All right, we're here in Genesis chapter 19 and the name of this sermon is the dangers of alcohol the dangers of alcohol now
Obviously the last couple weeks. We've had some pretty kind of rough preaching
It's kind of a rough chapter to go through and very disturbing chapter
We talked about the homos and last week the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
But the Bible speaks specifically about alcohol and wine at the end of this chapter
I think we need to preach a sermon about it and the name of the sermon is the dangers of alcohol the dangers of alcohol
Now there's only three points here today
but the first point is actually pleasure the first point is pleasure and the reality is that the reason why people sin is
Because they enjoy it. It's pleasurable to them people that drink all the time. Why do they do it?
They enjoy it they have fun doing it
there's a reason why they're sinning because it can have a pleasure to it Genesis 19 verse 30 and
Lot went up out of Zohar and dwelt in the mountain and his two daughters with him
For he feared to dwell in Zohar and he dwelt in a cave and he and his two daughters verse 31 and the firstborn
Said unto the younger our father is old and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner
of all the earth now
This verse seems to indicate that they believe the entire world has been destroyed because they say there's not a man in the entire earth
They seem to think that God is just rain
destruction on everybody and just everybody in the world is just a homo and
They got spared because they're so godly they seem to be unaware that
Basically, it's only that one area that's that wicked because they said there's not a man in all the earth
There's plenty of people in the earth. It was only your society. That was so wicked and
Verse number 32 come let us make our father drink wine and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of her father
so what their plan is is we're gonna get our dad drunk and
Then we're gonna sleep with her dad and that is how we're gonna be able to have children because they don't believe there's another man
Left in the earth now this obviously shows as it mentions wine that somebody brought that wine with them as we talked about
So it's like you would think that if God says I'm raining down destruction because of the sin that you would leave the alcohol behind
You'd leave the sin behind but that's not what they do. Okay, they go to Proverbs 23
Proverbs chapter 23
I
Mean you you try to put yourself in this situation
God performed a miracle to save lots. He rained down destruction
He miraculously saved you brought you out of the town
You would think you would try to obey what God says and yet lot doesn't at all
You say why because you know what if somebody is really backslidden, they don't just magically become spiritual overnight
The spiritual life is an uphill climb and lot knows what's right
But you know what? He's living in sin. And even though he left Sodom and Gomorrah, he brought it with him as well
Proverbs 23 verse 35. This is the end of a passage on alcohol and it says they have stricken me shout
They'll say and I was not sick
They have beaten me and I felt it not when shall I awake? I
Will seek it yet again and it talks about all this destruction that goes on due to alcohol and in the person
Wakes up and he's like I will seek it yet again
Why would they do that because they have pleasure in drinking alcohol?
Now what they do not seem to realize is the problems are worse than the pleasure
But you might enjoy drinking alcohol because it makes you loosen up and you don't feel guilty about sinning when you're drunk
But the problems are much worse than any amount of pleasure and that's always the way it is with sin
Sin is deceptive you think you'll be worth it. It never is worth it. Go to Hebrews chapter 11
Hebrews 11 in your New Testament
Hebrews 11
I'm preaching to you about the dangers of alcohol, but I'm not going to be dishonest to you tonight
I mean, obviously there's a pleasure in it because people drink
There are people that that's just part of their lifestyle. They spend their money on just alcohol to get drunk
It's part of their life they enjoy it right? Otherwise, why would they do it?
I mean if somebody does something over and over again, they obviously enjoy it right there's pleasure in that sort of lifestyle now
As I said, it's not worth it. It makes your life worse, but they're obviously having pleasure while they're actually drinking
Hebrews 11 verse 23
By faith Moses when he was born was hit three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child and they were
Not afraid of the King's commandment by faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God notice this then to enjoy the pleasures of sin
For a season the Bible says sin has pleasure to it. There's a reason why people do wrong
There's a reason why they sin they obviously enjoy it
They enjoy drinking alcohol now that don't misunderstand me because I do believe there's a lot of people that drink
Simply because they're pressured into it. It's what their friends do and they feel sort of obligated
I wish I could say that I've never drank alcohol
But I drank two times when I was in college when I was 18 years old and it was because that's what my friends were
Doing feel kind of pressured to do it and then you do it, too
And then I'm just like after the second time I felt guilty. I'm I didn't know what the Bible said
I just knew it was wrong. I wasn't raised that way and I said, you know what?
I'm not drinking anymore. And to this day I can say I have not drank since I was 18 years old
I drink two times and I feel like such a fool
Like why did I allow my friends to pressure me into doing something?
Right, but that is why a lot of people drink but make no mistake about it
A lot of people like to drown out their miseries and they'd rather have that temporary pleasure
Temporary fun one more night with the frogs like Pharaoh instead of just getting rid of the sin and just doing right
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 2 Ecclesiastes chapter 2
Now I'm preaching about the dangers of alcohol and the evils of alcohol I will say this though, you know
I don't personally believe that drinking alcohol should be illegal because I don't know the Bible verse that says that it should be illegal
It's not like all sin should be illegal and punished by the government where you'll get arrested or pay a fine
or get killed because you know what lying is not something that's
Illegal nowhere in the Bible doesn't say it should be illegal, you know, just to tell a lie. It's definitely a sin
Right now I do believe that if you're drunk and you're driving and you kill someone
I believe you should get the death penalty because that you're basically a moving weapon and
You know that you're basically putting people it would be kind of like having a gun and randomly
Waving it with your eyes closed and randomly shooting
Well, if you accidentally shoot someone then yeah
You know what? You should be put to death because you knew that you had a weapon, right?
That's my opinion giving a judgment
That's the sort of thing in the Bible where there was judges to determine cases like that because obviously I guess they they drove chariots
Someone's driving a chariot and smashed into someone but I'm saying that that's my personal opinion
But what I'm saying is I don't think just simply drinking alcohol should be something where you have to pay a fine or something like
That this is something they tried to do in the US
They made alcohol illegal and it actually caused a lot more problems but turn to Ecclesiastes 2
Ecclesiastes 2
Ecclesiastes chapter 2 verse 1 and this is of course Solomon writing this in Ecclesiastes
And here's a man who had everything in life. I mean he had money
He had fame he had wisdom. He had anything that he wanted everything that he wanted, right?
Everything in life, but you know what you're never satisfied you always want more, right?
Ecclesiastes 2 verse 1 I said mine heart go to now
I'll prove you with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity
I said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what do with it?
I sought in mine heart to give myself on a wine
Yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom. Look wine and wisdom don't go together
And
What Solomon saying is you know what I decided I'm gonna go after wine
But I'm still gonna go after wisdom and this is basically the Christian that says you know what I love that preaching. It's right
I'm gonna serve God, but I also I still want to watch those movies. I
Still want to listen to that music, right? I'm gonna serve God
I mean, I'm gonna seek after wisdom, but I still want a little bit of wine in my life, right?
Isn't it true that this is the way most people are
I mean all of us to some degree are like this
But there's a lot of people that just willingly say, you know what?
