The Loudest Sinner

They told me to turn from sin. So I looked around And started pointing. There's a man on the screen with a Bible in his hand Telling everybody where they ought to stand He's got a list of the wicked And a finger to point But somehow his own heart Never comes up in the sermon He knows every sin That he hates in somebody else But mercy gets quiet When he's talking about himself He's shouting from the rooftop About the world gone wrong But I wonder if he's ever heard The words coming from his own tongue 'Cause pride don't always wear a crown Sometimes it bows its head And says all the right words While lifting itself instead Maybe the loudest sinner Is the one who can't hear his own voice Standing on a mountain Thinking righteousness was his choice There ain't a ladder to Heaven There ain't a righteous few When every heart has wandered And every soul needs You Maybe the loudest sinner Is the one who says, "Thank God I'm not like them" While Heaven sees a broken heart That needs the same grace again We draw our lines in the dust Then we call them holy ground Decide who's clean enough To let inside our crowd We measure other people's failures Like stones upon a scale While pride slips through the back door And whispers, "You did well" We call it righteous anger When we're tearing someone down We call it standing for the truth When there's no love to be found But Jesus never told us To build ourselves a throne He said, "Love your neighbor" And then He made it personal There's an I right in the middle Of the word we love to say And maybe what separates us from God Isn't just what "they" do every day Maybe the loudest sinner Is the one who can't hear his own voice Standing on a mountain Thinking righteousness was his choice There ain't a ladder to Heaven There ain't a righteous few When every heart has wandered And every soul needs You Maybe the loudest sinner Is the one who says, "Thank God I'm not like them" While Heaven sees a broken heart That needs the same grace again And then I saw the mirror. And I didn't like the view. I had been singing about the sinner While forgetting that I was one too. I had my list of failures I had my list of names I knew exactly who was guilty But couldn't see my own shame. Who needs mercy? I do. Who needs healing? I do. Who has fallen short? We all have. We're all the loudest sinner When we think we're standing tall We're all the broken beggar Waiting for the mercy call There ain't a higher ground For the righteous to stand upon We're all beneath the cross We're all dependent on Your love There ain't no gradient of sin No one gets to climb above The ground is level at the cross And pride can't purchase love No one above! No one above! No one beyond grace! No one beyond grace! No one without mercy! No one without mercy! And if I'm gonna turn from sin. Let me turn from mine. I'm not the righteous one I'm just another soul in need Not standing over someone else But down here on my knees There ain't no gradient of sin There ain't no crown for me Just grace upon a broken heart And mercy setting me free The loudest sinner. might be the one who finally learns to whisper. "Lord, have mercy on me." Have mercy on me.