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Well, today I am leading us through
a study on a biblical doctrine of alcohol. I've entitled the message, Alcohology. The study of alcohol. Not one
of those messages where many people will be falling asleep,
I imagine. The way we got here is we're
in John chapter 2. And we're studying the glory
of Christ and John 2.11 says that in the first miracle of
Christ in turning the water to wine, He began to show His glory. His disciples saw the sign and
believed in Him. The thrust of John 2 then is
about Jesus Christ. It's not about wine. Alright,
so last week we had a message considering how Christ's presence
at the wedding and His miracle showed His goodness, His kindness
in ministering to the hosts that would have been so embarrassed
by the wine running out. That didn't only show His goodness,
it showed His great power that He could create wine from water. It also gave us a picture of
His great salvation. Throughout the Scripture, wine
is used as a picture of salvation, and we're invited to partake
of it. And I think in particular, His
going from the pots that were used for this formality and pharisaic
washings, and turning from that to a lavish, generous wine, I
think the picture of Jesus brought. So His goodness, His greatness,
His saving work, all was on display, and the disciples saw it and
believed in Him. I did mention to you, though,
that because this is a topic that controversial to people,
really a topic that the Bible says a lot about. We would take
one week off and we would consider the topic of wine or of alcohol
in the scripture. So we're going to do that today
and there is a lot here. There's a lot of information.
You may not have thought much about how much the Bible talks
about wine. It talks about it a lot in both Testaments. Genesis
to Revelation, so we have our work cut out for us. Today is
going to be one of those messages you're probably not going to
be able to turn to every passage. God willing, you can get the recording
and listen to it again. You might write down some references
and maybe just listen to what the Bible has to say. Let me tell you for a moment
my background as it relates to the issue of alcohol. I was raised
in a home that was a teetotaler home, no drinking at all, and
was raised really to believe that alcohol consumption of any
kind was wrong. I remember after my second year
of college, I was in Chicago doing a church internship and
I went golfing and I got paired up with this other guy and the
guy professed to be a Christian But he went to Willow Creek,
and automatically I asked him, you know, I'm not sure if he's
really a Christian. He goes to Willow Creek, that's a big seeker-sensitive
church, pastoral bibles, I'm not so sure he's a Christian.
But we went, and he actually seemed to understand the gospel
and believe in Jesus Christ. And then when we finished, I'm
putting my clubs away, he goes to his trunk, he opens the cooler,
he got out a beer and started drinking. And I knew he couldn't
possibly really be a Christian if that's the way he would behave. I'm the one who wrote our church
covenant. And our church covenant says that those who partake of
or sell alcohol can't be members of our church. I wrote that. And so my position is very conservative. I think sometimes my position
has been so conservative that I've come to scripture with a
preconceived notion of what it teaches on the topic, and sometimes
have taken my conservative position and kind of foisted it onto the
text. So if the Bible talks favorably about wine, it couldn't really
mean wine. It must mean something else. And I've told people when
Jesus turned water to wine, it couldn't be real wine because
he wouldn't give people something that could intoxicate them, and
I've argued that way. And I think sometimes just allowing my bias
to affect my interpretation, that's not a good thing. So I've
had very conservative positions about wine from teaching. And
I still continue to have a very conservative position on alcohol. On the other hand, though I haven't
seen alcohol abuse like many of you have, my father, my dad's
dad, was an alcoholic. He destroyed his family. He came
to Christ years later. began drinking alcohol myself. I first began at a friend's house,
I think I was about 10 years old, and we raided the kid's
parents' liquor cabinet. His parents had a bottle, and
we figured if we drank a little bit of each bottle, they'd never
notice, so I started drinking at age 15. Now I have children
that, you know, my second one is age 15. I'm terrified to think
of that. I was in junior high school. time
I was really drunk. I remember being in a public
place and I wet my pants in a very public setting and we laughed
about it, but it's just not that funny. It's not something I wish
had happened. I remember in high school Going
with friends from school. Drinking. Going with friends
from school. Drinking. And God's grace pulled
me out of that. And I hate it. I hate it. He pulled me out of
a dark hole of my heart at a time where I was going out drinking
with friends and then my dad was preaching the message on
parenting and on the responsibility of parents to control their children,
and I just had to say, If you don't know what you're saying,
we need to stop. It was that event that just changed my life
and changed my heart. It was never something I had
planned for the last few years of high school. And I began to
walk with God and He changed my life. I'm very gracious. I'm
a trophy of God's grace. I wish my past didn't happen,
but it did. And I don't have any regrets that although God
graciously pulled me out of There were friends both at church and
at school that participated with me, and I influenced them. I
put a stumbling block in front of them, and when God pulled
me out graciously, He didn't pull all of them out. And many
of them, that just became part of their life, and they went
on to ruin. That's just my experience. I
think about our corporate experience. There are people in this assembly
that have probably been taught that any wine in scripture is
just grape juice or Kool-Aid and there's no such thing as
alcoholic beverage in the Bible. So some of you are from a very
conservative background that way. Some here probably never
even considered that drinking alcohol should be considered.
You've just always done it. It's been part of your life.
And the idea that it's something you should step away from might
be shocking to you. There are several here who have
been alcoholics. And God has delivered you and
is delivering you. I want to be careful as we speak
to you. Some of you have been abused
by alcoholics. Some of you have family members
that have been killed or imprisoned because of the dangers of alcohol
and drunk driving and all of those things. And for some, alcohol
in one way or another has been a major part of your life for
decades. That means my job is complicated
this morning. So what am I going to do? I'm
going to skip the message and we'll talk about Christmas instead.
