read, fear not you worm Jacob, you men of Israel. I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord. Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. After the sermon we'll sing together hymn 54, all stanzas. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, When I started university back in the early 70s in Toronto, the big threat for a Christian student was biology 101 because you were going to be confronted with the teaching of evolution. The humanities were safe, you know, English lit, history, any kind of social studies. I mean, how much trouble can you get into studying Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, or the travels of Christopher Columbus. But all the times have changed. Big threat today is the humanities. Study English, some sort of social studies. And there is a growing consensus in our academic world that there is no such thing as truth. And if anybody says this is the truth, this is the fact, The academic world is saying that's a lie. It's hogwash. The truth is what you make of it and what you want it to be. So you can study Charles Dickens, David Copperfield. People don't care what he was trying to communicate. What they care about is whatever you want to draw out of it. Christopher Columbus is no longer that magnificent explorer of the Americas, but he is a European imperialist who brought suffering and grief to North America, to First Nation people. People who talk this way are sometimes called the woke. They are woke to the new reality. There's changing, you know, gender identity and personal pronouns and so on. Tearing down statues of people who maybe once had a slave or was involved in a residential school. Changing the names of all kinds of institutions. There's a reason that a man like Jordan Peterson a professor at University of Toronto, very conservative professor, he quit. Earlier this year, he totally quit. He says, I cannot function in a world which says there is no objective truth. People are making the truth up as they go along. And he says, my students can't even get a job if they are in any way connected with me. Dorothy Sayers wrote about this, knew intolerance, or maybe you could say tolerance in certain ways. And Sayers said, it is a sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die. And you can understand that the culture in which we live, it's not just in academics, but it's throughout society, which says there is no such thing as truth that's always there and that's lasting, is devastating to our society's understanding of the Bible. I mean, the Bible says Jesus is the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary. What nonsense is that? Says the world. or that he died and rose again. Nobody rises from the dead. It simply isn't the truth. And then you can imagine what this does to the very pinnacle of all truth. That is the cross, that old rugged cross. mocked by the world. I mean, how dumb can you get, how stupid can you be to think that a wretch dying on the cross can save the world? The Apostle Paul warned that people would talk this way in 1 Corinthians 1, whether you're wise or foolish, The cross is mocked. The cross is the turning point of the world and of history. It spins history. It spins the world around 180 degrees because this world was headed for a collision course with hell. But because of the cross, there's a new reality, a new hope. of a world where God will dwell with his people and there's no sin or death or tears or anything like that. The cross changes everything. It is the answer to everything. Because at the cross, we meet God who says, I love you, though you are a sinner. And I give my son to take your place and pay for your sins. The cross is where our hopes, our fears, and our dreams all meet, and it comes out beautifully. It's also the answer to the struggles of daily life. We live with realities that are stressful, maybe health concerns or a problem in our marriage or our relationships. Wasn't that long ago out here in this part of our country we had massive flooding and destruction, very unsettling for a lot of people. We have a war in the Ukraine. unspeakable things are happening there, and that's rippling throughout the whole world. Only the cross is the answer to all these things. It teaches us not to be afraid, and how to share that message with the world around us. And that's what we're going to look at this afternoon. Under this theme, the Lord God is the redeemer of worms who take refuge in him. We will see we are but worms, Yet we have nothing to fear, and God always helps those who trust in him." So we read in the opening of our text that God addresses his people. He says, "'Fear not, you worm, Jacob, you men of Israel.'" Now, why would God call his people a worm? Israel, Jacob, means the same thing. It is his church. Some people say it's a term of endearment. If you're a young dad or a mom and you have a six-month-old child and always squirming, almost jumping out of your arms, you might just say, quit squirming, you little worm, you little squirmy worm. And we understand that's a term of affection. But I doubt very