Romans 3:19–20

0:00 I'll start tonight talking about getting in arguments. Some of you, probably like me, think that you have brought a drop mic moment to an argument. And you're waiting to bring it, you're waiting to drop it, and you think, oh man, when they hear this. So my wife and I, once in a while, will disagree. My father-in-law would call those intense fellowship moments.

0:37 And when we have those, I'll think, you know what? I've got this point that I'm going to make. And after I make this, she's just going to walk away. It's almost like Ralphie in The Christmas Story. Remember him when he turned in his theme paper? And he was like daydreaming. He said, oh, when she gets this paper, it's going to be the one she's waited for forever.

1:07 And she's given all these papers F, F, F. And then the orchestra plays as she opens his. I've been waiting for this all my life. A plus, plus, plus. And then it comes crashing down later in the story when he not only gets a bad grade, but also his worst nightmare, you'll shoot your eye out. Well, with this mic drop moment that I may have with my wife, I'm like waiting and gearing up and the time is now and I drop it and she's like, so what?

1:45 Literally picking up the mic and handing it back to me, right? I'm like, oh, clearly I didn't say that well. Let me reiterate. And I say it again. I heard you the first time. Well, Paul in Romans chapter 3 has a mic drop moment. He silences not just his hearers, but the whole world. Take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 3, verses 19 and 20. It's on your bulletin or page 941 in the Red Pew Bible.

2:20 This is a mouth-closing argument, one that makes everyone see eventually that they cannot stand in front of the Lord on their own merit. Their own righteousness is nothing before the Lord. Our specific two verses are the closing verses of this major first section from 118 all the way down to 320 where Paul has relentlessly revealed the deadness and the darkness of the human heart.

2:59 All are guilty under the law and will face the wrath of God. Romans 3 verses 19 and 20. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. So that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

3:34 This sobering passage, and it's the conclusion where Paul, he spares nothing. Here he covers all the heights and depths of the human heart. And here we see in this entire passage, 118 to 320, there's a recognition that the depravity of man is total. And that justification is by grace alone. The law cannot save us from our sin and from the penalty that we deserve.

4:10 Someone said that Psalm 130, verse number 3, is a wonderful summary of this whole section. Where it says, if you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? In the courtroom of heaven one day, we all stand accused and guilty in front of the Lord. This evening, the main idea is just simply stated, your only hope is Jesus.

4:44 Trust in Him alone. Your only hope is Jesus. Trust in Him alone. This whole explanation that takes place here is so that every mouth will be silenced, will be stopped, rendered speechless. You remember the parable that Jesus told of the two men who went up to the temple to pray? In verse 9 of Luke 18, that parable starts and it says, he also told this parable, the Pharisee and of the tax collector, to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. It just bothers our hearts when we read that. The Pharisee looked up to heaven and prayed. He said, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give

5:55 tithes of all that I have. Self-love is blinding. And this Pharisee is blinded. He obviously has a highly exalted view of himself and his performance. God's standard is not the tax collector for the Pharisee. God's standard is not a human standard for you and I. It's the perfect holiness of God.

6:28 The tax collector went on and he said he couldn't even lift his eyes to heaven, But simply cried out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. We're the Pharisee. We're the ones who are blinded by our own self-righteousness, our self-exalting. We're up against a holy God. The publican knew his sin, the tax collector knew his sin, and he cast himself on the mercy of the court of God.

7:08 When you and I look in the mirror of the law, every one of our blemishes become instantly obvious. I don't know if you've ever done this before, but you're in the bathroom, you're getting ready, and everything seems fine. And then you go out into the sunlight and you catch a glance of yourself in the mirror from the true light of the sun. You're like, oh, how did that come out like that? Oh, man.

7:40 The law catches all of our blemishes. It reveals the sinners that we truly are. Paul calls it the schoolmaster. It teaches us and leads us, drives us to Christ. I think Chris last week drilled this point so beautifully when he talked about we clearly don't see God for how big he is because of the way we view our own sin. Our sin often isn't the problem that we see, it's the sin in others that we first point out.

8:18 You have to lay out the black velvet sheet for us to truly see the finer points of the diamond. And the law does that to us. Now, I don't think any of you would ever say this, but sometimes our actions tell on us. What if the Pharisees sounded like this? God, I thank you I'm not like other men who have multi-services and multi-sites and who have never read Calvin's Institutes.

