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Third Soil – Thorny Ground (Hard Ground):
The thorny ground hearers are those about whom we should have doubts. And they should have doubts about themselves, too. they true Christians who have grown distracted and cold, living for a season with things other than the Lord Jesus as the focus of their lives. But churches also encounter people who drift away for a while in coldness, bitterness and sin, and some of these people do come back in the brokenness of repentance in time. During the time that such people are out of fellowship, we simply cannot know who they really are. A farmer places seed in the ground so it will sprout and bear fruit. Some seeds fall on hard ground that the plow has not turned. Here, the seed cannot sink into the soil, and the birds easily find and devour it. Some seeds fall on stony places, where there is little or no soil for the roots to take in sufficient nourishment for the plant. These believers are interested only in the things that characterize this age, and not the one to come. Initially, they appear to grow quicker because, with less soil to grow through, it does not take them as long to reach the surface. When the sun grows hot, however, the sprouts wither away, the result of insufficient root systems.
The seeds that fall among thorns, in a part of the field where the thorns and shrubs had been sloppily cleared but not removed are crowded, shaded, and choked by debris. The seeds that fall on fertile and rich soil produce a crop that varies in its yield. It is common to produce a hundred, sixty, or thirty grains for each one that is sown. Some strains of wheat will produce a crop twelve or fifteen hundred times the original amount of seed sown. Soil is incredibly deceptive. Even when a farmer does his best to prepare it and remove all the impurities, there are imperceptible fibrous roots of weeds waiting for an opportunity to spring to life and take over. These weeds grow up and suck the moisture and nutrients from the intended crop, eventually choking them out. What's terrible about weeds is that you’re never finished dealing with them. You don't weed once and remove them; they’re always there, just waiting to come back and crowd out your fruit. The thorny ground believers are probably the most common of all the Christians in these last days; those who are saved and that is all. Those who are carnal and totally involved in this “age” for what they can get during this lifetime. Their lives are so full of thorns (“worry of this age”) that they cannot, or will not, receive any truths of the word of the kingdom (the age to come). Like a weed, once you pull out one misplaced priority, there are thousands of concerns waiting to take its place. Developing single-mindedness is a must for disciples. “And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.” (Mark 4:7).
The third kind of ground to which the seed falls is the thorny ground. The seed falling in this ground is choked, thus giving no fruit. The third type of soil is the full of thorns. As the plants grow, the thorns also grow and choke the plants, robbing them of essential nutrients so they cannot produce. Notice no attention is given to weeding or removing the thorns, they are allowed to grow alongside the plant having access to the same nutrients and water supply. The weeds flourish, grow strong, overtake the plants and make them unfruitful. The thorny ground represents those who are consumed by the cares and anxieties of this physical life and the deceitful enticements of wealth. The third soil, the thorny soil, represents those who receive the word, believers, who then allow the cares of the world to stunt their growth and block their production of fruit. Once again, there can be no doubt that believers are in view; unless of course one predecides that no believer is ever overtaken by the cares of the world and becomes unfruitful.