Let's read these three verses. An ungodly witness scorneth judgment, and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity, and stripes for the back of fools. Wine is a mocker, strong drake is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. There's something interesting taking place here, and that is this word scorners right here. It's to make mouths at. Now that's an interesting definition. What would that look like? You know, I mean, there's several body language descriptions that might fit into that. It means to scoff at, to have inderision, to make a mock. This is a Hebrew word, lutz, L-U-W-T-Z spelled in English. probably it's pronounced loots. And the word scorner in verse 28, it says an ungodly witness scorneth judgment. And the word scorner, judgments are prepared for the back of scorners in verse 29. And the word mocker, wine is a mocker in chapter 20 verse one are all exactly the same Hebrew word. Interesting that they're all just kind of stacked there. Three verses, one, two, three, all with a theme of something or someone being a mocker or a scorner. In verse 20 it says that wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging. Notice that the word is in that particular verse both times are helper words. They don't have Hebrew words as their root. They're put in there to help with translating. Can wine mock? Can strong drink rage? Yeah well Are these attributes to the substance or to the person that's using the substance? So you're gonna have to realize that Hebrew to English translation is not always real simple It's not always a direct thing. It's take some study to figure it out Judgments are prepared for scorners Mockers People who are making a joke out of things that are serious. Kind of thing. An ungodly witness scorneth judgment. Some people think that they can say or do anything they want to and there's not gonna be any consequences. Yeah, because they're fools. I'll do what I want and there's nothing you can do about it. There are a lot of people in jail like that. that had the idea that they could do whatever they want and nobody was gonna be able to do anything about it. And the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity. And what is iniquity? Do you remember the difference between sin and iniquity? Anybody remember? An iniquity is trouble, wickedness, sorrow. Sin is usually a decision to do or not do something. And iniquity is the root cause in the person to do it. As this is used throughout scripture, you kind of figure this out. Some of these things aren't in just individual definitions or where you can say, okay, that's what that means and that's what that means. Some of them you have to look at them in the context to figure it out. A liar, for example. There are people who are habitual liars, right? You've probably known somebody like that. Some of you have been somebody like that in the past, maybe. Who knows? The lie is the sin. The habit is the iniquity. Does that make sense? The mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity. The mouth of the wicked loves that way about himself. He likes it. He talks about it. He brags on it. There's something about men, and I think women have the same problem, although I don't have these kind of conversations with women usually, but there's something about men that when they get together, And particularly when alcohol is involved, as you go down, and remember, these three verses are very well connected. Psalms is written, each one is an individual song, and it has a beginning and an end, and a middle, and all of that. Proverbs are Proverbs. There were no chapter breaks written in Proverbs. There is no such thing as starting over when you get to Chapter 20. It's a continuous list of Proverbs. That make sense? Originally, there were no chapter breaks that said, OK, well, here's where we're going to conclude for today, and we'll start pick up next week with Chapter so-and-so. That wasn't done like that. This is just a list. And verse 28, 29, and verse 20, as a matter of fact, Verse one of chapter 20 should have probably began, if they were paying attention, with verse two. Because verse one of 20 is an integral part of verse 28, 29, and chapter 20, verse one. They're all talking about the scorner. Matter of fact, if you back up to verse 25, this theme is started a lot earlier. Smite a what? Scorner and the simple be will beware and Reprove one that hath understanding and he will understand knowledge And then it says cease my son to hear the instruction that causes to err from the words of knowledge Well, what do you do when you err from the words of knowledge? Usually you're scorning. Well, I don't have to listen to that. I I've got my own way, I can do what I want to do. I'm an adult, you can't tell me what to do. Ha, I'll show you. And invariably they always do. Only they don't show what they thought they were going to show. So, an ungodly witness scorneth judgment. The mouth of the wicked loves to brag on his sin and on his nature. Some of you have a past and you've been sitting at a table or at a bar or at some place with other guys and what kind of conversations do you hear? Are they sitting there, boy Jesus is so good. What did men brag on when they were there? Drinking and all the things they got away with and all the you know all their conquests and all their this is and that's and Joshua Picking your friends