So I'm going to put 255 all together nice and strong on that first verse.
Jesus has a table spread where the saints of God are fed.
He invites his chosen people come and dine.
With his men a heat of feed and supplies are every need.
O'er his sweet who's up with Jesus all the time.
Come and dine, the master calleth, come and dine.
You make peace at Jesus' table all the time.
Add the multitude, turn the water into wine To the hungry, call it now, come and dine
The disciples came to land, thus obeying Christ's command
For the master, call them to them, come and dine
There they found their hearts desire, bread and fish upon the fire
Thus he satisfies the hungry every time
You may feast at Jesus' table all the time He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine
To the hung we call it now come and dine Soon the Lamb will take his pride to be ever at his side
All the hosts of heaven will assemble deep
all the saints and spotless white and with Jesus they will feast eternally come and
dine the master calleth come and dine
shake these pieces table all the time
be who fed the multitude turn the water into wine to the hungry calleth now come and dine
Amen wonderful singing let's start up our service with a word of prayer
Dear Lord God Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us another day that we can come here to your house and hear the preaching of your word
We thank you for everyone that's in the building this morning
You also ask that you please bless our service every aspect of it
Please bless the singing Lord that would be pleasing to your ears and that it prepare our hearts for the preaching and most importantly Lord
Please feel past me here with your spirit as he preaches unto us and gives your spirit in the congregation as well Lord
That we may leave here changed in Jesus name. We pray amen. You may be seated
Our second song it will be the song sheet this world is not my home
If you don't have a song sheet hold your hand up nice and high one of the ushers will come by to give you one
Everyone's good looks like
All right, this world is not my home all together
Nice and strong on that first verse.
This world is not my home.
I'm just a passing through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere in the blue.
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door.
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
Oh Lord.
I have no friend like you.
If heaven's not my home, then Lord, what will I do?
The angels beckon me from heaven's open court,
and I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
They're all expecting me, and that's one thing I know.
My savior parted me, and now I onward go.
I know he'll take me through, though I...
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
No longer do I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home, then Lord, what will I do?
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in...
in this world anymore.
I have a loving Savior up in glory land.
I don't expect to stop until I with him stand.
He's waiting now for me in heaven's open door.
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
Oh, Lord.
anymore. Just up in glory land we'll live eternally. The saints on every hand are
shouting victory.
Drift back from heaven's door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
Oh Lord you know I have no friend like you. If heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do?
All right, great singing.
Welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song,
which will be 349.
If you want to get that ready in your songbooks,
the Comforter has come.
Song number 349, if you did not get a bulletin,
go ahead and raise your hand.
One of the ushers can get one for you.
Some important information on there.
Of course, we welcome you to come back
to our Sunday evening service at 5 p.m.
And then we have a Thursday night Bible study at seven o'clock.
We are currently going through the book of Isaiah.
and we are looking to finish up in the next couple of weeks
and so looking forward to that.
You see the so many times in teams
and of course today is the birthday breakfast.
So whose birthday is in June?
We know, I know that Helen, my daughter's in June,
but we got one there.
Nice and high, raise your hands nice and high.
Uh-huh, it's Helen, I see you.
Okay, got one here.
Am I missing anybody else here?
Got you there.
Anybody else?
Is that it for June?
I know there's more in June.
I saw some more in June.
People are being modest about it, okay?
We're not gonna reveal what your actual age is, okay?
We got Reuben back there.
How old are you, Reuben?
No, I'm just kidding.
All right.
Anybody else?
All right, let's sing Happy Birthday to those in June.
Ready?
Happy birthday to you.
Wait, hold on a second, hold on.
I would just do acapella. I'm gonna give you a break today. All right, brother Chevy. You're the piano today
Okay, here we go. Ready here we go. Wait, what song dude? I forgot the happy birthday song you threw me off
Was I singing it right?
Yeah, give me a beat
Okay, I got it. All right, here we go ready happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, God bless you
Happy birthday to you
That was horrible
You threw me off bad, Sarah
Man, I'll just blame it on you
Happy birthday to you all in June
Maybe next year, I'm just kidding
All right, you see the list of expecting mothers continue to keep them in prayer and then we have the stats for
Salvation's and baptisms there at the bottom for the month of May on the right hand side is the upcoming church events
We have the ladies prayer breakfast on this Saturday, June 7th
Meaning at the building at 10 a.m. You can see Mr. Nuggan's dollars for more details about that
And then we have a Father's Day hike coming up on Saturday, June 14th
All men are invited to that and so you don't have to be a father you can come if you are an adult in
our church we're meeting at Black Star Canyon at 6 30 a.m. if you could do us a favor and sign up
they're in the guest station so we have a number of everyone who's coming of course you have the
address there if you have any questions you can actually talk to brother Jose he's the one who's
kind of putting it all together and so we're excited about it and then we have the TJ mission
leaving the building at 9.15 a.m. please make sure you bring your passports
and coordinate with brother Ulysses Hernandez for more details
and then lastly we have the 4th of July picnic coming up on Friday
July 4th and you have the address there we'll give
you more info on that as we approach I'm sure we'll have a sign-up sheet for
that as well and then please make sure you silence your
phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction
during the service and that is it for our announcements let's go ahead and sing
Song number 349, the Comforter has come.
All together, nice and strong on that first verse.
Oh spread the tidings round, wherever man is found,
wherever human hearts and human wounds abound,
Signing's round.
With healing in his wings, to every captive soul
A full deliverance brings, and through the vacant cells
The song of triumph brings, the...
SHELL SHELL
wonderful seeing. At this time the ushers will come forward to receive the offering.
You can turn your bibles to Numbers chapter 6. Numbers chapter number 6.
in Numbers chapter six, Numbers chapter six, the Bible reads,
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
When either man or woman shall separate themselves
To vow a vow of Nazarene, to separate themselves
unto the Lord.
He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink,
And shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink.
Neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat
moist grapes, or dried.
All the days of His separation, He shall eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.
