What’s Your Spiritual Heart Condition? – Seed on the Wayside.
Do you have a heart receptive to the gospel message? Mark explains its significance of your heart condition for evangelism.
Pains in My Chest – Heart Attack?
I was having pains in my chest for several days in a row and it became a growing concern. Was it my heart? Heart disease is in my family history, so naturally that’s where your mind goes. My concerned wife urged me to see our family doctor, eventually I complied.
To make a very uneventful story short, it was not my heart but “heart burn;” acid reflux. I’m thankful for the diagnosis I received. It was not a complete waste of my time, being that I underwent multiple tests and found out that my heart was in good condition. I would not have known that otherwise, nor anyone else for that matter.
Spiritual Heart Condition
What is my spiritual heart condition? How receptive am I to God’s word and changing my life according to it? What does God see that others cannot see?
For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7
Previously, in part 5 of this series, we looked at the seed in the parable of the sower as being the word of God, so that would mean that the sower is an evangelist. In public ministry, for example, the preacher shares the word of God to a crowd, sowing it out, and it lands upon the ears of different people. Jesus’ explanation of the parable to His disciples is that the four soil types represent the hearts of four different listeners.
And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.
Luke 8:4,5
..and in Luke 8:11,12 we read
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
Luke 8:11,12
How People React to the Word of God
The point of this parable is to allegorically point out that there are diverse types of people who hear the word of God, and how they react to it. If we were to take this parable literally, we would say that the sower is foolish to allow his precious seed to fall arbitrarily causing it to land on soils not suitable for growth. The spiritual truth of this is that the evangelist cannot know the heart of every person hearing the gospel, therefore it needs to be shared for everyone to have the opportunity to accept it.
The Risk of Evangelism
Evangelism is a risk; we preach God’s truth of grace to people that we hope will receive it yet knowing that there will be some or even many who will not. We cannot know who is ready to receive the message. Therefore, we must continue to minister the gospel and not ever give up sharing it. We are not God, we are finite, we cannot know the hearts of everyone in the crowd.
If an individual hears, but does not receive it, they may at a later stage of life be softened and more willing to accept it. This is another reason for us to be persistent and not think that a one-time rejection is final.
Seed on the Wayside
The first type of ground that the Lord portrays the seed falling on, is a pathway. This is where the ground has been trampled by those traveling it, and it is hard and calloused; nothing can grow. The seed falls and is lying exposed on the paths surface making it easy prey to birds and anyone walking to tread upon, crushing it. This seed doesn’t have a chance. The Lord Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6:10 describing this type:
For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes— so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.
Isaiah 6:10
This does not mean they are hard-hearted people; in terms of being affectionless, cold and selfish towards others, but it does mean that they have no reception for God’s truth.
They are described by Paul in Ephesians 4:18,19
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
Ephesians 4:18,19
An Apathetic World
Sadly, the world is becoming more and more apathetic and antagonistic towards the Lord Jesus Christ and His word. Many people show characteristics of being like this hard trodden path, resistant to receiving God’s Word.
Jesus uses birds in this parable as a representation of satanic opposition to the truth.
Satan has done well conditioning our modern society to be defiant to God’s Word, which makes His job of devouring the seeds of spoken truth much easier.
Satan the Thief
The devil is described as a thief;
“the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy,”
Jesus says in John 10:10.
“I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”
The devil is ever mindful of the sower at work, and he is sure to be nearby, ready to swoop in and pluck the seed away from the hearer’s heart.
“The number one rule of thieves is that nothing is too small to steal.”
Jimmy Breslin
Certainly, he wants there to be no chance of even a single seed to grow. He steals so the hearer will have no opportunity to receive the “Life Giving Word;” and potentially accept Christ as Savior. He wants all of humanity to stay dead and separated from God.
2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul writes that the devil has
“blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God.”
2 Corinthians 4:4
The devil is described in the bible as “the enemy of everything that is right,” a deceiver, the accuser. It is his goal to keep anyone from the truth, that they meet the same judgment set for him in a coming day.
Consider Spiritual Realities
The parables of Jesus prompt us to consider spiritual realities. This parable depicts four different soils meaning four types of people, so we must ask ourselves, “which soil type am I?” When it’s paralleled with my personal response to the gospel, which type best describes me?
Regarding the wayside soil, looking back at my life prior to conversion, I recognize there were times when I heard the truth, but it was of no interest to me. I was religious, and my preconceived views were not adaptable to the grace of God, so I rejected it. There were other times similar. Eventually there came a time when the soil in my life was not as calloused, and more receptive to the message of salvation.
If it wasn’t for the faithful sowers that God kept directing my way, I might not have received Jesus Christ as my Savior and where would I be today?
Evangelistic Efforts
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians asking that they pray for his evangelistic efforts, that he would receive from God the right words to say with boldness. Likewise, we must be always dependent upon the Lord’s leading, who enables us to say the right words to those we witness to; only God knows what words will influence the hearer.
Jesus commanded His disciples to be all inclusive in their ministry,
“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
God has not given us the ability to do “spiritual heart tests” on people before we share the gospel with them. There is no biblical “echocardiogram,” or spiritual gift of a “CT scan” that we can use to reveal to us who is ready to receive the word and who is not. It is not our place to know or have such insight, but to simply obey and give it over to the Lord.
Is the Parable of the Sower relevant today? What do you think? We would love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Enjoy Part One of this series here.
Mark Hillis
Mark lives rural in Fenwick, Ontario with his wife Michelle and three boys.
He joined the FBH International team in February 2022, coming from the business world with a design and art background.
Mark is particularly interested in seeing people come to Christ and grow in their faith. He recently produced the series entitled: Sow to Grow.
Mark serves as an elder at Brockview Bible Chapel in St.Catharines , Ontario.
Visit Mark’s contributor’s page here.
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You Reap What you Sow So Sow To Grow
Jesus’ Trial – A Trial By Night
Images Courtesy of:
Seed Germinating – softhunterdevil
Heart Attack – Pexels
Green Theif – abinandhan
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