Gospel—B. Imbeau
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So we started our gospel meeting this evening by singing #7 that's on your hymn sheet and someone start that, please.
The world.
Can you turn with me please to a verse in a book called Micah? It comes right after Jonah towards the end of the Old Testament.
I have a very simple subject before me tonight that will become obvious as we read these verses.
Starting here and quite a few other verses and the subject is worms.
Micah, Chapter 7.
And verse 16.
The nation shall see and be confounded at all their might. They shall lay their hand upon their mouth. Their ears shall be death.
They shall lick the dust like a serpent, They shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee.
Have you ever looked around this world? Have you ever seen the things that happen? Have you ever been afraid of God?
Have you ever been afraid of God?
Perhaps tonight you're like one of these worms.
And you know, in this verse a worm is a little creepy crawly thing.
And it sticks its head out of the earth, and it looks all around, and it goes. I wonder what's going on out there. I wonder who this God is that has come in to help his people. I wonder who this God is that's made himself shown through his power and through his might.
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And perhaps you feel just like that tonight. Just a little creepy crawly thing.
Feeling small in the presence of God, and you say God, really, Who are you?
And I hope that the next verses are somewhat what might be presented in the gospel.
And they go like this, who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage. He retaineth not his anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us, He will subdue our iniquities, and that will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. That will perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.
Do you want to know a God of mercy?
Do you want tonight to know someone who pardons iniquity?
One who passes by transgression.
The one who will cast sins into the depths of the sea.
Well, let me tell you if you feel like a little worm sticking your head up a little creepy crawly thing.
Then keep your head up.
Let's see what follows.
You know, when we think of worms, you might think about all kinds of things.
But I'm going to turn first to a verse.
That will give us some real encouragement. If you feel like that little, little worm sticking your head out of the earth and wondering who is God, here's what he can do for you. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 41.
And the verse we're going to come back to actually a little later in the gospel hour. The Lord hasn't come yet.
Isaiah 41.
And verse 13.
Fry, the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee.
Fear not thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel, I will help thee, Seth, the Lord and thy Redeemer.
The Holy One of Israel, the very God who has created.
The very God who has brought life to you. The very God who has put breath into your mouth. As a matter of fact, the very God that holds your breath in the palm of his hand.
The one that wants to hold your hand.
He's the one that wants to help you. He is the one that wants to be your Redeemer.
To bring you out of darkness into His glorious light.
The one who wants to bring you from just this sphere of this world.
And this earth and raise you up into heavenly places.
That's the one.
And he speaks to you as if you're a worm.
But you know what? You're a lot more than that, aren't you?
But let's start on the negative side of things, because.
Because worms often speak to us of things that corrupt.
Things that.
Eat at other things.
A nice warm summer day and in your garbage can there's maybe been some grease or some junk at the bottom of the garbage can. And you know what? You emptied out your garbage can and sometimes what you find in the bottom.
And those and that's what we're going to look at.
Right now is those worms of corruption, the worms of corruption, and many of those verses are found in the Book of Job. So let's turn to the Book of Job.
Job Chapter 7.
I.
Job Chapter 7 and verse 4.
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When I learn, I say, when shall I arise and the night be gone? I am full of tossings to and fro into the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin is broken and become loathsome. My days are swifter than us. Weaver Shuttle.
And are spent without hope.
While most of us know a bit about job, he really had his problems but.
He did realize that his life, that his existence, was surrounded by corruption and that corruption had taken hold of him.
And he felt it. He felt it. My flesh is clothed with worms, those maggots.
Things that seem to come out of nothing. There was once a theory of spontaneous generation, and that's pretty much.
What gave root to it was these maggots that would hang on to flesh, and they seemed to just come out of nothing.
And it puzzled people. They were just associated with corruption, these little things, wormy things, lots of them. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them.
And they were gross.
And Job felt that.
And you tonight feel your sin.
Total depravity.
Total depravity.