much that God was speaking affectionately when he called this church, you worm. And I have a couple of reasons for saying that. One thing, we read about the worm in Psalm 22. which is very clearly a psalm of our Lord Jesus Christ's crucifixion. Jesus himself says, "'But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by people. All who see me mock me, they hurl insults, shaking their heads.'" So when Jesus Christ calls himself a worm, he points to his humility He is despised and afflicted by men. He's rejected by his own father. He cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? For Jesus Christ to be called a worm, and for us to be called a worm, points to our humility, and our lowliness, and of course the reality of our sins. There's also something else. Isaiah 41 is an echo of Isaiah 40. They're closely connected. In 41, God says to his people, you are a worm. At the beginning of Isaiah 40, in verse 6, you'll know the well-known words, all men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fail because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. All people, says our God, are like withering grass. They are but worms. Lowly, humbled, not much to look at. And that leads to another observation. That's the wider context. Here in Isaiah 41, Isaiah is prophesying about something that will take place at the end of the Babylonian exile in 539 BC. But he's writing at least 700 BC, more than 150 years earlier. And if you read through Isaiah, there is a blistering condemnation of Israel's sin. It starts right in chapter 1. It's obscene. Like Isaiah says, you know, the rich become richer, the poor become poorer. And it's like the rich are standing on the backs of the poor and just ripping the skin off their backs. They're flaying them alive. These poor people can't live. They can't survive the sin in Israel. was obscene. It was overwhelming. And that's one of the reasons, of course, that they went into exile in Babylon. Later on in Isaiah 59, we read, For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt, your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things." And so it continues. In Ezekiel 36, God says, you know what, my people, you really stink because of your sin. It's not just what you did to yourself, it's what you did to me. He says, the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them, the most religious people on the face of the earth, the most blessed people on the face of the earth, were living in sin. And it pointed to a God who can't be much. Surrounding nations, look at Israel, see their sins. It said, who's your God? Oh, Yahweh. Not much of a God you have. You know, with your rape, your murder, your stealing, your violence. It doesn't reflect very well on your God. And God says, and that's what you have done to me. You worm, Jacob. I feel a little sorry for earthworms because I think earthworm feels that's a real insult that sinful human people would be called worms because they're actually lower. But this is 2700 years ago, right? 2,700 years ago when Isaiah wrote this, surely that wouldn't be said anymore. I mean, Jesus came, Pentecost has occurred, the Holy Spirit is poured out. Surely God would not talk about us this way now. But in Romans 3, Paul quotes Psalm 14 and he says, there is none righteous, not even one. There's no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have together become worthless. There's no one who does good, not even one. You can be sure that God could just as easily say today, Oh, you worm, Church of Sardis. You worm. You're living in sin. Paul says in Romans 3, your throat is an open grave. Horrifying image. that if I open my mouth and someone looks down it, they see dead men's bones. They see sin and evil. And that's a real cause for self-examination and humiliation. How do you see yourself, brother, sister? How do I see myself? You know, what is the state of my heart when I have rejected showing mercy to someone who calls out for help? I mean, what's going on in my heart and my soul when there isn't this consuming passion to be holy and righteous as God is holy. Or when I'm irritated because I got to take out time to pray. I'm irritated because I got to read my Bible. Or I harbor lusts. or anger, or resentment, and a refusal to be reconciled to my neighbor. What adjective would I use to describe me? Jesus, covered with our sins, said, I am a worm. And that's what I say about myself. I'm not even gonna talk about you. But I would say about myself, I am a worm. I am a sinner. I've done some pretty terrible things, even if it's just in my mind, to God and to my neighbor. I know that some people will say, why do we always have to bash Christians? Why do we always have to be told how bad we are? And we're living in a culture, a woke culture, that strongly encourage you not to go down that rabbit hole. You know, it says, you know, that Bible is full of a lot of hogwash and this talk about how sinful you are. What nonsense! You are not sinful. Yeah, maybe once in a while you do something that's not the best, but you're not like the Bible describes. And I get it, that