What Kind of Soil Are You? (The Receptive Ground Hearer)

Matthew 13:8 and 23

What is the difference between the previous three soils and the final one?  The difference is consistent fruit bearing – there are enduring yields.  But what is the difference in the nature of this soil from the other three?  It is receptive of the seed.  The seed is able to germinate and grow with depth and without thorns crowding it out and taking over the ground.  The difference is in the soil.  This soil is receptive of the seed.  But what does this mean?

Of course Jesus is describing people.  He is using this parable to give us some idea of what goes on in the hearts of people who hear the Gospel.  The message of the Gospel when sown in the heart of Matthew 13:8 and 23the receptive ground hearer is understood.  The message is comprehended, thoroughly understood, perceived clearly.  This is why there is a reception of the seed.  The message of the Gospel is perceived for what it truly is.  Now this perception may not be perfect but it is sufficient to result in real spiritual change within the person’s life.   Because there is spiritual understanding of the value and importance of the Gospel – its message is welcomed with true desire and affection.  This understanding is not merely intellectual.  It is not less but it is much more – it is a perception that transforms the desires and moves the will away from self-centeredness to true God-centeredness.

This perception or understanding is the appreciation and desire for Jesus Christ and all that God offers to you in Christ.  Jesus Christ is perceived as the One Pearl of Great Price and the Treasure Hidden in the Field.  Do you see him that way?  Do you see what he offers to you with eyes that truly understand his inestimable worth?  Only receptive ground hearers do.  Do you?  What kind of soil are you?

How do you really know that you have truly received the Word of the Kingdom?

1.       You have an intellectual grasp of the Gospel that moves your desires – you have tasted it and found the taste sweet and then you have with relish devoured it (to change the metaphor).  You know that you have received the word of the Kingdom when you treasure it in your heart in the same way – you become affectionately preoccupied with it.

2.       There is not only a perception of the value of the Word of the kingdom, the word is retained.  It is taken in and kept active and abiding in the soil of the heart. The idea here is that they continue to hold fast the word by faith.  This is brought out in Luke’s version of the Parable: “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it and by persevering produce a crop” (Luke 8:15). 

3.       You know that you have truly received the word as you continue to keep it and by endurance or perseverance you bear continual fruit.  What Jesus is describing in the picture of the good soil is what a genuine believer in Christ looks like – here we see not a complete picture but a clear picture of a true disciple of Christ.  It is not simply the presence of fruit that gives true evidence that a professing believer is really a possessing believer – but rather fruit that lasts; that there is a continual yield of fruit

What is the nature of this fruit? 

1.       This fruit that grows out of a heart that is truly receptive to the Word will produce obedience to Christ. 

2.       Such obedience will lead to real change in your life or what we may call progressive sanctification or growth in holiness of mind and life – increasing Christ-likeness. 

3.       This abiding and enduring fruit bearing not only entails obedience to the word that leads to increasing holiness of life, it also entails the doing of good works for the glory of God.

The Receptive ground hearer: receives the Gospel of the Kingdom by perceiving its value and sincerely wanting and treasuring Jesus Christ and his saving benefits.  The Word is held fast within the heart and the heart benefits from the Word’s power. As such there is real abiding fruit growing from the soil of the heart; the fruit of obedience to Christ, growth in Christ-likeness and zeal for doing good works that glorify God by benefiting human beings.  What kind of soil are you really?   

We have looked at each of these four soils – the hardened ground hearer, the shallow ground hearer, the crowded ground hearer and now the receptive ground hearer – what kind of ground are you?  Does it matter to you to be certain about the nature of your heart and its receptivity or lack of it to the Word of the Kingdom that is even now sown in your heart?  

What Kind of Soil are You? (The Crowded Ground Hearer - Part Two)

Belief and trust in the Gospel will give you a passion for the Kingdom of God.  A passion for the Kingdom of God will enable you to be a steward of the kingdom by managing all your affairs from a heart that trusts Christ and desires to glorify God.  This means that as a believer you will be managing your affairs rather than your affairs managing you.  Yet as we see from this picture Jesus gives us of the crowded ground hearer, there are other things growing in your heart that if left untended will choke out the life of the Gospel and the truth of the word of the kingdom and thus destroy your faith.  These are the thorns that compete for the turf of your heart.

The two main kinds of thorns (or injurious influences) that crowd out the seed from the ground of your heart are thorns of anxiety and thorns of covetousness. 

