Cultivating Good Soil 02: Hardened Hearts

Today being the first Sunday of the month, we return to our series on cultivating good soil that we began last month that is based on our monthly theme of being fruitful branches of the Lord. In our first lesson, we began talking about the ‘Parable of the Sower/Soils’ and mainly studied a few parables in Mark ch4 that further explain this parable. The parables show how we need to receive the word if we want to be the good soil. As we saw in that lesson, we need to really pay attention to what God has to say, understanding that God wants His word to show us who we are, and we need to listen with a heart that truly wants to obey and apply what is being taught by the Lord.

In today’s lesson, I would like to begin to examine each soil within the parable of the sower to see why these soils were not producing fruit so we can learn what can hinder our fruitfulness to the Lord. Today we will focus on the first soil, the hard packed soil or the soil ‘along the path.’ And as we do this; as we look at this soil and even the other soils in the coming months, let’s be careful not to assume that we are the good soil because we are here today and we claim to be Christians. This parable can be applied to those who are hearing the word that are lost, but I do believe it has application beyond that; to anyone who is being taught the word of God.

I believe I have seen all of these type of soils among those who claim to be God’s people, even among myself at different times in my Christian life. At times we can go back and forth between the soils. There may be times that you are the good soil, and there may be times that you fall into one of the other three, and once again, it is possible that you and I are one of the unfruitful soils right now. We each need to do some self-examination as we go through these lessons.

So with these things said, let’s get into the first soil…

“Listen! behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

Now one of the interesting things in Palestine in ancient times was that people traversed the countryside, walking everywhere they went or riding on an animal, and they had to go through the fields. And so fields were basically bordered by beaten paths. You remember in Matthew chapter 12 verse 1 how Jesus and His disciples were walking through the fields. There would usually be long furrows in rather narrow segments and there would be beaten paths around them so that the farmer could have access to all of his fields. And so the people traversing the countryside wouldn't walk through his fields but stay on the paths. As a result they were uncultivated and Israel is very dry so they were unwatered and they became hard, beaten paths, beaten down by the sun and the wind and the feet of those animals and people who walked on them. Seed falling on that kind of ground couldn't penetrate it, and it would just lie there until the birds would see it and come in and snatch it up for a meal. Because of these things, no fruit would be produced by this soil. This is the first soil. Pretty easy to understand the illustration, but what does it mean?

Let’s read verses 14-15, we have our explanation of this soil:

The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. ( ESV)

Jesus explains the first soil, the hardened soil along the path as those who hear the word, but after they hear the word the adversary; Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. Their hearts are so “hard” that the word has no chance of really getting in so they can understand the message, and because of this, it does not make any difference in their lives.

This kind of heart is most notably seen in the context of in the Pharisees and other religious leaders. From the very beginning when Jesus began teaching and doing miracles, they were there to oppose Him and were not receptive to the word as He preached. In 3:5, Jesus was grieved and angered because of the hardness of their hearts. Their heart condition was seen most in their official claim that Jesus performed His miracles by the power of Satan. As Jesus interacted with them and revealed His great power and as He taught with authority, it was as though He said nothing. It seems like nothing He could say could get through to them. The question is why? Why is it the case that their hearts were so hard?

Here are a few reasons I think we see them hardened in the Gospels:

First, they loved their positions of influence and authority…

Jesus said, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat.” They had a great deal of authority because they were the leaders of the nation, and they were the ones who were the teachers of the Law of Moses. They were the ones who “knew the Law” the most. One would think this would mean they were the ones who were most faithful to God, but the opposite was the case because they allowed their authority and their knowledge of the law to often get to their heads They would be filled with pride and would look down on others who weren’t as holy and as righteous as they were and those who didn’t know the law like they did. Just the fact that they claimed to know the law was enough for them to say that any person who believed Jesus was an authority was lost!

The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” ( ESV)

Instead of responding to His teachings with the same kind of awe as the people were, they would just say that all of these people do not know the law. They are accursed… Obviously the fact that the authorities and teachers of the law did not believe in Jesus was enough evidence that Jesus was a fraud, right? Not quite… not if their love for power was blinding them to the truth!

The fact is that they were losing power and influence among the people because of Jesus. It was no secret that they became envious of Jesus, probably because of the following that he was building up. It got to the point that when Jesus came into Jerusalem in His triumphal entry in , that the Jewish leaders said, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.” Even Pilate knew when they delivered Jesus to him that they handed Him over because of envy. Their envy made it impossible for them to listen to what Jesus and His followers had to say from God.

