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Feb 06, 2022

The Parables of Jesus | Will You Listen to the Warning?

The Parables of Jesus | Will You Listen to the Warning?

Passage: Matthew 21:31-45

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: The Parables of Jesus

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: worship, faith, jesus, sunday, god, sermon, christian, bible, gospel, hope, believe, the bible, bible study, bible verses, live music, trust in god, parables of jesus, livestream, burnt hickory baptist church, gods mercy, burnt hickory worship, how to be saved from sin, parable of vineyard, hearts desire, understanding parables

The parable from scripture that we look at this week is found in Matthew chapter 21, where Jesus teaches us about a vineyard owner who rents his field to some farmers. The farmers beat and kill the owners’ servants who’ve come to collect what’s owed him. Then they kill his son. But before we judge the sins of these people in the past, we need to realize that we are not beyond sin. The history of human depravity should not make us feel proud and smug, but should make us live in constant humble repentance, begging to God that our heart can march in another direction. The truth is that God has provided our heart with all that we need to trust and serve Him, and most of our unbelief is really just willful refection of God. The root of our rejection comes from our desire to be in control, and God’s grace towards a lost heart is merciful, but won’t last forever. Just like the vineyard owner who has sent warning after warning, God is mercifully warning us about willfully rejecting Him in our hearts. Are you listening to the warning? Has this sermon caused you to consider God’s warning about sin in your heart? Do you want to know how to take the next step and not be lost? We would love to pray with you or answer any questions you have about Jesus and what He has done for you. Reach out today – burnthickory.com/next

Well, good morning, church. It is packed in here, and so if you would, I know we hate this because we're like learned how to be like in our bubbles for a long, so long. If there's like more than like a seat between you, if you can help us out and maybe move toward the middle a little bit, we've been trying to shift people in. Playing Tetris in here for the last little bit, if you could just kind of move toward the middle, we still have a couple of people that are looking for seats. Well, listen, I know if you're on our email train that you got an email for me this week talking about our Israel trip. Now we've rescheduled it 900 times, but this one's going to work. All right. So, we are this spring break, we're heading to the Holy Land. And look, if you are like thinking about it, call us and we would love to go with you. We'd love to take you. I know it's last minute, but if you've got a passport, let's go. We got some spots available. But if you're wondering, what do I do, how do I do it? Just reach out. We'll point you in the right direction, but it's going to be a fabulous trip.

Thank you for everybody yesterday. Run for the Son was incredible. I've been watching you all limp around all day today. It's been fabulous for those of you who just want to be like the rest of us just bought a T-shirt. Thanks for y'all, too. It works out. It works out for us.

Well, listen, if you have been here the last couple of weeks, we're on week five this week of a series where we're walking through some parables. Actually, we're on our fifth week in parables that are all coming out of the Book of Matthew, the Book of Matthew. We're going to be there again today. But what we've been saying in all of these parables is that there's two kind of major threads that we've been pointing out. The first one is that a parable is a earthly story that has a heavenly meaning. It's a story that shares common experience or common theme or something that we would all, especially if we were living in this time period, know about. And what Jesus does is, is he kind of ropes you into the story like a good movie, and then he gives a point to help us walk in his will to walk and his promise. And they're incredible because they hit us right where we are. But we've also said on the other side that parables carry this idea with them that if our heart is not right, if our life is not pointed in the right direction, no matter how good the parable is, it just bounces off of us. It doesn't sink into our life. The first week we talked about a parable on parables that if our heart is not ready, it doesn't matter how smart we are or how good we are or how intelligent we are, that really the words will not sink into our lives.

And so, we've been watching the fact that the message is always strong. The idea is where is our heart? You see, the relevancy for us is this if we're halfway listening to God, if we're halfway reading his word, if we're halfway, just kind of full of ourselves with me in control, approaching God to do something in our lives. A lot of times we'll miss the message of God for our lives, or even if we're just too religious without a relationship, will miss his message. So, the underlying thing that we've kind of looked at every week is that we have to learn to listen. We have to learn to listen with our ears, with our mind. We have to learn to listen with our heart. We have to learn to listen with our will. And when we do that, the word of God becomes alive in us. God's presence becomes alive in us. His statutes and his principles make sense to us, and we will be able to see him more clearly. So, the moral in all the parables really and truly is just listen to which every wife in the room just pokes their husband. Amen. Because we're terrible listeners, we're terrible. We will confess it. We're terrible at it.

