The seed of the word and the thorns may coexist for a time, but at some point this hearer will be forced to make choice. Will they have Christ or the world? The world is wrapping itself around them like thorns, and the thorns are growing stronger, thicker. The represent the desires for old life that are at work within us. They are trying to drag us back to what we were before. What will be the outcome? Will they prove to be those who really still love the world, who seemed to be Christians for a time, but were never truly converted, who were unwilling to lose all for Christ’s sake? Or will there be a desperate cry to God for help to escape from the tentacles of the world and break free completely? If you think this may apply to you and that you may be unsaved and that these spiritual changes may never have happened to you, that you may never have separated from the world, and the thorns are still there, then come and plead with God to help you. How many people perhaps have great sympathy for the word of God but they don’t realise it has never yet saved them. You are no different from how you were before. You are not in a vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Search your hearts and pray to God to make you his in complete dependence upon Christ, having experienced the salvation that comes alone from him.
But even though you may have been a Christian five, ten, twenty, or thirty years, this parable can still apply to you, as a saved person. Have you stopped denying worldliness, or has the devil played a trick on you? ‘I am going to bring this person back to life the old pre-salvation tastes: a bigger house, a bigger car, better clothing.’ Yes, we are to be smart and give attention to these things, but we are not to make this the driving force of our lives: worldly entertainment, too much television, worldly music. How do you come across to people and how do you dress? Satan says, ‘I am going to preoccupy this person with the concerns of this life, so that less and less does he or she solve all the problems in life by prayer to God and laying them before him, going to the throne of grace. I will get them to work out everything in their own power.’ You cease denying the flesh and what it wants, and you start facing all the issues of life in a prayerless way, and then you won’t hear the word. Pray to God that this won’t happen, that you will deny yourself, refuse worldly pleasures and entertainments and stand clear for Christ. Then the word and God will bless you, and you will see its depths and its wonders and its strengths. The devil can tempt you with ambitions which you shouldn't have, which completely distract you. The devil can tempt you, especially when you're tired, with entertainments and diversions, watching the box when it’s just rubbish and nonsense and immoral things even. You have got to keep the home straight; you have got responsibilities, but then the devil will tempt you to give too much care and too much attention, so that your head is in the catalogues and you are dreaming of possessions and embellishments; you want notice; you want to be seen; you want people to admire you.