Catch the Little Foxes
A Lord Worth Loving • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 41:00
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· 10 viewsMorning 13 August 23
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5 All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. 6 They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. 7 For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
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15 Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”
Introduction
We come now to the second of the four ‘tests’ of what a true experience of love is.
Desire v14
Determination v15
Duality v16
Development v17
We consider the second of these today. It is Solomon who is speaking
Come now to a vital principle in both the relationship between the couple and also our relationship with our Lord. All hints of anything that would spoil, mar, harm or destroy the relationship must be dealt with strenuously.
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1. Be Alert
1. Be Alert
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Song of Solomon 2:15 (ESV)
15 Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”
These foxes, or more likely jackals, are very dangerous. They must be dealt with.
June 2010 - Twin nine month old attacked by a fox in their cots.
For Us - Both must act in this.
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2. Small is Dangerous
2. Small is Dangerous
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Song of Solomon 2:15 (ESV)
15 Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”
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These foxes symbolise the various, sometimes relatively little, things that can creep in and play havoc with a fruitful relationship. Think of the little foxes of jealousy, lack of self-control, selfishness, mistrust, pride and unwillingness to forgive. Such little foxes need to be caught before they do damage. A cuddly little cub can soon grow into a vicious, dangerous wild animal. A small problem in marriage can grow until it threatens to drive a couple apart. Gary Brady[1]
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26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
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3. Urgency
3. Urgency
Song of Solomon 2:15 (ESV)
15 Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”
All potential problems must nipped in the bud.
We turn now to what we see of Christ’s love for us
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4. Be Alert
4. Be Alert
Song of Solomon 2:15 (ESV)
15 Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”
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12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
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Romans 6:10–11 (ESV)
10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
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18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
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Romans 7:21–24 (ESV)
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
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James 1:13–15 (ESV)
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
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13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
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5. Small is Dangerous
5. Small is Dangerous
Song of Solomon 2:15 (ESV) — 15 Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”
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James 2:10 (ESV)
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
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16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
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6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
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6. Urgency
6. Urgency
15 Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”
All potential problems must nipped in the bud.
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13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
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5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.
As John Owen put it in his wonderful treatise on mortification of sin, ‘Be killing sin or it will be killing you.’[2]
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17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—
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Isaiah 5:1–2 (ESV)
1 Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
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7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!
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Isaiah 27:2–3 (ESV)
2 In that day, “A pleasant vineyard, sing of it! 3 I, the Lord, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day;
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1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Conclusion
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7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
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1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
[1] Brady, G. (2006). Heavenly Love: The Song of Songs Simply Explained (p. 99). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.
[2] Brady, G. (2006). Heavenly Love: The Song of Songs Simply Explained (p. 99). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.