week we back in drinking of the cup and drunkenness and I passed out last time to a paper about drunkenness and a topical from nays a tourist topical on drunkenness. But I failed to get one printed today to bring back with me. And that's what I looked at going over but I don't have it so we're not going over it. But I'm gonna have to approach it from a different angle. on drunkenness and drinking. And figuratively, wine has significant spiritual meaning. Proverbs 21 says, wine is a marker. Strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. That's why he tells in the book of Proverbs, he says, kings shouldn't drink wine. because it distorts their judgment of their reasoning. Now, I also told you that Martin Luther and some of the other people do imbibe, did imbibe in wine. And wine is not, the Bible doesn't prohibit it, prohibit the drinking of wine. And over my lifetime, I've heard a lot of stories, a lot of things of preachings about wine in the last supper, the cup that they was drinking. And Jesus didn't drink it at that time. But Jesus also said that John the Baptist came not eating with him and not drinking. And they said he was crazy, that he was ascetic or whatever. But then when Jesus came and he ate with sinners, and he drunk with sinners, they say he was gluttonous and a wine bipper. And a lot of people talk about the wine that they that he made that was better than the previous wine that they had at the wedding feast in Galilee. And you'll hear a lot of maybe Pentecostal preachers or holiness preachers or people that want to prohibit wine and they have all kinds of getting around why they didn't drink the wine that Jesus and them drunk and that his disciples drunk at the last supper wasn't real wine or whatever. And like I said, well, you can go down those roads if you want or whatever, but I don't go down those avenues or roads or whatever. The people that are in knowledge, you're not going to argue with people or whatever. But drinking doesn't commune you to God. And that's, you see where he said the deacons could be given to drink, but not totally given over to it. But the bishops shouldn't drink or whatever. It was such a thing with Timothy. He had been raised by his mother, Eunice, and Lois' grandmother, or vice versa. Lois and Eunice, though, was his parents and grandparents. But he was a younger minister, but apparently He wanted to abstain from drinking or whatever, but his health was extremely bad because preaching is a profession that it does cause heartburn and different things with a lot of preachers. It's a lot of stress in preaching. I was talking with Minister Miller the other day and some people that had have heart attacks and everything or whatever. A lot of times the doctor recommend that they leave the pulpit for a while or whatever, you know, so that they wouldn't overwork themselves or their hearts or whatever. That's what happened with the pastor, former pastor of this church. He had heart surgery and heart problems or whatever, but he kept on and he wasn't taking the medication that he should have been taking or whatever. Luke was a doctor and we're not preaching against medicine and different things. If you have faith to be healed or God heals you, that's good and everything. But some churches and things and Jehovah Witnesses preach against blood transfusions and different things. And the Bible tells you, be it according to you, according to your belief. So food or drink doesn't commend you to God. Paul told Timothy to drink a little wine then for your alternate and permanent sake, for your stomach's sake or whatever. Alcohol would sell the stomach or whatever. A lot of different people get the wrong approach and overdo things or whatever, but we don't want to do that. But he does warn us though, wine is a marker, a strong drink is raging and whoever is deceived by it, It's therefore not wines. If you're one that can't drink or shouldn't be drinking, some things some people can eat and other people shouldn't eat. Some things people, if you're a diabetic or something, I wouldn't advise you to eat the things a person that has no problem with sugar or with their health eat or whatever. It's according to the individual or whatever, but there's nothing wrong, I mean, in the wine drinking itself, but it's overindulging, and a lot of people that defend the alcoholist says, he says, you can drink in moderation, but don't wallow in it. Well, it's because it's the same thing as food. There's nothing wrong with eating food. You have to eat food, but Jesus does to tell you about gluttony, that gluttony is a sin. So if you overindulge in food, eating too much food, and it's detrimental to weight gain, it's detrimental to your health and everything, and your temple is the body of Christ, you're supposed to take care of the body of Christ. And if it's not healthy, and the doctor, you have that little thing on your truck when you go to The thing it says chronic or morbid obesity or whatever, you may want to deal with that problem or whatever, deal with eating or whatever. So it's the idea of how much do you drink or whatever and developing a taste for it or whatever, because sometimes to some people it becomes addictive. There's quite a warning, yet God stops short of forbidding wine. In fact, in the book of Judges 9 and 13, turn to Judges 9 and 13, and it tells you, and it had a parable in Judges and Samuel about the wine, but Judges 9 and 13 reads, And the vine said, this was an analogy, they was talking and the vine said unto them, should I have leave my wine, which cheered God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? This was a battle analogy of Bimalek was talking when Jeroboam, they was going to fight or whatever, but God created wine and we know Noah over-imbibed in wine and got drunk or whatever. He's a husband. He went into husbandry, but he was drinking his own product. He drunk too much of his product and he got drunk on it. Well, if you selling drugs or whatever, drug dealer know not to get hooked on the drugs he's selling. If he's on drugs or he's on something, he's not on the drugs that he's selling. Thus, his profit goes down the drain. You selling candies and cookies, don't eat the candies and cookies. It's going to affect your health and it's going to affect your profit line. So I'm not taking a shot at you. Whatever you have in abundance, you have to be able to control that. That's the same thing with