If there's nothing that is going to help you, if you can't escape it, it's like those maggots that just seem to just spontaneously arise in in this stinky stuff and and there they are, and you feel the weight of sin.
The total depravity of man, there is no hope, all of sin and come short of the glory of God.
Thankfully, there's other things than the total depravity. Someone set out a little system and went something like this. There's also unconditional election.
And there's atonement even though it's unto all, but it's only upon those that believe limited atonement.
There's an irresistible grace that is calling at your heart tonight that is tugging at you.
An irresistible grace, and there's the preservation, or some say the perseverance of the Saints. But God will preserve his own all the way home.
Is the total depravity of man the end of the story? No, it's not. Sometimes it feels like it, doesn't it? And Job felt that. He felt like maybe it was the end of the story for him. And so it comes up again in chapter 17 of Job, Chapter 17 and verse 13. If I wait, the grave is mine house. I've made my bed in the darkness. I've said to corruption, Thou art my father.
Into the worm thou art my mother and my sister. He was surrounded by it. He felt that's where he came from. Not only that the worms that attacked him, but that the worms were his origin.
He was down low, he was feeling bad.
Do you feel bad tonight about your sins?
You feel that there's something that you can't shake off.
Something that has consumed you.
And you read all these signs around here that say say no to this and say no to that.
You find you can't say no to anything.
And you go. I need help.
21St chapter of Job.
And verse 26. And here Job is given some thoughts about evil people.
And some of them seem to get along just fine in this world, and some of them don't do so well. But he says that they all go to the same place.
And in verse 26 they shall lie down alike in the dust.
And the worms shall cover them.
And so he had this idea. He knew that if they died in their sins, they were lost and they were gone.
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Are you worried? Are you concerned? Where would you go tonight?
If you died, would you lie alike in the darkness and in the dust, and with the worms of corruption cover you forever?
Would they?
Are you without God and without hope in this world?
Where is it all going to lead?
Into Darkness.
And justice a couple more in Job in case you haven't gotten the idea yet, chap.
In verse 20.
The womb shall forget him, the worm shall feed sweetly on him.
He shall be no more remembered, and wickedness shall be broken.
As a tree.
And again, wondering about the wicked.
Some seem to get away with things. They seem to prosper in this world. They seem to be the best folks on the block.
And other wicked people, they seem to get caught and they seem to end up in trouble.
But Job looks to the end and he says.
The worm is going to get them all.
They'll all come under judgment.
Which category are you in? Are you in the good guys who are evil or in the bad guys that are evil?
The point is, is that it's evil. Are you without Christ?
Do you live on good side of the tracks or the bad side of the tracks? It doesn't make any difference.
But I can weigh out my good things. I'm balance them out. I'm doing all right. I can hang in there. I can stand the presence of God and I can say look what I've done. No, you can't.
You'll all lie down alike.
In the corruption of sin, it will always catch up with you, and if it catches up with you finally at death, it will still catch up with you.
You cannot escape.
How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
And the next one is said by someone else beside Job, and it's just in the very next chapter.
And it goes like this, starting in verse four. How then can man be justified with God?
Or how can he be clean? That is born of a woman. Behold, even to the moon it shineth not. Yeah, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less, man, that is a worm.
Not only have we sinned, not only have we had thoughts and intentions in our minds that are wrong.
But we are sinners.
Our very make up.
If we are outside of Christ, if we are without God.
Our very make up.
Is as a Sinner.
It fills us, it permeates us, it is our being.
And we can't shake it off.
People have tried.
Why do you think we have names of places where we lock up people that are sometimes called reformatories? Well, it's a place where you will reform.
Right.
How about places that we call penitentiaries? A place where you will repent, where you will be penitent for what you've done. That's why they're called penitentiaries. How many penitent people do you see calling out to God in our penitentiaries?
I'll add a little bit to that through God's grace and through the gospel that goes out.
The jails, the prisons and penitentiaries where the light of the Gospel is shown.