In fact, have you ever been riding down the road with your wife and about five minutes under in conversation and she looked at you and went, have you heard anything that I just said? And then you had to figure out how not to lie, but to just mumble through something about? No, I didn't. I didn't hear anything. Well, that's the that's the point of the parables. Out parable today is out of Matthew Chapter 21. Matthew, 21 is where we are landing today. And today's parable is a little bit different than some of the other parables, because most of the parables that we've looked at, many of the crowd, many of the religious leaders and even sometimes the disciples did not know the meaning of the parable.

In fact, you'll watch a lot of times that that Jesus's disciples would have to kind of go off on this little sidebar conversation and look at him and go, Well, why did you say that or what does this mean? Well, today's parable, there is no ambiguity in it. There is no question in it. And every person present, and the Bible shows us at the end of the parable, understood the parable, understood what it meant. And it is a really awkward conversation for some of the people that were there. Here's what I love about it. I love that what Jesus is doing in this parable is he's really looking at the Pharisees, the religious people, right? And he's giving them a little bit of an X-ray of where their heart is.

He's really opening up their hearts and showing them where their heart is, and he's showing them what they're going to do to him later on. And I love when Jesus does this to people's hearts, and here's why. Because every time Jesus exposes a person's heart in scripture, he does it for two reasons. He does it for the person that he is exposing. But he also does it for anyone throughout the rest of history to be able to look at and examine their heart, my heart and your heart through the lens of what Jesus is saying and what he's doing.

So, I love these little displays or these little behind the scenes teachings about our human heart because what Jesus is doing is he's helping me understand my heart and he's helping me understand your heart, and he's helping me understand how I wrestle with the authority of Jesus on my life and how we all wrestle in this spiritual battle of God's word soaking and sinking into who we are and not making a difference. So, the context of Matthew, 21, is this is late in Jesus's ministry. It's the Passover week. The Pharisees have already decided that they're taking Jesus out. He's a threat to their establishment. He's a threat to their power, but they can't do it during the Passover because there's too many people. If they lose control of the crowd, Rome will come in, take over and not let them operate in their power anymore. So, they've kind of pushed it aside a little bit, and now they're just kind of dealing with Jesus, knowing that at some point they're going to take him out, they're going to get rid of him, they're going to crucify him ultimately.

But Jesus in Matthew, Chapter 21, clears the temple. Remember, it's one of my favorite stories as a kid of the Bible. He takes a whip; decides he's going to go all crazy caveman on these people and destroy all of the marketplace that was ripping people off around the temple. Well, as a result of that, the crowd in this temple, which would have been swollen really big because of the Passover, right? Because of all the people coming in, they were like, OK, this guy, Jesus means business. The disciples were with him. Jesus was there. The crowds were there. The religious leaders are there. Verse twelve in Matthew, 21, shows as he cleared the temple. And now when we pick up in our parable, Jesus is probably standing in the Temple Square. He's standing with all the people around him going, OK, what are you going to do next? How is this going to happen next? The religious leaders at this time are a little bit on edge because they're they're seeing Jesus even more as a threat to who they are.

Now I want you to see what Jesus does starting in verse 33. He gives us our parable for the day. Here it is. Matthew 21, verse 33. Says this, it says, listen, we see that all the time, right? It's because we have a listening problem. That's why Jesus says it. Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. Lots of farming references in the Bible, it was an agrarian society. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it. He dug a wine press in it. He built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. Now pause right there, because if you would have been a member of this crowd and if you would have been Jewish at this point when Jesus started talking, your ears would have lit up, your mind would have been like, Wait a minute. I know what he's talking about. Jesus, this guy. Jesus, he's giving us the story of Isaiah. He's giving us the story that Isaiah gave us 700 years earlier. In fact, when Jesus opened his mouth and started telling this story, it incredibly mimics the story of Isaiah chapter five through chapter seven, where Isaiah rises up tells the people as a warning to the people. He says, Hey, a landowner established a vineyard, hired some workers, planted a seed, went to a foreign land, came back to receive what was rightfully his.