All the days of the vow of His separation, there shall no razor come upon His head, until the days be fulfilled, and the which He separated Himself unto the Lord.
He shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of His head grow.
All the days that He separated Himself unto the Lord, He shall come in no dead body.
He shall not make Himself unclean for His father or for His mother, for His brother or for His sister when they die, because the consecration of His God is upon His head.
All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord.
And if any men die very suddenly by him,
and he hath defiled the head of his consecration,
then he shall shave his head and the day of his cleansing.
On the seventh day shall he shave it.
And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles,
or two young pridrens, to the priest,
to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering,
and the other for a burn offering,
and make an atonement for him.
For that he sinned by the dead,
and shall hollow his head that same day.
and shall consecrate unto the Lord the days of His separation,
and shall bring a Lamb of the first year for a trespass offering.
But the days that were before shall be lost, because His separation was defiled.
And this is the law of the Nazarene, when the days of His separation are fulfilled.
You shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and you shall
offer His offering unto the Lord, when He lambeth a first year without blemish for a burn
offering, and when you lambeth a first year without blemish for a sin offering, and when
brand without blemish for peace offerings.
And a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with the oil, and wafers
of unleavened bread anointed with the oil, and their meat offering and their drink offerings.
And the priest shall bring them before the Lord, and shall offer his sin offering and his burn offering.
And he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread.
The priest shall also offer his meat offering and his drink offering.
And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
and shall take the hair of the head of his separation and put it in the fire, which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings.
And the priest shall take the sod and shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer,
and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarite after the hair of his separation is shaven.
And the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord.
This is holy for the priest, with a wave breast and a heaved shoulder, and after that the Nazarite may drink wine.
This is the law of the Nazarene who hath vowed and hath offered unto the Lord for his separation,
beside that that his hand shall get, according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do
after the law of his separation.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speaking to Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this
wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee and
keep thee.
The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Let's pray to the Lord God. Thank you again for this opportunity to hear your word preached
I just ask that you would feel past from here now with your whole spirit and please bless the preaching to our edification and Jesus
And we pray amen
Amen. Okay, we're in Numbers chapter 6 this morning and the time of my sermon this morning is a case against
alcohol consumption a case against alcohol
Consumption make no mistake about it drinking alcohol is a sin in the Bible
And the Bible tells us wine is a mocker strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not
essentially telling us there that you're a fool if you believe that alcohol
consumption is permissible and that it's okay to do.
Whosoever is deceived or by is not wise. Now why am I preaching on this this
morning? Well first and foremost I'm about due for a sermon against alcohol
and so it's been a while since I preached against it and this is something
that we need to talk about consistently but also you know alcohol
consumption is often made permissible by none other than
Christians are often guilty of trying to promote alcohol consumption and say that it's okay to do,
and that God promotes it, God's okay with it, it's not a sin.
Oh, you fundamental Baptists are out to lunch on this, it's okay to do.
And this morning, I want to give you some answers to combat some of their arguments.
You know, Christians that advocate for alcohol consumption will often flood the comments section
with verses about wine.
And say, see, there's Bible verses that approve drinking alcohol.
So you speak out against drinking alcohol, and what they'll do is they'll just
saturate common sections and flood it with a bunch of verses that talk about wine
and say, oh, see, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about. The Bible talks about wine in the Bible
and, you know, drinking wine and drinking alcohol is okay.
And so, but here's the thing is that, you know,
it would be comparable to flooding a common section
with verses to have the word repent on there
and saying, see, the Bible says
that you have to repent of your sins to be saved.
It's obviously a dishonest thing to do because of the fact that just because a word is mentioned
in the Bible doesn't mean it only has one particular definition or a description.
And so I want to just address some of those claims that these Christians, namely the Calvinists,
these Reformed type Christians that promote alcohol consumption are giving.
And so we're going to talk about that this morning.
to drink alcohol depending upon the people you surround yourself with.
You know, you might be hanging around certain families this summer,
which obviously I encourage you to be around God's people during the summertime
to fill your time up with productive things, not to say we can't do fun things.
Obviously you want to have fun activities,
but you know a fun activity doesn't have to include alcohol and drugs and sinfulness, right?
And so, you might be surrounding yourself with people that do drink alcohol,
that do involve themselves with drugs and things that are sinful according to the Bible.
And so, you might be presented with an opportunity to do so,
and you want to make sure that you go into the summer knowing,
hey, this is wrong, and I'm not going to participate in this.
I'm not even going to be around the people that participate on this,
because God is actually strong about this area,
strong about this subject, and He prohibits it majorly.
After this sermon, obviously, you know, we have a lot of new people in our church, so that's another reason why I want to preach on this.
But after this sermon, if you disagree with me, you have every right to, okay?
You have every right to disagree with me on this subject and, you know, interpret the verses that I'm going to show you in different ways if you want.
However, however, in order to remain in this church, you have to abstain from alcohol.
Because according to the Bible, alcohol consumption merits excommunication from the local New Testament church according to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
And so if you are a person who is given to alcohol only on the weekends, you're out of this church.
You can remain in this church if you repent of that and you don't participate in the action of drinking alcohol.
But if you're the type to drink alcohol and you're unwilling to get that right, you disagree with me.
You're like, well, I'm still going to drink a beer.
every Friday, I'm still gonna drink with my family.
You know, I'm just gonna drink, just not get drunk.
Then you need to go to the reform church down the street.
Don't ask me where the address is,
because I have no idea.
You can't be here because according to the Bible you married excommunication from the local New Testament church
And so that is a non-negotiable the Bible never sanctions the consumption of alcohol quite the opposite
There are major prohibitions in the church in the Bible
Against it so let me say this by way of introduction before I get into my main points this morning
And that is that wine in the Bible is used to describe both
alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages that this is important because of the fact that you know in the Bible
You have the term wine used more extensively than any of the word that describes juice or describes alcohol.
But you have juice, you have new wine, for example.
You have old wine, you have strong drink, and you have liquor of grapes.
But more often than not, you'll see the term wine being used in the Bible.
