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The Haven of Rest, him number 138.
Him 138, we'll go ahead and start there right on the first.
Dear Father, thank you for this opportunity that we have to serve you and to sing out praises
unto you. Thank you for the salvation that was had this evening and I pray that you would bless
this service at this time and fill us with your spirit Lord as we sing and hear from your word
in Jesus' name I pray amen. For our next song if you would turn in your hymnals to hymn number 37
there will be no
There'll be
a bulletin please raise your hand and an usher will come bring you one. On the
front we're still in our Bible memory passage of the week. Genesis chapter
number one verse 11 keep working hard on those Bible memory verses. On the left
you'll see our service times are listed. Sunday morning at 10 30 a.m. Sunday
evening at 4 30 and of course tonight at 7 o'clock. We do also have all of our
the church building. Weather is really really nice this time of year. Definitely
hope we could get lots of soul winning done the remainder of this year and have
a really good push to the end of the year. And as always just like to plug our
Saturday time is being a really great time. It's a good time of day and it's
always receptive at that time. So please join us on Saturdays for our rally.
We do also have our year-to-date soul winning statistics and we're at 1906 for the year
And I definitely think it would be an amazing thing if our church could surpass 2,000
Salvation for the calendar year, but it's of course going to take a group effort
So like I said, we'll make sure we keep working hard toward the end of this year
And speaking of soul winning upcoming events. Our next big event is the Bahamas mission trip
So we're very excited and looking forward to this great trip less than a month away
And even if you're not able to go, please do be praying for this trip
Like I preached about a month ago when you plan a big trip like this when you try to do something really great for God
There could often be a lot of obstacles problems spiritual warfare
And so please do not forget the praying portion of the battle that we're in
It's not just the feet that we need out preaching the gospel.
We also need prayer as well.
We do have October 12th is our next men's preaching night and our potluck October 31st is the chili cookoff once again
November 22nd
We're gonna have a local soul winning marathon here in Oklahoma City
That is the one year anniversary of anchor Baptist Church, which I cannot believe that it's coming up this quickly
And so that Saturday we're gonna have a soul winning marathon here in Oklahoma City
really looking forward to that and then
I made the bulletin before I got this finalized, but the next day, November 23rd, that's the actual
Sunday of our one-year anniversary. Pastor Jonathan Shelley will be preaching both services
for our one-year anniversary, so we're thankful that he's going to come and do that for us.
You definitely do not want to miss it. We're excited to see him and have him preach for us that
And I believe this is just the beginning.
So you definitely want to be a part of this in the first year.
That's some extra OG cool status.
So those people, they're missing out.
They aren't a part of it.
But you know what?
We are the OGs here at Anchor Baptist Church and glad to be.
So then November 26th, we will have a pie fellowship
on that day.
And then as we get closer, I'll put some events in there
for December.
But that is the next couple of months coming up for our church.
Now we do have on the right our visitor card
Our online visitor card that is as well as our online giving if you'd like to help the efforts of our church
also, we do have our prayer list and
Man, it's just been a really heavy last couple of weeks. I'm sure you all know
One of the things we have on there is prayer for miss Lola
Row, which I think a lot of you know and of course this update was sent in our group chats as well that unfortunately
last Sunday morning her husband did pass away and
It's just very shocking being that I shook hands with this man
You know just a week or so ago and many of you guys saw him at the fire breathing Baptist fellowship
And this guy was one of the most zealous soul winners. I've ever seen his calendar was just packed of soul winning trips the rest this year
and so he's just a really great man and you know I definitely think it's good
that God's people's attention can be kind of drawn to him to see like what a
good example was and how you know his life was about soul winning and needs to
remind us you know that's what our life should be about as well but of course the
tragic situation is now there's a woman who is now a single mom of an infant
child and Miss Lola's a great Christian as well, a very zealous soul winner as well.
and so it's a tragic situation.
I did send the link in our church communications
for the financial side of things
and thank you to those of you that supported her
and I want you to know our church as well
is supporting her during this time
and yeah, just be praying for them please
because she's in a tough situation in a lot of ways.
Brother Paul Weathers.
please be praying for his health. I did get an update that tomorrow he's going to be released
from the hospital so things are going really good with him. Praise Lord for that and there's just
been a lot of other crazy stuff going on just in the news and in our country lately and it just seems
like there's a lot of spiritual darkness right now in our nation that we just need to be praying for
and making sure that we're still fighting the good fight as Christians together. Also we do have
Brother Miles an ongoing prayer request for his health as well as the ongoing requests for the unsaved loved ones of various church members
That we have here and before we go to our third song
Let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayers a church family Lord
we just want to thank you for the blessing of life and
The day that we have here to gather together to sing praises to your name to hear your word preached
To fellowship with God's people to love our families, you know, we know Lord that
This is a gift from you and we should not take it for granted.
We should cherish every day that you give us and use every day that you give us for your honor and glory.
I pray that you'd help us not to be earthly minded and to be so caught up with the daily tasks of life,
which would help us to have a spiritual and heavenly mindset.
We want to pray for Miss Lola and Baby Phoebe, that you would just give them all the strength and comfort as possible.
That you would help them during this very difficult time.
That you would just let them know that they're loved by you and by other people.
And help them just to continue to have a strong faith and continue to be such a great example.
So that they could provoke other people to love and to good works, Lord.
I pray that you would help her.
financially and being able to navigate this very difficult time. I pray for
faithful word Baptist church and all the Christians who
Loved brother Kevin and we're very close with him. I pray for pastor Anderson help him to
Navigate faithful word during a difficult time help him to continue being a great leader for that church Lord
and I just pray for the various situations going around throughout our country many murders many
Crimes that are happening. I pray that you would be with the victims families and I pray that you would
help use these situations for good somehow, that people's hearts would be softened to the gospel,
that people would want to turn back to you, that we would want to bring God's word back to our
nation, and that you would use the believers here, that you would use Anchor Baptist Church
to be a bright and shining light to do that here in Oklahoma City and throughout the world, Lord.
Pray that you would just enable us and give us the tools we need to accomplish your will
I pray for brother Fedor in the Philippines that you would bless him that you would allow him to continue doing a mighty work
Over there that you would keep the door open and help him to work hard
Pray that you would keep him safe and Lord. We also pray for brother Miles's health that you bless him
Pray for brother Paul weathers that you would help him in his recovery
Just please bless his body and his healing Lord
And we also want to pray for the unsaved loved ones of various family members that are here
I pray that you would just help us to do our best to reach our family and
To love them and to love the loss and to reach this community for Christ. We love you Jesus. Let me pray amen
All right for our third song if you would at this time take your white handouts
And turn to Psalm chapter 139.
Psalm chapter 139 in the White Hand Out.
We'll go ahead and start there right on the first.
Surely thou wilt slave a wicked sure.
this evening as the offering plates are being passed around turn in your Bibles
to Proverbs chapter 23 Proverbs chapter number
Good evening, Proverbs 23 the Bible reads, When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider
diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given
to appetite.
Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat.
Labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom.
Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?
they fly away as an eagle toward heaven, eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye,
neither desire thou his dainty meats. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink,
saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten,
Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words, remove not the old landmark, and enter not into the fields of the fatherless.
For their redeemer is mighty, he shall plead their cause with thee, apply thine heart unto instruction and thy ears to the words of knowledge.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
My son, at thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
Yea, my veins shall rejoice when thy lips speak right things.
Let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.
For surely there is an end, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
Be not among wine-bibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh, for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man in rags.
Hark not to thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
Buy the truth, and sell it not. Also, wisdom and instruction and understanding.
The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bear thee shall rejoice.
My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
For a whore is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
She also lieth in wait, as for a prey, and increases the transgressors among men.
Who hath woe, who hath sorrow, who hath contentions, who hath babbling?
Who hath wounds without cause, who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
At the last it bighteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
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 mast.
They have stricken me, shalt thou 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."
That's about it for our prayer.
Father in heaven, thank you for this day.
And thank you for our church.
We ask that you bless our church and fill our mind and churches.
And fill our past with your spirit.
Help us to learn from the word and find our truth to our lives.
And then we ask you to help us solve the tension.
And so to start with that,
In Proverbs chapter 23, verse 1, the Bible says,
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler,
Consider diligently what is before thee,
And put a knife to thy throat,
If thou be a man given to appetite,
Be not desirous of his dainties,
For they are deceitful meat.
So the Bible here is bringing up
seemingly kind of a unique situation where you're invited to some sort of meal by a ruler.
Now this will not necessarily happen to every single person, but you know you can make application
in other areas.
It doesn't necessarily have to be some sort of governor or the president or someone super
high up, but it could just be someone of authority, someone in a position of power.
