The Law Shuts the Mouths of Men | Romans 3:19-21

Please open up your Bibles to the book of Romans.

We're looking at chapter 3 today.

Romans chapter 3,

in particular verses 10 through 20.

Romans chapter 3, 10 through 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 works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since

through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for this morning.

I pray that your son would be glorified through the reading of this word and this message, that we will see your beauty

through these words, that you would give us ears to hear what your spirit has to say to us this morning right now.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So our main focus today is going to be primarily in verses 19 and 20, but I wanted to start with verse 10 because we'll be

referring back to 10 through 18 periodically.

But as I was reading this text and going over what it says, I thought to myself,

what can I say to a people that know the law and its demands so well?

What could I say to a people that know the law by no means justifies man?

What could I say to a people who have heard the many commands of the law?

Have you not?

What could I say to a people who have felt the lightning strikes of God's law

or have even seen the lightning strikes of God's law?

And even if today is the first time you are receiving this privilege to hear of God's word and his law

and what God has to say to us, even if today is the first day that you have been

present in the reading of God's word, you have received an incredible privilege

and blessing.

Yet we've heard it many times.

As I look around this room this morning, I'm pretty sure all of us have heard God's word and his

law many times.

This is an incredible privilege, and in light of this, I want to ask you a question.

What has become of you in light of this gracious advantage?

This is a privilege, is it not?

So what has happened to you?

What has become of you?

And what has been the fruit?

What has changed?

This is God's very means of laying man in the dust.

We just read what Romans 3 has to say of you, and I would go so far to say

many of you seem unmoved, maybe even distracted.

You see, for as much as we as a church have addressed the nature and the purpose of the law,

I fear that amongst us there still remains a sense in which we are missing something that is

crucial and vital.

Vital to understanding God's way of salvation.

God's way of salvation.

I fear today as we are faced with what God's word and God's law has to say, that we don't

find ourselves responding to God's word in a way that it says we should.

So let's look at verse 19 again.

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.

It says that our mouths should be closed, that our mouths should be stopped.

That means all forms of boasting in self and all appeals to God

based on your own goodness.

All accusations against God that he is not good, all of these things must

stop.

That's what this text is saying this morning.

But the boasting hasn't stopped, has it?

Mouths, our mouths should be silent.

For many of you, God is still questioned.

You still bargain with him, showing off your good deeds, and you are still ready to quickly

come to your own defense.

Your mouths are not stopped.

But out of fear and out of pride, you continue to want to go before God and list

your accomplishments before him.

Do you see that this morning?

I'm saying this to you today, but do you actually see that?

My fear is that you don't even see what I'm saying right now.

I'm trying to help you see what we're missing, and maybe we're missing even that.

The law has not failed.

It's not the fault of the law.

Though you have heard it many times, the law has not failed to do its job.

Where is the failure?

Because the law has not failed to show you your need and silence you.

That's not the problem.

The problem is this.

You have resisted what the law says and speaks of you, and you raised objections to

God.

You have to see this, brothers and sisters, because understand that the gospel is not good news

for those who are not guilty.

You are not allowed to revel in your righteousness and still receive Christ.

You cannot have both.

The truth is that you still open your mouth and speak in the courtroom of God as

if you have something of worth to say for yourself.

There still exist great obstacles that you create for yourself, but the problem

here, I think, the problem comes in the fact that man by nature is a great

talker, are we not?

Full of pride, ready to come to our own defense.

Look at the Psalm that Paul points his readers to.

He's quoting from Psalm 14.

In verse 18, what does it say?

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

This is why man is so quick to come to their own defense.

And church, I submit to you this morning that this is why you're so quick to come to your

own defense.

It's the pride of self, the exaltation of self.

When you look at it, pride and arrogance are at their core, an expression of lying,

because it is to act or to think in a way that's contrary to reality.

When you seek to define or justify your own standards, our pride calls the God of truth a liar.

Pride is a mockery to the sovereign nature of God, and it is a form of rebellion,

man seeking to climb higher than he should.

Therefore, God must stand against it, and he must strike it down.

So when the law is rightly presented as it ought to be, it confronts you in a way like nothing else in

this world.

