Alright, we're here in 1 Timothy chapter 4 and we're going to be continuing our series
on biblical health.
And what we're going to talk about in this sermon is godliness.
And there's no question, in my opinion, and from the Word of God, that the number one
most important thing for your physical health is actually living a godly life.
There's no question about that.
That does not negate the importance of having a good diet and exercise and things like that.
Those are going to be the sermons next week and the week after that, those other sermons.
So we're starting with the number one most important thing and the number one most important
thing is godliness.
And it says in 1 Timothy 4 verse 8, godliness is profitable unto all things.
Okay?
Godliness is profitable unto all things, not some things, all things.
The Bible's very clear.
We're going to talk about that verse a little bit more later on.
Turn to Ephesians 6, Ephesians 6.
We're going to see four points here today about godliness and we're going to explain
how this helps your physical health.
But I want you to notice Ephesians chapter 6 starting at verse 1.
And the first thing I want you to understand is there is a promise given from God that
if you live a godly life, it's going to benefit your health.
There's a promise from God.
Ephesians 6 verse 1, children, obey your parents in the Lord.
For this is right, honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise
that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth.
Okay?
See, the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 6 that if you honor your father and your mother,
it's a commandment with promise.
It says you will live long on the earth.
You see, that doesn't logically make sense.
It doesn't matter if it logically makes sense.
That's what the Bible says, that if you honor your father and your mother, you'll live long
on the earth.
That's a promise from God.
See, when you live a godly life and you do what God says, there's a promise given from
the Word of God.
If you honor your father and your mother, it's the first commandment with promise.
It doesn't matter if it logically makes sense to us.
Is it what the Bible says?
Yes, it is.
So, living a godly life, honoring your father and your mother, it's a commandment with promise
that you'll live long on the earth.
Turn to Psalms 11.
Psalms 11.
And that's one of the basic commandments that there is in the Bible.
It says, honor thy father and thy mother.
Now, when you're understanding the commandment of honoring your father and your mother, there's
kind of two parts to this.
When you're growing up and you live in their household, you have to obey their rules.
Because you live in their house, they're the ones that own the house, they're the ones
providing the money, you have to abide by their rules.
Unless they were to ask you to commit a sin, you're supposed to listen to their rules.
Now, it is different, though, when you get married because the Bible says you leave under
your spouse and you become one.
Now, obviously, at my house, let's say my parents had a rule and said, you've got to
go to bed by 8 o'clock at night.
I don't have to listen to that promise anymore or that commandment anymore because I have
my own house.
We make our own rules at our house.
But you can still honor your parents, though.
You should still respect them in the fact that they raised you and they did the best
that they could.
Even if they weren't perfect.
And you should understand that this is a commandment with promise.
It says in Psalms 11, verses 1 and 2,
And the Lord put on my trust.
How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?
For lo, the wicked bend their bow.
They make great of their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright
in heart.
And so what it says in Psalms 11, verse 1,
I put my trust in the Lord.
This is not really referring to salvation here.
Yes, when you get saved, you're putting your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When it says your trust here, it's talking about your daily living.
You put your trust in the Lord.
So how would some wicked person tell me to flee to the mountain?
See, here's the Bible saying, you have a promise from God that if you're putting your trust
in Him, you don't have to worry about some wicked person trying to kill you.
How's he going to tell me to flee to the mountain?
No.
You put your trust in the Lord, and guess what?
You're under God's protection.
It says that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart in verse 2.
If you're living an upright life, you're living a godly life, God is going to protect you.
Turn to Proverbs 3.
And we're only looking at some of these verses that talk about the promise from God,
but there are a lot of verses in the Bible that show that if you're living a godly life,
you have God's promise that you have His protection and you can live a long life.
When we've gone through the book of Psalms on our Wednesday nights, as we do it once a month,
oftentimes in that chapter, what do I talk about?
I talk about the fact that the wicked, ungodly people want to kill us,
but God says He'll protect you.
It's in almost every chapter in the book of Psalms.
Proverbs 3, verses 1 and 2.
And so here it says,
Let thine heart keep my commandments.
And this is not the commandments from God,
but if you have a godly parent,
what are the commandments they're going to be telling their kids?
The commandments from God.
So it's going to be the same commandments.
But look, if you keep the commandments of God,
you don't forget His law.
It will give you length of days and long life.
That's what it says.
It says in Proverbs 3, verse 2,
And in peace shall they add to thee.
Look at Proverbs 3, verse 13.
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,
and the man that geteth understanding.
For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver,
and the gain thereof in fine gold.
She is more precious in rubies,
and all the things that thou canst desire
are not to be compared unto her.
Length of days is in her right hand,
and in her left hand riches and honor.
So what does the Bible say in verse 16?