Second, they loved the praise and respect they received from men

“They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

They loved the special titles they wore… Rabbi, Father, etc… They loved dressing in ways that made people look at them with respect and say nice things about them. Listen to what Jesus says in about this:

“I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God ()”

Jesus is telling them why they are unable to believe the truth… It was because of all of the praise and glory they received from one another. They loved it… they ate it up, and this got in the way of them seeking the Lord as they should… Jesus came, claiming to come as a representative of God, but they would much rather receive one who came on their own authority or by the authority of a great teacher they respected… They rejected God for the authority and praise of men!

Third, they loved their traditions…

They thought they already knew what the Messiah would be like… They wanted their great ruler like David who would rule in Jerusalem and drive their enemies out… But they were wrong concerning the nature of the Messiah. Their bias led them to not accept what Jesus taught concerning Himself as the Messiah, and since Jesus wasn’t fitting their beliefs, they would do whatever they could to try to discredit Him, even saying He was performing miracles by the power of Satan.

They also had many traditional interpretations of the law; teachings of the different rabbis that were held in high regard. They would often condemn Jesus and His disciples, not because they were disobeying the law, but because they were not following the traditions of the elders or the interpretations of the law of the rabbis.

When Jesus came and challenged their biases and how those biases contradicted the law, they didn’t like it because they placed so much importance to their traditions. They talked about them as they were the laws of God when they were nothing more than the traditions of men, and Jesus showed them in how they were allowing their traditions to lead them to not listen to what God’s word said:

“Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed… And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” … 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition…”

They lost the ability, because of their hardened hearts, to tell the difference between God’s commandments and the beliefs and commandments of men… In all of these things, and probably many more things, they allowed their sin to harden them and to lead them to reject the commandments of God. This is what sin can do to the hearts of men…

HOW ABOUT US???

It’s easy to look at these men and say, I just can’t believe they allowed themselves, as God’s chosen people, to be hardened in this kind of way and to reject God’s word as they did… But what about us? Can we do the same? Can we have the same kind of soil as they did? YES!!! We need to deal with our own hardened soil… We need to see what led them to be hardened and guard ourselves from becoming this type of soil, or even so we can begin working on what is leading us to be this kind of soil right now! … Our own biases, traditions, and sin can lead us to shut our hearts from receiving the word, just like the Pharisees…

We must not underestimate the power that sin can have in our lives. Just because we are faithful today does not mean that we cannot be hardened and become unfruitful. Sin is dangerous. It can destroy us… It can do things we never imagined it could do when we are tempted to commit it… I believe the saying is biblical that says, “SIN WILL ALWAYS TAKE YOU FARTHER THAN YOU WANTED TO GO. IT WILL ALWAYS KEEP YOU LONGER THAN YOU WANTED TO STAY, AND IT WILL ALWAYS COST YOU MORE THAN YOU INTENDED TO PAY”

The Hebrews writer warns Christians about what sin can do in their lives.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

The Hebrews writer is telling them, don’t be like the Israelites who hardened their hearts after God had given them such a great salvation from Egypt… Just as they strayed away from God, and became hardened and filled with unbelief, so can we… Our sin, if it is not dealt with, can deceive us and harden us and lead us to unbelief.

Do not think that it is not possible for you to be deceived or hardened by your sin! It can happen. Your sin can harden your heart. And just like the Pharisees, our biases and traditions, our desire to be respected by our peers, and the amount we think we “know” can lead our hearts to become hardened. I could probably do a whole other sermon just giving examples of how this can happen or how I have seen this happen. Instead, I will just give some questions for us to examine ourselves with to see if we have this kind of hardened soil within ourselves:

· Are there specific passages of scripture or specific Biblical topics that, when they are brought up, or when you find out are going to be preached on that you think to yourself, “not this again! I know that subject already!”

· Do you ever just “check out” during a sermon because you have heard a lesson on that subject many times already? Have you stopped listening to God’s word being preached because you “already know” what you need to know on that subject?

· Whenever a specific tradition or belief that you or the church here has is challenged or questioned, what is your first response? Do you throw up a wall and not listen? Are you filled with frustration and impatience?

· Do you think the way we do things here is the only way of applying the commandments of Christ and His Apostles? And are you quick to condemn or look down on anyone or any church that practices anything different? Are you quick to condemn those who don’t have the same level of knowledge as you and have not come to the same conclusions you have yet? Even assuming what you believe is true, do you do this?

· Whenever you are in a discussion with someone, do you ever result to name-calling? Do you right away start labeling someone as a false teacher, a Pharisee, a legalist, or a liberal and think that the person who has a different belief or tradition that you do is lost?

