This is about Belchazar. His name is mentioned, I think, in the seventh chapter, but it's just this one chapter of the fifth chapter of Daniel about Belchazar. It says he's the king's son, Nebuchadnezzar's son, but actually in reading and studying it, he's Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. But the Bible doesn't recognize or doesn't have in Hebrew a word for grandfather or whatever. That's why a lot of times, you know, they could be two or three generations down the line and they still say the father of or the son of because in Hebrew they didn't have a word for grandfather. And the way they do reckoning the ancients and your ancestors and everything was still your father, not grandfather. So Belchazar is Daniel's given name, but it's not used here in this fifth chapter, but Belchazar, which was Nebuchadnezzar's son, was on the throne. This is the last king that reigned in Babylon before Babylon was overthrown in 521, I think it was, BC. And Belchazzar was a younger person, and he was kind of flamboyant. He was really second in line, the reason he offered Daniel the third place in the kingdom. if he interpreted this because his father Nebuchadnezzar and you know it's kind of I don't like to talk about stuff that's in the Bible when you research secular history and look it's kind of a confusion between Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar and the name and everything and why he was away from the throne or whatever Some people say that he was Nebuchadnezzar and that this was during the time of his mental collapse or whatever, but chronology doesn't match. So we're not going to focus so much on that as we focus up on the first five verses of chapter five. It reads, Belchazar the king, I'm reading it this in the amplified version, Belchazar the king, who was a descendant of Nebuchadnezzar, gave a great feast for a thousand of his nobles and he was drinking his wine in the presence of the thousand guests. Belchazar, as he tasted the wine, gave a command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles and his wives and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the gold and silver vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God, which was in Jerusalem. And the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver and of bronze, iron, and wood and stone. Here we see as the parallel to the youth today or the young people or whatever, one thing that enters in is disrespect. Disrespect, and even our children, my children, don't respect the elders as they should. They don't respect material things. They don't respect anything as days of old. Nebuchadnezzar had respected the vessels of God. He had put them up in storage and he would use those. But in disrespect at a drunken feast, Belshazzar here got those vessels out and was giving a feast and was drinking out of them, disrespecting the God of heaven. And this is the chapter in which that expression used, the handwriting is on the wall, comes from. We're not studying that today. Today we're going to focus just on those first five verses about wine. And I wrote that wine, the title is wine is ambiguous. The word ambiguous there is that can be used for two different reasons, could be used for good reasons, and bad reasons. People have their own opinions of these things, but it's not necessarily the opinion of the Bible. So what we want to extract is what the Bible says and does. Wine is just like a car that can be used for good purposes and bad purposes. As you loan your children, as you're using a car, whatever, people give you warnings about the use of that car. A lot of things have come from drinking and driving because wine is an inhibitor. It inhibits the senses. It dulls the coordination and the reaction time in the senses. Proverbs 21 and 17 says, he who loves only selfish pleasure will become a poor man. he who loves and is devoted to wine and olive oil will not become rich. Here and again, the Bible talks in general principles. It's not a thing that everyone does this, that that's the case. So one, it's generalizing a spoken, a general truth. That is, a lot of times those people that drink or whatever, given the festivals and given to drinking occasions or whatever, and it says something about the character of the individual or whatever. Proverbs the 20th chapter in the first verse says, wine is a marker, strong drink is raging, and whoever is deceived thereby is not wise. In other words, it's just like a rock wine, a Code 45 or something. It could be dangerous in the wrong way. It could be a defense for your home, a defense, but it could also be offensive. So don't deceive yourself. Wine gives false courage, the living Bible says. A lot of people, when they get wine in them, they get a little rambunctious. You've heard the idea that people say, well, that's the liquor talking, that's the wine talking. Because, like I said, it's an inhibitor. Hard liquor leads to brawls, and what fools men are led is to let it master them, making them real drunkardly down the street. We know Noah, after the rescue, Noah was a husbandman that had a vineyard, and Noah got naked after the flood. And his son seen him naked, and that's why a curse fell up on Cana. but we see where Noah had some tragic things. Just imagine being the captain on that ship that you was on the ark and you heard the hollowing and screaming. It's like living in New Orleans doing Katrina or something, you hear people screaming and dying, and you know coming off that ark that the whole world was drowned. The whole world was gone. People had, all was gone. That's a lot on an individual, you know. We don't, we be reading the Bible or whatever, but we don't think, we don't, Something is wrong today that with the television age and being desensitized and everything, it's hard for us to put ourselves in other people's places or do a whole lot of thinking. And I think television has messed that up. Social media and things has messed a whole lot of things up. Whereas books open up the mind