Length of days is in her right hand.
See, if you get the wisdom of God,
you've got the promise from God of living a longer life.
Now, I understand that somebody
can be a godly person and die at a young age.
I'm not saying that never happens.
And look, we know ungodly people
that live a long life sometimes.
I understand there's exceptions to this,
but the general thing you're seeing in the Bible
is that if you're living a godly life,
then you're going to live a longer life.
You say, well, why is that?
If you're living a godly life,
then God needs you in this world
to accomplish something.
If you're doing something for God,
it makes sense that God's going to want you to live a long life.
Because look, if the people in this room didn't live,
who's going to do the soul-winning in this area?
I mean, honestly, God needs
godly people in this world
because otherwise people aren't going to be preaching the gospel.
So it makes sense that God
would want you to live a long life.
And that's the promise you see from God.
If you're living a godly life, then guess what?
He can give you length of days.
Now, look at Proverbs 3.
Look at verse 7.
Now, let me explain something to you
of what I'm talking about
so you can understand kind of the difference.
If I were to look at my personal life
and things that I enjoy,
you know, if I was not a Christian
or if I wasn't dedicated to church,
if I didn't read the Bible,
if I had a lot of free time,
what I would do is spend a couple hours every day working out.
If I was as dedicated when I was younger,
that's what I did all the time.
I worked out. I played sports. I went to the gym.
I always worked out.
I was a gym rat, as they say.
I don't know if they say that here.
But I worked out all the time. I was a gym rat.
That's what I enjoyed doing.
And look, I don't have as much time in my life
to work out now.
Why? Because going to church takes time.
Reading the Bible takes time.
Going to the soul-winning takes time.
And when you hear the word of God,
you know the necessities of those things,
but you also know I need to be a better husband,
I need to be a better father,
and those things take time, don't they?
When you dedicate your life to God,
it takes up a lot of your time.
You don't have time to play basketball two hours every night.
We live busy lives.
Everybody in this room, you have a busy schedule.
You don't have as much time to work out.
Now, if I were to take myself
and just, say, Christianity, so to speak,
and just spend my time just working out all the time,
I would be stronger,
I would run a much better mile,
I would look like I was in much better shape,
but I would not be in better shape in my life.
Because we're talking about the promise
given to God a length of days
if you're living a godly life.
And somebody might look like they're in great condition
and great health,
but look, if they're not under God's protection,
He's not going to do them very much good.
If God's not happy with them,
it's not going to do very much good.
It's really not that hard for God
to allow some sort of accident to happen.
If you're living a godly life,
even if you don't have the proper diet,
even if you don't get to exercise that much,
I believe if you're really trying to live a godly life,
God can give you a long life.
Okay?
That is more beneficial to your health
than what the gym will be.
Now look, if you get a chance to work out,
there's nothing wrong.
I still work out.
I'll preach a sermon on exercise.
The Bible talks a lot about it.
I'm not saying it's not important at all,
and as Christians,
when we put our faith in the Bible,
when we put our faith in the word of God,
we need to believe what the Bible says.
Your prayer time in the morning is more important to you.
Your Bible reading,
your soul winning, going to church,
these things have an inherent promise
from God in them.
That doesn't mean that you'll never have health problems.
That doesn't mean your life's going to be perfect,
but look, God says He can give you length of days,
and if you're living a godly life,
then He's going to want you here
in Proverbs 3 verse 7.
Not only is there a promise from God,
but just godliness in general is healthy.
Godliness in general is healthy.
Just negating the promise,
it's healthy in and of itself.
Proverbs 3 verse 7.
Be not wise in thine own eyes.
Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
It shall be health to thy navel
and marrow to thy bones.
The Bible says here in Proverbs 3
that if you fear the Lord,
it will be health to thy navel.
Look, God's not just using words
to make it sound interesting.
He's being honest.
It will be health to you.
It is marrow to your bones.
You say, well, that doesn't make sense to me.
Well, it doesn't really matter if it makes sense or not.
It's what the Bible says.
Look, if you only believe things that make sense to you,
then there'd be a lot you probably wouldn't believe.
You must just believe what the Bible says.
And He says it will be health to thy navel
and marrow to thy bones.
Godliness is healthy to your body.
Turn to Proverbs 16.
Now look, this is honestly a pretty encouraging sermon to us.
Because of the fact that you're in this room,
you come to church, you love someone,
you love the Word of God,
you love reading the Bible and things like that.
This is encouraging because honestly,
for many of us, we don't have as much free time
to do a lot of things we like to do.
We don't have as much free time to make a workout,
play sports or do whatever things
that would be healthy to our body.
But look, what you're doing is health to your body.
That's what the Bible says.
It says it's health to thy navel
and marrow to thy bones.
That's the promise from God.