And you know there are people that from time to time in life will find themselves in these
types of situations.
New IFB, soul-winning Christians who have had a meal with like Tucker Carlson and stuff like that.
So it is, you know, this does happen to people from time to time in life
and not to bring him up as a specific example or whatever.
But the idea is that the Bible is telling us not to be desirous of his dainties for they are deceitful meat.
So you don't want to just assume that because you're invited with this ruler here that they
automatically have your best interests at heart or that they're automatically some great person
Because that is human beings tendency is to think that because someone is rich or powerful it has position that that means they're a good person.
But the Bible is telling us here to have some self control and to think about our actions and behave ourselves wisely in this situation here.
Notice what it says to do, consider diligently what is before thee.
So you know if you're eating with a ruler or maybe just someone of any authority,
You would not want to necessarily just start shoving your face
with everything that comes your way and start acting like a fool,
being some sort of glutton or just riotous eater of flesh.
You're supposed to consider things that are put before you.
Have some manners.
Have some thought about what you're doing
and the decorum that you have.
That's a good thing to do for sure.
And notice, and put a knife to thy throat
if thou be a man given to appetite.
So you don't want to just start acting like a barbarian,
acting like an old IFB pastor or something,
and just start shoving your face
and just devouring whatever's before you.
And you know, gluttony is not something
that the Bible praises, it's actually a sin.
And this is a sin today
that is very common in the United States,
but it's just not talked about that much
because of how many times people are guilty of it.
And here's the thing when it comes to gluttony.
You don't necessarily have to be fat to be a glutton.
What is someone that's a glutton?
It's just you're just overindulging, you're overeating, you're just giving your flesh
way more above what it needs.
And of course that could lead to things like being super overweight, being very unhealthy.
It's just a big problem in life because you have this issue of your life where you lack
discipline where you can't tell yourself no.
that problem in one area have that problem in lots of areas.
So, you know, gluttony is not something that we should joke about.
The old IFB loves to joke and make light of being a chicken,
eating finger licking Baptist and ha ha.
It's so funny that we can't run and we can't lift weights and we can't do anything.
You know, you hear guys like Tony Hudson saying like, you know,
you don't make you more righteous to be skinny.
Every mention of the word fat in the Bible is good. Hey, man.
And it's just like, okay.
You know, we don't want that type of a culture where we've just gotten so lax that we just like glorify being unhealthy, glorify excusing this kind of stuff.
Look, I'm not down on people, I'm not hating people that are in this situation, but the loving thing to do is to tell you, hey, God says gluttony is a sin for a reason, it's harmful to you, it's harmful to society, it's not something we should be glorifying.
Also, notice it says, be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat.
So there's something else going on here beyond just controlling your own temptations and
fleshly desires is realizing that this person that you're sitting with could not necessarily
be a great person.
And you don't want to just desire his dainties and get infected with the love of money.
Because what some people do is you know every once in a while you go out to a super nice meal
Or maybe every once in a while you get invited by someone who has money
It's like a really nice restaurant and what you should do is you should look at that as kind of like a once in a while treat
And hey, this is good. Let's enjoy ourselves
Let's have fun
But what you don't want to do is in have those meals and start thinking I need this lifestyle
I need to be able to order this.
I need to be able to go out to restaurants like this all the time
because what you're going to do then is fall into the trap of covetousness.
And the Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil.
And you know, the Bible says that we should not desire
to be rich. It's not something that a Christian should be striving for.
That's why it's saying here, don't desire his dainties, right?
Don't think like, oh, man, I wish I had all the trinkets and all the nice things
that you had. You know, don't don't as a hobby, just go drive through Nichols
Hills drooling with your mouth, you know, hung open or something like that.
And just lusting after wealth and power.
That's not what life is about. OK, look at verse number.
Four, there's that verse I was just talking about,
labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom.
I mean, humanity today just thinks like this is the pinnacle of achievement and what everyone is just striving for is just to get rich.
But, you know, the Bible's mentality on things are often contradictory to our human nature.
And the Bible says,
You know what that means?
Do not go to work.
Do not do business in life with the stated goal, with the intention of becoming rich.
That is not right.
Now look, there's nothing wrong with being rich if you're diligently working, if you're being honest,
if you're providing a good product, if God blesses you in that area, praise the Lord.
If you're not sacrificing spiritual things to make money, if you're rich toward God,
hey, there's nothing wrong with that. What's wrong is in your heart, desiring to be rich.
Because here's the truth, most people cannot handle it. I've just seen it over the years.
Most people, they maybe struggle financially for a reason.
And sometimes God just needs to keep us humble, and we ought to be okay with that.
Because I would rather live my life fearing God, serving God,
my heart being kept close to the Bible and the things of God, and die and go to Heaven someday,
and realize, like, hey, I used my life for something good,
than for my heart to be drawn away and waste this short, precious vapor of a life that we have.
And let me tell you something, life is short.
And we often think about, we often talk to the unsaved, and we knock on their door,
and we say, if you were to die today, are you 100% sure you're going to heaven?
But, you know, we need to ask ourselves that same question sometimes.
Not thinking about whether or not we're going to heaven, but just the part of if we were to die today.
You know, are you ready to lock in your eternal rewards?
Are you ready to say it is finished?
Are you ready to be done with your work for God on this earth?
Because that day is coming fast.
And you never know when it's coming.
And I just wish I could grab every lukewarm Christian
and every Christian that never takes church seriously
and every Christian that skips soul winning all the time
and skips their Bible reading all the time
and doesn't pray all the time
and just say, hey, you could die tomorrow!
Have you ever thought about that?
You know, your stupid little job that you care so much about
and your stupid little hobbies that you care so much about.
Let me tell you what, it's all trash.
It's all worthless.
And look, we need to live in this world.
We need to provide for our families.
We need to work hard.
But we are here to serve Christ.
And anything else we do is all going to be burned up someday.
Look what the Bible says in verse 5.
Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings.
They fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
Let's say you make it financially.
Let's say things go great for you and you make tons of money.
Guess what?
Oftentimes people that get a bunch of money, they also lose a bunch of money.
And even if you keep your money, eventually all that stuff is going to fly away.
You can't take your house with you, you can't take your cars with you, you can't take your
nice meals with you, all of that stuff is going to vanish and be gone, but what actually
lasts is service for God.
And you know, sometimes when we have tragic events, like losing ones that we care about, friends, family, even those that are saved, it should make us take a pause for a moment and think about what are we doing with our life?
Like seriously, what are we doing with our life? Are you just waking up every day, doing your carnal tasks, going through the motions, living for the weekend, living for time off, or are you actually a servant of God?
Are you actually redeeming the time?
Are you actually living your life with a purpose realizing that you will meet your Savior someday
and you will give an account of the things that you did in your body whether they were good or evil?
That is a real day that is coming.
It's a sobering thing to think about.
And so that's why we shouldn't have the love of money.
Look at verse 6.
Neither desire thou his dainty meat.
So notice some people will put you in this situation because they have an evil eye, they
have some sort of evil intentions or they want to flatter you to get something out of you
and you should not be so easily manipulated where money and treats and gifts and nice
things can just buy you off or manipulate you into doing something like that.
So is he eat and drink sayeth he to thee, but his heart is not with thee?
So notice this person is saying one thing, but there are evil wicked intentions behind those words and
Look as Christians the most important thing in life is what charity?
If we don't have charity, we are nothing, 1 Corinthians 13 says.
And so look, we should be very generous, liberal financially,
loving to our brothers and sisters in Christ, nothing wrong with giving gifts.
But you also should know that wicked people too will use gifts and will use flattery.
And through covetousness shall they with fainted words make merchandise of you.
2 Peter chapter 2 says.
And so realize that just because someone's giving you a gift
or just because someone's buying you a meal
or taking you out does not automatically mean
that you should just trust that person
and think that that person's the greatest person on earth.
You know, we have to look at situations as a whole
and we have to kind of guard our heart a little bit.
Of course, give people the benefit of the doubt
but don't just be foolish and naive.
Verse number eight, the morsel which thou hast eaten,
shalt thou vomit up and lose thy sweet words.
Verse number nine, speak not in the ears of a fool,
for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
So...
Some people have this mentality that we should just, you know, no matter what,
whether someone's interested or not interested,
that we need to just go out there and waste our time and bang our head against the wall,
preaching to every single person, but that is not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches not to speak in the ears of a fool,
or he will, what does it say there, despise the wisdom of thy words.
Look, I'm not interested in having an argument ministry.
I'm not interested in having a debate ministry.
You got guys like James White today.
What is this whole ministry?
He's going around and debating people.
Look, debate makes no sense because you're never going
to change that person's mind.
I've never watched a single debate where someone's
mind was changed.
