More light my heart could see But in God's word, the light
I found now As rays of light from yonder
sun The flowers of earth set free And life and love came forth
from love. What a salvation this, that Christ,
living with me, has lit the fire. So praise the God of truth and
grace. me know why Carter is still,
yet lies him I may be. The first time I remember hearing
that hymn, Kevin was singing it. I still love to hear the
hymn, I love to hear him sing that. Christ liveth in me, the
Apostle Paul said, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Let's
turn in our Bibles this evening to Isaiah chapter 41. I want to say a few words about
this chapter and then bring my message from the words in verse
14. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and
you men of Israel. I will help thee, saith thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel. This chapter is a continuation
of chapter 40. And it is a call for men to come
together as though we come into a courtroom. Notice at the end
of verse 41, come near together to judgment. First, we are called
into the courtroom and commanded to be silent. Have you ever visited
a courtroom? The judge, he keeps order in
his courtroom, doesn't he? You just don't speak out. And
if you do so, and you continue to do so, the bailiff will take
you out. God calls men here to come together. And first, to keep silent. Keep
silent. And then, to speak when permitted,
and only when permitted. They must hear, first of all,
what the Lord would do in showing that He alone is God to be worshiped. In the Old Testament, many prophecies
that are future are given in the past tense. You see that
in verse two. Let me read verse one and then
verse two. Keep silence before me, O islands. And for the Jews,
for the Israelites, the islands referred to the Gentile nations,
basically. If you had to cross water to
get to another nation, they're called islands in the Old Testament. But it's speaking of the Gentile
nations, especially. Keep silence before me, O islands,
and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near,
then let them speak. Let us come near together to
judgment. Who raised up the righteous man
from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before
him and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his
sword and as driven stubble to his bow. Now the commentators
that I read The writers, and I believe they're all excellent
commentators, but they certainly are not in agreement as to who
this righteous man is that is referred to in verse 2. Some, especially the older commentators,
the Jews, they believe that it referred to Abraham, that he
was a righteous man. And he was a righteous man. He
was made righteous by the imputed righteousness of Christ. He believed
God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. And that's
the only way anyone is declared righteous, justified before God. It is to believe him and the
righteousness of Christ, Jehovah, Jesus, is imputed or counted
unto us and we are declared to be righteous. So the older writers
believed this referred to Abraham, Many believe that it referred
to Cyrus, the Persian monarch, who would be raised up. Many believe that it referred
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But let me give you what John
Gill said about that, and it made a whole lot of sense to
me. His comment to those who said
it referred to Christ, he said, Christ is the person speaking
here. He's the person speaking and
concerning whom the controversy is. Therefore, some person distinct
from him must be manned." Then Dr. Gale made this comment, and
I was somewhat surprised when I read this. He said, I am inclined,
and I quote, inclined to think that the Apostle Paul is manned. I think, not that it makes a
great deal of difference, but I believe that it refers to Cyrus,
the Persian king, who was, after all, a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But as I said, this chapter is
a continuation of the chapter we looked at last time, chapter
40. And we saw that God pointed out
the foolishness of Idols. They have no power, they have
no wisdom, and there's no greatness about them. If you look down
in verse 7, the idols are mentioned again in the same way that they
were mentioned in chapter number 40, how that the man makes him
an idol. The carpenter encouraged the
goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smote
the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering and he fastened
it with nails that it should not be moved. And we saw the
folly of that last time, didn't we? Now that a man makes an idol
and he has to chain it up so it stays in place so it doesn't
fall over. Remember when the Ark of the
Covenant was captured by the Philistines and taken over into
their territory and they put the Ark of the Covenant in the
house of their god, Dagon, and they got up the next morning
and there was old Dagon laying on the floor. They propped him
back up and got up the next day. Not only was he laying on the
floor, but his hands had come loose. And they figured out,
we've got to get rid of this Ark of the Covenant. It was a
picture, a type, the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat. That's
where God said, I will meet with you. Actually, it was a throne.