Proverbs 16, verse 24.
Pleasant words are as in honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and health to thy bones.
It says here in Proverbs 16, verse 24,
pleasant words are as in honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and health to thy bones.
Now on a side point,
according to this verse, is the honeycomb healthy?
Yes, it is.
Now look, in the last 20 years,
the experts have kind of changed their mind
on a lot of these diet things.
And now they're starting to realize,
wow, it doesn't make sense because honey's just full of sugar,
but honey's actually really healthy for you.
It's like that's kind of funny
because Christians would have known this like 2,000 years ago.
I mean, the Bible told you that.
It tells you honey is healthy for you.
But when people don't believe in the word of God,
they can have all kinds of crazy views.
There was a time period where people decided that,
you know what, butter is very unhealthy for your body,
but margarine is very healthy because there's less fat.
Now I can't go into too many rabbit trails
because that's the diet sermon.
Let me just say this,
that the world doesn't have the answers.
The expert doctors, expert MDs and expert nutritionists,
they spent eight years to get that fancy degree
and now they're an expert.
Yeah, but you know what?
When you negate the word of God,
you're going to be wrong on a lot of stuff.
It doesn't matter how much you know.
It doesn't matter if you can name all the organisms or whatever.
Look, if you don't know what the word of God says,
you're going to be ignorant on a lot.
The Bible says honey's healthy,
but it also says pleasant words are healthy,
sweet to the soul and health to the bones.
See, when you hear the word of God preached,
it's healthy for you.
It's health to the bones.
They're pleasant words.
The words of God are pure words.
They're pleasant words.
They're good words.
It's actually healthy to hear the word of God preached,
but it's also healthy when you have friends
that don't always complain.
They're not always bitter and telling you about their problems.
You actually have friends that are just encouraging.
That is healthy for you.
Pleasant words, not depressing words,
not words like, oh, I'm mad about this.
That's not healthy for you.
When we're talking about honest health,
according to the Bible, pleasant words are healthy for you.
Unpleasant words would be what?
Unhealthy.
Pleasant words are health to the bones.
Look at Proverbs 15.
Proverbs 15, verse 26.
The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord,
but the words of the pure are pleasant words.
The Bible says pure words are pleasant words.
We know that the Bible says every word of God is pure,
so the pure words, pleasant words,
you can use them basically synonymously.
Every single word in this book,
when you read the Bible,
they're pleasant words for you,
and they're healthy for you.
You say reading the Bible is actually healthy on my body.
Yes, it is.
Why?
Because the pure words and pleasant words,
they're health to the bones.
But the thoughts and words of the wicked,
they're an abomination to the Lord.
See, when you hear stuff from the world all the time,
ungodliness and sin and wickedness,
it's unhealthy on your body.
You say that doesn't make sense to me.
It does not matter if it makes sense.
That is what the Bible says.
Pleasant words are healthy to you.
Unpleasant words are unhealthy.
Turn to Proverbs 17.
I mean, this is the book on wisdom, right?
The book of Proverbs?
If you think we look at it and say,
well, you know what the Bible says.
But you know what I'm saying now?
A lot of people just say that doesn't make any sense.
I don't believe that.
I mean, of all sermons I preach,
this is probably one where they say,
I just don't agree with that.
You know, it doesn't make sense to me.
It doesn't matter if it makes sense.
That is what the Bible says.
Amen.
As Christians, we believe the word of God.
Proverbs 17, verse 22.
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine,
but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
The Bible says a merry heart, a glad heart,
a joyful heart doeth good like a medicine.
Being in a good mood, it actually is like a medicine.
It's healthy to your body.
Now, this is something the world kind of has an understanding of
because they'll say that one of the most important things
to fight illnesses and diseases is to be in a good mood.
They say, you know, when you go through some battle
or sickness in life that if you have a positive attitude,
don't they say that?
If you have a positive attitude, it will help you.
Well, I mean, the Bible says the same thing.
You're actually right about that.
Having a merry heart, it's like a medicine,
according to the Bible.
Now, turn to John 13.
John 13.
When it comes to having a merry heart,
we say, what is the secret to having a merry heart?
Well, what did we learn in the last sermon?
That when you serve other people,
that's going to make you feel better.
You say, Brother Stuck, you know, I'm so depressed and alive.
Man, my life's miserable.
I'm not happy.
Well, quit focusing on yourself, right?
Care about other people,
and it's going to do good like a medicine.
See, man, I couldn't figure out why I was depressed.
Hey, here's the secret.
You have to develop a merry heart.
And how do you do that?
By keeping God's commandments
and focusing on other people rather than yourself.
Right.
Now, honestly, people don't like hearing these words
because it kind of steps on your toes a little bit.
Uh-huh.
People like that magic pill that fixes everything.
