I'd like tonight to read from Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah chapter 59 and verse 16. The prophet Isaiah chapter 59 and verse 16. Oh, what a verse. Are you still outside the kingdom of Jesus Christ? Oh, this is your verse. This is your warrant tonight. Isaiah 59. Verse 16. God is speaking. The prophet Ezra is speaking on behalf of God. And God saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousness The short time we have before us tonight is when no man cares. When no man cares. We are speaking about salvation. No man cares for my soul. David will say somewhere else, but you don't have to turn there. But here in Isaiah 63 verse five, the same is said, God speaks the same. And I looked and there was none to help. None to help. God says the same again in Ezekiel chapter 22 verse 30. No man is found. And in Isaiah 66 verse 4, I also will choose their delusions and will bring their fears upon them because when I called, none did answer. When I spoke, they did not hear. So you see what is happening with us. There is nobody to help us when it comes to the need of our souls. My dear friends, I'm sure you know, Isaiah, the great prophet, is often called the fifth gospel. He is often called the John the Baptist of the Old Testament. 700 years before the coming of the savior, the prophet Isaiah spoke. about his coming, about his work, about his love, about his mercy, about his sacrifice, about his sufferings, about his agony, even how he will be put in a grave, but how he will come out from that grave triumphantly. So all these things are given to us in the prophet Isaiah. And in this chapter, what a chapter, Isaiah 59, you can see the prophet is building up a contrast between sin and salvation. Sin defeats you. Sin humiliates a man and a woman. But Christ giving us salvation dignifies us. And he tells us, the prophet Isaiah, tells us what went wrong with us. Oh, so many things went wrong with us. But Isaiah is telling us also what went wrong with our world. Oh, my dear friends, he tells us how we need a savior. How we need a savior. I think the best question I can ask you tonight, are you saved? Are you safe? What do you live for? I think the best answer you should give to yourself, I must not give myself any rest tonight until I find him. You know, here Isaiah 59 is quoted in Romans chapter three. That's why I read in our second scripture reading Romans chapter three, because Paul takes Isaiah 59, quotes it, and applies it. But he applies it to whom? To the Lord Jesus Christ. But in telling us, in applying it in Romans chapter three, the apostle Paul is telling us, look, behold, the savior, the redeemer, the propitiator has come. And you cannot be saved by good works. You cannot be saved by the law. You cannot be saved by a religion. You cannot be saved by anything you can do. Just to give you a quick clue, look at the first two verses of Isaiah 59. Oh, my dear friends, you see the love of God there in Isaiah 59, verse one and two. God brings himself to our level by using anthropomorphic figures. God has no hands. God has no ears. God is spirit. But because we are so finite, we are so limited, we are so impotent, dust and dirt and ashes. God brings himself. That's what he did in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should have been the ones going to God, but we are so doomed and condemned and so small, and the dirt of this world glues to us so easily that we cannot even elevate ourselves to try to go to God. So instead, God came to us. God came to us. People wonder, will we live one day on planet Mars? Will we live one day on the moon? It doesn't matter. That shouldn't wonder us. But God coming in this world in a body like ours, vested with such a great condescension and humility and humiliation, we should fall flat. Fall flat in adoration. That's the wonder. But as I keep telling you, we stopped being wanted. It's all about amusement nowadays. So, Isaiah gives us those pictures with God with hands and ears. God put himself to our level. My dear brothers and sisters, God is not the problem. Believe me. God is not the problem. We are the problem. We have rebelled against him. We have insulted him. The effrontery of our sinfulness is so massive and terrible that we cannot appear before the living God. The corruption, and I will do my best to show you that in this chapter, we have cut ourselves from God. We have stopped any fellowship with him. And we have disqualified ourselves. And you know, I'm not, I know nothing about these things, but you see it in sport. When a sport man or a sport woman is disqualified, what a terrible experience. And that's you and me. We have disqualified ourselves. in our relationship with God. Oh, why are we not what God intended us to be? Why are we not good people? Why are we so sinful? Why can't I be a kind person to my neighbor or even to my brother or to my sister? Why can't I? What went wrong with us? And this is really what this chapter is all about. And I have four very simple headings. And if I can tell you what is on my heart, but also in my head, pleading with you, do you know