Not really. I'm going to preach the Bible
today. The only safe thing I can do on a hot topic like this is
to preach the Bible today. We say that the Bible is our
only rule for faith and practice. We say that we believe in the
Reformation ideal of sola scriptura, that we come to the Scripture
and we believe the Bible. That's what we are about. Well,
today I'm going to preach the Bible. And you've heard me say
in the past, I don't want to be any wider than Scripture. I don't want to be any narrower
than Scripture. Today, based on my little ESV, I need to be
five and five-eighths inches wide. We're going to preach the
Scripture. And I don't want you to worry
that we're adopting any new position or that I've been reading anything
strange, but we do need to understand what the Bible says on the issue.
And I think for many of us, we've come to it and said, oh, it's
a no-brainer. The Bible very clearly disapproves
of all drinking in all settings at all times. And what is there
to talk about? Well, actually, the Bible is
not as clear as all that, and we need wisdom as we address
the issue. My job today has been beautifully stated by my friend
named Randy Yagley. He's a professor at Bob Jones
University at their seminary. He recently wrote a very good
book on alcohol, and it got him just brutalized unfairly. People are basically calling
him a heretic because he laid out what the Bible has to say
about alcohol, and then he ended up arguing for abstinence. But he just was honest with the
Scriptures, and people just killed him over it. Friends and foes
alike, his statement in the book was this, as an exegete, that
is, as an interpreter of Scripture, I am bound by what the Scripture
actually says, not by what I wish it might say. We need to see
what the Bible says and then draw appropriate conclusions.
So, I hope that you are prayerful, and I have been prayerful, and
I want this to be a message that is good for you and for your
family. And all of you in all these different settings of life,
please don't miss here today. But we don't need to be afraid
of the Bible. Lord, please teach us. And please help me to get
your word right. And we trust your word. And I
pray that we would submit to it. And I pray that we would
be warned by it and built by it. Open our eyes today, not
to our ideas, not to my ideas, to the law of scripture. And
I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Some of you might be surprised
and say, Pastor, why is it a big deal? Just preach the Proverbs. It
says, wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging. Whoever is deceived
by it is not wise. I will preach that. However,
we can't deny the fact that godly people in both Testaments drink
wine, real wine. We have Melchizedek bringing
wine to Abraham. Melchizedek, the type of Christ,
bringing wine to Abraham. Abraham drinking, we have David
who would drink, and Paul would drink. And I believe, and we'll
talk about it, that Jesus drank wine, real wine. Godly men throughout
church history have consumed wine or other sorts of alcoholic
beverages. The idea of not drinking at all
as a Christian norm is a fairly new idea and a fairly American
idea. I don't think it's a bad idea, but I want us to understand
that it's something that we've come to fairly recently. Wine
in both Testaments was indeed fermented and thus alcoholic. The attempt to say that wine
in Scripture was not fermented and did not contain any alcohol
is just a bogus idea. It's not honest. Look with me,
for example, in 1 Samuel. We'll start here. In 1 Samuel,
we have an example of Hannah praying. She goes into the temple
and she's praying for God to give her a child. And if you'll
remember, she's fervent in prayer, moving her lips, and Eli, the
high priest, sees her and he rebukes her. And 1 Samuel 1,
verses 14 and 15, She continued praying before
the Lord. Eli observed her mouth. She was speaking her heart. Verse
14 says, Eli said to her, how long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.
That's the basic word for wine in the Old Testament. Put your
wine away from you. But Hannah answered, no my Lord,
I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have not drunk neither wine
nor strong drink. but I've been pouring out my
soul before the Lord." Aha! She hadn't been drinking wine.
That settles it. She wasn't drunk. And yet, in
answer to her prayer, the Lord gave her a son. She weaned him,
and eventually she brings him to the temple to be raised by
Eli. And we read in verse 24 of this same passage, when she
had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old
bull, an ephah, a flower, and a skin of wine, and she brought
him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. And the child was
young. And it's the same thing. He says, you're intoxicated with
wine. She says, actually, I'm not. But it's not because they
wouldn't drink wine. She brought wine as part of the
provision for her family, for her son as she was bringing him
to the temple. We could look at a similar comparison. In 1
Samuel 25, I'll just summarize it. In 1 Samuel 25, David and
his men come to this fool named Nabal, and he asks for provisions
for his armies, and Nabal says no, and David's going to strike
them dead. But Abigail intervenes, and she
brings provision, and part of the provision she brings is wine. So she brings to a group of fighting
men wine to assist them to give them drink. What's the word I'm
looking for? To hydrate them. To help them.
And it's wine. And then if we were to read further
into verses 36-38, the fool Nabal, when she returned home, she couldn't
tell him what she had done because she was drunk. And she had to
wait for the wine to wear off. And it's the same exact word.
What she used in a good sense, he used in a wicked sense. And
it's the same thing. We can't just say that somehow
the wine in Scripture is not intoxicating. That's dishonest.
And Esther 1, do you remember Esther 1? Begins with this drunken
feast and they're drinking wine. But then in Esther 5 and 6 and
7, Esther is going before her husband, the king, to plead for
the lives of the Jews, and she says to all the Jews, fast and
pray, and then I'm going to go and make this request. And as
she does so, she prepares a feast, and in both settings, Esther
5-6 and Esther 7-2, part of that lavish feast that she provided
as hostess was wine. So, wine had been used in a drunken
feast and then wine was used, apparently, appropriately, by
Esther. You can't say that wine doesn't
intoxicate. You say, well, it depends on what kind of wine.