the man and the woman and I'm reading a book now, The Mark of a Man. and the difference in male and female. And it wasn't just anatomical, the difference was. And that's a lot, you know, you can learn a lot in life, but you'll notice that God did make the two different. He made them male and female. And there's a bigger difference than anatomical difference and God charges it to man. And so thus man should be stronger, but most men are not stronger. We see where Noah's, I mean, Lot's daughters got Lot drunken and lay with Lot. Well, problem was Lot shouldn't have ever been drinking with his daughters in the first place. One thing I don't do is frighten out, in other words, with my kids. I don't do things to a point because once you go to drinking and everything, somebody's gonna get loose lips and inhibitions to sit in. things could be said and done or whatever and things quickly get out of hand. When I go to weddings or do weddings and things or whatever, I usually do the wedding and I'll sit down and eat the pastor's plate or sit down with them a minute or walk around and talk with the people a minute. But I leave because a lot of them at the weddings, once they go to drinking and having fun or whatever, things happen and things are said or done. That's what happened at a lot of the Christmas parties and things, and like I said, that's what happened at the wedding of Canaan when they came, and that made the difference when Jesus was telling his mother, he says, what's next to you and I? That's what changed things, because when he turned that water into wine, that was an act of God. No mere man could do that. And so thus, he was on the road, but God wouldn't have given someone something that they wasn't That was forbidden, in other words. It would be just like, you know, nowadays I was watching Bull or something and they was trying to sue the bartender for allowing this person to drink and he went and killed someone or whatever. And you know, they come after the bartender for serving people until they get drunk or whatever. They supposed to cut you off or whatever when they see you getting intoxicated or whatever. But that crosses a thin line. Would Jesus be responsible for if there was some people at that wedding that drunk too much wine and got drunk and started a fight or did some other things or whatever? No, it wouldn't have been his responsibility. That's the same thing with God provided sex. But there's legitimate lines, and that's why he uses the word adultery and fornication. Sex is nothing wrong with that, but he had set lines for it. And it's only inside of marriage that takes the sacredness out of it. When it's dating or just unmarried people or whatever, then it is forbidden. That's what happened when the people was coming in the church from different cultural backgrounds in the New Testament where we see people was coming in and they had the love feast where the wealthier people was coming in and Paul was saying that they was drunk and a lot of the people that they supposed to have been communing with and feeding the people were going hungry because The other people were drunk or whatever and had eatinies. You don't have houses to eat and drink in. They was changing from what it was. And so the cultural barrier was causing the problem. And different cultures have different traditions and reasons. And that's why Paul was talking about their dress, their hats, and the women wearing a head covering and thing. And Paul said they have those such tradition in their churches or whatever. because we're talking about different cultures and traditions. So a lot of times people command abstaining from marriage. The Catholic Church tells their priests to abstain from marriage and all these other things. Well, we see Samuel had to be married. He had children. He had sons. The sons didn't follow Samuel, but he had sons. But he was the greatest prophet that ever was, one of the greatest prophets that ever was. When the Catholic Church forbid marriage or whatever. And that's what the New Testament tell us. They go about forbidding marriage and commanding to abstain from food. Well, you can't say, you know, if you're culturally biased to somebody eating pork and ham or whatever, that's a religious belief or whatever. But Paul was saying food doesn't commend you to God, and some people have a certain day of worship or whatever. And that's why I say, well, I don't tell people, no, you're going to hell because you don't worship on the Sabbath or whatever. If you know what's right or whatever, you have to save yourself and you have to follow God. So you have no right to condemn others for something that you have a strong belief in, a religious belief in. You shouldn't let that cause you to cause others to stumble. And he was trying to explain that to the Christian people in Korea when they were saying about abstaining from meat, meat offered to idols. And he said, well, I know an idol is anything. We know an idol is not anything or whatever. But if it makes my brother's conscience weak to see me eat meat, he said, I wouldn't eat meat any day of my life, and I wouldn't eat no more meat. Mr. Miller was talking about that. because you're laying a stumbling block before him because he's coming from a different religion or something that he needs to be taught on these things or whatever. So, drinking can be a barrier to some people or whatever, but we see where God forbids drunkenness, not drinking, and you're going out on a dangerous limb. when you start trying to condemn people for drinking and not condemning the actions of drinking too much. You're not really knowing the scriptures or whatever. What we are being warned of in Proverbs 20 and 1 is that wine is initially as pleasant, lifting and energizing effect. But it is, however, it is deceptive in that it has a depressing secondary effect that ensnares those who allows themselves to drink too much. Because the first thing that goes where alcohol works on is the, I'm trying to think of this part of your brain, the cerebellum. The part that does the reasoning goes first. That's what gets intoxicated first. But it removes reasoning and rationale from you. And that's when you start doing things wrong before the physical function comes in. before the staggering about and everything comes in, before the physical effects of maybe it making you throw up or vomit or whatever, you lose rationale. That's why it says kings