Now, what you do see is you see Jesus in a public situation and he's preaching and people come and contradict him and speak against him.
And he engages them for the benefit of others that are listening.
And there's nothing wrong with that sometimes.
Outsole-winning, you got to do that. You got to shut things down.
You got to overcome them with scripture.
But look, if I'm just one-on-one with someone, I'm there to preach them the gospel.
I'm there for them to listen to me.
And if they're not interested, I'm leaving.
I'm going to the next door and it really really frustrates me especially when I
first started going soul-winning I was in a church where some people did this
where they would just waste so much time and they would just argue with so much
people and of course this person I'm thinking of ended up being a oneness
heretics I wasn't surprised afterwards but I'm just saying don't do don't be that
type of person don't waste your time out soul-winning
And even one-on-one with someone,
you know, we as Christians, we should be willing to give people
as much love and counsel and instruction as they truly desire.
But if they don't want it, if they're not listening,
if they're being forward, you know, then go help someone who actually
can be helped, who's actually going to listen to you.
Verse number 10, remove not the old landmark
and enter not into the fields of the fatherless.
So especially in ancient times before we had all these nice,
you know, land survey maps and GPS coordinates
and satellite imagery and fences
and like high tech fences and all that kind of stuff.
You had what separating borders?
You had landmarks.
You had these landmarks that would differentiate.
Here's where my property ends.
Here's where yours begin.
Also, landmarks could be used as some sort of memorial to bring to remembrance things
of the past, for example, in the book of Joshua.
You have them make that memorial of stones and the generation to come is supposed to look at those stones and remember the work of God.
You know, we have the King James Bible, which is a landmark.
Why? Because we're supposed to look at this and say, hey, this is the faith of our fathers.
We're reminded of the stories of God. We're reminded of the things of God.
And God's saying, hey, don't remove the old landmark.
Don't remove the ancient landmark.
God is not a new God. He has eternally existed and his truths are constant and he says I am the Lord. I change not and
Today you have this modernist movement
Even among Christians among new evangelicals where we're just constantly trying to change everything
We're trying to just change every doctrine
Every presupposition that our fathers handed down to us. We're just saying our fathers knew nothing
The founding fathers were just dumb white racists.
There's this deconstruction of the world in general,
where not only do Christians, these liberal Christians that is,
just want to deconstruct the Bible, deconstruct the faith.
It's like many of these secular leftists just want to deconstruct reality.
A man can become a woman, a woman can become a man,
two fags can get married, two fags can adopt children.
I mean, today the government of Oklahoma passed a bill banning children from attending and
from these drag queen shows from happening in public places.
Now that should be the most obvious thing in the world, but what a sad state of things
where the government has to spend its time saying, hey, these disgusting, god-hating,
faggot, abomination, AIDS dispensers are not allowed legally to dance and imitate, you
Why do we even have to have the government say such an obvious thing because we're living in such a screwed up
Backward world and you know what people are getting fatigued with the screwed up backward world that we're living in
And you know what there's been Christians that have just been in the closet for so long
About the what the Bible teaches and you know what Christians just need to come out of the closet and say what the Bible says
and just preach what the Bible says
and just nuts to whatever leftist, liberal, watered-down preachers
and churches, if they want to judge us, if they want to condemn us,
we don't care anymore.
We just want the truth. We just want the Bible. We're sick and tired and living in just this hellscape.
This modern hellscape of just women going to combat, women police officers, women murdering their children,
these jacked up family situations, men not leading, men being effeminate, people, you know, taking things out of the Word of God,
making these modern perversions. There's just so many things today that are screwed up.
And where it starts is with a generation that says,
hey, that landmark, let's remove that landmark.
Oh, women wearing skirts and dresses,
the landmark that's been there for all of human history.
Yeah, let's go ahead and take that landmark away.
Yeah, where does that lead us?
You know, 50 years later, it leads us to,
well, maybe men can wear dresses too.
Right, we're questioning all these things today.
Just everything has a question mark on it today.
And you know what, I'm sick and tired of it.
We need to get up and thunder forth the word of the Lord and stop being so afraid of the persecution
Stop being afraid of the results. You know, we just need to fear God rather
Fear God don't fear man like the Lord told Joshua. He said hey, don't be afraid. I'm with you with or so ever thou goest
If we need to have that attitude today, I feel like the devil, his goal for a long time, has been just for Christians to be afraid.
Because you know what? We have the victory. The devil cannot defeat us. The devil cannot defeat God.
But you know what he can do? He can make Christians afraid and have them temper back the preaching.
Not be as, you know, public with their beliefs as they should be.
Churches kind of hiding their doctrine, hiding the hot sermons,
not saying the things that would get people ruffled up.
He's kind of brought fear into people's life.
And you know what? I think the devil's still trying to do that.
You know, what's a good example of that?
You know, you had that horrific tragedy today,
which if you follow the news, you probably already know what I'm going to say,
where Charlie Kirk was just assassinated and murdered just live on video.
He was just at a college exercising his first amendment peacefully having a dialogue with college students
Ironically about gun violence and the last word that came out of his mouth was the word violence when he was shot in the neck and
Killed by some deranged psychopathic
God-hating freak and you know what the devil wants you to do the devil wants you to see stuff like that and
Think in your mind. Oh, that's what happens to people that speak out
That's what happens to people that are, you know, out and loud about their Christianity or about their beliefs in general.
And you know what the devil wants you to do? The devil wants you to shut up.
Acts chapter number four, what are the Jews doing?
They're beating up the apostles, they're threatening them with prison,
and they're saying, hey, you're not allowed to preach in the name of Jesus Christ anymore.
You got Stephen preaching the Word of God.
What did the Jews do?
They want to stop their ears.
They want to run upon him.
They stone him with stones and kill him.
But here we are today with the Word of God.
Here we are today Christianity is still thriving the word of God is still successful
No one has ever succeeded in silencing the word of God. Hey look
It doesn't matter how many people you kill you will never defeat Jesus Christ
You will never defeat the words of God. You know what? I don't want to be shot and killed someday
But you know what if that has to happen blessed be the name of the Lord
Sounds better than dying in my old age of a long battle of cancer or something like that, but you know what I tell you this
I mean this with all my heart.
I will preach the things that I need to preach,
regardless of the threats.
Regardless of the threats.
And look, I've been through the threats.
I've had the sodomites come to my house,
where my children and my wife live,
for years, threatening to kill me.
But here's the thing.
Do I want to die?
No.
Do I want my precious family to die?
No.
But you know, what actually keeps me safe,
the most safe, is actually serving God.
And sticking with the landmarks that God gave, and not moving those landmarks, that's the safest I could be.
And if I die in God's will, then that was God's will.
You know what would suck is dying, doing something sinful.
Dying, doing something outside of God's will.
And thinking the what if, what could have been, the should have been, all that kind of stuff.
No, no, no. If I'm in God's will, then my time to go is whenever God ordains. That's what I believe.
And so it does not make any sense to be afraid.
The Bible says that the fear of man is a snare.
It's a trap.
It's trying to keep you from doing what God wants you to do.
Look, if anything over this last week,
I'm just more excited about soul winning.
I'm just doubling down on my service for God.
I'm just wanting things to ramp up at our church
and ramp up at our friends' churches.
This is not gonna have a chilling effect
on Anchor Baptist Church.
You know, and I hope for you that you're not going to be one of these weak Christians
that sees some persecution and just goes and hides.
You know, especially when it even hasn't come to us yet.
Like a lot of people, they just freak out at the thought of persecution.
Not to mention, can they actually be steadfast during persecution?
You know, we should have the mentality that we should strive to endure persecution.
And of course, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.
We need to pray that God gives us that strength
and that endurance to go through that.
and not just think, like, well, if it comes, I'm out.
You know, I've heard stories that people said,
hey, if protesters come, I'm out.
That's weak.
That's weak behavior right there.
We need to not have the fear.
Look at verse number 11,
and this is in context of the last part of that verse,
where it says,
You know, what could be more weak and defenseless
as a fatherless child?
Yet notice who's protecting that fatherless child, God Almighty.
So it's like, hey, don't enter into their fields.
Don't steal from them.
Don't harm young children.
Don't hurt young children.
Why?
Because God's going to come after you.
And you know what?
We are the children of God.
So we've got the best protection there is, God Almighty.
We just need to trust in Him.
Verse 12, apply thine heart unto instruction
and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou
beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
And I would just refer you to listen to Sunday morning
sermon on child rearing if you did not hear that,
but I'm going to go over these verses.
Verse 14, thou shalt beat him with the rod and
shall deliver his soul from hell.
Verse 15,
You know, that's what we want as parents is we want our children to grow up and to be wise.