The Thorns of Anxious Unbelief

In several other places in the Gospels Jesus warns us about the danger of being given over to anxious cares about the necessities or needs of life.  You are to indeed be stewards of the necessities but you are not to be preoccupied over them.  In other words you are to trust in your heavenly Father’s promise that you are more valuable to him than the birds of the air, which he feeds and the flowers of the fields, which he clothes.  So as you go to work, establish a budget, make your plans, do your shopping, give your tithes and pay your bills and taxes – you are to do all this with faith resonating in your heart and not anxious care.  For such anxious care is a cancer on your faith – it chokes out the promises of the word – the Gospel promises and thus destroys your faith for your faith has no object on which to rest and from which to work. 

It is the Gospel that highlights for us the Fatherly provision and oversight of God over those who trust in Jesus Christ that should banish from our hearts all anxiety.  Anxious unbelief is a terrible thorn that chokes the word from growing in our hearts and thereby strengthening our faith in the Gospel.  Take steps to combat this thorn and to root it of your heart – out of your thinking and desires.

The Thorns of Covetousness or Misplaced Faith

Covetousness is the strong desire to possess an object.  There are two objects of coveting to which the Gospel writers point.  There is the delightful deceit of wealth or riches and then there is everything else or what Luke calls the pleasures of life.  Wealth is an obvious object of coveting.  Jesus speaks here of the delightful deceit of wealth or money and the lifestyle that money can bring our way.   No it is not money that is the problem it is our response to money or wealth

As anxiety is a trust killer covetousness is a treasure killer – they both eclipse the life and content of the truth of the word in your heart and rob faith of its object – the Gospel.  Treasuring Jesus Christ and the grace he brings to you that justifies you before God who is holy fills your heart with true contentment and rest.  This does away with wrong covetousness and establishes a godly and genuine desire and passion in your heart – coveting money, earthly pleasure, power, prestige or even people is false worship.  False worship’s aim is to destroy the true worship of the living God.  To treasure the Gospel and the kingdom and the grace of God in Christ fuel true genuine worship and kill all covetousness. 

Farming Your Heart as a Steward of the Gospel and the Kingdom

 

You need to be sure that you are fighting the dual sins of anxious unbelief and idolatrous misplaced belief.  You need to fight for your faith so that you grow more confident and more content with all that God is for you in Christ. But how do you do this?  

1. By making sure you are focusing on the reality of God’s grace to you in Christ.
1. The Gospel of grace dislodges anxiety because it assures you of the Fatherly care and provision of God.
2. The Gospel of grace dislodges covetousness by replacing it with a superior affection or desire – the treasure of God’s grace and glory.
2. By resisting the power of temptation through holding to the grace of the Gospel.
3. By availing yourself of the means or disciplines of grace through which you nourish the spiritual life residing in your heart due to the word being sown there.
1. Regular intake of the Scriptures
2. Cultivating a life of reliance on God through prayer
3. Worshiping God privately and corporately that includes the sacraments
4. Accountable fellowship with God’s people

A helpful resource for such soul-farming is the book by Donald S. Whitney “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.”  It is a very challenging, encouraging and practical work on how you can more effectively grow by faith as you exercise with these spiritual disciplines. 

These grace disciplines – using the means of grace – apart from faith will accomplish nothing, yet with faith they are necessary weapons to kill the thorns of anxiety and covetousness because they are means God uses to nurture your spiritual life.  They are means God uses to allow his word to grow up in your heart.  Disciplines apart from faith in Christ can become barren legalistic potholes.  But these disciplines of grace embraced and pursued from a heart of faith are powerful means to grow your spiritual life and to weed the soil of your heart – so that the word that you take in will bear lasting fruit.   You need to be a deliberate and persistent farmer of your heart.  Those professing believers you are prove that they are not crowed ground hearers.  So what kind of soil are you?  

What Kind of Soil are You? (The Crowded Ground Hearer)

Matthew 13:7 and 22

Now we meet the crowded ground hearer.  To the crowded ground hearer the Gospel matters, but it does not matter enough – the crowded ground hearer is preoccupied but not with the Gospel but with many other things. We need to note that the soil is well plowed and receptive to the seed of the word.  There is no shallow topsoil here, no rock ledge underneath – the seed is able to throw down deep roots.  The problem is that other things are growing in the same heart. Deep from within this heart the seeds of thorn plants or weeds also are present and they are numerous.  They outgrow the good seed and crowd around the good seed so that it is not able to produce any fruit.  The good plants are crowded and choked by the thorns. 

The seed that is sown is the Gospel and the life that is found in Jesus Christ and as it takes root in your heart it will produce a growing commitment to the kingdom of God.  As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ you are to be people of one overarching focus: that focus is to be on the kingdom of God.  Jesus commands his followers to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.  The kingdom is God’s gracious reign in your heart and over your life that brings salvation.  The response of faith to this kingdom and its saving grace is that you seek his righteousness, which is a life of holiness manifested in fulfilling the two greatest commandments: loving God with your whole heart, mind, soul and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself. 