as a preacher, it's not right to always bash people to the point that we leave here depressed. But at the same time, how are you going to sing John Newton's Amazing Grace? How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, and now I see. How do you sing that? Unless you sing it as a sinner, well aware of your own weaknesses and shortcomings and sins. It's when we realize that we're lost, that we're blind, that we are sinners. that we're also so eager and so receiving of that gospel of God's love in the gift of his son, Jesus Christ. When we talk about sin, God is not trying to shove our face in the mud and make us squirm and feel hopeless. He wants us to weep, yes, but to look up at him and to know this is a God that when we take refuge in him, he does forgive. He washes away those sins. He throws them into the depths of the sea, not to be held against us anymore. And you notice that in our text, yes, it talks about, oh, worm Jacob, but the Lord starts off by saying, do not be afraid, you worm Jacob. I am the one who helps you. When worms seek their refuge in God and know of his love and his grace, then the Lord brings them from worms up to be his sons and daughters. You know, Isaiah 40 ends with a beautiful image when it says, But for those who hope in the Lord, the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be afraid. That brings us to our second point where we're going to look a little more in depth why we don't have to be afraid. We've got nothing to be afraid about. One of the things we notice in our text is that God is addressing Israel, Jacob, which is a church. But that's actually a change of audience. Because if you go back to verse 1, you read there, When Isaiah talks about coastlands, it's clear in this passage that he's talking about the whole world. world with islands and coastlands and you have to cross seas to get there. God is talking to the whole world in Isaiah 41 and he offers the whole world to renew their strength, to renew their strength in him. You have to understand the context in which this is said because the world at that time was a pretty horrible place. When Isaiah lived and was writing, the Assyrian Empire had risen to power. Assyria destroyed the northern ten tribes of Israel, then never came back again. But if you read about the Assyrians, you can Google it. They are the most evil and wicked and barbaric empire that ever lived. If the Assyrians came to town, and they came to many towns, they came to rape, to murder, to skin people alive, If the Assyrians were coming, you shook to the very core of your existence. It was a horrible, barbaric, violent world. Then after that the Babylonians rose and the Assyrians disappeared from power. Babylonians, of course, they're the ones who destroyed the temple and Jerusalem gained a very unsettling time. But in our text, Isaiah is speaking about 539 BC, the end of the Babylonian exile. where he will raise Cyrus, king of Persia from the east, and he will come and on the one hand, he will liberate Israel and bring them back to Jerusalem. But again, a lot of death and misery in the world. So in these centuries, the world was rattled. with violence, with death, and with destruction. And we can identify with that a little bit with what we're hearing about the Ukraine, what Vladimir Putin and the Russians are doing there. It's a time of violence and death, of murder, of rape. It's unbelievable what's going on there. And it's rattling the world. But please understand that at the time of our text, people as well saw that even more. What kind of world is this? Then the world will ask, I might ask, but the world will ask, where is God? He's supposed to be good. He's supposed to be almighty. Where is he? And God says in this passage, I'm right here. It says in verse 2, who has stirred up one from the east, whom victory meets at every step? That's a reference to God raising up Cyrus, liberating his people, and bringing them back to the promised land. God says, I am almighty, and I'm running this world. I plan everything. I'm right there. And if you hold on to me and you trust me, you will realize that it is well, it is well with your soul. He speaks about himself in verse 4, I the Lord, the first and with the last, I am he. And that's his name there, I am. He is the great I am. And one of the things that refers to is God says, I exist. Apart from this world, I made this world, but I existed before the world was made. So I am my power, I made this world, I control it, whether it's a dandelion springing up in your lawn, or a bomb landing in the Ukraine, or fish swimming in the ocean, God plans it all and it is in his hands. And there's a call to the whole world to know this God, a God who's in control to trust him and to be able to live lives in joy and true peace. But we see in verse 5 and following the nations, they don't see God or they don't want to hear him and they start building idols as if idols are going to save them. And boy, can Isaiah ever make fun of idols. In the NIV, it says there in verse 7 that they nailed down the idols so that it will not topple. You