Man, if I just eat this pill, I'll always be happy.
I'll be in great shape.
I'll live to be 120 years old,
and everything's going to be perfect.
There's no magic pill in life.
What it's called is you've got to make some changes, okay?
And here's what it says in John 13, starting in verse 15.
For I have given you an example
that ye should do as I have done to you.
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
The servant is not greater than his Lord,
neither he that is sent greater than him
than he that sent him.
If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
See, when you know what the Word of God says,
if you choose to do it, it's going to make you happy.
And he's talking also here about being a servant,
and so if you understand that serving others
is going to make you happy,
you're going to be happy if you do them.
But here's the truth.
If you go to church and you hear the Word of God preached
and you don't apply it to your life at all,
it's going to have the opposite effect.
Right, right.
It will make you miserable.
See, if you know what's right and you choose not to do it,
it's going to make you miserable.
Honestly, it's going to make you miserable.
Honestly, here's the truth.
If you're going to go to church and hear the Word of God preached
and you're going to listen to a lot of sermons online,
you better actually do what you hear.
Otherwise, the best advice I have to you
is quit listening to preaching.
Because if you hear the preaching,
God holds you accountable in that.
And quite honestly, you'll be miserable
if you know what you're supposed to do
and you choose not to do it.
Happy are ye if you do them.
It's not a guarantee.
You say, well, man, I'm hearing all this preaching.
It's going to make me happy.
No, no, no, no.
It's going to make you happy if you apply it, if you do it.
But if you don't do it, you're not going to be happy.
Turn back to 1 Timothy 4.
Here's the truth about it.
All of us from time to time, we slip up, we make mistakes.
Isn't it true that when you do something wrong
and you know it's wrong that you feel miserable?
It's just like the Bible says.
It makes you feel physically weak.
Because quite honestly, when you're doing wrong,
it actually does make you physically weak.
It's actually bad on your health.
Now, we don't necessarily understand the science behind that.
I don't understand the science behind that.
But I do know what the Word of God says.
And I believe what the Word of God says.
1 Timothy 4, verses 7 and 8.
Now, 1 Timothy 4, 8 is quite honestly one of the most misunderstood verses in the entire Bible.
And I'll tell you why that is.
The Bible says here bodily exercise profiteth little.
And what I've heard most people do is just kind of preach that and stop and just say,
well, see, physical exercise is not that important for you.
That's not what it's saying in this verse.
Because if you look at what the verse is saying,
it says godliness is profitable unto all things.
Why is godliness profitable unto all things?
Having promise of the life that now is and of the life which is to come.
See, godliness profits you here on earth and in heaven.
The reason why exercise profits you little is because it only profits you on earth.
It's not saying it profits you a little bit on earth.
That doesn't make sense.
I mean, logically, that doesn't make sense.
But in the verse, it's not saying physical exercise profits you only a little bit here on earth.
No, it's saying it profits you little because it only profits you on earth.
That's what it's saying.
It says bodily exercise profits you a little bit.
But on earth, bodily exercise profits you a great bit.
Quite honestly, if you want to have a hobby, that's probably about the best hobby you can have as a Christian
outside of the Christian leagues is that it actually does benefit you.
But you don't get rewards in heaven for how much you bench press.
You don't get rewards in heaven for how fast you can run a mile.
That doesn't give you rewards up in heaven.
So yeah, it profits you little because determining is like a million times more important.
But in terms of earth, it does profit you.
And we'll talk about that sermon here a little bit.
But quite honestly, that's kind of a misunderstood verse.
But I want you to understand that godliness profits all things.
So it not only profits you in terms of getting rewards, you're not making a sacrifice.
It's not like you're saying, you know what, I'm sacrificing exercise.
And so I'll get all the rewards in heaven and I'll be in terrible shape here on earth.
No, that's not the way it works.
Godliness actually profits you on earth.
You say, well, how do you know that?
It says it's profitable unto all things.
That's what it says.
Having promise of the life that now is, that's while you're alive, and of that which is to come.
Now, turn to 1 Corinthians 6.
And so quite honestly, when it comes to living a godly life, there's a promise associated.
But there's also just godliness in and of itself is healthy to your body.
And this is something that the world's probably never going to fully understand.
Quite honestly, I'm never going to fully understand.
It's just the way it works.
How does that work? It's just a matter of that's what the Bible says.
We just do and believe what the Bible says.
But another thing to keep in mind is this, that not only is godliness healthy, sin is very unhealthy on your body.
1 Corinthians 6, verse 18.
Let's first talk about sexual sin. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18.
When you commit fornication, you're sinning against your own body.
You're destroying your own body.
See, fornication is very unhealthy to your body.
Now, I want you to understand something.
Obviously, when two people get married, obviously they're expected to be kind of intimate together.