the Lord? Do you know the Lord? And the greatest gift you can do to yourself is to come to Christ because he suffered. He went to the cross and he died. This is not an emotional thing. This is not just to titillate your moods, but this is the reality of the Bible. or without any further ado, look at the bleak picture, number one, the bleak picture. It's a very negative picture. And I saw the prophets calls our attention to what poisons our life. There is a poison that poisons our life and it harms our communion with God. and the implacable answer. Why are we not what God intended us to be? Simple answer. It is a word with three letters, S-I-N. Sin. Do you see it in verse one and two? It's interesting that sin in Isaiah 59 here, you can count it later for yourself, there are at least 32 synonyms of sin, iniquities, transgressions, evil, lies, and so on, 32 of them. That's not the maximum I'm giving you, just the minimum. How it is pregnant with the things that have obliterated us and have made us to be totally rejected from God. So everywhere, anywhere, wherever you look, there is sin, as Isaiah is telling us. My dear friends, if I can make sin so ugly to you and make Christ so beautiful to you tonight, I think I have achieved something. Sin is ugly. Sin is violent. Sin is devilish. But Christ is good. Christ is perfect. Christ is beautiful. Christ is magnificent. He's so loving. He's so kind. He's so generous. He's so glorious. I lack words to describe. Among 10,000, he is all together loving. He surpasses anything beautiful you have ever seen in this world. Oh, sin blinds us. Look at in verse 10. We stumble at sin noonday. We see it, but we stumble. It shows how much we are blind. We do not see our own sins. It's there in verse 10. And sin ruins our character. It digs a gulf between us and our creator. Sin deprives us from all blessings. And sin has its own logic. May I tell you the logic of sin? Very simple. It multiplies itself. Sin is never alone. That is why often sin is compared to leprosy in the Bible. It is a contagious disease. and it affects anything you have, all your being, all your soul, all your character. And you will see there are the faculties we have here in Azar 59, Azar spare none of them, from head to toe, every part of you and me, we are born speaking lies, we come from the womb speaking lies we read in the word of God. Oh, sin is so dangerous. When you read verse one and two again, you can see our hands, our feet, our fingers. You see that in verse three and four and in verse seven, hands, feet and fingers, our lips and tongue. is tainted and corrupted by sin, lies and falsehood. Verse 10, even your eyes, terrible, your eyes. And in verse 13, your heart, your thoughts, there is nothing in you. That is not contaminated. Look at verse eight. I'm just trying to show you the ugliness of sin. Sin removes us from the way of peace in verse eight. The way of peace they do not know. And in verse 12, we know our sins and they are against us, but we still love them. That's the problem with us. We know this is evil, but we still love it. And it doesn't just happen, we are sinners by nature, we are sinners by choice, but we are also sinners by practice. Oh my dear friends, we can go on and on in this chapter, just picturing, giving you a picture of how bad we are without God. But I told you there are at least 32 various synonyms of sin here. But when you look at Isaiah 59 again, there are 23 charges against the UN. The sentence, the sanction, the verdict of God, the incriminations, it's all here. And just to show you, look at verse five. Living without God is like eating snake eggs. Are you without Christ tonight? It is as if you are eating snake eggs. You eat snake eggs, they will poison you. But you are already poisoned because you have already eaten them. And look again, they're in verse five. How are you clothed? You are clothed with a spider web. Your own righteousness. You know, you cannot dress, even when you touch a spider web, sometimes, oh, this is so ugly. You want to get rid of it. You know that. How about having a dress to dress yourself with a spider web? That's terrible. But this is us again. It's our picture without God. It's all vanity. My dear friends, do you know the problem? We are our own enemies. We are self-harmers, self-harmers. Here is a refuge, here is a home, but we prefer to live homeless. How come? And that is why Christ is inviting us. Oh, I wish I can push you to go to him, but it's not my prerogative. I cannot do that. gently, gently pleading with you, instead of being dressed in a spider web. Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ is inviting you to be dressed in a heavenly robe, dressed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that righteousness will be given to you now, and it will take you into the next life, into eternity. But you see, not only sin, the description I have given to you, sin is personal. Do you see in verse one, in verse two, your sin, your iniquity, it's very personal. It's not just, oh yeah, the prophet is using many pronouns as you read through it, but sin is first of all, personal. I must deal with my own sins. And I'm sure every preacher can tell you that. If tonight I can take your sins, believe me, I'm ready to do it. I'm ready to do it. But I can't. Everyone, I'm a poor sinner like you. We read in the Bible. That's why Isaiah 59 verse 16 here tells us, no man. It's like in the book of Revelation. Who will open the book? Who? Heaven and earth was searched. Nobody was able to do that. There was no one who could stand and say, I will be able to do that. Only Christ came and he opened the books. The scroll. Sin is bondage. You know, before I tell you the second, let me just say this. Only a fool laughs at sin. Only a fool loves that sin. Never, never, never minimize your sin. Never take it lightly. It is never a peccadillo. It is monstrous, venomous, hideous, and heinous. But look, number two, the divine diagnosis. the divine diagnosis. Do you see it in verse 15 and 16? What God says there through Isaiah, verse 15. Yea, truth faileth, and he that departed from evil maketh himself a prey. Do you see what you make yourself? When you depart from Jesus Christ, when you do not trust in him, you become a prey. The eagle, Satan, is an eagle, a vulture, and you are just a prey. to the wild savages animals. And the Lord saw it. It's interesting. I love that expression. We didn't see it. No man saw anything, but it is so obvious. Nobody sees his own sins, but we read, and the Lord saw it. His penetrating eyes, his piercing eyes, his all-seeing eyes. And the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And in verse 16, and he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. No one can help God. No one. That's one idea of the verse. Nobody can help God, but nobody can help man also to go to God. No man can help you tonight. So we don't even care for our own self and nobody cares for another person. You see, we are given another mood of God in verse one and two. We are given pictures about God, but in verse 16, God is stupefied. God is astonished. He looks at our misery and not one single person is able to help us. and no man, no intercessor, no one to stand in the gap, no one cares for you. Do you know that? The church doesn't care for you, the Pope doesn't care for you, the priest doesn't care for you, the card, the government. I'm speaking about souls. Your soul is so important. that only God really cares for your soul. No wonder the Bible says, what shall it profit to a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? So no one to stand in the gap. Your own hand cannot save you. That's terrible. No one to be your substitute. Christ alone became our substitute, so blind while there was evil everywhere. Man couldn't see it, but God saw it. You know, it's terrible because Abraham couldn't help. Noah couldn't help. David couldn't help. Only Christ is our help when it comes to our sins. All men are impotent. Samuel, the great Samuel, the great high priest. David, oh King David. There was no king like King David, but he cannot save him. But number three, look at God's prescription, how much we need a savior. I need to go between and God look down. God saw. No one meets the qualities to be our day's man. No one meets the qualities. God had a problem that he alone can solve. God has a problem. Only him can solve it. How? And this is where the gospel comes in. God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ, because not the animal sinned, but we. We sinned against him and we deserve to die. And he came in a body like ours. Christ was born without sin. I wouldn't go in details into that because I'm sure you know what happened. Christ was born without sin. He lived a perfect life. At age 33, I often say at age 33, this is where, when a man wants to bite life, both ends, he enjoys life. He has all his strength. But the only one, the only one, I often tell you these things, You and me, we come into this life to live. But Christ is the only one who came with the purpose to die. No other prophet came to die. And you know, the wages of sin is death. We die because we have sinned, but just imagine the immortal, the infinite God became a man in order to die for the men and women he created to die for them and to secure for them what they would never be able to secure for themselves. That's what Isaiah is telling us here. There was no man, there was no intercessor, but God himself, the second person of the Godhead, the only begotten son of God, visited us. He lived a perfect life in perfect obedience to the law of God on your behalf and on my behalf, if you trust in him. Oh, no savior like Jesus Christ. He's so holy. He's so righteous. He's so compassionate. He's so loving. Nobody loves me in this world, I think sometimes, but I'm loved by God himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I keep telling you, a mother can forsake you, a father can forsake you, but once you are saved by Jesus Christ, he said, I will never forsake you. That's the promise he has given to us. Our sins are so many, but the arm of the Lord Jesus Christ is so powerful to remove all our sins, not just some of them, but all of