I have titled the message, No Longer Drink Only Water. No Longer Drink Only Water. 1 Timothy chapter 5, 17 through the end of the chapter. And the Word of God says, Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. And the laborer deserves his wages. Do not admit a charge against an elder. except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God, and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands." Now, pause in the reading. All of this is in the context of the elders of the church and in the context that there's a danger of sin. There's a danger of sin. You may ask at this point, what sin? We haven't enlisted any sin. What sin are we talking about? You're kind of wondering that as you think about these elders and them being the example and them leading well. If they're in sin, then confront them. Make two or three witnesses confront them. Don't show partiality. Deal with the facts. Deal with the truth and confront them in sin. What sin? That's what's going on in the text thus far. Verse 22, you get about five commands here. Do not be hasty. Don't do this rashly. Don't put hands on somebody and make them an elder real quickly. That's dangerous business. Do not take part in the sins of others. What sins? Keep yourself pure. Keep yourself pure. It's another command. Now, verse 23, all this is now specifically, 22 and 23, very specific to Timothy and to elders that will follow him in the future. But here specifically, in parentheses, he tells him, no longer drink only water. But, contrast, specific need, use a little wine. Use a little alcohol, use a little wine. Why? For the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. And then we go back to sins. Verse 24. The sins of some people are conspicuous. They're plain for everybody to see. They go before them to judgment. But then there's the sin of others. They show up later. They were hidden for a long time, but they'll come around. Sin has a way of doing that. Verse 25 ends it. You get another contrast. And this contrast with sin, so also good works. They're like sins in a way in this regard. Some of them are conspicuous. Everybody knows that it's a good work. But then there's those that are doing a good work and nobody knows it, but it will be revealed. It cannot remain hidden. It will come to fruition later. So you see that contrast with sins being obvious and then appearing later. You see good works as evident, and then also those that are hidden that are exposed later. So there is our context. So I implore you just to bear with me because I need to say all of these things. I'll depend on my notes quite extensively, at least in the beginning. So, to set the stage a little bit, this subject is big because in what we have, we call this the Reformed circle, Reformed churches. And so it's almost, for me, getting embarrassing to call myself Reformed. Because when I say that I'm Reformed, or I say to somebody that I pastor a Reformed church, I'm talking about theology. I'm talking about doctrine. I'm talking about expositing the Scriptures verse by verse. I'm talking about things that make up a true church. And that's all that I'm talking about when I talk about being Reformed. But now we have this large push that's going on across our country that reformed means you can drink beer while you talk your theology. Even this weekend, there's a conference. I looked at the schedule. Here's the schedule. Seven o'clock, beer, singing psalms, parentheses, we have punch for the kiddos. This is an issue. We're going to shove alcohol down your throat and say we have liberty to drink and talk theology, and so we're free to do this. And they couch it under this libertarian freedom to somehow be theologically reformed and drink beer and flaunt it, but not only flaunt it, to push it upon the whole religious community. to the degree that I've come to the point like I don't even want to use the word reform if it ties me to such foolishness. So there's those issues that are religious in nature that, and you may not be aware of that, and that's fine, but they're going on, I assure you. And then there's just the issue of life. There's the issue of life, and the destruction of marriages, and the destruction of lives, and on and on the list goes. And those things are very dear to my heart, especially in the last week or two. So in recent days, I have once again seen the destructive consequences of alcohol. And it seems necessary to say a word about alcohol tonight. I'm not going to apologize. I'm just telling you where I came from. I grew up in a religious world that preached abstinence in regards to alcohol. That's my presupposition. I'm not hiding it. I learned what I learned about alcohol by the lives of my cousin, by the life of my brother, by the life of my grandfather, and by the lives of my friends in