Alright, we're here in Proverbs chapter 23 and the name of this sermon is biblical arguments
for social drinking refuted.
Biblical arguments for social drinking refuted.
And we take a stand here at Verity Baptist Church that it is wrong to drink alcohol.
We take a stand.
It's wrong to have one beer.
It's wrong to socially drink with your friends or acquaintances.
We believe any amount of alcohol is wrong.
And what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through the 10 most common arguments that
people use and try to justify from the Bible why it's okay to drink some and I'm going
to show you why those are wrong.
Now first off, go to Song of Solomon chapter 8.
And we'll be back in Proverbs 23 here in a minute, but go to Song of Solomon chapter
8.
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Solomon.
And Song of Solomon chapter 8 verse 2.
Notice what the Bible says.
Notice Song of Solomon chapter 8 verse 2.
The Bible reads, I would lead thee and bring thee into my mother's house who would instruct
me.
I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
So notice how in Song of Solomon chapter 8 verse 2, it says the spiced wine of the juice
of my pomegranate.
Now if you've read through the Bible cover to cover, one word that you don't really see
pop up in the Bible very much is the word juice.
In fact, if you kind of zoned out while you're reading this passage, you completely missed
the word juice in the Bible because this is the reference to juice in the Bible.
Okay?
Only one reference.
Okay?
Now here's the thing about this.
A book this big, when it talks about milk all the time and other drinks, do you really
think that it only refers to juice one time?
What you must understand is the word wine in the Bible is not always alcoholic.
It's not always fermented.
Sometimes the word wine is just referring to juice.
Okay?
And it says the spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate here.
Now this is from dictionary.com and the third definition of wine on dictionary.com.
All I did was type in wine, definition on Google.
The third definition is this, the juice fermented or unfermented of various other fruits or
plants used as a beverage, sauce, etcetera, gooseberry wine, currant wine.
And so basically it says the juice fermented which is alcoholic or unfermented.
So you see even with dictionary.com, one definition of the word wine is unfermented juice, grape
juice, orange juice, apple juice.
That is one of the definitions on dictionary.com.
And what you must realize that during the time when the Bible was written, the word
juice was not as common as wine.
Although it was a word that was used, you see it used here, there are many times in
the Bible the word wine is not referring to fermented alcohol.
It's actually referring to just juice.
You say, Brother Stuckey, how can I tell if it's alcoholic or non-alcoholic?
Well you can tell from the context.
If it's got a bad context and it says it's a poison, that's alcoholic.
If it says it's good, well, it's referring to juice.
And so go back to Proverbs 23, Proverbs 23, Proverbs chapter 23.
So we're going to have three points here today.
Point number one, I'm going to explain to you the process of how wine is made and how
that is different than grape juice.
Point number two, I'm going to give you a couple of quick reasons why we are against
any amount of drinking alcohol.
And then point three, we're going to go through the common reasons why people say social drinking
is okay and we're going to refute those.
So here in Proverbs 23, notice what it says in verse 29, who hath woe, who hath sorrow,
who hath contentions, who hath babbling, who hath wounds without cause, who hath redness
of eyes.
So it talks about someone whose life is destroyed.
They've got woe, they've got problems, they're sorrow or they have sadness, they've got fightings
or contentions.
They're talking like they're insane.
Who has those problems?
They that tarry long at the wine.
Now do you think somebody who's drinking grape juice is just, oh man, they're getting in
all kinds of fights and they got all these problems?
No.
Like I said, you can tell based on the context.
Now keep your finger here, go to 1 Timothy 3 because it says they that tarry long at
the wine.
So we're going to look up what tarry long means because it only appears one other time
in the Bible.
Tarry long, okay?
First Timothy chapter 3.
Now look, during the last sermon, I talked about how the Calvinists say moralistic preaching
is anti-Christian.
Man, this is probably the most anti-Christian sermon according to them because Calvinists
really love their wine.
Is that not true?
They always talk about, man, wine is great, right?
I mean, you got that famous John MacArthur clip where he's asked about weed and he multiple
times mentions wine.
He's like, people try to compare smoking weed to wine.
It's not the same at all.
I mean, wine, you can drink it without inhibiting your judgment at all.
And it's just like, you know, even a drunk person would admit, you know, when you drink
wine, yeah, it's going to make you be like, woo, right?
Just trying to justify drinking alcohol.
First Timothy chapter 3 verse 14.
These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly.
Paul says, I hope to come to you in a short amount of time.
I hope not much time goes by, but if I tarry long, what is he saying?
He's contrasting a short amount of time with a long amount of time.
So when he's saying tarry long, he's saying, I hope to come soon.
It's possible.
It might take me a long time.
Go back to Proverbs 23, Proverbs 23, Proverbs 23.
And so in Proverbs chapter 23 in verse 30, it says they that tarry long at the wine.
This is the person that has problems, the person who spends a lot of time.
Tarry long.
That's what it means.
Okay.
Now I preach against drinking alcohol plenty of times.
I've always taken a stance that drinking alcohol is a sin.
It's wrong.
I will say, as I studied this topic of alcohol, my interpretation of some things might be
a little bit different than before, but obviously I'm still against drinking alcohol, right?
That has always been our position.
It always will be.
Okay.
What I want you to realize here in Proverbs 23 is this.
He's actually going to explain to you in the next three verses how wine is made.
Now here's the thing about this.
Most of us don't drink any alcohol and probably most of us have never really tried to ferment
juice into wine.
So I think we've read over these verses and we didn't even realize, oh, he's actually
explaining how wine is made and how it's produced.
Okay.
I really didn't have any idea.
Quite honestly, I've listened to a lot of sermons against drinking alcohol from this
passage and you know, it's because people don't drink.
They don't really realize, or they've never fermented alcohol.
They never realized that this is actually what he's talking about.
When he's saying, if I tarry long at the wine, what we're going to see is he's going to talk
about the process of how wine is made and he's saying, if a long time is spent, you
go from something that is a very tasty, beautiful substance made by God into something that's
a poison.
Okay.
And he's going to explain it in these next three verses.
To understand this, I want you to understand something.
Think about if you were to eat a banana.
Once you take the peel off, what is the color of the banana?
White, right?
If you eat an apple, you take the skin off, what's the color?
White.
Did you realize that if you take the skin off these grapes, this is not green once you
take the skin off.
This is not purple once you take the skin off.
In fact, the color of a grape is actually very clear.
There's really no color to it.
The color comes from the grape skin.
In fact, all of these grapes essentially taste the exact same until you add the skin.
The skin gives the color and the flavor for the grape.
The difference in flavor and the difference in color depends on what type of grape you
have.
Now, he's going to explain to you the process of making red wine, which is the most famous
type of wine.
Okay.
Now, he doesn't explain making vodka or gin or rummy, but look, pretty much all alcohols,
they have a pretty similar process, okay?
They use different things, but they have a similar process for how they're turned into
a poison, a fermented beverage, okay?
Obviously, when he's talking about red wine, that's different than white wine.