can imagine making an idol and putting it there. It's going to flop over so put some nails between his toes. Idol with nails between his toes? That's going to save you? We have our idols today too. People are saying maybe NATO can do something about what's happening in the Ukraine. Or maybe President Joe Biden can send in the army and push the Russians back. Maybe. But these are but idols. and the real point, the real message of God is being missed. Like where's the humility and where's the understanding that what's happening in the Ukraine is a symptom of sin, of violence, of brokenness throughout our world? When I look at Vladimir Putin and I say, what a monster, but the closer I look at him, The closer I look at him, the more I realize I'm looking in a mirror and I see myself. Maybe not the same kind of monster as Vladimir Putin, but when I look at what that man is capable of doing, we realize we're all like him. We have streaks of violence, of prejudice, of mean-spiritedness, of being willing to hurt or rip somebody off. The war in the Ukraine is a wake-up call for our world to recognize that the real problem is not a bomb, it's not a nuclear warhead, but it's our sin. And it's the way we treat each other. And so things going on in our world, whether it's a virus or an earthquake or whatever, a flood. This is the broken world in which we live, and we need an answer for that. Meanwhile, the world, building its idols, is like a man walking down a dark alley, kind of scared, whistling in the dark to ward off the boogeyman. That's our world, whistling in the dark, trying to ward off the boogeyman. But the boogeyman is still there. So the Lord turns to us, his people, and says, now don't you be afraid. Stick with me and trust in me. And the Lord is not saying to his people, I will give you geographical and political peace, because the kingdom of God is not about that. There will be wars, there will be viruses, there will be floods, there will be cancer until the day that our Lord Jesus Christ returns. But what God says is, I love you. and I'll take care of you. And I will address your greatest danger, your greatest threat, so that you find peace and comfort in me." You know, people say that's fine rhetoric. And I think sometimes sermons can be, you know, nice rhetoric. And we say, but how does that actually work? War's going on. How can I have peace in a war? I have a number of Sudanese people in my congregation and they have come out of a war-torn part of Africa where their dads were murdered, their mothers were raped. They come to Canada and you talk to them, they are some of the happiest, most content people that you can imagine because they say, God loves us and I know I am his child. Same thing in World War II. I talked to older people who lived through that. They said, my husband went to a concentration camp. My son did. They never came back. They were murdered. And that's hard. And nobody wants to pretend that we can just ignore that. But to know that we have a God who is in control, these things don't happen by chance, who says, I love you, and I'll be with you through all these things, is to have a hope and a comfort that carries us through all our trials and tribulations. And know that we are in the care of God, we are liberated from our sins, and we have the hope of life everlasting. I ask you, my brother and sister, what kind of person are you? You're always living in fear, always anxious, scared out of your wits what's going to happen next. Are the Russians coming into Canada next? Are you keeping your head down just hoping to get by and one day you die and get out of this miserable world? That's no way to live. That's no way to send a message to our children and to the world that we have a peace beyond all understanding. Thankfully, our God is pretty patient with us. He understands our weaknesses. And that's why in this passage, he is encouraging us. He's trying to lift us out of our anxiety and fear and say, you have nothing to be afraid of. when I am with you. And that brings us to our last point, exactly why we have nothing to fear. And God describes himself as your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Now this is the first of 13 passages in Isaiah that speaks about Redeemer. So you know this is very important. In the Old Testament, a Redeemer did two things. One thing a redeemer did is if he had a relative who became poor, and let's say was going to lose the family farm, the redeemer would come in there and pay off his debts. The other thing a redeemer did is if your relative was murdered, he would go after the murderer and avenge blood. So a Redeemer both pays off debts, and will go on the offensive and attack any enemy that threatens us. God says, I'm your Redeemer. I take debt, and I defend you from the enemy. And he adds that he is the Holy One of Israel, which is just another way of saying, I'm able to do it, and I will do it. We say to ourselves, well, is that true? Is God actually able to take care of us in any situation and is he also willing? The answer to that question will blow your mind every time you