When one receives the Word of God into his heart, and obeys it, he becomes a Christian. But Jesus shows here in His use of this parable that it is possible to have the Word—that is, the Word of God—choked out of our lives. He says specifically that weeds will choke out the Word.

Brethren, I believe that we stand in danger of being choked to death spiritually. We can become so busy and so involved with other things, that we have little or no time for regular study of the Word, for prayer, for worship, for ministering to others. Our lives can become so encumbered with trivial things, that the SPIRITUAL is smothered out altogether.

In this parable, Jesus points out that we can allow too many interests to enter our heart. Someone characterized our modern lives in this way: “We try to do too many things, and we succeed.” Many of us may be making this same mistake. We have so much on our minds and in our hearts, we have so many “irons in the fire,” we have so many “things on our plate,” so to speak, that the influences of God are crowded out of our lives. The rush of life, the multitude of interests and responsibilities and the increase of worldly pleasures all form a soil in the heart in which religious life and spiritual things are strangled for lack of room to grow and develop. If our spiritual life is to grow at all, we must make room in our souls for the things that are spiritual and eternal. After all, the body will die and return to the dust from whence it came, but the spirit is eternal, [see Ecclesiastes 12:7], and as David said, “Your heart shall live forever,” Psalm 22, verse 26.

If Jesus were compelled to sound this warning in the first century, how much more is this warning applicable to us today? After all, when Jesus sounded this warning, that was before the days of fax machines and cell phones, of T.V. and video games, of [Boy or Girl] Scouts and soccer practice. How much we need the warning of this text, which may well be stated in the slogan, “Keep room for God,” OR, as we sometimes sing, “Take Time To Be Holy.”

These things which occupy our hearts may not be bad or evil in and of themselves. But, don’t you know, that’s part of the devil’s plan of deceit. And it is the devil who deceives us in this regard. Jesus says in this text, “The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy is the devil.”

But it is how we respond to these and other things in our life, and the priority we give to the spiritual things that really matters. Notice the example of Martha and Mary, recorded in Luke 10, verses 41 and 42. Jesus rebukes Martha for being “troubled about many things.” On the other hand, He praises Mary in the same text for “choosing that good thing which shall not be taken from her.”

You may be thinking by now, “Hey, John, you’re preaching to the wrong crowd. After all, we’re here tonight, not home watching T.V. or doing something else.” Well, actually, I wasn’t going to preach this sermon tonight until Harvey [Porter, the other minister for the Northeast Albuquerque Church of Christ] inspired me this morning when he talked about that preacher who preached for six weeks, morning and night, about repentance. And he cited 2 Peter 1, verse 12, “So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them.”

Actually, I think you agree with me that being reminded of some basic Truths over and over again is not a bad thing. Perhaps we could compare a lesson of this type to the way a machine or technical device has to be periodically calibrated. Occasionally a piece of equipment must be compared to a STANDARD to see if it is operating properly. And I think that quite often our life needs to be compared to a standard to be certain that we are operating properly as well.

And of all of these types of soil, I thought about the fact that perhaps the type of soil that involves the weeds is maybe most applicable to us, because, after all, soil which is too hard to receive the seed is probably going to remain that way. Soil that has an underlying layer of rock is probably going to remain that way. But even the fertile soil can be infested with weeds. Weeds can be a very insidious kind of thing, and they can overtake a garden, or a lawn, or a field very quickly. And so I think we, as Christians, even though we are indeed living our lives in a manner which we think is proper—we are coming out to Sunday evening worship, we’re involved in spiritual activities, and so on—we need to periodically check our lives against the standard, which is God’s Word.

As I mentioned, this particular parable, the “Parable of the Soils”, or the “Parable of the Sower,” is in three separate accounts—three separate Gospel books: Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8. As we look at those three accounts, we can compile a list of four things which the THORNS Jesus talks about symbolize. First, the thorns are a symbol of cares. Second, the thorns are a symbol of riches. Third, the thorns are a symbol of lusts. And fourth, the thorns are a symbol of the pleasures of this life. We want to look at them individually in this order.

First of all, let’s look at the cares of the world. The idea here is that we can be overburdened with the affairs of the world—overanxious about material things, giving too much attention to them. There’s an analogy, which I think is appropriate here, and that is of packing a car or a vehicle for a trip. It is possible to put so much luggage in a car that there is no room left for the passengers.