But when he did, the fruit was incredibly sour. So, the what the story in Isaiah says is that the landowner destroyed all the crop, got rid of the crop, and Isaiah brings the story back around to show them that that meant he's warning Israel 700 years later about moving away from God, not serving God. And as a result, they ended up in exile. So, all the people that were here in Jesus tell this story. It's like he's retelling this story. He's building goodwill just like any good movie does. He's bringing them back into a past moment. But then here's what Jesus does. He takes this very familiar story, and he adds a twist. He always does this right. You can't leave well enough alone, right?

Watch what he does. He says this, he says, when the harvest time approached. The landowner sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants, they seized, his servants, they beat one, they killed another, and they stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Verse 37 last of all. The landowner or he sent his son to them. They will respect my son. He said. Now, have you been in Bible land for a long time, you're catching on to the story here, right? You're feeling where this is going, right? You're watching Jesus retell the story of all the prophets, of God sending the prophets. Of God putting us on this earth. God warning us after warning. And then finally, verse 37. Last of all, he sent his son to them. And if you were listening to this, if you were one of the people in the crowd, you would have been looking at Jesus telling this story going, why? Why would you send the son? Why would you send the most precious one? Why in the world would this landowner do that after he knows what these people did to all the other people? And that's an amazing question. All right. We're going to come back to it at the end. I want to finish the story verse 38, but. When the tenants saw the son, they said to each other. This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and let's take his inheritance. Remember when I said that parables give us a glimpse into our hearts a lot of times when I said that that was Jesus his main goal of this parable? Well, this verse was verse 38. It's kind of the central text that we're going to look at most of all this morning.

This verse, 38, shows us the incredible power and the insanity of what happens when sin begins to settle in our hearts. It shows us the grasp that sin can have on us. And really, it shows us, quite frankly, how crazy it is in our minds and how dumb we can be when sin takes over. I want you to think about this for a minute. Think about the landowner in this story. Think about how powerful he was. Think about how strong he was and think about how mighty he was to not only just own this land, but to develop this land, to use this land, to build all the infrastructure of this land and to quite literally move away and probably do the other thing at another piece of property. You see, what Sin does in our lives is sin begins to make us look at ourselves and not look at the eternal consequences of what we are beginning to do in our life.

Can anybody say college days? Amen. For some of you. It begins to take the ability for us to see the rational thoughts, and it begins to put the control of just my life at this moment in my desires, in the forefront of my life. You see, the crazy part about this story is that at any moment this landowner had enough power, had enough money, had enough prestige to hire a military force to come in and take over these measly little farmers. But they had the audacity to think they could stand up against the owner. Do you see the relevancy of that in our lives? The relevancy is this we think we have the audacity to tell God what he should do. We think we have the power; we think we have the might. That's what sin does in our lives. That's the allure of sin in our lives. It takes away our ability to see clearly what's in front of us, and we replace it with our ability to only see what we want. Keep going in the story. Verse 39. So, they took him that's the son, right, if you're following the story, that's Jesus. So, they took him. And they threw him out of the vineyard, and they killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to the tenants?

So, Jesus is looking at the Pharisees and he's asking them this question. Hey, when the owner, the vineyard comes, what's he going to do about this situation he's got going on? Now, listen to the answer from the Pharisees verse 41. The Pharisee said this. He will bring those wretches to a wretched end. That's a great Dr. Seuss like story there. But here's what that means, right? That means he'll bring these evil people to the evil end that their evil hearts deserve. He'll bring these wretches to an evil end, the Pharisee said, He will rent the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop at the harvest time. Jesus said to them, Have you never read the scriptures? Now, that’s a bold move talking to the Pharisees, right? Watch what Jesus says the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who produces its fruit.

