We're in the book of Daniel, Daniel the fifth chapter with Belshazzar. And they said Belshazzar was Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. It says King Belshazzar, but really he was third in line. But they said he was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and his father Nebuchadnezzar was somewhere else during the time. The reason he promised Daniel the third in the kingship of the kingdom, if he could interpret the handwriting on the wall. But he was young and trying to gain different things, but he was like this generation. They enjoyed partying and having a good time. And it says, Belchazzar, the first through the fourth verse, the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drink wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives, and his concubines might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem, and the king drank, and his princess and his wives and his concubine drank in them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver and of brass and of iron and of stone." Maybe I'll save a preaching aspect of this next Saturday, but teach about the two different types of wine. And I don't know if y'all heard the first two chapters of the first two teachings about wine, ambiguity of the two different types of wine and how people go through and tie their sails in various knots about unfermented wine and fermented wine and what type wine Jesus was speaking of. But here we see Nebuchadnezzar's grandson and they didn't have a word for, they didn't have the word grandson in Hebrew culture and that's why you hear a lot of time they say their fathers are just like we, they call the founding fathers the forefathers or whatever. But it had dissipated a great deal, and it was some 20 years after Nebuchadnezzar had stopped raining that Nebuchadnezzar had passed, and that his grandson was reigning. But he was feasting, and out of disrespect for the vessels of God, Nebuchadnezzar had these vessels in storage. But he had taken them out of storage and throwed a grand feast. We would have, at sermon preaching, if we would have entitled it, we would have entitled it, Enjoying the Good Life. There's nothing wrong with eating and drinking and being merry, but used in a certain demeanor or a certain context when The book of Luke says that there'll be eating and drinking, giving and marriage in the latter days. In other words, he was talking about being festive, but while not attentive to the things of the Lord. We have to be in moderation. And then I went over some of the scriptures about when is the proper time to drink and that God doesn't prohibit wine or alcoholic beverages, and we're not going to tie ourselves in a knot with that this afternoon. But we see where just as he had a feast that invited people to a festival, we see the marriage supper of the Lamb talked about in the Bible. We see where Jesus says that he wouldn't drink wine until he drank it new in the kingdom of God, that he would drink it new with his disciples or whatever. And it's associated with festive occasions. Wine is a drink of merriment and it makes the hearts of man and cheerful and of God, it says. The book of Judges, the 9th chapter, the 13th verse, I was reading that about Bimelech in the Scriptures, the Scripture of Quote. But our reading Scripture would have been Isaiah, the 55th chapter. And the first verse, Jesus, the gospel here preached by Isaiah, where God invited everyone to a feast, just as the Feast of the Lamb, just like the king in the book of Luke, I was saying, that had the wedding feast and invited everybody in to celebrate. the way and that's what jesus was that came in at a festive wedding and shows you that god doesn't prohibit merriment and enjoying of a feast but in those days as well as not just today because some people may not get afforded or whatever but the king provided the well the wedding garments and the festive garments any provided the jury he provided the food and drink as if it's a warning 55 and one says everyone who thirst come to the waters and you who have no money Come by grain and eat come by wine and milk without money and without cost just simply Accepted as a gift from God so the Kings and people invite invite people to the festive occasions because a lot of people that are living in poverty and don't have that everyday expense of being able to afford wine or a drink or whatever, which you didn't own a vineyard, as like neighbor had a vineyard, that if you didn't have the proper resources, that you might have not had wine to celebrate all the time. And that the king provided this, and that Solomon, when he was feasting and inaugurating the temple and everything, It's an occasion for those without even to be married and have enjoyment and pleasures that God provide with all of the feasts and holidays he had. They celebrated it along with wine because it was a festive occasion. now they are christians like the pharisees and a lot of people today that are ascetic uh... teetotallers that forbid so you shouldn't drink alcohol and beverage or whatever that's a personal opinion and a lot of those christians or whatever we see a great division in the church because of wine and alcoholic beverages, their opinion. But as I said, it's no different than if you go to the doctor and you have a tooth to be pulled or whatever. If he inject you with some sort of pain stimulant or whatever to pull the teeth, or if you have surgery and they put you on anesthesia, give you some sort of drug for pain or whatever, it would be just like an alcoholic beverage or something. if you're saying about something being infused from the body or whatever the reason, Paul says food or drink doesn't commend you to God and that there would be some that come along forbidding the marriage, forbidding that you're even having a good time. And the Pharisees didn't like the people to have a good time. You know, it's a lot of people that are envious of jealous of people having a good time. You see the churches are envious of jealous to the point they were so envious of jealous to they couldn't prohibit the people from enjoying the Super Bowl or sports or whatever. So they brought it into the church because they had those natural inclinations themselves or whatever. to be satisfied, to be joyous, to be festive or whatever. So you're straining at a net and you're swallowing a camel because you're prohibiting that which God had given man to enjoy. It's just like food, eat and drink