choosing who you're around and so you find yourself like one night. I was sitting there sitting around table drinking and I like the conversation was going it kept going and like we're talking about now, the deep end. So I'll sit there and I'll say to God, what do I need to do here? If I just get up, it's kind of rude. And some said, talk about Jesus. There you go. I started talking about Jesus. And you know, I hadn't been invited back over. That happened to me a lot after I got saved. Are you heartbroken that you're not? No, no. Just found it. Well, that's why the Lord gives us family and friends in God's house. You are the replacement for all of that mess out there. How do you recognize the ungodly? They score in judgment. I do what I want to do. Nothing's going to happen to me. You can't tell me what to do. How do you recognize wickedness? You brag on their sin, brag on what they can get away with, what they stole, what they cheated the IRS out of, what they... Proud of it. Judgments are prepared for good people? No. The Lord has consequences already prepared for the ungodly witness and the mouth that devoureth iniquity. There's judgment for scorners. There are principles in God's word that just don't go away. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Now, you may not reap it the next day, or the next month, or the next year, but you're going to reap what you sow. Gilbert, go ahead. I look at alcohol as a vice that basically squeezes out inhibited the elements that are in a person whether it is happy it expounds in the happiness and celebrates and or if it suffered a loss then it goes into a whipping sense so you know it's basically the outcropping of internal feelings and Amen. We are in Proverbs 19. We're talking about scorners. And we figured out what a scorner sounds like. He sounds scornful, obviously. We are inevitably, though, gonna have to talk about alcohol today, because we get down here to chapter number 20, verse number one. Wine is a malker. Strong drink is raging. and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. What do you think that might mean? What do you see or hear when you read that? Keep away from drinking alcohol. Keep away from drinking alcohol. Well, I had some this morning. It depends on the amount. It depends on the amount that you drink. If you drink a lot, you're going to get drunk and go crazy, man. Clarissa? When I see people who are deceived by it, you know those people that are drinking and drinking, and they think they're totally fine, but they're totally not. They're totally not fine, yeah. They have a different view of reality. Obnoxious. Yeah. Obnoxious. Obnoxious, yeah. Among believers, there are more opinions about alcohol than probably, varying opinions I'm talking about than probably a whole lot of different subjects you could name. The Bible has a lot to say concerning that subject. I mean a lot, a lot more than you might think. And not all of it is against it. Not all of it's against it. The drink offering poured out to the Lord in the Old Testament. All of the drink offerings poured out to the Lord, and the strong wine was poured out unto the Lord for a drink offering. Now, I know that there's all kinds of Baptist preachers that want to tell you that that was grape juice. Well, it wasn't grape juice. It might have been once been grape juice, but it wasn't grape juice So there's no way you're going to translate it to strong wine when it's talking about grape juice We do not use grape juice in the Lord's Supper. Why does anyone know? Yeah, it's very simple it's not pure Grape juice is not pure wine is It represents the blood of Christ Why do we use unleavened bread in the Lord's Supper. Why not just a Hawaiian roll. Levin is a symbol of the world. It's all symbols. There is no bread turns to flesh or wine blood. It's all symbolic. And there is something is symbolic of sin. And the Israelites were told that before they observe the Passover at least a week before to completely remove this substance from their entire homes so there would be no pollution from it with the observance of the Passover. What was that substance? Leaven. Leaven is to be removed from the house. Was leaven normally kept around the house? Yeah, how was leaven used back then, or now for that matter? It makes dough rise. It makes the bread tender and fluffy and tastes better and all that. But now how would you keep it? Did you go down to the store and buy you some leaven? You have to grow your own. When they would make bread, they would take a lump of dough, part of that dough, and set it aside for the next time they wanted to make bread and they'd set it aside and then they would mix that old dough with the new dough and the leaven would spread and grow and a little leaven leavened the whole lump. But that was to be removed from the home in preparation for the Passover. Just like the lamb was to be put up for 14 days, or was it seven? I forget. Seven days, I think, in quarantine to make sure the lamb was not sick or blemished of some kind. The same with the home was to be cleansed. If you take a cup of grape juice and you set it out on the counter today and Next Sunday, you come back and you look at your grape juice that you set out on the counter, that you squeezed out of a grape, what will it look like? It will be corrupted and it will have mold growing on it. If you take a cup of wine and you set