It was a throne in the most holy place where the presence, the
Shekinah glory resided there above the mercy seat, and that's
where God would meet with you and me, meet with sinners, a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll only be spoken to, and
we will hear from God through the person of His Son, Jesus
Christ. He's the one Mediator, the man,
Christ Jesus. There's one God and one Mediator
between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. And all the blessings
that God has for His people, they all come to us through the
Mediator, through Jesus Christ. And if we would approach unto
Almighty God, to the thrice holy God, we must go through the mediator. There is no coming to God apart
from Him. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. And then if you will look down
in verses 21 through 23, again concerning the idols. Produce
your cause. It is as though God calls upon
these idols that men worshiped and looked to, to show themselves. Prove yourself. Prove yourself
to be God. Prove yourself to be worthy of
worship. Produce your cause, saith the
Lord. Bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.
Let them bring them forth and show us what shall happen. Let
your idols show us what's going to take place next year, ten
years, a hundred years, a millennium. Let your idols show us that.
An idol's dead. Idol's dumb. Idol has no wisdom,
has no power. has a mouth but cannot speak,
has eyes but cannot see, has ears but cannot hear, has hands
but cannot touch, has feet but cannot move. Remember in that
Psalm 115 that goes through those points, David said, the heathens
say, where now is your God? Where's your God? We know where
our God is, he's in that house over there where we put him.
And he's gonna stay there, too, unless we go take him out. But
our God is in the heavens, David said, and he hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased. Amen? Let them bring forth and
show us what shall happen. Let them show the former things
what they be, that we may consider them. and know the latter end
of them, or declare us things for to come. Show the things
that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are God's. Yea, do good or do evil, that
we may be dismayed and behold it together." In other words,
just do something. Don't just sit there like a lump
of wood overlaid with gold, dead. that you are. Do something. Do
something good. Do something bad. Tell us something
that's yet to come. Prove yourself to be God. And
then notice the next verse, what God says, Behold, you are nothing. Nothing. It's amazing, isn't
it, how many people are deceived. You say, well, people today don't
work. Oh, I beg your pardon. How many people are deceived?
I remember years ago, it was Good Friday, Viernes Santo. I was with my brother-in-law
Milton Howard, and we were in Chiapas, and we were going up
to a place high up in the mountains. We passed by this village, and
there was just oh, so many people there, and I said, let's stop
and see what's going on. And of course, it was a Roman
Catholic church there. And I never will forget what
I heard this one woman say. She asked her friend, she says,
donde esta Cristo? Where is Christ? Where is Christ? And the other one said, he's
over there in the jail. And they had a makeshift jail.
What they'd done, they'd taken their statue, their idol, out
Building and put him over there in jail and then they had a procession
a little bit later on and they brought of course their saints
and the Virgin out of the out of the building there and Carried
him along people are given to Idolatry didn't we see that was
it last week or the week before? about the nation of Israel even
After they had seen the wonders of God, and God brought them
through the Red Sea, and then Moses is gone up on the mountain
for a few days, 40 days, and they want a God that they can
see. And so Aaron provided them a calf and said unto them, behold,
your God. Men are prone, all of us are,
all of us are, we're prone to superstition. That's what Paul
said to those people on Mars Hill. He said, I perceive you're
way too superstitious. You've got a God here. You've
got an idol here to every God you can think of. But there's
one statue or marker to the unknown God. And he said, that's the
God I want to speak to you about today. He's unknown to you. Well, that was the seat of learning.
Athens, wasn't it? That's where all the great philosophers
were. But they did not know God. They did not know God. Well,
only God showed them the things that would come to pass, that
is, for Israel. And remember that Isaiah is prophesying
years before they were taken into captivity. But let's look
here, just look ahead, if you will, in chapter 44. Now, this
is the true God. This is the living God. This
is the only God. He called Cyrus, and he called
him by name. almost 200 years before Cyrus
was born. You say, well, that's something.
