Little Foxes That Divide — E.A. Johnston

Love for Jesus and the Roots of Sin

I have a very important message for us today, friends, and it's a message we all need to hear. If you have a sin problem, friend, I can almost guarantee its roots are directly tied to a love problem. In a marriage between two people, the marriage often goes south because of betrayal, and betrayal begins with a lack of love.

Like the church in Ephesus from Revelation that was busy in the Lord, but who had left their love for the Lord. Perhaps that's you, friend, where once your heart burned with a passion for Jesus from a newfound love.

Now you just go through the motions of religious duty. What happened to your first love? What have you allowed to come between you and Jesus that has divided your love for Him? The title of my message today, friends, is Little Foxes That Divide, and my text can be found in the Song of Solomon.

The Song of Solomon as a Picture of Covenant Love

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will camp out today in this book of love songs written by King Solomon. The Song of Solomon has been the most misunderstood book of the Bible. Some scholars say the book is a literal depiction of human love in marriage, and that the love and wedding songs of the book have little or no spiritual value.

Other scholars say that Solomon wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to show the Lord's love for Israel, the church, and each believer, and the figurative language speaks of believers as the Bride of Christ who are bound by wedding vows.

In this viewpoint, which is the one I hold to, Solomon represents God, and the Shulamite woman represents His chosen people, and there are entrapments that come between us and God, and these dividers are referred to as Little Foxes.

I want us to camp out today, friends, here in the Song of Solomon, for it is a remedy to a restored relationship between us and our Savior Jesus. Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His Holy Word.

The Banner of Love and the Loss of Fellowship

We'll begin our study today, friends, in chapter 2 and verse 4, which declares, He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love. The New Testament counterpart to this verse is 1 John 4 .19.

We love Him because He first loved us. Our relationship to God through the shed blood of Christ Jesus hangs on His elective love. It all begins with God. He calls us. He redeems us. He sanctifies us. It is God who brings us to the banqueting house and hangs His banner of love over each believer.

But something has occurred here. Something detrimental has happened here in this love relationship as seen in chapter 3 and verse 1. I sought Him, but I found Him not. Tragedy of tragedies! What Shakespearean thing has come between these two lovers?

The answer is found in the preceding verses of chapter 2 in verses 15 through 17. Take us, the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines, for our vines are tender grapes. Listen, friends, the tender grapes are the intimacy of these lovers.

Let's continue with our text. My beloved is mine, and I am his. He feedeth among the lilies. What are these little foxes referenced here? This verse is a warning not to allow little and seemingly insignificant sins to rob one of their joys of a love relationship with the Lord.

These little foxes are sly. They come in unawares and go unnoticed until the damage is done, until the little spoilers have done their work and the relationship is breached. Satan sends these little foxes to come between us and our love for Jesus.

If the devil can get us out of fellowship with the Lord through sin, then he is the winner and we are the loser, for we lose the most important thing in our life, and that is our love for Jesus. Like I said in my introduction to this message, if we have a sin problem, it's because we have a love problem.

Some little fox has been allowed to spoil the vines of the vineyard, and the result is, I sought him, but I found him not. God has withdrawn himself from us. Something has divided our love for him. Verse 17 makes reference to this very thing.

Until the day break and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young heart upon the mountains of Bethor. The phrase, turn upon the mountains of Bethor, is a reference to the situation in which the believer has placed himself.

The word Bethor refers to a place of division. The mention of mountains here brings to mind a place of rough terrain and solitude, and it suggests that love is on the rocks by a divided heart. When your love for your spouse wanes through time and circumstances, there are always reasons why little foxes have been allowed into marriage.

These little foxes will come between us and our love for Jesus as well, our beloved, and they cause the withdrawn presence of our beloved in our lives. Heaven seems as brass and our prayers can't rise above the ceiling, often these little foxes are manifested by the following aspects.