Note that with the crowded ground hearer the thorns crowd out the good plants preventing them from bearing fruit.  What these various thorns do is compete for dominance over the ground.  This is a picture of the professing believer who finds that other concerns become more important than the Gospel and its fruit.  Other preoccupations rise from within the life of the professing believer that on a functional level become more important than the Gospel and crowd around it so as to choke it.  These thorns prevent the Gospel that is professed from bearing fruit.  You see the Gospel is intended by God to enable you to embrace the priority of the kingdom of God and as such the Gospel produces in your heart and mind a godly stewardship over the affairs of your life.  It enables you to properly manage, as citizens of the kingdom, your personal life, your relationships with your family, your job, your property and possessions, your money, your time, your hobbies, your schedule – all of your affairs in a manner that glorifies God.

There is a difference between a responsible stewardship before God over your life and its affairs and an inordinate preoccupation with your affairs.  In fact the first steps you are to take to exercise a responsible God-honoring stewardship over your affairs are the following:

1. Be sure that you are indeed believing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ – that you are captured by this wonderful grace of God for you in the offering up of his Son to pay the penalty for all your sins so that you might gain a righteous standing before God as his dearly loved son.  Here is where real happiness and contentment are to be found.  This is where hearts come to know peace.  Does this matter to you?
2. With the Gospel resonating in your heart – bringing encouragement, joy, hope and inward strength and stability – then you are to set your heart on being sure that you are indeed focused on God’s name being hallowed, his kingdom coming and his will being done – This is both what Jesus teaches should be the first thing on your daily prayer list and also the first priority of your life.  You should pray for these realities, concentrate on them and long for them.
3. With these two realities (The Gospel and the Kingdom) dominating your heart – your thinking and your desires - then you can indeed manage your affairs without them managing or controlling you.  Then you will have real perspective and the ability to establish the right priorities for your life and from those priorities make wise choices.

Yet in all our hearts there are thorns growing.  These thorns are competing gospels, yes even competing gods.  It is helpful to give the particular lists of these thorns found in each of the synoptic Gospels.

Matthew lists the cares of the age and the delightful deceit of riches or wealth; Mark lists the cares of the age, the delightful deceit of riches and the coveting of other things; Luke list anxiety, riches and the pleasures of life.

These may be summarized under three headings: the cares and anxieties of life; the deceit of wealth and the pursuit of other of life’s pleasures.  Yet they can be further summarized as anxious unbelief and misplaced covetous faith.  These are the thorns that rise out of your heart and compete against the seed of the word for the turf of your heart.  These thorns will so crowd around the Gospel – your profession of faith in Jesus Christ so as to choke your profession and leave you without any fruit.   What kind of soil are you? 

We must be on our guard because anxiety and covetousness are often subtle in their power to seduce us and to draw the life of the word from our hearts and minds.  The question that we need to ask is a simple one: are we managing our affairs from a heart of faith in Christ or from a heart filled with anxious care and covetous desires?  If you are not managing your affairs from faith in the word then your affairs are managing you.  May God help us to know our hearts and to do all that we can by faith to kill these noxious thorns.  What kind of soil are you?  

What Kind of Soil are You? (The Shallow Ground Hearer)

Matthew 13:5-6 and 20-21

Have you ever wondered what became of some of Jesus’ early disciples? 1. John died of extreme old age in Ephesus having endured exile on the island of Patmos. 2. Judas Iscariot, after betraying his Lord, hanged himself. 3. Peter was crucified, head downward, during the persecution of Nero. 4. Andrew died on a cross at Patrae, in Achaia, a Grecian Colony. 5. James, the younger brother of the Savior, was thrown from a pinnacle of the Temple, and then beaten to death with a club. 6. Bartholomew was flayed alive in Albanapolis, Armenia. 7. James, the elder son of Zebedee, was beheaded at Jerusalem. 8. Thomas, the doubter, was run through the body with a lance at Coromandel, in India. 9. Philip was hanged against a pillar at Heropolis (Abyssinia).10. Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows. 11. Simon died on a cross in Persia (now Iran).12. Paul was beheaded in Rome during the persecution by Nero.

All but one of them persevered by faith to the very end and along the way suffered from various trials and persecutions. But their lives were marked by difficulties as they sought to follow Christ and serve his cause in this world. God used adversity in their lives to grow their faith and this is the same process he has for us too.