That's not what you get from this green grape here, but I would say that if you turn this
into a wine, it would apply as well, okay?
But he specifically refers to red wine.
Now, here's the thing.
If a farmer decides he wants to have some grape juice, and he says, I'm going to take
this grape, which is a very common grape, to make grape juice, and I'm going to crush
that grape, what color is the juice going to be?
Clear.
There's no color to the inside of a grape.
The skin is what gives us this color.
So if a farmer crushes that grape, he's going to drink something that looks like bucco.
In fact, you can go on YouTube and watch people make grape juice, it's like, man, it looks
like he's drinking bucco, okay?
Here's the thing, though.
When they mass produce grape juice, what do they do?
Well, they don't individually crush all the grapes.
What they do is they boil the grapes, and what happens is the skin will separate from
the grape itself, and it will give a purplish color.
However, they still add food coloring to make it look more masa-rap, okay?
So there's multiple ways to make grape juice, but if you just were to crush grapes, there
is no color to a grape.
It looks like bucco, okay?
If you were to boil it, it's going to give you kind of a lightish purple color, obviously
depending on the grape you use and how long you boil it and stuff like that, but basically
some of the color of the skin bleeds out into the grape.
But a grape itself is not purple, okay?
That's just the skin.
Now, why is that important?
Okay, and it's going to give you something like this, right?
This is what we have is grape juice.
You buy Welch's grape juice or whatever, but generally they're going to add food coloring
to make it look more tasty.
But it is a purplish color, and that comes from a purple grape, okay?
Now notice what it says here in Proverbs 23.
It says in verse 30, they that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine,
okay?
Now, I want you to understand, when you make grape juice, it's not mixed.
When you make grape juice, you separate the skin from the grape.
Whether you boil it or whether you crush it, you separate the skin from the grape.
You don't mix it.
However, when you make wine, you mix the skin with the grape itself.
And the reason why it's going to get a reddish color is because slowly over time during the
process, some of that color will bleed out into that juice.
Not as much if you were to boil it, but some of that color will bleed out, and guess what
the color ends up being?
Red.
Hence, we have red wine, and hence the Bible says, they that tarry long at the wine, they
that go to seek mixed wine, and when you're making wine, you mix the skin with the grape
itself.
Then it says in the next verse, look not thou upon the wine when it is red.
Now here's the thing.
If you're a farmer who likes grape juice and you got 50 grapes that you turn into juice,
you're like, well, when I make this, it's clear.
There is no color to it.
It's obvious when he says, look not upon the wine when it is red, it's giving you the process
of when you're making red wine, not grape juice because it's a different color.
That's why the Bible's specific, look not upon the wine when it is red when it giveth
his color in the cup because this is the sort of color you're going to have with wine when
it's finished.
This is different than grape juice which will either be clear or it's going to be a purplish
color where they'll add food coloring because it doesn't really look as tasty unless you
add food coloring.
Look not upon the wine when it is red when it giveth his color in the cup.
When it moveth itself aright, you say, what does it mean to move itself aright?
Well, let me give you a picture of wine while it is being fermented.
This is wine.
You're like, what in the world is going on here?
This doesn't look very tasty, does it?
And look, obviously we should avoid wine, but what is taking place is this.
A couple different things are going to form, ethanol which is drinking alcohol and carbon
dioxide.
Now imagine you had a Coca-Cola and you pour a glass of Coca-Cola and you look down at
that Coca-Cola, what are you going to see?
You're going to see these bubbles go up, right?
Isn't that true?
When you have carbon dioxide, it moves itself aright.
During the process of making wine, this is what takes place and once the carbon dioxide
evaporates, it's ready to drink for fermented alcohol, for wine, okay?
Drinking fermented alcoholic wine, okay?
This is part of the process and eventually the carbon dioxide is going to evaporate.
Now look, I'm giving you a very simplified version of this.
For one, I just read articles to understand this because I've never tried to ferment a
drink.
I will say this though, I looked online and apparently a bunch of people in college have
nothing to do.
They're like, man, I had a Coca-Cola and I tried to ferment it and then they had Mountain
Dew, they're fermenting and it's like, what in the world is wrong with these people, right?
But apparently a lot of people actually try to do this but not Bible-believing Christians.
But this is actually wine during the fermentation process.
Can you see why it says move with itself aright?
Doesn't that make sense?
Because here's the thing, wine at the end stage is not moving itself aright.
The carbonation is gone.
It's talking about during the process.
Now what's interesting is that in modern versions, they decided to change it from moving
itself aright.
We take a stand here that the King James Bible is perfect and look, the more you read the
Bible, the more you realize that's true.
This is what it says in the NIV.
Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.
Is that the same as moveth itself aright?
I mean, even if you're not King James only, are those the same thing, goes down smoothly
versus moves itself aright?
I mean, the NIV is basically saying, hey, this is going to taste really good but don't
drink it.
It's like, are you trying to get people drunk, right?
What does it say in the New King James?
Actually, let's read the ESV.
The ESV, do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down
smoothly.
Goes down smoothly.
Now, the New King James is just an update on the King James, right?
Just changing the wording a little bit.
I mean, it doesn't line up with the NIV.
It lines up with the King James.
Isn't that what people say?
Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around
smoothly, right?
New King James, NIV, ESV, they all say, hey, this substance, it goes down smoothly.
Man, it is tasty.
What a beverage this is.
No, the Bible says that moveth itself aright.
And when you're understanding that with making wine, you mix the skin with the grape, it
becomes red, and then it will start to bubble as carbon dioxide forms, which ends up evaporating,
you can tell he's actually giving you the process of making alcohol.
And he's saying, avoid this substance, because you know what?
You're going to turn something that was made by God that is a wonderful thing that tastes
great into a poison, okay?
Because notice what it says after it says moveth itself aright.
At the last, it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.
What is he saying in verse 32?
He's saying at the last, at the end of the tarring long stage, at the end of the process
of making this alcoholic beverage, that alcoholic beverage bites like a serpent and sings like
an adder.
He's not saying, hey, if you drink a lot of alcohol, it will bite like a serpent.
No, no, no, no.
He's saying once you make this, this bites like a serpent.
He's not saying you have to drink 20 glasses before it bites like a serpent.
No, once you finish the process, this bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.
It's a poison, right?
Alcohol, I mean, literally, when people get drunk, I mean, people die from alcohol poisoning.
They poison themselves to death.
They drink too much alcohol, okay?
Alcohol is literally poison.
Look, this was created by God.
This is great.
It tastes great, but if you intentionally ferment this and turn it to an alcoholic beverage
for the purpose of drinking, you are poisoning your body, and the Bible's saying stay away
from it, okay?
Now, I want you to understand a few things about this process of making alcohol.
When it comes to sugar, sugar will ferment over time, okay?
Wine is a very, very alcoholic beverage.
The percentage is so much more than beer.
I mean, if you are against drinking beer, you have to be against drinking wine because
wine is so much more alcoholic.
It's so much more dangerous.
