Be Careful of the Little Foxes
by Dr. Ken Matto
(Song 2:15 KJV) Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines:
for our vines have tender grapes.
One of the most detrimental things which can happen to a
vineyard or to any planted field is when animals enter the field and begin to
nibble and eat the product. In the above verse we read that the foxes which
spoil the vineyard. The word “spoil” in the Hebrew carries with it the meaning
of “ruining.” If a farmer plants a field of corn and then gets invaded by field
mice, that field will become a ruin. However, a farmer does have a weapon
against the field mouse and that is a corn snake. A corn snake will live within
the corn field and whenever it spots a mouse, it will devour it and one more
threat is eliminated.
This verse gives us good insight into another place which is threatened by the
little foxes and that is the local church. A great roaring lion does not have to
walk into a church with a desire to destroy it. The only thing needed to begin
to destroy any assembly is a small infection of false teachings or the
acceptance of anything of anti-biblical nature. Satan knows that if someone
comes into the assembly and brings a rank heresy, it will be thrown out very
quickly but the way to destroy an assembly is by causing it to drift very
slowly.
One of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible is Isaiah
1:18. (Isa 1:18 KJV) Come now, and let us reason together, saith the
LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Many
interpret this to mean that if we reason with God and realize our sin and sinful
paths, then God will take our crimson sin and turn them as white as snow. This
verse is not teaching that. When leprosy is in its infant stages, it starts out
as red spots and dots and then when it is fully spread it turns the skin white
and leprosy also disallows much feeling. A leper can be burning themselves and
not know it because of lack of feeling in the affected parts. Isaiah 1:18 is
warning Judah and us that if we do not cut off the little sins in our lives,
then the sin infection will develop and spread just as the disease of leprosy
spreads in a human body.
The reason this verse is not speaking of sin abatement is
because the Bible in many places teach us that when a person becomes a saved,
God has removed our sins. He did not just cover our sins.
(Psa 103:12 KJV) As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our
transgressions from us.
(Col 2:13-14 KJV) And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of
your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all
trespasses; {14} Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,
which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
The warning to us is that the little foxes of sin which seem
so innocuous, if left unchecked, will grow into something which will cause much
consternation later on in life. When we look at one of the effects of leprosy,
which is the lack of feeling in the affected areas, we can make an association
with our own lives and churches. If we continue to accept false teachings and
practices, eventually we will get to the point of lacking discernment in the
area of sin identification. Since we will have lack of discernment, we will
eventually begin to fight against the truth and fight for the false teachings.
This is how many churches fall. A little compromise here, and one there, and
eventually the sin foxes are running all over the church.
I have yet to find in the Bible anywhere where God declares that Christians are
to compromise with Satan. Many Christians rationalize, theorize, and just plain
ignore the warnings of Scripture, and then when their lives fall apart, they
wonder why, or when the church degenerates into an ungodly assembly, they wonder
where they went wrong. That’s easy, they rejected the warnings of Scripture and
the warnings of some Christians who take a chance of being thrown out of the
church for bringing truth.
Christians who stand on the word of God and not the word of the latest fad by
some pop theologian are always in danger of excommunication. I have seen this
and I have experienced it. It seems that whoever brings the false teachings into
the church, receives the rewards and the ones who bring the truth of the
Scriptures are always chided or considered troublemakers. Believe me, those
Christians and churches who exalt the word of man over the word of God will find
that God will trouble their house, and ten times worse. I have not found
anything in Scripture where we are to do what we want and then expect God to
bless it. God does not bless sin nor will He bless what is not according to His
Word or will. It is the old argument, the sovereignty of God or the sovereignty
of man. Whose side are you on? (5/14/04)