them. And he came wrapped with salvation as a mighty warrior. Look at it in verse 16. I'm just giving you a taste. Read it for yourself later. He came as a mighty warrior with a mighty hand to save in verse 16. And look at verse 17. His helmet is salvation, a warrior, a conqueror. Salvation. He came to overcome sin. And look at verse 18. He came to rescue his enemies. Verse 18, unto them who believe in him, to them who fear him in verse 19. Oh, one was found. One was found. I almost jump of joy in a sense. One was found. There was nobody, nobody to care for your soul. But from the cradle to the cross, to the grave, to the resurrection, to his ascension and to his return, God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ cares for my soul and for your soul if you trust in him. Oh, my dear friends, I wish I have more words to tell you, to make you to shake, to make you to think, Oh, come to the Savior. He became the mediator. He became our intercessor. And we read it in 1 John 2, verse one and two, that Christ is our advocate. He's our advocate, the advocate of our sins. Christ bought our sins. and he brought salvation with himself. All was paid through his blood. He became our invincible conqueror. Invincible. Oh, let me close my fourth heading. I hope I didn't overdo it in explaining these things to you. Number one, it's good for you to think about the bleak picture of your sins. Number two, God is giving you the diagnosis. But number three, he gives you the prescription. Now the fourth question, which is so corollary and so obvious, what must I do? What must I do? There are two things in verse 19 and 20. I just highlight them for you to understand what God is calling you to do tonight. Look at them in verse 19. Oh, so shall they fear the name of the Lord. Number one, God is calling you tonight to fear him. Fear nothing but God. And number two, look at it in verse 20. In verse 20. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, to Jerusalem, and Christ came to Jerusalem, and unto them that turn. You see, number one, fear God. Number two, turn away from your transgressions. Turn away from your sins. You see, there is nothing to do. Nothing in good works. To turn is the movement of your soul towards God. That's all you need to do. No action, nothing physical you need to do. Oh Lord, I'm a wretched sinner. I plead with you tonight. Visit my soul, forgive my sins. I believe that Christ died on the cross of Calvary. He shed his blood there. And I was telling a young man this week, you know, in believing in Christ, you lose nothing. You gain everything. So why should I not come to him? Oh my dear friends, repentance towards God is unto life when it comes with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Until you come with your sins to Him, God has nothing to tell you. God has nothing more to say to you until you come with your sins. That's what God is after. And please look at verse one again. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. May I give you the secret tonight? Give your hand to the hand of God. Whisper in his ear. whisper in his ear, speak in his ear, O Lord, incline thine ear towards me tonight. Save me, save me from my sins, save me from my transgressions, save me from my iniquities. Lord, I'm a wretched man. And God may delay answer to your prayers to test your faith, but God will never delay the answer to an earnest seeker who is seeking after salvation. God will never do that. If you mean it tonight, you will be saved tonight, immediately, right now, without delay, because God said it. Oh, can I be saved? Yes, Christ came as a warrior, strong and mighty in battle. I turn away from my sins and I turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to save us in our sins, but he came also to save us from our sins. Behold, look, look to that hand tonight, speak to the ear of the living God and In closing, look at verse 21, what do you receive? If you come to the Lord Jesus Christ tonight, what will you receive? Verse 29, ask for me, this is my covenant with them, said the Lord, my spirit that is upon thee. God will pour his spirit upon you, even tonight. The Holy Spirit to make you a new person, to give you a new heart, and to give you full pardon. There is no man. You know how Herod spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ? Behold the man. He is the man. Christ is the man. And there is no other man. and He became a man in order to save us from our sins. I wish I can tell you more, but rest your soul upon the sacrifice made by Christ on the cross of Calvary. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, how we thank Thee for such a great Savior. How we thank Thee that no soul No sin, no heart, no man, no woman. It's too hard for the Lord Jesus Christ. His hand is so powerful to lift us up. Oh Lord, visit us. Any person, young and old alike among us, who never trust in the Savior. Lord, we pray that thy hand will be stretched out to reach him even tonight. that he may confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father. We ask these blessings in his name and for his sake. Amen.