It will get you drunk so much sooner than beer, and yet, these people that like to justify
social drinking from the Bible, well, they'll tell you don't drink beer, but they'll say
nothing wrong with drinking a glass of wine at dinner.
Isn't that true?
They justify drinking wine.
That's something that the elite people do.
Drink wine.
I would never drink beer.
There's nothing wrong biblically with drinking wine.
That's what they say.
Well, wine is more alcoholic than beer by a long shot.
It's like three or four times as much or whatever.
Look, wine is so much worse for you and so much more dangerous than beer, okay?
They try to justify social drinking.
Now, turn in your Bible to Titus 1, Titus 1, Titus chapter 1, and as I was saying, sugar
will ferment over time, okay?
If you have a Coca-Cola and you let time go by, it will be very, very, very slightly alcoholic,
but unless you intentionally ferment it, the percentage is like 0.0001%.
Now, they understand that with modern science, but look, God doesn't tell you to worry about,
oh, I'm eating sugar.
This has been in my fridge two days instead of one.
I might get drunk.
No.
That will happen if you intentionally ferment a drink and turn it alcoholic.
Does it slightly become alcoholic over time?
Yes, a very slight amount, but God draws a line at when you intentionally ferment it,
okay?
Then that is something to avoid.
Notice what it says in Titus 1.
We looked at Proverbs 23, and obviously we know Proverbs 23.
He warns about your eyes are going to behold strange women and utter perverse things.
He talks about the dangers of it.
Proverbs 23 is a reason to avoid alcohol, right?
He says you're going to look at things that you shouldn't.
You're going to ... Eyes will behold strange women you're not married to.
Proverbs 23 should be enough for a Christian to say, I'm never drinking alcohol.
Let me give you one more reason, though, why I believe there's a prohibition on alcohol
for a Christian to drink.
Here's the thing.
The Bible never tells you, don't get drunk.
I mean, it says don't get drunk, but it says something else.
He says, be sober.
God does not just command you not to get drunk.
He commands you to be sober.
Here's the thing.
If I drink one glass of beer, I'm not going to get drunk, but I'm not going to be sober.
Think about when you go soul winning and somebody's just had a little bit of beer to drink.
It's so hard to get them saved.
Even if they're not drunk, they don't have a clear mind.
You say, why?
They're not sober.
They might not be drunk, but they're not sober.
God draws the line at be sober, meaning completely avoid this.
Here's what it says in Titus 1, verse 7.
For a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not
given a wine, no striker, not given a filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover
of good men, sober, just wholly temperate.
Notice how he says, if you're going to be a pastor, you need to be sober.
Now, I don't believe this is only referring to alcohol.
Obviously drugs would be included, obviously anything that's going to inhibit your mind,
but obviously alcohol would be included.
If you're going to be a pastor, God commands you to be sober.
Look, how can you stand up here and say, well, it's okay to drink one glass of wine when
you're a pastor?
Because right here it says, if you're going to be a bishop or a pastor, you must be sober.
If you drink one glass of wine, you might not be drunk, but you're not sober.
Go to Titus 2, Titus 2, Titus chapter 2.
You know what's interesting in the Bible is that anything that's wrong for me to do,
it's also wrong for you to do.
There's not a different set of rules for me than there is for you.
Obviously I'll be held more accountable if I break certain things because I'm responsible
for preaching to a lot of people.
However, if it's wrong for me to drink alcohol, which the Bible says it is, it's wrong for
you to drink alcohol.
It's the same for all of us.
Notice what it says in Titus 2 verse 1, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine
that the aged men be sober.
So look, if you're a man, then you're supposed to be sober.
If you're an aged man, you're supposed to be sober.
Verse 3, the aged women likewise that the being behavior has become with holiness, not
false accusers, not given a much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young
women to be sober.
Verse 6, young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.
So he says, for pastors, aged men, young women, and aged women to teach the young women
sober, sober, sober.
That's the thing that always comes up.
So how could you say it's okay to drink socially because you're not sober if you drink socially.
The Bible says to be sober, to be sober, to be sober.
That alone says drinking alcohol socially is wrong.
It's really pretty simple.
Now go to John chapter 2, John 2, John chapter 2.
See the main point of this sermon is we're going to look at the 10 most common justifications
for drinking socially.
And I base it on the 10 most common ones, based on the ones that I saw pop up when I
typed in on lists online, why it's okay to drink socially according to the Bible.
And they give these various different arguments.
Now I will say this, one argument I'm not going to answer is a very foolish question
because the Bible says to avoid foolish questions.
But one of the common arguments they use, and this shows you they don't have anything.
Well, what if you had to drink beer to get somebody saved?
Are you still saying it would be wrong?
What if your only chance to give the gospel to your coworker is to go out on Friday night
and get drunk?
Is it still wrong to drink alcohol?
That's just a dumb question.
I mean, no, it's never okay to sin to do right.
But it's like, what a dumb question.
I'm not even going to answer that question.
So look, yeah, there's a question I avoided that's probably one of the 10 biggest arguments.
That's one of the big arguments they use, okay?
Probably the biggest argument I've heard is this, Jesus turned water into wine.
Who's heard that before?
Jesus turned water into wine, okay?
John 2 verse 1, and the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother
of Jesus was there, and both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage.
And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto them, they have no wine.
So in verse 3 it says they want wine, and the mother of Jesus says they don't have any
wine.
She comes to Jesus and says, we got this problem, okay?
Now here's the thing.
Once again, the word wine in the Bible is not always fermented.
In fact, half the time it's not fermented when you read it, plenty of times where it's
not referring to an alcoholic beverage.
So just because you have the word wine doesn't mean it's alcoholic.
See, I want you to realize the word wine, this biblically would be referred to as wine
as well, whether it's fermented or unfermented, anything in regards to this, however far along
that process would be under that category, I believe, okay?
So the word wine, it doesn't mean that it's alcoholic.
Now let me say this, my stance, and you might disagree, is this, but if there was a wedding
and people were getting drunk, I wouldn't show up to that wedding, because the Bible
says to abstain from all appearance of evil.
And so I don't believe Jesus would have even been at this wedding if people are getting
drunk.
I don't believe Mary would have been at this wedding getting drunk, right?
Many of us have Catholic relatives and you're welcome to do whatever you want, and this
isn't the main part of the sermon, but hey, you know, if your Catholic relatives want
you to go to All Saints Day to give food to dead relatives, or go to a wedding where they're
getting married and they're getting drunk and everything, I don't think you should have
anything to do with it.
And I don't believe Jesus would have either, okay?
And verse three, all we see is the word wine.
That does not tell you if it's alcoholic or non-alcoholic.
Now drop down to verse nine, drop down to verse nine.
When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and knew not whence
it was, meaning he didn't know where it came from, but the servants which drew the water
knew, the governor of the feast called the bridegroom.
So this ruler of the feast, he tastes this wine that was made by Jesus, which I believe
is referring to grape juice, not alcoholic, okay?
And he did not know where it came from.