And the justification for drinking alcohol is often built upon this false premise that wine in the Bible always refers to alcohol, okay?
And so when they flood you with all these verses about wine and God's okay with you drinking wine and wine make it glad the heart
They're obviously giving you that argument based off of the false premise that wine always means alcohol, okay?
And by the way these same people will often say that the concept of juice is nonexistent in the bible
They're like, oh how can wine mean both alcoholic and non-alcoholic when Jews didn't even exist
in Jesus' day, Jews didn't exist in the Old Testament, nowhere in the Bible does it talk
about Jews.
Now you're listening to them thinking to yourself, you're joking, right?
You can't be serious.
Are there people in this world that call themselves Christians that read the Bible that actually
believe that Jews didn't exist in the Bible?
Yes.
This guy was named Inspiring Philosophy, and he was a major wine-biber.
He did not like my sermons and the preaching and the videos that I did on alcohol.
And so he made a lot of response videos to them, and just to kind of spite me, he would
make them with a glass of beer as he's doing it, you know?
And the guy looked like a total alcoholic.
I mean, he had the nose, you know, the alcoholic nose and all.
And so, you know, this guy was saying,
oh, you know, Bruce, he just doesn't know
Jews that exist in the Bible.
You know, when they would take the grapes
to make the juice before they could even drink the juice,
it would already be fermented.
It would already be turned to alcohol.
And obviously that's a nonsensical statement to make.
because you don't even have to look to the Bible,
you can just study history and see documents
of people talking about juice,
you know, retaining its properties as juice
without actually fermenting.
They would put them in amphoras, for example,
which are these large vases in the ancient world,
and then they would put them in caves,
they would put them in water,
and it would actually preserve the juice
for up to like a year.
That was like a common practice, okay?
And even today, you know, a way that you can keep juice from fermenting is boiling it.
That's something that's even done today.
It was done in the ancient world.
And so to say that juice was non-existent is completely ridiculous.
And you know, in the Bible we have a story of Joseph being in the prison talking to the
former cupbearer of Pharaoh, and he has a dream about squeezing grapes into the cup
of Pharaoh.
And then, of course, Joseph interprets the dream.
He tells him, you're going to be restored back to your position
as being the cupbearer of Pharaoh.
And he ends up actually doing that.
Now, I remember saying that in that particular video,
answering this guy.
And he's like, oh, doesn't he know it was just a dream?
He's like, that wasn't real.
Oh, yeah, he just dreamt up.
You know the concept of juice when juice was just not existent, you know, I mean, yeah
He just made that up in his mind folks. It's nonsense and even the Bible talks about, you know
preventing juice preventing wine from fermenting it talks about the wine on the leaves well refined in the book of Isaiah
And so juice was a major thing obviously it was a commodity
It was a luxury should I say in the Bible so not everyone drank it, but it was existent in
The word of God the Bible talks about Isaiah 65 verse 8 does say the Lord as the new wine is found in the cluster
And once they 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 tell me how is alcohol found in the cluster of a grape?
It's not. Wine is just another way of saying juice because it comes from the vine, right?
Wine, vine, it's the same exact thing.
Now, let me show you beyond a shadow of a doubt that juice did exist in the Bible, even though we already know that.
And in fact, the Bible even uses the word juice in Song of Solomon.
And I'll read that verse later,
but let me just show you beyond a shadow of doubt.
Look at Numbers chapter six.
This is the passage where we began
with starting what we're talking about,
the Nazarite vow here.
It says in verse one,
the Lord's speaking to Moses saying,
speaking to the children of Israel
and saying to them,
when either man or woman shall separate themselves
to vow a vow of a Nazarite
to separate themselves unto the Lord.
Now, this is referring to a person who is
giving an oath unto God they're making a vow before the Lord and it's for a small window
of time.
They need to complete a particular task, they're asking for a specific petition and so they're
separating themselves, they become a Nazarite.
There were certain conditions or stipulations that had to be followed according to God in
order for them to be that Nazarite.
Look at verse 3.
Now, people who advocate for alcohol consumption would not argue the fact that strong drink
means alcohol.
I mean everyone virtually agrees that strong drink is referring to alcohol.
Well, hold on a second.
Why would he say that he shall separate himself from alcohol and alcohol?
If wine means alcohol.
Obviously, what this is referring to is the fact that he needs to separate himself from
wine also known as juice and strong drink known as alcohol, showing us that there's
a distinction between the two.
He says, and shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall
he drink any liquor of grapes.
Liquor of grapes is simply referring to the liquid of the grapes.
That's what liquor means obviously today. We use liquor to refer to alcohol
But there's other instances where it's just simply used to refer to as juice and you know
The funny thing about that is is that you know obviously we're King James Church King James only church
But the advocates of alcohol consumption in these churches do not use the King James. They'll use the ESV
But the ESV in numbers chapter 6 and verse 3 actually does not say liquor of grapes. It says the juice of grapes
So how are you gonna tell me that juice does not exist in the Bible when your own Bible version
Doesn't even use liquor of grapes. This is the juice of the grape
You know what that tells me people who own an ESV don't read the ESV
point proven
He says, neither shall you drink any liquor of grapes nor eat moist grapes or dry.
Now, people will look at this and say, oh, you know, that's kind of ridiculous though.
Why would he tell them to abstain from wine, which you consider to be juice, if juice is
permissible?
Well, it's because of the fact that he's taking a Nazarite vow.
So it's a higher standard of separation that he has to take, which is why he's telling
him, you can't even eat dried grapes.
you know you think to yourself well if it's wrong to drink alcohol then why would he tell him to
abstain from drinking alcohol if it's already wrong to do so well look at verse number six if you
would it says all the days he separated himself unto the Lord he shall come at no dead body now
let me remind you about something regarding God's people they were never allowed to go near a dead
Right, so this is obviously not just something that the Nazarites would have to participate in but just everyone in general is just that this
Commandment is reiterated to those who are taking the Nazarite valve
because of the fact that they not only are supposed to separate from the luxuries of this world but
obviously the things that God has clearly commanded to abstain from even beforehand
such as alcohol, such as a dead body, it's a higher standard for someone who's keeping a vow
for a small window of time. The point that I'm making though is that this verse clearly shows
and then there is strong drink.