and imagination. That's why I constantly give you a lot of papers and things because reading is different. People will tell you before you see a movie or something, make sure you read the book or whatever because usually the book is better than the movie or whatever because it allows your mind to think. It allows your mind to imagine and put it in the right context. Proverbs 23 and 31 says don't let the sparkle in the smooth taste of strong wine deceive you. And that's where the ambiguity is the ambiguousness of wine is because wine is made and it's good and it is tasty and it is for it strengthens you in a certain way, but that's in moderation. That's in moderation. It's nothing to be in anything in excess, that could be. Gluttony, if you drink, eat too much food. That's gluttony, you eat too much. That's not good for your health or whatever. You know that's a sin to eat too much. That's what you call gluttony. Sexual addicts or sexual promiscuity, and we have that today. Most women and girls or men, before they get married or whatever, they've had I don't know how many different relationships or whatever. because we are against God. We deal in physical, unrestrained pleasure. And that's why the flesh and blood of the carnal man is imitating against God. And that's what inheriting, getting the spirit, being given the spirit. When he gives you the spirit, we have to bring our body under self-restraint, under self-control. We have to learn to control our desires and the things that we do, the lust of the flesh. There are three portals in which Satan can enter into the body. The lust of the heart, in other words, of the mind, the nucleus of your thinking. The lust of the eyes, through eyesight. Eve saw the trees and it was one to make one It was good looking, it was advertising and appealing, but we have to watch beauty. And that's what he's saying, watch wine when it sparkles in the glass. Nice red wine, white wine, whatever type wine it is. They didn't have beer and other alcoholic beverages such as then back then, but beer and thing. I used to always drink Budweiser. We think about a cold Budweiser or whatever. As I was saying yesterday in the book of Ecclesiastes, when Solomon said, there's nothing better than for a man to eat, drink, and enjoy the fruit of his labor. You should do roofing work or whatever. You come home and have hard work or whatever, have your cold butt wise or some people have a shot of liquor or whatever. The Bible doesn't prohibit that or whatever. But the overindulgence of that, when it's in excess, when it becomes a controlling factor, when it becomes addictive, in other words, some people can't do without a drink, Proverbs 30. 1, 4 through 7 says, it is not for kings, O Lemur, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes to drink strong drink, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. Give strong drink unto them that are ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy heart. let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more. And that's what I was telling you about. No one was trying to forget the memory or whatever, but that's kind of like a panacea. And though it's not recommended that that's what that's that you use that as an antidote for you not being able to rejoice in God. See, that's what Solomon was talking about. We need the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God should lift us up. But to those of us who hadn't retched that or gotten into that process of singing psalms and hymns and praising God and knowing how to rejoice in the Lord and ever increasing faith, then he is a stimulant. It's like coffee or something. So it's not like I was talking with my brother yesterday. He had called from Georgia. He had went somewhere or whatever, but he was saying he had to have his three or four cups of coffee. He could drink coffee. I said, well, one cup and I'm good for the day. If I have one cup of coffee, I'm good for the rest of the day. I was just reading an article or whatever. Too much coffee is not good for you, but a cup of coffee is good for the heart. It's good against strokes and things. It's part of a good daily routine or whatever. But like I said, anything in excess. And it says give strong drink to them that are perishing. But I was telling you, I think yesterday also, about the old gentleman that was taking medications and different thing for cancer. He has patriotic cancer stage four that he died from. But toward the end, I was buying alcohol or something for him. But as the Bible says, give that to those that was ready to perish. You remember when Jesus was on the cross, they offered him wine, vinegar on a sponge to lessen the pain, to lessen the addiction. Most people give you a painkiller, a pain shot before they die. do surgery or operation or something on you. And that's why I say we need to know these things. So when we address things that people say, well, y'all are teetotalers or whatever. A lot of people say, well, it's no use in me going to church because I can't abide by doing this or whatever. But you need to learn what God says. That's why Jesus says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. So if you preaching that, some people preaching and teaching, oh, he got beer in his house, he got wine, he do this or whatever. Well, see, now you're crossing into an area where it's opinionated because you prohibited something scripture doesn't prohibit. So that's why we learn and study the word of God and draw nigh to God because he's not this brutal, vindictive God and not an understanding God. That's why Jesus came in the flesh. And I was telling you yesterday about Jesus drinking of the fruit of the vine and he said he made a promise that he will he wouldn't drink it anymore now and that's why we own this scripture here it says it is not for kings Olamil it is not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to desire strong drink otherwise they drink and forget the law and its decrees and pervert the rights and justices