And then it says this in verse 10, and saith unto him, every man at the beginning doth
set forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse.
But thou hast kept the good wine until now.
And so they'll highlight this phrase, well drunk, and say, well, see, they were drunk.
The word drunk and drank are the same in the Bible, okay?
It's saying the men have drank a lot of wine.
This doesn't say that they're drunk.
It doesn't say when men are drunk, it says they have well drunk, meaning they drank a
lot of the wine.
That still does not tell you if it's alcoholic or not alcoholic, okay?
The word drunk is the word drank in our modern vernacular.
So they have well drank.
They drank a lot of wine, okay?
Then it says this, when men have well drunk, then that which is worse.
But thou hast kept the good wine until now.
Now I want you to realize a couple of things.
Let's say this is alcoholic.
Let's say this wine is this poison that the Bible tells you to avoid.
If that's the case, this person comes up to Jesus or comes up to Mary and says, man, the
people are drunk.
We need more booze.
And Jesus says, well, here's another keg for your party.
I mean, because here's the thing, nobody would say, the Bible says it's okay to get drunk.
But if this is referring to alcoholic beverage, then these people are drunk, and then Jesus
says, let me get you more drunk.
That's beyond social drinking, my friend.
So trying to use this to justify social drinking, that doesn't fit your cause because Jesus
is helping people get drunk if that's what it's referring to, okay?
What he says is this, every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine, okay?
Think about when we had our anniversary just a couple of weeks ago.
When you start at an anniversary, you have all this special food, you cater the food,
it's expensive, and what do you do?
You have a backup plan.
If we run out of food, we'll go down to Jollibee and get 40 pieces of chicken.
At the beginning, you set forth the good stuff, and afterwards you just kind of bring something
so people don't complain.
Isn't that true?
Because when you're planning an event, you don't want to buy too much of fancy food because
it's very expensive.
But the thing that you dread is running out, okay?
So here's the thing, what he's saying is this, hey, at the beginning of this wedding, we
bring forth the good stuff, the best grape juice, and realize this, that this grape juice,
in today's world, this is very expensive.
Imagine a couple thousand years ago, this was something you have once a year at a wedding,
right?
Because I love grape juice, but you know why I don't drink it every day?
It's expensive.
Everybody loves grape juice, right?
It's expensive though, right?
Imagine 2,000 years ago, this would have been very expensive, so they run out of grape juice,
okay?
So you're going to go forth the good stuff at the beginning and look, when people have
drank a lot, it's like, hey, you're left with water, right?
It's like, here's the backup plan, you got to get stuck with it.
The other thing is this, the ruler of the feast, notice what it says in verse 9, when
the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and knew not whence it
was.
Imagine for a second that this ruler of the feast is drunk.
Let's say he's drunk and then he tastes more alcohol.
His taste buds aren't even going to be able to taste the alcohol anymore.
He's not going to say, this was so much better than the stuff we had at the beginning.
No, he's going to be drunk, he can't taste anything, right?
He doesn't have any taste buds at this point, so he's not going to say this is the good
stuff because your taste buds are going to be gone if you're already drunk, okay?
So look, all this is saying is this, at the wedding, you start off with the good grape
juice, very expensive, you run out, it's like, hey, can we get more grape juice?
If not, then they're just going to be drinking water or whatever, okay?
It never says it's alcoholic.
When it says men have well drunk, it's saying they've drank a lot of wine.
That does not mean it's alcoholic wine.
Go to Matthew 11, Matthew 11, Matthew 11.
And anyone who's trying to say this is alcoholic wine, what you're saying is Jesus is helping
people get drunk.
That does not fit with the character of Jesus, whether you believe in social drinking or
not.
Usually though, when people say Jesus turned water into wine, it's somebody who's some
derelict drunk who's just saying, hey, I mean, Jesus turned water into wine, who are
you to judge?
Judge not, judge not, Jesus turned water into wine, right?
Isn't that true?
It's usually, I mean, that's just a dumb argument, but that is the most common argument I've
heard is, well, Jesus turned water into wine, yeah, I mean, non-alcoholic wine, grape juice.
The other argument that you hear, another one is this, people say, well, Jesus drank
wine, Jesus drank alcohol, therefore it's okay for us to drink alcohol.
And the reason why they say that is Matthew 11, verse 18, and it says, for John came
neither eating nor drinking, and they say he hath a devil, okay?
Now why do people say this about John the Baptist?
John the Baptist was living out in the wilderness, he was preaching, and he was living off locust
and wild honey, right?
The reaction of the people are like, that guy is insane.
That guy's crazy.
I mean, look at him, he's living off locust and wild honey out in the wilderness, and
people accuse him of just being insane, being crazy, having a devil.
Why?
Because he's living out in the wilderness, he's preaching these radical sermons, and
everyone's like, that guy's a madman, right?
But they say something else about Jesus.
The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, behold, a man gluttonous and a wine
bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, but wisdom is justified of our children.
With Jesus, they don't accuse him of having a devil, according to this verse.
Now there were some that did accuse him of that, but in this verse, what it's saying,
what they say is this, he's a gluttonous man and a wine bibber, okay?
What is a wine bibber?
Well, the word bibber means to drink a lot.
So when you're saying wine bibber, they accused him of drinking wine a lot.
If you drink Coca-Cola every day, you are a Coke bibber.
Now that's not really a word we use today, but that's what it means, right?
I mean, if you drink a lot of Cobra, you're a Cobra bibber.
If you drink a lot of milk, you're a milk bibber, okay?
Now, I've never heard people use that word in our modern language, but that's what the
word means.
So they accused Jesus of being gluttonous, meaning he ate a lot, and he was a wine bibber.
He drank a lot of wine.
Once again, that doesn't tell you whether it's alcoholic or non-alcoholic, because people
think wine bibber means someone who's a drunk.
That's not what it means, okay?
Now let me say this, that even if people were to accuse Jesus of something, that doesn't
even mean it's true.
So just because they said something doesn't mean it's actually true, but what is it actually
saying?
That's why they're saying he's gluttonous, and a wine bibber is this, because he ate
with publicans and sinners.
Jesus would sometimes go to people's homes and preach the gospel, and they fed him a
nice meal.
He got to eat and drink nice things, and they're saying John the Baptist basically lived in
the wilderness and just ate whatever and drank whatever.
They said he's crazy.
Jesus sometimes had nice meals, and they said, look at this gluttonous man, look at this
wine bibber.
See, in the Bible, wine sometimes refers to something that's very expensive.
Wine and oil are used for that terminology.
What they're accusing Jesus of is eating and drinking nice foods.
Look at him going with publicans and sinners just so he can get some grape juice and a
five-course meal.
That's what they're accusing him of, okay?
What does this show you?
It doesn't matter what you do if you're serving God, they will accuse you of something.
If you live a very simple life, he's crazy.
Why doesn't he eat something else sometimes?
If you like to go to nice restaurants from time to time, look at this gluttonous man.
It doesn't matter what you do, right?