And the only way to interpret that
is that if strong drink is referring to alcohol,
wine cannot mean alcohol there.
Yeah, wine cannot mean alcohol because of the fact that it's reiterating, right?
He's saying wine and then he's mentioning strong drink
Asserting that you have to stay away from both if you're gonna participate in the Nazarite vow
Look at Proverbs chapter 23 if you would Proverbs chapter 23 as you turn there
I'm gonna reach you from Song of Solomon chapter 8 verse number 2 it says here
I would lead thee and bring thee into my mother's house
who would instruct me,
I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine,
listen to this, of the juice of my pomegranate.
Now I quoted this verse to this guy years ago,
and he's like, oh, you innocent little man.
Don't you know what that really is talking about?
As if we don't know what song of Solomon's
is talking about, right?
And obviously, the interpretation here,
it has a connotation for married people, okay?
But you know, in order to illustrate something,
you have to use something in the physical world
that already exists in order to do so.
You know, when Jesus said, I am the true vine,
no one's gonna be like, oh, what's a vine?
That's weird, why is he using something
that doesn't exist?
In order to illustrate, you know, I am the door,
Obviously illustrations in the Bible use real world things that exist in order to illustrate
the spiritual truth.
And in this particular case with Song of Solomon,
he's using something in the real world called juice
of the pomegranate to illustrate a principle in marriage.
Okay, and this is not a sermon on marriage,
so I'm not necessarily gonna expound upon
this particular verse.
The point that I'm making here is that the writer here
obviously is likening an action that married people take
to the juice of the pomegranate.
Showing us that
There's juice in this world even prior to you know these
businesses and
Institutions that started creating them on mass production. So to say that wine in the Bible only refers to alcohol is just outright dishonest
Which type it's referring to is based on the context
If there are verses in the Bible that promote wine consumption, then it is juice
If it condemns wine, then it's referring to alcohol
So you're like which one do I oh, how do I know what wine is being referred to if it's telling you to drink it
Then it's juice
If it's telling you to abstain from it, then it's alcohol
Because here's the thing folks, you know, that's the proper interpretation because if wine only meant alcohol
Then how do you explain the verses that tell you not to drink it, but then tell you to drink it?
It's a nonsensical way to approach the Bible.
Obviously, it's referring to two separate things.
Oh, how convenient.
How convenient.
When it tells you not to do it, it's alcohol.
But when it tells you to do it, it's referring to juice.
No, sir.
The Bible promotes alcohol consumption with temperance.
This is what they'll tell you, right?
Which leads me to my first point,
and that is drinking alcohol in moderation
That's actually non-existent in the Bible.
They say juice is non-existent in the Bible.
No, no, alcohol consumption and moderation
is non-existent in the Bible.
You know, this is what they'll tell you.
You can drink, just don't get drunk, right?
This is something that Calvinists will constantly say.
A bunch of wine bippers will constantly tell you,
and look folks, the last thing an alcoholic needs
is biblical justification to drink alcohol.
Some church leader to tell you no, it's okay to do just do it in moderation. Everyone knows an alcoholic cannot drink in moderation
Okay
Now look at Proverbs 23 verse 29. Let's see if this is true
My first point is drinking alcohol in moderation is non-existent in the Bible. Look at Proverbs 23 verse 29
Who has woe? Woe is referring to cursings
judgment, 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.
So let me just explain something here.
This is not saying that people who look at wine
will have these effects on them.
It's referring to the fact that a person
who makes wine their focus, that drinks wine, alcohol,
will end up having woe, will end up having sorrow,
they'll end up being contentious,
they'll end up babbling incoherently,
they'll have wounds without a cause
because they're picking fights with people
because they're emboldened to do so,
and they'll have redness of eyes.
Look at verse 31 here's the command look not thou upon the wine when it is read
When it give it this color in the cup when it move it itself a right now
What is it describing here in verse 31 is before is describing the process of fermentation?
This is an old way of describing the process of
fermentation now, let me ask you something
How do you drink wine or alcohol in moderation when the Bible prohibits you even looking at it?
Please explain to me how is it that you can be a teetotaler of alcohol when the Bible flat-out tells you don't even look at it?
Oh, it just means just close your eyes as you're drinking it, you know
Why is the Bible so extreme on this particular point?
Well, because God understands that in order for you to stay away from the effects and the results the damaging effects of alcohol
It's best not even to be in its presence
So when he says don't even look at it, he's basically saying just stay away from it, period.
There's no moderation there.
It doesn't say look not the alpana wine, so close your eyes as soon as bottom's up.
No, he says don't even look at it, don't look at it when it's fermenting, don't even entertain
the possibility of drinking alcohol, don't let it be in your surroundings, don't let
it be in your home, don't let it be in your environment, don't let it be in the atmosphere
that you're involved in, don't even look on it.
Showing us that moderation is out the window.
Because there is no moderation if you're not even supposed to look at it.
Go to Ephesians, if you would.
Ephesians chapter 5, we'll come back to Proverbs 23, so hold your place there.
Put a piece of paper or pen in Proverbs 23, we'll come back to that later on in the sermon.
The point number one is drinking alcohol in moderation is non-existent.
Now, if these people who advocate for moderation and drink alcohol,
you know, I want to hear them explain to me why Proverbs 23 verse 31 says that.
How does that fit into moderation?
How does not looking upon the wine when it is read,
you know, explaining to us that it's okay in moderation?
It's obviously telling us to stay completely away from it.
Now, what's another verse that they'll use to excuse
or justify drinking alcohol and moderation?
Well, Ephesians chapter 5 is a major one, right?
Let's start off in verse 15 it says see then that you walk circumspectly not as fools
But as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil
Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is now verse 18 is the Christian winos
text verse
This is their life verse, right?