Actually, that won't do either. Because although there are various
words for wine in the Old and New Testaments, all of them could
be used to the point of intoxication. The basic word is yayan, but
that could intoxicate as we've seen. And we first see it when
Noah gets drunk with wine. The first mention of it in Scripture
is Noah getting drunk with wine. And then we're going to see it
later where Lot gets drunk and has this wicked relationship
with his daughter. And he says, see, it's wicked. Right, but
in the middle of that is chapter 14 where Melchizedek brings the
same word and he brings it to Abraham for provision. It's complicated. It's more complicated, perhaps,
than we've ever been willing to admit. You say, well, there's
new wine, Pastor, and that's not intoxicating. Well, the word
for new wine that's often translated that way is tirosh, but Hosea
4.11 says that tirosh can be intoxicating. There's asses,
which is juice or new wine, but Hosea 49.26 says that that could
be intoxicating. Shakar is strong drink, and that
could be intoxicating, 1 Samuel 1.15. In the New Testament, we
have wine. Jesus turned the water into wine,
and that word is oinos. That's the basic New Testament
Greek word for wine. Jesus turned the water into wine,
but the same word is used in Ephesians 5, verse 18, which
says, Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.
You have a word used once, it's glucose, essentially. And that
is new wine. You say new wine could intoxicate.
Actually, the only place it's used is in Acts 2.13, where the
disciples are being mocked and they said, oh, they're full of
new wine. Those guys are talking that way because they're drunk.
And they weren't. But all of these wines could be used favorably
or they could be used sinfully. Gary Reamer's another, Bob Jones'
prophesies. With the possible exception of
fruit of the vine, there are no biblical terms that clearly
and consistently distinguish fermented wine and unfermented
juice. In fact, without refrigeration
or pressurized bottling, unfermented grape juice was only available
immediately after grape harvest. What I'm saying is, I don't want
you to drink. Really, I don't. But I can't
give you bogus reasons because I want you to do a careful thing.
And for a long time, preachers have just been dishonest and
they would say things the Bible doesn't say. We can't handle
the Scripture that way. Attempts to say, yeah, but they
would serve mingled wine, and mixed wine wasn't intoxicating.
Actually, it was. And often mixed wine would mean
it was just being mixed with herbs or with honey to make it
more enjoyable, like in Proverbs 23.30. But it was intoxicating
in Proverbs 23.30, if abused. You say it was diluted, and we
will get to that point. That is an important point. Culturally,
the wine was typically diluted. So they didn't have a process
of distillation. So please don't understand, when
we're reading about Bible wine, it was not distilled like the
hard liquor that's available today. Don't argue in favor of
liquor on the basis of what they drank in the New Testament, because
they didn't have a distillation process. The alcohol was about
7%. But even that wine, they would take and they would typically
water it down quite significantly. We can say that what they drank
wasn't apples to apples or grapes to grapes with what we have today. And I think that's a point that
we need to consider. But even if we say they diluted it, we
still have to acknowledge that even the diluted wine had some
degree of alcohol in it. We're just being honest with
the text. Wine in both testaments was fermented
and thus alcoholic. Wine in both testaments was abused. and drunkenness is repeatedly
warned against and forbidden. Alright, I say it's complicated. If you come to the issue and
say it's a no-brainer that drinking alcohol is sin, obviously, duh,
I say we need to study the Bible more carefully. If you come to
it and say, hey, they're drinking the Bible, I can and will drink
today, duh, I say I think you need to read the Bible more carefully.
There's two ditches. I just heard a message this week
from a fundamentalist pastor, and he said in John 2, Jesus
turned water to wine, but obviously it wasn't fermented, because
when God creates things, He creates good things. And fermentation
is breaking down the wine, it's beginning to go bad, and Jesus
would never make anything like that. You're trying too hard. If Jesus made cottage cheese,
it wouldn't be fresh milk. It would be cottage cheese. God's
the one who actually invented the process of fermentation.
He made it that way. So the man was trying too hard
in order to protect his flock, probably. And I love that. I
appreciate the spirit. But we can't play fast and loose
with the Bible. When the Bible says Jesus turned
water to wine, he turned water to wine. On the other hand, I
heard another pastor, his name is Mark Driscoll, and you've
heard me speak of him before. And he's addressing the issue,
and I was very sad by what I heard. He was a bull in a china closet.
He was so reactionary, saying, we can drink, we should drink,
let me tell you why. And he's using the Bible basically
to tell people, go out and enjoy yourselves. And I'm thinking,
man, if there's people under his preaching, like there are
people here, what a careless thing to do. The last thing I
want to do as a pastor is to be a tempter to you. So I've
heard people in one ditch, and I've heard people in another
ditch. One of my favorite Bible teachers doesn't drink at all.
He's a teetotaler. He abstains totally. But he has
to be honest with the Scripture. He said, actually, the Bible
does not require abstinence, and he's taught a very balanced
and careful position. But his son is kind of in your
face, yeah, do what you want. It's so important about that.
I don't want to preach carefully and then have people take that
and abuse what they hear me saying to lead them into sin or to just
defend their own flesh. It's complicated. So let's see
what the Bible says. I'm going to try to point you
to the Scriptures and listen to it today and go home and study
it some more. The Bible says a lot about alcohol. Let's study
it. Major point number one is this, and I'm going to have to
summarize here because I want some time at the end for making
applications. Major point one is this. Both Testaments speak
favorably of wine. Both Testaments speak favorably
of wine. In the Old and New Testament,
it was a staple of life. It was necessary. Again, I mentioned
Melchizedek bringing it to Abraham. I mentioned Abigail bringing
it to David and his men. And all through the prophets
and through the Psalms, It's just a reality of life. It's
an agricultural society. And a good harvest not only included
wheat, but it included the vineyard bringing forth grapes. And if
those grapes weren't to be lost, it's one thing to retain wheat.
It's another thing to retain juice. How are you going to retain
juice? And you put it through the process of fermentation.
So it would be keepable. That's just reality. They didn't
have the sort of water options that we have today. They wouldn't
just go around and get bottled water or ask for a Mountain Dew. They needed things that were
healthy to drink, but they didn't just turn on a faucet like we
do. Can you relate to that? Well, have you ever been to Mexico?