not to drink, and that's why a lot of New Testament preachers or whatever don't drink because at any time or whatever, I may have to make a decision that I have to be open rationally to make an open, clear-headed decision. And at no time, just like I was telling that doctor that did my brother's eye surgery, I said, you have to have a pretty steady hand for that. You cut in somebody's eyes. You're doing it in the eyes. And he took that needle and gave him a shot right in the eye. I said, well, you have to have a steady hand. You know, sometimes alcohol causes tremors and different things or whatever. So we have to look at the facts of what energizes, you know, different people on different drugs or anything. You notice they start slurring their speech, or they start moving fast, or seeing the actions, or the coordination gets off, or whatever. In other words, wine can make a person drunk, but it's spiritual thing to this that God's looking at and that's why I say we're really talking about spiritual drunkenness and I don't want to get into a physical argument with somebody about drinking or whatever but the eye I can dot or the T I can cross is okay if we're talking about physical drinking I don't want to talk about prohibitions or anything else but you shouldn't be drunk even if you're drinking If you want me to conclude the fact that the Bible doesn't forbid wine, but it does forbid drunkenness. That's where you can end that argument, instead of getting into somebody whether they should quit their job because they sell alcohol or not. We had a minister here saying, well, you shouldn't be working in that store or on the boat or whatever. They serve alcohol or what not. You can find this guy another job or whatever. trying to tell him he shouldn't do this or whatever. And remember Revelation 18 and 2 says, for all nations have drunk of the wine of her fornication, the wine of the wrath of her fornication. So he's talking about a spiritual intoxication and the effects that it has on a spiritual and it's the different spirits that come in wine that he's talking about of this wine and this belief system. A drunk's mind becomes dizzy, fuzzy, and unfocused. You know, I was telling you about your uncoordination. It inhibits you. It slows down your reaction time, and that's why a lot of time a drunk would drive right into the lights or drive into someone. It slows down your reaction time. the situations. His perception of reality changes. It becomes distorted and uncertain. If you're drunk, you're not going to be sure about some things and you're not going to be certain. It says his body staggers under the effect of the drug, not reacting normally as the drinker commands it to act. But that's why in Revelation, I mean in the New Testament, Paul says, be not drunk with wine, but be drunk with the Spirit. In other words, be so consumed with the Spirit that the Spirit would influence your actions. That the Spirit drives your actions. But then, that's where you can tell of the wine of the wrath of the fornication of God's Spirit, and those that are spiritually drunken because they act like drunk people. Nowhere do you see it in the Bible where you see it with some of these word of faith preachers and preachers where he's going up there touching people and they're falling out and barking like dogs and doing all of these things or whatever. That drunken intoxication there, that's of a different spirit. That's why it says try the spirits to see whether they be of God. But there are some spirits, I didn't see where Jesus touched anybody or whatever, and they just fell clean out, just fall out, just all these things that some people are doing. The tongues and things, if you noticed, these was divers tongues in the upper room that morning that they were speaking. And Peter told the people, well, these people are not drunk as you suppose, being it just the ninth, third hour of the morning. They hadn't been drinking enough to be intoxicated or whatever. But it was of the spirit of God that was doing this because If they were drunken with wine, you can't understand what the wine head is saying or whatever. But these people were spiritually influenced by the Holy Ghost. do you other region in everything that spoke with other dialect, in other languages, in other words. That's why the young lady said that Peter, he says, well, he was one of them. He was with Jesus because his speech betrayed him. Well, they had a certain speech the Galileans would speak. It's just like there was a case in the Old Testament when The two tribes was fighting, and they was coming back from crossing over from fighting. And the Ephraimites was crossing the river, and they couldn't distinguish them from the other ones that they was fighting. And they would say, well, if you, one of us, or whatever, say shibboleth, and they couldn't say shibboleth, they would say sibboleth, or whatever, because the tongue of the dialect. But these people wasn't speaking a broken or drunken tongue. Those of the diaspora says, well, look, these men are not drunk, because we heard them speaking in our language. We understood this. In other words, the gospel was being spoken to them in other tongues. These was tongues, unknown tongues. In other words, This person is speaking a tongue, but I don't speak this tongue, but I'm speaking it now. I'm preaching in this language, and I don't know this language. But it's somebody there inside that church or whatever. That's why Paul, when he was telling the people about speaking in tongues, he says, y'all speak one or two at a time and let an interpreter be present. In other words, When you're in church, and it happened here once or twice, and I told a young lady, I said, would you sit down, please? She would jump around like some pygmy or something from Africa. I said, what in the world are you doing? Only her brother jumped up to interpret it or whatever. But who is she talking to? Who is she talking to? See, tongues is not for the believer, it's for the unbeliever. So these people of the diaspora, when they heard the gospel being preached to them in their language, they know it was God speaking to them because These people don't speak our language, but we hear in our own language the Word of God telling us to repent, to turn, that this is preaching and teaching. That's why what we're preaching from Isaiah here, the 28th chapter, when they say, it says, Who shall he teach knowledge, and