But like those who don't like for you to judge
And how they quote just the beginning of Matthew chapter seven verse one in like man of the Christian whinal will only quote the first part of verse 18
Now, let me just make a disclaimer here is that I don't even believe wine in this particular context is referring to alcohol
I think it's just referring to juice. Okay, but you know, let's just pretend for a second that it is referring to alcohol
Okay, we know that it's not but let's just pretend it is so this is how they read it
Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.
And this is something you consistently hear from them.
You know, oh, moderation, because the Bible says,
be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.
Don't excessively drink alcohol.
Don't excessively drink beer.
Don't excessively drink whiskey.
You know, don't be excessive about it.
The Bible promotes moderation when drinking alcohol.
So let's read this verse the way they would read it.
Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess,
but drink in moderation.
Is that what it says?
Be not drunk with wine we're in is excess,
but every once in a while it's okay to do.
No, actually the alternative is what?
But be filled with the spirit.
So let's just pretend that this verse is saying
that wine is referring to alcohol
and it's telling you not to drink alcohol in excess.
The alternative is not moderation.
The alternative is that you should just be filled
with the spirit.
So here's the thing folks is if these Calvinists want to use this verse to justify their alcohol consumption
They're actually violating the verse by doing so because they're instead of drinking wine in excess drinking their whiskey in excess
They're doing in moderation. No the alternative according to the Bible is that you should just be filled with the spirit not spirits
right
Look folks. This is not an instructional guide on how to drink alcohol
The alternative to drinking wine isn't drinking alcohol in moderation the alternative according to the verse is to be filled
With the spirit. There's no other way to interpret this verse. It shows you right there
Okay, now go to John chapter 2 John chapter 2
John chapter 2
And I'm going to tell you right now, consistently when someone quotes Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18,
they only quote the first half of the verse because they add in the second half and, you know,
they infer their moderation of alcohol, whereas the Bible tells us to just be filled with the Spirit.
So there's no such thing as drinking in moderation.
And let me explain something, you know, alcohol is sinful in the Bible, right?
And there's no such thing as sinning in moderation.
There's no other verse in the Bible nor the concept in the Bible where you can sin in moderation, right?
You know, there's no fornication in moderation
You know, that's okay to fornicate. Just you know, just not in excess
Just in moderation. There's no lying in moderation
You can you know lying lips are an abomination, but if you do it in moderation
It's an abomination, but in moderation. It's acceptable, you know
It's okay to drink. Just don't get drunk. But listen to this logic. Listen to this reasoning, please
Because what they're saying is that you can drink alcohol just make sure you don't get drunk
Don't become inebriated and God will be okay with that now
This is a horrible thing to propose because everybody's different first and foremost
Everybody's body composition is different
You know for example, how does this how does this work for men and women because women?
Have a lower percentage of water in their bodies, which actually causes them to become drunk faster
You know because water
Actually dilutes the alcohol that goes into your body, which is why men don't get as drunk or as fast as women would if alcohol
enters into their system
You know, body composition, what type of alcohol you're drinking.
So how do you even, how do you measure that?
How do you quantify, you know what I mean?
Moderation when drinking alcohol, if alcohol just affects people in different ways, right?
But secondly, think about this.
You know, in order for you to drink and not get drunk, you have to build up something
known as what?
Tolerance.
Right?
You have to be able to tolerate the alcohol in order not to get drunk
Now if you don't come from a Christian home and you come from an environment where people drink
You know exactly what I'm talking about. You know, maybe you've had friends. Maybe you've had aunts uncles
Maybe you yourself were a person who at one point you can put it down
And you can drink a lot of beer, a lot of liquor,
and it took a lot of consumption of that alcohol
in order to get drunk, right?
But here's the thing, folks,
is that when you first started drinking,
that wasn't you, you didn't have that tolerance.
You would immediately get drunk
the first time you drank, right?
So in order to drink alcohol,
to the point where you don't get drunk,
you have to build tolerance to alcohol.
which requires for you to initially get drunk.
So if it's not a sin to drink,
it's just a sin to get drunk.
What they're imposing, what they're implying
is that you have to get drunk in order to build
a tolerance so that you don't get drunk in the long run.
So, oh, it's not a sin to drink,
it's just a sin to get drunk.
So you have to sin first.
Get drunk, you know sin for a while to build up that tolerance, and then you can now drink a good amount of alcohol without actually getting drunk
This is nonsense my friends. It's stupid. It's nonsensical. It doesn't exist in the Bible
There's no such thing as drinking and not getting drunk any person who's not drank for a long periods of time
If you abstain from alcohol if you've been sober for long periods of time if you were to take a drink of alcohol right now
You would immediately feel the effects of alcohol in your system
Immediately, okay. Oh, yeah, but I'll just get buzz. I won't get drunk. There's no such thing as buzzed in the Bible
Buzz is just a little drunk, okay
Buzz does not exist in the word of God.
Alcohol, you know, possesses a small molecule
that goes into your bloodstream very quickly.
It passes through the blood-brain barrier very quickly,
and so you feel the effects of alcohol almost immediately.
Few minutes into drinking, you will feel it immediately,
okay?
And so this concept of it's okay to drink not to get drunk. They're essentially saying you have to sin first
build up the tolerance and then you won't get drunk and you won't sin against the Lord thereafter
Now let me read to you a couple verses before we get into John chapter 2 Isaiah 5 20 says woe unto them to call evil good and good evil
You know drinking alcohol is good. That's what they're saying that put darkness for light light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes
and prudent in their own sight.
Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine.
Men of strength to mingle strong drink.
You know, people who can tolerate alcohol.
People who just can hold their alcohol.
They don't throw up.
They don't stagger.
They don't feel those negative effects of alcohol.
Well, the Bible says woe unto you.
So if these people are saying,
hey, we can tolerate the alcohol, we're not getting drunk.
Well, the Bible still says woe unto you.