But that's something that's done when you're married.
And you say, well, it doesn't make sense to me.
What's the big difference between whether or not you've done the ceremony and whether you haven't?
Because of the fact, God says if you commit fornication, which is before marriage, you're sinning against your own body.
God says it's going to be unhealthy for you.
Even if it doesn't logically make sense.
No, you're expected to wait until you're married.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And if you choose to commit fornication, you are sinning against your own body.
There are repercussions associated with that.
It is not healthy.
There's not a whole sermon on that one topic.
You preach a whole sermon on that topic.
But look, you know, there's diseases you could get.
And it's just not healthy on your body.
It's not healthy to go out there and just fornicate with a bunch of people.
It's going to destroy your body.
It's going to destroy your health.
They're not going to be as healthy, according to the Bible.
Turn to Psalms 101.
And in Psalms 101, verse 3, not only did we talk about sexual sin and how it's destructive
to your body, but, you know, let's talk about the television for a second.
Psalms 101, verse 3.
And when you say the television, you could also include the computer as well.
Things that you would watch on the computer.
But Psalms 101, verse 3, it says, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.
I hate the work of them that turn aside.
It shall not leave to me.
So the Bible says, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.
Now, the best application in the 21st century is what?
The television.
Right?
You say, is the television wicked?
I mean, tell me a program on there that's godly, that actually teaches you how to be
a good soul learner.
The closest thing you have is the way the mask is.
That's the closest thing to actually having a godly program is doing the exact opposite.
It's actually teaching you how to be a false prophet.
Okay?
Look, the television is not going to teach you anything good.
But not only that, it's not healthy on your body to watch the TV for hours on end.
Right.
Now, here's an article from a woman by the name of Dr. Renee Carr, a clinical psychologist.
Okay?
These are her words.
I presume this is probably not a Bible-believing Christian, but this is what it says.
When binge-watching your favorite show, your brain is continually producing dopamine, and
your body experiences a drug like hot.
So when you're watching TV a lot, it's like taking a drug, according to her.
You experience a pseudo-addiction to the show because you develop cravings for dopamine.
According to Dr. Carr, the process we experience while binge-watching is the same one that
occurs when a drug or other type of addiction begins.
The neuronal pathways that cause heroin and sex addictions are the same as an addiction
to binge-watching, Carr explains.
So basically, watching TV for an extended period of time basically has the same effect
as taking heroin.
Wow.
Now, who wants to stand up here and say, I think it's healthy to take heroin?
Does anyone believe that?
I think it's healthy to take these really heavy drugs.
Look, when I was young, I used to watch TV all the time, but when you're sitting in front
of your TV just watching TV, I remember when I was young, and this might be before most
people's time, but I remember I loved Indiana Jones.
I remember I'd have sometimes on a Saturday, I'm just going to watch all three Indiana
Jones, just about eight straight hours.
It starts to really hurt your eyes, it starts to make you feel bad.
And quite honestly, if you watch a lot of stuff, it's going to make it hard to go to
sleep.
It has an effect on your body.
It's not healthy for you.
And according to this clinical psychologist, and I'm assuming what she's saying is probably
true, it's almost like taking a drug.
It's actually not healthy in your body just to stare mindlessly at something for hours.
That's not the way we're designed.
Obviously in today's world with the computer, the TV, this stuff is very easy to do.
And even if you're listening to sermons, listening to sermons is godly, right?
Let me say this, it's not healthy in your body just to sit there and watch for like
four or five straight hours.
If you listen to sermons, hey, just listen from time to time, but don't just stare at
something for hours and hours and hours.
It actually is not going to be healthy in your body.
It's not good for you.
And getting addicted to something certainly doesn't help because then you just want it
more and more and more.
You're not designed that way.
That's not something that's healthy.
Turn to, well, let's talk about music.
I won't show you any verses, but there's also been a lot of studies done on different types
of music and their effects.
There's been a lot of studies done on rock music versus classical music, okay?
Here's an article that says, fascinated by italics findings, two other students went
on to do their own test.
Plans exposed to Hayden, Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert, these are four of the most famous
classical composers of all time, grew towards and entwined themselves around the speakers.
Another plant grew, so basically those plants when they heard classical music, they basically
went close to the music, okay?
Then it says another plant group grew away from a speaker that played rock music.
That group even tried to climb a glass walled enclosure in what appeared to be an attempt
to get away from the sound.
These are plants.
Now look, you say, this sounds crazy to me.
This shouldn't sound crazy to you because the same test has been done thousands of times.
That rock music literally kills plants.
They've done the test so many times that rock music just destroys plants.
They basically commit suicide.
That's the only explanation I have, is the plants decide to commit suicide when they're
around that music all the time.