That'd be something for us, nothing for God. He knows the end from
the beginning. He called this man by name. Look
here in Isaiah 44 and verse 28, that saith of Cyrus, he is my
shepherd. and shall perform all my pleasure,
even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built, and to the temple
thy foundation shall be laid. Now Cyrus, he would say that
after they had come back, after God had delivered them from 70
years of captivity. And he would give the command
to rebuild the temple. Verse 1 of 45, thus saith the
Lord to his anointed to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden,
to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of
kings to open before him the two leaved gates, and the gates
shall not be shut. And then notice in verse 5, I
am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside
me. And he's speaking now to Cyrus,
I girded thee, though thou hast not known me. Cyrus didn't know
God, but God knew Cyrus. And God raised him up to be the
one who commanded the Jews to go back out of captivity and
rebuild the temple. And I couldn't help but think
about this this past week. You know, Cyrus was a Persian. Those are Iranians. And how much
the Iranians hate the Israelites. and how much the Israelites hate
the Iranians. Depravity, right? Everywhere
you see, everywhere you look, depravity, hatred among men. Hateful and hating one another. That's the way the Apostle Paul
describes all of us before the Lord had mercy upon us. Hateful
and hating one another. Well, how sad. How sad, right? Now let's go back and let me
take just a few minutes. Let's look at this, this word
here. See, I don't want to be just
a history teacher. I don't want to try to teach
history. I love history, but I won't preach the gospel. And
that's what we have here in verse 14. Fear not, thou worm Jacob,
and you men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Three parts to my
message. First of all, a look at God's
people. Their names are given first. Jacob. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob. This name, Jacob, suggests two
things about God's people, and they're two very important things
about God's people. God's people are loved and chosen. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Those are the words of God. Rebecca
had two sons and in many ways Esau may have seemed or appeared
on the surface to have been a better man outwardly than Jacob. God loved Jacob. Jacob have I
loved." When we read here, fear not thou worm, Jacob, the first
thing about God's people is God's people are loved with an everlasting
love. Now I know that blows your mind,
doesn't it? It does mine. Everlasting, what does that mean?
That means there's never been a time when God has not loved
you if you're one of his people tonight. If you trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ, my dear friend, rest in this. Rest in this tonight. There never has been a time,
there never will be a time when you are not loved of God. And the second thing, chosen.
Jacob have I loved. And he chose, the scripture says
that that the purpose of God according to election might stand.
Jacob have I loved." So, the first thing about God's people,
their love. This love is eternal. I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. Then in love, they are
chosen. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him, in love having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children." So first of all, they're called
Jacob, but now they're called Israel. Fear not, thou worm Jacob,
and you men of Israel. Same people, Jacob, Israel. God's
people, first they are called Jacob and then Israel. Do you remember how this new
name was given to Jacob? I know you do. You remember how
God gave him this name, a new name. It was given to him after
he wrestled with God. And it means a prince of God. That's what the name Israel means,
a prince of God. Who cannot think of that verse
in Revelation chapter one, verse five, who loved us and washed
us from our sins and made us kings and princes unto God. Jacob is now Israel, a prince
with God. We came into this world like
Jacob, a surplanner, but in the new birth, When we're born of
the Spirit of God, as the Apostle Paul said, therefore, if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed
away. Behold, all things are become
new. Two things that I would point out to has happened to
Jacob after he wrestled with the Lord. Number one, he got
a new name. God gives us a new nature, doesn't
he? We not only believe in imputed righteousness, but imparted righteousness. We become partakers of the divine