who shall he make to understand? Doctrine then, they are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast. He says, for precept must be on precept, precept on precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little. He says, for with stammering lips and another tongue will I speak unto this people. So y'all making fun of my prophets that I've risen up early, all of them, I've risen them up early to come to you to speak the word of God, to warn you to repent, to turn from your ways. Well, I'm going to speak to you in a harsh way. In other words, I'm going to bring the Assyrians and the Babylonians in here. and you will understand their roughness or whatever. He says with stammering lips and another tongue. That tongue and language you will understand. You will understand somebody putting some hurt on you and bringing you into captivity. But when Peter and Joel, and when he was talking another language or whatever, and when Peter and the New Testament spoke in another language, these people heard the word of God, and that's why on that day, and during that time when Peter was preaching, a lot of them say, okay, we know, and we are convicted by this preaching and teaching, what must we do to be saved? And in Acts 2.38, he says, repent. and be baptized in the name of Jesus. And that spread throughout the world or whatever. And when Paul was saying, he wasn't forbidding tongues, he says, but let you speak two at a time. Well, then if somebody from a different region, he was from Russia, he was from some other place, he came in there, he didn't understand, he understood a little English or whatever, but someone from in our church spoke to him in his native language. And he understood that in his native language. And these people don't speak my native language or whatever. How did they do this? This had to be of God. That's why it says, then they would know it was of God. But if an interpreter is not present, if I'm the pastor, or if there's not anyone in the church that can interpret tongues, somebody speaks an unknown tongue, how do we know what they said? How do we know what this at? How do we know it was the gospel that was preached or taught? Well, this person that you saying interpreted tongue, how do we know that that's the true interpretation or whatever? If we don't understand or know that talk, we don't even know if it was a native tongue. So that's why Paul say, wouldn't they think you was drunk or you was mad? He said, the spirit of the prophet must be subject to the prophet. So you shouldn't get so drunk and intoxicated in the spirit that you don't control the spirit that's in you. The spirit of the prophet is subject unto the prophet. You have to, so if you're drunk and you carried away with the spirit, you laid up the spirit of God, but God is not gonna do anything to blaspheme his name or take his name and praise him. Where was I here? The wine in this word picture of Revelation 17 and 2 is Babylon's way of life. A person's body staggers on the effect of the drug and not reacting normally as a drinker commands it to act. So that's why the police tell you to walk this line up. do these actions, touch your toes or whatever, because if you intoxicate or influence inhibitions or control of the alcohol, you can't do those things or whatever. At the same time, he is deluded into thinking he actually has greater powers than he had before he became drunk. And that's why a lot of times people say, well, that's that liquor talking. He wouldn't have talked to you that way. Sometimes the husband wouldn't be as violent with the wife or whatever. That's why they have so many domestic calls on the weekend and things or whatever. A person gets drunk or whatever and he abuses his family and he's not thinking straight or whatever. And his action starts to be where he's abusive in doing things or that he's stronger, have more power than he normally have. And a lot of times they get hurt or hurt others. And the reality is that he has made himself helpless and a victim and is dangerous to himself and others. In Revelations 18 and 2, I was talking about the wine of the wrath of God. It says the wrath is the penalty that comes down upon its hapless victims as they practice the sins of their unfaithfulness to God in their conduct. Fornication figuratively portrays faithlessness such as one would experience within a covenant relationship such as marriage. And so, you're married to God. You can't drink of the Lord's cup and of the devil's cup. That's why it's dangerous to drink, to listen at all of these different televangelists and different TV preachers and everything. You may not be full grown. And that's why I say some people that are able to listen at other ministers and other different teachings or whatever, they may be an elder in the church or they may be a more mature Christian. They wouldn't be carried away with that teaching or that doctrine or whatever. Whereas countless numbers sit there, and I don't want to name the televangelists or whatever, but that's why they're so wealthy and have millions of dollars and so much or whatever is because usually, Paul said, it's silly women laden with sins. Normally, that's why you have more women in the church than men or whatever. actually a prudent man would think through what you're saying and what has been said. And that's why the nation is drunk politically and spiritually, because we're believing what other men say, other preachers and things say, and it's not sound doctrine. Men, their reasoning and rationale wouldn't allow them to follow unsound doctrine. So we see that the nation is drunken and it's staggered. in that women and children are their leaders. Some of the teachings, the biblical teachings and the things. Mr. Parker called the other night and we talked maybe an hour and a half or something, whatever. My daughter called and I was talking to Mr. Parker and she called my wife's phone or whatever. And she said, what daddy doing or whatever? And you know how my wife, you can hear me, Mr. Parker talking, you can hear him way in here or whatever. But how much the world has changed, and that's why a lot of people are not in the churches. A lot of men stay away from the churches, a lot of people. And that's why in the end, Jesus will do just like he did in his day. He's gonna cleanse the church of the money changers. because the men and women and most of the people in the church are drunken