First, WE ARE ALL WEAK AND HELPLESS WORMS BEFORE GOD. What can be more loathsome than a worm? The word worm might be more properly translated "maggot". No one wants to touch a maggot. The very thought of those vile, dirty, disease-ridden, disease-spreading creatures makes our skin crawl. Yet this is the word God uses to describe us! And it is an accurate description!

A worm is a dirty despicable thing. A worm is a weak and helpless creature, incapable of defending itself. A worm belongs to and is at home in the muck and mire of the earth. A worm, being easily trampled to death, is always exposed to danger. A worm is a creature of no value or concern. Who ever wept over stepping on a worm? Who ever missed a worm that was killed? Who ever took notice of a worm? When God declares that man is a worm, he means for us to understand that we are all by nature wretched, weak, and worthless! Take your rightful place in the dust as a worm. It will help you to get along with one another. Who ever heard of worms fighting? You cannot claim the promises of this chapter unless you meet the character of the one to whom the promises were made. And these promises were made to worms.

I am a worm. That I acknowledge. But, secondly, I want you to see that THERE IS HOPE FOR WORMS. God's people are men and women who by the grace of God, have been made to know that they are wretched, weak, worthless worms. For us to be called worms, maggots, is to insult those lofty creatures who never sinned against God and compliment us! Yet, vile, base, and disgusting as we are, we take our proper place in the dunghill before the holy Lord God as worms, knowing that there is hope for worms.

Christ became a worm that he might save worms like us (Psa. 22:6). When the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was made to be sin for us and hung upon the cursed tree as our Substitute, he became a worm, so that he might lift worms from the dung heap of fallen humanity and transform us into the sons of God! In ancient times, the crimson, or scarlet grub, would be crushed to death and its blood used to dye the garments men wore. The Lord Jesus Christ was crushed to death under the wrath of God, and his blood has purged away our sins. It has made the garments of salvation pure and white. He was abased that we might be exalted. He was crushed that we might be blessed. He was made to be sin, a despicable thing, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, a delight to God! He was crushed to death under the penalty of sin that we might be raised up to life and freed from sin. Do not refuse to take the name "worm". Being a worm identifies you with the Son of God in his most glorious character as the sinners' Substitute. There is hope for worms. God promises to help worms. As a worm you may call upon the Lord God to pity you and to help you. Christ came to save worms! Christ died for worms! Christ has mercy on worms!

Sons of Jacob we are. That makes us worms. But, thirdly, WE ARE THE WORMS OF GOD'S CHOICE. God says, "Fear not, thou worm Jacob." He speaks as though he were talking to one man; but he is addressing all his people collectively. God calls his elect "Jacob". Jacob was a man wretched, weak, and worthless in himself. But he was a man loved, chosen, called, and blessed by God. Jacob was a man to whom God almighty had bound and obligated himself by a covenant!

Fourthly, THOUGH WE ARE BUT WORMS, WE HAVE NO CAUSE FOR FEAR. Notice in verse 14 that all three Persons in the Triune Godhead have avowed themselves to help this wretched, weak, worthless worm, Jacob. "I will help thee, saith the LORD" -- Jehovah. That is God our Father speaking. "I will help thee, saith...thy Redeemer." That is God the Son, the Second Person of the blessed Trinity, speaking. "I will help thee, saith...the Holy One of Israel." That is God the Holy Spirit speaking. If God be for us, who can be against us?" In verses 10 through 17, the holy Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, makes eleven promises by which he would both remove our fears and encourage us to trust num. Mark them and lay them to heart.

Are you alone? God says, (1) "Fear thou not; for I am with thee," not only within reach, but in you! Are you dismayed by the power of your enemies or the greatness of your trial? The Lord says, (2) "Be not dismayed; for I am thy God." Are you weak? Your God says (3) "I will strengthen thee!"" Are you destitute? God says three times, (4) "I will help thee." Are you about to fall, or already fallen? The Lord says, (5) "I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness!" Are your enemies a terror to you? Your God says (6) he will confound them, bring them to nothing, and slay them everyone. (vv 11-12). Are you fearful of failure? The Lord your God says, (7) "I will hold thy right hand" (v. 13). Are you made to veep? (8) "Thou shalt rejoice in the Lord" (v. 16). He will make you triumphant at last. Are you now abased? (9) "Thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel" (v. 17). Glory awaits you! You will enter glory with your Lord. You will enter by his power and by his grace. You will possess all the inheritance of glory unto which you were predestinated by God. Once there, you will glory in the Lord forever. Do the heavens appear to be as brass to you? God says, (10) "I the Lord will hear them" (v. 17). Does it sometimes seem that God has forsaken you? He has not! He says, (11) "I the God of Israel will not forsake them" (v. 17). Do you need more? Read Isaiah 43:1-5. Mark the promises of God and realize that though you are a worm you have a great and mighty God. You have no reason to fear anything or anyone ever!

Be sure you get this last thing revealed in our text. IT IS GOD'S GREAT GLORY AND PLEASURE TO USE INSIGNIFICANT WORMS LIKE US FOR THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF HIS PURPOSES (vv. 15-19). These verses describe God's servant as a man who has gone to war, but nothing is in jeopardy. Total victory is assured in verses 15 and 16. And every provision for our refreshment, comfort, and success is promised in verses 17, 18, and 19. God declares that he will use chosen worms, saved by his grace, to plant his trees, trees of righteousness, in the Gentile world. That is the meaning of verse 19. It is God's good pleasure to use saved sinners for the salvation of other sinners. The Lord God delights to take wretched, weak, worthless worms and make them instruments in his hands. By using such useless things as we are, he magnifies the holy, omnipotent power of his grace and gets glory to himself (I Cor. 1:26-29).

What power a worm has when God is with him! Samson, a worm, slew a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, when the Spirit of God was upon him (Jud. 15:15-17). David a worm, killed Goliath with a rock and a slingshot (I Sam. 16). Peter, a worm, was the instrument by which God saved 3000 men and women on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). This is what I want you to see -- THOUGH WE ARE MERE WORMS, IF THE LORD GOD IS WITH US, THERE IS NOTHING WE CANNOT DO. We can do all things through Christ, who is our Strength (Phil. 4:13). No work is too great for us to accomplish. No trial is too hard for us to endure. No enemy is too powerful for us to overcome. No obstacle is too big for us to move. No burden is too heavy for us to bear -- If God is with us!

The reason why God is pleased to use such worms as we are for the accomplishment of his purposes is that in this way, everyone will know that God did it. Any good that is done by us is, most assuredly and most manifestly, God's work! God uses such worms as we are that the whole world "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" (v. 20). Amen.