How do you get wise? Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord.
That's how we can please our parents is by being wise.
Notice verse 16,
His reigns is talking about
the seat of emotion, the feeling, the emotional feeling that he has.
He says that he'll rejoice when thy lips speak right things.
And I believe you know that God has that same joy up in heaven
when his children get wisdom and speak right things.
You know, I believe we could bring that joy to the Lord as well.
Verse 17, let not your heart, let not thine heart envy sinners,
but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.
For surely there is an end, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
So he kind of concludes this thought that he started at the beginning of, you know,
don't just think that rich people are so amazing by virtue of just being rich
and don't just desire their dainties, don't get infected with the love of money,
don't envy sinners is what he's saying, right?
And a lot of Christians, they get to the point where they get backslidden.
They are not filled with the Spirit, they don't have the joy of the Lord,
and they start to look back into the world.
They look back into Egypt, and they start looking at wicked, sinful people,
not serving God, and in their own self-deception they think,
man, that looks like a great life.
Man, that looks like something that I should chase.
You know, and I think that if you're honest with yourself,
we all have foolish thoughts similar like that from time to time.
And you know what, we need to remind ourselves, you know, that's not reality.
The outward appearance of these people that are living outside of the will of God,
you know, hard is the way of transgressors, the Bible says.
There is nothing out in the world that you are missing out on.
You know, Jesus Christ came to give us life and to give it more abundantly.
The best life you could possibly live is within the will of God.
And especially when you get that expectation, right?
The Bible says your expectation will not be cut off.
What is our expectation? What are we looking forward to as Christians?
Well, one thing we're looking forward to is the promise of heaven.
Now, that's a pretty sweet deal, not burning in hell, going to heaven, being reunited with
our brothers and sisters in Christ who went before us, our loved ones, you know, the saints
of old time past, all the rewards in heaven, all the beautiful things that must be there.
We can't even comprehend what it's going to be like fully, but that's one thing we're
expecting.
You know, we're also expecting rewards.
that we earned through our labor for Jesus Christ.
You know, we remember in Hebrews chapter six,
the Bible says that God's not unrighteous
to forget your work and labor of love, right?
So God's gonna reward us for that someday.
That's our expectation, and guess what?
That expectation will not be cut off.
You know what that means, by the way?
It means you can't lose your salvation, right?
We're not gonna have that expectation cut off
where we're just gonna be like,
whoa, I called upon the name of the Lord.
I believed in Jesus Christ.
Why am I not going to, that's not gonna happen.
But you know, the expectation of the wicked shall be cut off.
And there's a lot of people, the hope of the wicked,
that will be cut off where they are going to die
and they're going to be shocked that they're in hell.
And they're going to be saying,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?
In the name of cast out devils.
And in the name of done many wonderful works.
Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you,
depart from me ye that work iniquity.
Their expectation will be cut off.
You know, or maybe they're some sort of Eastern religion where they think that they'll just cease to exist.
Boy, that expectation is going to be cut off real soon.
And so, you know, if you have some wisdom, you think about the end of these paths in life,
getting saved, serving God, and the path of the wicked.
One ends to eternal joy and bliss and being at rest and at peace with our Savior.
One leads to eternal fire and torment and hell.
Why on earth would we ever envy sinners?
Why would we look at the wicked of this world and say man, I wish I had their money man
I wish I had their house what so you could be obsessed with it and not serve God and waste your life on this earth
It's ridiculous to envy sinners like that
Notice verse number 19 here thou my son and be wise and guide thine heart in the way
verse number 20 be not among wine bibbers among riotous eaters of flesh
Right, so these two groups of people are said in the same breath here, wine bibbers, what is a wine bibber, it's just wine drinkers.
You know, if you think of the words beber in Spanish, it means to drink.
So wine bibbers, they're those that drink wine, and then you have those that are riotous eaters of flesh.
Both of these people, what are they doing?
They're just feeding the flesh, they don't have self-control, they're just giving their body whatever it wants.
It doesn't say, don't be these people.
It doesn't say, don't be a wine-bipper.
It doesn't say, don't be a riotous eater of flesh.
It says, don't be among them.
Don't be around them.
Now please, you know, explain to me this retarded preaching today
from many pastors that teach that it's okay to drink alcohol,
that it's not a sin to drink alcohol,
it's just a sin to get drunk
when the Bible says not even to be around wine-bippers.
No, these people just willfully ignore scripture to justify their wicked sin.
And let me tell you what drinking alcohol is. It is a wicked sin.
It's something that has been desensitized to us because it's so common and so normal in the United States of America.
But you know what? It's wrong and it destroys people's lives.
It ruins people's lives. What are some of the consequences?
Look at verse 21.
And drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
Here's one of the ways your life can be destroyed by drinking alcohol or by being a glutton is becoming poor.
You know why? Because alcohol and just constantly feeding your face is very expensive.
It's very expensive and even today alcohol is expensive how much more in the ancient world where you know
People are literally treading the grapes where the winemaking process was not
Commercialized didn't have all these high-tech machines and computers
You know formulating things and getting things done in an automated fashion way more expensive back then but even today alcohol is very expensive
And it's just funny today how a lot of people who are poor
It just happens to be a coincidence that they get that paycheck
and they go to Oncue and they buy that brown bag.
When you see them stumbling at Oncue with their brown bag of alcohol
and they wonder why they're poor.
They're poor because they're stupid, that's why.
Because it's a stupid person that drinks alcohol.
Whosoever is deceived there by talking about wine,
the Bible says it's not wise.
A stupid person drinks alcohol and so they just coincidentally are poor.
Not because of systemic racism or lack of job opportunities.
No, because you're a stupid drunk.
And again, I walk over these homeless, you know, bodies every morning in my life.
And you know, it's not because the world's out to get them, it's because they were so foolish to start getting into drugs and alcohol.
And look, those people need help.
Those people need the gospel. They need help.
They need people to love them and get them out of that situation.
But you'd be wise to never find yourself there to begin with.
You'd be wise to never try alcohol once in your single life.
Never do it, never drink alcohol.
Notice why also they're poor and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
People who drink alcohol at the time, what are they?
They're drunk.
What are drunk people like?
Are they sharp and quick with their movements?
No, they're just kind of shuffling around or laying around or laying on the ground, vomiting,
doing nothing, laying in bed, recovering from the hangover.
These people are not productive members of society.
You know, people who are drunk, they suck at doing their job, or they have no job.
They suck at being a father, they suck at being a spouse.
They suck at everything they do because alcohol just ruins your life.
You know, and it's one of those things that we have to avoid.
Verse number 22,
that begat thee and despise not thy mother when she is old.
Buy the truth and sell it not.
Also wisdom and instruction and understanding,
the father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice,
and he that begeteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad,
and she that bear thee shall rejoice.
So, again, the Bible is talking a lot about how by being wise and by being righteous,
you're going to bring joy to your parents, and that as parents, you want to see your
children be righteous.
Now, think about this.
If you just took a poll of the average American today...
or the average parent today and you ask them,
you know, is drinking alcohol a sin?
Should we, you know, is it okay to ever drink alcohol?
A lot of people are going to say yes.
They're going to say absolutely.
They themselves drink alcohol.
A lot of Americans drink alcohol.
But you know, if you ask them,
hey, how would you like your son or your daughter
to grow up and become an alcoholic?
and to become a drunkard and to be a drug addict on the side of the road and be one of these homeless people.
Oh, that would break my heart. That'd be so sad. That'd be so terrible.
It's like, well, then maybe you should teach your children not to drink alcohol.
Maybe you should start with your own example.
Because notice verse 22,
Harken unto thy father that begat thee.
You know, children are supposed to obey their parents and one of the things parents ought to teach their children is to never drink alcohol.
And to never touch drugs and don't be a foolish hypocrite thinking that you can go do these things, that you could drink alcohol on the sly,
you could smoke marijuana on the sly, and that your kids won't eventually find out, no they will.
And they'll probably statistically follow down your path.
And it's just a road to destruction when it comes to alcohol.
A brief pause on alcohol, he goes into this here, verse 26.
My son, give me thine heart and let thine eyes observe my ways.
For a whore is a deep ditch and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
She also lieth in wait as for a prey
and increases the transgressors among men.
Now, of course, this is not a description of women in general.
What is this talking about?
This is talking about a whore.
So Proverbs has a lot to say about the whore, about the strange woman,
about the woman that'll flatter you, about the woman that's trying to be promiscuous.
The Bible speaks very negatively of that type of woman.
And the Bible says that that woman is unfortunately common.
But of course, we don't want to take these verses and just paint a broad brush and say,
this is all women, or this is the characteristic of all women.
But realize that there are lots of women that are like this out there.