That is a reality that no matter what you do, they're going to accuse you.
But look, I don't believe they're even accusing Jesus of being a drunk.
I believe what they're accusing him of is eating and drinking nice things, because he
went to publicans and sinners' houses to preach the gospel, and look, if they're getting drunk,
he's not going to use that opportunity to preach the gospel.
He's going to people's houses that feed nice meals, and they say, well, look at him, hang
it out with publicans and sinners in order to drink this nice drink and then eat this
nice food.
Look at this gluttonous man and this wine-bibber, this person who likes to drink a lot of wine
and fancy things.
That's what they're accusing him of.
Now, obviously, that's false, what the Bible says, but wisdom is justified of our children.
Basically, let the foolish things make dumb accusations, whatever, right?
Wisdom is justified of our children.
Go to 1 Timothy 5.
So look, just because they would accuse Jesus of whatever doesn't mean it's true, but I
don't even believe they were accusing him of drinking alcohol.
I believe they were accusing him of eating and drinking nice things.
That's the context with John the Baptist, the contrast there, that no matter what side,
they're going to accuse you of something.
And here's the thing, it's not like Jesus was eating nice food and nice drink every
single day.
From time to time, he would preach the gospel to people, but it's not like every single
day he's at this, what is it, that buffet in southern Metro Manila, the spiral buffet
that's like 3,500 pesos per person or whatever, 4,000 pesos.
It's not like he was eating at the spiral buffet every single night, right?
It's called that from time to time, he got invited into people and he preached the gospel
to them and they fed him a nice meal.
I'm sure back during this time, people were very courteous, so if you were to go to their
home, they'd give you something nice, right?
And obviously, it would be rude if somebody serves you food, right?
If you go to somebody's home and they cook you a steak, it would be rude not to eat it.
Well, I just don't want to eat something that's really expensive.
It would be rude not to eat it if they feed it to you.
Jesus wasn't doing anything wrong by eating the food that was actually given to him because
he wasn't drinking alcohol or doing anything sinful.
So number three, they say, well, the Bible tells you to drink a little wine if you're
sick, okay?
This is one of the 10 arguments.
This almost went under the category of dumb questions not to answer but it's kind of hard
to figure out sometimes.
I'm going to answer it, okay?
First Timothy 5 verse 21, I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect
angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing
by partiality.
Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins, keep thyself pure.
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.
And so Paul tells to Timothy, you know what?
You don't always have to drink water.
If you're feeling sick, you might want to drink a little bit of wine.
Now here's the thing.
If somebody is feeling sick, the last advice it would be like, hey, here's a beer.
This will make you feel better.
Here's some wine to get you drunk.
That's going to make you feel good.
That is a dumb argument, right?
You say, well, why would grape juice make you feel better?
Well, think about if somebody is like faint headed.
Sometimes you need a little bit of sugar, right?
If somebody is faint headed, they're like, oh man, I'm feeling dizzy.
I might pass out.
What do you do?
You give them something with a little bit of sugar, right?
You give them some apple juice.
You give them some orange juice.
You give them some grape juice.
Guess what?
That will help them not be dizzy.
So guess what?
It makes sense that, hey, maybe Timothy, maybe you start to feel sick.
Hey, you know what, Timothy, you can drink something besides water from time to time.
And the reason I believe Paul is saying this is because people will accuse you if you're
drinking grape juice or drinking some expensive beverage will look at him always liking nice
things.
And Paul says, you know what, if you're feeling sick, it's okay to drink that from time to
time.
Okay.
Go to Isaiah 25, Isaiah 25.
I mean, most of the arguments to try to justify social drinking, the arguments done when you
realize wine is not always alcoholic in the Bible.
I mean, and we looked at the verse at the beginning where in the Song of Solomon, it
says, a spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
But what you see is wine is not always alcoholic in the Bible.
And I guess people just don't realize that.
Apparently they don't, or they just choose to ignore it because they want to justify
drinking, which is probably more so the case.
Another argument is in Isaiah 25, where it says wine on the lees, and this is the most
complicated one.
So I'll spend some time explaining.
And this is a verse that if you don't understand the process of making wine, it's going to
go straight over your head.
Look, I didn't understand the process until a few weeks ago as I started researching for
this sermon.
But notice what it says in Isaiah 25 verse five.
Thou shall bring down the noise of strangers as the heat in a dry place, even the heat
with the shadow of a cloud.
The branch of a terrible one shall be brought low.
And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things,
a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well
refined.
And so one of the big arguments people say is, well, what about the wines on the lees?
And your first reaction is, I don't know what that's talking about, right?
Wines on the lees well refined.
What is that referring to, okay?
Well, when you're making wine, okay, when you're fermenting alcohol, what's going to
take place is there is going to be some material that forms that's called lees, which is a
dead material, which is basically useless.
You do not want to put the dead material into this, okay?
You don't want something sitting at the bottom of this container where people are like, what
is that?
Right, imagine when you cook, isn't it true when you cook sometimes a material will form,
which is not part of the food, but it's just kind of a leftover useless material that's
there.
Same thing when you're fermenting alcohol, when this is taking place, there will be lees
that form, which is dead yeast from what I understand, okay?
And that is something that they will get rid of before they will sell you wine because
nobody's going to drink this if there's something at the bottom of the container like, man,
what is that, right?
And so that is what lees are, okay?
Now you say, Brother Stuckey, actually let me read you this, lees, this is the definition
of lees.
Lees are deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast and other particles that precipitate
or are carried by the action of fining to the bottom of a vat of wine after fermentation
and aging.
The same while brewing beer at a brewery is known as trub, the same from secondary fermentation
of wine and beer are the lees or equally as the beer only, dregs.
This material is the source for most commercial tartaric acid, which is used in cooking and
in organic chemistry.
So what it's saying here is that when you're fermenting alcohol, these lees are going to
form and this is a dead material, which is not something you want in the final product
of the wine.
And it's said by the action of fining, okay?
Notice the end of verse six where it says, of wines on the lees well refined, okay?
There is a process to remove the dead lees, to remove this material from the wine.
There's things called fining agents.
I don't understand how this works, but somehow an egg is used to remove the dead material.
I don't really understand this.
There's a lot of different materials they use, which will remove that and not affect
the wine somehow, okay?
But that is what lees are.
And so when it comes to verse six, I will say this, because I've heard various people
explain this, I do believe the wine in verse six is referring to alcoholic, because lees
form during the process of fermentation, okay?
Now I'll explain what this is referring to here in a second, but I definitely believe
this is referring to alcoholic, you know, wine.
I've heard other people say that they don't think it's alcoholic, but this is how lees
form is during the process of fermentation, okay?
From my understanding, I'm not an expert at this, okay?
But one word it used in the description of lees where it says, of wine and beer are the
lees who are equally as to beer only dregs.
They use the word dreg.
Now I forgot to ask Brother Matthias before the sermon, but do they use that word in Europe,
dreg?
Like a dreg of society?
Or you don't know what I'm talking about.
Only in America?