Now there's a lot there, but I want you to see verse 42, particularly right here, because Jesus, at the beginning of this conversation reaches back into Isaiah Chapter five through seven to tell the Isaiah story. But now in 42, Jesus reaches back into Psalms 118 and begins to quote to them one of the Psalms of the Hallel. Now, that doesn't mean anything to us, but if you were Jewish, it would have meant everything to you if you were Jewish coming into the temple or coming into Jerusalem for Passover. There would have been five psalms in your life that you would have said over and over and over again, and you've got to get a witness of riding the small world ride at Disney World. This is what it would have been like. They would have just sung them over and over and over. They would have memorized it. It would have been in their life. They would have just said it. They would have meant it a whole lot of times, but they would have said it over and over. Well, Psalms 118 is one of these psalms. So, Jesus pulls the Psalms 118. into light, which talks about the cornerstone. Talks about that God is the cornerstone. God is the one that everything is built off of, and Jesus looks out into this crowd and says, Look, you've been warned, you've been warned, you've been warned, you've been warned. I, Jesus says, am the cornerstone that you're rejecting and I'm the cornerstone.

I'm the one that everything from this point in history is going to be built on to and be built from. He says, Listen, I am the one that you guys are about to reject. Verse 45, what's the reaction when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus Jesus's parables watch, they knew that he was talking about them. They knew it. This is so great, you know, there was no conversation needed after this. There was no follow up like, Hey, do you? Do you really think Jesus meant? Yeah. Do you really think Jesus was saying, huh? Are you saying that Jesus is the Messiah? That's what he's saying. Are you saying that he's Lord? That's what he's saying. And they're saying that he is the one that everything's going to be built off of now. This is incredible. Here's why. Because it was common knowledge to all of these people that were listening to this of how raw they were to the prophets coming up. You see, the Pharisees knew the history well, the religious people, we always know the history well, right? We always know all the battles well. They knew how all through life the Jews treated the prophets of God. If you grew up in Jewish school, you would have known this. All these people around them knew that Jeremiah was beaten and stoned that Elijah and Amos were banished into some caves. They knew that Uriah had a sword run through him. They knew that Micah was punched in the face. They knew that poor Ezekiel preached the sermon one time, and after the sermon and the invitation was over, they didn't say, Hey, I was a great sermon. They killed the guy right on the spot. Habakkuk and Zachariah. They were stoned by Jews living in Jerusalem. Actually, Zachariah was stoned inside the temple and Isaiah was put into a log and a saw was run through him.

They knew when Jesus was saying, Hey, warning after warning, after warning, prophet after prophet has come, they were going, Yeah, we know. Yeah, we know that was evil. That was evil. These religious leaders, they knew their history well. But here was their problem. And it's the same problem that a lot of religious people have is that they thought that they had moved past it. They thought that they had ascended past the level of that being. They thought they were to advance for it. They were too religious for it, they were too moral for it, and they thought, listen to this, that that would never happen to their generation. But the irony of what Jesus is saying right here is this You have done it before and you're about to do it again, except for you're about to do it worse because you're about to kill the messiah. Me, the cornerstone. You can see why this is an awkward conversation. You can see why they're like, wait a minute. But here's a lesson that I just want to mention before we move on to some other things and I give it to you to write down the principle is this we should not be so quick to judge the sins of people in the past thinking that we have now moved beyond that. Thinking that we've moved beyond it. Clearly, that's what Jesus is saying, right? Clearly, Jesus, look at these really religious people going, Hey, you've done it before and you're going to do it again.

And here's why, because the Bible clearly teaches that just like the Pharisees, our hearts are made up of the same stuff that every other heart has ever been made of since Genesis Chapter three and the fall of Man. Do you know that your heart and my heart have a natural tendency to be bent away from God? It has a tendency to do it. And here's what's happening right here, the same evil if we're not having Christ rule out hearts, the same evil, that has happened from generation after generation is going to happen to us. So, so let me just say this when we look back at past generations and the evil that has happened because there's been some evil instead of looking back on those past generations and going what was wrong with their heart? Why don't we look back at the past generations and say, what's wrong with the human heart and what's wrong with my heart? That's what Jesus is getting at when he brings up the prophets instead.

Listen to this quote by John Stott. He says history of human depravity should not make us feel proud and smug, but should make us live in a constant, humble repentance, begging God that our heart can march in another direction.

