God Knows Your Heart

Do not think, friend, that God is indifferent to your life of rebellion against Him, especially people in this room, to be in a place like Christ Covenant, is to have some of the greatest privileges in the whole world. All of the resources we have and the preaching and the teaching and this place and the freedoms, it’s an immense privilege and it means it’s a danger. As Jesus says, He will judge more strictly, those for the light that they have and the people in this room, most of you have received a lot, a lot, of light. Some of you grew up in a Christian home. You went to Sunday school. You went to Christian school, maybe you went to a Christian college, and you have all of this information. You are like these tenants. Do not think that God is indifferent to you. He has been patient. He has been gracious. He has given to the people in this room more Gospel light than almost anyone in the history of the world, and God knows your heart. He knows where you have been. He knows if you are presuming upon His favor, just as these tenants did. It’s a short road sometimes, from assurance to presumption, to apathy, to rebellion. Some of you are on that trip. Far down that road. They thought God was indifferent. They were His people. They were the tenants. They were in the vineyard. What could He possibly have against them?

This clip is part of the sermon “When Jesus Speaks Against You" delivered by Dr. Kevin DeYoung at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, NC on March 23, 2025.

Matthew 21:33–46

The Parable of the Tenants

[33] “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. [34] When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. [35] And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. [36] Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. [37] Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ [38] But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ [39] And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. [40] When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” [41] They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” [42] Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? [43] Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. [44] And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” [45] When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. [46] And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet. (ESV)