Today we meet the shallow ground hearer. The shallow ground hearer and the crowded ground hearer (next post) are both professing believers but as we well see their faith is at best meager and superficial – and not genuine and saving – What kind of soil are you?

There can be various responses to the Gospel that appear on the surface to be genuine – but the real test of whether there has been a true work of grace in conversion that consists of repentance to God and faith in Christ is proven only by time. In the shallow ground hearer there is an almost immediate response to the word that is sown. This person receives the word with joy. There is an overt response. There is germination of the seed. There is evidence of life. It would be easy to conclude that this person has become a Christian – a follower of Jesus Christ. Yet there is a problem. The problem is that the heart is shallow and underneath that shallow depth of topsoil there is ledge. There is more than beaten down ground. There is a rock surface that will not allow the roots of that germinated seed to grow deep into the heart providing not only stability but the necessary means to draw nutrients into that young plant. So when the heat of troubles and persecution arise on account of the word what immediately grows up just as quickly falls away.

If there is no real longing to grow in the Christian Faith – to stretch your mind and your heart so that your capacity to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ expands and deepens, then you need to beware lest you are a shallow ground hearer. It is not merely a matter of intellectual yearning (but it is not less) – to know more facts about the Word. It is rather a matter of deepening your apprehension and appreciation of the value of the Gospel – its preciousness and worth. Yes, it does entail growing in knowledge and wanting to know more about the truth but it is also a yearning to know God who is true. To make sure that the realities of the Gospel go deep into your heart, those realities must impact your thinking, your affections and your will – your whole person. You should want to learn and know as much about the Bible, the Gospel as you can. We all have different intellectual capacities but each of us should be using our minds to the fullest in seeking to know God better. You must yearn to have deepening affections and passions for the true and living God – this means that your desires will change and the concerns of eternity become more and more precious to you. You therefore grow deeper in your capacity to make godly choices and hold to priorities that are shaped by the kingdom and by your relationship with Christ and not by self-centered concerns. This is what it means to go and grow deep in the faith and to overcome a shallow Christianity.

The Psalmist highlights the pursuit of going deep with God when he writes “Great are the works of the Lord studied (sought eagerly) by all who delight in them” Psalm 111:2.

The Apostle Paul’s prayers for the churches to which he addressed his letters are often filled with requests that his hearers come into a fuller and deeper knowledge, awareness and understanding of God. He prayed that the Colossian believers be filled with "the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." Colossians 1:9-10.

A shallow ground hearer has an initial receptivity to the word but there is no depth of heart and soul and at bottom the heart is really no different than the hardened ground hearer. There is a superficial response. There is an immediate exuberance when the Gospel is heard but there is simply no depth – there is no place in the heart for the word to take deep root. There is no maturing in the faith and in the word.

It is extremely important that every professing believer examines himself or herself to be sure he or she is in the faith. For it is not only likely but certain that every professing believer whose heart has not been transformed by the saving grace of the Gospel will fall away from their profession – they will not fall away from Jesus Christ for they never had him to begin with. They will fall away from their profession of faith in Christ.

How will this happen? It will occur when the cost of following Jesus Christ begins to be felt. This is what Jesus means when he says that the shallow ground hearer endures for a while but when trials or persecutions arise on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

Now trials that test faith in Christ are part of the Christian life. There is no way for any of us to avoid such matters. It is God’s intention to grow your faith. In the parable Jesus likens trials and persecutions that arise on account of the word to the sun that rises and scorches the plants that have grown in the heart of the shallow hearer. The problem was not with the sun but with the shallowness of the ground and the rock ledge that lay under the surface of the ground – the trouble was not with the trials but with the heart. The sun is necessary for growth – yet on some plots of ground the sun burns and scorches the plants that are found there because there is no depth or they lack sufficient moisture. Yet on other ground the sun brings forth the life that is living in that ground.

So what kind of soil are you? Beware of possessing a shallow Christianity – a convenient Christianity that makes you feel good but fails to stretch you or place the requirements of the kingdom upon you. Beware of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called cheep grace - a grace that costs you nothing in terms of living out your discipleship to Christ. Grace that is certainly freely given by God to you in Christ will so take hold of your heart that it will transform your life, your wants, thinking, priorities and values. This will enable you to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and live a self-controlled, upright and godly life in this present evil age, which will put pressure on you in the form of afflictions, trials and hostility. But if you are a genuine believer because of adversity your roots will grow only deeper. So what kind of soil are you?

What Kind of Soil are You? (The Hardened Ground Hearer)

Matthew 13:3 and 18-19

The seed is the word of God that is proclaimed or taught.  It is the Scripture with its life giving message.  The seed is always sown on the heart – the heart is the center of your person.  It is the unique combination of what one believes/thinks and what one wants/desires.  One who is hardened ground is one whose heart is not receptive to the seed that is sown and this primarily means that one does not understand the meaning or import of the Word that was spoken or heard. 