See if any of these foxes have been allowed into your home, friends, allowed into your marriage, allowed into your walk with God. Will the Holy Spirit bring conviction of one or more of these little sinful foxes?

The Love of Sin and Its Pleasure

Fox number one, the love of sin and its pleasure. Fox number two, the love of self and the pride of life. Fox number three, the love of money and reputation. Fox number four, the love of the world and entertainment.

Well, let's look at the first little fox, the love of sin and its pleasure. Lately, you've been choosing to indulge sin and enjoy its pleasure, rather than being obedient to the Lord Jesus. You have a divided heart.

The Love of Self and the Pride of Life

Your love for Jesus is lukewarm, and because of sin, your love relationship with Jesus is on the rocks, so to speak. Let's look at the second little fox, the love of self and the pride of life. You are a proud person.

Your first priority is self-preservation at any cost, and in this case, it has cost you an intimate walk with God. Your prayers are mere routine, and your eyes are dry. You dutifully serve God, but without a tender love for God.

The Love of Money and Reputation

Calluses have grown over your heart by sin. Let's examine the third little fox, the love of money and reputation. Remember, friends, these little foxes come in unawares, and they stay unnoticed until they spoil the vines of a love relationship.

The love of money can divide your love life with Jesus more than you'll ever realize, for no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon. Money and its accumulation is a sneaky little fox, because you feel the ends justify the means. You want to have a nice nest egg for retirement so you'd become a hoarder, and you want to leave your children well off so they won't have to sacrifice like you've done in your life.

I had a boss once who was a very rich man, and he had accumulated a small fortune throughout his career, but at the sacrifice of working 80 hours a week. Well, I walked by his office one day, and he was standing behind his desk with a sad look on his face.

I gently knocked on his door and asked if everything was all right. He explained to me that he'd just dropped off his daughter at her out-of-town college dorm room, and when he hugged her goodbye, he realized he didn't know her.

Now it was too late. In his mad rush for the accumulation of money for his family, he'd never taken time out for his family. Does money have a hold on you? Is your security in a bank account or an investment portfolio?

Or are you rich toward God? Do you just rely on Him? And if your reputation is more important to you than Jesus Christ, then you have a love problem. He who made himself with no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

The Love of the World and Entertainment

The little fox of money and reputation can ruin your love relationship with Jesus more than you'll ever know until you stand before Him at the beam of sea to review. And lastly, the fourth little fox of the love of the world and entertainment, this little fox can be the biggest spoiler of all and go more unnoticed by all.

Listen, friend, time is a commodity that cannot be replaced. Are you spending your time on this present world or on the right things? Are you living your life for Christ in eternity? How we spend our time is a measure of what holds our devotion.

During this pandemic of self-isolation, we have capitalized on this time factor. But have we really done it? Have we spent our time wisely, on our knees and in our Bibles, developing a red-hot love relationship with Jesus?

Or have we binge-watched Netflix and perverted shows most of the day? What consumes us reveals our hard affections. Is our love for Jesus cold from the division of little foxes? Or have we maintained the embers on the fire of our hearts, on the altar of our heart?

Rekindling Love Through Repentance and Guarding the Heart

God's love for us never goes cold. We see the love of God for us as a ignited flame in chapter 8 and verse 6. The coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. We can break God's heart with sin, but we cannot end His love for us.

Even though we may grow cold toward the lover of our soul, He is always there, loving us with a vehement flame. O friend, I hope this little message today on little foxes that divide has helped you as it has helped me.

First, you must recognize the little fox that's come between you and God, and then you must smoke him out, run him out, and keep a close guard from his return. Your prayer may be something like this, O Lord Jesus, make these truths a reality in my life today, I pray, and fill my heart with Your love, I pray.

Listen, friends, we must always keep our eye on Him and guard our heart from being pulled away from Him. For Jesus is chief among ten thousand. He is the lily of the valley and the rose of Sharon. He is Lord of lords and King of kings.

He is my beloved, and I am His. Let us pray.