It confronts you in a way that it presents a guilt so powerful that it actually shuts the

mouths of men.

Yet, has that happened to you?

Do you see that realized in your life?

In this text that we have come to this morning, it's a courtroom scene.

Some of you know that about Romans, in the beginning sections of Romans, there's a confrontation there.

God, by way of the apostle Paul, is confronting the whole world.

God is bringing the whole world before him, confronting all who have lived and will live.

And in case you forgot, that includes you too.

See, because you, along with the whole world, are confronted with the evidence of your crimes,

their hideous nature, its ugliness, and how you willingly have committed

these crimes.

What this text says about you, as well, is that you rightly know that you should be condemned.

Any objections would be utterly foolish.

All heads should drop in shame, unable to face the one they have disgraced.

And the pride that has been built up in your life should be shattered into millions of pieces.

This has been Paul's purpose from Romans 118 and onward.

Paul has taken this much of the letter to the Romans to lay us in the dust.

So where are you?

Are you higher than the rest of your fellow men?

He's talking about the whole world.

But the problem is that we don't see ourselves applied to the whole world.

We think everybody outside this building and everyone, that's not me.

With that being said, let's go back to the text we read this morning.

In Romans 3 10, as it is written, none is righteous,

no, not one.

So let's stop for a second.

Who is this talking about?

Is it you?

Who is this text speaking about?

The law speaks to you, brothers and sisters.

The law speaks to you.

It speaks of you as if it knows you.

Does that scare you a little bit?

Or do you still not believe?

Do you see any good works described here that come to your mind?

Any good intentions?

Surely something is missing now because this can't be talking about this group here.

There's no way this verse could fully be applied to you as well, could it?

Or maybe there's this other problem.

Maybe you two easily agree that with this text, maybe you two easily agree

with that text because of your proper theology.

Yet there's only because you do not want to fully face what the law says about you.

It logically makes sense that the whole world is unrighteous, except for you.

And yet we still open our mouths to this very day.

You have forgotten what the law does.

It silences your pride.

It silences your self -righteousness.

It silences your defensive self and your attacks against God.

And yet maybe you are wondering how you ever have done something so high -handed to him.

Church, the sheer fact that we just read verses 10 through 18 and you are unmoved

is evidence enough that your mouth has not been stopped.

I should be able to open up to Exodus 20 and preach the 10 commandments and preach the law

and we would, and the gospel, and we would all erupt in praise and adoration toward the

God who would be so gracious to us who could never keep such high

commands.

But as you've heard many times, it's because we're so dull.

But maybe you don't quite see your lack of silence before God and his law yet.

You aren't seeing how you could possibly be charged with something like that this morning.

In light of this, I'll ask you a question.

Do you sin?

It's simple.

Do you still sin?

Yes, everybody in this room this morning sins.

I'll answer that for everybody.

All present in this room are sinners, myself included, in case you were wondering.

Such a statement does not come to a shock to you, though.

Something that is truly frightening to think about is that there are some of you today

that would open your mouth in the face of God's law because sin has just become far too common

for you.

I want us to think about that, the common nature of sin in our lives.

So why would sin become common?

I think it becomes common when you forget the fact that every single sin of yours cries out

against the God of the universe.

Every sin cries out against the God of the universe and it says this,

unworthy.

Every sin declares and it says to God, you are unworthy.

Does that make you feel uncomfortable?

Makes me feel uncomfortable just saying it because I know I have sin.

For me to declare to you right now that every sin of yours declares that God is unworthy,

but unworthy of what?

Every sin declares that God is not worth my obedience.

Every sin declares that his law is actually not good.

It's not worth obeying because it cannot and will not give me the good things that I desire.

Our sin declares that obeying the law of God is an obstacle to having joy in this life.

You've seen it in your own life.

It's sad that during the times we are actually silent is when we could be sharing the gospel with an unbeliever

or we are silent when we could be sharing the gospel, sharing the truth of God to unbelievers and because of the

fear of man, we are silent.

Yet many times we don't even hesitate to sin against God.

Even though your sin may seem common or normal to you, you must realize that every sin cries

out, though it cries out that he is unworthy, it also cries out this, let

vengeance be enacted upon the one who sins.