And, you know, I saw some, you know, posts criticizing new IFB preachers
coming from a certain feminist pastor's wife
that was saying like, oh, I can't believe that these preachers, you know,
paint women in a light that they're, you know, promiscuous
and that they would be like adulteresses or something like that.
And I'm just thinking like, what is this verse saying?
Notice what this verse is saying in verse number 28,
talking about specifically the whore.
She, the whore, also lieth and wait as for a prey.
It's just interesting to me that in our culture, we always think of sexual predators and I hear that word and I think, man,
that's what I think of, right, isn't that what everyone thinks of?
But it's like the Bible's saying here that a whore, that a promiscuous woman, that a strange woman, that she actually lies in wait as for prey.
So, there is not just men, sexual predators out there.
Of course, those people exist, and guess what?
They're wicked as hell.
But you know what?
They're also rotten, evil, wicked whores out there that are the same exact way.
And we don't need to be brainwashed by the world thinking, it's only men that do this.
No, no, there are women that are like this that the Bible warns us about.
And this next part is very interesting, notice.
There's also this attitude out there that if men struggle with temptation for other women,
for struggling with their eyes, or just the actual relationship itself,
there's this attitude out there that it's just only the guy's fault.
and like, oh, how dare you judge women for dressing like whores
because men should control their eyes.
And amen, men should control their eyes.
But you know what?
The woman also has a responsibility here.
Because notice, she increases the transgressors among men.
You know what that means?
There would have been less transgressors if she wasn't a whore.
There would be less people lusting in their heart
if whores weren't walking around showing off their body.
There would be less men stumbling and struggling in this area, and going outside of merit and doing these horrific things
that again, we condemn 100%. Men should never do it. But there'd be less doing it if women also took responsibility for themselves.
Oh, how dare you victim-blame.
You know, it's like when it comes to situations where people get taken advantage of.
You know, ladies, they find themselves in a situation where they get taken advantage of
and that's awful.
They are the victim.
But you also should take some responsibility for your actions.
Were you dressed like a whore?
Were you flirting with this person?
Were you drinking alcohol and doing drugs with this person?
Were you sneaking out of your house when mom and dad said no?
And sneaking around with your boyfriend?
Well, you need to take some responsibility too.
And we need to not live in this, you know, weird feminist society where just everything's only men's fault
and realize that when people sin in this area, you know who's fault it is?
Both people.
And it makes me think of this.
When I lived in California as a child, I did a lot of hunting.
When I lived in California and Idaho, my family's always been in hunting.
And one of the weird things that the Department of Fish and Game would do in California specifically
These little fake deer, these robot deer, and they would just put it in the middle of the field.
And, you know, it's like turning its head and it's like eating food or whatever.
And then the cops, the Department of Wildland, Fish and Game, whatever,
they would go off into the woods with their binoculars
and they would wait for some hunter to drive on the road
and to illegally shoot the deer.
Because you can't shoot from your vehicle.
That's illegal.
You can't shoot if the bullet's going to cross a road or a way of travel.
There's all these different rules, right?
And so what they would do is they would just bust people.
They would just create this little deer, this little diversion, and get people to do this.
And I always thought, that's stupid, that's wrong, that's evil.
You know, the police should not do stuff like that.
Why? Because you're like creating crime.
Like, what if that person never saw a deer?
Then they would have never committed a crime.
What if they're just a really bad hunter, and they never went their whole lot, and they just never did that?
You know, you're like making that person transgress.
Here's another example when I was in high school
I took a law enforcement program and the police department offered
To use us students as like little sting agents in operations around the town where we would
Wear wire or whatever and I didn't participate in this because I thought it was crappy
But the students would wear wire and they were under age
We're all under 18 and we would go up to Bubba at the gas station and say hey, you know
We're having a big birthday party this weekend. Can you buy me a six pack?
And Bubba's like, oh, sure, young man, when I was your age, blah, blah, blah, right?
And then this guy's buying beer, and then the police just bust him and arrest him.
And I just thought that's a really crappy thing to do.
Because, you know, chances are some random teenager wasn't going to invite that guy to buy him alcohol.
And it's just like creating crime.
Okay, we'll think about this with women.
You know, there could be a guy that's just going to work,
he's just trying to live his life,
but he's a human being,
and it's like, he's doing good, he's on the right track,
but you decided to dress like a whore,
and you kind of created that crime that wouldn't have existed.
It's kind of the same thing.
And so, just like I think the police are really crappy for doing that,
it'd be really crappy for a woman to act like a whore,
even if she didn't have intentions to go all the way with someone,
but just to play and flirt and think it's fun.
That's wicked as hell.
Don't do that kind of stuff.
And there are women that will do this kind of stuff,
where they won't even necessarily want to commit adultery or go all the way,
but they just think it's fun to be a whore.
She lies in wait as for prey, the Bible says.
That is evil.
We need to condemn that kind of stuff.
So she increases the transgressors among men.
Now, we're going to transfer back to alcohol for the rest of the sermon here.
Notice in verse number 29, the Bible says,
Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?
Now, whatever this is, this is a list of some pretty terrible stuff
that I don't want to experience,
that God's people should not be experiencing.
Notice the answer, verse 30.
They that tarry long at the wine,
they that go to seek mixed wine.
So, look at verse 31.
Look that not thou upon the wine,
when it is red,
when it giveth his color in the cup,
when it moveth itself aright.
By this verse, we get the context that's very clear that what this is talking about is alcoholic wine.
Why? Because it's red, first of all, and the reason that wine gets its red color is from the fermentation process of
the skin of the grape. When you just squeeze juice into a cup, it does not have a red color.
When you peel back the skin of a grape, it is not red on the inside. It's white. It's clear on the inside, right?
But that red wine, it's red because it's alcoholic. It moves itself
in that drink.
It moves itself at right, gives its color in the cup.
Notice we're not supposed to look upon the wine
when it's like that.
Why?
Because there are more than one type of wine.
And this is just the...
I sometimes wonder if it's stupidity or if it's malice.
And some of you understand my frustrations
because it's so infuriating,
where it's like people will just abuse and twist
and misuse verses in the Bible about wine.
Look, there is more than one type of wine today, and even if you go to a modern dictionary,
you just use dictionary.com and you type in the word wine, you know what one of the definitions
is going to be?
It's going to be a fermented or unfermented beverage that's squeezed from the grapes,
from fruit.
And so wine means more than one thing.
This wine is alcoholic wine.
What is this alcoholic wine going to do?
Well it says who have, whoa.
You know, woe is just like extreme, you know, negative calamity, evil harm coming upon you.
You know, when Jesus says woe unto you, that's not something you want to hear Jesus say to you.
And it's like, who has woe in their life?
Who has all this calamity and all these problems and all these huge major issues in their life?
It's people that tarry long at the wine.
Notice who has sorrow, right?
You know what alcohol brings? Alcohol brings sorrow.
And, you know, we unfortunately have had our share of that this last week when one of our
friends, Kevin Rowe, was senselessly murdered by a drunk driver.
And you know that sorrow that his now widowed wife is experiencing?
And that sorrow of his poor child that is not going to grow up with her father?
You know why that sorrow exists?
One thing.
Alcohol.
And let me tell you something, I am so sick and tired of preachers, bad pastors getting
up and making excuses for alcohol.
Anyone that excuses alcohol, especially to be God's man, to have God's book, to stand
behind God's pulpit in front of God's people and excuse alcohol, you're evil.
You're evil.
You know why?
Because people are harmed from this stuff.
and nothing good has ever come from drinking alcohol.
No one ever invented something cool after drinking alcohol.
No one ever started reading their Bible more after drinking.
No one started loving their wife more, being a better father.
You know what they did? They killed someone's father from drinking alcohol.
Selfishness, not considering other people.
You know what alcohol does? It makes you lose your judgment.
You know, I don't even know who this person is that killed our friend, Kevin Rowe.
But I bet you he didn't wake up that morning thinking that I was going to kill someone's
dad and kill someone's husband and kill someone's friend.
I bet you he didn't think that he was going to be so stupid as to get inebriated and drunk
and drive.
But here's what happens when you start drinking alcohol, you lose your judgment.
That's why you would be a fool to start drinking in the first place.
Why would you drink something that you know in advance is going to cause you to not be
To not have a clear train of thought, it's a mind-altering substance.
You know what it is? It's poison.
And it brings woe.
And it brings sorrow.
And I just don't understand how you could claim to love God
and claim to love people and sit here and tell God's people
that it's okay for them to drink alcohol.
We should be constantly warning about this poison.
We should constantly be standing against it.
And in fact, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 5,
if someone is a drunkard, they will be kicked out of this church.
And I will never allow someone to be in this church if they are a drunkard, period.