There's a tremendous gospel effort.
And a lot of folks in glory, when the Lord comes are going to go straight out of those penitentiaries into the presence of Christ, because they have heard the gospel and have believed.
But naturally speaking, the system doesn't work in terms of reforming or bringing about penitence.
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Or repentance does it?
And so we have a character, we have a nature, we have the results of our actions, and it's all corruption and it tends one way and it's downhill.
To death.
And to an eternal corruption.
We're going to speak of another worm now.
I'm going to call it the worm of Potential.
And we're going to speak of lost potential.
And we're going to speak of potential that's been.
Put into use.
And then we're going to speak of.
Something that's a bit more than just potential.
We're going to speak of a solution.
And it all comes up in this next little worm.
That the Bible talks about.
And it's a worm that apparently had a particular dye or a particular color to it.
And when it was crushed.
It was used as a dye to dye cloth scarlet red, a royal color.
As a matter of fact, in most cases that word for worm.
Is translated scarlet.
The one that's the potential we've already and used we've already read in Isaiah chapter 41 and I'd be interested in just turning there again.
Not that I'm going to say much more about it.
But listen to it again after we've read about the worm of corruption.
Read about what God can do with the worm of potential.
If I can find it, Isaiah chapter 41.
Verse 14. Fear not.
Thou worm Jacob.
Perhaps you do feel small. Perhaps you do feel the weight of your sins.
Is there hope?
Yes, there is. Are you going to reach out and are you going to take the gift of God?
Which is eternal life.
Do it.
Do it.
Oh, thou fear not, thou worm Jacob.
You know God has not left us alone. He has not left us the fend just for ourselves.
He's not left us to somehow work our way up or to get ourselves out of trouble.
He's given away.
And that way tonight is through the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and he says I am the way.
The truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
But that's just the point. It's by him and he wants you.
Do you feel a tug on your heart?
You say I'm tired of being a worm.
I'm tired of having a very little view of really the whole world that's around me.
I feel awful tired of being boxed in like that woman at the well.
And it seems like the older she got, the more boxed in she got, to the point where she wasn't even interacting with certain people. She went and took and went out to the to the well when other people did not. And her life was imploding in honor.
Do you feel like that the Lord Jesus says something better for you?
Fear not, O worm Jacob.
What about potential that is lost?
Have you heard the Gospel before?
Are you hearing it again?
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And again saying no.
Let's add a couple verses.
Another one in Isaiah chapter 14.
Isaiah chapter 14.
And verse 10.
All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we?
Art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy veils.
Or violins.
The worm, which is the worm of corruption, is spread under the.
And the worms. This is the worm of potential.
Cover thee how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground which tis weaken the nations?
You know there is going to arise a person in this world.
And we have lots of names for him, and so does the Bible.
And you know he's going to be the cream of the crop of humanity.
You'll probably be eloquent, charismatic, intelligent.
Witty. Knowledgeable.
You'll probably have.
Oratorial powers being able to sway the masses.
Convincing.
He will bring proofs to what he has to say, not only through his speech, but.
Apparently supernatural powers.
A man that has tremendous potential.
But it's all going to be lost.
It's all going to be surrendered to his master, Satan, who, by the way, loves to take the name Lucifer for himself.
Which is interesting. An Angel of light.
And he claims this name.
Even though it's really one of his servants names.
And he submits himself instead to Satan.
And so the worms of corruption will be underneath of him.
But when he is brought down into death.
The worms, The other worms will cover him.
A Scarlet.
Robe that never really came to him by right, never really came to him through the power that runs this universe, namely God himself, but in death.
Satan says this is all you got.
And he'll be lost.
And he'll be cast into hell.
In his body way before you will be.
You might say someone who will have had everything.
And he's brought down into death.
Tonight.
You don't have the powers that that person will have.
But you might think that you're pretty good.
And that you can make your way through and that you've always talked your way out of things and you've always talked your way into things.
That you have money.