You have the law of God written before you in the Bible.

You hear it preached to you every Sunday here at church and not only are these things written in the Bible, they are

engraved upon your heart.

Whether the law has been revealed in the heart or the law is given physically, all stand

condemned.

Yet I know for the people in this church, it does not come to you as a surprise to be

told on any given Sunday that you are a sinner.

Am I right?

It's becoming far too common.

Church, the sheer fact that it has become common to hear about your portrayal and outright sin before God

should cause us to stop and consider this reality.

For when sin becomes a common thing, we begin to come to our own defenses.

So I want to submit to you today that since you have woken up today, you have forgotten what God's word says about

you.

You've forgotten what the way of the law is.

Though there may have been a time for which your mouth was closed, it didn't stay closed for long.

As the text says, the chance, the next chance you get to, you got to open your mouth in defense, the next chance you

saw to receive some glory in word or deed, heart or mind, you took

it.

When sin is common to you, your sin is perceived to be a small thing in your eyes.

You are so quick to think you can cover it by good deeds.

If it's small, I can cover it by my good deeds, by my good works, by my good

intentions.

If I serve in the church this way, if I just text someone a verse, that will cover it

because sin is small.

You're so quick to think that your sin is not utterly and completely damnable.

You do this and therefore see fit to open your mouth because maybe you modified God's law and his

commands.

We are so quick to defend ourselves regarding our guilt and our sinfulness because we

see sin as something we can defend.

We see our sin as something that is defensible.

The small little sins we commit in our heart and against our family are common and regular.

It's something like losing our patience with our family, not uncommon to us.

A small and common sin to sin against your family because we do it so much,

it's not a big deal.

Church, this should be terrifying.

The common nature of your sin causes you to be insensitive and therefore are just not bothered by it.

It's not a big deal to come to your defense when your lies are not nearly as horrible as others.

It's not so bold to come to your own defense when the lust in your heart is not as horrible as

adulterers out in the world, fornicators and rapists out there.

It's not so wild to defend your crime when your hatred and anger in your heart is not as horrible or as wicked

as the murdering world.

What have you done?

What you have done is you have ignored God's law and have ignored his son.

What did he say in Matthew 5?

Do we not believe him anymore?

We have gone over that text before and we're still unbothered by it.

We know that the heart condemns us and yet we still think it's not a big deal when

sin is committed in the heart.

So let's go back to our text in verse 13, 14, and 15.

Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood.

In their paths are ruin and misery.

As we went over earlier, who is God talking about?

Who is he talking to?

Is he talking to all the other murderers and adulterers out there?

Or is he speaking to the whole world?

If you reap the benefit of breathing air, church, you're in the world.

If gravity is keeping you here right now, you are in the world.

If you've had the privilege of being born, you are his, you are under

his law and his law speaks to you.

So God has pronounced upon you that you are as what this verse describes.

It says that your throat is an open grave.

Your lies are just as terrible as everyone else's as if the poison of Asp is under their

lips, it's under your lips.

If it says their feet are swift to shed blood, it's speaking of your feet as well, friends.

You are not blameless of this because of what you know or what you think you have done.

This text says that the whole world is guilty before God because they are under the law,

God's perfect law.

Any opening of your mouth would result in a weak, false defense.

Yet we seek to make our sins appear to us to appear to be small because we bring before God the fact that we

have good intentions, that our sin is not as great as others and we make

promises of better behavior.

In doing this, we demand and please hear this, in doing this, you

demand you are demeaning the strict and perfect nature of the law.

For the only way one could ever consider speaking out against the giver of the law would be if you

modify the nature of God's law, but this is impossible.

You may do this, but you have nothing.

You have achieved nothing.

Numbers 23, 19 tells us this, God is not man that he should lie or a son of man

that he should change his mind.

Has he said and will he not do it or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it?

Are you gonna change the God that has said this about himself?

Are you going to change his laws?

Are you going to convince the judge that you have something better to offer him that which he has demanded?

