Matthew 13:10-17
What Kind of Heart Do You Have?
The Scripture that I am using for a text is not what I am going to
preach on this morning, but it is very relevant to it. What I want
to speak about actually comes directly before and after this text.
However, these verses reveal something important about God and your
potential for salvation, so please listen very carefully.
I believe Matthew 13, is in the second phase in Jesus’ ministry. This
is strictly my own thought. I have never heard anyone else say
anything like this but I believe that Jesus’ ministry can be divided
into three sections:
1. There was the Commencement Stage. In this phase, Jesus was
both being introduced by John and introducing Himself. We
hear a lot about repentance, see a lot of miracles, and hear
Jesus preach some powerful but fairly easy to understand
sermons in this stage.
2. Then there is the Covert Stage. In this phase, Jesus did
miracles but told the recipients not to tell anyone. He also
taught but He used a lot of parables.
3. Last comes the Cross Stage. Here Jesus still did miracles and
still taught—mostly with parables—but He was headed to the
cross and spoke of it often.
So we are in the Covert Stage. Jesus was using so many parables that
His disciples stopped and asked, "Why?"
I. \\#10-17\\ Why the Parables?
A. \\#10\\ The question was asked.
B. \\#11-12\\ Jesus’ answer.
1. In today’s language, Jesus said because it was not for
them (those just standing around) to understand.
2. That kind of statement should concern you. Jesus was
saying that to understand the parable He was giving, the
parable that I am about to preach about, was not given to
everyone.
3. If I were you, I would want to know two things:
a. Am I one of those whom God wants to understand it?
b. Why is it not for everyone?
C. Am I one of those whom God wants to understand it?
1. The answer to that question will depend on whether you
understand and respond to the parable after I preach it.
a. I hope you do, but some will not.
b. Some will sit in this sanctuary and will not be able
to tell you anything about the sermon or the text
twenty minutes after I finish preaching.
2. Sadly, spiritual understanding just is not given to them.
D. The answer to the second question, "Why is it not for
everyone?" is simple.
1. Truth is not for everyone.
2. Truth is only for those who will work for it.
3. By this time, Jesus had probably been preaching for one
or two years. He had done more than enough miracles
to at least prove that He and God were close; yet, many
were not responding. They had not believed in Him. They
had not believed that God sent Him. They had not
believed that what Jesus spoke was even important.
4. Because of that, Jesus would quit speaking in plain
language. From this point on, Jesus spoke in parables so
that those who did not want the truth, would not get it.
E. Now, if you understand that, you should be more than
concerned. You should be scared!
1. If you are one that has heard who Jesus is, has known what
He offers, and has done nothing with it, you may be one
whom God has made it difficult to hear or to understand
anything else.
2. Understand, God has never promised to make getting saved
easy for you. He has promised to give you a chance,
but if you put off God, God may well put you off.
3. Notice what God may do to you.
a. \\#13\\ You may hear His Word but not understand it.
b. \\#14\\ You may see God’s power but not perceive it.
c. \\#15\\ You may be one who will forever be without
understanding and without conversion.
4. You say, "Why would God do that? Why would He take away
my chance of being saved?" He didn’t. He gave you your
chance. You did not act upon it.
5. To that explain this truth, Jesus gave a parable that
describes the four conditions of the human heart when it
comes to hearing spiritual truth.
II. \\#1-9\\ The Parable’s Concept
A. There are only four types of hearts, each one characterized by
one of the soils in the parable.
1. \\#4\\ There is the Hard Heart.
2. \\#5-6\\ There is the Shallow Heart.
3. \\#7\\ There is the Thorny Heart.
4. \\#8\\ There is the Good Heart.
B. We need to see the concept of what is happening here.
1. This is a parable, a earthly story with a heavenly
meaning. So Jesus was giving something important but
He was hiding the spiritual in the earthly story.
2. We are told what the seed means by Luke in his account of
the parable.
Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is
the word of God.
3. The sower is anyone who passes out the seed, the Word.
a. In this place for this moment, I am the sower.
b. That is kind of neat. I am in the Bible.
4. The seed is being thrown out by the sower. This is not
a farmer placing seed into a furrow. No, I do not have
the ability right now to come put just what you need into
your heart, push it to the right depth, bury carefully,
and make sure it takes hold. My job is to cast the seed
far and wide and let the soil that is willing grab the
seed and make it his own.
C. Every person in this building is one of these four types of
soil and one of the four things that the parables says is
going to happen to you today.
III. The Soil and Its Results
A. \\#23\\ Some soil is good ground.
23 But he that received seed into the good
ground is he that heareth the word, and
understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and
bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty,
some thirty.
1. There is not much left to the imagination in this soil.
a. We have all seen how this works.
b. When seed falls into good ground, it produces fruit.
c. Good seed in good ground always produces fruit.
d. If fruit does not grow, something must be stopping
it.
2. The good ground represents the good or the open heart.
a. These are those who will listen to the Word and
consider what they hear.
b. Anyone who will listen and consider will be saved.
c. That is just what God will do.
B. \\#18-19\\ Some soil is hard, packed.
18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom,
and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked
one, and catcheth away that which was sown in
his heart. This is he which received seed by the
way side.