So even if you've built up the tolerance to drink alcohol to the point where you're no longer drunk the Bible is literally saying here
You're cursed
Wown to you because you are strong to drink wine
You are mighty to string to drink mingled strong drink so forth
And so this is not a conflict look at John chapter 2 if you would
And one thing that I tell people who are advocates for alcohol,
if they claim that it's good and it's perfectly fine,
God's for it, okay, give it to pregnant women.
See what it does.
Why don't you just give it to children then?
Well, I mean, I'll tell you why, because it's poison.
That's why.
If it's so good, if it's so permissible,
why is it illegal for children to purchase?
Why does the doctor recommend against women
who are pregnant to drink it?
I'll tell you why, because it's toxic.
It's poison.
Dummy.
It's like, it's not hard to see this.
Now, notably when you bring these points
to a Christian whinoe,
they rely heavily upon this passage right here.
And I've heard this more often than I can count.
And this will just say, well, Jesus turned the water into wine.
Okay, but Jesus turned the water into wine, though, brother.
I don't know if you know this.
And sometimes I want to tell them, where is that at?
Can you even find the story?
Do you even know where that story is?
Well, let's read it, okay?
Because again, what's the concept here?
It's okay to drink, just not to get drunk.
And what is your proof verse?
Well, Jesus turned the water into wine.
Well, let's go to that story.
Look at John chapter two, verse number one,
in the third day there was a marriage in Canaan of Galilee
and the mother of Jesus was there.
And both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage.
And when they wanted wine,
the mother of Jesus saith unto him,
they have no wine.
Jesus saith unto her,
Woman, what have I to do with thee?
Mine hour is not yet come.
I'm sure the Catholics hate that verse there.
His mother saved them to the servants whatsoever. He saved them till you do it
So what's going on here?
They're at a marriage and obviously there is wine being offered there and the wine that's being offered is referring to juice
It's not referring to alcohol. Believe it or not. There are weddings that have absolutely zero alcohol involved
Yeah, and what world well, we've done like 20 weddings at our church and not a single one of them had alcohol
We all had sparkling cider. We all had juice or soda. So there you go
So this is what that's referring to so the wine is all gone. It's all everyone drank all the wine. They drank all the juice and
So, you know, Mary is like hey, we're out of it
You know, we need more wine and so she petitions her son to
Perform a miracle here. That's what's being implied look what it says in verse 6
And there were set there six water pots of stone after the man of the purifying of the Jews containing two or three forkins a piece
So you have these water pots right large water pots that are filled with water or they're not filled with water yet
But they they they're that's what they're for their for you know
Containing liquid Jesus saved them to him verse 7 fill the water pots with water
And they filled them up to the brim and he saved them to him draw out now and bear into the governor of the feast
And they bear now obviously the miracle here is that they pour water into these vessels and God miraculously Jesus Christ miraculously
Converts it into wine what we know to be as juice. That is a miracle
And obviously the underlying principle there is that Jesus is taking old Testament people and
Transitioning them into the New Testament. That's what the picture is right. He's pouring that new wine
Which is the blood of Jesus Christ into these vessels? Okay, that's the spiritual application
But this is something that literally happened though, okay
So we don't want to ignore all the other passages of the literal events that happen with those passages in Isaiah,
but they want to take this literally.
He says in verse 9,
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 feast 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 that was kept a good wine until now.
So what is he referring to?
He's like, wow, you know, it's interesting.
Every wedding puts out the good stuff first, right?
But then, like, once it starts to run out,
they bring out the Shasta.
They bring out the 99 cent store brands, right?
Mr. Pib or you know just these off-brand sodas and drinks, you know they that's like held on to the very end
But you've actually held on to the good stuff at the very end, right?
And obviously the spiritual application there is that the best is yet to come
Right, you know, there's a lot of good wine in the Old Testament
But the best was yet to come which is the Lord Jesus Christ the old covenant was good the new covenant is better
and God held on to it till the very end.
So that's a great spiritual application.
Now, the point that I want to make here
is the fact that the governor is saying,
hey, after men had well drunk.
So we know that the wine here in John chapter two
is referring to juice, but again,
let's go to, let's pretend for a second
and say that it's actually referring to alcohol.
Well, that would mean that Jesus Christ is causing
the people at the wedding to sin.
Why because according to the Calvinist, it's okay to drink nothing not to get drunk. Well, hold on a second the people in the
wedding were already well drunk and
After they were well drunk. He fills up six more kegs of
Wine and he gets them even more drunk according to their theology. Does it make sense?
Well together. Yeah, but you know
Jesus couldn't really control what they're doing. He gave it to them
What do you mean? He's just gonna make alcohol six water pots of alcohol and say hey, whatever you guys
So it's up to you I provided but you know it's really up to you. He's provided it so they can drink it
And so their logic completely falls apart of this,
it's okay to drink but not to get drunk when they haven't,
and using John chapter two as a justification,
when the story clearly states that the people at the wedding
were clearly already well drunk,
which well drunk just means that they've already
drinking a lot.
But if we're to take even their interpretation
and falls apart, because that would mean
that they are already smashed.
They're already drunk, and Jesus Christ provides more alcohol, thereby according to their theology causing them to sin by gaining them even more drunk.
What's the concept here? What's being taught is that it's just actually juice, okay? That's what it's referring to there.
Now, what's funny is that, you know, this guy that I went back and forth with, he believes that Jesus turned the water into alcohol.
Obviously, and I was telling him, you know, it's not alcohol.
Here are the reasons why your concept just completely falls apart, blah, blah, blah.
And he's just like, doesn't he realize that by the time they, you know, squeezed the grapes
into the vessel and took a tecana to go serve for the marriage, it would have already been
fermented because of the conditions.
And I'm thinking to myself, he turned it into wine there.