in the church. They're allowing that spirit of Jezebel. You remember in Revelations the way it says you allowed that woman Jezebel to teach and preach. That spirit is prevailing in the churches and in four, five of those seven churches, he told her repent or he'll come quickly and take away their candlestick, take away their light. because they're giving over. That's why he said he was gonna fight against the church, because most churches has gotten this thing so messed up that you really, most, a lot of men think, sit back, well, we know Christmas is not real. We know Easter thing is not real, but you seem to be the exclusion if you go against those things. A lot of people know different things of worship and know that these preachers and things aren't right. So the women are doing these things, but just to keep the peace at home or whatever, they don't rise up against their family. They may be scared to lose their children or lose their wives or whatever. And that's why Paul was talking about the believer staying with the unbeliever, allowing the unbeliever to leave because culturally what you had was the church with all these different cultures and people coming into the churches and things with all of these other beliefs. All of these beliefs, some believe you can drink or whatever. Well, a lot of people were divorcing their spouses and everything because religiously you shouldn't be linked to unequally yoked or whatever. Paul was saying, okay, right, you shouldn't be unequally yoked, but if you're already married, you shouldn't divorce your wife. God still can make that work. Because you're not compelled to worship as she worshiped or worship in these ways and God will sanctify and protect those children if they're his children, if they're called of God, you got to realize God is in control and not you. And that's why he says save yourself from this untoward generation. So a lot of cultures and things was mixing and you see nowadays that's why the church and I was quoting to you I didn't give you the exact figures and nothing numbers and things that the churches are decreasing in non-denominational churches and megachurches where people really don't really believe in anything, but everybody can go to the same churches and everybody you meet is a Christian and believe in Jesus because really there's another Jesus in this nation. It's not the Jesus of the Bible. It's a Jesus that's always just so friendly and everything. He's not gonna hurt you. You could live any kind of way. You could hate people. You could have racial strife. You can kill, lie, deceive, and cheat and everything, but Jesus will forgive you for anything. This is the Jesus they preach prosperity that Godliness has gained. And that's the reason you go to church because they got such a wonderful children's program. They didn't send the buses and things in the neighborhood. They pick up the children and take them to church and everything. They do this in the neighborhoods and they do all these things. Do you see them reaching out to the homeless? They're always on here doing these things. They believe in a work salvation. Well, I got somebody that says, okay, you did feed the, he didn't deny that they fed the needy. He didn't deny that they cast out devils in his name. He didn't deny that they did visit the poor. He didn't deny that did anything. But he said, I never knew you. because they wasn't converted. They wasn't the true church. They was part of those that he was fighting again because they had drunk the wine of the fornication of the world. And remember he said he was gonna send this spirit to all nations. He was gonna make all nations drink of the cup of the wine that was gonna make all nations in this condition. Uh, I was trying to get to, I think it's Isaiah 30th chapter I was looking at today. Uh, what is it? Man, I, like I said, I didn't get a chance to copy what I was going to copy, but he had mingled this drink. Hope Isaiah, the 19th chapter started at the 11th verse. Surely the Prince of Zion are fools. The council of the wise counselors of Pharaoh has become brutish. How say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Were are they, were are they the wise men? And let them tell thee now, and let them know what the Lord of Hosts has purposed upon Egypt. The princes of Zorn are deceit, are become fools. The princes of Nab are deceit. They have also seduced Egypt, even they are the stay of the tribes thereof. The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof, and they have caused Egypt to err in every work. Whereof, as a drunken man staggered in his vomit, neither shall there be any work for Egypt. God pours out these spirits, and that's the spirit he poured out upon the church. And that's when he told Jeremiah to go to all these different nations and make them drink of this cup. And I don't know how many of y'all was here when I was talking about drinking of the cup. Everybody drinks of the cup. But what cup are you drinking of? Because you're partakers of what's in the cup. You're partakers of the afflictions and the sufferings that are in Jesus' cup. But you're partakers of the sin of Babylon's cup. If you don't come out of Babylon, and you drink of the wine of Babylon, drink of the wine of the wrath that's poured out in Babylon. That's why he calls us out of Babylon from under this world's influence. And I was telling you in the book of Revelation 17, one through four, And there came one of the seven angels, which had the seven vows, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand and full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications, and upon her forehead had a name written, Mystery Babylon, the great mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the Satan, with the blood of the Mars of Jesus, and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. So here it is a world system and Babylon falls completely and he says Babylon is falling and falling and he says 18th chapter he says after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven having great power in the earth was lightened with his glory and he cried with a mighty and strong voice saying Babylon the great is falling is falling into become the habitation of devils in the hole of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. These are doctrines, these are spirits, these are governments, these are nations that the world has come together. He says, for