or whatever. You know, food can become sinful if it become addictive and you become a glutton and eat too much. The same thing with sex and with anything else, too much television, too much of anything, it's not good for you. You have to learn temperance and moderation. We have to learn to be drunk with the right spirit, though. And so I want to talk from the point of view of two different types of wine and with the symbolism in this wine, because Jesus, when he was talking in the book of Luke, the fifth chapter, he was talking about old wine and new wine being put in new wineskins. No one puts old wine into new wineskins, a new wine into old wineskins, else the fermentation process would burst the new wineskins, and they'd both be spilled. You would waste the old wine, I mean the new wine, by putting it in a new wineskin, and you would burst the wineskin, so both would be lost. And it's like that with the Old Testament and the New Testament. People, that's what was at the nucleus, I think, of this parable about the old wine. It's the law, legalism. In other words, God's law be the strong wine of the Old Testament. And some people talk about, and the law is good and pure. And it says that no man that tasted the new would, you know, and had tasted the old would desire the new. And we know secularly, in secular reasoning, that the older the wine, the more vintage it has, is the better it tastes. As it's set up in the fermenting process, and so if you have certain years, they would say what better years for the grape or whatever, but that aging process would be better. But we see new wine and this new wine is the new gospel. Because we have to look at wine as being symbolic of the word of God. The symbolism that goes on even into doctrine. That's where we're looking at it from a doctrinal standpoint. Because the new wine is what Jesus Christ brought and he was confronting with a new teaching a new way of bringing in a spiritual setting the grace of God, the truth God, the truth of God, because he said he's the true vine. is the true vine. So what he was giving was the pure, unadulterated Word of God. And that's why people reject it, because they say it's a hard teaching that you teach. It's no mixture in it, whereas the Pharisees, he said, beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees, because it's mixed with leaven. It has a mixture in it. They put other things in it. And the Word of God, we know, prohibits from adding to the Word of God or taking away from the Word of God. And we see where the wrath of God is poured out in judgment, whereas wine is symbolic of judgment also, whereas the wrath of God is poured out in judgment upon the disbelievers, those who rejected the Word of God, is poured out without mixture. In other words, the full brunt of God's judgment falls upon them. So we have the Jewish dispensation as a type of parallel to the gospel dispensation, but only on the lower plane here, because Judaism, the law or whatever, if we see that that's contained in the New Testament, but Christ says, and they say, this is a much better covenant. It's a much better agreement. But it's that we would have to be able to understand the new one. That's why it says, you must be born again. So that circumcision that he gives us, we're invested, imbibed with this new wine, the spirit of being born again, the circumcision of the heart. He gives us a new heart because wine is what influences wine. Wine is symbolic of what influences you. And he says, don't be drunk with wine, but be drunk with the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit. In other words, continually being filled with the Holy Spirit, let it bring you to that point where I don't want to say inebriated, but let it be controlling you. Let it be what leads you and guides you as where wine, if you're drunken with wine or whatever, wine is a marker and it has you doing things that are not convenient because it causes you to be dull of hearing, a lack of understanding, a coordination, or right thinking. or reasonability. So Judaism is that old wine. It's the old way. It is proper that we should expect in the present harvest a similar condition of drunkenness, of stumbling. When they bring this Judaism like the Pharisees, they brought the traditions and the culture and their way of thinking. And that's what we've been influenced by the world. We've been influenced by, they call Babylon the great harlot. A lot of people want to pitch it as the Catholic church or whatever, and the children would be the Protestant church, a complete number of churches, the seven churches of Asia, the Protestant churches. But that's where the false doctrine or the false wind has come from. And that's why I say God sends the false prophets and the true prophets. The false prophets are unlike Jeremiah. He says God hadn't sent them. In other words, they are coming out to condemn people. They are coming of themselves. They're like Judas Iscariot. They come unto the people, and that's why he says, beware of the Pharisees, because they make one proselyte, and he be too fool, the child of hell, worship what you are. And now we see that they stumble at the law. Peter says, why do you go back and try to put the people or teach the people the law, something that we couldn't keep? something that you knew of or you heard and it's a lot of people teaching the law trying to teach grace or whatever but they're not born again So they can't actually have the people actualizing what God is doing in their lives to where you don't achieve full harmony that the gospel, the proclamation of the gospel is what brings you to the point of being born again to where you could understand this new wine. that you can imbibe of this new wine that's poured out. Because as they came and they were about to celebrate these things, Peter came unto the people, and as Paul was going around persecuting the church, and he was a legalist, he was a Pharisee of Pharisees, but he didn't understand or know Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has to give him a pallet. a taste for this. It says, taste of the Lord and see that he is good. You know, I'm not that cultured in wine and alcohol. And we were talking last week, you was talking about somebody giving you some vodka or something or whatever. Some people have taste buds that like vodkas, gin, bourbon. or all the different types of wine or champagne or whatever. But it's just like people that go to wine tasting and eating