You see, what this parable showing us is that we, as a race of humankind, have constantly not heeded the warnings have constantly not grasped the mercy, have constantly thrown the message out and we have quite frankly placed ourselves at the pinnacle of existence. And not the word and the life and the glory of God Jesus. That's what he's saying. In fact, you say, no, no man. That all ended. No, I didn't think about it when Jesus came. The clearest explanation, the clearest picture of what God wanted for us, his best revelation ever when Jesus came, what do we do to him? We killed him. We crucified him. We hated him. The religious leaders were not getting this. They weren't seeing this. You know why? Because they thought that their advances in religion and their moral code would get them to where they needed to go.

Can I tell you, one of the biggest dangers of religion is this? We think that if we're moral enough, we think that if we're good enough, we think that if we don't sin enough that we can for somehow have a relationship with Jesus and that he will be the forefront of our lives. But listen. Religion without a relationship doesn't get you any closer to Jesus than the Pharisees. It's the whole moral of the story. Let me explain it like this, one of the one of the biggest joys of my ministry life is when I see a person that is far from God. See who they really, really are and how their heart really is, and God gets a hold of them, and they repent, and they meet Jesus and they see the fullness of who Jesus is in their life, right? It's one of the biggest joys of my life. I love it when they say things like, I know how bad my heart can be. And I'm so glad that it's not there right now. I love when they sing Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

But they sing that with intensity because they know the wretch they were. But one of the biggest disappointments in my ministry life. Is when religious people just put a whole bunch of rules, a whole bunch of morality codes and think that they have gotten far enough down the line, and they forget what God has saved them from. And they forget how nasty their hearts can be. A lot of us, what have we done? We quit doing this, we quit doing that. We got moral enough to this. We check off the boxes and all of our religious codes. But we've taken down the rearview mirror of life to see what our heart really was, and therefore when we sing Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, we're like me. I'm glad I'm not like those people. It's what Jesus was saying to the Pharisees. He's saying that our hearts are the same as their hearts. We're not advanced past that, and as a result of that, here's what I want to do with our time left.

I want to give you four quick practical conversations or hard truths that come out of this text that I just want you to think through this week. So, we don't slip into the Pharisaical thinking that we're moral enough and we got it under control. Number one is this I just want you to know this. It's that God has provided our heart all that we need to trust and serve him. He's provided a heart. Listen, you don't have to pray for a new revelation. You don't have to pray for more of God. You don't have to pray that God would be 100% present. He's given you all of that. It is offered to you as a believer in Jesus Christ. He's giving you the world. He's giving you the people around you. He's given you a brain to think he's giving you the breath in your body. But I want you to see verse 33. What does it say? It says there was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine press and he built a watchtower tower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers. So, who did all the work? God did. Are your seeing it in the story? God planted. God walled it off. God made the press. God built the tower. Did the workers deserve this? No, they didn't deserve it. They were invited into his kingdom and into his promise and into his provision. The master supplied it and catch this. Here's all that we're to do as people of God. We’re to live out of the provision and live out of the grace and live out of the relationship of Jesus. That's all he's saying. Look, God has done the same for us. He's given us all the blessings that he's talking about here. But yet we also have the blessing of the resurrection. We also have the blessing of the Holy Spirit being planted in our lives. As believers, we have the blessing of the Big C Church for 2000 years, operating as the Bride of Christ. We have the blessing of the full rich word of God that is in our lives.

Do you know that we have 100% full access to the gospel of Jesus in a way that no other generation has had? You can fire your phone up right now and have like 200 translations of his word. We have everything we need to follow him and to love him. second, second, Peter verse one says this His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who's called us by his own glory and goodness. Church listen, he's given it to us. We're now just to steward it. And to live in it, it's pretty clear where his servants, we believe, and we trust him. We live out the power of God in our lives. No. two hard truth is this, some so-called unbelief in our hearts is really just a willful rejection, no matter the evidence. Now, I know that's clunky. Let me say it again. Some of the so-called unbelief that's in our hearts, it's really just a willful rejection of Jesus. No matter the evidence, here's what that means. Most of the time, people do not disbelieve in who Jesus is. They really just want to rule themselves. That's what it means. They just want to block Jesus out. You say, Matt. Where's that in the story? Well, I'm glad you asked because I want you to look at the tenants in the story. They didn't beat and murder the messengers that the landowner sent because they were confused about who they work. Look at it really closely. They knew exactly who they were. They knew exactly whose they were. In fact, they just didn't want to be ruled by them. They just want to be controlled by them.