all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. i heard another voice from heaven saying come out of her my people that she be not partakers of her sin that she received not of her plagues because anyone that drinks of the cup of the devil of babylon of this world system that's under the influence of this world system will perish because the consequences of your sin for being measured or mixed into that cup The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup, thou maintainest my life. That's spoken of in the book of Psalms, the 16th chapter in the fifth verse. It says, the Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup, and thou maintainest my life. So the cup that we drink, the cup that he says, you should drink the cup and memorialized this on the second Sabbath where we have the Lord's Supper or whatever, the cup usually implies trials. So we will have trials and tribulations. That's why he asked the two sons, told the two sons' mother that asked, say, can my son sit on your left hand and my right hand? He says, can they drink of the cup I am about to drink? They said, yes, we can. He said, well, you will drink of that cup I'm about to drink. But to sit on my right hand and my left hand, it's not for me to give. So you will go through the trial and suffering, not to the magnitude that he did, because he's not gonna lay anything on us that we couldn't bear. He says his burden is light and his yoke is ease. We don't have to go with he go through went through to that magnitude But we will go through if we're in the Lord if we drinking of his cup David is showing God on both sides here and blessings and in trials God is our inheritance, but he is also with him in these trials That's what David was saying in the Psalms and that's what we must learn and say now we can't be drunken with wine with influence of this world, we must take up the spirit in knowing that that's what's coming of us, that God is giving that, that's the portion. That's why he told Peter, when Peter tried to cut off the soldier's ear, he said, shall I not drink the cup that my father give me? When it was in the garden, he says, if it would be any way, and he talked about, I'll get to that. But he said that in two different ways, and he says, If it was possible, but it wasn't possible, this is the way we have to go through, in suffering with him. Drinking of the cup that he drunk of, we must drink of that cup, but it was a cup of suffering, and the Jews had saw it another way. Are you drinking of the Master's cup, Matthew 20, 23, and Matthew 26, 39? And he said to them, you shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. I think I went over baptism with y'all and I went over baptism several times. I went over that the other day, that was about 10 or 15 minutes of the conversation I was talking about with Mr. Parker that baptism is being baptized into his death. Staying with the diet with the word baptized come from but we're staying with the blood of Christ were covered by his blood So we died with him. That was the baptism that we were baptized with that's why I says there's one faith one Lord in one baptism that baptism is into the body of Christ, but you baptized into his death and But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared by my father. Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane just a short while after urging his disciples. to drink of his cup. And he prayed fervently and emotionally to his father in heaven. The symbol of the cup was fresh in his mind. And just as he had given his disciples a cup from which to drink, so had the father placed a cup before him. Notice in Matthew 26 and 29, I told you, He went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, saying, my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as your will be done. as you will. In the Old Testament, the cup is a metaphor for divine punishment. I think I went over that part, that drinking of the cup was a metaphor, a symbolic of divine punishment. And Jesus had to die deaf by the counsel of God. The determined counsel of God was that he would be murdered that he would be crucified by unjust being. That was determined at counsel of God. His Jesus death would involve far more than just physical torture and death, which that's why I say we wouldn't have to go through, but he went through much more as a man, and we have to go through it as men. But just like him with his spirit, his spirit strengthened us at that time. You notice that that Angels came to him, strengthened him. I was talking to a man at Baton Rouge Clinic the other day, and he apparently, I don't know how much church he go to, but is under a different doctrine. He had been drinking some different wine, a different spirit. And I told you, the wine is different doctrines, different teachings from different churches or whatever. And I tried to separate that and tried to in the little time I had to show him the difference. That's why movies like Passion of Christ and all of these Christian things or whatever sometimes messes you up because the Passion of Christ was focusing on his physical death and torture and it didn't focus on the mental anguish and what he was doing of going through the separation from God. the spiritual anguish. If any of us in here that are born again or whatever, a lot of times the things we go through, the hurt we suffer from our neighbors, from our children, from other people, from being misunderstood or whatever, sometimes you would rather somebody to hit you or do things because sometimes the words, the action is worse than physical punishment. Mental abuse and torture is much more worse sometimes. The anguish of these things, sometimes the doubt and the decisions, that's why a lot of most Christians And I was telling him, we plead and pray with God. That's where the physical communications and talking to God, his strongest thing was his pleading in the garden. And we noticed that in his prayer, his sweat was as blood coming from him. I don't think any of us have prayed that hard and talked to God that hard. But if you notice the things that we go through, that that prayer and that conversation and depending and trusting upon God draws us much closer to his word or whatever. Can you imagine Abraham going home, going to sleep, getting up early that next morning and going out to kill Isaac? Can you think about Abraham? I'm trying to find out where I had it at. It