Who's been to Mexico? Who's drunk the water in Mexico?
Did it ever bite you back? Even in a developed country like
Mexico, drinking water that we take for granted is not available.
And I'm just saying, what we assume was available now has
not always everywhere been the case. And drinking water by itself
could be a dangerous thing. In fact, Paul's going to tell
Timothy, Timothy, you're killing yourself with the water you're
drinking. Take a little bit of wine, not so much medicinally,
but because the wine would purify and make safe the water. So,
it's a reality of life in Bible times. In the Old Testament,
the Old Testament presents wine as a symbol of God's blessing. Genesis 27-28, Isaac is blessing
Jacob, thinking he's blessing Esau, but he says, May God give
you of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth and
plenty of grain and wine. My son, may God give you plenty
of wine. Not a lot of American Christian
dads would pray that for their son. Rightly so. But it was symbolic of God's
blessing. Deuteronomy 7, 12 and 13, because you listen to these
rules and keep and do them, the Lord will keep with you the covenant
and steadfast love that He swore to your fathers. He will give
you grain and wine. He'll cause them to increase.
Proverbs 3, 9 and 10. You honor the Lord with your
offerings, with your substance. And when you do, so shall your
barns be filled with plenty, and your presses will burst forth
with new wine. God will take care of you in
giving you wine. It's part of the blessing of
God. Other passages. Jeremiah 31, 12. Joel 2, 19 and
24. On the other hand, When times were lean and God
was judging His people, one indication of judgment was that they would
have little or poor wine. Isaiah 1.21-23 Isaiah 16.10 etc. etc. etc. Jeremiah, Lamentations,
Joel. And I can give you those references.
It was a sable of life. It was a symbol of God's blessing.
It was a symbol of joy. Wine was a symbol of joy. Jotham
is teaching a parable in Judges 9.13. And he has a vine speaking
to other trees, and they're wanting the vine to come and rule them.
And the vine says to them, Shall I leave my wine that cheers God
and men? Shall I stop making wine that
cheers God and men? What? Wine cheers God and men?
Well, you know what? Argue with Jotham or God, because
He's the one who wrote the book. Nehemiah 8.10, we often quote
this, the joy of the Lord is your strength. That's actually
after this statement. He said to them, Go your way,
eat the fat, and drink sweet wine, and send portions to anyone
who has nothing ready. For this day is holy to the Lord.
Do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
He says go home and have a feast. And symbolic of that was God
causing them to rejoice by giving them wine. Psalm 104, verse 15. In praise to God for His provision,
it says, You cause the grass to grow for livestock, plants
for man to cultivate, that He may bring forth food from the
earth. And it says, God, You cause wine
to gladden the heart of man, and oil to make his face shine,
and bread to strengthen man's heart. God gives wine, Scripture
says, to gladden man. Ecclesiastes 9.7 Go, eat your
bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart. Ecclesiastes
10.19 Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money
answers everything. The Song of Solomon refers to
it often. In other words, the Bible often talks about wine
as a symbol of God giving His people joy. It's even more spiritual
than that. The Bible uses wine as a symbol
of God giving His people salvation. Proverbs 9, we have wisdom personified,
contrasted with the temptress and the prostitute. Wisdom really
is personifying God's calling people to salvation. Come to
me and eat of my feast. And it says, wisdom has mixed
her wine and set her table. Isaiah 25, 6. He talks about God's reclaiming
and redeeming His people. Prophetically, it says, on this
mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast
of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of morrow,
of aged wine well refined. God is going to save His people,
and symbolically, He does that by giving them a feast with aged
wine. Isaiah 55 A gospel message. Come everyone
who thirsts spiritually. Unsaved people, you have spiritual
longings. Come everyone who thirsts. Come
to the waters. He who has no money, come buy and eat. Come
buy wine and milk without money and without price. The Old Testament
presented it as a symbol of salvation. The Old Testament included it
as part of worship. It was brought as a sacrifice
to be poured out unto the Lord. Exodus 29.40, Leviticus 23.13,
etc., etc. Other times, it was brought with
the rest of the feast where people would eat it before the Lord
as though they were having dinner with Him. We read of that in
Deuteronomy 14.22-26. There it says, you get wine or
strong drink and bring it, whatever you desire, before the Lord and
eat it there. Other times, wine was given as
a tithe as part of the provision for the priests. They would bring
wine and other things and give it as a tithe. Deuteronomy 12,
17 and 18, all over the book of Nehemiah, etc. Sometimes wine
was given as a narcotic to those who were dying. Proverbs 31,
verses 4-7. It is not for kings, O Lemuel.
It is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong
drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert
the rights of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to the one
who is perishing. Literally, the guy who's dying.
And then it builds on that. I think all of it is talking,
not just he's depressed. This guy is dying. And the parallel
is he's miserable and it's fitting. Give him some pity and mercy.
All of those are favorable uses in the Old Testament. In the
New Testament, the New Testament speaks favorably of wine on occasions. Jesus Christ created it. In the
passage, it says that the man was amazed that the best wine
came last because he says usually people wait until the people
are drunk. Can you say it says drunk? It's
the same word in John 2 as in Ephesians 5.18, being not drunk
with wine. Don't be afraid of the Bible.