school. I learned alcohol from them, and that's why I hate it. I have never seen anything prosperous come out of alcohol. I have never witnessed alcohol being used over the long term for evangelism, missions, church planning, personal godliness, or for the benefit of the church. In some regards, My experience doesn't even matter. Alcohol is destructive no matter what my experience is. I have heard, I have interacted, and I have listened to the voices of those who continually try to justify the drinking of alcohol. I've had the conversations. I've been confronted eye-to-eye, face-to-face. What's wrong, brother? You're not free? You're not under grace? What's wrong with you? I've been there. I've had those conversations. I'll have them again. I'm usually done with a conversation when they get to the phrase where they start trying to justify their action. That's usually when I'm done. Why? Because you only attempt to justify that which you know in your heart is wrong. I only drink two glasses of water a day. Nobody says that, because it's not wrong. We have a pagan world, we live in a pagan world, that makes laws against drinking. They hate God, they hate the word of God, but they got enough sense to say, don't do this, it's wrong, and there's a law against it, you can get a ticket. Drinking and driving is wrong. Laws for underage drinking, it's wrong. You gotta be 21 to buy alcohol, why? Because it's bad stuff. Don't want a 16 year old girl buying alcohol at the store, it's against the law. Show me your ID or I'm gonna give you a ticket. Even the pagan world knows this stuff. Laws about how much one can drink. It's there. If you drink too much, then the person you bought the alcohol from can be sued because they let you get in a car. All these things the pagan world gives us. Oddly, the pagan world sets up laws against drinking, and yet we've got confessing Christians in the church attempting to tell us we're free to drink. I've got to get prohibitions from the pagan world and license from the church. Something is amiss. These religious people continue beating the same stinking drum. You're free to drink. You just can't get drunk. Only drunkenness is a sin. I've heard that so many times, I'm sick of hearing it. They proclaim, drunkenness is a sin. Just drink moderately. Well, I've got questions, and I've got a lot of them. I've never had a drink of alcohol in 52 years. How much can I drink before I get drunk? Can you please tell me how much that is? Because I just can't get drunk, that's the symbol. I've never drank, so how much? Is it a quarter of a can, a half of a can, or a whole can? Well, I mean, according to your body size and the fat makeup of your body, it's probably about this much. Well, do I drink that much each day and build up to where I can drink more and not become drunk? Exactly how do I do this process? Do I have a goal that one day I can drink three beers without getting drunk? Since right now, if I drank half a beer, I'd probably be drunk. How does that system actually work? If I'm free to drink, is it okay for me to put my beer in the pulpit when I drink? Are you okay with that? Can I drink beer while I preach? Well, no, that's not right. Why not? I can do this water. Then why is beer wrong to put in the pulpit? But I tell you right now, there's guys preaching with beer in the pulpit and say it's not a problem. But you know better. You know in your heart it's wrong. Can I have a beer on my desk in my office before prayer meeting at 8 o'clock on Sunday morning? And we'll down a beer before we pray? Is that okay? You know it's not okay. You say, man, if my pastor was doing that, I'd be livid. And you ought to be livid. If the Christians are free to drink moderately, why don't we put alcohol in baby's bottles in the nursery? Why don't we give the babies beer? Let's just give all the little babies beer. I bet they'll have fun in the nursery. That's insane. Why is it wrong for them? At what age does it click that it's right? So you can give them beer when they're 5? Can you give them beer when they're 12? Can you give them beer when they're 15? Can you give them alcohol when they're 18? Oh, at 21, boom, it's no longer a problem. Who changed? What changed the makeup of right and wrong? Age made sin go away? It drives me insane. The kids in the youth group, you come back in here, I suppose you heard I'm preaching on alcohol. Jeff, why can't the kids have a beer tonight in church? We go back there and let all the kids have a beer while you teach them. What's wrong with it if it's okay? That's moderation. Just give each kid a half a beer. That'd be fine. I mean, it's in moderation. You can give them a case. I mean, surely that's okay, right? They say, well, you can drink in your own home in moderation. In your own home, it's okay, you can drink in