This is not an Amazon order. This is not like he's not ordering
wine from like
You know from the roti mayas or something like that waiting for it to come. He literally
Transformed it then and there. It's fresh
But some and by the way, what is wine? It's old
Alcohol in the Bible the wine that's strong drink is old wine
That's fermented wine. So it's crazy to think that they believe that Jesus turned the water into alcohol when it's literally
Freshly made that's literally what it is and by the way, you know
Because the new wine in this particular story pictures the blood of Jesus Christ
That's also wicked to say that it's alcohol
Because the blood of Jesus for when something ferments it means that you know it has yeast in it and
Yeast that leaven is a picture of what sin
Which is why the Roman Catholic Church should not be taking their communion
with actual alcohol
Because Jesus Christ is without sin
Just as the bread is without yeast
It's without leaven because it's because Jesus Christ's body is without sin in like manner his blood is also without sin
Therefore reason would have it that it's referring to actual juice. Okay?
Go to Psalm 104 if you would Psalm 104
So, my first point is that drinking alcohol in moderation is non-existent in the Bible.
Okay?
It's non-existent in the Bible.
Now, another portion that we're not going to go through, I'm just going to kind of tell
you what it is.
Another portion that they'll use is that they'll often point to Acts chapter 2.
where the Spirit of God comes upon the disciples,
they are able to speak with new tongues,
they preach to various people,
and the people in the region look at that
and they say, oh, these people are filled with new wine.
And they're like, oh, see, they thought that they were drunk.
They're just being belligerent and drunk
and they're just, you know, they're preaching or whatever.
Well, first of all, it says new wine.
So anybody would agree that that's just referring to juice.
alcohol will not help you to speak in a different language and in fact it will
make you a babbler right and it's not that these people did not know that
they were speaking in a different language they knew that I mean there's
people at the day of Pentecost there from like 14 different regions speaking
different languages they knew that okay
And so that's obviously an incorrect interpretation.
So my first point, drinking alcohol in moderation,
nonexistent in the Bible.
There is no moderation.
God says don't even look at it.
We're to stay away from it completely.
Number two, alcohol is not a gift from God.
You know, there's another thing that they'll say,
it's like, oh, wine is a gift from God, okay?
The narrative that they push is that alcohol is permissible
because God gave it to us.
Wine makes you happy.
Now, this is true to a certain degree, okay?
You know, alcohol does make you happy initially, why?
Well, because alcohol releases endorphins and dopamine
in your brain that causes you to have
that happy type of a feeling.
But the ender of is like death, though, okay?
So it gives you that feeling of happiness but it's not something that God has given to us to seek to find out
So it's like God doesn't say if you want happiness go and drink alcohol that doesn't exist in the Bible
Let me read you a couple of verses that they would use.
Ecclesiastes 9 verse 7, you're in Psalm 104 verse 14.
Ecclesiastes 9 says,
Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy,
and drink thy wine with a merry heart,
for God now accepted thy works.
Look at Psalm 104 verse 14.
It says,
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle,
and herb for the service of man,
that he may bring forth food out of the earth,
and wine that maketh glad the heart of man.
oil to make his face shine and bread which strengthen it man's heart so
alcohol consumption gives you that initial feeling of happiness but it is
short-lived and anybody who is a former alcoholic can tell you that you know if
you drink alcohol initially you might feel happy but then you need greater
quantities of alcohol to consume in order to keep that feeling going because
it spikes your dopamine
And when it spikes your dopamine, that same amount that you drank before isn't sufficient.
It's like pornography.
It's the same exact thing.
Okay?
It's not sufficient.
And they'll say, no, it makes glad the heart of man.
Well, this is referring to juice and the reason we know that is because of the fact that
alcohol is 100% detrimental and toxic to your heart.
I mean, we live in the age of the internet where we can literally look things up.
And see the effects of alcohol on the heart and one thing that it will not say on there is this it makes your heart glad
Go to first Samuel chapter 1 if you would first Samuel chapter 1
Drink an alcohol negatively affects your body. It's very unhealthy for you. It destroys your body
It destroys your organs, and yes, it can destroy your heart as well.
And in fact, aside from the immediate effects of alcohol that it has on your body, it actually
accentuates other health problems that you may already have presently in your body.
So if you're already overweight, if you're already struggling with other things, it actually
accentuates those health problems that much the more when alcohol is actually introduced.
So it's bad for your heart.
Psalm 104 verse 14 is not referring to alcohol and that interpretation is an incorrect interpretation because they say it makes your heart glad
We'll look at 1st Samuel chapter 1 verse number 9
So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the
temple of the Lord and
She was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore
And she vowed of Valance said oh Lord of hosts if that will indeed look on the affliction of thine handmade
And remember me, and not forget thine handmaid,
but will give unto thine handmaid and man child,
then I will give unto the Lord all the days of his life,
and there shall no razor come upon his head."
And it came to pass as she continued praying before the Lord
that Eli marked her mouth.
So she's praying and she's in anguish.
She has affliction.
She's weeping, right?
She is in distress.
Eli, the priest, walks up and he sees this.
That's what it means by marking her mouth.
He's like, oh man, there's something going on there.
Verse 13, now Hannah spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.
Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken, and Eli said unto her, How long will thou be drunken?
Put away thy wine from thee.
Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit.
I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord.
So what is this showing us?
It shows us that Eli looked at Hannah's sorrow,
her grief, her affliction, and said,
oh, this woman must be drinking.
Why?
Because Eli understood that the effects of alcohol
produce sorrow.
It produces affliction.
It produces depression.
It produces something that's not glad.
And Hannah even understood this,
which is why she said, hey, no, no, no,
I have a sorrowful spirit.
It's not because I've drunk in strong drink.
It's not because I'm drunk.
It's because I'm just sad.
Because even she knew that alcohol produces sorrow.
It says in verse 16,
count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial.
For out of the abundance of my complaining grief,
have I spoken hither too?
Kind of showing us that Hannah apparently had the opinion
that drunkards are just sons of Belial.
Now we wouldn't say that all of them are but you know what? I mean Hannah, I'm glad you put that in the Bible
You know, I'm glad you said that because it kind of adds more credence here
And so what do we see here that wine does not make your heart glad according to the Bible it actually makes it sorrowful
Which is why some people can't necessarily some alcoholics can't function or be supposedly happy without alcohol in their system as it's
simultaneously destroying their heart
So it gives this superficial happiness, this superficial joy, but inwardly it's actually destroying their body.