It's possible that you, much like the Jews in scripture, are just content with a sufficient holiness,

a holiness that's just right for you, that fits your desires, fits your

lifestyle, fits the things you want and fits the things you don't want, content with a form of

holiness that's suitable to you, but today you have placed before you

what the unchanging law of God says of you and I'll ask,

what do you have to say about your supposed holiness or obedience?

It's incredible.

It's as if we look in the mirror and see these open wounds and sores of leprosy

strewn across our face and we deceive ourselves into thinking that there's

something better to see than that which is in the mirror or maybe we see what's

revealed and we see it for its true ugly nature and are brought to such grief by the

sight of it that all hope is gone, but not enough to make us despair and

wish that we could look better so that we could have joy.

That's all it is.

The grief is not grief over sin.

The grief is over, I wish that I was like this so that God would accept me.

Church, do you see how you continue to open your mouth and speak that you are only making your

case worse?

Every time you speak against what God's law says about you and you open your mouth against the law,

you bring charges against the God of the law.

So let me ask you this, when a person breaks the law, do we call the man evil

or the law evil?

Yet in this case, when you open your mouth against God's law in your defense, you've called the

law and the law giver evil.

You've called him unjust and wrong.

Nowhere else in this world will be called the law bad.

If someone came into your house and stole something or murdered somebody in your family and the law sent them

to prison, would you call the law evil?

You would call the man evil.

Why does that not happen when we are faced with God's law?

Who is greater?

The one who is speaking this law is God.

He created you.

The one you know is greater than you.

The one you know exists.

Isaiah has something to say of this in Isaiah 5 .20.

Those of us who look at the law want to call the law evil.

Isaiah says,.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put

bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight.

Not only are we modifying God's law, not only are we making our sin common, we are

appealing to the God who wrote the law and said, You're not a big deal.

I know this is yours, but I think I can actually give you something better.

To call the law bad is to call the lawmaker bad.

In this as well, you've forgotten what the law says about the lawbreaker.

I mean, why are we not celebrating the law is my question this morning.

Hear me out here, and I think it's easy for us to say, Law bad, gospel good.

The law is good.

The law is not the problem.

Why are we not applauding and praising the God of the law?

Is this not who he is?

The law of God is good because it speaks to the character and nature of God, who is the

epitome of who is good, right, and just.

And this God who with his law has made a judgment, the judgment is done and final.

It's over.

So why is your mouth still open?

Why do you still plead your case?

Do you still open your mouth against God because you in some way think you have met what the law requires?

That would be the only reason you could open your mouth against his law because you have actually met what

his law requires you to do.

So friends, I want to tell you something this morning.

You plead nothing that would cause the judge to remove the guilty verdict from you.

The breaking of the law results in a demand of justice.

The demands of the law speak and they say the one that sins dies.

For the sake of God's holy name, he must satisfy the demand of his law, the righteous decree

of justice.

There is one thing, or there is nothing you could say to remove his hand from the gavel.

Jeremiah 17 says this about your sins.

It says that your sins are so permanent as if they're written upon the tablet of your heart with an iron

stylus or pen, if you will.

That this iron pen has a diamond point.

What do you think that God is trying to communicate through this prophet?

Can you remove such a permanent inscription upon your heart?

No, you can't.

That gavel will not leave his hand.

The gavel will strike with the verdict of guilty that will pronounce that you be cast into utter darkness.

He holds before you today his verdict and it reads guilty.

And I want us to understand and speak against him who holds this verdict that says, I want

you to understand that you speak against him who holds this verdict and says you are guilty.

Who are you, oh man, to open your mouth against the Lord,.

Your creator?

Have we forgotten who God is?

Have we forgotten what his law says about himself and what it says about you?

Yet maybe all that we've talked about today is difficult to believe because you don't believe

what God's word speaks about you.

Maybe you've done a good job evading and sidestepping everything I've said because you don't

believe that what Romans is saying to you this morning is saying to you individually.

I know that I'm speaking to you as a group but I would love nothing more than to speak to you individually

so that maybe this will land upon us in the way that it should.

You open your mouths because you do not believe what God's word speaks of you.

This goes back to what we touched on earlier.

How many of you have read through our text this morning and read it as it applies to everyone else in

this room, everyone else outside of this room and the whole world

except you?