Okay.
We use the term a dreg.
Now that term is associated with beer, but it's a term you use.
When you say a dreg of society, what you mean is a drug dealer, a pedophile, a drug
addict, people that are useless.
It's a term used.
It's not a very common word, but a dreg of society is someone who basically provides
no value to society.
And that's a term that the world uses.
That guy's a dreg of society.
Look at him.
He's always drunk.
He's always addicted to drugs.
He is a dreg of society producing nothing, just harming this world.
And they're known as a dreg of society.
And look, the term dreg in its actual meaning is a useless thing that forms during the process
of beer, which is equivalent to the lees with wine.
So basically, a useless material.
Okay?
You say, what is this referring to then?
Look at verse six at the beginning.
And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things,
a feast of wines in the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well
refined.
I do believe he's using the example of alcoholic wine, not to justify drinking, but to give
you an example.
What is he saying?
I will remove the lees.
I will remove the wicked sinners that did not believe on Jesus Christ.
I will get rid of the wicked people that will not inherit heaven.
I will get rid of the dregs and lees of society.
Look, sometimes in the Bible, examples are given, and you've got to be very careful not
to be so specific.
You need to understand what's the point he's trying to make.
And he's using an example that some people understand where he's saying, hey, you know
what?
I've got this process, and I'm going to remove the wicked useless people, okay?
That doesn't mean it's okay to drink wine just because he uses an example, okay?
You can see that the reference is during the end times here.
Verse seven, and he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people
and the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death and victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off
all faces.
And the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth, for the Lord
hath spoken it.
So notice how he's going to wipe away all tears from your eyes.
Does that happen when you first go to heaven?
No.
That's late in the book of Revelation.
He's explaining an end times reference of how he is going to remove the wicked people.
That's what it says in verses seven and verses eight.
So he's not saying in verse six, hey, we're all just going to be drunk up in heaven.
That's not what he's saying.
He's using an example of how this useless material forms, and he says that's going to
be what it's like during the end when I remove the wicked, useless people, okay?
Go to Proverbs 31, Proverbs chapter 31.
And so leaves or dregs, in the U.S., a dreg of society is like an abortion doctor.
Actually what I consider a dreg of society is probably different than other people.
I consider the Catholic priests dregs of society.
I consider a lot of these Baptist pastors dregs of society, right?
But the world would say like, you know, pedophiles, drug addicts, drunks, those are dregs of society.
They're useless.
They don't produce anything.
They're not helping.
They're not working or anything like that.
They're just useless, okay?
Notice what it says in Proverbs 31.
He's saying in Proverbs 31, another argument they use is, well, you're supposed to give
strong drink on those that are ready to die and those that are really sad, okay?
And they go to Proverbs 31, okay?
Proverbs 31 verse 4, it is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine
nor for princes strong drink, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment
of any of the afflicted.
Now the Bible says here in verse 4 and 5 that if you drink wine or strong drink, which I
believe strong drink is always referring to an alcoholic beverage in the Bible, if you
drink this, you're going to forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
Does that sound like he's saying, hey, you know what?
Just drink.
No, she's saying don't drink alcohol.
But then they go to verses 6 and 7, give strong drink on to him that is ready to perish and
wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.
Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more.
Now ask yourself a question.
When we start in Proverbs 23, who is a person who has woe and sorrow and problems and a
heavy heart?
Who is a person who's miserable and who's poor?
It's a person that drinks alcohol.
What she's telling her son is this, hey, you know what, son, this is not for you to drink.
You see those drunks over there?
Let them drink their wine.
Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish or die.
Why is he ready to die?
Because he's drinking this.
Why does he have a heavy heart?
Because he's drinking this.
Right?
This in the US, you know, where Verity Baptist Church is, it's really easy to understand
this.
Because near our church, there's a methadone clinic, which is a government-sponsored drug
center where they, the goal of the government is to give people drugs that are at a smaller
dose of heavy drugs, and somehow they'll get over it.
So you'll see people walking around like this all the time.
They've just had their drugs that were given to them by the government that the government
pays for and my taxes pay for, right?
And they've just had these drugs and they're moving around.
So it's pretty easy to say, hey, you know, let that person stumbling around drunk and
addicted to drugs, hey, let him drink this stuff.
But as for you, you're too good for it.
And look, us as believers, let me explain something to you.
You are too good to drink this.
You are too good for alcohol.
You're too good for drugs.
You say, well, brother, suck you, I'm not a king.
No, you're kings and priests unto God, the Bible says.
You're too good to drink this stuff.
It will cause you to pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted, the Bible says.
You're going to forget the law.
Look, this substance, it is poison.
I for the life of me don't understand how anyone could turn to Proverbs 31 and say,
well, see, it's okay to drink a little bit of alcohol.
What she's doing is mocking alcohol by saying, let the loser drink alcohol.
Anyway, I preach the same thing.
Let the losers get drunk.
Let the losers do whatever they do in their lives.
We are Bible believing Christians and God's going to hold us to a high standard and we
should not be worldly.
We should not be sinful.
Let the losers out there do this stuff, not us.
Turn your Bible to Deuteronomy 14, Deuteronomy 14.
These are the best arguments they have.
I mean, my argument is the Bible says be sober.
I've never heard an answer to that one because one glass of beer, you're not sober, right?
These are the best arguments people have for justifying social drinking.
I think they're pretty weak.
I think they clearly just don't understand these passages or they're choosing not to
because they want to justify their lifestyle.
Another argument they're going to use is Deuteronomy chapter 14 and they say, well, in Deuteronomy
14, God says you can buy wine or strong drink.
Let us read this, Deuteronomy 14 verse 24, and if the way be too long for thee so that
thou art not able to carry it, or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God
shall choose to set his name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, then thou
shall turn it into money and bind up the money in thine hand and shall go into the
place which the Lord thy God shall choose.
We talked about these verses last week.
Notice verse 26, and thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after,
whatever you want, for oxen or for sheep or for wine or for strong drink or for whatsoever
thy soul desireth, and thou shalt eat it there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice
thou in thine household.
So notice he says, you know what, you can use this money to buy whatever you want, wine
or strong drink.
Now, I believe wine is probably just the generic whatever, whether it's juice or alcoholic
or whatever.
I believe strong drink is probably always referring to an alcoholic beverage in the
Bible, and it does say you're able to buy a strong drink.
You say, what is that referring to?
Well, go to Numbers chapter six, actually Numbers 28, Numbers 28, sorry, Numbers chapter
28.
And let me say this, this is not my answer, but I will say this, just because God gives
you liberty to do something doesn't mean he wants you to do it either, okay?
Just because he said you have the ability to buy, use your money for whatever you want,
I mean, yeah, there's great liberty in Christ, and we can choose to use our money to sin,
okay?
That doesn't make it okay, however, there are reasons why he says you're allowed to
buy strong drink.
Notice what it says in Numbers 28, verse seven, and the drink offering thereof shall be the
fourth part of an hen for the one lamb, and the holy place shalt thou cause the strong
wine to be poured onto the Lord for a drink offering.