That's what it says. Jesus created it. Certainly never
abused it. But Jesus not only created it,
Jesus consumed it. Jesus consumed it. He says, John
the Baptist came eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you
said that he was a demon. The Son of Man, I have come eating
and drinking, and you say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners. He says, John was a
teetotaler, and you rejected him. I come eating and drinking,
and you call me a glutton and a drunkard. Jesus did that, yes,
and He never sinned. It's somewhat comical to me that
per the covenant that we've adopted that I wrote, that's me, Jesus
couldn't be a member of our church. That's awkward. He created wine. And He consumed it. And He actually
commanded it as part of our worship because He said, this is the
cup of the new covenant in My blood. Take and drink. And that
cup is the Passover cup. It was wine. Wine is promised
by Christ as a symbol of His return. And He says in Matthew
26-29 that we're partaking of this covenant now and I'm giving
it to you as a memorial. And I'm not going to drink it
again until I come and drink it with you in my kingdom. Another
awkward moment. When the Lord Jesus in His kingdom
says, Chris, partake! And I'll say, you know, I'm good. Alright? Wine was a frequent object lesson
of Christ. We talk about putting new wine
in old wineskins, and as it fermented, it would burst them. The Good
Samaritan actually used wine and oil as a disinfectant, and
mercifully caring for the wounds of the man who had fallen. We have the parable of the tenants
in Matthew 21-33 and following, where wine production is a common,
necessary reality, and Jesus uses it as a parable. Wine provided
relief from physical needs. 1 Timothy 5.23, No longer drink
only water, but use little wine for the sake of your stomach
and your frequent ailments. Now, pause for a second on 1
Timothy 5.23. You say, see, wine had positive uses. It did. But for some reason,
you had a young pastor that even to his own physical detriment
was not partaking of wine. apparently so concerned about
his testimony that he said, I'm just going to drink water. I
am aware of what the Bible teaches. For my testimony, I'm going to
abstain. And Paul says, man, you're killing
yourself. That's not wise. It's not healthy.
Take a little wine for your stomach's sake. Quit drinking water that's
hurting you. Alright? Interesting. Both Testaments
speak favorably of wine. It's not the end of the story.
Point two, both testaments speak unfavorably of wine, particularly
its abuse. The Old Testament condemns drunkenness
as sin. Isaiah 522, woe to those who
are heroes at drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong
drink. Woe to those who are good at
drinking. It's sin and it brings God's
judgment. It's all over the prophets where
God is condemning people for their drunkenness. The Old Testament
uses wine as a symbol of God's blessing, but it also uses wine
as a symbol of God's judgment. Psalm 75 verse 8, For in the
hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed,
and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall
drain it down to the dregs. So it can be God's blessing inviting
us to a feast, or for those who have rejected Him, there's also
the symbol of God pouring wine. It's almost like He's saying,
You want to drink and abuse wine? I'll let you drink, and I'm pouring
out my judgment on you. And it's eternal judgment. Jeremiah
25, Jeremiah 51, etc. has the picture of wine as judgment.
The Old Testament provides frightening examples of godly men who abused
alcohol. See, thus far, if in the message
you say, see, I knew it. I can go home and drink. The
Bible gives you strong cautions. Noah was a righteous and godly
man, and he experienced the deliverance of the Lord. He and eight people
in the world perished, and he was deceived by wine and drunken
and embarrassed himself. Lot was a man whose righteous
soul was vexed by Sodom, and he comes out of it, and his girls
came out of Sodom and Gomorrah, but Sodom and Gomorrah hadn't
come out of them, and they got him drunk. and had incestuous
relationships. And that man is going to be in
heaven. Take heed. Don't think you have every right
and every excuse to use Scripture for your own indulgence. Be warned. Uriah the Hittite was a good
man. Some people have said he was
a better man drunk than David was sober. But he was duped into
getting drunk and he tried to be deceived. Amnon got drunk and was killed. A lot of bad examples of drunkenness
in Scripture. It's always condemned. It's always
condemned. The Old Testament forbids wine
for certain people and certain times. Leviticus 10, verses 8
and 9, the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, Drink no wine or strong
drink, you or your sons with you, when you go to the tent
of meeting, lest you die. When you're doing your ministry
in the holy place, you don't come with any drink at all, or
you will die. God said to Aaron. We have the
Nazarite vow in Numbers 6. That Nazarite vow for Samson
and Judges 13, where he was to have no wine or strong drink,
Kings, we read in Proverbs 31, were advised not to drink. The Rechabites are people in
Jeremiah 35. And it's actually an interesting
situation where you have this group of Jews, and they have
been commanded on a human level by an ancestor, we don't drink. And there's other things. We're
not going to build houses and things, but we're not going to
drink. And that man died. And the Rechabites, as a family,
continued to refuse to drink. And God says to Jeremiah, bring
them in and make them drink. And they said, uh-uh, we're not
drinking. And then what God did is He said, here you have these
people that are faithful to the command of a human ancestor. And you won't even be faithful
to the commands of your God. And He uses it as a conviction
about people that had refused to compromise compared to a nation
that was perpetually in compromise. You have Daniel refusing to drink
the king's wine in Daniel 1.8 and Daniel 1.16. However, you
have Daniel apparently drinking again in Daniel 10.1-3. John the Baptist, a Nazarite,
wouldn't drink Luke 1.15. The Old Testament provides explicit
warnings, and I want to turn here for a moment. The Old Testament
provides explicit warnings about abusing alcohol You say, the
Old Testament, the Scripture is against drunkenness, not against
wine. Well, Proverbs 20 verse 1 says,
wine is a mocker. It's not just talking about the
abuse of it. It says, wine itself is a mocker. Strong drink is
a brawler. And whoever is led astray or
deceived by it is not wise. In the book of Proverbs, you
have these warnings, like in Proverbs 20, verse 1, that says,
don't let wine deceive you. Don't let wine drag you into
brawls and wicked effects. Don't be a fool that's entangled
by drink, Proverbs says. Proverbs 21, 17, whoever loves
pleasure will be a poor man, and he who loves wine and oil
will not be rich. I think most explicitly, Proverbs
23. Let's read these verses. Proverbs
23. Beginning in verse 19. Proverbs 23, 19. Hear, my son,
and be wise, and direct your hearts in the way. Be not among
drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat. For the drunkard
and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe
them with rags." He says, I'm warning you, don't make friends,
don't make your life surrounded by people who are always seeking
drink. And some are saying, yeah, but Pastor, it also said gluttony.