says, Abraham staggered not at the promises of God, See, in other words, he didn't go about, he didn't waver in that or whatever, but can you imagine the contrition and the stuff he had went through that night when God says, take your son, your only son Isaac up and sacrifice him? That was a problem he was going through. He learned to keep what God told him to himself. Notice that when he was going about to Pharaoh and Abimelech, he told Sarah of his plan, and that's a wrong thing to do, to tell someone that's close to you sometimes things, because Sarah worked out a plan. You remember Sarah worked out him going with Hagar. Sometime you let other people in that's what Peter tried to do work out a different way than him going for the cross when he say he had to be could be Hung on a cross and that he was but be taken and put to death. He said no not so Lord Some things you can't work out you have to go through Abraham had to pray and go about this I could almost guarantee you he didn't tell Sarah I'm going to go and take Isaac and kill him I'm going to take him and sacrifice him." Even the men that was with him, he didn't tell those men. What did he tell those men? He said, y'all wait right here because if he'd have took them with him, they'd have tried to stop him. He says, me and the lad going up yonder and sacrificing, coming back. So he trusted and believed God so much. He wasn't looking for a way around that or anything. He believed God, that God had promised him that Isaac was going to be his future. And he's going to be a father of many nations. And that promise was going to come through Isaac. So he believed God enough to strap Isaac down on that altar and pull back the knife and ready to pull the trigger on it. He trusted, he staggered not. But if you notice, it took some 30 years for God to prepare Abraham and get him to that point where he would trust God and go directly and do what God tells him to do. How many of us, how many times we did things and we didn't suffer that we did the wrong thing or whatever and wish we hadn't did that and next time if we get another chance we could do it differently or whatever. God gives you those opportunities to glorify him and to do exactly what he said. That's why he says a good man falls six times or so. You can fall many a time but he gives you another opportunity to please him. He gives you another opportunity to do right. Christ would become the target of untold divine wrath as every sin had ever been committed would be heaped on this one sinless being. All of those sins would be laid upon him. He who had sought always to do the will of his father perfectly, he who had heard his loving father exclaim, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased would now experience his father's overflowing wrath for all sin including All of the worst sins. So he knew what his father was capable of. He knew what he was going into. He felt this, and that's what I say. Sometimes we don't feel a seed. You know, I was talking to my son today, looking at him, it made me feel different ways or whatever. I was saying some things to him, but I couldn't say what I really wanted to say or things, because he wouldn't understand. He didn't know. But no one knows about parents anguish when they see their children about to suffer or go through, but they were hoping that the children of that child would trust him and love them enough to know, I wouldn't lay nothing on you that I wouldn't take of myself or that this is necessary. You have to go through this. He trusted God. Abraham came to the point where he trusted God. So just think of all he had to do to Job before he could get that point to Job with trust God and not argue with God, not stand up and demand that God show him this, explain this to him or whatever. That's why Job's suffering was so bad or whatever, to get Job to the point that you would just completely trust God. that the Lord give it and the Lord take it away that you have no advocacy with God about these things and that Jesus opened up that way that wrath all that was laid up on him till we didn't come to a point where we completely trust God that's drinking of the cup see we no longer murmur and complain you didn't hear Christ murmuring complain Job was murmuring and complaining the whole way He was arguing and saying this and that there. You notice what he wants us to get to. He never said a mumbling word. They got a song about that. They whipped him all night long that he never said a mumbling word. He did this willingly. He did this. He went to the cross in our behalf. It was something that he did to please the father. Some of what he suffered was for our sins, yours and mine. Jesus knew that the death and incurring God's wrath for sins comprised the climax of his mission on earth as Messiah. That was the end of his mission. That's why when he died on the cross, he stretched his arms out and said, it is finished. He knew it was over with him. He had done all that he needed to do to make the way to salvation perfect for us. All we have to do is walk there in. If we would continually be filled with the spirit, Continually be filled with the spirit to the point of being drunk with the spirit in other words That's what have influence over you. You know how some people in the world and some people have a bad influence on people some preachers or some teachers or some spouses or parents or whatever children have a bad influence on the others and The spirit should have an influence on you that makes you in his image and his likeness that you carry out your purposes in ways just like he did. That is a full way. But now is that I will approach his awareness of God's wrath against sin became even more intense because he knew what his father was capable of it. By knowing God's Word, we know what God's capable of. That's why we don't sin or do these things. He says, those that are born of God are those that the Spirit dwelled in Him, sinning not because the seed remained in Him. Once the fear of God gets you, you're like Joseph. Joseph fled away from Potiphar's wife because he says, how can I do this sin, do this and sin against God? because he's aware every sin and transgression but receive is just recompense of reward in that sin that you're about to commit would be laid upon Christ you would be adding to the cross of Christ so thus you don't continue in sin you flee from sin you abstain from sin and you do