cheese and stuff. You have to have a palate, you have to develop a taste for it. It's the same thing with the word of God. God must birth you into his family, birth you or born you again to give you a hunger, a taste for the word of God. That's why a lot of times you could come into the church or whatever and fall asleep while the preacher's preaching. That you're not hungry and thirsty, you hadn't been praying, you're not craving to be filled with the word of God or what God is offering you. And that's why you have the churches and you have the saints ministers able to transform themselves into menaces of light, and there are two different gospels preaching, you can't drink of both cups though. You can't drink of the cup of the devil and the cup of God. So with that preaching and teaching of the word of God, as people said, the same son of the same gospel that saves some condemns others. That's why people get jubilated, and some people, if you're in, say, particular churches and everything, they're only gonna preach you prosperity messages and things because that's what you have a taste for, is prosperity toward money, toward healing, or certain different things. You don't have a balanced life. You're not looking for a balanced meal. You're not considered repenting and turning from yourself. You must first be convicted that you are lost and that you are a sinner and that you need help and that what I'm about to give you is gonna be help. It's gonna be medicine that heals you and that brings about a healing process in you. But if you coming looking for, Jesus says, the only reason y'all came to me, Peter said, the people are looking for you, the crowds are looking for you. He said, they just coming because I fed them and I healed them. They're not coming to hear the word of God. See, the word of God is what necessarily a necessity that makes you whole and that what causes you to cheer and what causes you to praise God. And that gives you an inward joy, an inward peace, and an inward happiness. And that's the wine, he said, buy wine without money, without cost me, because why? It's the word of God has this effect on you. It has an effect of being able to make you holy. It has an effect to make you heal. But then if you're looking for praise, and some people are praise addicts, as the Pharisees was wanting the praise of men, they like for people to say good things about them. people to run after them. Some people are power addicts. Their panacea is power. We have an authoritarian president now. We have people that crave power. There are people that crave material things. There are people that are seeking after all of these things. But none of them are fulfilling because they're not seeking God. That's why it tells you seek first the kingdom of God. All of these other things will be added to you. Because if you're feeling yourself, if you love money, you'll never be satisfied with money. You'll never have enough of money because there's a material desire that your human nature, that you are human and that you are returned to dust and that the word of God, the word of life, the thing that sustains us, sustains you and gives you eternal life. You don't have a desire for that. You have no reason to turn to God because all of that goes with loving your enemies and loving your fellow man. So you don't wanna drink of this wine. But he told Jeremiah, he said that he was gonna send him to the nation and he says that they gonna drink the cup. they gonna drink the cup of Babylon, they gonna drink the wine of his wrath of destruction. You would drink the cup whether you wanna drink the cup or not. And remember I told you it's the wealthy, it was the rich people that had these resources that they needed to share with the others. They took a ordinary thing like the love feast and the love feast continued in the church after Christ's death. Paul was writing to the Corinthians that they were having the love feast And those that had money, that had wealth and had the wine and all of these things, they had gotten drunk on their own wines before the other people come. He says, you're not sharing these things and some are drunken and some having to do without. And when they come, he said, you don't have houses and things to eat and drink in. He didn't say these things was wrong, but you using a festival designed for God, for fellowship and worship and praise, you using it the wrong way. wine or anything else used the wrong way. That's why when he brought in, he used a physical thing that we could understand, fornication and adultery. But he was actually talking about the worst of these two, spiritual fornication and spiritual adultery. See, because when they came down from the mountain and Joshua heard the people rejoicing and everything, but Moses says, this is not the sound of people praising and worshiping God, this is the sound of people sporting a drunken orgy of festival. They wasn't praising and worshiping God, it was self-pleasure. So there's nothing wrong, Solomon says, nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of his labor. God had created those things and he's not a stick in the mud where he tells you you're prohibited from doing these things. Well, let's get them in the proper perspective and in the proper way. Now, that's what Israel stumble at, and that's where it says Jesus Christ would be a stumbling block to some. He's a stumbling block to some of those in the church. That's where we see the division in the church, and that's why he said he was gonna fight against the church, and he was gonna come, and his day of judgment, that vindication, that vengeance that he was gonna take in the book of Revelations, we see it in Revelations 18 and three. The verse states that all of the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality. This is a powerful metaphor for the global impacts of Babylon's seductive and destructive ways. And that's why I say, let's look at ourselves as being Babylon. Each nation can look at themselves as being Babylon, because we see China, we see all of these nations. If we read in the book of Jeremiah, the 25th chapter, that he sent Jeremiah to all of these nations to have them drink of the cup. It wasn't an actual literal cup that he was taking around. but it was the gospel, the form and fashion of the sound doctrine. God's people were scattered throughout, and the devil comes and partakes of the gospel. He comes of the word of God, but he don't understand it. He's