of all the afflicted But we see that it's for those that are oppressed, those that are downtrodden. They're not in positions of making calls or doing the things that they're doing. We see in the Book of Timothy where the bishops, where the deacons and the women were able to drink, but not given the wine. When it says given to wine, in other words, these things control you. You have to have it, you know, you would have to have it or whatever. There's different cancer drugs and things that's going on and people smoke marijuana for the nausea of it, to offset some of the things that the chemicals in the cancer treatment do. But he has said in his word that he had given us every herb bearing seed. They wonder what was the peace pipe that the Indians were smoking or whatever, what type of aphrodisiac, what it was or was it medicinal or whatever. But what we have to do is stop being so critical and judgmental and find out what the Bible says and why it says it and when it says it and whether we leave it in the context in which it belongs. Paul told Timothy, some of these things we're going to discuss Wednesday night, but Paul told Timothy to drink a little wine for his often infirmities. In other words, for his stomach. During those days and during those times, Wine was a little bit better to drink than water because water would have the bacteria and the different things in it that would make you sick whereas the fermentation in the wine, the alcohol in the wine, would kill the bacteria, some of the organisms in the wine. And like I said, I have this, I emails it to those of y'all with the email address, and I give a copy to those that don't have an email to take it or whatever. Isaiah 5 and 11 through 12 says, woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink and continue into the night. He said, judgment is coming to those who stay up late in the night till wine inflames them. Music and song and you know, feasting. But they do not regard and not even pay attention to the deeds of the Lord. Notice that he brings the deeds of the Lord in there because If it's in moderation and you're thinking of the Lord, well, you'll realize that I can't meditate on God's word because now the wine is causing my thoughts to be unordered and organized. It's like, you know, I'm thinking the wrong thoughts or whatever. And so God limits, he puts a limit on these things so that we can stay focused. He doesn't deny your pleasure. It's like Blue Bell ice cream. He said, don't not eat it, but don't sit there and eat a half gallon of it. So we have to realize that God is a good God and he has provided. He's seen that everything that he had made, it was good. Everything that God had made is good. Well, he says, woe to those that get up early in the morning chasing strong drinks. Guys in the lot across the house, across from me or whatever, used to be sitting out in the lot and they'd wake up in the morning with a 40 ounce. They're sitting out there with a bottle of liquor and all of that. Well, now that's a problem. Because that's your lifestyle. You didn't enter into your lifestyle. As I said, I can't tell you when the best thing to drink or whatever, but you would want your doctor or someone that's about to fly your airplane or someone that's about to drive you to a destination to be drinking. You don't want them to drink and drive. You don't want to be on the highway with them. So we know that it kind of lowers the inhibitions or whatever. Isaiah 28, chapter 1 through 7, verse says, Woe to the crown of pride of Ephraim, drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine. But they also have erred through wine and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink. They are swallowed up of wine. They are out of the way through strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment. Remember, Nahab and Abihu. Aaron's sons was destroyed because they were drinking wine. They were drunk in the Bible. We'll talk about that one Wednesday also in the book of Leviticus. Forbid priest while they're on duty for drinking. So while drunk they offered strange fire unto the Lord. In other words, you know, they're kind of drunk or whatever and they say it doesn't make any difference just so we offer this fire to God, offer this fire to God, but it was the wrong place. They offered the fire, and God destroyed both of Aaron's sons and told Aaron not to look like he disagreed with what God had did. We can't coddle our children. We can't coddle our relatives, our friends, our associates, the people we know. Wrong is wrong, no matter who do it. And that's why he says, teach these laws. That's why I teach it to y'all. That's why we teach it over the years. That's why the preacher, that's why the church, but he says, even the priest is drunk. See, a lot of times you go a little bit easy on something, a sin that you're involved in. It's like a pet scene, you know? It's those things of pets, but we have to be aware of pets, you know? We having a pet alligator or a pet. A while back, people were buying these Dalmatians when 101 Dalmatians came out and it was a pet. Well, it's a cute little dog while it's a puppy, while it's young, but it's gonna grow up. We have to be aware of those pet sins, those sins that we think that we could control and call it, as we say, a little white lie or something. A lie is a lie, whether it's white, black, or blue, or green. A lie is a lie. So we can't have pet sins. We can't have some of these other things. That's why I say the ambiguousness of wine doesn't put wine in a category that it's evil. Just like the Bible tells us, it's not a sin to be rich, to have money, but it's the love of money. When you make money, you're idle. When you worship money, when you sell your body for money, when you do anything for money, now you've turned something that's neutral. Money is neither bad nor good. God didn't create money. Man came up with money. God, you know, you had a barter system. You remember the barter system? Where as if you got a chicken