This same test has been done thousands and thousands and thousands of times that some
music affects plants in a negative way and some music in a positive way.
Rotella later replicated the experiment with rock music like Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix
on a variety of plants.
She observed a normal vertical growth in smaller leaves.
She also observed the plants to have damage similar to that associated with excessive
water uptake.
In the experiment, marigolds died within two weeks.
No matter which way they were turned, plants leaned away from the rock music source.
These findings were documented in Rotella's 1973 book, The Sound of Music in Plants.
This was over 50 years ago.
This same test has been done so many times.
Rock music kills plants.
If rock music literally kills plants, marigolds died within two weeks when they just heard
rock music all the time.
Do you think it's healthy on your body?
Just listen to rock music all the time?
That's not the only sort of music that's wrong, but listening to that music is not
healthy on your body.
This test has been done so many times.
Turn to Isaiah 19.
Now look, when verses in the Bible were written about, you know, you put a new song in your
mouth and singing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs, it's not like they necessarily knew
that these tests would exist one day.
It's just a matter of they had to just believe what the Bible said.
I don't care what the topic is in the Bible, there might not be the test that's been done
yet, but we're going to believe what the Bible says.
And it's been proven through tests as well.
Isaiah 19, verse 14, let's talk about alcohol or drugs.
Isaiah 19, verse 14, the Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof, and
they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his
vomit.
Now drinking alcohol is something to be preached against.
The Bible talks about a drunken man staggering in his vomit.
Do you think that when you're throwing up, do you think that's healthier in your body?
I mean, this isn't even pleasant to talk about, but when you're vomiting, that's not healthy
on you.
Now turn to Isaiah 28.
You say, why is it that you would vomit?
Why is it that people that get drunk a lot, why do they often vomit it up?
Well, because of the fact you're injecting poison into your body.
And your body is discarding it, because it's not healthy on you.
I remember a few years ago, I was eating lunch or dinner with my parents, my aunt,
my uncle.
We were at a restaurant.
And my mom was eating this salad that had a really strong Italian dressing.
It was real sharp potatoes.
And as she was eating it, she sounded like she was starting to choke.
And I was really scared when it happened.
It took place for about 30 seconds.
What was basically happening was her body was trying to shut off the dressing from coming
in.
Because what the body's recognizing is this is a foreign substance that is not supposed
to be here.
It's too strong.
And it wasn't alcohol or anything.
It was just salad dressing.
But it was so strong that the body was not used to it that it was basically preventing
it from entering and cutting off her ability to breathe for a little while.
Why?
Because of the fact the Italian dressing was so strong that her body was rejecting it.
Look, people vomit because when they get the alcohol in them, their body's rejecting it.
Because the body's saying, this is not healthy.
This is not supposed to be here.
It doesn't benefit you.
That's the reason why people vomit when they drink alcohol.
And you say, well, Brother Speck, what about if someone is able to drink a lot of alcohol
and they never vomit?
The reason why they never vomit is because they're drunk.
Because of the fact their body's so used to drinking alcohol that it's not weird to the
body anymore.
Their body's become desensitized to the poison.
If somebody smokes a cigarette for the first time, I've never smoked a cigarette before.
Doesn't everybody just cough and cough?
Why?
Because the body's saying, this is not good for you.
It's not meant for your body.
And you have to understand that sin and worldliness, it is unhealthy on your body.
Isaiah 28, starting in verse 1.
Woe to the crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading
flower, which are on the head of the fat ballads of them that are overcome with wine.
The Bible talks about being a fading flower.
See, when you drink alcohol, according to the Bible, it makes you ugly.
It takes away your beauty.
You're going to go from bag and die to the pong even a pretty short amount of time.
It will take away your looks.
And isn't that true with people that you know that have been drunks?
People you knew in school?
After 10 years, you look at them and you're like, man, they look old.
They look really unhealthy.
Now, I've had people ask me before, you know, why I look.
Because when I look at people that I went to school with, most of them look a lot older than me.
They look like they've lived a hard life because of alcohol and drugs and choices they made.
And people, whenever they've asked me, they say, you know, you look kind of young for your age.
What I always tell them is, yeah, I've never done drugs.
I've never drank alcohol.
I've never smoked cigarettes.
And honestly, there's a lot of truth to that.
Because when you do those things, it will age your body.
And your beauty becomes a fading flower.
It's beautiful.
Then the flower kind of dies.
It just fades away.
And the beauty is gone.
Why?
Because alcohol, drugs, and sin, it's unhealthy on your body.
And you're going to see the side effects.
Verse 3.
The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden underfoot.
And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower.
Now, look, you see those commercials on TV where you've got some famous athlete who's promoting some sort of alcohol.
And guys like Manny Pacquiao used to do ads for like, you know, types of alcohol and stuff like that.
