Crowded hearts are DIVIDED HEARTS:
Weedy soil represents a heart preoccupied with worldly matters. The thorn bushes are not visible because they have been burned off the surface, but their roots are intact. When the seed is sown on this soil, then watered and germinated, the entrenched thorns also sprout and grow with virulent violence, choking out the grain before it can produce any fruit. This portrayed a divided heart, a heart divided by irreconcilable loyalties.
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
They are uncommitted and preoccupied with the world’s pleasures, money, career, fame, fortune, or the lusts of the flesh. They say they are Christians, but they care nothing about a pure life. That is the response of weedy soil.
What happens when the seed that once looked so promising is choked out? Has such a person lost his salvation? No, he never had it. The Word of God fell on an unprepared heart because it was full of malignant weeds. That person received the seed of the gospel but not into clean soil. The gospel germinated but was choked out before it could come to fruition.
The person with the weedy heart was never saved in the first place. Weedy hearts may be willing to accept Jesus as Savior, but not if it means letting go of the world. That is not salvation.
Crowded Hearts are Temporary Christians
These people attend to the preaching of Christ’s truth and, to a certain extent, obey it. Their understanding consents to it. Their judgment approves of it. Their conscience is affected by it. Their affections are in favor of it. They acknowledge that it is all right, good, and worth receiving. They even abstain from many things which the Gospel condemns and adopt many habits which the Gospel requires. But here, unhappily, they stop short.
Mark 4:19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
With everything apparently, that is promising and favorable in their spiritual state, they standstill. They never come up to the full standard of New Testament Christianity. They bring no fruit to perfection. To go so far and yet go no further—to see so much and yet not see all—to approve so much and yet not give Christ the heart, this is indeed most deplorable! And there is but one verdict that can be given about such people. Without a decided change they will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Christ wants our whole heart. “Friendship with the world is hatred towards God” (James 4:4).
Crowded Hearts are Lost Hearts
For a while, they look just like the rest of the field. They come to church, identify with the people of God, even show signs of growth. But they never bear spiritual fruit.
• They want a Savior without a Lord.
• They want to die the death of the righteous but live like a pagan.
Matthew 7:16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
This is Satan’s most subversive tactic of all. These people hear and accept the word and allow it to take root in their hearts, giving hope of a harvest. But thorns grow up and choke out the growing seed. Thorns rob newly sprouting seeds of nutrition, water, light, and space.
Distractions and conflicts rob new believers of time to reflect on and digest God’s Word in order to grow from it, as well as robbing guidance and support from interaction with other Christians. Jesus described the thorns: worries of this life, deceitfulness of wealth, desires for other things;
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