like Belshazzar. Belshazzar was feasting and drinking. They knew what the word said, but they didn't have a meaning or understanding to it. They didn't have a meaning or understanding to them. All of the nations have drunk, all of the, and we see Babylon has been fallen and it fell first. It was destroyed first. And we see this nation as in a fallen state. It won't ever rise again. You can make all the promises that you want or whatever. The remnant that's gonna be left, the ones that's gonna enjoy the fruit and the material blessings, the one that's drinking this wine and knowing the kingdom of God, will be God's chosen people. His holy people, that's why he tells them and invites them to the marriage supper of the lamb to come in and feast. Revelations 14 and eight, another angel declares, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city because she made all nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. This one emphasizes the destructive nature of Babylon's influence. In other words, of the doctrine of Babylon, the teaching of Babylon, the teaching of false religion. The teaching of false religion, because religion is the biggest panacea, it's the biggest enemy that influences the people. You'd better believe in religion. Religion is a belief system. But then Jude came and he seen the destruction and coming in that the salvation was lacking because they wasn't contending for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. In other words, they were hearing the word of God, but it didn't carry any power with it. It was like Apollos, he was a powerful, powerful orator, a real good preacher. But Aquilas and Paricilus says there's something lacking from him. They ask him, have you received the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, since you believe? He says he hadn't even heard whether there'd be a Holy Ghost. So there are many preaching the Word of God. They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof because, why? They're not living self-denial. They're not dying to the self. That old man is not dying. It's strange for them to give up Christmas. It's strange for them to give up the traditions of the world the way that they had been taught about families in the world. When Jesus Christ was saying, who is my mother? Who is my father and my brother? He says, those that are my brothers and sisters are those that do the will of the father. Now, see, we're taught that blood is thicker than water. We're taught that family at all costs. See, but sometimes your mama might be wrong. Your daddy might be wrong, your brothers and sisters might be wrong. Jesus says, who are those that are my brothers and sisters, but those that do the will of my father. Those are the ones that he's creating in his image and his likeness because they are born again and they are both following the will of God and they know that this is the doctrine of God. He says, if any man would do his will, would hear this, he would know that it is of God. See, we know the teachings of man that are lacking Sometime have you been in churches or see people falling away from churches? That's because it's not supplying their needs Now whether they have converted or not Paul says they live from among us because they were not of us And I said a dog will leave home if you're not feed So if you're in a church that's preaching the truth and you're hungering and thirsting for righteousness, you will hold on. You know, that's why a lot of women, a lot of people stay in abusive situation because it is supplying a need that they have. It may be a perverted need. It may be a a need that's blinded by other sustaining thing, and that need may drive them to death or something. And that's why the people of God, Joshua said, you can't serve the Lord, because why? They were holding on to the other gods, to the other sins, and God says, you must deny self. You must deny to those self pleasures, those little pet sins, those little things that you think that you can embrace, that the gospel is telling you that you have to loose these things, and they have to be exercised on you. That's why it's a lot of people that still lie to one another. It's a lot of people in church that envies with all of these defects and flaws. And Paul says that you cannot inherit the kingdom of God is these things be in you. The gospel has to wash you, the gospel has to clean you. Yeah, well, Revelations 14 and 10 says, those who worship the beast and his image are said to drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength of his cup of wrath. This highlights the severe judgment awaiting those who reject God. A lot of people, even the secular people in this nation says it's something wrong with the Christianity here in this nation because it doesn't have the attributes that Jesus Christ had. In other words, it's high-minded, it's proud, it's self-centered, it's complacent, it's apathetic. It doesn't resemble the gospel that left Jerusalem. The church when it left Jerusalem was on fire. We have people being on fire for God. Jeremiah says it's like, fire shut up in my bones. But he got so many dead and dull Christians now that you want to get away from around them. They're so pathetic. They're such losers that you just have to go off somewhere by yourself or they'll drain your battery down. There's no cheer, there's no joy. So they are not partaking of the gospel of God because like Paul and Silas, they were in prison, they were singing songs and being merry and praise God because they were being beat for Jesus Christ's sake. We're being beat because we're upholding the gospel, but nowadays people, they're always complaining and murmuring that somebody's doing them something. And Paul says you should rejoice when you fall into divers trials and temptations and all of these things that happen to you. Count it all joy! For the Lord is testing those people that are putting you through that. God's gonna pour out of his wrath upon them. He's gonna turn the tables on them now. We have to be able to endure this. That spouse that's mistreating you, that parent, that child, whoever it is. Every transgression to receive is just recompense of reward. Now don't be drunk with wine. Be clear of hearing. Do you hear the gospel? That's why Jesus said, all of those with ears to hear. The gospel is being preached. That thing which gives you joy, you might think I'm living a dull and a pathetic life, but inside that thing is praying on all ceilings. You're