We could call this type of person or personality type the indecisive person or the impressionable person. You grasp the impossibility that God can have anything to do with you while you are unforgiven, unwashed. You hear the message of salvation, that there is such a thing as eternal life, there is forgiveness for sin, there is the possibility of relating to God, and knowing him, and having his power and blessing in your life. Ah, that appeals, that's what I need. You hear that Christ the Saviour has come from heaven to suffer and to die to take the punishment in our place due to us for our sin if we are among those who find him and know him and love him. That message is amazing. It is astonishing. I never grasped it before that God would go to such lengths to forgive and to save men and women and to reconcile them with himself. Surely that's what we all need, but there is no root in you, for one reason or another. You have a slight sense of need and desire but it doesn't last for very long. This doesn't lead to anything.
You welcome this, and you are interested and even understand something. At first it's a welcome message but there is no life, there is no root. Why would that be? Because you to some extent understand and accept but you never embrace it; you are indecisive. You never go forward and repent of your sin and plead with Christ to change you and bless; you never put your trust and reliance in him; instead you dither. You say, ‘I don't believe I'm as bad as the Bible says. I don't believe I'm so bad as that preacher maintains we are. I think I'm good enough. I think there's a lot of good in me. Self-righteousness kicks in.’ We begin to take refuge in one hundred and one reasons that we've heard of why this message cannot be true.
Some people see it in an intellectual way. They're not satisfied with a view of life which says that everything has come about by sheer accident, and there is ultimately no purpose in life. Just have fun while you're here. But you're going to die, and the whole cosmos is going to explode one day, and everything beautiful and everything you think you have achieved is going to be wiped out, and it's all for nothing. There are people who say, ‘I don't like this philosophy of life, which all the atheists told to.’ They hear the gospel, and they think this is a better explanation for life: that God is the Creator of all things. They learn some of the doctrines of the faith, and they are amazed at the intellectual soundness of our system of truth given in the Bible. So they respect it, and they say, ‘I want this. I want to be plugged in to something deep and worthwhile, which explains life and helps me.’ But there is something missing. They haven't really understood they are sinners, who before they get any benefits and blessings, need forgiveness and a new life. That must come first, and they haven't grasped that. So they happily come to church, accept a lot of the message, and notionally believe in Christ and in the Bible and in God. But soon the big temptations will come, and the devil will whisper in their ear, ‘Do you really want this? Do you really want to give your life to God? Do you really want to be ruled by God and his principles? Do you really want to worship and serve him? Do you want to forsake some of those things you love doing, and some of your sins that you derive pleasure from? And it all begins to come home that this is a matter of a new life and forgiveness of sin, and living for the Lord. When they are tested and tried along those lines, they draw back.
The question is why? Why can we be so indecisive with regard to spiritual things? Because, as we are about to move forward and come to Christ, suddenly a voice within says, ‘Yes, but this is my life. I can't give it away. I want my life, and I want my own way. I can see that this is attractive, but I want myself as I am and I don't think I'm as bad as the Bible and that preacher makes out. I think on reflection that I'm quite a good person. I don't need this Saviour, and I don't feel shame for my sins. I'm not sure that I want to go forward with this at all. I'm not prepared to grovel before the Lord in repentance and ask him for life. I don't need to change; I don't want to change and I want to keep my ways’, so there is this fatal indecision. At first I responded well, but then I recoiled. A little root went down but it soon hit a rock, the rock of my heart. My heart was hard and it needed breaking up, so that I realised what a sinner and a shallow and needy person I was, and I embraced the message and called out to God to bless me and save me. But that never happened. It's a little different from the wayside hearer, but still there is a problem. Is that you? This could save you eternally: to recognise I am an indecisive person, I understood the desirability of eternal salvation, the forgiveness of God and knowing him, but there was too much in me which drew back and I was spiritually indecisive. There are many people like that and they never repent.