moderation. Ask my oldest brother how that worked out for him. Is it okay to drink in front of my children? You don't know. My children may have the propensity to be alcoholics, and they see me drinking in the home, and so they say, well, Dad drank, so I can have a drink. They drink one beer and become an alcoholic. It happens all the time. You say, well, you probably shouldn't drink in front of your children. Oh, so I should hide my drinking in my home from my own children. That sounds godly. I'll keep it hidden from them and I'll hide this stuff because they're not mature enough to handle it. And then one day when they move out of the house, then I can drink in my own home. So when I'm 55 and all my kids are gone, then I can drink in the privacy of my own home. Well, unless my grandkids are visiting. What's the motive for people wanting to drink alcohol anyways? Don't follow this logic very long. Many say it relaxes them. It helps them to unwind. Well, that's a really good biblical exegesis. Let's work with that. Okay, so it's okay to drink because it helps me to unwind. It helps me to relax. Okay, how far do I follow that logic? Marijuana relaxes me, so how much of that can I smoke? Even now, they're making that legal in states, and they're already pushing, the same guys that are pushing the beer are pushing the marijuana and saying, that's fine, you're free. Well, what if looking at pornography relaxes me? It's not illegal to look at pornography. What if that relaxes me? Can I do that because it helps me to unwind? What if adultery relaxes me? I'm more relaxed when I spend the night with some other woman. Is that okay? I mean, how far do you want to push this nonsensical logic? What if staying home in bed instead of worshiping the Lord relaxes me? I stay under my covers and don't come to church anymore. Is that okay? Look, just be honest and stop beating around the bush. People drink because it gratifies their flesh. Just be honest. You drink because you want to drink, and you want to justify your drinking because you want to do what you jolly well please want to do. There's nothing about drinking that's going to promote the glory of God, spread the gospel, plant churches, reach the ends of the earth, lead to godliness, or any other lasting eternal thing. Look, when you start with poison, you don't end up with health. just don't work I'm preaching Timothy but let's read Proverbs and we'll go right back to Timothy and look at the text I want to preach Proverbs but I know my critics and they're gonna say well that's just the Old Testament like it don't matter told a guy the other day I said well it still says what it says This is what God says in Proverbs 23. Answer the question in your mind. Answer these questions. Proverbs 23, verse 29. Who has woe? Another word for woe is judgment. Who has judgment? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? I can tell you who. Those who tarry long over wine. Those who go to try mixed wine, look, dude, do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. I'll tell you what it does. In the end, it bites. It bites like a serpent, and serpents are poisonous. It bites you and it'll ruin your marriage. It'll ruin your family. It'll ruin your church membership. It'll ruin the world. That's what it does. It bites. It's deceptive. It's from the pits of hell and it wants to destroy you. That's what alcohol is. It stings like an adder. Your eyes, you'll see strange things. You'll stumble around like my grandfather always did. Your heart will utter perverse things. And every weakness in your life will be magnified to the 10th degree. If you're an angry person, you drink, you'll be twice as angry. If your fuse is short, it gets cut in half as soon as you start drinking. Every bit of judgment you have to fight against sin is taken down as soon as you drink. Your eyes will see strange things, your heart will utter perverse things. You'll be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mass. You ain't never been seasick? You'll be seasick, you'll understand what he's talking about. He'll say stuff like this, somebody hit me! But I wasn't hurt, they beat me, I didn't feel it. I don't even know when I'm gonna wake up. I'll die, I just need another drink. I just need another drink. That's what Solomon is warning us. But let's just get the highlights of it and get to the main verse that want to look at Textual observations verses 17 through 21 undoubtedly elders Specifically Timothy but applicable to all elders by the way Elders are the example of the church. It should be able to be imitated and they should imitate Christ that everybody knows that you want an elder that tries to live godly because he's the one leading you in spiritual things and So he says about elders, just very short bullet points. They should rule