It did. Don't be around people that are
living for their appetites. But you have to admit, there
is a particular danger in alcohol. And we read of that at the end
of this chapter in verse 29. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine.
Those who go to try mixed wine. And again, there you see that
mixed wine is intoxicated. Do not look at wine when it is
red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. Some
will say, see that's undiluted wine. Yeah, perhaps, but actually
dilution would make it go down more smoothly, so it's hard to
say. You're still dealing with typical wine, I believe. Don't
look at it when it's attracting you with its beauty, all right?
You've seen that as people are smelling and getting their own.
He says, don't be beguiled by the beauty of it. In the end,
it bites like a serpent. It stings like an adder. Your
eyes will see strange things. Your heart will utter perverse
things. You will be like one who lies down in the midst of
the sea. You have no judgment. Like one who lies on top of a
mast. They have struck me, you will say, but I was not hurt.
They beat me and I did not feel it. He says, I drank, I was out
of control, my eyes were red, my life was devoured. He's describing
someone who is under the control of alcohol. And then a very,
very sad ending to that chapter. When shall I awake from this
drunkenness? I must have another drink. That's
describing the abuse of alcohol that is not theoretical and it's
not merely a possibility. It's people in this body have
been devastated by that. And if they could give you an
amen to my message, if they had a moment to share with you, they
would say, don't trust it. I never thought it would happen
to me the way it did. Wine is deceitful. Wine is destructive. Wine is bringing you into bondage. And literally, the language is
almost like the language Proverbs uses of the prostitute, who seems
sweet for a time, but the end is destruction and death. The
Old Testament gives very explicit warnings. The New Testament gives
explicit warnings. speaks unfavorably of wine as
well as favorably, especially about drunkenness. Romans 13,
12-14. The night is far gone and the
day is at hand, so let us cast off the works of darkness and
put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the
daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and
sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. but put on the
Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify
its desires." You say, I believe for Scripture, I have the right
to drink if I desire to. I'm not going to forbid it and
say the Bible says it's sin. The Bible does not say it's sin. The Bible says it's dangerous.
The Bible says don't make a provision for your flesh. Don't trust your
flesh. 1 Corinthians 5.11, I'm writing
to you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself
a brother and who is a drunkard. 1 Corinthians 6, 10 and 11, talking
about people who won't inherit the kingdom of God. Did you hear
that? People who won't inherit the kingdom of God. Damnation
is at stake. And it says, thieves and greedy
and drunkards and slanders will not inherit the kingdom of God.
And then it says, such were some of you. You have at the Corinthian church,
people who had been delivered from alcoholism and drunkenness.
And then you had people in the church coming to the Lord's table
in chapter 11 drunk. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
such unkindness to your brother? The church should be pulling
people out of that. And in Corinth, they were pushing
each other back in. It's wicked. It's dangerous. Galatians 5 talks about the works
of the flesh. It mentions envy and drunkenness
and orgies. And it says, I warn you again
as I did before, those who live like this will not inherit the
kingdom of God. The abuse of alcohol is ruining
individuals. It's destroying families. And
you know it. You've seen it. In your family. Or your friend's
family. Or at work. Or your parents. Or you. You know it's ruinous. But it's not only ruining families. It is damning people. Because
those who are under this sort of bondage, unless they repent
and find deliverance through Jesus Christ, they will not inherit
the kingdom of God. 1 Timothy 3 says leaders should
not be given to drunkenness, elders. Deacons must not be addicted
to much wine. It would be nonsensical if it's
talking about non-alcoholic wine. That would be nonsense. Deacons,
I don't want you to be addicted to a lot of orange juice. Put
the Gatorade down. That's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. This is alcoholic beverage. He
says, I don't want you to be enslaved by that. Titus 1. Leaders, don't be given to drunkenness.
Titus 2. 3. Ladies, you should not be
slaves to much wine. 1 Peter 4, verse 3, you have
spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do.
Living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, etc. That was your past
life before Jesus Christ. Don't live like that. Verses
4 and 5 of 1 Peter 4 says they're going to be surprised that you
don't keep running with them. Let them be surprised. Your life
has been made different by the Lord Jesus Christ. Both Testaments
speak favorably of wine. It's essentially urging on people
in the Old and New Testament moderation, and they speak warningly
and negatively about the abuse of wine and the dangers of wine.
So how do we relate to it today? Well, there's modern factors.
Let me give you four modern factors to consider as you consider this
issue yourself. Modern factors related to wine,
I've already mentioned this, number one is alcoholic content.
What they drank was not what people typically are drinking
today because people today have the technology and knowledge
to distill a harder alcohol than was drunk then. It's not exactly
the same. wine had far less alcohol than
to begin with and it was typically diluted. Again, I'm not saying
it wasn't alcoholic. I'm just saying don't compare
it as though it's exactly the same. Mike Harding, a pastor
friend, quotes a number of Greeks from the time that were philosophers
or historians Says the strongest content of alcohol of normal
wine in the New Testament era would be roughly 2.5%. Today
our beer is 7% alcohol, wine is 14%, fortified wines are 18
to 24, and hard liquor is 40%. It's much different. Don't go get a shot of liquor
and say, well, they did it in the New Testament. They did not.
Not in the same way at all. Greg Mazak is a favorite pastor
of mine. And he says, listen, If you want
to argue for your right to drink in a biblical way, go get three
ounces of beer and water it down with nine ounces of water and
have a blast. And he's speaking, you know,
he's speaking ridiculously because nobody does that today. Nobody
wants to do that. He's just saying, if you're going to use the New
Testament practice, you need to use it in all of its entirety.