1. The wayside is the portion of ground between fields.
a. It was the ground that marked property or field
boundaries.
b. Each field was up against the next but to keep them
separate and to be able to walk around them, there
was a way to the side, a wayside, left unplowed.
c. There was not anything wrong with the dirt of the
wayside. It was just unplowed so it was hard,
packed.
d. By the way, there wasn’t anything wrong with the seed
or the sower either.
e. The only problem was that the ground was too hard for
the seed to penetrate so it land on the top like
seed cast on concrete.
2. The hard soil represents those with hard hearts.
a. They are just to hard hearted to let the Word of God
take root in them.
b. \\#12\\ Tells us that hard hearted people are the
devil’s favorite.
c. The word cannot get inside of their hearts so
he comes along, like a bird, and takes the see away.
d. How does the devil do that? The Bible does not say,
but I have seen him do it so many times, I can tell
you.
(1) He steals the seed with business.
(2) He steals the seed with blindness. The hearer
does not see the importance of the Word.
(3) He steals the seed with binding. He binds you
with debt, with addictions, with needs—anything
to keep your focus away from the Word of God.
3. There is a simple solution to stop the devil from stealing
your seed.
Jer 4:3 For thus saith the LORD to the men of
Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow
ground, and sow not among thorns.
a. Listen.
b. Make notes.
c. Get a copy of the message and listen to it again and
again.
d. Memorize the points and the verses that prove the
points.
e. By doing this, you are planting the Word into your
heart where the devil cannot get it!
f. Like a seed landing in a crack of the concrete, it
will take root and bust the hard heart!
C. \\#20-21\\ Some soil is too shallow.
20 But he that received the seed into stony
places, the same is he that heareth the word,
and anon with joy receiveth it;
21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth
for a while: for when tribulation or persecution
ariseth because of the word, by and by he is
offended.
1. While most would think fighting the devil to be most
difficult battle, it is not.
a. Of all the conditions of the heart, this one is the
most difficult to fix.
b. The reason being is because there is no eternal enemy
to fight here. Here, one has to fight his own
nature.
2. Israel, the land where Jesus was, is a very rocky land.
a. While driving through the Jordan Valley, one of
Israel’s most fertile areas, I asked our guide how
much soil covered the rock. He said maybe 3 or 4
inches.
b. To grow anything in that area, you must dig up the
rock.
c. People do that and there are heaps upon heaps of
rocks at the lowest end of their fields.
3. In this parable, some dirt had blown or washed back onto
the rock and seed had landed in that dirt.
a. There was just enough so that the seed could sprout,
but there was not enough to grow roots.
b. When the sun came up, it heated the rock below and
backed the sprout from above, killing the seedling.
c. What was the problem? The soil was too shallow. The
soil had no depth.
4. The shallow soil speaks of the shallow heart.
a. I remember years ago seeing this truth and being
surprised. I had never thought that some people were
just to shallow to be saved.
b. When I speak of being shallow I am speaking of
character.
(1) Some do not have the character to be saved.
(2) Parents, that falls largely upon us.
5. To be saved, every child needs:
a. To know that there is God.
b. To be raised to feel guilt over the wrong.
c. To be able to set their mind to a task and see it
through.
6. What can one do if they have no character?
a. My advice would be to immerse yourself in the Word of
God.
b. If anything can bust the stony heart, it is the Word
of God!
Jer 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith
the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the
rock in pieces?
D. \\#22\\ Some soil is too thorny.
22 He also that received seed among the thorns
is he that heareth the word; and the care of this
world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the
word, and he becometh unfruitful.
1. Believe it or not, but this is actually the easiest of
the bad hearts to fix; yet it has most of the people
bound!
a. Here the sower, the seed, and the soil are all good!
b. The problem is that the soil has things in it that
don’t belong and those thrones are sucking the life
out of the soil.
c. This is another one of those situations in which the
people are "confused" (like we have become over
bathrooms!).
d. The confused hearer is actually feeding the thorns
and starving the seeds.
2. What are the thorns of the heart?
a. the cares of this world…
b. the deceitfulness of riches…
3. This person’s heart is concerned about money and the
things of this world so much more than the seed that the
spiritual simply gets chocked out!
a. God knows that we have to live in this world but when
this world starts to live in us, something is wrong!
b. If you are spending all of your time thinking on
things that are not going to heaven with you, you
are feeding the wrong plants!
4. What is the solution for this kind of heart? You are
going to have to pull some thorn bushes!
1Jo 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world. If any man love the world,
the love of the Father is not in him.
2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and
be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the
unclean thing; and I will receive you,
5. Although this is the easiest of all the soils to fix, it
is also the most difficult. Why? Because we have fallen
in love with the thorns and the weeds. Not the rose
bushes. There are no blooms on these thorns, yet we
love them like a rare flower of beauty. We set these
worldly things on a table like a prized flower; yet if
we want to produce fruit, we must pull them up and cast
them out.
6. Whether it is work or play, pleasure or bondage, fun or
fear—if your heart is so full of this world that it can
not be filled with God, your soil is thorny.
Let’s see if you can understand truth this morning. God’s Word has
gone out this morning. What will you do with it? Is your heart
soft enough to let the seed sink in, deep enough to let the seed take
root, and clean enough to feed the good and not the bad? If not,
will you do what needs to be done? Depending on your response, you
can know if God’s truth is for you or not.
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