just as joyful because why? You're looking for the day of the Lord and you see the day of the Lord that we're in the midst of it. Can't you see the movement that's going on in this nation, that's going on in this world? Can't you just feel him right at the door? It says this, Revelation 19 and 15, the Lord is depicting us trampling the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, which suggests the ultimate judgment and punishment of those who oppose God. You know, people were talking about some of the things that were happening that the government was misusing or doing to the people. And I'm not saying all of the people, but some of the people. As the judgment is falling, a lot of people are indiscriminately losing their jobs, losing their livelihood, losing all these things. Okay, you think you're doing something now. But payday is coming back sooner or later. What happens when God starts trampling out the grace of wrath? It's nothing you can do about man oppressing you, man shortchanging you, the misery. As Mother Colbin used to sing, I used to love to hear her sing that song because he says, you don't treat me like you used to since I laid my burden down. You see, we've been carrying the burden of the world. We've been carrying all this false religion because this is what your parents and your people thought. And they didn't know God. They didn't have a relationship with God in which God, this new wine that has given you, this joy, this happiness that he's given you. I remember my mother was telling me, you pray to God, you pray to the Father in Jesus' name. And I'm thinking this new thing about Jesus and things, but it's old. You still pray to God. But you see, when you start getting an understanding of why that you pray to God in Jesus' name, it's because it says, ask the Father anything in my name and that will be. So we're not dismissing the Father. God, the Father in the Old Testament, God is our Father. And that's why Jesus, later on, I told you, he told the rest of them, he said, now pray our Father, because God's not everybody's father. Jesus made that clear. He said, you of your father, the devil. So he told them right. You see, we have to parse this gospel out because it's not applicable to everyone. As Job's friends, some of the things that they were saying were true scripturally, but it wasn't applicable to Job. Job was a perfect and upright man in the sight of God, but God was doing something else in Job's life. It was a whole different purpose, the reason God was allowing all of these things to come on Job. but they were drunk with the wine of the world just as the pharisees are drunk with the wine of the world. They think godliness is gained just because some of your children or people have more than you have and they're materially sound. They're living a good life and they're healthy. A lot of people with health and strength in their older days and everything thinking they're such godly people or whatever and why so many people have cancer and they're suffering and we're not contemplating why are they taking the righteous away. That person has ran his course. God had given him a cross to bear and they've ran that course. There may be the soul slain under the altar asking when Lord, when are you going to take vengeance and avengeance of what has happened to us? See, God is listening, and we all have that time, but we can't get drunk with the wine of this society. We can't look at others and everything and start imbibing their wine. And that's why so many people that are so-called Christians are in between, because you're not living for God. But you at the wedding feast or the wedding supper, but you still love the world. You like demons, you love the religion, you love this world. You wanna have both of the, both the worlds. You wanna hold on to God. You wanna be a Christian. You wanna say you're holy or whatever, but you want all of the things that go along with being in the world. You want all the things, he says, God tells us using the world, but not abusing the world. Love not the world and other things of the world. So are you enjoying these things as creature comforts? Are you drunken and intoxicated with Babylon that you're so influenced by Babylon, you become dull of hearing the voice of God? That's what happened with the Laodiceans. They had everything that they need, but God was knocking at their heart's door. They were poor, wretched, and negative. because they had become dull of hearing. They had become fornicators. They had even the church in our entirety that was under the seductive spirit of Jezebel, that was under the spirit of spiritual adultery. they had that those that enjoy the doctrine of Balaam, in other words, those that speak for God for money. There are hirelings, Jesus Christ told us of the hirelings, of those preachers that are preaching for pay. The only reason they're in the gospel is because it is profitable unto them. Revelation 6 and 6, in essence, in Revelation, is used as a symbolic representation both of the seductive nature of evil and the powerful, undiluted judgment of God in its potent image that speaks to the consequences of choosing the path of rebellion. You will be beaten with many more stripes. 2 Thessalonians says these will come and that they disobey the gospel. They are children of wrath. And as God's children, sometimes as Ananias and Sapphira, when you're lying about finances or lying about certain things, God will take you out of this world. It's not that that's not your child anymore. God instituted the death penalty for a disobedient child that was a wine head and a glutton that wouldn't change and turn toward his parents. He says, that parent is to bring that child, bring those children to the head of the city and say, this is my child. He was a glutton, a wine-dipping, he's rebellious and won't listen. And we are to stone him to death. Paul tells the church to turn those over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. You see, because I'm not going to wrestle and fight. It says after the second admonition, leave him alone. Leave it up to somebody else to chastise your children. God says that after you raise a child and train him up in the way he should go, he may be like Solomon, that he says, now when he goes astray, I'll punish him with the sword of men. You know, sometimes some of them are gunned down in the middle of the night. Some of them face divorces. Some of them face all kinds of ramifications