nature. That's what Peter tells us in
2 Peter. We've got a new heart, Christ
living in us, the hope of glory. But he also received a limp. for the rest of his life. Oh,
Jacob, he was a strong man. He told his father-in-law, Laban,
he said, I've suffered out there with your sheep and cattle. When
it was cold, I was out there. When it was raining, I was out
there. He was a strong man. But I tell you, after this night,
you saw Jacob coming down the street, you'd see him walking
with a limp. God touched him. God touched him. And he never
was different after that. He had that experience that night,
just like in salvation. What did the man say? I'm not
what I want to be. I'm not what I'm going to be. But thank God I'm not what I
used to be. Amen? Got a new nature. Got a new purpose. Got a new
life. Got a new hope. Everything's
made new in Christ. Jacob, he was made to feel his
weakness, to know his weakness. And that's the second thing I
point out to us here. Not only their names, but their
characteristics are described by the worm. Fear not thou worm,
Jacob. This creature, may best describe
the way that Jacob's, all of God's Jacob's, are made to see
and think of themselves. Number one, like a worm, we see
our smallness in comparison to God. Our smallness. Look with me in Psalm 8. You
know, let me show you, David, he knew about this. All of God's
children know about this. Psalm chapter eight, verses three and four. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the
moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, What is man? What is man like a feeble worm? What is man that thou art mindful of him,
the son of man, that thou visitest him? All of God's Jacobs are
made to see their smallness in comparison to God. You and I,
we would describe the Apostle Paul probably as the greatest
of the apostles. As far as we know, the greatest
of the apostles. But what did Paul say about himself? We put him on a pedestal, don't
we? And rightly, I mean, he labored. He said more than they all. Speaking
of the other apostles, yet not I, but the grace of God. But
what did Paul say about himself? I am the least of the apostles
that am not meet to be called an apostle. Fear not, thou worm,
Jacob. We are made to see our nothingness
in comparison to God. What is man? When I consider
the heavens, the work of thy fingers, what is man? That they are mindful
of him and would give your only begotten son for his redemption. A second thing about a worm,
like a worm we see our pollution. The worm is unclean, it lives
in the dirt. It lives in the dirt or it lives
in some decaying body of flesh, lives in some putrefaction. And we see, God's Jacobs do,
we see sin is mixed in everything we do. I'd love to come into
this pulpit one time in my lifetime and preach one message when sin
was not somehow mixed in it. But that's not going to happen
as long as I'm in this world. Why? Because sin is still in
me. And we see our pollution. We
are made to know our pollution. Sin is in everything that we
do. We make vows and we make resolutions
and we break them. But oh, how thankful we are tonight
to have the Lord Jesus Christ As our propitiation, as our advocate,
who is the propitiation, whose blood cleanseth us. That's ongoing,
isn't it? It cleansed us and it's still
cleansing us and it will keep on cleansing us. And we need
it to. God's Jacobs, we see the pollution,
just part of us, the old man, the flesh. And third, like a
worm, we see our weakness. How easy it is for a worm to
be crushed. One of the smallest children
here in our congregation could see a worm on the concrete steps
and could just put their foot down and crush it. The weakness
of a worm. John Gale again commented saying
that God's Israel may be called worms chiefly because of their
weakness and impotence to defend themselves and to resist their
enemies. Then he quoted two men who said
this about a worm. The strength of a worm is in
its mouth. The strength of a worm is in
its mouth. Thus, the strength of God's Israel
lies in their prayers, even as Jacob's did. The second part of the message,
a look at a common fact. God's people are subject to fear. You say, how do you know that?
Because the word of God so many times tells us, fear not. God
speaks to his people and tells us, tells them, fear not. I think
of one of the precious ones to me is the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ when he spoke to his disciples and said, fear not, little flock.
It is your father's good pleasure to give unto you the kingdom.
Give it to you. You don't deserve it. You can't
earn it. It's your father's good pleasure.