or something and I got goats or hogs or something, we'd trade you some meats or something. We'd trade material things or whatever. But see, money and things are not evil intrinsically within themselves, so also is not wine. So here we see the priest error through wine and drink. Also, when we talk about drunk, and we'll talk about that Wednesday, also being drunk in the spirit instead of being drunk with wine. In other words, if anything will control you, let the spirit control you. You be in the word of God to where that shall control and you being led by the spirit, not being led by carnal desires and promiscuity. Isaiah 56, 9-12 says, all the beasts of the field, all you beasts, that is the hostile nations in the forest, come to eat. Israel's watchmen are blind, they are without knowledge, they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark. Panning, lying down, they love the slumber, and the dogs are greedy. They never have enough, they are shepherds with who have no understanding. They have all turned to their own way, each one to his own unlawful game. Come, and they say, we'll get some wine and have a party. Let's all get drunk. We see that in the promises of the things of this nation. When he says, come you beast, in other words, it's scriptural, we realize that the other nations shall feast off this nation. This nation is like the nation of Israel was. The nation of Israel was God's chosen people. It was to be a religious example to the other people. But their leadership politically and religiously was intoxicated with power. We see the leaders today are intoxicated with power and some of the leaders that should have power are operating powerless. So we see a nation that was supposedly a Christian nation based on Christian values are being led by false Christians, false religions, and false teachings. You could pull that chair around if you need to place that Bible into it. All of these things is why God tells the older men and the younger men of this generation that we need to study to show ourselves approved. In other words, we need to come to Bible study more. We need to study the word of God more because we're in a fight today. This is war. This is spiritual warfare. But a lot of us are not able to war because we don't have any bullets. We don't have a weapon. The Bible is supposed to be our sword. That's our reward. That's what we use to fight. That's the only offensive weapon he has given us. But how many of us know the Bible? He says, my people are being destroyed for the lack of knowledge. So those people that's going to be strong, the young men and the older men, that's going to be strong in this day and age to finish this battle of those that know the word of God, because Satan is going to do just as he did with Jesus. That's what he's going to come after you with is the word of God. He's but confuse you with the Word of God and a lot of people just like this past week So they came in to Easter and nobody knows understand what each is about that it's pagan That the people that don't understand that yeah, there was a resurrection there is Jesus had been resurrected and we should resurrect daily, but there's no good Friday there because it He was in the grave three days and three nights. You can't get three days and three nights. But then they use Jewish teachings to say different things. I don't want to run down that rabbit trail. But then we have pagan holidays such as Christmas. That's not the birthday of Christ. Most religions and most people say, well, we know it's not the birth of Christ. Do you know it was against the law when the United States was first created? When they came and established the United States, it was against the law to celebrate Christmas. But that's why he say his people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. And we teach these very things to our children. We get off track and we see Belchaza was off track here. He didn't know what to do when he seen the handwriting on the wall. It was his grandmother that came in and told him, he says, if you don't understand that, y'all don't know the writing and can't interpret the writing, go find Daniel. She didn't call him Belchaza. She said, go find Daniel. If you find Daniel, he can tell you what those words say. They was at a drunken feast, drinking out of the vessels of God, disrespecting God. And when they found Daniel, Daniel interpreted writing for Daniel had fell out of favor. Here's a man that was known for the spirits of the living God that they live in. that god dwelt in daniel and god talked with daniel but daniel was somewhere in the basement or somewhere way off or whatever and they had to go find daniel you know the young people nowadays they don't know the things that the older people knew and they're not learning from the older people they're just pushing that aside and saying well that's old-fashioned or whatever and we don't need to live there no one asks for the young lady's hand in marriage anymore No one respects the father. A couple of weeks ago, me and my wife was looking at it where the guys was outside doing something to this young lady. She was 16 or 17 years old or whatever. And the daddy came out there to try to stop it or whatever. And he said, what you got to do with this old man or whatever? And he said, well, that's my daughter. But then the guy shot the father. But that's the age and the time we're living. So God's about to bring judgment upon this world. He's about to bring judgment upon this nation. We see this nation is in for a fall. This nation is gonna fall. That's why we need to be in Christ. We need to be that remnant that comes out of Babylon and know the word of God, because as I was speaking yesterday about praising God and seeking the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God is around us, but it's not a material kingdom, it's a spiritual kingdom. This world is falling apart. The control of this world is changing hands. The kingdom of this world is becoming the kingdom of God. So