I want to do great things for God, but I want to hold on to my sin
But see the Bible says reaching forth with your hands. You can't reach forth if you're hanging on to the things from behind
right if you're holding if you're holding something in your hand because that's the analogy the Bible is giving in Philippians and
You're reaching forth to something else. You can't grab something else
If your hands are holding on to this
You got to let go of that to reach forth
And that's what Paul said is he's pressing on that upward way if you want to reach forth with your hands
You got to let go of stuff and look if you want to reach forth to wisdom. You gotta let go wine
Gotta let go of the movies
Gotta go the TV shows and the worldliness and the sin if you want to do something big for God you have to make changes
People have this idea I want to do great things for God, but I don't want to change anything
Right, you know when it comes to New Year's the biggest New Year's resolution is
Something related to food or diet, right? It's always like the biggest thing and look I'm all for diets
I you'd ask my wife. I'm always on diets where it's either trying to lose weight or a specific eating plan
I like those things. I think it's good. But what I'm saying is this is the mentality most people have it's alright
I'm gonna lose a lot of weight this year
But I want to still eat all the candy and all the chips and all the pop I still don't want to work out
But I want to lose the weight and that's why people are looking for this miracle of just you know
All meat and you lose like 50 pounds in a month. Yeah, you might die
That's not good for your body to do something like that, right?
They're looking for like these miracle quick cures
Do you have to actually make like real changes in your life?
And look if you're gonna go after wisdom, you gotta let go of the wine
Okay verse number 11
then I looked on all the works that my hands had rotten all the labor that I'd labor to do and behold all was
Vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the Sun go to verse number 17
Therefore I hated life because the work that is right under the Sun is grievous on to me for all is vanity and
Vexation of spirit and see here's the end of a man who's a saved man
Who is also going after sin and worldliness and all of these things and he says I hated life I
Didn't want to live
Right now you would think this would be a very happy person. He's the richest man in the world
He's powerful
You would think he would be very happy and yet he's not
Right. We bought into this lie that just having everything is gonna make you happy
Look when you're raising kids if you give your kids everything they want they will become ungrateful for everything
They will always demand. I'm not going to be happy unless you give me that new Xbox or PlayStation or
Nintendo whatever the systems are now, right? There's just like no, I'm not gonna be happy
I'm not happy with the gift you gave me. Yeah, buddy. Here's the thing
You know what? I I do believe in giving nice things to your kids
But you know what? You don't want to overdo it where they're not going to appreciate it
Because if I gave my son a gift for Christmas and then he was like, oh I don't like this
It's like alright prepare for your spanking
It's like excuse me. It's like I got you something and you're ungrateful for it
We should realize that anything that we're given as a gift
We should be thankful for even if it's not the number one thing but but here's Solomon who has everything he wants and he's miserable
And I'm sure he's thinking what else can I do and yet I don't have happiness
Look, this is the end road of living in sin and there's this weird situation
Where people it makes their life miserable and they're depressed and they hate it but yet there's something inside. I will seek it yet again
Because they enjoy it when they're doing it
They enjoy drinking the alcohol for those 30 minutes or whatever while they're getting drunk go to Genesis 19
Genesis 19
You
Say brother sucky, aren't you worried it that you you told people alcohol has some pleasure to it
And so aren't you afraid people are going to want to try it now? Well, if
if you pay attention to the end of this sermon and
You still want to try alcohol, you know, you're not worried about the side effects and I don't even know what to tell you
Right. I I can personally say this, you know the two times I drank alcohol
I did not enjoy it
Okay, I did not enjoy it, but I didn't I didn't get raised drinking alcohol to me. It was still like weird
It was just kind of like I didn't feel right. I felt guilty and things such as that
But you know the people where this becomes their lifestyle is something that they seek for me. It was kind of like very easy
I was like man, I don't I don't want to drink don't want to drink anymore. I think it's dumb
You know, I'm not gonna do it. I don't care
I'll just hang out at home while my friends are going out or whatever, but there is pleasure to it to some people
So I'm not saying every sin is necessarily going to give you pleasure because if I smoked a cigarette right now
I've never smoked before I don't think I'd have any pleasure in it. I think I'd be coughing and feel sick and
But I'm saying that when people adopt this as their lifestyle all of a sudden they become desensitized
To some of the things and then they just enjoy it as as part of their life
Number one we looked at the pleasure of alcohol the pleasure of wine that it brings number two is
Perplexed number two perplexed which is like confused right when you drink alcohol
The result is a state of confusion
You don't know what's going on in the world when you drink you're in a dream world where you do not know what's going on
notice what it says in verse 33 and
They made their father drink wine that night and the firstborn went in and lay with her father and he perceived not
When she lay down nor when she arose
Lot had no idea what happened to him
No idea. He perceived not he was not aware when she laid down with him. He was not aware when she arose he had no idea
He had no idea when his next daughter did that either
Boy that had to be a bad day for a lot when a couple months down the road all of a sudden
He found his daughter for pregnant. He's like, how are you pregnant? It's like well, actually we got you drunk and you're the father. I
Mean I like to stop and think of these stories because a lot is literally not aware and
Then at some point his daughter's how to tell him. Oh, by the way
We're pregnant with your child
Right, that would have been a bad day for a lot. He has no idea what took place
Right when a person gets drunk they become in a dream world where they don't know what's going on
Literally things could happen and you would not be aware of it. That's scary
That's enough reason to never drink alcohol. We're basically you can drink and not know what's going on around you
Verse 34 and it came to pass in the morrow that the firstborn said unto the younger behold
I lay yesterday night with my father
Let us make him drink wine this night also and go down it in and lie with him that we may preserve seed of our
Father and they made their father drink wine that night also in the younger rose and lay with him and he perceived not when she lay
Down nor when she arose he has no idea
What took place go to Proverbs 23 Proverbs 23 I
Don't believe that Lot's daughters were reprobates
I don't know whether they were saved or not, but I think they just did a really disgusting and disturbing thing
I mean, they didn't know that there was other men in the world
I don't think they would have done that if they were aware of that
I guess it shows that there could be reasons why people do some pretty perverted and weird things under certain situations
Obviously, this is a unique situation, but this is what they do. I could be wrong, but I don't believe his daughters are reprobates
I don't know whether they're saved or not. The Bible doesn't really give us indication
But obviously what they did is very perverted and disgusting
You know, honestly I can say from being in college, you know
I went to West Virginia University and
West Virginia University is always voted or at least it was during my days the number one drinking school in the nation
I guess there's a competition for what school is like the biggest drinkers and
Every year WVU won the competition
The one year they didn't win they said they were retiring West Virginia for the year to give another college a chance to win the competition
But for whatever reason West Virginia my home college where I got saved is the biggest drinking school in
America and the chant was always because it's known as the Mountain State the mountaineers West Virginia mountaineers
So they'd say cheers beers and mountaineers
And that's what you'd hear all the time at football games and basketball games and everything people would sneak
Alcohol into the stadiums because you weren't allowed to drink inside and people were getting drunk and doing all kinds of stupid things and everything
Like that, but you know what?
I heard stories of things that happened to certain people enough stories where it's just like why would you ever want to drink alcohol?