You have prestige and you have position.
And if you don't make use of the gospel, which is the real potential that we have.
You'll simply be covered by worms.
It will all be gone.
It'll all disappear and you'll be laid in the earth as a lost soul.
Forever gone and away from the presence of God.
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Let's turn to the end of Isaiah.
The very end, the last chapter.
And verse 23.
As you come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.
And they should go forth and look upon the carcasses.
Of the men that have transgressed against me for their worm.
Shall not die.
Neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
There will be a day.
That those who will rise up against God and against God's people.
Will be put down in death. That's not the way that things are nowadays. This is a day of grace.
The grace of God.
Is manifests all men.
Will you make use of it? Otherwise you might possibly find yourself in this group.
Those that will rise up physically against the Lord and his Christ.
And be strewn out on the face of this earth as dead carcasses.
And that worm.
Of potential.
Will never die.
You say How so?
Before we answer that, let's turn to the New Testament.
1St in Acts.
Chapter 12.
Acts chapter 12 and verse 20.
Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon, but they came with one accord to him, and having made Blastus, the King's Chamberlain, their friend, they desired peace, because their country was nourished by the King's country. And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne and made an oration unto them.
And the people gave a shout, saying it is the voice of a God and not a man. And immediately the Angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory, and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost.
This man is built a bit like the fellow in.
Isaiah chapter 14, isn't he? And there's others like him, like a man named Haman.
In the book of Esther, they're all like their master, Satan. They're servants of his, and they rise up and they proclaim themselves to be mighty. They proclaim themselves to be like God.
We even have a little word in our language that's God like.
Wow, that was God like.
Oh.
And so there's those hearts that would rise up in this world against God and in this case.
These worms came and ate him while he was still alive.
Didn't wait till death.
He had taken all that he could have surrendered at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he showered himself with the accolades of this world, with the praise from this world, and he ate it up.
And he was eaten up.
By that worm.
That, you say, could have been for blessing. He could have surrendered all to Christ while he was alive.
But he didn't.
And he was struck with those worms.
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And then if you turn to Mark Chapter 9.
Because there's the rest of the story.
And let's start Mark Chapter 9 and verse 43.
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off.
It is better for these to enter into life main than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.
In the middle of verse 45.
Nope.
Verse 46.
Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.
And verse 48 where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.
And so death is not the end of the story.
And going back to Isaiah.
Chapter 66, where these verses are actually quoted from.
There are the dead carcasses of those that have raised themselves up against God.
And people are going to go out and look at him and go wow.
Look at the results.
Look at the results. But the results are far worse than that.
The results carry on into hell.
As Herod of in the book of Acts.
He got it in this world, but it didn't stop.
That same worm.
Is eating at him right now.
Right now.
Right now.
There's an expression that's used at least three times in the Bible and it goes like this.
Why will ye die?
Why?
Will he die?
Don't die in your sins.
Don't die in your sins. There is a place called hell. There is a place where the worm dieth not.
The worm dieth not the worm of potential, and you will forever be conscious in that place.
And forever you'll remember that someone stood up one night and talked to you about worms.
And it will forever gnaw on your conscience.
The worm of conscience, and of memory, and of recollection of every time that Christ dealt with your soul.
Of every time that the Lord pressed his love upon you, and you said no.
And you said no again. And that worm, that which was a worm of potential, will forever be there.
That you had turned down the Lord of glory, the Christ of God.
The one who loved you. The one who came into this world to give you an eternal life.
And forever that worm of conscience and what could have been.
What could have been?
And that in the foolishness of your sins, you turned it aside.
There's another verse in the Old Testament that I'm sure there's many of you who figured I'll be turning to sooner or later, and that is in Psalm 22.
Because this goes far beyond potential, though it's the same worm.
And this is really a solution.
In Psalm 22, verse one begins.
There's something that we read in the New Testament, isn't it?
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My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in the night season I'm not silent, but thou art holy. Oh, thou that inhabiteth the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee.