8:52 our self-love church can be blinding what shall we say then shall we continue in sin god forbid those things are great things and things that we should pursue with our whole heart but the role of obedience to god's word to god's law in the christian life is for our gratitude for our assurance and our gospel witness they are the fruit of our salvation and not the root for we are his workmanship created unto good works not in me the songs it says god be merciful to me i am a sinner through and through often we can say those words but what we do on a daily basis the way we see others and other churches and doesn't back up what we may be saying in a Sunday night prayer group

9:57 this passage points us to embrace the grace of the gospel our condition is truly hopeless on our own. It's impossible for us to save ourselves. Your only hope is Jesus. But praise God, He came. He lived that perfect life. His obedience was for you and for me.

10:29 Turn to Jesus Christ this very moment. By faith, turn to him. Put your trust in the Holy Son of God. For your salvation, he alone is your hope. Both for life now and for eternity. So, he's your only hope. Trust in him alone is point number two. trust in him alone. God doesn't need any of our human devices. He is infinitely satisfied in Christ. And if you are in Christ, he is infinitely satisfied with you.

11:16 Believer, can you take that in for a moment? That when you stand before the Lord, you don't have to speak a word because Jesus spoke up for you. He died for you. My righteousness, the song goes on to say, is Jesus' life. My debt was paid by Jesus' death. My weary load was borne by him, and he alone can give me rest. And of course, the old song says, nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to the cross I cling.

11:59 Don't let God's grace in your life of having you part of a wonderful, healthy local church be a stumbling block to you. Let it be a wonderful stepping stone to walk in obedience, humbly in the face of your God. not towards legalism applying all the rules to you and to everyone else or libertinism where you have no rules at all walk in the grace of our lord and savior jesus christ and look at these verses and and just thought of a a couple applications a few applications for us this evening. One is ask those closest to you where self-love is blinding to you. Where is self-love blinding in your life? And if you can't see it, that's why it's blinding. We love ourselves. That's

13:04 our nature to spend time not just reciting our our covenant and our statement of faith but make it a part of your regular devotional life not because of how clever we are to put these things together but but for what they are they're eternal truths intended to to grow us and sanctification individually and corporately read intentionally about the bigness and the holiness of god of course reading the holiness of god the knowledge of the holy when people are big and god are small buy them read them reread them give them away mark them up i actually loaned my copy of the holiness of god had reread it several times and marked it up and um my friend's dad is like a psychologist and and he loaned it to his dad and his dad marked it

14:05 up too but not the spots that he liked but the spots he was correcting um i said he could keep that one i got a different company uh continue to sing out church but take in those words and lyrics some we've sang tonight some i've quoted the truth matters and when you can sing it in the recesses of your heart through good times and through bad i'm telling you now that your singing makes a difference in in my life and in my walk with christ even a couple weeks ago matt reminded us that our our bulletins are meant to be taken throughout the week as a devotional to be used after he said that that week i just slipped it into my bible and i took it in and out throughout my day and i sat with one of our hospice patients and saying before the throne of god above

15:05 i have a strong and perfect plea the great high priest whose name is love whoever lives and bleeds for me it's different when you're singing that song and you can see the twinkle of heaven in someone's eyes you can smell a little bit of glory because naturally speaking they're a step closer to heaven than we may think we may be but one day you may be like them as well and it may be closer than you think you may not be able to do what you used to do you might not have the the health and fervor to approach life like you can now your family could be sparse you might not be able to attend church anymore and sometimes even good churches can forget people like that it matters what you sing now it matters the truths that you take in now

16:13 hide those in your heart i think i told this during a sunday school class here but i was singing with a lady and she's kind of the old uh gaither type of singing and folksy in those songs and we were singing when we all get to heaven and that was the only really part of our conversation that she really was latched onto. And we got done and she just leaned up and slapped me on the leg and she just said, you are so handsome. Beth loves that story because Sister Judy is legally blind. Church, do not forget the truths that we sing, the truths that you take in. Jesus is your only hope. Trust in him alone. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are thankful that you've revealed yourself to us. We are thankful that you've shown us your love and grace through our Savior, Jesus Christ. We pray, Father, that each and every day, like Mike just

17:19 said a few moments ago, that we would grow in our love for you, in our obedience to you, and that we would cherish you as the great high priest. And it's in your name we pray, Lord Jesus. Amen.