in their relationship. And you hate to see that happen or whatever. You like Aaron, you stand there, your hands tied, you serving God or whatever, but you still better rejoice and be happy in the Lord when God slay your children. You can't hate God for your children being enslaved. He told Moses to tell Aaron, don't act like you disagree with that. You are a fool for Christ's sake. You're still rejoicing in Christ and that God, you sustain your law because I had warned him. I had given him instruction. I had proclaimed your gospel to him and told them and made it specific that you don't drink wine while you're on duty. Now see, if we continually being filled with the Spirit, we're hungry and thirsting for righteousness, God will continue to fill us with this thing that controls us, that we're being led by the Spirit of God. We're going to be led into all truth, and we shall fear no evil, fear no destruction, fear those temptations and things, for we shall overcome in the Lord. He's going to embrace us. But they offered up strange fire. Why? Because they were intoxicated with the world. Sometimes they may imbibe a false doctrine because Jesus warned them. He says, because of your traditions, you have made void the commandments of God. God says to honor your parents. Tomorrow's, I mean, next week is Mother's Day. Well, not just next week, but every day is Mother's Day. Your parents need help. They need you to do something. Maybe you should drop everything and put all some of that stuff behind and help your parents because your parents stand in the place of God. That's why he gave you your parents. And he say, honor your parents. So just as you honor your mother, father, and sister, I mean your mother and father, you honor God. God should come first. So there are certain things God give us in our lives that if we don't get intoxicated with the world and put a dollar tree, a job, or something before us, we'll see that our spouse comes before our job. That our spouse comes before our parents. That our spouse, because now we're one flesh, right? So as you're honoring your mother, honoring your father, think, well, shouldn't you honor them in their older age or whatever? Don't say, well, this is for God. I got this as Corbett and this set aside for the church. Now your parents are living in utter poverty or certain ways they need help, but you can't help your parent or whatever because you put it all in the church. You're doing all of these things. Now you're forgetting about mercy and the words of God. You see, you intoxicated with the wine of Babylon because you want the praise of men. You don't want people to say, you didn't do this for the church. That's why you shouldn't be making these vows and things. You know, churches get you all under all kinds of vows and promises, especially the word of faith churches and those churches that you see have money, they're buying the preacher. checks and all kinds of things for the churches and things. They're Rolls Royces and they're living all kinds of ways because they have committed, and he talked about that in the book of Amos, that they're eating the people, the hooves, and leaving no meat on the bone. They're fleecing them where they used to be selling CDs and sell these things, whereas if they're part of the congregation, you need to be giving them those things. You see, that's why Jesus says about coming, buy wine and milk without money. In other words, all you need to do is attendance or whatever, and hear the word of God, so you get filled, you enjoy, it's merriment, it's rejoicing. That's what the word of God is. That's why you can't be afraid to go to church and forsake not to fellowship or not to say, because you will feel better. There's a promise coming that you'll be filled, coming hungry and thirsting, that you come to God to receive this thing. He will fill you. Now we must all drink the cup. As he told Thomas, the people, the ones that sat there but had to sit on his right hand and left, he'd say, you will drink of the cup. What does wine represent in some cases? Jesus is our wine. He is our salvation from sin, which means he is ours for the remaining part of our lives on earth and when he comes again. So that blood that was shed for us was the wine that we drink, that cup we drink is the cup of the Lord. But now watch it not drinking this wine. No, don't drink it unworthily. That's why a lot of people sick. You in worse shape because you took it before some medications they ask you, are you having certain conditions? You know, I'm on Humirin. Before I took Humirin, they had to treat me for any other infections. If I had tuberculosis or any other infectious diseases, they had to treat those first and inoculate me first against those things, eradicate those. That's why he says repent. Turn from your way, you have to get self out of you. Self has to die. But see, that's a continual process. Sometimes the metaphor, sometimes these illustrations fall apart as you go, because you'll never completely eradicate the old man. You're to be putting him to death daily. Paul says, I die daily. He's buried with Christ. But if you're a new creation in Christ Jesus, And that wine, what does wine represent spiritually? We talked about two different types of wine, about being drunk and about wine as intoxicating and have influence on your life. In many religions and spiritual traditions, wine symbolizes joy, celebration, life, and God's blessing. It can also represent spiritual ecstasy, communion with the divine, and even the blood of Jesus Christ in Christianity. But not that that transubstantiation as to Catholic Church says that the blood is changed into the actual body of Christ. The symbolism is that he says, this is my blood that was shed. That's the life-giving blood of Christ. In other words, that cup that we drink of should give us life. But it's a cup of the death if you're drinking in an unworthy manner, not seeing your own depravity and that you need Christ, that you need to be obeying Christ, that you're continuing in his word. So that's why many people in the church sick and weak and dying. Because they're rejecting him. I tell you the perils of rejecting Christ That that wine of his wrath is poured out on the children of disobedience You may be disobedient to God in some area someplace We have to line up with the Word of God. That's why we tell us to study the Word of God to show ourselves Worthy in other words, we have to pull off the old man to