Notice in Numbers 28, verse seven, there's actually an offering to God with strong wine,
which I believe is referring to an alcoholic beverage.
This was actually an offering to God where you pour out this alcoholic beverage in verse
seven.
Go down to verse 10, this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath beside the continual burnt
offering and his drink offering.
So the Bible does say that there is an offering that involves alcohol, not that you're actually
drinking but you're actually pouring out, perhaps because it's poison and, you know,
it's wrong for you, okay?
However, I don't even think that's the best reason why God says, that's the reason I've
heard before and I think it's a fine reason, there is a drink offering to the Lord that
uses alcohol, but I think there's actually a better reason why God says you might be
able to buy wine or strong drink, and I'll give you an example of this.
I'm going to go to Numbers chapter six, Numbers chapter six, Numbers six, Numbers chapter
six, verse three, Numbers six, verse three, and I would say this, that of all of the arguments
that they have, I believe the verse they used in Deuteronomy 14 and the wine on the leaves
are the most complicated to come up with an answer.
This one's probably their best argument because you're like, oh man, it says you can buy wine,
why is that?
I'll give you one reason, because there's actually a drink offering, but let me give
you another reason.
Notice what it says in Numbers six, verse three, he shall separate himself from wine
and strong drink.
This is someone who takes the Nazarite vow, he has to have his hair long, if he takes
this vow, and it says he's not allowed to have wine or strong drink and shall drink
no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes
nor eat most moist grapes or dried.
So this person that takes the Nazarite vow, he has to grow out his hair, he can't eat
grapes even if they're dry, he can't eat raisins, he can't eat moist grapes, so this would be
off the table.
I mean, all of these things would be off the table for this person.
I mean, this is off the table because it's grapes, this is off the table, right?
This is certainly off the table.
I don't know what happens if you drink it during the fermentation process.
Even this is off the table, even if this is dry.
Now it's not a sin to eat this, but if you take the Nazarite vow, God says you can't
do this, okay?
But notice how it also said vinegar of wine and vinegar of strong drink.
Why does it say vinegar?
Notice this picture.
Red wine vinegar.
Do you know how this is made?
From red wine.
What happens is vinegar is double fermentation from the original process.
What happens is you get grapes, you ferment them, and it becomes red wine, which is alcoholic.
Once you double ferment, it is no longer alcoholic.
Vinegar uses alcohol, and you ferment that, and it is no longer alcoholic.
So red wine vinegar, why does it get the name red wine vinegar?
Because it comes from red wine.
But this is not sinful.
You say, why?
It's not alcoholic.
Now this person who has the Nazarite vow, he's not allowed to have vinegar, but it's
not wrong for you to have red wine vinegar.
You say, why?
It's not alcoholic.
See, God said avoid it when you're having this red wine substance when it's been intentionally
fermented, but if you ferment it again, it's no longer alcoholic.
I mean, how would people eat chicharron 2,000 years ago?
Don't you need vinegar for that?
Right?
You say, what's your point?
Here's my point.
2,000 years ago, stuff like this was not mass produced like it is today.
It was very, very hard to make.
So you know what?
You could buy the red wine, and if you knew how to ferment it, you could save money on
labor by saying, you know what, maybe I don't have the ability to take grapes and turn it
into vinegar, but I do have the ability to take red wine and turn it into a non-alcoholic
substance red wine vinegar because I want to use it for food or whatever.
And since it mentions vinegar in Numbers Chapter 6, this tells us that people who lived 2,000
years ago, they weren't dumb.
They understood these processes.
Vinegar was actually something that people actually had, and they actually knew how to
make it.
Okay?
Our world is dumber today than it's ever been.
It's non-disputable.
This is the dumbest the world has ever been, and honestly, and I'm including myself when
I read Proverbs 23, I understand it now because I researched and everything.
A lot of this stuff was probably common knowledge to people.
They understood, okay, yeah, that's how you make wine.
That's vinegar.
That's lees.
They knew all these things.
Nowadays, with all the advantages in technology, we know nothing.
Right?
I'll firmly admit, I had no idea vinegar came from wine.
Right?
It's, oh, red wine vinegar.
That makes sense.
Okay?
Now, look, one reason why you might have said you can buy something that's alcoholic is
because it actually would have a use if you turned it into something non-alcoholic.
And quite honestly, there might have been many uses that they used back then, which
actually weren't harmful for your body, that were actually not about drinking and getting
drunk.
Okay?
Now, turn in your Bible to Ephesians chapter five, Ephesians five, Ephesians five, Ephesians
chapter five.
And look, I read about the process to double ferment and becoming non-alcoholic.
I don't fully understand that.
Okay?
I've never tried to ferment anything or whatever.
But once you take red wine and you ferment it, you can turn it to non-alcoholic.
Okay?
And look, sometimes people use things like wine for cooking and stuff like that.
And if you change the substance where it's no longer alcoholic, you know, I don't see
why that would be wrong.
Now, people could have different opinions and stuff like that, but if you're not actually
having anything, consuming any alcohol to your body because it's non-alcoholic, then
I don't see where it'd be wrong anymore.
Okay?
Just like you could make red wine and turn it into vinegar, it's not alcoholic.
Okay?
And you could have a different opinion on that.
That's fine.
I'm just showing you, there is actually a use of red wine when you change it into a
good substance.
Okay?
Ephesians five.
Another argument that they use, and will be done pretty soon, is they say, well, you know,
the Bible teaches that it's wrong to have an excess of wine, but it's not wrong to have
any wine.
Well, notice what it says in Ephesians five verse 18.
Ephesians five verse 18.
And be not drunk with wine where it is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
And they'll say, well, see, you're not supposed to be drunk with wine because that is excess.
But it's okay to drink a little bit of alcohol if you don't get drunk.
So go to First Peter chapter four.
First Peter chapter four.
First Peter four.
First Peter chapter four.
And this word excess is actually something that's used in First Peter chapter four.
And notice what it says in First Peter four verse three.
For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles
when we walked into lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and
abominable idolatries.
So in verse three, it's like, okay, excess of wine.
And people would say, well, see, you're not supposed to get drunk.
Well, what does it say in verse four?
Wherein they think it's strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot,
speaking evil of you.
Now, what does it mean with rioting?
Rioting and looting are often commonly used together.
All you have to do is pull up the news in the United States and they got all these protests.
They're burning down buildings.
They're throwing rocks through windows and everything like that.
I mean, just all this chaos on the street.
They're rioting and they're looting.
Well, let me ask you a question.
Is it okay to just throw like one rock through a window?
It's not an excess of rioting.
It's just a little bit of rioting.
I mean, is it okay to just stab one person?
Right?
Is it okay to just burn down one?
I mean, it's not an excess.
I only burned down one building.
Is that okay?
Is it okay to just rob one store or is it wrong to rob any stores?
Right?
A little bit of riot would be wrong, right?
Just a little bit of riot would be wrong.