Look at verse 38. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other. Doesn't get more clear than this quote. There are. This is the heir. They didn't look out and go, Man, who's a stranger, is that guy coming to rob us? Is that guy coming to steal from us? That guy coming to do this. They didn't do any math and go, Man, I don't know about the promises. I don't know if that's really him. They went, Hey, that's the heir. We know the heir. That's the king's son. That's the master's son. That's the owner's son. In fact, they would not have even have despised this guy if he was someone else. They might would have hung out with him, played cards with him. I don't know what they did during that day. It's not that they hated him. They hated the control that he brought. You see, this is where a lot of us live our lives. We don't hate Jesus. Nobody in here would go "I hate Jesus". You know you wouldn't be here.

Well, unless somebody made you come. But you know what I'm saying, right? You just don't like the fact that he's the one who is in control. You just don't like the fact that he's the one that's calling the shots. This was a bold move, by the way, for Jesus to say this in front of these people because Jesus is really breaking open their hearts and going, Hey, let me tell you who you really are. You're not really denying me because you disbelieve 100% who I am. The Pharisees were denying him, because they wanted to be him. That's where a lot of us live. You see, here's the problem. That's the human heart. Left up to neutral, left up to our own bents and drifts, the human heart, that's right where we live. In fact, Paul talks a lot about it in Romans. Romans, 8:7, says the mind governed by the flesh, in other words, the natural mind, the mind without Christ, it is hostile toward God. It does not to submit to God's law, nor can it do so.

I want you to do something really fast but put your hand on your chest just for a minute on your heart. Your heart and my heart in its natural state, does not have a natural bent toward God. It has a natural bent away from God. In our natural sense because of sin, because we're born in sin, right from Adam on. Now we are born in sin. We have a natural bent away from God. We're not neutral. We're not ambivalent. We are hostile to God. And it is only through the spirit of God leading us to repentance, right? That we begin to perceive what is happening in our hearts. People ask me all the time, Matt how do I know if the Holy Spirit is speaking to my heart? Let me tell you how you can know, the clearest way I can explain it. It is when you begin to see your sin as more than just breaking rules. And that is breaking the heart of Jesus. When that begins to happen in you and when you begin to see your heart, not just breaking a rule or requirement, but when you begin to feel your heart being bent away from Jesus and breaking his heart. That is the Holy Spirit tapping on your heart, showing you your heart and begging you to turn toward him and to repent.

You see, this is what it means for many of us. Your sins begin to feel personal between you and God, and you desire change. That's what happens when the Holy Spirit begins to do that in our lives. So, Jesus is looking at these people going, listen. You don't know the truth. But then Jesus says, Hey, you'll know the truth when your heart, your heart begins to be bent towards me. Here's number three. Most rejection of Jesus is rooted in our hearts desire for control. Most of the rejection of Jesus in our lives and in their lives. It is rooted in our desire for control. The landowners, right? the last part of verse 38. What did they want? Verse 38, the last part, let's kill him and let's take his inheritance. What happened to the tenants? Let me show you what happened. The tenants were hired on as hired workers, but as time went past, they began to feel entitled to own the land. To possess the land, to have the crop, they started as servants. Now they're feeling like they are the rightful owners. Listen, there's truth in me all week. Everything in my heart. And I must say mine because this is me. I'm being honest. I'm putting it on the table, right here. Everything in my life wants to pretend like I'm the owner of my life. I really do. I'm just confessing it. I pretend like I'm the owner of my life all the time, I want to own my life. Instead of being a tenant to the one who's given me life. That's the point of the story.

The point of the story is the tenants wanted to own, but it was the Masters. Can I just tell you, man, this is this is so big because in our hearts we want to pretend like we are the owners of our lives, but we're not. We're just the tenants who've been bought with a price. The price was the precious blood of Jesus, and we don't now belong to ourselves. We belong to him. But the world is constantly reinforcing this ownership thing. It's constantly telling us things like This is your life. This is your choice. This is your idea. Then you got to make the most of this. You got to make these dreams happen. And really, it shows us this. Most of our sin goes back to the question of who owns our lives, who owns it. Because we can get to a point that we realize that it is God that owns our lives and allows us to operate out of his power and provision. It changes things in us. See, most of us operate in the idea of it is my life, and I just allow God to have a little bit of it. And that's where the problem comes. He's the one. A lot of us operate like God is just some, some celestial GPS system. Right? We love our GPS. I don't know if anybody can read maps that are under 40 years old anymore, right?