That's grace, isn't it? That's amazing grace. It's his
good pleasure to give unto you the kingdom. There would be no need for so
many exhortations for us not to fear if we were not many times
subject to fear. What are some of the things that
cause God's people to fear? Some fear because we really do
see ourselves as we are pictured here by this worm. We're small,
we're polluted, and we're weak. You know, there's one promise
in the covenant, the everlasting covenant. Turn with me to Jeremiah
32. Maybe we don't look at this promise
as often as we should, and I don't quote it as often as I should
in preaching, but here, In chapter 32 of Jeremiah, verse 40, God
said, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and here's
the promise, that I will not, I will not turn away from them
to do them good. But I will put my fear in their
hearts. that they shall not depart from
me. One of the reasons that God's
people fear is because we really know just how weak, how polluted,
and how small we are in comparison to God Almighty. Some fear because
we know that God's people are not exempt from trials in this
world. Even the patriarch Job, after
that wonderful testimony we read of him in Job chapter one, later
in that book, he said, that which I feared has come upon me. That which I feared. And God's
people sometimes fear. We know, we see what others have
gone through and what some are going through right now, and
we can't help but fear that maybe in God's providence, that's what
he has for us. And will we, will we go through
that? Will we look with me in first
Corinthians 10? Will we, will we have the grace
that we need? I'll tell you what, I've witnessed in this congregation
things that some of God's children have gone through and are going
through. We're not exempt. God's children
are not promised exemption from trials, from heartaches, sorrows,
sickness, loneliness, on and on. But look here in 1 Corinthians
10 and verse 13, this is what we are promised. There hath no
temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God
is faithful. He is faithful. Who will not
suffer you to be tempted or tested above that you are able? But
he will with the temptation also make a way to escape. that you
may be able to bear it. That's his promise. Another reason that some of God's
people fear is because of chastisements. We recognize the scriptures teach
that whom he loveth, he chasteneth. These are the words of God. Just
like a father who loves his children, he doesn't just turn them loose
and let them grow up without any discipline. No, he tries
to teach them. And God, our father, our heavenly
father, he disciplines his children. The scripture says every child
that he receives. And then he says that these chastisements,
a better word is discipline, I believe in that passage in
Hebrews 12. But then he says that they yield the peaceable
fruit of righteousness. And always remember this, God's
chastening, either in this world or in the world to come, will
end yielding the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And then a
fourth and last fear, some fear because of death. We all know
we must die. We all know that. And yet we know also from the
word of God that the sting of death has been removed for the
child of God. What happens when a child of
God dies? Several things happen. One thing,
the Lord's prayer is answered. The Lord, he said, Father, I
will. that they whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am. That's one thing that happens.
His prayers answered when a child of God dies to be absent from
the body, to be present with the Lord. Think of the caterpillar. That's
a worm. A caterpillar is a worm. And
how eventually it goes into that cocoon But when it comes out,
it's a beautiful butterfly. And that word that is used in
the New Testament is the word metamorphosis. And that's the
same thing when our bodies are buried in weakness, they're sown
in weakness and dishonor. But when the Lord comes again,
our bodies reunited with our souls that he will bring with
him shall be raised incorruptible. And he'll change, Paul said,
this vile body, this body of our corruption, and give us a
body like unto his glorious body. Just like that worm comes out
the beautiful caterpillar. Oh, how beautiful, how beautiful
God's people are and are going to be in the resurrection. A
body like his. Here's the last part of the message,
a look at the Redeemer's promise. I will help thee. Charles Spurgeon,
he took those five words and he emphasized each word, and
I would encourage all of us to do the same. First of all, I.
I. This is your Redeemer. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ. I. This isn't some Joe Blow down
the street. This isn't some loudmouth preacher
talking. This is the Lord speaking. I,
I will. I remember reading many years
ago, a man said, when God says, I will and thou shalt, that's
when God is really speaking like God, isn't it? I will and thou
shalt. I will help. Help. David prayed that prayer one
day. Help me. I prayed that. You've prayed
that, haven't you? Every child of God's prayed that.
Lord, help me. I will help thee. You, you, I will help. Fear not thou worm, Jacob. You
men of Israel, I will help thee. May the Lord bless his word tonight
again. We pray and ask. And I want us
to sing this hymn 330. Fill all my vision, number 330.
Let's stand as we sing number 330.