well. They should get double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. You should pay the guy well, take care of him where he can do what he does. Protect him from slander. Don't accept charges against your elder. You get two or three witnesses. You establish everything by the facts. You don't gossip and slander, nor do you let other people slander behind his back. You protect this office. When sin occurs in an elder, address it. Whether it be me or whether it be anybody, address it. It is unhealthy for a church to have an elder in sin. It's unhealthy. It's unhealthy for him. It's unhealthy for his family. It's unhealthy for the church. And so he goes on to say, don't judge him beforehand like some kind of judgment you made up in your heart. Don't show partiality. Deal with facts and with witnesses to the facts if your elder is in sin The office is important sin is unacceptable Yes, everybody sins. You don't have a perfect elder. Nobody has a perfect elder They get caught up in a sin and don't come out of it. Somebody got to trust this thing. I Verse 22, A, examine carefully. So we had elders, still thinking about elders, examine carefully. As we work down in Mexico, I'm not gonna lay hands and anoint Rigo in one weekend. I'm not doing it. I don't care what anybody thinks. I'm not doing it. You don't put somebody in office that quickly. That's dangerous business. Oh, let's lay hands on this brother. You can be an elder. Not happening. It's too important. We must analyze. See a track record. I've been burnt by elders. I know how this stuff works. And man, when elders burn you, they burn you bad. So we need a period of time to check out a track record. Be patient. Make sure you have a man of God. That's what he's saying to Timothy. Verse 22b, this is where we get into specifics for Timothy and for elders. You get two clear commands. You look in verse 22 and you look towards the end part of that. Do not lay hands on one quickly. And then you get, do not take part in the sins of others. It's a command. Do not take part in the sin of others. I know I've already asked it, but I ask it again, because you have to ask it. are in the sins of others? Well, I mean, an easy answer is any sin, and I agree. But does he get a little more specific? I think that he does. He is not to participate in sin himself or in the sins of others, like to come alongside them in their sin. As the text unfolds, the implication is alcohol. Second command, verse 22b, end of it. Keep yourself pure. Don't take part in sins. Keep yourself pure. It's like saying the same thing twice in a way, but more specific. The elder as an individual is to have a purified life. He's to be godly. He's to be holy. He's to be reverent. He's to walk in a way in the sense that the whole congregation and the whole surroundings where he lives, he's a looking glass. Everybody can look at him. They see his actions. They see his speech. They see his conduct. They see everything about him. It's necessary for an elder to be pure and set a good example for the congregation, for the community in which he lives. It's vital. You don't want ungodliness as an elder. That's what he's telling him. But the question again is this, pure in what? Pure in what? Not the sins of others, but pure. Pure in what? As an elder, Timothy must be pure, and if sin is known, he should be confronted about it. Why? In order to keep him pure. The apostle then applies a specific, clear application to alcohol. If you've never heard this text preached this way, I never hear anybody deal with the text, but he's making a specific application about alcohol to the elder. Verse 24, he says in verse 24, I'm skipping verse 23, we'll come back. In verse 24, the sins of some people are conspicuous. going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. I know we skipped 23, we're going to come back. Evident, verse 24, some men's sins, they use the word conspicuous, definition in a lexicon pertaining to something that is quite obvious. It's clear. Everybody knows it. Let me give you a variety of translations. So in verse 24, the sins of some people are conspicuous, ESV. Quite evident in ASB. Open beforehand, King James. Obvious, NET. Clearly seen, BBE. Evident, ASV. Example, like my friend who's sitting in jail this night. It's obvious, and everybody knows. Tomorrow the paper will come out and if you don't know it'll all be in the paper. It's evident. Nothing's hidden anymore So life ruined Others sin follows later follow later, instead of conspicuous, follow later. Happens as a result of an event. Something follows it. You say, what are you getting at? I'll tell you specifically what I'm getting at. Every story I refer to is true. So here's the story. He follows later. So you have, not without this church, but you have a deacon, the chairman