When you hear about texts like this, I'm sure that most of us picture a proud atheist that will stand

before God and be silent and we go, yeah, yeah.

Every mouth will be stopped.

Yes, all you mockers out there, all of you have mocked me for being Christian.

All of you have made fun of me because I was so pious.

All mouths, if you have a mouth, it will be stopped.

We think of the self -righteous man we see in Matthew 7, right?

What happened in Matthew 7?

Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many

works in your name?

And we're going, that guy's an idiot.

How dare you speak against God?

You do the same thing, brothers and sisters.

He says in response to the self -righteous man, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.

What does lawlessness mean?

It means you did not live according to the law.

But what has God's word said this morning?

Have you lived according to God's law?

Is it, it is calling you today a lawbreaker.

Why should the same thing not be pronounced of you?

But the real problem and obstacle that faces you today is that the law speaks to you,

my friends, and you fear what it says about you.

When the law of God speaks, it tells you that you have nothing to say, but yet you

still open your mouth.

So what are you afraid of?

Are you afraid that you would have to stand before the judge and have nothing to say for yourself?

Do you still speak because you think you have something good to offer him?

The gospel is only for the people that Romans 3 is speaking about.

Did our savior not say that he only came for the sick?

Wasn't it Jesus that said he did not come for the righteous, but the unrighteous?

Yet you still want to be considered someone who is well and righteous.

We want the salvation that Christ offers, but still want to be praised as the one who is righteous.

And as I said earlier, you cannot have both.

There is no marriage between the works of the law and the law of faith, my friends.

The only reason why you would still open your mouth after hearing what God's law says about you is that you

do not believe that it applies to you because you are so incredibly different than

the whole world.

You have a better righteousness than others.

You have better deeds.

You are a well -studied theologian.

You could never be compared to the masses.

You are the epitome of this dying world.

You know this book so well, but who do you sound like?

The same Pharisees that you would mock as self -righteous.

You've heard what it says in Isaiah 64, 6.

It says that all forms of your righteousness and good deeds are as filthy rags.

Yet for some reason you think it applies to everyone else except you.

The scriptures say that you have nothing to say regarding the purity of your nature, who you are

because it has been so badly stained.

The scriptures say that you should be silent because even your best deed is filthy and

imperfect.

Church, would you really want to stand before the judge of the living and the dead and have your goodness weighed

and measured next to the perfect son of God?

Would you really want to stand before they are dressed in your self -righteousness?

Filthy rags.

And begin to plead your case of unworthiness, of worthiness against the one who is worthy of all praise.

The one who bears the name of all names.

That means yours too.

The king of kings and the lord of lords.

Do the knees of men and women bow to you because of your goodness?

It says that they will of Christ.

Then why do you open your mouth against God?

That's why I submit to you today.

Why do we open our mouths?

And if you still find yourself making excuses about how this could not be completely true of you,

or if you find yourself passing over this text because you already know the

solution, I fear that you will not be able to hear the end of this message.

Because your mouth has not been stopped.

As I stated earlier, the law has not failed to show you your need and silence you.

You have resisted what the law speaks of you and have raised objections against God.

The gospel is only good news to the guilty.

And again, you will not be allowed to revel in your righteousness and still receive Christ.

Maybe at this point this morning, you have it all figured out.

You know what to say.

You know what deeds need to be done.

We're set to go.

I wouldn't dare let you leave the room that way.

I wouldn't dare do that.

Because maybe you've begun to say to yourself, all right, I just need to fear God more.

I'll study the works of Spurgeon and Calvin to gain a greater fear of the

greatness of God.

That will do it.

That's not gonna do it, friends.

So you pursue knowledge and intellect, or maybe you think to yourself, I know, I just need to close my mouth.

I need to have a stronger will and close my mouth before God.

Great.

So now that you have strengthened yourself so much, you have studied and are so intelligent now.

You are well -trained in the things of Christ and Christianity.

You have looked into the deep things of God.

But friends, in light of what the law says of you, has it stopped your mouth?

Has it caused all boasting and striving for acceptance to cease?

What I'm trying to say is that you don't do these things in a way that has gained approval of God.