One story I know was someone I knew in high school that actually used to be a really good friend of mine when I was
A kid, but there was a story where basically when he was in college
You know, he got he got drunk and he woke up the next day and there was a guy in the bed with him
And he had no idea
What happened you say how is that possible? Well, look at the story of lot
He has no idea
That could literally happen
I had a friend of mine in college and he quit drinking
Because he woke up in a bathtub not wearing any clothes has no idea what took place
And then of course, it's a college town
So people took pictures and we're spreading it around to basically make fun of him. And that was enough. We're never drink again
It's like, you know when you drink you don't know what's going on
It's foolish to say well, you know what? How do I know if I'm gonna like alcohol?
I've never tried it before you don't have to try everything to figure out if you like it
Just look at what the Bible says and realize it's foolishness. You're too good to drink. It's for losers
It's for people that have nothing better to do in their lives
By verse 23 verse 29
Who hath woe who hath sorrow who hath contentions who hath babbling who hath wounds without cause who hath redness of eyes?
I mean the Bible speaks about people that are just miserable fighting
Babbling basically talking nonsense coming out of their mouth wounds without cause look when people get drunk
They get in fights all the time
It's all over the news with athletes and other famous people
This is where people die where they're at a bar and then somebody pulls a knife somebody pulls a gun
I mean
I remember in college seeing two guys fighting that were drunk and
They were just like beating each other up and everything and I was worried for the one guy who was really getting hit because
You slam your head onto concrete
Who knows what's gonna happen?
It's pretty cold in West Virginia you get knocked unconscious on the street and you fall asleep in it
Just out there who knows what's gonna happen, right? I mean, it's a dangerous thing
The worst I knew was in my Spanish class though in college
Because we had a class of about 35 people and we would have like group projects. So we had a group project of about
five six seven people and
You know, there's a person who sat
Behind me and to the left I believe so basically you group up in your small little area
And we went to class on a Monday or Tuesday morning and the teacher said she had an announcement to make and she said that
You know the student so-and-so passed away
Over the weekends and of course passed away is a nice way
To describe it now I at the time
Assume a tragedy happened, you know, maybe they had a problem with her heart or a car crash
She didn't say more but that's not actually the full detail
What the full detail is is that this kid was drunk on the weekends?
And then there's this other group of people that were drunk and it was in the winter time and then this kid threw a snowball
at someone and
They started arguing
they went to fight and a knife came and he got stabbed and died and there was a big trial in West Virginia because the
Question is well was it self-defense?
Or was that knife now? He ended up being declared innocent, which a lot of people are upset about
It's actually a big case in WVU. It was going on for a couple years. You can still find it online
I remember looking it up a couple years ago and he got stabbed to death you say man, you know that that's that's tragic
Well, it happened because of alcohol
No, I think it's tragic especially if he's unsaved. I'm not saying but but what I'm saying is you reap what you sow
Right. I mean that's what happens you drink alcohol
stupid stuff happens
people die
Wounds without cause right? This is what takes place when you drink alcohol
Fighting takes place
Misery, it's not gonna make you happy
Verse 30
They that tarry along at the wine
they they go to seek mix wine look not thou upon the wine when it is red when it giveth its color in the cup
when it move with itself right at the last it biteth like a
serpent and
Stingeth like an adder
Now here's from an article of snakes or serpents about their bites because the indication of verse 32
Is that this bite from a serpent is a poisonous bite?
That's what it's trying to tell you and it says stingeth like in adders
It's referring to basically getting a poison bite and the Bible saying alcohol is like a poisonous bite you say why?
Well, I mean number one alcohol is poison
Okay, but let me just read you this article and I think it's really going to make sense
Venomous snake bites can produce an array of symptoms including localized pain and swelling
convulsions which is like, you know
shaking
Nausea and even paralysis so paralysis where if you got bit here
You might not be able to move your hand if you got a snake bite there
First aid steps you can take after a snake bite occurs including cleaning the wound remaining calm and immobilizing the affected area
Clinical symptoms from death adder
Invimination include paralysis of extra ocular muscles abdominal pain headache drowsiness and enlargement of regional lymph nodes
But you know, it speaks about paralysis and basically not being able to move a part of your body
Well, the indication is this
Alcohol can have an effect on you. We're basically
You're helpless. I mean if you can't move your body part
You're basically helpless and at the mercy of whatever and I believe what the Bible is trying to say is this
That alcohol can have the effect that when you drink it you can't even you know, defend yourself or know what's going on
I mean you're helpless
Right you get bitten and you can't move your arm. I mean, that's a terrible situation and
That's what alcohol will do to you or basically you could be drunk like lot. You can't defend yourself
You don't know what's going on. You wake up and
You have no idea what happened
Verse 33 thine eyes shall behold strange women in thine heart. So other perverse things
When you drink alcohol the indication is you're going to start lusting after women that you're not married to and
Here's the thing
I've preached recently about how this is probably the big thing that men struggle with that obviously women can as well
But very specific to men the Bible highlights this well with alcohol. It's going to be to another step
Right. I remember hearing a story from a preacher
The priest in a sermon. He said he knew somebody that did not drink alcohol
But basically he was pressured to go to the company party and he drank alcohol at the company party
Ended up committing adultery on his wife and ended up getting divorced
because of the alcohol that's what it boils down to and
It's just like you say why is that because what we're going to see later on is alcohol gives you boldness to do what's wrong
The small little lust that you have in your heart
It takes them to another level things that you would not do while you're sober
You're willing to do when you're drunk you say why you don't feel guilty when you're drunk
You'll do things that you would never do
Without alcohol it gives you boldness to do what is wrong and look
I'm just giving you a few stories that I'm aware about and that I've heard about
Because we live in a world where if you're a Bible believing Christian you're not out at a bar at two o'clock in the morning
We don't know the stuff that goes on but you know what it's not good, right?
It's kind of like the book of Zika where it's like it's a lot worse than you think
Because I go about my life and you know, I don't notice all this sin and wickedness, you know, we're not seeing pedophilia
We're not seeing rape
We know these things take place, but we don't see it because it happens in the middle of the night
The Bible says they they'll be drunken or drunken in the night
bad things happen at nighttime as
A Bible believing Christian in general. You're not going to be out at nighttime
Right, I mean I don't like being out late at night personally
I mean the only time I would be as if I got to get go to
Mercury drug because one of my kids did something foolish and they need a bandage or something or or whatever
But look in general at nighttime, you know as Bible leading Christians, you're not out but bad stuff happens at night and
Alcohol will cause you to behold strange women and then heart so utter perverse things
You'll say things that are wrong and wicked and sinful
Look people say about how alcohol is like a great truth teller
Because basically things come out that were inside your heart that if you were sober you would have had enough sense not to say
Isn't it true that there's a lot of things you think sometimes but you're never going to say in publicly because it's rude
Right, but when someone's drunk they just say everything that you know what they shouldn't say
They utter perverse things
They say wrong things things they would never do never say and they say things
Anyway, it's sad sometimes because I remember that I had this neighbor when I lived in Arizona and my next-door neighbor
I'd given him the gospel and you know, he hadn't gotten saved
But you know this guy eventually I believe he did get saved
But I wasn't really sure because sometimes when you know somebody, you know, it's hard to tell but I gave him the gospel
Then he heard the gospel again and everything
But I remember one time he was drunk and then he just sort of was like mocking, you know
He's like, you know your God
He was saying kind of like mocking God or whatever which to me is kind of strange because I think I thought he believed
I mean, I think he sounded like he believed unless he was faking it or whatever
But when he was drunk, it's like he wanted to be rude to me because he knew I was religious and you know
His son was there and his son was really upset at his father because what he was saying was just perverse
Just wickedness just stupid things and it's like what did I ever do to this guy? I was always nice to this guy
I was respectful but when he was drunk and he apologized the next day when he was sober
he's like, I'm so sorry for
But it's kind of like I mean you mock God you use the Lord's name in vain
You know, you made fun of me for going to church all the time
this is someone I had brought to church a couple times and then he's
It's kind of like it and look it's it's it's easy to say sticks and stones and break your bones
But words will never hurt me. But I was like man, I I wasn't a fan of that guy after that
It's just like I'm not going to be rude to him, but it's like you were mocking
It's and I asked him I said, I mean, don't you believe in Jesus?