it on the counter and you come back next Sunday, what will it look like? It'll look just like it was when you left it. Except that the alcohol what littles in it will have evaporated out probably by then Maybe not all of it, but some But it's pure. That's the point It's purified. That's why that in the Old Testament Every offering that's poured out to the Lord that you're going to find in the Old Testament was wine It was not grape juice and that's because on the surface of the skin of the grave There is natural leaven. And that's what it causes it to ferment when it sits. It's real simple. It's just science. It's not that difficult to understand. We would no more use grape juice here at this church in the Lord's Supper than we would use a Hawaiian roll for the bread. because the same exact issue and that is the leaven that's symbolic in it. Now somebody going to go to hell because they use grape juice. No no no Lord Lord overlooks and forgives all kinds of stuff but I know better you know I was raised in a church where we use grape juice in the Lord's Supper once a year when we observed it. And I didn't, you know, preacher said, no, you can't use the wine, that's sinful, it's got alcohol in it. And the scripture that's used to back that up, I read it and I thought, well, okay then, you know, whatever. I wasn't a drinker anyway, so it didn't bother me any. We're gonna go now from chapter 20, verse one, we're gonna go visit another scripture or two. Any questions or comments before we do that? Yes, Vicki? I think chapter 20, verse 1 reminds me of what, I think it's earlier in Proverbs where it tells the brutes that kings should not drink, that you should give strong drink to those that have sorrow and... That are dying. That are dying, because it helps them to forget their problems for a little while. So that is a way that drink can deceive you also. It makes you forget the problems that you have for a little while. Wine is used often by scorners. That's what that malker thing is. And strong drink is used by those who wind up raging. You ever seen a raging drunk? Not a good thing to witness and definitely not a good thing to be. We're going to go to Proverbs 23. We're going to jump over to Proverbs 23 and let's see here. There's a lot in Proverbs 23 about alcohol here. One of the things that you'll see here right off the bat is verse number 19 through 21. Hear thou my son and be wise and guide thine heart in the way. Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Boy, we can get all hyped up and preach really Really hard against alcohol, but we don't want to say a whole lot about overeating. And there they are, the Bad Sea Twins in the same verse of scripture. So I won't say any more about that then. I'll just go ahead and shut up. Be not among winebibbers. Josh, does that ring any bells? Yeah. No, it says don't hang out with folks that are tipping the bottle. Yeah. Yeah. No. No. It's, it's, it causes all kinds of problems. Does the Bible say that drinking alcohol is sin? There is nothing that is sin in itself. Alcohol is just another substance. It can be misused and cause bad things, just like food can be misused and cause bad things, if you're reading this correctly. Being drunken is a sin. Yeah. Yeah. Not only is it a sin, it's not smart. It's unwise, it's dumb, it's foolish, it's consequential, highly consequential. Drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness, which is, which you have to sleep it off, See? Shall clothe a man with rags. Let's go over here to verse number 26. 26. Alcohol, winebibbers, drunkenness, they all come in a package with other things. You can say they don't, you can try to pretend they don't, but they do. Certain things come together. Verse 26, my son, give me thine heart and let thine eyes observe my ways. For a whore is a deep ditch and a strange woman is a narrow pit. She also lieth in wait as for a prey, an increase of the transgressors among men. Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, thou shalt say, and I was not sick. They've beaten me and I felt it not. When shall I wake? I will seek it yet again. That's a, well, it's called an alcoholic nowadays. It used to be called a drunk, but you know. Pretty much, pretty much. Now, let's go back and learn a little bit here. from this description. Who hath woe, sorrow, contentions, babbling, wounds without cause. Anybody want that? Well you're gonna get it if you're into the drugs or the juice. You're gonna get all those things and then some. Wounds without cause? Oh man. I got memories of having to deal with this in my family. I had a brother-in-law who was a raging drunk. He was the nicest guy you ever wanted to meet when he was sober. What is it about alcohol? Does that make you somebody you're not or does that bring out who you really are? Which one? It must be in there for it to come out. If you have any smidgen of wisdom, you're going to know that God says, when God says, be not among winebibbers, that you're not to hang out with drinkers. The bar is no place for a Christian to hang out. It's not rocket science. Come on. It's simple. I will tell you that for you to find a place to go have lunch or out to dinner that doesn't serve alcohol is You're just going to go Chick-fil-A and get sick and tired of chicken after a while. Because that's about all there is that you're not going to find in some place. And so you should never go to any place that sells or serves alcohol. Right? I've heard that before. I've been told that. I stopped by Kroger and bought stuff to prepare for lunch for pass today. I walked right by a counter full of beer and right by a whole other counter full of wine. Did I dishonor the Lord or sin against God when I did that? Well, But the Bible says, and this is what I was told, you're not even supposed to look at it, let alone drink it. Well, that's what it says right there in verse 31. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red. I guess you can look at white wine. Is that? Or beer. Aren't they talking about the attic during that? If you read the verse before that, they're talking about the person that's seeking out the wine. They tarry long at the wine, they go to seek mixed wine. And then they say, they shouldn't even look at it, those people. Verse 31 has so many different interpretations from various people everywhere. You better just not look to anybody to explain this to you. You better just look at it and figure it out for yourself. What does it really say? Now look, back in chapter 20, does wine malk or does a drinker of wine malk? Yeah, does strong drink rage or does a strong drinker rage? You got brains between your ears, most of you, some anyway, most of us. Okay, all right. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. If it's your natural bent or your iniquity to drink or be an alcoholic, then you shouldn't look at it, shouldn't be around it, shouldn't avoid it at all costs. Okay, all right. Now obviously there is such a thing as red wine, but I don't think that's what it's talking about here. It says look not upon the wine when it is red. Look back at verse 29 and see if you think there's a connection. Who hath redness of eyes? Is this talking about the color of the wine or somebody that's looking through red eyes? All right, well look, when it giveth his color in the cup, if you look at the cup, here's what I think, I'll just tell you what I think, and I'm just gonna leave it to you, figure it out for yourself, because everybody's gonna be responsible for your own issues and your own choices. I think that it is not sin to drink wine under certain circumstances and in great limitations. a little wine for thy stomach's sake, it says. The Lord's Supper. We're going to drink a little wine in the Lord's Supper as we remember the shed blood of our Lord. Very little. Matter of fact, there's so little alcohol that it's less than cough syrup. I mean, it's not even noticeable hardly. But if you're drinking wine, And it's red. And it's changing color. And it's, when you look in your cup and it's moving. That means you had a little bit too much. What's that tell you? It tells you you should have stopped before now. But that's not gonna stop us. This is talking about Cecil. I've never Never drank, never bought alcohol until 20 years ago, but I've been buying our communion wine at Kroger's for the last 20 years. But there's a lot of, and I don't know much about wine, but there's a lot of different kinds. We only use one kind, and it's kosher. It's the one they use for Passover. Yeah, but as far as the wine itself, As far as your drinking wine or having a glass of wine or whatever, I frankly don't care what you do. I'm not your judge. I'm your pastor. I will tell you why you won't see me drinking wine or you won't see me having a beer. And it's not because I think there's something wrong with it. It's because that other brothers and sisters who have suffered from that addiction can't go there. And if they say, me go there, they're probably going to start heading in that direction. And like what the Apostle Paul said concerning drinking wine or eating meat that had been offered to idols back in that particular issue that was going on there in Corinth, He said, while the world standeth, I will drink no wine or eat no meat that will cause my brother to stumble. That is the reason. There is nothing inherently sinful about alcohol. There's nothing inherently wrong with wine. There's nothing inherently wrong with Jack Daniel's whiskey. And probably a teaspoon of that with honey would be as good a cough syrup as you could ever take. But you don't take off syrup by the glass, do you? There are uses for virtually everything out there. Most of the things that are marketed to the public are not for godly uses. There is not something that's sin in itself. You've got to be smart enough to know what you're doing, wise enough. to stay away from. And some of you, you can't have a beer. Because if you have a beer, you'll have 12. And that's where your bend is. If that's your iniquity, then you're going to have to deal with it. And abstinence may simply, you know, it may be, that may be the thing for you. The Lord is not going to allow me to be responsible for leading you into that. I could talk about the Lutherans and Oktoberfest and the amount of beer that they go through at the church. In October it's German and it's beer. It's tons of it. We could do that but all that matters is what God says in his word. It doesn't make any difference what somebody else is doing or how they are doing it. What matters is what the Bible says and your responsibility between you and the Lord to not damage your Christian testimony or cause somebody else to hurt or to stumble. Okay, we are so out of time, I've shamed myself almost.