John Gill comments on the hardened ground hearer.

He is one that is careless and inattentive, negligent and forgetful; has some slight notions of things as he hears, but these pass away as they come; his affections are not at all touched, nor his judgment informed by them, but remains as stupid (dull), and as unconcerned as ever; his heart is not opened to attend to, and receive the word, but continues hard and obdurate; and is like the common and beaten road, that is trodden down by everyone, and is not susceptible of the seed, that falls upon it.

Whenever the Word is sown the evil one is present.  He shows up in church and at Bible studies and in one’s own personal time of Bible reading and meditation.  He shows up and is on the lookout especially for those who are not understanding or perceiving what they are hearing.   He is at work in those hearts to snatch the seed away. 

The problem is not with the seed or the word that is proclaimed or taught – the problem is with the one who does not understand.  Yet according to Jesus those who do not understand are culpable before God for their lack of apprehension or failure to grasp the importance and meaning of the Word or the Gospel message. 

The problem again is not one of intelligence but of one suppressing the truth that is known about God due to the fact that in the heart one has come to prefer one’s own rule to God’s rule.  This is what everyone does apart from God’s transforming grace. An alcoholic who gets behind the wheel of a car in one sense does not have a clue about what he is doing – he has no apprehension or comprehension – it is called DWI DUI – but that one is still held responsible for driving in that condition and for any accidents which occur.  Men and women live their entire lives under the influence of hearts that cannot really tolerate God’s rightful claim over their lives.  We all do some pretty creative thinking and readjustment of our view of reality so as to live under this influence and escape the truth.  This is the natural and predisposed stance of our hearts – what we think is shaped by earthly values rather than eternal ones and what we want is the promotion of our own agenda rather than God’s.  Thus we are under the influence of idolatrous attachments and commitments and it is from this stance that we receive the word sown onto our hearts – such a stance blinds us to the meaning and import of the word so that when it is heard it is not understood.

Remember the Gospel is God’s command for people to turn from their rebellion and self-centered focus and come home to him and be assured that because of what Jesus Christ has done they will be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with God.  The Gospel is God’s gracious lever to bring us back into willing submission to our Creator.  There are also all kinds of implications that we should be able to grasp from this word of grace and command to repent and trust in Christ.   So as long as we live under the influence of sin’s rebellious and deceptive power in our lives our hearts will remain hardened and not receptive to the word that is sown – yet we are accountable to God to receive the word.

Even those who are good soil in that God has determined by grace to work in their hearts so that they become receptive ground, may demonstrate lack of real understanding and perception to the word that is sown.  This means that if you are indeed a genuine believer in Jesus in whose heart grace has been planted then you must be concerned to be sure that you understand what you hear from the word.  If you persist in such hardness of heart (which was not the case with 11 of the 12 first disciples) then this will be evidence that you really do not know Christ.   So you must always be careful how you hear the word.  He who has hears let him hear – let him pay attention.  Let him seek God’s divine aid to really understand the word and its meaning.  Otherwise when the word is sown on your heart, because you do not understand – because it does not penetrate deeply with light into your heart, the evil one comes and snatches it away.  The word brings none of its life giving grace and power into your heart.   One who continues to hear the word in this manner remains under God’s judgment and is held accountable for living under the influence of such a self-centered and rebellious heart that is hardened to the sowing of the Word – what kind of soil are you?

What do you do with what you hear?  How often do other interests or concerns fill your mind as you hear the word?  How quickly does the word vanish from your thinking and heart? How easily and quickly do lesser concerns come flooding in as soon as the last hymn is sung and the benediction pronounced?  What is the nature of the conversation that you have with others at the close of the service?   The evil one will use a variety of means to snatch the word from the heart of those who hear it but do not understand its meaning and import.  The evil one comes to church too to prey on those who lack perception and understanding of the word.  Perception means that you understand its truth and meaning but also see how it applies to your life too.  There should be an eagerness to understand, to perceive the meaning of the word. 

So you need to come as active listeners and prayerful listeners of the Word that is sown.  Stir your heart to this task and seek God’s help. Come praying for understanding, illumination – come eager to hear – be aware that the understanding of the word must be given to you by the Spirit.  It is not simply a matter of brain power.   Failure to grasp the meaning of the Word should cause concern in your heart…seek understanding and appreciation for the word in prayer from the Father.  The stakes are high.

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them for they are spiritually discerned.  1 Corinthians 2:14.