A Matter of the Heart

SALVATION, IN GREAT PART, IS A MATTER OF THE HEART…

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, IN GREAT PART, IS A MATTER OF THE HEART…

WITH THESE FUNDAMENTAL THOUGHTS IN MIND, LET US READ The Parable of the Soils…

NAS Luke 8:4-15 And when a great multitude were coming together, and those from the various cities were journeying to Him, He spoke by way of a parable: 5 “The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road; and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6 “And other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 “And other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it, and choked it out. 8 “And other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great.” As He said these things, He would call out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 9 And His disciples began questioning Him as to what this parable might be. 10 And He said, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, in order that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.  11 “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. 12 “And those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 “And those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. 14 “And the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 “And the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.

THIS PARABLE IS GIVEN IN THREE STAGES:

    1. The parable is told (8:4-8). Notice it is told to the masses, everyone hears it.
    1. Then the reason for Jesus’ teaching is revealed (8:9-10), but only to the disciples.
    1. Finally, the parable is given (8:11-15), also only to the disciples.

THE PARABLE IS ABOUT REVELATION AND RESPONSE: God’s revelation of Himself and our response to that revelation…  

THE SEED THE SOWER SOWS IS THE REVELATION OF GOD; the soil is indicative of our response…

WHY DO PEOPLE REJECT THE GOSPEL?  This parable gives us the answer.  It’s not about the gospel itself, nor is it about the messenger of the gospel…

IT’S A MATTER OF THE HEART…

“THE WORD IS LIKE SEED BECAUSE IT HAS LIFE IN IT AND CAN PRODUCE FRUIT when it is planted (received and understood).  The human heart is like soil and must be prepared if the Word is to be planted and become fruitful.” – Weirsbe

JOIN ME IN CONSIDERING OUR RESPONSE TO GOD TODAY…

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE CONDITION OF YOUR “SOIL”?…

THIS PARABLE IS OFTEN CALLED “THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER.”  BUT it’s not really about the sower – or the seed; it’s about the soil.  A better title for the parable would be “the Parable of the Soils”…

THE ENTIRE PARABLE STRESSES THE VARIETY OF HUMAN RESPONSES to God and His holy Word…

WHAT IS THE CONDITION OF YOUR SOIL?…        

THE PARABLE OF THE SOILS FOCUSES DIRECTLY ON US…  God has revealed Himself in His creation, and in His Word the Bible, and in the Lord Jesus Christ.  He has sown His seed: the gospel is being preached everyday around the world.  Those two parts of the parable are certainties.  The questionable part of this equation is the condition of the soils…

YOU MIGHT JUST AS EASILY SAY, “CONDITION OF THE HEART”…

“HEART” – A quick word about “heart” (the anthropology of Scripture is a big subject not without its complexities). In the Bible, the heart is best defined as the center of one’s being. It is virtually indistinguishable to “mind.” We currently, as a culture, have become accustomed to using “heart” to refer to our emotions and “mind” to mean our intellect, but biblically the heart includes all of the immaterial parts of us (e.g., conscience, the seat of volition and morality, and metaphorically some physical organs such as the kidneys and liver). “Heart” and its derivatives are found almost 1,000 times in Scripture. I’ve not personally looked at every instance, but it’s safe to say only a few of that number can be said to be referring to the physical organ.

SALVATION IS A MATTER OF THE HEART…

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS A MATTER OF THE HEART…

EVERYTHING IN LIFE IS, IN ESSENCE, A MATTER OF THE HEART…

JESUS OFTEN SPOKE IN PARABLES…

PARABLE – The word “parable” comes from two Greek words: one, like the suggestion of our word “ball” (βάλλω bah-lo), means to throw; and another (παρὰ pah-rah), like our word “parallel,” which means alongside.  So a parable is a story that is thrown alongside the truth…

TIME WILL NOT ALLOW US TO LOOK CAREFULLY AT ALL 4 SOILS and the different responses for which they stand.  But let us look closely at the first soil and then briefly at the remaining three.  I believe the observations we make will be revealing for the entire parable…

    • v.5 – THE FIRST SOIL – “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it.”

IN THE ANCIENT WORLD ROADS RAN THROUGH THE FIELDS that were to be planted (I read varying accounts on the actual customs of planting in Judea.)  The sower would walk back and forth with a bag of grain over his shoulder, scattering seed from either a smaller bag hung from his waist or from a basket he carried.  Often plowing occurred immediately after, so the chances were lessened that the birds would steal the seed.  Some seed inevitably fell on the road and was trampled down by the farmers and their donkeys.  Before it would sprout, the birds would swoop down and devour it…

BUT THINK AGAIN IN SPIRITUAL TERMS – “He who has ears, let him or her hear.” Parables are given in simple, everyday physical terms, but they point to deep spiritual truths. How could this be applied to human lives in spiritual terms?

