Matthew 13:10-17 – What Kind of Heart? – Bible study

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 taughtmostly with parablesbut 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 todays 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 Gods 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 didnt. 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 Parables 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 wasnt 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 devils 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 needsanything 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 Israels 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 dont 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 persons 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 fearif your heart is so full of this world that it can not be filled with God, your soil is thorny. Lets see if you can understand truth this morning. Gods 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 Gods truth is for you or not.