You said you believe on him and he and and he said he did but when he was drunk just perverse things
Came out of his heart
Verse number 34
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea or as he that lieth upon the top of a mask
They have stricken me shalt thou say and I was not sick. They have beaten me and I felt it not now, that's scary
Because according to verse 35 when you're drunk and you're beaten you won't feel it
You can be beaten up and you're not gonna feel it
Look when we have pain
It's actually a good thing because your body is warning you. I
Mean imagine if your hand was on like a burning object
Like, you know on a stove or on an oven
but you couldn't feel the pain and
You didn't even realize that your hands just sitting on a stove then all of a sudden a minute later
What's gonna what's gonna be the result of your hand if you don't feel that pain?
You're gonna have I mean who knows right? I mean, it's permanently gonna be mangled or whatever
You're gonna have to go to the the ER and everything like that
Pain is actually a good thing because it helps you realize. Whoa, I need to be careful
Well the Bible is saying that when someone's drunk, they don't feel it when they get beat up
Right, I knew an example of this in college as well where I knew this guy
I went to high school with and he was drunk and somebody dared him to eat a whole container of hot sauce
and he ate the entire container when he was drunk and of course he woke up and
He's just like screaming in agony and in pain and everything like that. I mean, he's lucky. He was actually okay. I
Mean, I don't know if he ended up going to the hospital or whatever
Maybe maybe there wasn't much left in the container, but I remember he's just didn't even feel the pain
The pain is actually a good thing for you, right? It prevents you from causing real harm to your body
Then it says when shall I awake I will seek it yet again now
I do want to note here that because oftentimes I've been guilty of this as well verse 35
Sometimes we misquote or misread it doesn't say
When I shall awake, I will seek it yet again. It doesn't say that it says when shall I awake?
It's a question that's being asked
So basically when you're drunk, what you're saying is I have no idea when I'm gonna wake up, right?
It could be a 9 it could be a 10
I used to think it was like just when I when I shall awake I will seek it yet again
But actually what it's saying is when you're drunk, you're like, oh, what am I gonna wake up?
Right, which that makes sense too because when people are drunk they wake up
10 11 12
With a big hangover or whatever. So when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again
Look the Bible gives you this principle like rise up early don't wake up at like 12 o'clock
11 o'clock, but the drunk person they're staying up till 2 or 3 in the morning
4 in the morning then all of a sudden they fall asleep and then all of a sudden they wake up and
It's like lunchtime, right? They're drinking away their life, basically
Turn to Proverbs 20 Proverbs 20 Proverbs 20
Proverbs 20 verse 1 Proverbs 20 verse 1 wine is a mocker strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived
Thereby is not wise the Bible says wine is a mocker. It deceives you it tricks you it
Tricks you into thinking it's not that big of a deal
Hey, it's not that big of a deal. Just one beers. Okay
Right, you know what the major problem with that mentality number one drinking is wrong period no matter what
But a bigger problem even than that I believe is that
People have this mentality. I can just drink a little and it's okay, but they're not going to stop it a little bit
Because here's the thing when you're sober you have a level of judgment as you drink
Your judgment gets worse and worse
So when you're sober you're saying one can of beer, but you start drinking ass, okay
I'll just drink two cans you get a little bit more drunk
Maybe three cans four cans then all of a sudden you're just out of it and then you're in this cycle
Right. This is why people they drive drunk
Then they go out and they kill someone when they're on the road and they realize when they're sober
I should not drive drunk. But here's the thing when they're drunk, they're deceived. They think they're okay and
Look that happens all the time
Drunken drivers killing people all of the time
And look as I said, I believe that we're way too soft on the punishment for that
Look, if you drive drunk, you have made yourself a literal weapon and if you happen to kill someone, I'm sorry
But one year in jail, I don't believe that's sufficient
I believe that would be the death penalty because you've made yourself a weapon and you killed somebody that's my opinion on that
but what I'm saying is
When people are drunk
They're deceived. They start drinking. They're deceived by the alcohol go to Proverbs 31 Proverbs 31
Proverbs 31
And the Bible says this
Lest they drink in verse 5 Proverbs 31 verse 5 lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the
Afflicted see when a person drinks alcohol, which is the context here. They forget the law
They forget right and wrong. They start thinking not that big of a deal
Things they would never do when they're sober
They do when they're drunk because when you're drunk you're in this dream world and you're perplexed. You don't know what's going on
You don't know what's out there. I mean, you don't know what's happening. I mean this this is a scary thing. I
mean if I was a Bible believing Christian and
I drank alcohol, which I don't but if I drink alcohol as a Bible believing Christian and I heard this preaching
I'd be afraid because I'd be afraid something might happen to me
You reach Genesis 19 with a lot. That's scary
That could happen to anybody that gets drunk because they don't know what's going on around them
Go to Habakkuk chapter 2 Habakkuk 2
And look I don't I haven't personally asked anyone, you know at our church
Yeah, I'm assuming this is not something that most most people or people at our church struggle with let me say this
We got a lot of young people in this church and as they get older
You're saying okay, this makes sense is what the Bible says
But there will be a temptation one day when other people try to get you to drink
Don't be a fool
Remember these words when somebody offers you alcohol because it will happen in your lifetime
It might be at a company party when you have a job, you know, five ten years or whatever and you're older
It might be a friend or a neighbor or whatever. It doesn't matter. Don't drink alcohol ever
There will be the opportunity there in the future
people will try to get you to drink because when people drink they want everybody else to drink and
You say why is that because deep down these people they aren't happy they enjoy it when they do it
But the Bible said it's full of woe and sorrow
Misery problems. They don't like their lives and they want to get other people to join them
As a Bible-leaving Christian you're too good for it
The back of two verse 15
Well unto him that giveth his neighbor drink that put us thy bottle to him and makest him drunk
And also that thou mayest look on their nakedness verse 15 of Habakkuk 2 speaks about a man that would give another guy drink
Well unto him that giveth his neighbor drink that puts thy bottle to him and makest him drunk
And also why would somebody do that that thou mayest look on their nakedness in order to take advantage of that person?