· Is there a sin that you are allowing to go unchecked? Is there a sin that you are not dealing with or that you are ignoring?

How would you answer these questions? May it be the case that our responses to these questions are a sign that our hearts may be hardened, and that we are not too different than the Pharisees? As the word of God is being shared with you, if we are not listening with a heart that wants to make changes in our lives and with a heart that is open to seeing that we could be wrong about things, we are leaving a door wide open for Satan to come in and work among us; to come in and to take the word away that was sown within us…

We need to examine our soils… We need to deal with those things that can harden us and those around us. And we need to be BUSY trying to help one another. To stop ourselves from becoming hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, the Hebrews writer says to encourage or to exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today.” This is what we will do if we love one another. We will look for opportunities to help one another with sin, even on a daily basis. This world is dangerous to our spiritual health… And we need each other’s help to make sure that we are not ignoring God’s word and becoming a soil that cannot bring forth fruit.

If you are seeing within yourself a heart that is being hardened; if these the thoughts of this lesson have been convicting to you, there is hope for you… Your heart has not fully gotten to the point of the Pharisees yet. It has not become so hardened that it will never receive God’s word.

And if you are dealing with someone who seems to have a heart like this, let me conclude by giving you some final reminders. First, someone’s soil can change… Someone who is as hardened as Saul can be affected by the Gospel and become a Paul, so don’t completely give up! The Gospel is powerful. I have seen hardened hearts softened. It happens. And second, no matter how hard a heart may be, there will come a time when every heart and mouth will confess the truth that Jesus is Lord.

OUR TRADITIONS

It can also be the case that our manmade traditions can lead us to reject the word of God when it is shared with us… We need to make sure we learn to see the difference between the commandments of Christ and our traditional ways of doing things, which may only be one way of applying the commands that have been given to us. Just because something that we do is the way it has always been done or just because our favorite preachers have taught a certain thing does not mean that it is the ONLY way it can be done, nor does it mean that our traditions are biblical. We need to be open to questions or even challenges regarding our traditions. If our first reaction to someone challenging something we do from scripture is to stop listening and think about how we are going to show them they are wrong, we may be allowing our own traditions to harden our hearts. We need to be like the Bereans in . When a new teaching came to them from the Apostle Paul, they searched the scriptures to see if what he was saying was true… Is this how we approach those who bring up scripture to us or challenge us? I am convinced that our response is often quite different from the Bereans. Instead of searching the scriptures to see if what someone is saying is true, our temptation is to instead search the scriptures so we can show the person that we are right and they are wrong… This is not how noble hearts seek truth… This is how hardened hearts close their minds to possible truth… It is much easier to start labeling those who disagree with us or believe different things as false teachers, legalists, Pharisees, or liberals instead of doing what we should be doing… comparing what we have always believed and have been taught to scripture. This may not always be comfortable, but it is vitally important if we want to make sure we are believing and following the truth and are not being deceived.

OUR KNOWLEDGE

If we ever reach the point where we think we know all that we need to know about any Biblical subject, we are being foolish. We should check our hearts whenever we say things like, “I have already made up my mind on this subject. You will not change my mind no matter what you say.” Hopefully no one here would say something like this… Hopefully we have been studying scripture long enough to realize that we all can be wrong in our conclusions. Have you ever thought you were convinced what the Bible taught on a certain subject only to have someone later on share scriptures with you that you missed that completely changed your mind? I sure have MANY times… Those who think they have already gotten all of the knowledge that they need on any subject in the Bible, I believe the Bible has a few words to describe them… proud and foolish are two that come to mind. Those who have wisdom; those who are learning from God and being transformed into the image of Christ, the more they learn, the more they see that they have so much MORE that they need to learn. Those with wisdom see how much they lack wisdom and how desperate they are to seek more of God’s wisdom and direction.

HOW MEN LOOK AT US

We want to be accepted by our peers… We don’t want to be looked at as being too different, or intolerant, or judgmental… We want to be respected and praised… But we need to remember that no matter how much men may speak well of us or no matter what man may think of us, this does not change how God sees us or looks at us. Men can look at this church and say that we are doing well. We could have the greatest of reputations among men, but still not be pleasing to God. Jesus said to the church in Sardis in : ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” It doesn’t really matter what our peers think of us if we are not right with the Lord.

If we are allowing what men may think to stop us from taking a stand for the Gospel, or if it stops us from believing and obeying the truth, we are not too different than the Pharisees. These things may indeed show us that our hearts are not as soft as we think they are.