And if anyone ever got behind this pulpit and started teaching that it's okay to drink in moderation,
I'm going to drag you physically off the stage.
And you will not preach that crap ever again.
We are not going to listen to a bunch of lies coming from compromisers today like the Calvinists,
which, it makes sense, I guess you have to be drunk to be a Calvinist when you don't understand
That whosoever believe in the name should not perish but have everlasting life.
I guess you have to be a drunk moron to be a Calvinist today.
They're the ones supporting stuff like this.
And they're the ones who are enabling people going out and drinking
and then committing these horrific acts and bringing sorrow.
And bringing pain.
And bringing woe.
Notice this.
Who have contentions?
You know how many people got into stupid fights just because they got drunk?
How many people burned relationships because they said something stupid while they were drunk?
How many people blasphemed God when they were drunk? I mean, that's what Bill Shazard did
Right he got drunk
And he died as a result of that
Notice who have wounds without cause you're not only just
getting in fights with people and harming relationships,
harming loved ones saying things that you wouldn't have normally said.
How about just wounds without cause?
You know, if you don't literally die in a drunk driving accident,
how many people today are permanently maimed
and permanently in a wheelchair
and permanently have mental problems
and permanently live with chronic pain and issues
and medical bills and hospital visits
for the rest of their life because some stupid drunk
got on the road and killed them.
You know drunk driving is one of the things that just makes me so angry and I know someone who is a police officer
They recently became a police officer and I told that person. I was like
Always throw the book at drunk drivers. I don't care if they're point zero one percent over the limit
I don't care if they're 10 feet from their house. You lock them up every single time. Oh, it's gonna ruin their life
Okay, how about all the people's lives who get ruined by drunk drivers?
They need to get their life ruined because they're out there ruining other people's life.
They're ruining their own life by drinking alcohol.
They're shaving years off their life.
They're ruining aspects of their marriage.
They're ruining their health.
Just alcohol has nothing positive.
There's literally nothing positive about alcohol.
You know I guess you know let me take that back the only thing I could think of is like medicinal use for cleaning stuff
It could be a good disinfectant really high percent alcohol
Someone's literally dying in misery and agony giving them sort of pain sedative, but you know what?
That's not how people are using alcohol today
They're doing it to get drunk to have a good time and in doing so they often hurt other people
Notice who have redness of eyes they that tarry long at the wine
They that go to seek mixed wine so of course the longer you tarry at the wine
The worst all the side effects are going to be and again the problem with drinking alcohol is you have a certain judgment at first
Oh, I'm just gonna have one but then that judgment goes away and you end up tearing long at the wine
Then it says this they that seek mixed wine, right? So what could that be mixing drugs and alcohol?
And the alcohol in the Bible days was nowhere near as potent as it is right now.
Like, excuse me, I think beer is like 2% or 3% alcoholic.
Wine nowadays is like 11 or 12 if I'm not mistaken.
You know, that is not what it was at this time.
And then, of course, you have hard liquor that's like 30%, 40%
or you got all these weird moonshiners that's even higher, stuff like that.
Like, that would be mixed wine.
And if you are mixing drugs and alcohol,
if you are drinking hard liquor, you are a drunk.
Like, that is not social drinking.
Oh, social, oh, yeah, we could drink, we just shouldn't get drunk,
we should do social drinking, so I'm mixing beer and cocaine, wine and cocaine,
wine and speed, wine and PCB.
That person, I would define as a drunk,
and I would exercise church discipline on that person.
That person would not be welcome here because we don't want them to poison other people's minds and lead them down this horrific road
Notice again, it says, look not thou upon the wine when it is read.
So again, there's a type of wine that we should not look at.
Now let's go to some verses here.
Go to Isaiah chapter number 65.
Isaiah chapter number 65.
Because here's the lie today for many just watered down,
weak preachers, is they'll tell you, hey, Jesus turned water
into alcoholic wine is what they believe.
And then you know, wine cheereth the heart of man.
And it's like, oh, use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and I'm often infirmities.
And they'll tell you, you know, that's beer, that's wine, that's whiskey, stuff like that.
This is the narrative that's preached probably by most Christians.
Probably by most.
But notice it said,
drink not, look not upon the wine when it is red.
I'm going to prove to you that there's a wine that exists
that is not alcoholic.
Look at verse number 8 of Isaiah 65.
Thus sayeth the Lord,
as the new wine is found in the cluster.
And one say of destroy it not for a blessing is in it.
So will I do for my servant's sake that I may not destroy them all.
So look, this wine right here is spoken of positively.
It's spoken of as a blessing.
But notice, it's the wine.
Where does this wine exist?
In the cluster.
Now, I feel like you have to be mentally handicapped or just willfully a rotten, wicked person
to not sit here and just admit, just face the fact that the Bible, when it says wine,
is not always alcoholic.
And here's the thing, if you accept reality, if you accept this very obvious truth,
then you know what you should do.
Every time you see the word wine in the Bible, you should rightly divide the word of God.
You should allow context to determine, are we talking about juice or are we talking about alcohol?
That's what you should do.
Imagine how foolish it would be to think that God gave us this gigantic book
that just talks about all sorts of obscure parts of life
and just never mentions juice one single time.
Jews just never, you know, it's like these idiots that tell you, you know,
pants were invented in the 1800s.
You know, they'll say this, they'll say that modern wine was invented in the 1800s.
Like, think about how stupid, I mean this, like how stupid you have to be
to think like no one ever squeezed a grape,
no one ever squeezed a fruit into a cup.
That was invented in the 1800s. It's retarded, folks.
I mean just a few months ago I drove my wife crazy because she bought this big
bag of oranges and I chopped up every single one and crushed every single one
to make a cup of juice like this big. But you don't think people figure that out
before? I mean come on obviously it's it's hard to do and today we have modern
technology that makes juice so much cheaper and more abundant and we're
just spoiled rotten in America we have all these blessings where we can't
in older times, but look, wine is not always alcohol.
Anyone who believes differently is just 100% wrong.
Like there's no room for air here.
I'm not wondering a little bit if I'm right.
You're just 100% wrong.
Alcohol is not always what wine is talking about in the Bible.
Unless you wanna tell me that in the grape itself,
abides whiskey, abides wine, abides beer,
you know, that's what you'd have to believe
for this verse to make any sense.
Let's look at another verse on this.
If you would go to Deuteronomy 32, Deuteronomy 32.
So we saw, again, that the wine that's in the cluster, it's spoken of positively.
It's referred to as a blessing.
So that would tell me that when the Bible uses the word wine,
and it speaks of it in a positive light, that is juice.
And when the Bible used the word wine, and it's talking about giving you woe, sorrow, contentions, wounds without cause, redness of eyes, that's probably not juice.
That is alcohol.
Notice verse number 31,
For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are grapes of Gaul.
Their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps.
So notice like you got our rock, their rock. You got their vine, our vine, their wine, our wine.
What's their vine like? The grapes are of gall, their clusters are bitter.
Alcohol, everyone says it, alcohol is bitter, right?
It's got a bitter taste.
A lot of people don't like certain types of alcohol
because it has that bitter taste.
And a lot of companies will try to kind of cater
towards people that don't like the taste of alcohol,
but still having alcohol in their drink.
It's like the lemonade beers or the, you know,
sweet tea, alcohol, whatever weird beverages
that are out there.
Why? Because alcohol is bitter.
What does this say? That their vine is bitter. Notice their wine is the poison of
dragons and the cruel venom of asps. What is alcohol? Ask any
medical website. Ask any doctor. You know what alcohol is? It's a poison.
Alcohol is a poison. You know how we know it's a poison because if you drink too much you get this thing called alcohol
poisoning where your body shuts down.
where your liver stops working, where your heart stops working,
where you sit there and throw up and choke on your own vomit and die, right?
People drinking too much, binging out, having alcohol poisoned, it's called poison.
So, you know, when you read this, I wonder what kind of wine is this talking about?
Is this talking about that blessed sparkling cider that we drink on New Year's Eve or Thanksgiving or Christmas?
No, that's a blessing, but this stuff is poison.
This stuff brings destruction and pain.
Go back to Proverbs.
Or in fact, real quick, go to John chapter number two.
Since we're talking about alcohol, it's a good time to go to this story.
Because everything I've already said and all the claims that are made out there by preachers makes me mad.
But regarding this topic, nothing makes me more mad than people saying that Jesus Christ made alcohol.
Let me tell you, that is super blasphemous and stupid and wrong.
Because the Bible say here,
Look not thou upon the wine, when it is red.
When it giveth his color in the cup.
When it moveth itself aright.
That's a command of God.
Don't look at it.
If God says, don't look at it, doesn't that mean don't drink it?