put on the new man We have to be put we have to put on Christ Continually putting him on you remember. I tell you they supplied the wedding garments. They've supplied Christ as our bride groom He supplies the garment and that we should be robed with his righteousness But if we're his bride if we're the children Christ says let anyone name the name of Christ depart from iniquity So the Spirit should be convicting you. He should convict you of sin. You should know what you're doing wrong. It's gonna show you. It says the Spirit convict you of sin. It convinces you. That's why I say it shows us as a mirror, it shows us our spots and blemishes. That we put that portion of ourselves to death, that we cut it off, that we cannot inherit the kingdom of God as long as we do such things. Some religions discourage or condemn wine consumption, particularly excessive drinking. And that's where I focus in on excessive because God made wine to be good and cheer hearts of men. So that joy and celebration, that's why he uses the word wine there because it's a festive occasion, it's joy. And that's why he gives us a joy when we receive his word, that wine that he gives us. You remember he told the woman that he would give her water that she wouldn't thirst again? Once we receive this, he gives us a joy and a inner peace. The world can't take away this joy. He can't take away this rejoicing because we are in Christ and he's through the spirit giving us the earnest of our inheritance. Wine is also a symbol of life, vitality, and God's blessing. Wine strengthens the man. Wine has shown us to be a, that's an Old Testament symbolism of strengthening that wine, that oil that's poured in. That spirit is a symbol of oil, that anointing that breaks the yoke. We noticed the Good Samaritan when he was healing the man by the road, he poured in oil and gave him wine and he nursed him back to health. Wine strengthens us, it makes the continence to rejoice. communion with the divine. A lot of people that while they were in drunken orgies or whatever, wine gave them a state of being in communion with the gods or whatever. And I'm not saying that you need to be tipsy on this, that you need to drink it to excess. That's why we don't give you a big 16-ounce cup of communion juice or whatever. It's a symbolism. That little cup, it symbolizes the blood of Christ. We don't need to give you a quart-sized cup of communion juice. Blood of Christ in Christianity, wine is considered the key element in the Eucharist, representing the blood of Christ. Spiritual ecstasy, I told you, in Buddhism, in different places, in some cultures wine is believed to induce a state of religious ecstasy or enlightenment. friendship and sharing. Wine can be a symbol of company and friendship and the sharing of a meal. You remember Melchizedek, when Abraham had overcame the kings and had gotten back the stuff for Sodom and Gomorrah, that Abraham was met by Melchizedek bringing forth bread and wine. They had communion together. Now, wine also has the same thing as I told you spiritually, it's physically drunken to excess. The religions warn and that's why there's so many warnings against wine. And it tells you wine is a marker and the different things about imbibing too much wine. They tell you about elders shouldn't be given the wine. It doesn't say that he shouldn't drink wine, but he shouldn't be controlled. He shouldn't be a man known for constantly drinking. He shouldn't be an alcoholic and so forth with the deacons and everyone else. And his covenant was instituted throughout the Bible, Psalms 102 and 21, Isaiah 52 and nine. But Babylon has stood for oppression, violence, false religion, and outright rebellion of God against God. And that's what the false wine, that's what bad wine do to you. Remember I was telling you about Thunderbirds and some wine that they call that rot gut liquor. Some wine make you sick, it gives you, Headaches it has all sorts of ramifications for you, but Jesus Christ says he's the true vine wine symbolizes doctrine of teaching and Jesus Christ says I'm the true vine and if any man Abide in him that true vine and going on the Isaiah of the 55th chapter back when I was telling you he invited us to drink and eat of him and And that's what the table of the Lord, the Passover, it invites us to the table. It says, unless you eat, unless you have this, this was a memorial. So everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money, buy grain and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money, without cost, simply accept it as a gift from God. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight in abundance. Incline your ear to listen and come to me here so that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you according to the faithful mercies and promises shown to David. So herein, I told you, he inaugurated the new covenant. It was his life that his sacrificial death given for us, his blood that was shed for the remission of sin for many, that inaugurated the cup. That was him inviting us without cause, it was freely given. He laid down his life, all we have to do is accept Christ, come unto him. Consuming the pure, unblemished truth of God's word, just as Christ's blood is pure and untainted, provides spiritual nourishment that satisfies our deepest needs. The book of John says, my words are spirit, they are life. So if we partake of that word, we shall never hunger, we shall never thirst. It's a constant well of water welling up inside of us, and we initiate giving it to the others. This invitation of come and eat and drink speaks of the richness of God's grace. He gives grace and he gives greater grace. That's why I say we ought to be under increasing grace, greater submission, increasing faith, offering nourishment. And we have to understand that subsequent verses challenge us, asking us, why do we go to churches? Why do we give people money for stuff that's only temporary? You know, you could go to some churches, if you're a big spender and you give, and after you start giving, after a certain point, if you can't give no more, you can't do more, they move and get somebody else in your place or whatever. But with the kingdom of God, it's not based on that. The doctrinal teachings of Christ is sound doctrine that originates with God. False doctrine originates with someone else. And we see fads come and go. We see different, the prayer of Jabez, different practices where they twist or turn the word of God