hear it because God says, you know how much I love you and how far I'm willing to go to make you safe? I give my son to be born of the Virgin Mary to become a man, to take your sins on himself, and to die for that on the cross. When our Lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross, in the words of Psalm 22, he hung there as a worm, and the people said, he trusts in the Lord, let the Lord rescue him, let him deliver him since he delights in him. But he hung there as a worm, despised, rejected by men. He hung there as not much to look at, But it was the only way that he could be our Redeemer. The Redeemer who takes our debts on himself. You know Jesus was without sin. But when he hung on the cross, he hung there as a murderer, as an adulterer, as a thief and a liar. Because he bore all our sins, all our debts. So that by believing in Him, our sins and our debts are transferred to Him and He pays for it in full. So that Jesus Christ at that point can lift us from the status of worm, because He's the worm. He's the worm on the cross with all our debts. He takes our worm status and transforms us to be kings and priests to God. He also rescues us from death, because Jesus died and rose again. Death holds no sway over us. When I die, I'll meet Jesus Christ, and he will take me up into heaven, into glory. He also rescues us from our sinful nature, so that instead of living in sin, we live to the praise and the glory of God. And very importantly, he also took out Satan. Satan is our biggest threat, not Putin. Satan, who destroys our lives, who destroys relationships, who says, I got a place for you in hell, where you will weep and gnash your teeth eternally. Jesus Christ took him out on the cross. He did that without Satan even seeing it coming, because he pried from the hands of this villain, a people who no longer belonged to Satan, but now were sons and daughters of God. You know, Revelation 20 talks about it. The angel seized him, wrapped him up in a chain, and threw him in the bottomless pit. He can't deceive the nations anymore. So that the kingdom of God is marching over the face of this earth as more and more people know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, are set free from their sins, and able to live beautiful, joyful, robust lives to the praise and the glory of God. We have a beautiful image in verse 10 where God says, So there's an image of God marching forward, hand raised, to ward off all opposition. With his other hand, he holds us by the right hand, and he leads us, like the good shepherd, safely through the valley of the shadow of death, so that we fear no evil, for God is with us. Brothers and sisters, the cross is the pinnacle of all truth. It's where our lives were turned, where all history was turned 180 degrees, Instead of a world headed for a collision course with hell, those who believe in Jesus Christ are a new people, a new humanity, washed in his blood and spirit. And one day we will be brought into a new heaven and a new earth. And that shows us how, as Christians, we are to think of our world and how to communicate with our world. I mean, back in Isaiah's time, the world was shattered with violence. Today, too, things happen, whether it's the flood that we had here or the war in Ukraine or the trials and tribulations that we face. But to know that God has made us his children, has delivered us from sin and from the power of Satan. Encourage us to live our lives in this world to the praise and the glory of His name and that the people around us who may be quivering in fear, uncertain about the future, they see you full of joy, full of conviction, bold and brave, not living in fear of what's going on in the world around us. And what a message that is to our neighbor. And we are at the end of our sermon, but I would like to make one comment before we finish. You know, this can all be, in a certain way, nice theoretical. And we all go home and say, yep, okay, that's the way it is. But please understand this. This has to be the reality of our homes. Like, as a parent, or even a grandparent, our children need to see that dad and mom are not, you know, riddled with anxiety and fear But they walk with God. They know the joy of salvation in Jesus Christ. They know that the great enemy of Satan, sin, and death is pulverized, and that our children see that conviction and that joy, and that they also want to know and have a relationship with his God. But if as parents, We live in anxiety and fear. If our children get the sense we're worried about our retirement or our homes or our physical freedoms, children are going to say, you have a relationship with God? Because I don't see it. This God is really not doing it for you. In our homes, there has to be that joy, that conviction, where we cast our anxieties and burdens on God and we live in joy. We've got an amazing God. We shattered this world, we broke it with sin. He fixed it in Jesus Christ. Now walk with God. Live your life in joy, knowing that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We have nothing to fear with this God on our side. Amen.