I don't even believe just taking advantage of that person though because it talks about looking on their nakedness
It's no longer the masculine pronoun
There is neutral and I think the indication would be that you could have
Situations of somebody getting a person drunk so they could take advantage of the guy and his wife
Or the guy and his girlfriend or whatever something like that because that has happened in famous cases of murder and stuff
We're basically he'll get the husband incapacitated
The Bible speaks about you've got to bind the strongman first if you're going to control somebody's house because
The man of the house if he can't defend himself
It's unlikely the wife unless she has a gun is going to be able to fight off a guy
Right, and so basically looking on their nakedness getting the husband drunk so you could take advantage of
You know either him or the woman of the house
I mean there's cases where a guy would get a guy drunk because he wants that man's wife and then he will take advantage
Of his wife
This is this is a scary thing
The Bible says that if you get drunk, this is a possibility to happen to you
Go to Ephesians 5 Ephesians 5
I've said this story before and you know
I think I've said it a few times but it fits when I'm talking about alcohol
It fits with Habakkuk 215 that I have a close friend of mine in America
And he has a friend who this happened to so it's not my friend that this happened to but my friend's friend
but basically, you know, my friend's friend was drinking alcohol and and you know was a bit drunk or whatever and
There was a guy because he had a party at his house
And then I guess this other guy said oh man, I'm a little bit drunk
Do you mind if I just sleep at your house because I'm afraid to drive home, you know
I don't want to drive on the road the guy said yeah, you know, that's fine
And then all of a sudden the guy who said he was too drunk to drive home
Tried to force my friend's friend at his house
But my friend's friend was not that drunk. So he woke up and almost beat the guy to death
Right, but it was a homosexual that was trying to molest him and so get him drunk
Give him that bottle and then you can look in their nakedness
That's what the Bible saying right and apparently this guy had done this many times at a lot of different parties
I'm too drunk to drive home and look
It's it's not just men that would have to worry about that because there's many cases of women where men would
Rape a woman get her drunk and she can't defend herself. She doesn't know what's going on
She can't report anything because she's confused because look this could happen to you and you don't even realize it happened. I
Mean lot woke up. He didn't even know that his daughters got him drunk and slept with him
They he had no idea had no idea what happened
Ephesians 5 verse 18 and
Be not drunk with wine where in his excess but be filled with the Spirit
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing making melody in your heart to the Lord now
Ephesians 5 verses 18 and 19 show kind of a comparison between alcohol and
the Holy Spirit or alcohol and
Singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs
What the Bible is saying is that if you sing hymns and psalms and spiritual songs you sing the hymns that we do at our
Church it will cause you to be filled with the Spirit
Isn't it true that sometimes you know we come to church. We're a little bit down. We're depressed. We're tired
We just want to relax you start singing those songs. You're like man. I'm ready for the preaching now. You're excited right happens to me
Sometimes I'm in a down mood. We sing the hymns you're filled with the Spirit
You're excited right and what the Holy Spirit does in our life is it gives us boldness to do. What is right?
Things that you would never do normally or naturally look some of the best soul winners there are are
naturally shy people
They're not outgoing I
Mean people that you would never expect to just randomly walk up to people and yet they do
You say what is that? How is that possible?
It's called the Holy Spirit indwelling them and filling them with the Spirit to give them boldness to do what's right
Look, I'm not I I don't believe that I'm a particularly outgoing person. I really am not
Now I'm not going to say that I'm super
Ingoing or not extra. I'm not really an extrovert by any means though
I'm perfectly happy being the sort of guy you go to job you go home
You don't hang out with people you just kind of do your own thing
I'm not particularly an outgoing person, but you know what when it comes to spiritual things
Isn't it true that when you're filled with the Spirit you have boldness to go soul winning?
Boldness to you know preach sermons or whatever be I mean God gives you that ability
My friends when I first got saved the guy who got me saved in college
he was trying to challenge me and our friends like let's try to talk to one person a day and
Try to give them the gospel and
for me being 19 years old that was a big challenge because I was not one who shared my faith and
You know, I remember telling my friends, you know what I said Mike, that's that's not my gift
I'm not the sort of person that just goes up and randomly talks to people. I'm just it's just not me
It's not something God has given me the ability. I don't I don't have that that gift to do
It's not my personality and you know what I'm sure probably all of us felt that way before we started going so winning
But going so money is not about do you have a special gift?
It's about just obeying what God says and the great thing for us is God can give you the ability to do something
You would not do in your normal flesh
But what's the comparison? Well, the Holy Spirit gives you boldness to do things you would never do normally
Being filled with unclean spirits as it's known with alcohol unclean spirits, right?
What it will do is give you boldness to do things you would never do in your normal flesh
See the Holy Spirit and alcohol they both will give you boldness to do things you never do in your flesh
The difference is alcohol gives you burdens to do what's wrong?
The Holy Spirit gives you boldness to do what's right
Alcohol gives you boldness to do what's wrong and
See here's why it's so easy to be deceived because when you're sober you're thinking I would never do that
And maybe you're right you would never do that in your normal flesh, but you start drinking a glass of wine
It doesn't seem so sinful anymore
Seems like no big deal
Not it not a major thing
I mean, what's the big deal about it?
And then you destroy your life in a matter of a couple hours because you were drunk because you drank alcohol
Look, this has happened to people all around the world throughout human history destroying their lives due to alcohol
Turn to Genesis 19 Genesis 19
I
I'm I'm very thankful that I I grew up in a family where my parents didn't drink
Didn't smoke they weren't out late at night at places. They ought not be and stuff like that
It set a good example because I'll be honest
You know you go to college at the number one drinking school and everybody else is drinking and everyone's talking about it at class
Like hey, what bar are you going to on Friday or whatever you feel pressure to?
Do things that you know, you shouldn't and having that upbringing really helped me
I mean it is true that you can grow up in a Christian home and then make terrible choices when you're older
But I would say this the kids at our church have a much better chance of serving God and being successful
Being in a church like this with hard preaching you say brother Stuckey
Does this really preaching really make changes in your life, you know before I left Sacramento
There was a guy at the church and this this is probably the most touching thing
Anybody's ever told me about my preaching and he came to me and he said, you know what?
I just wanted to talk to you and he kind of told me quietly, but he told me that yeah
I preached a sermon at the church against alcohol and he said, you know what after I got saved, you know
I was still drinking alcohol as I went to church and you preach really hard against it
And it's he said I made a decision that night. I'm never gonna drink again. And he said I'm over one year
He's like I used to drink all the time. He's like I have not drank alcohol since you preach that
Why don't we have hard preaching because it works
It caused you to make changes
look
Sometimes you need someone just to lay down the hammer and say it's not right
It's sinful and the Word of God goes to the inside goes to your heart and you had a cause you to make a decision
Am I going to still do what's wrong or am I going to make a change?