Something must be done about these bold, rebellious crimes, every single one of them.

My call to you this morning is that your mouth will be closed now, at this moment.

No more appeals to yourself.

No more promises.

The law speaks and calls you to be silent, and I beg you, church, let the law fall on you.

It calls you to be silent today so that you may hear what God is willing to do for you.

I pray that there is a silence in your hearts this morning, that the harsh and foolish voices of self -defense

are hushed.

That like Job, when he saw his righteous self in the light of God, he said, behold, I am

insignificant.

What can I reply to you?

I lay my hand on my mouth.

My friends, Job left it to God to speak and for himself to listen.

For those of you who have been silenced, what will you hear today?

A rejection?

A rebuke?

And then a tossing into hell?

No, something far better and something far more wonderful.

So why must the mouths of men be shut?

For our mouths, for until our mouths are shut, we cannot hear the beautiful words of the gospel.

Can I tell you what God has done for people who have opened their mouths against him?

Just as Paul brought us into God's courtroom in Romans, I want to bring you into a courtroom as

well.

This courtroom scene is very similar to the first.

God is present as judge and the guilty party stands there as well.

But the difference this time is that the guilty party that stands there is not you.

This time, a different person stands there.

This person that stands on trial is the same person that John the Baptist said that he was unworthy to

untie the sandals of.

This person that stands on trial is the same one who stood on a mountain as God spoke and said of him,

this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

This person who stands on trial is Jesus, the perfect son of God.

Friends, can you picture it?

Can you picture that?

Jesus stands there on trial and says not a word.

He was silent.

Isaiah 53 tells us he was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.

Like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shears, he did not open his

mouth.

1 Peter chapter 2, 22 and 23 tells us that he committed no sin nor was there

any deceit found in his mouth.

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges

justly.

Doesn't hearing this beg the question though?

Why is the perfect son of God standing there?

Why doesn't he plead his case?

Why doesn't he say something?

He's innocent, right?

Why doesn't he say something?

Friends, he was silent because he was settling a debt, settling

your debt.

The pure and spotless lamb of God stood in your place as the guilty one and was silent.

He was bearing the weight of your sin and guilt and therefore he could not be spared a single

punishment.

Just look at what the son of God is doing.

He's doing something that none of you are able to do or willing to do.

He allowed the weight of the demands of the law and the demands of the law breaker to fall on him and he was

silent.

How many times today have you let the law fall on you and be silent?

Yet here our savior stands and is taking all of your law breaking and letting it

fall upon him.

He's silent in the courtroom today because he has taken upon himself the guilt and

sins of his people and with that he has taken upon himself punishment for these crimes.

Jesus, as it says in Philippians 2, six through eight, it says, though he was in the form of God, he did not count

equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant,

being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by

becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Though you have failed in so many ways to obey the law of God and have not been sufficiently silent before

him, God is willing and able to show you mercy today.

Even though today you have not been silent sufficiently, God is willing and able to show you mercy because

he showed no mercy in punishing his son on account of your sins.

Can I tell you something else God has, God is willing to do for you, my friends?

God's choice recipients of mercy, they receive

something.

They receive something very special.

After everything you've heard today, do you think you deserve something special?

Something that would only be given to a certain people?

But what special thing could we receive for breaking his law?

For speaking out against the God of the law and despite all these things, all who have faith in Christ's works

of grace for them will be given a crown of life as we've heard in James.

You'll be given the crown of life as though you were the one with no deceit in your mouth.

You will be rewarded as if you were the one who is pleasing to the father in all ways and at all times.

You will be rewarded as if you being under the law kept it in perfection.

I just spent probably 25 minutes showing you that we did not do that.

You're going to be given a crown that says you kept the law as if you kept it perfectly.

Rewarded as if your obedience to God and his law, that your obedience has no end.

As if there were no limits to how willing you were, to obey the God of all things.

Rewarded with the crown of life because the silence of Christ fulfilled for you all the ways that you have failed to be

silent before our God.

Have you earned this crown?

Do you have something to say for yourself that would say you have earned that crown?

You have done everything to avoid which is required to receive the crown of life.