until money make it stick. They're perverting the Word of God and twisting it in a way, taking it out of context. And we follow that as a fad of something a while. God increases our territory, increases things in our lives, but it's accordingly we'll be rewarded according to our deeds. And as he says, seek ye first keep the kingdom of God, it shall be added unto you. So if he's given you one or two or five higher minute talents God give, as we busy using those talents, using what God given to us, notice that he doubles, he gives us more than because we've made effective use of that which he given us. That he took away from Joe, he doubled everything that he took away from Joe. He gave it back. God is a God of abundance. So that's why we think of wine and pleasure and joy coming unto the Lord and eating abundantly. Paul says, for I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it from a revelation from Jesus Christ. What God gives you, no man can take away from you. So you have no need of man, but God's gonna teach you. So you don't have to be encumbered or enslaved or embonded. So some people say, well, without the pastor, some preachers die, whatever, and look like the church go away or whatever. But notice that God always raises up a Joshua to replace Moses. He raises up a Elisha to replace Elijah. Elisha did twice the miracles of Elijah. He walked in his footsteps. But notice what you're doing in these things on a comparison, because Jesus says, there's none greater than John in the kingdom that had entered. But John is not as great as the least of these in the kingdom of heaven. Because why? John was an Old Testament prophet. See, we are under the new covenant, a much better covenant. So with this spiritual high I'm on, I don't really need alcohol. I don't need those things to give me pleasure and joy because I have the wine. I have Jesus Christ. I have his spirit. He had given me the earnest of the inheritance. He had given me the spirit of the Lord. He says, taste it and see that the Lord is good. So it's not a quantity of food and drink that would commend me to the kingdom of God. We have it residing in us, that circumcision of the flesh. Even Jesus was clear that he taught only what God had instructed him to teach. He says, my teaching is not mine, but it's he is who had sent me. And that's why with the false prophets and the false teachers, he said, I had not sent them. They had ran, but I didn't tell them to run. Because why? They're taking his message. And they're twisting and misconstrued his message. He didn't send satan to eve And satan twisted the word of god and he says thou shall not surely die that god knows this Well, that's what the false prophecy says beware of the living of the pharisees for it contains I mean beware of the doctrine of the pharisee for it contains leaven, but notice that he says do as the pharisees say Not as they do though. See, because hypocrisy comes in your actions and what you're doing and saying. So that leaven, it contains leaven. In other words, I told you about adding or twisting to God's word. It's like Satan coming to Jesus in the wilderness. Man shall live by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God, right? But Satan was giving him temptations and he was taking the Word of God out of context so that Jesus was used the Word of God for his profit. He says, I'll give you all of these kingdoms if you bow down and worship me. So we shouldn't be doing things to acquire things and material things. What happens is we gain the whole world and lose our soul because Jesus said, thou shalt worship the Lord and worship him only. So I shouldn't tell you doctrinal error or introduce error because it will cause the church to prosper. A lot of people say, I would win the lottery so I could do a whole life for God. Well, that's a bad reason for winning the lottery. God doesn't need your money to make you help people for God. God is, he wants a body. He wants your commitment. He wants you to have faith and trust in doing his will. True doctrine originates with God who is true, Titus 1 and 2. Paul warned the Colossian church to avoid doctrine that is according to human precepts and teachings. And he told Timothy that some would depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, those seducing spirits, in this last days, that's what he had against the church at Thyatira, the church where Jezebel was, that the doctrine, the wine, in other words, it's poison that's with just a little bit of cyanide or strychnine, just a little bit of poison, poisons the whole thing. He says a little bit of leaven, leavens the whole lump. It leavens the whole lump. The scriptural teaching should have consistency to it. Silent doctrine is consistent with the whole of scripture. It doesn't contradict one or the other. In the book of Proverbs, we see this when it says, answer a fool not according to his folly. But then one or two verses later, it says, answer a fool according to his folly. But see, we have to be led by the Spirit of God as to when to use these tools. That's why I say, you have to be a skilled worker led by the Spirit of God. You can't go out feeding the needy and Casting out demons and doing all these things and look to be saved that that's what they come to the Lord says Lord Lord Didn't we feed that needed didn't we cast out devils in your name? He says I never knew you in other words. These was works. These was ashes that you did in God's name He didn't say you didn't do these things, but you didn't have a relationship with his with him. He wasn't he He wasn't sending you to do these things. These were things that was gonna boost your own pride, your own morale. That's why a lot of people volunteer on Thanksgiving and Christmas and they become philanthropic because what are they doing is to feather their own bed or feather their prospects or make them look good, give them certain reputations or whatever. This panacea, this opiate, they say religion is the opiate of the masses. They're high on religions. People say, I've been to church, I've done my thing. You're getting high on religion, but not on God. It's not his spirit. You're not being led. You could fall out and people passing out and all that. You're not slaying in the spirit, you're putting on a show. And I'm halfway my sermon text here. But we will have to put it down because I said I wanted to do teaching rather than preaching. But as we come forward today, we'll finish the rest of this.