Look, I can say the preaching of the Word of God hard sermons. That's what caused me to make major changes in my life
I mean I was reading my Bible and that helps but then you hear that sermon and a pastor just hammers at home and
You start feeling really guilty. You're afraid the wrath of God is coming down upon your life. It's like, okay
I'm getting rid of it and look I've made changes and look I
We don't believe in an altar call, but I do believe in decisional preaching of making you know real changes
There's many reasons why we don't have an altar call
but I do believe that you can make major decisions from a sermon that can really change your life and which we I try to
motivate you in the sermon to make those changes, but anyways
Point number one is pleasure. There is pleasure to sin
Obviously people enjoy this because they do it number two when you drink you're perplexed
You don't know what's going on. The more you drink the more out of it. You are you have no idea what's going on
number three problems
see it starts with pleasure then you're perplexed and then all of a sudden it leads to a lot of problems in your life and
another thing to keep in mind about sin just in general that
Whenever you do a sin if you do something for the first time, you know, your body gets desensitized over time
What I mean by that is they call it
I guess a buzz when you drink and
Basically, maybe it only takes you one beer to get that buzz and get that feeling that you enjoy
But when you keep drinking now, you need two beers and three beers and four beers
Right that they they they they talk about how you know having drinking competitions who can drink more
The person who can drink more is just more of a drunk
It means his body's very sensitized and that's dangerous because your body's desensitized to poison
It's literally poisoning your body
Proverbs 19 verse 36. Let's see the problems with lot. Thus were both the daughters of law with child by their father
That's a pretty big problem
and
The firstborn bear a son and called his name Moab the same as the father of the Moabites on to this day
I'm pretty sure the Moabites were one of the big enemies of God's people throughout the Old Testament and
The younger she also bear a son and called his name be it Ben Ammi
The same as the father of the children of Ammon on to this day
We know them as the Ammonites right the Moabites the animites the enemies of God's people came because of this situation
From Genesis 19 go to Proverbs 23
Proverbs 23
Let's look some of the other problems that come as a result of drinking alcohol according to the Word of God
Proverbs 23 verse 20
Be not among winebibbers among riotous eaters of flesh
Why is that for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags?
The Bible says being a drunkard will lead to poverty
Now there's a few reasons for this
Number one because it's expensive to drink alcohol
I'm always amazed we go soul-winning in every area there is and sometimes you go to areas
With very little income and they're spending a lot of that on cigarettes and alcohol
It's like what are you doing? I?
Mean you have little money and instead of getting something you know healthy for your body. You know healthy food
It's just like you're just gonna
Get cigarettes and alcohol and use all your money on that which is going to destroy your body
cause you have to go to the doctors and give you all kinds of problems, but this is what it takes place and
Look the person who drinks alcohol regularly it is likely to lead to them being poor
That's what the Bible says they shall come to poverty
Right part of it is because it's expensive the other part is because of the fact you can't be a good worker if you're a drunkard
I mean people that are drunkards they show up late for work. They call off sick all the time
They spend all their money
They come to poverty as a result of that alcohol and what the Bible said in verse 20 is be not among
Be not among them
Look your friends should not be drunkards
The people you hang out with should not be drunkards. I
Mean there's many reasons
I mean
It's it's so hard to serve God even when you're part of a good church
And you have great friends in your you're hearing the good preaching
Imagine being a safe person trying to do right without having a good church in good fellowship. Good luck
I mean the Bible says don't be around people don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers or with people that are living a sinful life
Be around people that love God
Because the people at our church we want to serve God we want to do right. We're fighting the same battles
We believe the same things out in this world. It's not the same way
The other Christians out here will say well, you know what, you know, you shouldn't preach against drinking alcohol
Right, you're going too far
it's okay to drink just don't get drunk and
They'd be against a sermon like this because I'm warning you about all the problems with alcohol and showing you what the Bible says
Something I heard it a year ago for the first time in my life
Was that it was a sin
This is what was preached at a church. It's a sin to preach against alcohol
It's a sin to preach that
Drinking alcohol is a sin. It's a sin to say that you say why well because you're making Jesus a sinner
Obviously, they have no understanding of John chapter 2 where Jesus turned water into
Non-alcoholic wine because the word wine in the Bible is either alcoholic or non-alcoholic. It depends on the context
I've preached on that we're aware of that but they said it's a sin for you to preach against
Drinking alcohol and saying it's it's so what kind of world are we living in?
It's like they call the right wrong and the wrong, right? I
Mean there's crazy things that happen in this world and you see Baptist that side with the wrong side. It's like what are you doing?
It's like are you kidding me?
Yeah, like my friend in America recently pastor Jonathan Shelley their church here
They got evicted from their place because they're preaching hard against sin and preaching against the homos and then there's people saying you know
What there's Baptists?
Baptist saying well, you know it good. I'm happy. He deserved it. It's like whose side are you on?
Why not support the man of God is preaching hard against sin and fighting the battles and a young people siding on the other side
It's crazy the world we live in today
The Bible says be not among them now turn in your Bible to Proverbs 31 Proverbs 31 Proverbs 31
But you know, here's the problem
People watch a commercial with some athlete that's really muscular and in great shape and he's drinking alcohol and then they're like, okay
I can drink alcohol because look at this athlete. He's doing it
Well, number one that athletes probably pumping steroids into his body
So you're not going to see the effects of getting out unhealthy stuff in your body number two
There's no guarantee drinks alcohol. He might just be making money off of it
Look I mean the top athletes, I mean if you're strive for the mastery you become timber and all things
I believe that the top athletes most of them are staying away from that sort of stuff at least for the most parts
Look when I played high school soccer the people I played with, you know many of them
It's just like you don't drink any pop or coke or Pepsi during season. You say why because it drains your cardio
It's not good for you. You don't have the energy people make those aren't even professionals
Look the people that make it as professionals. They've cut out a lot of unhealthy stuff
They have specialized chefs to cook all their food. You better believe at least for the most part. They're avoiding
They're not getting drunk on a nightly basis or they're not going to make it. They're not going to be successful
But
People see that and they think okay, I can drink alcohol. I mean it didn't affect them
Well, look if that person is drinking alcohol. It's going to affect them Proverbs 31 verse 6 and
This is a passage in Proverbs 31 that people are often confused by but let me just show you here in verse 6 and 7
I've heard people use this to defend drinking alcohol and they completely miss what's being said here
Proverbs 31 verse 6 give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts now
People look at verse number 6 and they say we'll see if someone's about to die
It's okay for them to drink alcohol if somebody's sad it's okay to drink wine. That is not what's being said
Okay
Let us look at verse 7 and I'll explain what's being said
Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more
What what Solomon's mom is telling him is why he should not drink you're gonna forget the law on verse 5
Right and what she's saying is here's the sort of person that can drink because it's not for you Solomon
Give strong unto strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts
Well, why are they ready to perish because they drink alcohol?
