Matthew 13:3 and 18-19
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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.
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