as it becomes the kingdom of God and we pray that thy kingdom come, the structure of this world, the foundations has to fall away. Jesus said this world is passing away. So the material things that we inherit as we inherit the earth, you will have to be able to learn to judge the world. That's why our sobriety is necessary. If we're all priesthood, he says, we go rule and reign as kings and priests. We should be asked to priest because the priest wasn't given to strong drink. The priest wasn't given. They had to be sober and vigilant. because the adversary was trying to trip them up. So I'm not saying it applies to everybody in the church, but the elders and the leaders of the church have to abstain from these things, but they have to know these things. You know, people used to get up in the church and say, I don't know much about the Bible or whatever, but you know, I just want to say a little bit. Well, sit down. We don't want to hear you if you don't know much. If you don't know nothing, we don't want to hear you. We're trying to learn. We're trying to go on to the high calling in Christ Jesus. We're pressing on toward the high marking Christ Jesus. So just because you crowd in here on Sunday and say that Christ died for your sins, everybody know that, blah. Who don't know that? The devils believe in tremor, but that doesn't mean they have faith. That doesn't mean you saved just because you say Jesus rose from the dead. Faith has works. If you actually believe that, you'll be walking in obedience to Christ. You'll be pulling off the old man and putting on the new man, the new man that's in Christ Jesus. That means dying the self and dying the self pleasure because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Hosea 4 in 11 says, whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart. And the amplifier that reads prostitution, wine, and new wine take away the mind and spiritual understanding. The living reads wine, women, and song have robbed my people of their brains. It's done rotted your brains. It's done dull. The Bible says you've become dull of hearing. That same old thing, you have become desensitized to news and everything. You're not aghast of the killing of the horror because of the shows and what social media and what the television, everything is blast at us. We're not shocked by anything that happened now. Nothing really shocks us anymore. It's become commonplace. We need a spiritual renewal. We need awakening from God. The book of Habakkuk, the second chapter, in the fifth verse says, moreover, wine is treacherous. And you remember I told you, don't be deceived by it. It'll creep up on you. A few glasses here and a little bit here and there. Before you know it, you will stagger. Or it's going to get you to talk in a way you kind of talk, talk, stir, you know, kind of creeping the words together. You know, and if you've been there, and that's what I say, our testimony, the testimony we can give is like Nebuchadnezzar's testimony when Nebuchadnezzar said, I, Nebuchadnezzar, and he was praising and extolling God because he had been down to the bottom. Have you ever been down to the bottom? You ever been hugging a toilet, a commode in the middle of the night, puking your guts out? Have you ever been trying to wonder how you got in that ditch? Have you wondered about all of these things? Think about, see, if you hadn't been there, you can't tell nobody else about that. See, but you could warn your children, don't do this. Don't do this, this will mess your life up. This is a mess, you can lose your job. And when he says you'll be broke with it, it's gonna cost you money bonding out of jail and all of these different things or whatever. And all of the losses that you entail, you can be a witness for God. Now you can use that experience God had given you in life to be able to tell others, don't do that. But don't let it deter you when you face that old saying, well, I wanna learn by myself. Sometimes you do have to learn by yourself. But I had someone that was in my family that I was telling things or whatever and running around with their cousin or whatever and told them these things or whatever. And I had $5,000 or $6,000 in the bank there and got in a little trouble in jail or whatever. Dad, can you come get me? No, I can't come get you. I got to put a roof on my house because Your children, your friends and other people have you broke also bailing them out of problems that they have. Don't let other people make their problems your problem. You help if you can help. But then if God's blessing you, sometime we could be like crabs in a barrel. People can stay in your pocket so much that you're not realizing and sometime God has to bind your finances. God have to bind you to be able to bind them and teach them the lesson he's trying to teach them. Because he knows that if you have it you will help them out and that you're not alone That's why with my sons and daughters They have to learn Now I can go to my grave and know or realize that I've taught him that you need to work son If you don't work, you don't eat None of my children are really lazy. They've all had jobs. They've all been working ever since they were young. What's gonna happen if you coddle them? See, that's why God doesn't coddle us. That's why he chastens every son that he receives. Because he's the thing that if our children, if we don't teach, and if I, as a pastor, don't teach you to stand up on your own two feet, you got a problem. Every tub has to learn to sit up on its own bottom. What you could do when mama or daddy is not here, what the song says, lean on somebody to lean on. God's gonna remove every obstacle that you're trying to lean on or use so that you lean on Him and trust Him. And the way you lean on and trust Him and have faith that He's gonna supply you is that you walk in obedience to Him. Because you know, if you do something wrong and you fall and your parents didn't tell you, it's that, you know, it's God's the same way. You come to pray to