Look, if you actually drank all the alcohol to be like your favorite athlete or favorite rock star, you'd end up looking really bad.
Just look at that person ten years down the line and they're going to have destroyed their body.
You always see these famous athletes and they're drinking this alcohol.
They're doing it because they get paid money to advertise it.
But look, if you're going to be a good athlete, you can't be doing all those drugs and smoking cigarettes and taking that alcohol.
You're not going to be able to be a world champion as you're doing all those things.
Why?
It's unhealthy on your body.
Don't tell me that some famous athlete is just smoking like two packs of cigarettes a day.
Why?
They wouldn't have very good cardio.
They wouldn't be in very good shape because sin is unhealthy to your body.
Okay?
Now let me actually read you something from a guy by the name of Wilt Chamberlain.
Who here has heard of Wilt Chamberlain?
Anybody?
Wilt is still Chamberlain.
He's known for being perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time.
Before Michael Jordan, he was considered the greatest basketball player of all time.
Now, a few things to know about Wilt Chamberlain.
Wilt Chamberlain died when he was 63 years old of a heart attack.
Okay?
Now, Wilt Chamberlain was known to be perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time,
but even more so, he was considered the greatest athlete of all time.
Okay?
Wilt Chamberlain, when he was a pro basketball player in high school or before that, he also
ran track and field and he set a national U.S. record for a time of, you know, the quarter
mile in less than 48 seconds, I believe it is.
It says here he ran a quarter mile in less than 48 seconds to set the U.S. high school
record.
Okay?
Very fast.
But, you know, he also was the state Pennsylvania shot put champion.
These two things don't go hand in hand.
When you do the shot put, you usually have to have a lot of strength on you.
So he was basically extremely fast and he was extremely strong.
He was a top notch athlete.
He also came close to setting records on the high jump.
Okay?
So he went to college.
He was the big eight high jump champion his junior year and he also competed in the hop,
step, jump competition.
I don't know.
That's not a sport that's common today.
I'm not sure where that is.
Now, in the NBA, he was famous because he was the only person to ever score 100 points
in a single game.
Wow.
He actually averaged more than 50 points per game in one year.
50.4 points per game in one year.
They actually changed the rules of the NBA because nobody could stop.
He was too fast.
He was too strong.
You could go on YouTube and see he literally jumps over players and dunks the ball.
I mean, it was crazy.
He was the best athlete that existed during that time period.
So he plays at the NBA for a while and he ends up retiring and he becomes the greatest
volleyball player of all time.
He's considered by many people to be the greatest volleyball player of all time and
something he picked up on the side when he retired from basketball.
He also challenged Muhammad Ali to a boxing match.
Okay?
And Muhammad Ali, from what I understand, basically turned it down because he was afraid
he didn't really want to box him.
Because, you know, Will Schenkel was basically the best athlete at everything.
But when he retired, he didn't become one of those athletes that just let his body get
destroyed.
He actually stayed in great shape.
When he was at the age of 60, he ran the Honolulu Marathon and he also competed in the 50 mile
race in Canada.
This is a guy who pitched 500 pounds.
This was a guy who was in incredible shape.
So how does a guy in this good of shape die at the age of 63 from a heart attack?
It doesn't really line up.
Let me read you a few things here.
His first issue with his heart was in the 1964 season.
Before the season, in his late 20s, his coach said he had a heart attack.
In his late 20s, that's a pretty young age for anybody to have a heart attack, much less
the greatest athlete in the world.
That's pretty rare, isn't it?
Well, let's read a few more things.
In 1992, they were having the 20th anniversary celebration of the NBA championship for his
team and he had to leave early because he was having trouble breathing.
Remember, this is a guy who several years later was running marathons in a 50 mile race.
He was still in incredible shape.
Why is this guy, how did he have a heart attack in his 20s?
Why is he having trouble breathing?
The greatest athlete in the world.
Well, it says here that how he died was from cardiomyopathy.
Now, let me just go through a list of things of what can cause cardiomyopathy, which led
to his heart attack.
One thing is if you have high cholesterol.
He did not have high cholesterol.
In fact, he actually had a very good diet as well as eating very healthy.
This whole thing was basically being the greatest athlete in the world.
He did not have high cholesterol.
Another thing is damaged heart valves.
He did not have damaged heart valves.
Another thing is genetic conditions.
Nobody in his family had his heart valves.
It did not come from his parents as far as we know.
Another thing is long-term high blood pressure.
He did not have high blood pressure.
Another thing is obesity.
He was not obese.
Another thing is thyroid disease.
He did not have thyroid disease.
Another thing is diabetes.
No phenomenals.
Another thing is nutritional deficiencies of vitamins or minerals.
Once again, he had an incredible diet.