What will you have to say in face of all these things?

What is there to say now?

Your mouth will be stopped at the sight of the source of this law, God eternal.

For you will see him in all his glory and perfection.

But friends, what will the judge have to say to you?

Though you have failed to abide by the law of works, I pray that you will cast yourself before the

savior who has earned the possibility for us to be saved.

And to be approved by the law of faith.

Church, there is hope for you all today according to the work of Christ.

There's a way for you to stand before the judge and instead of hearing, I never knew you, depart from me, you

worker of lawlessness.

You will be welcomed by the father and receive, and be received as though you were just like

his son in whom the father was well pleased.

If there remains one duty for the mouths of men after hearing the law of God and the gospel, it would be to cry

out for mercy.

But how bold would it be for us to cry out to God for mercy from the same mouths that we used to call God into

question with?

How bold would that be?

It would indeed be a bold thing, a bold thing that you were invited to do, that you were beckoned to do,

that you were commanded to do, especially in light of hearing the law this morning.

Because the perfect work of the son of God has bought you, earned for you

that right.

It is here that the righteousness of God is manifested and many of you sought to manifest your righteousness,

but in the face of the law, you need a different righteousness presented before you today.

The righteousness that God desires, the righteousness that is found at the foot of the cross.

It's not a human form of godliness.

It's a divine righteousness.

It is longstanding, not flickering and fading like yours.

It's infinite.

The obedience of Jesus Christ is the only righteousness that can pass through the gates of heaven for it's

perfect.

Every other form of righteousness will be stopped at the gates of heaven and be revealed for what it truly

is, just filthy rags.

And the bold souls that stand before God in this way will have their improper clothes revealed,

be bound hand and foot, and be cast into utter darkness.

Friends, how sad is it that one of our greatest struggles comes in the fact that we often

refuse to believe that God is willing to do good to us, right?

He's willing to do good to us regardless of who we are and what we do.

We open our mouths against the law of God because we don't believe that there is a possible way that

God would or could even ever accept us the way we are.

We tend to think that God will only do good to law keepers.

But how quickly do we forget what the law speaks of us?

We forget that there are only law keepers and law breakers.

We forget that there is only one law keeper as well.

And then the whole world that falls into the category of law breakers.

So in closing, in light of all that's been said, I want to call you

today to turn from the sin of opening your mouth against God, to admit what the

law speaks of you, to believe that in spite of all that's been said this morning,

that God is still willing to show mercy to a people like us.

Why?

Because of Christ's work.

I can't imagine anything better to say to you than this.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved.

Will you trade the mirage of self -glory for the promise of being justified freely by the grace that is

found in Christ?

Every man by nature tries to open his mouth and say the best he can for himself, but it's the object of God's

law to shut every mouth.

And when we come to that condition, then there is hope for us.

When we have nothing to say for ourselves, it's then that Jesus will open his mouth for the silent ones

and plead for the guilty in the courts of God.

Church, your Savior, though he was silent in the courtroom of God for your sins, he now speaks on the

behalf of his people.

Hebrews 7 tells us that our Savior intercedes for his people.

He pronounces innocence upon those who trust him in faith by pleading your case

for you by the merit of his blood.

If you have been silenced by God today, friends, praise him today.

Praise him today.

Bless God that you have stopped arguing with him, even if but for a moment.

Even if it's just right now today, this morning, that you have stopped arguing

with him.

You say, God, speak for me.

Speak for me.

Let your grace be for me.

I have nothing to say.

There's nothing to say when we go and receive these elements, when Jesus presented them.

There's nothing to say, but receive.

Glorify him for the moment that his law shut your mouth because what is revealed to you is the greatest treasure in

all the universe, the righteousness of Christ.

All that is left is to come to the Savior for with his own voice, and as you've heard many of these

calls from our Savior, he calls you to come to him for rest for your weary soul.

Pastor Jeff and I are available not only today, but at any time during the week to talk about

these things.

Let's pray.

Father, I pray that our mouths will be closed, that we will stop coming to our own defenses.

Father, that you, your son will speak for us, that his grace truly will be

for us.

We pray these things in your name.

Amen.

Please stand.