Beware of the Little Foxes
For a doctor, every detail counts. Your blood type, your blood pressure, where is the pain, what are you allergic to, what are you eating these days? For these details can be a matter of life and death.
For a machine operator, every detail counts. The temperature of the machine. The weight of the product, the shape, the size. For these details may mean pass or fail.
For a teacher, every detail counts. The answer to the problem. The process of how you worked the problem out. The tools that you use. For these details may mean you understand or you don’t.
For the christian, every detail counts. Big and small.
Who do we hang around?
Who do we follow?
Where do we spend our time?
What do we spend our money on?
What do we put in our body?
What do we allow in our spirit?
Every Detail Counts…
Song of Solomon 2:15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
Although the foxes are small, they can do massive damage to the vineyard.
For during the blossoming season, we must protect the vines so that they may produce the fruit. And we know, during this season of life, that the devil is a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. The devil is trying to destroy the vineyard.
I. Little faults are like the little foxes so plentiful in Palestine, which destroy the fruitfulness of the vineyards.—The beautiful vineyards of Solomon’s Song point to the covenant of love between Christ and His people.
And again, these foxes are plentiful.
The little foxes which might destroy the blossoming vineyards point to the faults, both great and small, that creep into our lives and destroy that love between man and his Creator.
Some of the faults that creep in are very small at first. But with time, these faults can grow. Just like plants in our gardens, if the ground is cultivated, watered, and kept up, our plants can grow.
Likewise, if our faults are cultivated, watered, and kept up, they too can grow into dangerous, distractive, and debilitating mechanisms that breed distance and disconnection from God.
How necessary that the sweet blossoming vineyards that flourish in youthful hearts, bearing all the Divine graces in their purity, should be cleared of all predators!
Satan has plans for us. Satan is a predator and he views us as his prey. Satan has many tools at his disposal and is not fearful in using them. Depending on who you are, some tools are used more often than others so I say beware.
Luke 22:31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
At the Last Supper, Jesus warned Simon Peter that a test of faith was coming: “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. The outspoken disciple seemed to be in the same predicament as Job when Satan sought to put him to the test. Satan wanted to “sift Peter as wheat,” which means that he wished to shake Peter’s faith so forcefully that he would fall, proving that God’s faithful servant was lacking.
Satan is looking to shake our faith as well.
A. One of Satan’s tools is worry and doubt. Notice what the bible says
Matthew 6:25-30
25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26. Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27. Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28. And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Worry can be devastating. Worrying can affect the body in ways that may surprise you. When worrying becomes excessive, it can lead to feelings of high anxiety and even cause you to be physically ill.
This text teaches us that it is not our place to worry. As a matter of fact, we were not created for that purpose. God wants us to trust Him. Take no thought for your life. Trust Him with our lives. We must not doubt. We not not waver and be tossed to and fro. This means that we should not trouble ourselves with it. We should trust God with our life. For it is not ours anyway.
We don’t know what to do Jeremiah 10:23 O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Our body’s are God’s possessions. I Cor 6:19-20 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
If we do not know what to do and our body’s are not ours anyway, what right do we have to destroy our body?
God will take care of it.
We make mountains out of mole hills
We can't see the forest for the trees
We get side-tracked over the simplest things
Beware of the Little Foxes
II. How is it that we play the fox with the fruitful vines?—We eat the fruit and become fat like the foxes, but we do nothing to protect, but rather hinder, the growth of the vines.
We play the fox by not coming up to the measure of Christian character that might be fairly expected of us.
We play the little fox in:
Our attendance to the assembly
In our giving
In our study
In our compassion one for another
Jesus is concerned about how we live and how we treat one another. Jesus asked the question, “Where were you when I was hungry?” Has compassion for one another been erased from our spiritual vocabulary? Has our study life been swapped out with reality television and binge watching? Has our attention to the assembling of ourselves together been traded with appearances at holidays and sporadic visits?
There are many good people who still have too much of a foxy nature. As Christians we bear the right name, but can sometimes have very little of that true nature that defines the people of God.
How few lives, comparatively, are touched by religion in all their parts!
It is the little sins, the little faults that we think almost nothing about, that are the foxes that destroy the tender grapes of our lives and cause us to be in enmity with God.
These little sins, like the foxes, are most deceitful; they play themselves asleep, and in an unguarded moment they awake and run away with us.
Little faults will never make a great saint. When we worry about the superficial, we are not being Christlike. God is concerned about the inward man. Not how we look on the outside. When we worry about those things, we play the fox and the damage is thereby done to the vineyard.
III. Little foxes do not remain little, but grow into great ones.—The drunken sort began by taking little sips. As the boy grows into the man, so the little sins grow into big ones.
Little sins have a tendency to swarm. To much worry in one area to sow seeds of doubt. When we begin to have doubt, our fault has grown into something that we can’t control.
These little sins hinder our having peace with God and with His Son Jesus Christ. That internal struggle which grew from a little bit of worry can affect our body physically and can lead to many health problems.
If we are Christians, little faults hinder us from becoming better stronger Christians.
If we are not Christians, little sins prevent us from becoming Christians by holding us back from our true potential. They prevent us from having a right relationship with God. They hinder our prayers from being heard.
Here is some good advice:
Destroy the little foxes and your vineyard is safe.
Don’t let the little Foxes keep you from a right relationship with Jesus
Don’t let the little Foxes keep you wrapped up tied up tangled up in the world.
Don’t let the little Foxes keep you preoccupied with hate, jealousy, and malice toward your neighbor
Come to Jesus like your life depended on it because it does
Hear the Gospel
Romans 10:17
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Believe the Gospel
Mark 16:16
16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Repent of your Sins
Luke 13:3,5
3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Confess Christ
Matthew 10:32
32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
Be Baptized
Acts 2:38
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Be thou faithful
Revelation 2:10
10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