I think we have to be careful. I don't think we need to get
into a situation where we're fighting about percentages. The
Bible had alcohol. People drank it. They did it
with care. If they ever got it all drunk,
it was sin. But the alcoholic content is
one factor. It's not the same. Number two, consider alternatives. Mercy. Do you know how many alternatives
we have today that they didn't have then? They had the fruit
of the vine that they would ferment for the sake of keeping, and
they would drink it. It was joy, and it was a big deal. Do you
know how many options you have now? Go eat some hot chocolate. Get a latte. What flavor latte
would you like? Go get a Mountain Dew. Get a
Dr. Pepper. You say, I like finer things.
Go get something finer. You can get a slushie. Would
you like blueberry? Would you like a Mr. Misty? It is crazy. It is crazy how
many options we have of very cool drinks. It's not like for
pleasure you need to drink something like that. I'm saying we have
alternatives that they never had. And I would say be more careful.
Just be careful. I don't think you'll miss it.
Number three is your testimony. We live in an alcohol crazed
society. Look at billboards. Look at TV
commercials. Turn on a football game and watch
the commercials. People are worshipping alcohol. They turn there when
they're down, when they're up, when they're celebrating a victory,
when they're mourning a defeat. It is like God to them. We should
be finding our hope, our joy, our comfort in God. Our society
is addicted to it. And I say we should be different.
1 Peter 4 says don't be like you used to be when you were
pagans. Consider your testimony before that society. Consider
your influence on your children. I told you the first time I ever
drank, it was a kid's dad's bar. Consider the influence on your
children. There are those that are horrified to see that their
grandchildren are drinking a lot. And they don't understand because
they've always been temperate. I'm just telling you that the
danger is, and I told you about the pastor I respect, he is arguing
for temperance. He himself is partaking of nothing. But the next generation is just
running full bore after it. And I say, be careful. I don't
want my girls to get used to seeing Dad's beer in the refrigerator.
Rebecca, go get me a Mountain Dew. You know what? I feel like
a mixed drink. Put in some orange juice with
my Mountain Dew. I want my girls to just be used to, Dad doesn't
do that. Neighbors, other believers. Think
of your testimony before other believers. There's people here
that have come out of addiction. If they come to your house, it
would be nice if they didn't have to pass by whatever you're
consuming. We'll pass or we keep it hidden.
Okay. You pray. You read the Bible,
you pray, you make a conscientious decision. Be careful of your testimony
and just be careful of the dangers. Be aware of the dangers that
the Bible presents and society presents all the time. Mike Harding
found statistics that said alcoholic beverages are leading to all
sorts of wickedness, including 65% of murders in the United
States, 40% of assaults, 35% of rapes, 55% of domestic violence,
60% of child abuse, and 60% of all traffic fatalities. Wine
is not something that's a private thing, but it's often leading
to other sins and other abuses. It's a mocker and it is raging. And as I quoted to you, it is
leading to eternal damnation that people don't seek refuge
in Jesus Christ, the Savior. We need to wrap things up. Corporate
conclusions. Tri-County Bible Church, some
corporate conclusions. Is there a biblical basis for
forbidding alcohol? No. Is there a biblical basis
for forbidding alcohol? They drank it in the Old Testament.
They drank it in the New Testament. I've given you reasons that I
think we have other options. We should embrace other options.
But I think we have to be careful not to be more dogmatic than
Scripture is. Is there a biblical basis for forbidding it? I once
said that drinking is sin. And someone asked me, can you
really biblically say drinking is sin? I can't say drinking
is sin. Unless I want to make Jesus a
sinner. That's not a good thing. That would be heresy. Is there
a biblical basis for forbidding it? No. In fact, I think Colossians
2, 16-23 forbids us from forbidding it. It says, don't make it a
test of fellowship. Therefore, let no one pass judgment
on you in questions of food and drink, etc. Christianity is not
about food and drink. Don't let that be a factor for
division and a test of fellowship. Is there a biblical basis for
our forbidding alcohol? I don't believe so. I don't really
think there's a biblical basis for our making it a test of fellowship
the way it appears in our covenant, where we say, essentially, if
you drink it any way, you can't be a member of our church. I
think we're being more dogmatic on the issue than Scripture.
So, Pastor, you're opening the barn door for people to run out
and drink. No. But I don't want your motivation
for avoiding it to be because your church has taken a stronger
position than Scripture. I don't want you to drink. I
would prefer that those who think you can, I would prefer you don't.
It's dangerous. I hate it. I told you, I hate
it. But I can't be narrower than
the Bible. I'm commanded not to take away from it, but I'm
also commanded not to add to it. I am going to recommend that
our church consider removing that from our covenant. I don't
think there's biblical basis for making it a test of fellowship.
So my first question was, is there biblical basis for forbidding
alcohol? And I say no. Is there biblical basis for avoiding
alcohol? I think yes. There's a difference. When I say forbidding, I am making
it mandatory on anyone that wants to be part of the ministry of
Tri-County Bible Church. I don't think we have a biblical basis
to do that. Is there a biblical basis for avoiding it? I think
so. I think it's dangerous. I think we have other options.
I think it would be a safe thing. College Church in Wheaton, Illinois. It's not a fundamentalist church.
It's been a good church. Kent Hughes is the pastor there.
Many of you have read some of his books and profited. Here's
their statement. In addition, many believe that
certain activities, though not specifically prohibited in scripture,
are detrimental to our individual and corporate lives and the witness
of college church in our community. These activities include selling
and using all forms of habituating drugs, tobacco, alcohol, narcotics,
except for the use of medicinal purposes. And then they mention
other things. And here's what they say. Each
member or anyone seeking membership in college church is enjoined
to prayerfully seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit with regard
to these activities, as well as other aspects of individual
witness. What they're saying is we're going to leave it to
you and the scriptures and the Lord and you pray about it. But
we believe that these things are typically detrimental to
your personal testimony and our corporate testimonies in church.