We love them. I mean, they help us, they get us places, we love the fact that we have them. If we want to go downtown and there's traffic, it tells us the most crazy rooted way, but it will get us there on time. But here's the thing about our GPS. We love it until we decide we know better. It happens, doesn't it? You come to that spot. I lived here my whole life and it wants me to take a right? So, what do we do? We take a left. And what does it do? Recalculating, recalculating, recalculating. Man, there's so many of us that treat God like that. We want him there; we want the security of him being there. We want to plug it in. We want that peace; we want to snuggle up. But when it gets down to it, we got to decide we're going to take that ride or take that left. But here's the difference. God owns us. We own the GPS, right? Siri can do whatever she wants to right? But we operate like that. Proverbs 3:5-6 says trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path.

You see, it's not an unbelief issue. It's a control issue. It's a control issue. Who's the owner? Do you know that when you say that I'm the owner, do you know what you're telling God? I'm God, leave me alone. Here's the last one, number four. It's the last lesson of the heart. It's that it's that God's grace towards a lost heart is merciful. But it won't last forever. The story shows us this incredibly clearly. God's grace toward a lost heart is merciful, but it will not last forever. What has God repeatedly shown in the story? He shows that he is merciful. How is he merciful? He's merciful because he gives us the vineyard to work. He's merciful. He built the stuff he provided. He developed the land, right? All of those are gifts of grace for us to enjoy. He is merciful in the story, how? Through the countless warnings, the countless one after another.

Do you remember in the warning, he sends servant after servant after servant to these rebellious farmers? He sends them what? Multiple chances to repent, even sending his son. And the same is true for our lives. Do you know the mercy level of God is incredibly stronger than any of us ever even perceive? Let me just say this. Do you know it's the mercy of God that you possess the word of God to be able to read? That's a warning to us. That is the mercy of God. It's the mercy of God that circumstances come up in your life. It's the mercy of God that he places us in circumstances and shows us, don't go that way. Don't go that way. Don't go that way. He closes doors. He opens doors. He puts things there. That's the mercy of God. That's the warning of God. Do you know the aging process is the mercy of God? I read this this week. I was like, what? I kept reading, and I was like, Yes, it is. Do you know why? I've reached a new pinnacle in my life. I get sore from sleeping now. I don't know if it's when you turn 44 this happens. But I literally do nothing and wake up the next morning like I'm sore. I don't know why. Do you realize that aging is a gift of grace from God? Do you know why? Because it shows us that we're not eternal. It shows this body is temporary. And things and ailments show this that I was not created for this world. Speaking of not great for this world, C.S. Lewis says that the gift of grace is unfulfilled longings. Look at this.

Look at what he said. If I find myself in desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only explanation is that I was created for another world. Do you ever realize that just so much alive just doesn't satisfy, no matter how good it is, you'll get the raise right, your kid will get into the school? She got the dress, the shoes. The prom date made the team. But it's just like, it wasn't as good as I thought it was. These are very few things in life that actually meet the hype, right? That's why. Because we weren't built for this world, that's a warning.

That is the mercy of God. Warning us that we are not made for this world. Can I tell you another mercy of God is just that you're here today? You're hearing the word, you're reading, the word you're experiencing worship together, that's a symbol of God's grace. And as we said before, you have to be amazed by the level of grace of God in the story. And he sent his son. To top off all the other stuff after person got killed in person, got killed after warning of the Old Testament warning of the Old Testament, the mercy of God sent his only son so that I may have eternal life. That's the mercy of God. Look, you have to understand that there is no one else on this planet or nothing else on this planet that will ever come close to the mercy that you see in God in your life. I guarantee you none of y'all will be that merciful if this was your land. None of you would send your son. But it's the story, so let's flip the script, so many people come up to me and go, God is such a harsh God. He's a vengeful God. Let me flip that script and go, Listen, there isn’t nobody on this planet that has ever been here that as merciful as God is. And as loving as God is. And graceful as God is.