He got vitamins.
He got minerals.
He was eating very healthy.
He basically did everything perfectly that we are going to talk about in the next several
weeks in terms of having a diet and exercise.
He did all of that stuff.
Another thing is drinking too much alcohol.
He was not known to be someone who drank alcohol because he took care of his body.
Recreational drugs such as cocaine, amphetamines, or anabolic steroids.
No evidence that he ever took any drugs like that.
Chemotherapy or radiation to treat cancer.
That does not apply to him.
He never had cancer.
Iron build-up called hemochromatosis.
That was not diagnosed with.
He did not have that.
Another thing called sarcoidosis and amyloidosis.
Maybe someone else can pronounce it better.
I don't know.
But he did not have those things.
Autoimmune disease such as lupus.
He did not have that either.
It leaves one thing that could have caused it.
Infections.
He died because of infections and he got cardiomyopathy.
What could have caused these infections?
See, there is one thing I didn't mention to you about the life of Will Chamberlain.
Not only was he the greatest athlete and famous for scoring 100 points, he was also famous
for bragging that he slept with 20,000 women in his lifetime.
He's famous for being the greatest athlete in the world and being the biggest whoremonger on the planet.
He said, I don't like that word.
That's a Bible word.
Isn't that what we quoted in Revelation 21a?
A whoremonger is a guy.
Basically a guy that's a whoremonger.
Those are Bible words.
He was a whoremonger.
20,000 women.
Think about that number for a second.
500 women a year for 40 years.
That's the famous athlete that everybody loves.
Actually, that's a lot of athletes that are like that.
They live that sort of life with a bunch of whoremongers.
Now, here's the thing about this.
This article is from a doctor.
This article is a guy by the name of Dr. Gage Merkin.
These are not my words, but he says that he died from the infection.
What he says is he could have easily have acquired these infections for making love
even at considerably less than the 20,000 women he claimed.
What does it say at the back?
The moral of Wilt Chamberlain's story, promiscuous sex has its price.
The only thing I don't like about this article is it should say being a whoremonger has its price.
Because that's a Bible.
Why do you use that word?
Because the Bible says you make sin exceedingly sinful.
That's what the Bible says.
This guy was the greatest athlete in the world.
He looked like he was in great shape.
Didn't I say earlier about how if I worked out all the time,
I would look like I was in incredible shape compared to what I am now?
But there's an associated blessing from living from God,
and there is unhealthiness attached to living a sinful life.
If you sleep with 20,000 women, you know what?
When he was in his 20s, he almost died of a heart attack.
This is a guy who was at the time the best athlete in the world.
But you know what? Sin has its price.
Those weren't even my words.
That was the words of a doctor who we assume probably isn't a Bible-based Christian.
But according to them, he died by being a whoremonger.
That's what he said.
Sin is unhealthy to God.
I don't care what the sin is.
We might not know why it's unhealthy or how it's unhealthy,
but according to the Bible, in common knowledge,
when you see people that die, sin is unhealthy to you.
Turn to Deuteronomy 28.
When you think about someone bragging about sleeping with 20,000 women,
for one, I don't know why you're bragging about that.
That's disgusting.
That's really disgusting.
But when you think of another group of people that sleep with a ridiculous amount of people,
that's the sodomites.
You know, 28% of sodomites sleep with 1,000 people in their life.
According to them, 28%, 1,000.
Do you realize how much that is?
1,000 people?
28%.
The average sodomite, 80% of them sleep with at least 50 people in their life.
50 people? What kind of life are you living?
That's filthy. That's disgusting.
And look, when you live that sort of life, there's a reason why the Bible says you won't live out half your days.
Why? Because sin in and of itself is unhealthy and destructive to your body.
That's the truth.
But not only is sin unhealthy for you, but there's also a promise of judgment from God when you live a wicked life.
Deuteronomy 28, verse 15.
Come to pass if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God,
who observed unto all his commandments and the statutes which I command thee this day,
that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee.
It says curses come upon you.
Verse 21.
The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until they have consumed thee from off the land,
whither thou goes to possess it.
The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption and with a fever and with an inflammation,
and with an extreme burning, and with a sword and with blast and with mildew,
and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
What you're seeing is there's a curse upon you when you're living an ungodly life.
That's what it says in Deuteronomy 28.
It says, verse 27.
The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt and with the emeralds and with the scab and with the itch,
whereof thou canst not be healed.
Notice what it said in verse 27.
You're not going to be able to be healed from this.
See, if these people got this disease and they just said,
Man, I'm going to change my life, I'm going to read the Bible all day long,
you're so unable to serve God.
It's not going to change the fact that you cannot be healed from this once you get it.
That's what the Bible says.
You can be under the curse of God who can cause you to get something and you'll...