Well, it's only an excess of riot.
I'm gonna use the same argument they will.
If that's what it's saying with excess of wine, well, then the same thing with rioting.
It's okay to riot a little bit as long as you don't do too much.
No, that's foolishness.
That's ridiculous.
A little bit of riot is wrong.
A little bit of wine is wrong as well.
And yes, you know what?
If you have an excess of wine, you get drunk, but you know any amount of wine that you drink
is wrong, okay?
Just because it highlights getting drunk or having an excess or having a lot or whatever,
that doesn't mean that it's okay to have a little bit, okay?
Go to Psalm 104.
We'll close up here.
Psalm 104.
And let me say this, that when it comes to this topic of alcohol, I understand there
can be some gray area situations with stuff, but you know what?
Unless you're intentionally trying to set out to get drunk, you really don't have to
worry about it, okay?
People try to bring up all these gray area situations.
For example, I guess I'll talk about it in a minute, with certain medicines and things
like that and stuff like that, but they're really just trying to justify drinking themselves.
They want to justify why they get drunk, and then they try to bring up a gray area situation
where people might have different opinions, okay?
Notice what it says in Psalm 104, verse 15, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man
and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.
And so they use this verse, and they say, well, see, wine makes the heart glad.
And they're just like, so it must be alcohol, right?
What else could gladden your heart like booze, right?
That's what they say.
Well, let me explain once again that during the Bible times, I mean, even in today's world,
people really don't drink this very much because it's expensive.
Especially back then, that's like a once a year thing, so guess what?
This gladdens my heart when I drink it, right?
I mean, is there anything that gladdens your heart more than grape juice?
This is like the best tasting drink in the world.
It gladdens my heart when I drink it, right?
And since this is an expensive thing, guess what?
People weren't having this at every meal.
It's very expensive.
So guess what?
When people get to drink something like this, yeah, it gladdens the heart.
They get to have a nice meal.
They get to have something nice to drink.
They're very excited.
It's a special occasion.
It's like, man, I got my birthday coming up.
I'll get to drink some grape juice or whatever.
It's a very exciting thing.
There's nothing to indicate that's referring to alcoholic wine just because it says wine
gladdens the heart.
And I guess if you're a drunk and a loser, alcohol gladdens your heart.
But you know what gladdens my heart?
This gladdens my heart.
You know what doesn't gladden my heart?
Booze.
I have no interest in getting drunk.
And so the other two arguments, we don't have any verses to go to here, but another argument
people will have is they'll bring up cough syrup or things with medicine that have some
alcohol or some drugs or things related to that.
Now let me say this, that people can have different opinions on stuff like this.
And we need to be very careful when we have opinions on gray area situations.
If someone disagrees, that's okay.
If you both agree it's wrong to drink beer, it's wrong to drink wine, it's wrong to drink
gin, it's wrong to drink alcohol, but then you disagree over whether or not it's okay
to give your son cough syrup.
That's not really a situation to split a church over.
I would say that if I go to mercury drug because one of my kids is sick, I'm not super concerned
about getting cough syrup that has a little bit of alcohol because I'm not intentionally
using that to try to get my kids drunk and they're not going to be getting drunk off
it.
You're actually using it because it has a purpose.
But let me also say this, not all cough syrup has alcohol in it.
Because cough syrup, the alcohol is not part of the medicine of cough syrup.
Alcohol is a solvent.
And what that means is there's a lot of different materials in the cough syrup, but they don't
mix together.
And alcohol is used as a solvent to bring those things all together.
It's not the only solvent used though.
So if you do have that personal standard where I would be even against my child having a
little bit of cough syrup, hey, that's fine.
That's your standard.
There is cough syrup that does not have any alcohol used as the solvent.
Or they'll say, well, what about medicines if you have injuries?
Look, when I tore my ACL and tore my meniscus and had surgery, I did have pain medication
for a couple days.
Now some of you say, I think that's wrong, Brother Stuckey.
And I'm okay with you disagreeing with me on that.
If your standard is no pain medication in situations like that, that's fine.
People have different opinions.
If that's your opinion, that's fine.
But what I want you to understand is this, I don't see how you bring up a gray area situation
like pain medicine after a major surgery and say, oh, it's okay for me to drink vodka and
get drunk.
I mean, do you see how that's kind of a vain argument from people that want to justify
drinking alcohol?
And I want you to understand something.
My personal opinion, because it said in Proverbs 23 that this substance is poison and to avoid
it.
And what it said is the next morning you'll wake up and seek it again.
My personal opinion is one drop of that in this container of water would be wrong.
Because he intentionally told you avoid that one substance, even if that is far less alcoholic
than one container, one small thing of cough syrup for your child.
That's my opinion.
You might disagree with me, but here's what I want you to understand.
God told you to avoid specifically the red wine.
Now I think that applies to white wine or gin or vodka or rummy or whatever the other
types of alcohol are.
I personally don't draw that line with cough syrup or pain medication or certain types
in certain situations, although I do understand there are certain medications you should probably
completely avoid.
Very gray area situation, but here's what I want you to understand.
That has nothing to do with drinking beer and wine.
That's called trying to use a confusing situation where people could have different opinions.
And I'll be honest, I haven't even thought through all of these different gray area situations.
Because honestly my day is not really consumed with just how can I justify getting drunk,
which obviously theirs is, okay?
And the other argument, which I mentioned already, where they say, well, every drink
with sugar has a little bit of alcohol.
And yeah, you know what?
Sugar will naturally turn alcoholic over time.
But yeah, the key word is little.
The key word is 0.00001%.
The key word is that unless you intentionally ferment it to turn it into poison, then it's
so incredibly minute and God didn't even tell you to worry about that.
What he told you to worry about is when you have a substance where you choose to mix it
together and it turns red and it moves itself aright and at the last it biteth like a serpent
and stingeth like an adder.
And here's the thing.
The fermentation process for red wine, it's pretty similar from what I've read to gin
and rummy and all those other types of alcohol.
I'm not an expert at all this stuff because honestly it's a lot more complicated than
I thought.
But as long as you're not intentionally trying to turn a beverage into something that's a
poison for the purpose of getting drunk, and why do they do this?
The reason why they do this is simply this.
Because they want to just commit major sins and have an excuse and say, well, yes I committed
fornication but I mean it's because I drank a little bit of alcohol.
No big deal, right?
They want to be able to commit sins and not feel guilty for them.
That is the reason why they try to justify social drinking.
You say why?
Because grape juice tastes great.
Why do you need wine?
I mean doesn't juice taste great?
You don't need it to be a poison.
You can clearly just drink grape juice or apple juice but people like the feeling of
getting drunk and being filled full of spirits and committing sins that no Christian ought
to commit.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to see
your word on this topic and help us understand why we are against drinking alcohol and against
drinking wine, God.
Help us have a strong line on this topic and help us to realize that every word of God
is pure.
All the answers are in the word of God and if there is a verse that we don't necessarily
know how to answer, there is an answer in the Bible we just need to keep reading.
We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.