God and say all these things to God. Oh, Daddy, you was right. You know, I understand. I'm ready to listen now. Yeah, because you got it in a bind. You're in a bind. Now you want to listen. I'm not going to say, I told you so, or whatever. You know, when they go to talking low and ready to concede. But see, after a while, see, God's smart, and he knows how to bring us to the point where he, that's why we need to learn. That's why he says, bend the sap while it's young. He says you must learn to discipline your children. God disciplines us and he chastens us. But those of us, you see old fools just like you see young fools. Some of us never learn. And that's the same thing with wine. That addiction, sometimes you have to let it go. You have to let that pet tiger, that pet dog that you have, because as I was talking about a couple of weeks, that dog that you can't discipline, that bite, try to bite you every once in a while or snap at you, it's like keeping a rattlesnake for a pet or whatever. One of these days, that thing will bite you and kill you. It's gonna turn on you. One of these days, that anaconda that you keep that bull cut straight to go wrap around your neck and your neck to be able to get it loose. One of these days, that son or daughter will raise up and get old enough to tell you where to go. They will tell you what they ain't gonna do, and they'll try to lay hands on you, try to shoot you or something. We hear it all the time. Those pet scenes, those things that you think you could control, Beware, only God can control anything. God's sovereignty, and that's what Nebuchadnezzar seen. But his son, his grandson at least didn't learn that lesson. We seen where he was patient with Nebuchadnezzar, but we don't see so much patient with Belshazzar. Belshazzar died that same night. They don't tell, the Bible don't tell exactly what it is, but secular and history tells that he was dethroned that night. Daniel didn't accept what he was trying to give him because he was about to bite the bullet. You ain't seeing revelations, people throwing away money and giving away these things. It's too late now, the bail is wrong. Sometime when it's too late, don't try to pay nobody off or pay God off. You're in prison and I'm gonna go act right. Yeah, you go act right because you can't do anything wrong right now. They got you to where you bound. What happens when you lose, when you're in control of your own? Ephesians 518 says, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. The Amplified reads, do not get drunk with wine for that is wicked, is corruption and stupidity, but be filled with the Holy Spirit and constantly guided by Him. This living verse, this is a little bit more plain in the living version of the Bible. It says, don't drink too much wine. It doesn't say don't drink wine, does it? Don't drink too much wine, for many evils lie along that path. Be filled instead with the Holy Spirit. So a few friends or people get together, tailgating at a party or something or whatever, you have a few beers, drink or two or whatever and you go home or you enjoy it and everything but you don't need to get drunk and wally in it to where y'all fighting one another and to where all of these things that precede the works of the flesh family reunions and get-togethers there are a lot of shooting and dissipation and things sexual promiscuity or whatever, you looking at somebody's wife or girlfriend and the wine is taking control of you and the lust of the flesh sets in and you doing something, the wine is controlling you, you touch somebody or do something you shouldn't touch or say something you shouldn't do. So the warning against drunkenness lies in here. I'm not gonna be able to do all of these today, but we will go as far as we can. Let's do a few more scriptures. It says, remember I told you, bad associations. You don't want to be entangled with some people. Like it says, Proverbs 23, 20 through 21, do not associate with heavy drinkers of wine or with gluttonous eaters of meat. For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, and the drunkenness of overindulgence will clothe one with rags. Are you spending all your money on food and drink? Those are pleasures of the flesh. Sometimes you have to starve the body to make it spiritually strong. That's why it teaches us fasting. Like I can do some more fast. I need to do a good bit of fasting myself. But we need to learn to not be controlled by our bodies, but to be controlled and led by the spirit because our bodies are not actually our bodies. They belong to God. They belong to another, and we have to treat it as such. So if you're inclined to alcohol or whatever, I wouldn't go around with a buddy or someone that's also an alcoholic or whatever. I'm strengthened at iron, so if you have a friend or something that said, well, man, we shouldn't drink this, or we shouldn't do this, or we didn't have enough. That's what you need. That's why we need the fellowship of one another, where we can strengthen one another and mind one another verbally. See, because we know the Bible and we study and meditate, but we need some time for a friend or somebody to come along and speak to us. But we're so independent, we're so competitive, you can't tell me what to do or you can't run my life. Sometimes when people criticize or tell you something, it's for your own well-being. fateful of the wounds of a friend because you don't want a friend or somebody and Something happened to you and then you say well, man, why you didn't tell me that It's just because when I try to tell you something you jump down my throat and you get so critical or hurt my feelings or get so confrontational with me that I just leave you alone Is it that way with your children that you don't tell them you to the point that you don't tell them anything anymore? Because I can't say anything because you get antagonistic about it. There's a confusion and a problem here So I just pray to God that he teaches you it in a way and I turn you into the