Verse 42 says, have you not read in the scriptures? The Stone that the builders rejected. Has become the cornerstone. That's the mercy of God. That Jesus is the cornerstone. He's not just the cornerstone. He is the one that everything has built on to. So, what are we saying? The warning, it's clear that we've got to trust the Lord. The warning is timely. We got to respond to Jesus. But listen closely. The warning is not guaranteed to continue. Verse 43, therefore, I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you. And given to a people who will produce fruit. Now, obviously, this is a reference to the Jews looking at giving the gospel to the gentiles, right? Whole another day got that right? But it's a message to us too. And let me tell you this to close the message. Two applications on this.

Number one, if you don't know Jesus, there's only so many times that the Holy Spirit will direct you to repent. To lighten your eyes. He'll show you who he is. He's a gentleman God, eventually he is so gentlemen, he will give you over to your evil desires and give you what you wish. And that's eternal separation in hell. So, here's the question, will you turn to him today? See the warning. The second application is this if you know Jesus, he'll never remove his presence from your life, but he will remove his power from your life. He will. And he will gift it to those that are walking in his power and grace. His will will happen. We see in the scripture; we know the end of the story. The question is, are we going to be the ones who carry it out?

So, here's my question to you believers. Are you? Here's the last question. Are you listening to the merciful warning? Are you listening? It's a merciful one. So, here's what we're going to close the services this morning. Afternoon. Now. We're not going to close it by running to the parking lot. Preschoolers are fine, I promise you they're playing, they're having a lot more fun than being stuck in your car. We're going to close it by asking ourselves this. Where do I need to repent today for living a religious life and not a lot of us pressing into my relationship with Jesus? Number two, we're going to close by asking ourselves this. Do I know Jesus in a personal way? And do I need to have him in my life? And listen, I'm going to ask for the room to be as still as possible today. Last week it was like a circus let out in this place. Because God is working in hearts. And we got the time to let Him do it. So, I'm just going to ask you today, where are you? I'm not being harsh. I'm just saying this is a warning. It's another shot over the bow, right?

He is Lord and he is merciful. He wants you. He wants your family. And he wants to bless you. He wants to give you, his son. But you got invited. God invited you.

Lord, in this next couple of minutes, Jesus. God, I just ask that you draw people to you and God, if there's people here that need to give their hearts to you Jesus, let it happen right now. Let them walk to the front of whatever room they're in. Just say, I need Jesus, I need Jesus to save me. And God, we'll do the rest, we'll talk them through the rest. God, if there's people hear that man, they've been living the religious life, but they haven’t been living with you as the center. God, I just pray that you can recenter them. I pray that maybe even in their seats, they get on their knees and say yes, Jesus, this is me. Maybe they even use this altar today and say, Hey God, I'm recommitting who I am to be all you. Lord work in this next couple of minutes. Jesus, we pray that you become the cornerstone for all of us, Lord. It's in your name we pray Jesus.

Amen let's stand and sing.

Follow Along with the Message

Will You Listen to the Warning?

February 6, 2022

Matthew 21:33
““Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.”
Matthew 21:34–37
34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. 35 The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. “They will respect my son,” he said.
Matthew 21:38
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.”
Matthew 21:39–44
39 “So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
Matthew 21:45
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them.

PRINCIPLE: We should not be so quick to judge the of people in the past thinking that we are now beyond that.

“History of human depravity should not make us feel proud and smug but should make us live in constant humble repentance, begging to God that our heart can march in another direction.”
— John Stott

4 Heart Truths

1. God has provided our heart that we need to trust and serve Him.

Matthew 21:33
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.
2 Peter 1:3–4
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature...

2. Some so-called “unbelief” in hearts is really just a willful , no matter the evidence.

Matthew 21:38
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.”
Romans 8:7
The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

3. Most rejection of Jesus is rooted in our heart’s desire for .

Matthew 21:38
“…let’s kill him and take his inheritance.”
Proverbs 3:5–6
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

4. God’s grace toward a heart is merciful, but it won’t last forever.

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world will satisfy, the only explanation is that I was created for another world!”
— C. S. Lewis

Matthew 21:42
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes…’”
Matthew 21:43
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”

Have I listened to the merciful warning?

Additional Notes

 

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