Like, are you going to drink it blindfolded?
Okay.
So, you're going to take that,
and then you're going to look at John 2 and say that Jesus made alcohol.
Not only did he look at it,
not only was he among wine-bippers,
according to these liberal preachers' interpretation,
when the Bible says not to be among wine-bippers,
but he, in fact, made alcohol.
Let's read this story with that in mind.
Chapter 2.
Notice verse number one and the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there and
Both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage
When they wanted wine the mother of Jesus saith unto him they have no wine
So notice here that Jesus and his mother are being invited to a wedding
Now, with what we've talked about with juice, having that in mind,
it makes sense to have a nice beverage that would be a little more expensive,
that would be a treat, that would be a delicacy at a wedding.
Today, even today, even at Baptist churches, when I've put on weddings at Steadfast and at Sherf Foundation,
you know, they usually get like a really nice sparkling cider or some sort of, excuse me.
Fruit punch or something nice for the wedding right well
Is it really that crazy to think that in older times they would do the same thing?
But people will mock at this because they'll be like, oh, you know, you can't have a good time drinking juice
But that's just because we live in such a rich country
That's because you wake up every day and you buy an energy drink with 400 million grams of sugar in it and
300 million grams of caffeine in it, you know, amen over there, right?
And you know, you go to Dunkin Donuts and you get your donut and then you go to work and you eat snacks at work
And then you go off to your fast food restaurant
Then you come home and you eat a garbage meal and you eat ice cream.
It's like, yeah, because we live like slobs in America,
you can't just fathom being excited by a juice box,
you know, or by something simple in life because we're just so full in America.
But, you know, why don't you go on like a water fast, you know, for 30 days
and don't drink anything but water and then all of a sudden you get juice
and you'll think, wow, that's amazing.
And look, when you're actually sober, juice is great.
Juice is wonderful, especially fresh squeezed juice, and you know, I agree with Pastor Anderson. I want extreme pulp
I want that pulp fiction, you know orange juice. That's what I go for. It's delicious
You know that does rejoice the heart of man, you know, I don't know about you
I find life to just be extremely beautiful
And just the simple things in life.
Wonderful things, just like a glass of milk
or a glass of juice.
You know, that is wonderful. That's beautiful.
That rejoices my heart.
But people who are wicked and have nothing to live for
and who are stupid, according to the Bible,
like they are just stupid people.
Yeah, stupid people can't find pleasure in nice things.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Because of stupid people.
So they wanted wine. What does that mean?
They lacked wine. They were needing wine.
And then it says, in verse 4, Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee?
Mine hours not yet come.
His mother saith unto the servants, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
And there were set there six water pots of stone,
after the manner of the purifying of the Jews containing two or three ferkins apiece.
Jesus saith unto them, fill the water pots with water,
and they filled them to the brim.
So notice, he is filling these things, chock-full, these six big, huge stones, these water pots.
So he fills it up, verse 8, and he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast, and they bear it.
When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine.
and knew not whence it was, but the servants, which drew the water new,
the governor of the feasts called the bridegroom and saith unto him,
every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine,
and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse,
but thou hast kept the good wine until now."
So get the picture here. Jesus, he has these six huge stone pots.
He says, fill those suckers up to the brim.
You know, picture some sort of water dispenser that you've seen.
Imagine just all this water goes into it.
You see it, and then you hit that tab and just this pure
you know, red, or I guess it wouldn't be red in this case, but we're thinking in modern terms,
but just this pure juice comes out and it's really good, it's really delicious, that's a miracle.
I mean, that's like a shocking thing that they're seeing that he just put in water
and out comes this great wine and the ruler of the feast is shocked and he says, man,
every man at the beginning duff set forth good wine, right? When people are having a wedding,
they're going to put the best stuff out first to enjoy and he says,
And when men have well drunk, then that which is worse.
But that was kept the good wine until now.
So he's saying, man, we had this party backwards.
We, you know, not knowing that you had this stuff,
we drank the crappy stuff first,
and now you made this wonderful wine from the water.
Now, if you think that this is alcohol,
you would have to believe that they're having this big wedding
where everyone's drinking alcohol.
They've drank six water pots.
of this alcohol, just tons of alcohol being consumed, and Jesus being, you know, God and
being perfect and having never sin comes to this situation and says, you know what this
place needs?
It needs more booze.
You know what this party's lacking?
It's lacking, you know, vomit.
There needs to be some more vomiting and heaving here
from drunk people.
You know what it's lacking?
It's lacking some woe, some sorrow, some contention,
some redness of eyes, some wounds without cause,
some adultery.
Yeah, that's what this party's missing.
Here's six pots of booze.
This is why I say people that believe this are literally stupid.
And that is a blasphemous, stupid mentality to think
that Jesus turned water into alcoholic wine.
If you believe that He turned water into alcoholic wine,
then you would also have to believe that Jesus is a sinner.
Because that's what you make Him.
Because, I mean, how is this not drunkenness?
Oh, it's only a sin to get drunk.
It's not a sin to drink.
It's only a sin to get drunk.
Okay, is it a sin to give drunk people more alcohol?
Yeah, it is.
Absolutely. To him that knows to do good and do it that not, to him it is sin.
Even the world knows that it's good to cut people off when they reach a certain point.
You know, the bars of this world, the people who serve at restaurants of this world,
you know, sporting events, they will cut people off if they reach a certain level of drunkenness.
Why? Because they know that nothing good is going to happen to this person by getting more alcohol.
Even the world has that mentality, but you're supposed to tell me that my savior has a lower level of morality than the Texas Rangers,
than Applebee's, than your local, you know, stupid bar in your town. Jesus is just lower and less intelligent.
It has less morality than them. That's what you'd have to believe.
Why do people have this mentality is because they are wicked and they just want to justify their sin?
And it pisses me off when people do this. I don't understand why people can't just say
I'm a sinner and I'm wicked and I don't want to change instead of trying to bring Jesus down with you.
I would have more respect for someone that just says I'm backslidden. I'm drinking alcohol.
I know I shouldn't do that. It's terrible, but I'm doing it then someone who just brings down our Savior's righteousness.
You know, the pastors that preach this are wicked people.
I would never go to a church that the pastor teaches that Jesus made alcoholic wine,
or that teaches people that it's okay to drink alcohol.
I would never go to a church like that. It's evil.
I mean, you know, thinking of the Texas Rangers, I went to a game a few years ago
where a man got drunk and stumbled down the stairs
at a stadium and killed himself on accident by getting drunk.
Again, nothing good comes from drinking alcohol.
You don't think Jesus knows that?
You don't think that Jesus would have known
that if all these drunk people were wanting more wine,
that he shouldn't give it to him?
That's what people believe today.
Verse 11, this beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee
and manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him.
Yeah, what's more likely to think that his disciples saw this glorious miracle
and believed on him because they saw Jesus turn water into delicious, pure juice.
Or, man, I really want to follow Jesus because he gave all these falling over drunk people more alcohol.
I mean, this must be the Son of God.
We've never seen works like this. Never make a man like this man.
No, that didn't happen, folks. It's insane.
Go back to Proverbs 23.
when it moveth itself aright.
At the last, it biteeth like a serpent,
and stingeth like an adder.
So again, we look at the context.
When we say in this chapter,
how is the Bible describing wine?
Oh, it's describing it as something very negative,
that it's going to harm you,
that it's going to sting you.
What is that talking about?
It's talking about alcohol.
Right, so you've got wine that is juice, you've got wine that is alcohol.
I also believe that in the Bible the word wine could be used to represent luxury or indulgence
of earthly pleasures.
in general, right?
So for example, in the pastoral pistols
where the pastoral qualifications are being given,
and it says that he must not be given to much wine,
I do not believe the primary interpretation of that
is talking about alcohol.
Because God doesn't have to tell us
that the pastor shouldn't be drinking a lot of wine,
because he already told us not to even look at the wine.
But guess what? No Christian should be given too much wine, whether you're a pastor, a layman, a deacon, whatever, no Christian should do that.
But what I think the Bible is saying there is that a pastor should not be given too much wine, is that this person shouldn't just be like enthralled by luxury and the things of this world
and want to live this super high class, rich lifestyle, because that's going to draw away his heart from the things of God.
That, hey, those that preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
There's nothing wrong with the pastor being paid.
There's nothing wrong with the pastor being paid well.
The Bible says let the elders that labor be kind of worthy of double honor.
But here is a problem.
If a pastor's mind and heart is on the things of the world,
rather than the things of God.
When he's more interested about, you know, the new gadgets coming out and the nice house,
more than he is concerned about the things of God.
That's the problem.
So the Bible says, hey, whoredom, wine, and new wine take away the heart, right?