of deacons for 20 years, side by side, working with the pastor, laboring with the pastor for 20 years. Nobody knows the guy's drinking a beer by himself at home. It's okay to drink at home. It's fine. Nobody will know for 20 years His pastor priest on secret sins his pastor priest on Romans 13 and the Liberty don't mean get as close as you can to the line to see if you can sin or not it don't mean any of that and after all of that is over the very next week a Deacon is in the jailhouse because he crashes because he's drinking and driving and now all of that that wasn't known it followed It became obvious in time. 20 years and now you got a deacon saying, oh my, I'm sin, I messed up, I reside as a deacon, I repeat. to the world and your pictures in the paper and it's all over the internet and your pastor is over there at his house on his knees and he's weeping his eyes out because you've crushed his heart to see that he thought we were on the same page and now his whole life is called such a train wreck It breaks the heart of pastors because they care, and they love people, and they hate to see themselves destruct like that. And it's been going on for 20 years. You can't hide it from God. You can't. Now the pastor won't know. God knows. And God will expose it. Whenever it's ready. And He may expose it in a way that you don't want it exposed. So he says to Timothy, There's an exception. There's an exception, Timothy. Exception for what? For a specific situation. No longer drink only water. If drinking alcohol was the freedom of the Christian, Timothy made use of that freedom, what would Paul have told him in verse 23? Well, dear brother, just drink some more wine. I know you drink because you're under grace. I know you're free and you've been drinking a long time, but your stomach's upset, so take two shots instead of one." What would he tell him? He'd say, well, this doesn't make any sense if he's been exercising this supposed liberty and drinking all this time. Drinking another drink for his stomach wouldn't do a thing. Paul makes it clear that the custom, the habit, the norm of the elder is to drink water. And to drink something like alcohol is only under an exception for illness, for your frequent stomach ailments. The Greek phrase, I won't pronounce it because it won't help you, No longer drink water only. No longer drink water only. Let me give you the translations. No longer drink water only, ESV. No longer drink water exclusively in ESV. Drink no longer water, KJV. Stop drinking just water, NET. Be no longer a drinker of water only, WEB. Do not take only water as your drink. Paul, the apostle, has to tell Timothy to break his habit, to break his norm, to break the consistency of his life. What was his consistency? He only drank water. It doesn't cause anybody to stumble. was the norm of his pattern. You see Timothy drinking. What's he drinking? He's drinking water. He always drinks water. You go to the house, you say, what do you want to drink? Oh, Timothy wants water. That's all he ever drinks is water. That's his norm. And he has to be told by an apostle, in this case, you have to make an exception because you're sick. And so you can do this. He says this word, this Greek word is fascinating. No longer. No longer drink water only. How is the word no longer used? I'll give you a couple of illustrations. Luke 8, 49. While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher any longer, anymore. So she's about to die, and he's bothering the teacher. Heal her, help, help, help, help. This is his pattern. She's dead. Don't do that no more. That's come to an end. We're going to do something else. John 5, 14. Afterwards, this is a guy who pulled a Bethesda. He finds him in the temple, and he says, See, you are well. Sin no longer. Something worse may come upon you. You've been living like this. Don't live like that no more. Or at the end of John 8, 1 through 11, the adulterous woman, you get down to the end, say, go and sin no more. She had a pattern of sinfulness. She's an adulterous woman. She lived a life of adultery. Don't do that any longer. This part has ended. Or Ephesians 4, 28, let the thief no longer steal. That's what he did. He was a thief. Stop that and do something else. Look, you've had this pattern, Timothy. All's you ever drink is water. That's been the consistency of your life. I'm saying you have to stop that pattern for this exception. You have a stomach illness, you're having problems, and there's not the pharmacy down the street, so take a little wine for your ailment. So the wine becomes medicinal. Make use of a little. on a scale of extent, little, small, short. Hear those words well because they mean that. The words is used by James, fascinating. He says, so also the tongue is a small member. Yet it boasts of great things, but think of this. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. So there's hundreds of thousands of acres on fire. That's the picture. And there's this cigarette butt somebody flipped out the car window. That's a little in contrast to hundreds of thousands of acres. Take a little wine for your stomach. You say, well, how are you going to translate that? You can take a teaspoon for your stomach. But I go further than that. It's not useful anymore. Now we have medicine. My stomach was upset. David's stomach was upset. We were in Mexico. We didn't take a teaspoon of wine. You can go to the pharmacy. They got this bottle of liquid, and I can't pronounce the word on it, but if you drink just a little cup of that, your stomach could be fine. You don't have to waste your time with wine nowadays. This is the only resource that he had, and so he takes it for medicinal purposes. Now, that was point number one. There's only two, so that'll help you. Point number one was, the text and to look at it. Point number two is to think. What's going on in this text? So this is much shorter, so stay with me. But what's going on in this text? Paul is giving clear instruction about elders. I know I'm repeating myself a little bit, but you need to hear it. They're to lead well. They're to be paid well. They're to be protected. They're to be held to a standard that Paul has written down. They're not to be put into office lightly. A specific warning is given to them. Keep yourself pure. That's the command. In our text, drinking a little wine is preceded by purity and followed by secret and public sins. Drinking a little wine is preceded by purity. Keep yourself pure. On the other side of a little wine is this idea that don't let these sins be conspicuous. Don't let them follow you. The context is wrapped up with sin before it and sin behind it. And this little paraphrase here in the little middle in the parenthesis is saying, just a little bit, just a little bit. A small teaspoon is permitted for a stomach ailment. Now here's one, and I've seen it too many times. I've had numerous, not here specifically in this church, and I mean that, but I have had it enough. I know deacons who claim that their doctor has told them to drink a glass of wine for their heart. I'll just be very frank. If you would eat better and go on a walk or run or ride a bicycle, your heart would be better and you wouldn't need any wine. How about a little exercise? How about a little right diet? And then your heart would be fine. You don't need wine to make your heart better. You might need to just get off the couch and stop watching TV. Implications of this. Timothy had a custom of drinking only water. Undeniable. The people on the internet, if anybody listens to this thing, you can argue all you want, but you can't deny that that is his custom. There's no way you can get anything else out of this, even if you know Greek. Timothy had a custom that he only drank water. And he's more godly than anybody you know. Well, I'm free and I'm gonna be godly. You're not half as godly as Timothy. Not half! You don't know anything about planting churches and laboring and being an elder and living out Christianity like Timothy did. And he didn't need alcohol to do it. His custom was water. And he was godly with his water. I tell you, alcohol is not going to add to your godliness. Timothy had to be told by an apostle to drink a teaspoon of wine for his stomach. Why? Because he would have never drank the stuff otherwise. He would not have done it. I can see Timothy struggling with the whole concept. I can see him like Peter. Peter says, I've never put anything unclean in my mouth. I can see Timothy here going, I've never tasted wine before. I can see myself in this passage and somebody telling me to take a teaspoon of whiskey with honey. I'm not doing it I just soon die. I've seen what whiskey did to my grandfather. I don't care if I Oh, you think you're holy you're righteous No, I think I have a brain and I'm not gonna get involved in alcohol that may ruin my life My grandfather's alcoholic. My brother was alcoholic. My cousin was alcoholic and if I drink I'm a alcoholic and I don't want to risk it I For the sake of the glory of God, for the good of his church, for the protection of my family, I'm gonna run from it. I'm gonna stand in that store up there, as I've done many times, and tell them all of the things that come with alcohol, and show them how they're losing everything, and show them how they're squandering their lives, and I tell them, and every day they come in there, buy beer, buy beer, buy beer, buy beer, and they're just as rotten, just as broke, and just as destitute as they were 20 years ago. I stood there this week with tears running down their faces, and I could see the pain in their heart, and I'm telling