that which is pleasing unto God you honor the influence of the spirit But the Bible explains this in details in Romans 1 chapter 18 verse to the 3rd chapter in the 20th verse. To Jesus it was an unimaginable horror. Now the second and third time he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, you remember he went away three different times. He changes his words slightly as he realized he definitely has to drink of that cup. He says, oh my father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done. He changed that. You remember he says, if it can't do it, because he had asked if it was possible, but then he was determined it's not possible. He says, it cannot pass from me unless I drink it. He says, your will be done. He now fully accepts the fact that the only way to get past this ordeal is to go through it. Stop trying to avoid suffering. Sometimes we try to avoid hurting people's feelings. Sometimes we avoid things. Sometimes you have to face it just like it is, to see it just the way it is. And when you're in God, you remember what Joseph told the wine taster and the butler, Pharaoh's dream? It was a good interpretation of what he gave the cupbearer. But then when the baker asked him, and he told him, well, God, your heads will be taken off you. Sometime preaching the gospel, you have to preach the word. Sometime it's a bitter pill to swallow. And unlike the prosperity gospels, there's a lot of preachers not gonna preach on sin, not gonna preach on your wickedness, not gonna preach on what's going on because the people don't really wanna hear that. They have itching ears. They wanna hear what they wanna hear. Sometime you have to tell people where the fault lies. It lies with them. The sin is within them. You have to, God's man could go out and tell what God said to him. The cup is still on Jesus' mind even after soldiers from the high priest come to capture him. When Peter tries to defend him physically with a sword in Mrs. Malcolm's head and cutting off his ear instead, Jesus says to Peter, put your sword into the sheep. Shall I not drink the cup which my father had given me? That was in John 18 and 11. So he voluntarily laid down his life. without murmuring, without complaining. He wasn't blaming nobody else. How many of us, God has already gotten to the point where we didn't stop blaming other people? Remember, Adam blamed his wife. Other people blame other people. You meet people that always has excuses. It's always some reason for them doing wrong and not doing the right thing. You get to the point, well, I know you see me telling him something because he's not going to say, I was wrong, I shouldn't have did that. It's always a reason why they did what they did. I know it's a good reason why you did it, and I really don't want to hear it. So I'm not going to even tell you about it. You have to have self-discipline. choosing a cup at Jesus found Passover service Matthew 26 chapter 27 through the 29th verse he poured wine into his cup blessed it and pass it around to his disciple Each disciple took a sip from it Though nowadays, you know, we don't pass around one cup I think the Catholic Church drinks out of a goblet wipes it and hands it, you know and does that or whatever and We have separate vows. The principle is the same. We're looking at the principle here. Okay, it's a precept here that we're looking at. Since the wine comes from one source, all of it is blessed together and all of it pitches the same thing. Drinking from the cup of the lamb, we're drinking from Christ's cup. And it says, unless you drink of my blood, unless you eat of my flesh, unless you follow this route, you have no part with me. Perhaps the meaning is more poignant and easier to grasp by Jesus recalling the Passover when the disciples literally took a sip of his cup. So as we commemorate that this Saturday, we'll have that, and that's the cup that we're gonna partake of. That's a memorial that we're looking at. Have we consciously rejected the cup of this world of Babylon in favor of the cup of the Lord? Are we still drinking of this world's cup? God will not mix the contents of these two cups. They are totally incompatible. You can't drink out of both cups. Paul explained that in Corinthians, you can't drink out of both cups. Now those that say I can't, Well, you can, but it's not effective. That dooms you for not being able to drink out of his cup because you'll suffer worse punishment from trying to do both. We must choose one or the other. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, 21, you cannot drink of the cup of the Lord, of the Lord's cup and of the cup of demons. We must totally reject this world, this Babylon, and that awful cup of the false church, full of her abominations and the blood of the saints. Now, if we live in this world and we all have to some degree, that's what I say, you can't leave out of this world. That's what Paul was telling the Corinthians. about this, you can't leave out of the world. We have sipped from the awful cup and have been affected by what's in that cup. And that's what I say, we've all drunken from this world's cup or whatever. But we must now unconditionally reject it, empty it, discard it and replace it totally in favor of the new faith, the new blessings from God's cup. So that's why I say, we must start making conscious decisions. Now, like I said, some people not gonna stand up to their family. Some people are not gonna stand up to their loved ones. They're not gonna stand up to people on the job. But God has, that's why he says it's gonna start at the church. These punishments and judgment starts there. But you must start totally rejecting this. Notice Christ commands us to drink of the cup. He says, drink ye all of it. drink you drink it till the dredge jesus says in matthew 26 and 7 he says he does not say drink the wine does he but he says drink of the cup So we're not actually talking about the liquid or the juice. And they've changed that a lot of traditions, a lot of churches. It was a Methodist minister that started using the Welch's grape juice. He started manufacturing the Welch's grape juice or whatever. And that's why I said I won't get into a conversation about the alcoholic content of the wine or whatever. Because this was symbolic of drinking what was in the cup, what the cup contains. And that's the sufferings, that's the trials, that's of Christ's cup. So we're gonna stop right there.