The whore's a deep ditch, she'll take away your heart.
Wine, you know, alcohol is going to take away your heart,
and then luxury can take away your heart as well.
Speaking of that, go to verse 33.
It says, notice, thine eyes shall behold strange women.
and thine heart shall utter perverse things."
You know, this should be a verse right here
that should really, really terrify you men
from ever wanting to go out and drink alcohol
because the sin of adultery is so severe.
It's a death penalty sin.
God hates adultery.
You are likely to destroy your life
and destroy your marriage if you go out and commit adultery
and you could be sitting under the sound of my voice right now
in your sober mind saying, I would never commit adultery.
I would always stay away from that.
I would never go into a situation where I'd be tempted with that sin,
but guess what? When you're drunk,
the person you are right now won't be there.
You know who will be there?
Just the Flash and Jack Daniels. That's it.
And you know what you're going to do?
You're going to lead yourself into a situation where you could destroy your life.
You think, oh, I'm just having fun.
I'm just going out to have a few beers with the boys.
Oops, you just got some whore pregnant.
How's that changed your life?
Oops, you just committed adultery against your spouse or vice versa same thing for the ladies
You know one of the most dumb things imaginable is when people get married and they go have these bachelor and bachelorette parties
And it's like you're about to become one flesh. You're about to have a holy union in the sight of God
Hey, I know what we should do before our holy matrimony
Let's go be a bunch of whores and whoremongers and order a bunch of strippers and drink a bunch of alcohol and have fun for the last
Time what a bunch of idiots
You should never do something like that, stay away from that mentality and that scene.
It's terrible.
Nine eyes shall behold strange women.
You know what that means?
It's a woman that's not your wife, and all of a sudden you start lusting after her.
You start thinking about things you shouldn't be thinking of, and you know, thinking the
wrong things can lead to the wrong actions.
Just lusting after strange women.
Hey man, sad thing is, is that when guys get drunk, they could lust after some strange
They weren't really, wouldn't be interested in normal situation.
All of a sudden, now everything, you know, looks like insert celebrity here, whatever.
You know, don't be looking at strange women, you don't want to go there.
Verse 34,
or a seed that lieth upon the top of a mast.
Now, who's ever gotten seasick before?
In Oklahoma, not very many people, okay,
but a few people have.
Yeah, it's not fun.
And that's kind of what the Bible is describing here,
is that when you drink alcohol,
you're like him that lies down in the midst of the sea.
If you've ever been on a boat for a long period of time
and you're constantly just going back and forth, back and forth,
it's weird because when you get on land,
you still feel like you're going back and forth
for like hours and hours.
and you lay down at night and you look at your room you look at the ceiling and the ceiling is like
moving or at least it's you're perceiving that why because you've just been shaken up
for so long in the ocean or you know it'd be even worse than that is being on the top of a mast
you know at least if you're on the bottom of the boat your center of gravity is low
the top of the mast you're really moving I mean you're going everywhere and it's like
you see people get drunk and you see them stumble around and fall and acting like they're on the
stumbling around, harming themselves, knocking their teeth out.
You know, I remember, man, don't let your teenagers be on the internet.
I remember seeing videos I wish I never saw of drunk people playing with ninja swords.
Remember that game, Fruit Ninja?
Some people thought it'd be fun to play that in real life.
And guess what? When you're drunk, your hand kind of looks like a fruit.
And you know, that was a pretty nasty mess.
But how does that happen? By drinking alcohol.
You never would have cut your hand if you weren't drinking alcohol.
Verse 35, notice, they've stricken me, shout out, say, and I was not sick.
Right?
So you have all these horrific things happening, throwing up, all tables are full of vomit
and filthiness, and you got that headache, and you got that hangover, and you feel like
garbage.
You're like, man, I'm stricken, but I wasn't sick.
You didn't pick up a disease.
Nothing was imparted to you other than your own drinking stupidity.
Notice they have beaten me, and I felt it not.
I mean, imagine if someone just walked up to you right now and just punched you in the face.
That would get your attention. You would feel that.
What state of mind would you have to be in where someone could just beat you,
could just punch you in the face, and you don't even feel it?
This is called blacking out drunk and one of the scariest things about
Drinking alcohol is that people can drink alcohol to such an extent where they get to a point where they literally black out
Where they wake up the next day. They don't know where they've been
Who they've been with what they've been doing what has happened to them?
And you know sometimes people wake up from that blackout and they find out man. I've got all these injuries
It's like they've beaten me, but I didn't feel it. You know how many people?
Went out for a fun night and got in the car and drove drunk and just woke up in a hospital and
Oh, my friend's dead. Oh, we killed this person's mom. Oh, I'm I'm hooked up to machines. I've got broken bones
I've got all these issues all because you got drunk
You know how many people wake up from some sort of drunken blacked out stupor and find out wow
I was just molested
Wow, I was just raped. Wow, I've got these injuries. Hey, I'm stricken. I wasn't even sick. They beat me and I didn't even feel it
Going through all this hell on earth. I just don't get why people drink. I really don't and you'll thank God that a lot of the younger
Generation are starting to just completely reject alcohol. That is a positive sign because you just have to be so stupid to drink alcohol
Here's the sad part when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again
One of the most dangerous things about alcohol is that even though people know that there's all these terrible things
That's gonna happen to them that they've heard the horror stories. They've seen the news articles
They've heard of brother Kevin Rowe our friend who was a soul winner who's now in heaven
Because he was killed by some sort of drunk driver and despite knowing that you know what they do
They still seek it yet again
It doesn't matter if they get raped, it doesn't matter if they get injuries,
it doesn't matter if they kill someone, it doesn't matter if they black out,
it doesn't matter if they harm their health,
it doesn't matter that there's literally nothing good coming to them from drinking alcohol.
You know what a drunk does? He wakes up and he seeks it yet again.
This is why, this is one of the reasons why the Bible says that we are not to allow drunkards in church.
This is one of the reasons why the Bible says not to be among wine-dippers.
These people are often addicted to alcohol and they just stay in this horrific state and sometimes they need something major to wake them up
Right, they call it an intervention getting people an intervention
Why because if these people don't get help they just stay on this stuff. Unfortunately often until they die
Often until they die a young death and look
This type of preaching is super unpopular.
The vast majority of Christians would disagree with my preaching,
even though it's super clear from the Bible,
and even though I am 100% right on this issue.
People will disagree with this just because they want to justify their own sin.
But let me tell you something.
I preach stuff like this out of love for people.
And it is not a loving preacher that excuses alcohol drinking in any amount.
It is a hateful preacher that knowing all the consequences that come from drinking alcohol
gets up and lies to his congregation, to God's people.
That's a hateful person.
And you know, this, I just want to close on this thought, you know, this horrible tragedy
that happened this week.
I've been really heavy this week, I'm sure many of you guys have as well.
You know, we need to use this as an opportunity for many things.
We need to renew our hatred for alcohol.
We need to stand firm on what the Bible teaches.
That we should be sober.
That we should not just not get drunk,
but that we should not even look upon the wine when it's red.
And you know, we ought to have the love for people
that we are willing to cut off relationships
from drunkards that are saved, like the Bible says.
You know why? Because that's the loving thing for them.
And that's the loving thing for the innocent people
that are going to be harmed by them someday.
And you know, we just need to get back to loving God and loving people, because if you love
God and you love His Word and you love people, you know what you'll do?
You will hate alcohol.
There is no such thing.
Listen to me.
There is no such thing as a righteous Christian that drinks alcohol.
It does not exist.
If you drink alcohol, according to the Bible, you are stupid and you are wicked.
And you know what?
This one's for me.
You don't love people.
Because if you love people, if you hear about the tragedies that we just heard about, and you think about some woman that just got married less than two years ago,
widowed, and you think about some baby with no father, if you think about that, you'll hate alcohol.
And you'll want to support this type of preaching and stand against alcohol.
Let's pray, Lord. Thank you so much for this day. Thank you for your word.
be tempted or try this alcohol or drugs or these mind-altering substances that are going to destroy
them, destroy their lives, destroy people's lives around them. I pray that we would return
to sobriety, that we would find joy in life, not from a poison, but through the basic blessings
that you've given us and good food and good people and good times and serving you and reading the
I pray that you please be with Miss Lola and her child during this difficult time and that
you would please put a hedge of protection around all the members of this church and
godly Christians throughout America.
Lord we love you and Jesus we pray.
You would at this time take your hymnals and turn to hymn number 229 since I have been
redeemed.
Go ahead and start there right on the first.
I have a song I'd love to sing
Since I have been redeemed
Of my Redeemer, Savior, King
Since I have been redeemed
Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in my Savior's name.
I have a Christ that satisfies, since I have been redeemed.
See him