them, alcohol is deadly and it will take you and it will kill you and it'll take you to hell and see alcoholics with the tears go down their face they're telling me they hate alcohol I'm like no you don't you drink it every day hated it you wouldn't drink it first time in 20 years I The apostle does not promote the liberty to drink, but only a teaspoon is used for stomach ailment. An elder who keeps himself pure, abstains from secret sins, and from known sins, will be a man who has nothing to do with alcohol, with the exception of a teaspoon for his stomach, which is not even necessary any longer in our day. Now, everyone, I say everyone, I'm using that as a broad term. I get this stuff all the time, have my whole life. You know what text they always use? I'm so sick of this. I have the text memorized and I still don't know why they're using it, but they always say, well, have you ever read John 2? I'm going to say, have you ever read your Bible from beginning to end? You know, yeah, I've read John 2, I've read the whole thing, and from the very beginning alcohol was bad. You got two girls trying to sleep with their own father because of alcohol, because he's drunk. I've read the Bible, yes, I know what John 2 says. They use it to, well, Jesus turned water to wine. Do you understand in that passage there's not one single command for you to drink? No way, you read it all day. You can read it in Greek. I'll read it to you in Greek. There's not one command for you to go out and drink wine because Jesus turned water into wine. There's no command for you. There's no application for such a thing. At least in the passage I'm looking at, I got five commands for a godly life. Use a little for medicinal purposes. I have been reminded of the evils of alcohol this past week, as you well know. Alcohol has produced what? The death of an innocent man. I know who he is now. Breaks my heart. It's produced the incarceration of a dear friend of mine, and she won't get out for some 30 years, I imagine. It's produced the heartbrokenness of a pastor who got a picture on his phone of a 20-year deacon in a crash because of alcohol. It's produced marital problems that don't seem to be reconcilable. It's produced a constant division that occurs between confessing Christians who promote drinking while the other group of confessing Christians lobby for abstinence. It's caused division everywhere. I can't even escape it in Mexico, it gets thrown in my face. Well, if someone's to ask me today or any day about my liberty to drink, I'll look them in the eye and I'll tell them that I'm at liberty to be godly. I am at liberty to bring glory to God. I am at liberty to set an example for my church. I am at liberty to live in a way that does not cause my brother to stumble. I am at liberty to be unfettered from the vices of the devil. I am at liberty to eat and drink things that I do not have to justify before others. I am at liberty to eat what is clean and drink what is pure. I'm free to do all of that, and I don't have to have any guilt, and I don't have to repent of none of it. I do not reckon, it's a King James word, by the way. It comes from the Greek word logizima. I do not reckon that those who like to drink will be much changed by these words tonight that I've spoken from 1 Timothy 5. But perhaps there would be someone out there that would heed the warning that alcohol looks like hell, smells like hell, and in the end, it will take you to hell. And if you could only see my friend's face. And even hardly breathe. I wish I would have listened to you. I wish I would have listened to you. I wish I would have listened to you. You only wanted things for my good and I went down instead of up. Anybody who's listening, please hear. I'm not trying to quench your life. I'm trying to save your life. Please listen. Run from alcohol. Teenagers, stay. Do nothing with it. Flee. There's so much to drink. You don't need alcohol. You have no idea what it'll do to you. I've seen so many effects. It ripped my heart out. I know what it does. nothing good for those that don't agree with the sermon I invite each and every one of you to go on a visit with me and to look into the eyes of my friends that I could take you to this day that their lives are wrecked and you look in their eyes and you see their bodies deteriorating you see them one step closer to hell you go with me and you tell them they have liberty to drink you won't do it won't do it you will not look in the eyes that I've looked in and tell them that you're free to drink you won't tell up you we want to say look the gospel could deliver you from alcohol if you don't have a gospel that'll deliver you from alcohol you have an impotent gospel amen All right. Well, I thank you for at least bearing with me. I don't do that often, but it was necessary.