The New Bible Dictionary is printed by InterVarsity Press. They are
not teetotaling fundamentalists, and yet they say in their discussion
of biblical wine, to sum it up, it may be said that while wine
is not condemned as being without usefulness, it brings in the
hands of sinful men such dangers of becoming uncontrolled that
even those who count themselves to be strong would be wise to
abstain, if not for their own sake, for the sake of weaker
brothers. Hear me. I don't believe the
Bible absolutely forbids alcoholic consumption with all of the things,
percentages, and all the things we've talked about. I think it's
a wisdom issue and the Bible gives a lot of reasons for a
Christian to guard himself, to take heed to himself, and I would
urge you to do so. Those are corporate conclusions,
my opinion, and I don't run the church. We'll have to decide
these things ourselves. I want to be careful that we're not
calling sin what God does not call sin. We're not calling sin
what Jesus Christ participated in. That would be a bad thing
to do. Personal conclusions. Don't stumble. I'm not advocating
drinking. If you don't drink, and most
of you don't, I'm not asking you to begin. It's the last thing
I want to do. I'm urging you to study it out.
And don't only study the blessings, study the warnings. If you don't
drink, be careful that you're not more dogmatic than Scripture,
that you're not making it a test of fellowship or a test of godliness
in the way the Bible says you should not. If you're convinced
that you're able to drink, I urge you to study the Scriptures.
Study all of the Scriptures. Don't just go to a couple of
passages. I ask you to rethink your position and your practice
with an eye on the entire counsel of Scripture. I say don't stumble. Don't stumble. by the grace of
God. And I urge you, don't be a stumbling
block. It's not enough to say, well,
I think I can. Paul deals with the question in Romans 14, verses
20 and 21. He says, don't destroy the kingdom
of God for food and drink. It is good not to eat meat or
drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
Don't cause others to stumble. Habakkuk 2.15 says, Woe to him
who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskins
till they are drunk. You don't want to be the cause
of other people stumbling. Take that very seriously. Matthew
18.7 says, People are going to sin, but there is great judgment
on the one that is facilitating and making that easy. And I'm
saying, you may need to have some hard decisions about limiting
yourself. For your own godliness and for
your testimonies, you're not causing others to stumble. I'm
kind of reminded of Paul in 1 Corinthians 7, where he says, you can get
married, but I would love it if you didn't. I don't think
the Bible forbids your drinking. I would love it if you didn't.
I think there's good reasons for you to be careful. Study
the Scriptures. Pray. Seek out godly counsel. Bottom line, God gives good gifts. Sinners pervert good gifts. Be
thankful for God's gifts. Be careful with God's gifts.
And of all things, remember the spiritual realities. Do you remember
I said both Testaments speak favorably of wine and both Testaments
speak unfavorably of wine? I think God has given us wine
not only for provision and enjoyment. I think God has given us a spiritual
picture. Sometimes He says, wine is my
blessing, and I'm going to use it as a picture of salvation
that I'm giving to you. When wine is spoken of favorably,
it is pointing us to Christ's salvation. Yeah, but sometimes
wine is spoken of unfavorably. When the Bible makes bad references
to wine and its effects, I think it's pointing us to Christ's
suffering. God pours out wine of blessing
on those who come to Christ, and God pours out the wine of
judgment on Christ on behalf of sinners. I don't think He
just said, I'm looking for an analogy, I guess I'll use wine.
In order for us to understand what Christ has done for us,
God created wine to point us to Jesus Christ. We often will
sing His robes for mine. He gave me His robes and He took
mine and suffered. And I love that truth from the
Scriptures. But as we considered last week, there is a sense in
which we could sing and rejoice in His cup for mine. Jesus has
given me all the benefits of salvation that are symbolized
by the benefits of wine. And He's taken all of the curses
that are symbolized by the detriments of wine. He's drunk our cup of
God's wrath. He's given us His luscious cup
of salvation. So consider wine. We'll pray
about it. We'll consider it as a church.
My recommendation has essentially been made to you. I want people
to abstain for godly conscience reasons, for Bible reasons, not
because their church says thou shalt not. We can't say thou
shalt not where Scripture doesn't. But I want us to love each other.
I want us to love God's good gifts. I want us to be careful.
And I want us to look to Jesus Christ. Lord, I have said the last thing
I want to do is be the source of division or temptation. And yet, there have been a lot
of times where I have not presented the entire case that the Bible
presents regarding wine. I pray that we won't be afraid
of this book. We'll let it speak. We won't
try to twist it. I pray that we will see wine
as a blessing of God. We'll see the dangers when fallen
humans get their hands on it. I pray that we'll make wise decisions
corporately and individually. I pray, Lord, that you'll use
this, and Lord, there's so many different people in this building.
Don't let them go out of here with the wrong messages. Some
that have made it a slam-dunk, open-and-shut case, they need
to reinvestigate what Scripture says. Some who might be prone
to argue for their own enjoyment at any cost, they just need to
be more careful and investigate all the Scriptures. I trust the
Bible, and I trust you. And you are a better shepherd
for people than I can be. I ask you, Lord, to take care
of this body. I commend this body unto God
and the word of His grace that is able to build them up and
give them an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
And I pray this because Jesus has given me the cup of salvation
and He's drained the cup of God's wrath. And I thank you, Jesus,
for doing that. I pray in His name. Amen.
Alcohology: The Bible & Wine
Series The Gospel of John
| Sermon ID | 1214091529196 |
| Duration | 1:03:57 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | John 2:1-11; Proverbs 23:19-35 |
| Language | English |
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