hands of God Proverbs 23 2931 said, whose heart is filled with anguish and sorrow? Who is always fighting and quarreling? Who is the man with bloodshot eyes and many wounds? It is the one who spends long hours in taverns trying out new mixtures and drinking. Don't let the sparkle and the smooth taste of wine deceive you. So y'all sitting out there drinking your cold Brewsters or whatever, are you at home? Most domestic Altercations come, the man and the woman, they're drinking at home in a quiet evening. For long, somebody get too over drunk. and somebody say something they shouldn't say, it gets all disordered and before you know it, it's a fight going on, the police have to intercede. Somebody gets hurt, somebody gets shot because, like I say, with drinking, that's kind of a mixed bag. Everything comes out of drinking. Sometimes you start thinking about old wounds or things somebody did you months or years ago or whatever. The alcohol loosens your inhibitions. You start trying and doing things, and it says who has sorrow, who has woe. Well, the next day, you're feeling all messed up, or you done bumped into something, or fell and hurt yourself, or ran into somebody, or did all kinds of things. It's all because of the alcohol, this ambiguous thing that's good for you. Paul says all things are lawful. But all things are not expedient, you shouldn't use all things. It's a time and a season for all things. Blessed, please ask this 10 and 17. Woe to the land when the king is a child and whose leaders are already drunk in the morning. Happy the land whose king is a nobleman and whose leaders work hard before they feast and drink, and then only to strengthen themselves for the task ahead. And that's what I was telling you. You work hard, you had a hard day's work or whatever, and you come in and you get you a little nip or whatever, the Bible tells us there's no harm in those things. It strengthens us for the battle sometime. But when it's dependent upon you, and when you're encumbered that you need this as a necessity, and that's the desires of the flesh that you consume in it, in such a way as an excess that it could control you, that you're not in control. You need to always stay in control of the situations. When driving along in your car, if you run into somebody or something happens with your vehicle, the police usually ticket you with a ticket saying failure to maintain control. In your home, you don't want to have a failure to maintain control. We have to stay under the word of God because we have to depend on God to control the situations just as he's controlling us. God is the controlling factor, and that's why he says, those that are not mindful of God. So if you're drinking, the best place for God to be is right there with you. Don't try to dismiss God. because you need God to be able to tell you you've had enough and that you've had a taste and see, and now you're ready to go. The book of Habakkuk, second chapter. You got your Bible there? Habakkuk. What I'm gonna start doing 215 but the time is coming when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Whoa judgment is coming. So judgment has to come God has to remove evil doers. He have to remove the the disobedient for the earth to be full of the knowledge of God. That's when the kingdom of God is coming in. When everybody's going into the house of God, everybody's learning to operate by the principles of God. That's the kingdom of God. When it comes, everybody's on that same page. But we're not, see, because the Bible tells us they shall beat their weapons into plowshares. In other words, those things that they use to destroy and hurt people will be just like, y'all seen the movie Demolition Man with Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes? When Wesley Snipes got out of Criot Prison or whatever, the only place that they could find a gun was in a museum. Just think in the kingdom of God that you can't find a gun or a knife or a weapon. All of these things have been changed into weapons to produce good. It's like one of the most powerful things we have is nuclear power plants, right? But just think, if nuclear power plants was only used to provide electricity and not bombs, The only thing that you can do with a nuclear thing is to provide electricity or use it for agricultural purposes. So this is where we're going in. That's why I say, we have to start trusting and believing God to walk by faith to bring it to that point. We have to expel the evil out of the earth. The only way we can do that is by lining up with his word, studying his word and getting ourselves right because judgment is moving everything. Judgment begins at the house of God. Everything that's not in line with God, God moves out of the way. He says, war and judgment is coming. Woe to those who make your neighbors drink, who mix wine in your venom to make them drunk, so that you may look at their nakedness. You will be filled with this grace instead of honor. New drink, expose your own nakedness. The cup of wrath in the Lord's right hand will come around to you. That same poison doctrine. Let's look at this from a pure spiritual perspective. That same poison doctrine that you look at to fleece your neighbor, to fleece one another. That doctrine, that cup of wine, that wrath. You remember I told you wine has a symbolism to it? The wine of God's wrath is a mixture of bad doctrine that God's gonna allow the false prophets and things and we're seeing it in this nation with a false Christianity. We have a Christian nationalism, whereas I was telling you about Christian, about Easter and Christmas and Jesus, you do know that there is another Jesus. Paul talks of another Jesus, another gospel. another teaching that's why a lot of people was against the pope and some of his teachings or whatever and that's the divisiveness we see in this nation that a lot of people that are advocating for christ don't love christ don't know christ and hate one another you can't hate your brother and love god Those that's