold thee with the right
hand of my righteousness. That mean, Merle? It's right
for me to uphold you. And I'm going to engage all the
might of my omnipotence with the right hand of my righteousness
to uphold you. Here's the next thing. You see
enemies all around. They terrify you. God says he'll
confound them. He'll bring them to nothing.
He'll slay every one of them. And they won't be around long.
Look at verse 11. Behold, all they, not most of
them, all they, not a few of them, all they that were incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be
as nothing. Well, what does that mean? That
means all they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt
seek them, and thou shalt not find them. Even them that contended
with thee, they that wore against thee, shall be as nothing. as
a thing of not. Here's the seventh promise, verse
13. Preacher, I'm so afraid of failure. I made a profession of faith
when I was seven years old. It lasted a little while. I talked
into an emotional decision. And then every time I'd get in
trouble, real serious trouble, I'd go rededicate up. You know,
have an invitation and rededicate up. There wasn't anything there
to dedicate. And I had done it a number of times. And God began
to deal with my soul. And Satan would whisper, you
won't make it. You've tried this before. You're
not going to last. You know you won't last. But God says, I will hold thy
right hand. I'll walk with you, hand in hand
with you, as your father and as your friend, and I will guide
you and lead you in your way and direct all your steps. I'll
hold you up when you're weak and trembling. I'll pick you
up when you fall. God silences your fears as you
walk with Him, saying, fear not, I will help thee. He'll say to your heart by His
Spirit, fear not, and He'll make you to hear His assuring promise. I'll help you. But the trial
is so great. That's nothing, I'm God. But
the enemies are so many. That's nothing. I'm God. But
the troubles and the storms are so dark and so heavy. That's
nothing. I'm God. I'll walk with you. I'll hold you by your right hand.
But you've fallen. I'll pick you up. But I've fallen
so often. Though the righteous men fall
seven times in a day, yet the Lord raises him up. Oh, I can't
do that. I can't do that, it's too much. As you know I thought so much
about Brother Cliff Heller going back to New Guinea. 74 year old
man. 74 years old. I'll be honest
with you. I think to myself, I don't know
whether I'd do that or not. And I'm a young man, I'm number
53. I don't know whether I'd do that or not. Taking off to
go back there. live in the midst of barbaric
tribesmen, climbing mountains all the time, constantly around
folks who are savage in behavior. And that's not an exaggeration.
And going back causes aches too. How can he do that? Well, that's
nothing. That's nothing. God says, I'll
hold you. I'll help you. Are you made to weep? Verse 16,
he says, Thou shalt rejoice in the Lord. He'll make you triumphant
at last. Are you brought low and abased?
Verse 16, Thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel. Glory
awaits you and you will glory in the Lord and you're interested
in Him and your relationship to Him and all that He is and
all that He's done for you. But, Pastor, the heavens seem
to be as brass. I know it. Oh, my soul, I know
it. I pray and it seems I can't even
lift my prayers as high as my voice and God doesn't seem to
hear it. I know it. He does that so you
keep seeking Him. This is what He says in verse
17. I, the Lord, will hear them. I will hear them. I will hear
them. I will hear them. You folks who've
got children, you constantly have them yacking,
you know, talking to you. And sometimes it gets a little
serious. A little old Will, if he's talking to you and you ignore
him, that fellow will take his hands just like this and, I'm
talking to you. He'll turn your head around and
make you hear him. The reason the Lord often appears not to
hear is so that you might, as it were, take your hands and
turn them to you and say, God, I'm talking to you. I need you. God says, I'll hear you. I'll
hear you. And he does. And if he hears,
that's all that's needed. I hear you, son. at me, shut
up now, I'll take care of it. I hear you. Does he sometimes
seem to have forsaken you? Yeah. He hasn't. He says in verse 17, I the God
of Israel will not forsake them. Oh, how firm a foundation ye
set to the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
What more can he say than to you he has said, to you who for
refuge to Jesus have fled. Now look at verses 15 through
19 and hear this. It is God's great glory. and his good pleasure to take
insignificant, worthless, wretched, weak worms like you and me and use us to accomplish his
purposes in this world. Preacher? You reckon God could use me?
Oh yeah, I expect He could. You reckon God could use somebody
like me? Preach the gospel of His grace? Oh, I expect He could. Boy, I'm ready. I've got it.
You sit where you are. You reckon God could use me down
there in Mexico, New Guinea, over yonder in the middle of
that holler where nobody even knows it exists? I expect it could. I expect. These verses describe a God's
servant as a man who goes to war. But nothing's in jeopardy. Victory
is absolutely assured. Look at verse 15. Behold, I will
make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth. And
thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt
make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the
wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them.
And thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the Holy One
of Israel." Me? Yeah. Verse 17, and as you do, God
says I'll make provision for you, to refresh you, to comfort
you, and to make your success a matter of certainty. He says
in verse 17, when the poor and needy seek water, and there's
none. Their tongue faileth for thirst,
I the Lord will hear them, The God of Israel will not forsake
them. Well, how on earth is God going to take care of that? Well,
the reason he fed Israel with quail and they'd stick out their
teeth was to make them understand bread is what you need. And he
fed them for 40 years with bread. The reason he calls that rock
to follow them from which water flowed, that rock being Christ,
is so that he would be able to show them by example and show
us by example that our bread will never fail for our souls
and water to refresh will never fail, not as long as God Almighty
sits on his throne. He says, I'll open rivers in
high places, and fountains in the midst of valleys. I will
make the wilderness, the desert, a pool of water. He didn't say,
I'll make a pool of water in the desert. He said, Lord, I'll
make the desert a pool of water, and thy dry land springs of water. I'll plant in the desert. Have
any of you ever been in a desert? I've been right on the edge of
the Baja Desert. Man, there's nothing there but
dirt and rocks. Cactus. Nothing. Wood brush. You couldn't
even call them leaves on the thing. Nothing. There's nothing.
I've been in lots of deserts in my soul. My soul is a desert. But God says I plant in the desert. The cedar tree, the shitter tree,
the myrtle tree and the oil tree. I'll sit in the desert, the fir
tree and the pine tree and the box tree together. In other words, I put my glory in you. I've called you worms of Jacob.
to serve the interest of my kingdom, to plant my kingdom in this world.
I call you to traverse over the hills of this world, to cast
the gospel seed upon the ground everywhere, facing every enemy,
and I assure you the gates of hell shall not prevail against
you. And as you go, I will cause the desert to blossom before
you. Oh, what power a worm has when
God's with it.