They trusted, and now it's delivered them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered. They trusted in thee, and were not confounded, but I.
Am a worm.
I am a worm, and no man a reproach of men.
Despised of the people.
A worm.
That was crushed.
This is about the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus, the very Son of God, who came from heaven to come into this world.
To be just like you and justice like me.
He probably stood about 5 foot 10 and he would have gotten lost in a crowd.
He just melted in.
He didn't have any particular features that were real distinguishing. In fact, scripture says that he had features that weren't necessarily even desired.
He was just a common person.
Was he just a common person?
This man.
Was God himself?
He came into this world for a reason.
A reason that is totally different than the reason why you came into this world.
You came into this world to live.
The Lord Jesus came into this world to die.
And die he did.
At about 30, three years old.
They finally got tired.
Of someone who.
Fed them.
Someone who?
Healed them.
Someone who even raised the debt.
Someone who gave comfort.
Someone who would say.
Has any man condemned thee?
Neither do I.
Go thou and sin no more.
Someone who said I am the resurrection and the light.
Someone who said I am the door.
But he also said I am the light of the world.
And he also told the truth.
And so this world called out to him.
Away with this man, we will not have him to reign over us.
We don't care if he could go to the hospitals and.
Help Grandma.
And fix the broken legs.
They don't care. We will not have this man to reign over us.
And what are you saying tonight? Yeah, it sounds good.
But I don't really want somebody that's going to like, challenge me a little bit about my sins, you know?
You just don't understand. I kind of like the way I am and.
I'm getting along.
Would you be like that man in Acts and set yourself above God?
Would you say after hearing that God has a program of salvation for you, that you say, yeah, I've really got a better way, you know?
Maybe God just kind of missed a little piece of logic here and there and there's really, you know, I can make it myself and.
But here's one that not only took the animosity of man against God.
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One who established a way of salvation.
One who you need to believe on. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Set aside your own thinking that's only going to lead to death and the corruption of worms and the conscience and the forever gnawing of worms. Lay all that aside and come to one who says that he made himself a worm. I am a worm.
One who humbled himself and became obedient unto death.
And that the death of the cross.
The one who came under the punishment of God for sin.
The one who in three hours of darkness at Calvary's Hill, he hung there between heaven and earth, and there God punished him for my sins, and for your sins too, if you will accept him and come from darkness into light.
Ah, this is more than potential, isn't it?
This is the answer.
Are you going to accept the answer tonight?
This is a gospel meeting.
You say, well, yeah, but this is also a Bible conference.
And like, the only folks that show up here are like Christians.
This has been said by someone else.
But you know the Lord Jesus had 12.
Apostles, didn't he?
And of that twelve, one of them was lost.
And he's even called the son of Perdition.
And he went to his own place.
There was a place.
Of a lost eternity that awaited him.
Let me ask.
If we numbered some of these chairs and I started and I counted all the way up to 12.
Would you be sitting in that 12Th chair?
One out of 12.
Can we fake Christianity? Oh yes.
You know, remarkably easy.
Remarkably easy.
Can we pretend to be saved? Oh yes.
Can you come on the Lord's Day morning, tomorrow morning and break bread? Oh yes, and be lost and on your way to hell? Yes, you can do it.
God is not mocked.
You might want to keep that in mind.
But he came for you.
And this is a gospel meeting.
If you have not opened your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ yet, do it tonight.
Christ Jesus.
Came into the world.
To save sinners.
Are you eligible? If you're a Sinner, you're eligible.
And the Lord Jesus Christ stands tonight, and he will say to you, Come unto me.
All ye that labor and are heavy laden I.
Will give you rest.
Saying #12.
Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me.
And that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
I.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
When you walk out of this room tonight.
Will you be lost potential?
Or will you be potential that's been fulfilled?
In Jesus Christ.
Who came down?
And was as a worm.
And yielded his life. Gave up his life for you.
Personally for you.