    • v.12 – “Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”

THE PARABLE OF THE FOREST (The danger of concession to sin)… The trees of the forest held a solemn meeting to discuss the wrongs being done by the little instrument known as the axe head.  And the trees decided this little instrument had no power of its own.  The axe head could not wield its destruction without a handle, and obviously handles came from wood, and wood came from the forest.  The forest agreed that no tree would be allowed to furnish any axe head with a handle on the penalty that it would be cut down to its roots if it were caught….  Well, the axe head visited the forest begging from the ash tree, the cedar tree, the oak tree, the willow tree, and the poplar tree.  And everywhere he went he got a stern denial.  No one was ready to fill his seemingly innocent request.  But not to be denied, he came again the next day.  He was turned down again, and again the next day he came back.  This time he said politely, “I don’t need a big piece of wood; I desire just a small indulgence, just a little piece, please, just a small twig that I could fasten to myself to cut down the briars and the thistles that are such a plague to all you trees in the forest.”  And since no tree could immediately come up with a good reason for denying that request – I mean he wasn’t asking for much – the forest agreed to give the axe head a small piece of wood that had broken off a sapling during a storm, a mere little stick… But the axe head made a small handle from the twig and with that was able to sever a small branch from an oak tree, and then was able with that handle to fit himself with a bigger handle.  And then with that handle began to cut down the Elm trees, the maple trees, the poplar trees, and all the rest of the trees of the forest… Just a little twig, just a small concession, and in the end it was the demise of the entire forest… If you would ask the person who fails at Christianity, the preacher who became hooked or pornography, or the deacon who became an alcoholic just when it happened, he would tell you the time when it became known to the church, the moment when they were revealed.  But the time truth were revealed, you would find that the fall could be traced to a seemingly insignificant moment in the past when they let their guard down just for a moment and they allowed the enemy (Satan) to just get his foot in the door.  Erosion of faith, failure in our Christian walk, starts with a simple concession…

THE FIRST SOIL IS A PICTURE OF THE LOST, people who hear the Word of God but never allow it to get deep enough to take strong root.  Instead they allow the evil of the world to snatch it away.  They may have even felt a softening, a drawing closer to God.  They may have even contemplated repentance.  But in the end, God’s Word was not allowed to take root, and they remained lost… 

SOME PEOPLE HAVE SIMPLY HARDENED THEIR HEARTS to such an extent that the presentation of the gospel merely bounces off them like seed bounces off stony ground.  It never takes root.

IT’S A MATTER OF THE HEART…

ESV Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

SCRIPTURE SPEAKS A LOT ABOUT MAN’S HEART, mostly negatively.  In the Bible man’s heart is described as…

“WICKED, PERVERSE, EVIL, MAD, UNWASHED, DECEITFUL, disloyal, straying, impenitent, blind, unbelieving, deceived, hard, proud, covetous, foolish, idolatrous, rebellious, dull,” and “stubborn”…

ESV Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

NAS Mark 7:20-23 And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. 21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. 23 “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING, UNSAVED MAN IS IN SEVERE CARDIAC ARREST… No matter how our culture tries to tell us otherwise – “Everyone is basically good” – there is obviously something profoundly wrong with the inner part of man…

DAVID PRAYED TO GOD TO CREATE IN HIM A CLEAN HEART; he knew his heart was by nature unclean, deceitful, wicked:

ESV Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

    • v.6 – THE SECOND SOIL – “Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.”

THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF THIS AND THE NEXT SOIL IS less certain than the first or the last.  The second and third soils fall into that kind of gray area, that is, people with whom we may have a hard time deciding if we would consider them saved or not. But is we look closely at the entire parable, we can see it is only the last soil, the “good ground,” that is spoken of by Jesus favorably. None of the first three soils represents a picture of a true believer…

THIS PICTURE IS NOT SEED UPON ROCK BUT, RATHER, “a thin layer of ground with limestone right under the topsoil, a condition common in the Palestinian country.  This is not a field with many rocks, but a base of rock under the soil.  In an unplowed field, such land is not easily spotted.” – Bock

IN THIS SOIL, AT FIRST ALL LOOKS GOOD.  There are healthy-looking sprouts coming up out of the ground.  But then it withers and dies.  The roots could not receive enough water because the shallow ground over rock cannot hold enough moisture.

SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING, the Word was received but it never became productive because the soil was too hard.  Many people have what we’ll call “a religious experience” of some kind. Many people hear the gospel, make a shallow profession of faith, but because their hearts have not been softened by true repentance, what looked so good at the first withers away and they remain unsaved.

    • v.13 – “But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.”

THIS IS THE SHALLOW HEART…

CONSEQUENTLY, when trials and tribulation hit, they fall away…

NET James 1:2-3 My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, 2 cause you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

THE TESTING OF A TRUE BELIEVER’S FAITH PRODUCES ENDURANCE, BUT the same testing of a false believer’s faith ends any endurance they might have had.  For them it produces abandonment; they walk away…

    • v.7 – THE THIRD SOIL – “And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.
    • v.14 – “Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”

SADLY, CHURCHES ARE FULL OF PEOPLE WHO FALL INTO THE FIRST THREE.  They call themselves Christians, but they have not truly received the seed and as a result are not bearing any fruit…

    • v.4 – And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable.

NOT ALL WHO FOLLOWED JESUS WERE SAVED.  Some disciples (learners, followers) followed Jesus only because of the miracles.  Jesus once had this to say about hypocritical religious people:

NAS Matthew 15:8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.

THE APOSTLE JOHN WROTE OF FALSE BELIEVERS…

NKJ 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

THERE ARE MANY WRONG REASONS WHY PEOPLE COME TO JESUS:

    • Maybe they experienced a healing and follow Jesus out of gratitude.
    • Maybe they are highly emotional and equate salvation with the emotion high of their profession of faith. Joy is not the distinguishing characteristic of true salvation.  It may accompany salvation initially, but it may not.
    • Maybe their life was difficult and they came to Jesus because they thought he would make everything better.
    • Maybe they lost their spouse, or their job, and they’re willing to try anything.
    • Maybe they were lonely and wanted acceptance.
    • Maybe they wanted to dump their old life and reinvent themselves in the church.

THESE ARE SUPERFICIAL RESPONSES TO THE GOSPEL…

THE FOURTH SOIL IS, OF COURSE, THE TRUE BELIEVER…

    • v.8 – “But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.”
    • v.15 – “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”

“HEART CHECK” – It’s easy to do a quick check on your heart.  Let me ask you three questions and several related questions.  You probably don’t need the test to know the results but your responses will tell you the condition of your heart, whether it is receptive to God or whether it like one of the unproductive soils.  (1) Do you read your Bible everyday?  Are you in God’s Word, allowing God’s Spirit through the Word to do God’s perfecting, maturing work in your heart?  If you are not in the Word, brothers and sisters, you are not growing in Christ.  (2) Are you a faithful church member?  Are you eager to go to church?  Or are you finding excuses to stay away? Do you support the church with your time and money?  Or are you the kind who comes only on an occasional Sunday, never volunteer to do anything, and don’t regularly give generously to the church but merely “tip” God in the offering bag like you would leave a tip for a waiter at a restaurant? Are you truly supportive? (3) The third diagnostic question is similar to the second: Do you want to fellowship with believers, or do you pursue friendships with unbelievers?  If you’re reading your Bible regularly; if you’re faithful in church attendance, and if you are living different from the unsaved world, your heart is “good soil”…

WHAT ABOUT JESUS’ HEART?  It may have occurred to you as you have listened to all these words about our hearts, how would we describe Jesus’ heart?…

NAS Matthew 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.

ISN’T THAT BEAUTIFUL?…

BACK TO OUR PARABLE IN LUKE 8…

    • v.15 – “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience

“FRUIT” IS MENTIONED THREE TIMES IN THE THIS PARABLE.  Fruit has to do with the good works we do for Jesus…

NKJ John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

SALVATION IS MORE THAN AN EVENT, more than an indoctrination into a church; it is a lifestyle, a lifelong continuous experience.  That lifestyle, that lifelong continuous experience is your Christian life.  You live out your salvation – if that salvation is genuine – and display it to others with everything you think, do, or say, every second of every minute or everyday…

EVERYTHING WE ARE AND DO IS SALVATION…

ESV 2 Corinthians 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

CONCLUSION… I ASK AGAIN, BOTH TO YOU AND TO ME, HOW would you describe the condition of your soil?… 

IT’S NOT THE SEED OR THE SOWER; IT’S THE SOIL that makes the difference in whether or not it sprouts and eventually bears fruit in salvation…

SALVATION, IN GREAT PART, IS A MATTER OF THE HEART…

(Acknowledgement for the source for some of this material and the general approach goes to Darrel Bock’s exegetical commentary on Luke and John MacArthur’s tape “Heart Condition.”)

– Professor Thomas A. Rohm