preaching and teaching hatred. This is the wine of the wrath of the fornication of Babylon. That's why it says, come out of Babylon. That's what this young man, that's what Belshazzar was doing. He's symbolic of Babylon. He didn't see it coming. He was drunk. He was intoxicated. A lot of us are intoxicated with the wrong spiritual teaching. We've been religiously taught wrong. And when this thing snaps down on you, you know what a snare is? A snare is a trap that catches you as you're going along. It's like, not like a set trap, but this thing grab holds you, it snatches you, it kind of tears you apart. You can't get out of a snare without demolishing whatever has snared you. You lose a leg or a limb or whatever that is snared. And see, religiously, the devil snares your heart. He's a thief, he's a murderer, he's a liar, he come to kill. pillage and destroy. He's trying to take your life. He's trying to take your family. He's trying to take your kids. He's trying to take your grandkids. Are you living for your grandkids? Are you living for your kids? Really? Are you living to think of what kind of world that you're leaving behind if we leave? Because I don't think I want to leave. I want to be here when Jesus come back. I want to be the ones that's fighting that battle to see Jesus return. That's why you hear the old song that he's on the battlefield for his Lord. We want to be on this battlefield, fighting this battle against false doctrine, against false teaching. We want to stand up. Please help us. Please stop drinking the wine of Babylon. The symbolism, we're gonna start talking about symbolism. I don't know if we can talk about it this time, but it says, if a brother be a fornicator, idolater, or drunkard, knoweth not the company, because iron strengtheneth iron. You know, I don't hang around a lot of people, a lot of foolish or crazy talking and not looking forward, not looking of strengthening, it being strengthened in the Lord. The people I be trying to be around is people that can teach me something, people that can help me, and then I go and try to help others. But so far, something that's trying to bring you down, something that's speaking evil of somebody, go bring that trash, dump that garbage at somebody else's door. All that backbiting and gossiping, you take it down the street somewhere. Don't leave it here, don't bring it here. But what we need to do is speak those things which become sound doctrine. You know, if we go drink wine, let me make the wine, okay? If we go drink wine, Jesus was at the wedding feast and they ran out of wine and Jesus' mother said, you know, they out of wine, Jesus. He says, woman, what does that have to do with us? Jesus says, fill up those water pipes over there with water. They look at him and look at his mother. She says, whatever he say, whatever Jesus say do, you do it. Jesus' disciples fill the pots with water. We fill it in the pots with water. When they fill the pots with water and Jesus says, now give them the wine. That wine Jesus gave them, the man came to him and said, man, look here, what is you doing here? Says, most people hold back and after they're drunk, the wine and people are drunk, they give them the bad wine and you can't taste the difference in it. Say, but now you didn't held the best wine for the end. Jesus the wine Jesus made they said this is the best wine. We hadn't had no wine like this See if you let Jesus make the wine, that's what I'm trying to tell you They ambiguous here this this year the wine that Jesus had that's why at the table He says I won't drink it unless I till I drank it a new in the kingdom He's gonna have a wedding feast Deacon was talking yesterday as we was leaving about the feast that everybody's been gathered to. Everybody's invited to the wedding feast, but if you don't beat and put on that wedding garment If you don't beat and put on Christ and the King comes up to you He says where's your wedding garments? You don't have on clothes throw him out of here bound him hand and feet Cast him in the eye of darkness you will burn in hell if you don't follow Jesus Christ Every soul that sin it it shall die. I It shall die. Don't be drunken with the wine of this world. Be drunk with the spirit. Heavenly Father, as we come before you this day, Lord God, preaching and teaching your word, Lord God, for we know that the word can bite like a adder, that the word is sharper than a two-edged sword, penetrating to the heart and the marrow and the spirit of the soul, Lord God. It goes deep within us, Lord God. But as your word says, taste the Lord and see that he is good. Lord God, I thank you for allowing us the taste of your word today. Let it go home to the hearts of the here, Lord God. It's Wednesday, Lord God, we come in to continue in your word. But during that time, let your word be ruminating in us that we meditate on your word day and night, Lord God. Let each and every one here become stronger in you, Lord God. Praying under you, Lord God, that we would grow in corporate prayer, that we would grow in private prayer, Lord God. That we would grow in studying your word, Lord God, meditating upon your word day and night. But above all, Lord God, that we be doers of your word, that we be obedient unto your word, leaning not to our own understanding. We've had a lot of traffic from Ohio. In the past several months, there are a lot of people listening to us on Sermon Audio in the state of Ohio. And I want to thank them for listening, where that's picked up to 300 or 400 listeners a month. Upward of 400 listeners a month. We don't know the individuality of who all is listening, but we have an average of 400 listens a month from Ohio. Those in the state of Louisiana or anywhere is far behind that. But we want to invite anybody out that want to partake of the gospel with us and find a house of local worship near you. Wherever you're at, you need to join a church and follow a local worship and feast with the people of God and get strong. But we're in the latter days.