Why do they have heavy hearts in sorrow and woe because they drink alcohol. What is she saying? Hey, let the loser drink
Let them screw up their lives
It's like when I preach a sermon and say hey, let the other Baptist do whatever they want
Let them screw up their lives and not go so any and not stand up for God. Let them destroy their lives
But don't destroy your life. You're too good for it
Right. She's saying it's not for Kings
It's not for you. It's for those losers that they're dying their kidneys and liver destroyed because of the alcohol
Let them drink away their sorrows let them drink away their misery and forget that they have poverty
Well, why do they have poverty they have poverty because the alcohol she's saying let the loser drink away their sorrows, but not you
And here's what I would say in 2022 those of you at Verity Baptist Church. You're too good to drink alcohol
It's for losers. It's for derelicts. It's for people that want to destroy their lives
It's not for you
Because look we know what the Bible says about alcohol
We're aware of it
Other people that aren't aware they can do whatever they want the college. I went to Cheers beers and Mountaineers
Hey, go drink away your sorrow your poverty your misery destroy your life
But it's not for someone who actually wants to serve God people that are successful or not getting drunk every night
You can't be successful if you're just drinking away your life
It's going to destroy you destroys brain cells gonna make you poor. It's gonna make you miserable. That's what the Bible says
It's not condoning drinking. It's actually preaching against it good Isaiah 5 Isaiah 5
Isaiah 5
You
Say why do you need hard preaching like this because as I said, you know what I've drank two times in my life
And you know what? I didn't know what the Bible said at the time
I still felt wrong about it. But you know if I went to a church where you heard a sermon like this
No way would I try it no matter what the peer pressure was you say why I'd be scared
I'd be scared to sin
You say well so you're trying to scare people out of drinking alcohol, yes
These are the possibilities of what could happen. It's not worth the risk for a little bit of fun
You have pleasure for a little bit of time and then you know, what's crazy to me when I was in college
And you tell people you don't drink. Well, what do you do for fun?
Here's the thing. I mean if you're drinking away your life and you don't remember what's going on. It sounds like you don't enjoy your life. I
Enjoy my life
What do you do for fun? Well, you know on Friday nights and Saturday nights in college, you know
I went to the gym played basketball played table tennis hang out with my friends do Bible trivia. I
Enjoy that
I'm having plenty of fun in my life
But I don't need alcohol to make my life more pleasurable
My life is just fine as it is. I enjoy my life. I don't want the side effects of drinking alcohol. It's not worth it
It's not worth the guilt. It's not worth destroying your body
Right. Look don't fall for this lie from the world that us not living a sinful life means we're gonna be miserable
I'm pretty sure Solomon was the one who said in Ecclesiastes 2 when he's living a sinful life. I hated life
Sin doesn't make you happy. It makes you miserable and
Look, I get it
Inside of our flesh we get to see by the word and that thought kind of creeps into your head. What if
What if I did this would it make me a little bit more happy?
What if I allowed this sin into my life? Would it really be that big of a deal?
I mean that foolish thought creeps in sometimes doesn't it?
It's a foolish thought though
It's it's even a sin to think that because of the thought of foolishness is sin
But that foolish thought comes in man, maybe I should search after wine and wisdom
Or whatever sin you want to pick in wisdom. It's not going to make you happy. I
Get it the storms of life come it gets tough. Sometimes you get tired
Exhausted serving God stick with it. This is the best life you can have as
Joel Osteen would say your best life now
Stick with soul winning stick with our preaching stick with reading the Bible. You're not going to be happier
By just saying well, maybe I'm going to cut out my Bible reading cut out the soul winning
I'm so tired and just you know kind of go both ways going both ways is going to make you miserable if
You're always fighting with your flesh every single day your flesh and spirit. You're going to be miserable. You're not going to be happy
Isaiah 5 verse 11
We're going to them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow a strong drink
that continue until night to wine and flame them and
It says wine. This is talking about someone who's a flat-out drunk and
It says to wine and flame them, you know, there's something about something being set on fire
Just picture in your head something being set on fire, you know wine and flaming them at first
It's just a little bit of a fire. But isn't there like a moment at least to me
It seems like we're basically the whole thing just
Right. It starts off a little bit and then it just kind of explodes into this massive flame when you're setting when something set on fire
Whether it be like, you know in in the outdoors or a piece of paper if he set it on fire
It starts small and then out of nowhere just the whole thing's on fire. The whole thing is destroyed and
That's the sort of image. I believe the Bible is trying to tell you we're basically you know
What someone's deceived they drink a little bit of wine
But then it basically just inflames all of them and destroys them and just takes over
we're basically
They no longer have the ability to do what right or control it because there's many people out here that are drunkards and they want
to quit
The problem is wine is inflamed them. It's taken over. They don't have control anymore
Go Isaiah 28 Isaiah 28
Sin will always take you further than you want to go
Keep you longer than you wanted to stay and cost you more than you were willing to pay
It's not just one beer. It takes you further into more sin
It keeps you longer all of a sudden becomes part of your life and it's not worth it because of all the problems that take place
Isaiah 28 verse 1
Woe to the crown of pride to the drunkards of Ephraim notice this whose glorious beauty is
a fading flower
What the indication is in verse 1 and it says the universe overcome with wine the indication is
Drinking alcohol will make you ugly
Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower
Drinking alcohol will make you age
Doing drugs and living a sinful life. It ages you it will make you literally
Unattractive whose glorious beauty is a fading fire. Look in America
You'll see all kinds of people that were drug addicts and you know, drugs are very accessible
They're they're all over the place in the u.s
You'll see people and you look at them and it's like this is a person where you can tell before
Alcohol before drugs. They were probably an attractive person
but they just
Look so ugly because they've done so many drugs and drink so much alcohol and their beauty is a fading flower. I
Mean they started off beautiful when they were 20 years old you drink alcohol and all of a sudden your beauty just fades and it
Literally will make you look older
Look I've had people say this before to me or ask me, you know, like oh man
You look younger than your age and I always say I don't drink alcohol. I don't smoke. I don't do drugs. I
Said that will make you look older and that's biblical your beauty is like a fading flower
I mean, look, I'm not a I'm not a big flowers person, you know as a guy
But all many of flowers are beautiful right certain flowers
I couldn't tell you what the name of it is. But you know, I see certain flowers like wow, it's beautiful
Right, but isn't it true that that flower can just quickly fade in beauty after a couple days
It can be at its peak where it looks great, but then it can just fade very quickly if it's not in water
Well, that's the indication with drinking alcohol people to be very attractive when they're young
1820 25 years old and that beauty will just fade away
Due to the alcohol. That's what the Bible teaches
verse 3
The crown of pride the drunkards of Ephraim Ephraim shall be trodden under feet in the glorious beauty
Which is on the head of the fat Valley shall be a fading flower
So if I was just very clear in these verses that alcohol will take away your beauty or your looks
It will make you look worse
Look there are problems
Associated always with sin and this is one of the built-in punishments for this sin is it will cause you to be ugly
It will cause you to lose your beauty. It will cause you to lose your attractiveness
This is true for men and women both sides
I mean in the Bible when is saying beauty that's a term that can be given to men or women in our modern day
You know, we would say women are beautiful. You wouldn't necessarily say a guy is but in the Bible
It's not a bad term for a guy either. Okay, the indication is that you know what if you're drinking alcohol
It will cause you to be unattractive. It will aid you turn to Romans 13 Romans 13
I
Know people
That used to drink alcohol and used to do drugs and praise the Lord
They got out of it did out of their lives and they're serving God now. They're in church. They're doing right
The truth is though in most cases you you can tell
Haven't you ever heard someone say man so-and-so's lived a hard life
Right oftentimes it's associated with drinking alcohol and stuff like that meaning they look a lot older than they are
I
Sometimes I look at pictures from people that I that are from my hometown
You know on Facebook people that I you know went to school with in elementary school
I look at people that are in their late 30s. It's like, huh? They could have passed for 50s
It's like they look
Pretty old
You can tell that they've done a lot of things in their life
Right, I mean the reality is that
Doing alcohol and drugs. That's the side effects
It will literally make you look older. It will age you will destroy your skin who knows of all the I mean
And and not even just on the outside
That's one thing
But see the an outside is really a reflection on the inside and the outside is kind of telling you
Hey something's going on. It's because of what you're putting in your body. What's worse is what's happening to your liver
Right
You're causing major major damage
To your body you're gonna cause yourself to live a short life and you're gonna have so many side effects in health problems
And you're gonna regret it saying man. Why did I just do this all my life because now I'm having all these health problems
I'm at the doctors. I'm having surgeries all the time. Why because of alcohol
Romans 13 verse 13
Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness
Not in chambering and oneness not in strife and envying rioting and drunkenness are linked together because when you drink you do dumb things
When people drink alcohol, that's when they riots
All these protests that happen around the world in terms of especially in the u.s.
With black lives matter and burning down buildings stealing things. They're all just getting drunk and doing this
Rioting and drunkenness go hand in hand and look when you're drunk you do stupid things
I mean who who would just burn a building somebody who's drunk a
Foolish thought that's in your head and then when you're drunk, well, you know, it's not that big of a deal
Let's just set it on fire
Why because of alcohol cause you to do stupid things let's close up in Ephesians 5
Ephesians 5
Let me just make it very clear the Bible teaches it's a sin to drink any amount of alcohol it's wrong
One can of beer is a sin. You say well brother Stuckey
One can of beer doesn't get you drunk. So how can you say it's a sin because the Bible says be sober
One can of beer might not get you drunk, but you're not sober anymore
Isn't it true? We try to preach the gospel to people and sometimes you realize they've been drinking a little bit. Isn't it true?
Go straight over their head
They don't get it
Now might be possible if someone's only drink a very little bit to try to give them the gospel and I've had situations where
I was like, well, maybe they haven't drank that much I can try but you know what if they drink even just a little bit
Usually you can't get them saved. They just can't proceed even if they want to even if they want to listen
Right, they won't because look people can drink a little bit of alcohol and they still want to know how to go to heaven
That happens sometimes
Problem is they're drinking
And look when I know somebody's drink too much. I tell them I say well, I'd love to tell you about this but
You know, you're just not gonna be able to get it right now
You know while you're drinking come to church and we'll explain you how to get to heaven
Because I just know they're not gonna get it
You can't get saved if you're drunk. It's not possible
Right and even drinking a little bit. It's it just goes over your head
Ephesians 5 verse 6
Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things come with the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience
Be not ye therefore partakers with them. The Bible says don't partake don't be around people. Don't be among the winebabers
Don't be among the people living a sinful life for we are sometimes darkness
But now are ye light in the world walk as children of life for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness
and truth
Proving what is acceptable on the Lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. You say brother sucky
Why are you preaching against these people though and preaching really hard it says but rather reprove them
Not only don't fellowship with these people but will prove it
And look who better to approve sin than the person preaching the sermons at the church if they're not going to approve the sin
Who's going to?
Write look churches meant to stand up and preach the truth and reprove the wickedness
you say why I don't want to see any of the kids at our church grow up and become a drunkard and
Destroy their life. I don't want it for my kids. I don't want it for your kids. I
Want the kids of this church to grow up and be better Christians than us. I
Want my son to love God more than I ever did and I had a good family upbringing
But you know what? I really want my son not even to go down some of the roads
I went with the wrong music and stuff like that. I want my son to grow up and love God. I
Want the kids at our church to grow up and love God and not even experience some of these things that some of us have
Right. I mean, you know you start serving God and you know
One of the side effects is you start wanting to get make changes and praise the Lord for that
One of those things is getting rid of the wrong music
And I can say having gotten rid of the wrong music a long time ago
I don't feel a desire toward that music because I kind of killed it off
But I would say this that you know what when I first try to get rid of the wrong music
It's like you're going to the grocery store and you hear that song on the radio and you just start singing the song without even thinking
about it
Wouldn't be great though. If you know you ask your kids, you know, the Beatles Rolling Stones Led Zeppelin Justin B
They're like, who are the Beatles?
Who?
Who's Justin Bieber? Who's Lady Gaga? Like who are you talking about? Because they've never experienced it
You don't have to experience sin
Okay, it's best to avoid it is what the Bible says be simple concerning the things that are evil and look the kids that are
Church are not sheltered
How can you be sheltered when you go soul-winning and you see everything that's being preached?
You see the side effects of drinking you see the side effects of cigarettes and look they're not sheltered because there's other friends at church
They're going out. They're going to activities. We're going to CDC Park and having fun and things like that
But they'll say why your kids so sheltered they don't get to experience these things if you don't let them experience it
Then they'll become a drunk now
The Bible says that if you let them drink then that's probably what's going to make them a drunkard because they'll get deceived
Verse number 11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness
But rather approve them for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret look
I'm not going to lie to you tonight
Alcohol obviously gives pleasure to some people because they do it you sin because you enjoy it
Or you it's you become addicted to it, and you just can't stop yourself or whatever
But people drink I mean many of them they enjoy it they find pleasure in it
But sin pleasures for a season a short time period it's never worth it
Alcohol may give you pleasure, but it will perplex you you get drunk. You're not going to know what's going on
That's a scary thing many people have died
Had terrible things happen to them been assaulted
Physically or sexually while they're drunk, and they don't even know what's going on. We have examples in the Bible
I know examples in my life of people where it happened it happened in college these things happen and look it definitely gives you problems
it's going to cause side effects that you're going to regret and
Look you get you can disagree the preaching all you want and people can go out and say no big deal drinking and
One of the great examples that I know of someone who's it's not really a Baptist
but he's kind of someone that Baptist love John MacArthur and
Is that this Calvinist seminar with Ligonier ministries, and they've got all these Calvinists on stage, and they're asking them about well
What's the difference between wine and weed?
Because all these Calvinists are like well, I mean
Smoking weeds a sin, but I mean obviously drinking wines not a sin is what their opinion is and this is what John MacArthur said
And I can show it to you on YouTube after the service. He's like people try to compare wine and weed
They're not the same thing at all, and he said wine does not
incapacitate your judgment at all
It says what?
You're supposed to be a smart person
You're an educated person. He said that weed inhibits your judgment, so you do stupid things wine doesn't do it at all
It's like are you crazy even the drunkard will admit. It does something to you
So what are you talking about?
Everybody in the world except John MacArthur would admit. Yes drinking alcohol causes you to to lose your judgments
And it's like the Bible specifically said that lest they forget the law. It's like maybe it's not in your NIV
I don't know or your ESP or whatever you're reading
It's like what are you talking about?
No wine
Will cause you to be perplexed and not know what's going on
And you'll do things you would have never done when you were sober because you know they're sinful you know they're wrong
It will cause you to do things you would have never done and of course sin always leads to problems
Let's close in a word of prayer