It's giving them cardiovascular diseases and other things that are detrimental to the body.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter 5.
1 Timothy chapter number 5.
I'm going to read to you from Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 9 says,
My heart within me is broken because of the prophets, all my bones shake, I am like a drunken man.
Why? Because he's broken, his heart is hurting, and he says unlike a man whom wine has overcome
because of the Lord and because of the words of his holiness, Jeremiah is likening his
condition of being sorrowful to a drunkard because both a drunkard and a person who's
sorrowful experienced those same emotions.
Now back in the day, Calvinists loved this.
Christians who advocate for alcohol consumption love this,
that years ago, they would say that doctors came out
and said that a glass of wine is good for you.
And specifically, red wine.
So they'd say, you know, it's OK to drink it.
And they'd be like, see?
Wine make it glad to the heart.
Yeah, you know, just.
And let's just be honest.
Anybody who actually believed that
and was using the Bible to justify it,
they were not just having a glass of wine.
Fact, OK?
So you know this and obviously this was majorly disproven over the last couple of years people understand now that there's
Zero health benefits to drink and alcohol
Not a little there's zero health benefits
It will not help you at all and in fact a lot of times even people who are you know doctors who are
They advocate for a little bit of alcohol consumption. They'll tell you just know there's absolutely no health benefits to it though
So you're just running the risk
And they give you all of the risk-full factors
that are involved with drinking alcohol
and they say, you know, you gotta kind of decide though,
if that's what you, the world you wanna take.
because alcohol literally just destroys you
either minimally or extensively over a long period of time.
And if you don't want any of that,
then just don't drink at all.
That's what they'll tell you,
because they say it has no health benefits whatsoever.
So this study was erroneously done
because of the fact that, you know,
they're studying people in France out of all places,
you know, where they drink like a lot of red wine.
And they come to find out, like, oh man,
these people are, like, healthy.
So, you know, they started looking into the wine.
And, you know, they came to the conclusion
that it has, you know, that red wine, specifically,
has this polyethanol compound, right?
What's referred to as resvitriol,
that essentially exhibits antioxidants
and anti-inflammatory properties, right?
Things that are good for you.
You're like, oh, that's why they're healthy.
The French people are healthy because of the red wine
because it has this polyethanol compound.
That's what they drink all the time.
But later on, they realize, actually, no, that's not true.
The reason they're healthy is because of their diet.
And they're constantly outside.
They have the vitamin D. And they just conveniently left out
all the other health complications
that they got because of drinking the red wine.
Because again, drinking alcohol affects
various parts of your body.
Not just your heart your liver your pancreas your stomach your brain everything gets affected by alcohol
So they were just looking at the cardiovascular aspect of its effects. They're like over as vitriol. Okay. Yeah, that's that's you know
And by the way, where's vitriol is also found in just grape juice
So there you go
So they realize oh man, you know, this is actually not true
So now they confidently state that no level of alcohol is actually healthy
But it's actually responsible for a myriad of different health complications such as cancer
Okay, cardiovascular disease and yes, even diabetes and dementia
Because it affects everything. Okay, and they even go as far as to say, you know, ultimately alcohol will kill you
And they kind of quantify it and say,
you know, when you drink alcohol,
depending on how much you drink,
you just gotta view it as this.
You know, if you drink,
I think they say something to the effect,
don't quote me on this.
Like, let's say, you know, four bottles of wine
within a week span or something like that.
They said, you gotta measure that in units
of 30 minute life units or whatever.
So it's just like, just know this, when you do that,
just take into account that you're removing
30 minutes from your life.
So it's like if I told you hey if you take this this is gonna immediately cut off 30 minutes of your life
It'd be like no way. I don't want that
But you know there's people that with that knowledge that will continue to drink
Why because alcohol also affects the dopamine aspect of your body and dopamine is responsible for the
formation of habits
You know, that's what you're that's what's responsible for the habits
So people drink they get that feeling and then they want to continue to drink thereafter now
You know these Calvinism reformers are like brother come on a little wine for thy stomach sake though
All right go to 1st Timothy chapter 5 and they expect us to be like oh dang you're right
Bottoms up. It's good for your stomach
First Timothy 523 says lay hands suddenly on no man neither be partakers of other men since keep thyself pure drink no longer water
But use a little wine for thy stomachs sake and thy often infirmities and it's just like see a little stomach issue
A little whiskey down there. You'll be fine
Little Jack Daniels little little wine
Consuming a little alcohol is actually good for your stomach. You know which by the way
It's kind of ironic since literally a few chapters before he said not to be given to wine
So he tells Timothy, don't be given to wine,
but then he says, oh, but take a little bit of wine
for your stomach's sake.
Now, what's ridiculous about this
is that any doctor can tell you that alcohol is not
good for your stomach at all.
And in fact, it's one of the leading causes for leaky gut.
Because alcohol is a toxin that destroys the lining
of your stomach, your small intestines,
and that toxicity actually goes into your bloodstream.
which ultimately travels to your heart,
which ultimately goes to your brain, and then you die.
Destroys your liver, it's responsible for leaky gut.
So how is a little wine, a little alcohol
for that stomach's sake actually good
if it actually is responsible
for major health complications?
I'll tell you how.
The wine here is not referring to alcohol,
it's referring to juice.
Okay.
And so, and you're like, well, you know,
I still think it's a little good for your stomach.
Ask people who actually, you know, got cirrhosis of the liver, you know
God gave you this wonderful organ known as the liver that is responsible for filtering toxins and poisons that you consume
You know, you consume whatever and it just filters it and then you put in this major toxic
compound known as alcohol into it and it actually destroys
The organ in your body that is made to destroy poison. It just completely destroys all the enzymes
And there's stories of people who literally,
I've had family members that died of cirrhosis of the liver.
Or it just stops functioning, and then they die.
And there's literally stories of people who,
you know, their liver was failing them
because of alcohol.
And then they get a transplant,
and then they destroy that liver,
and then they end up dying.
It's crazy.
Oh, a little wine for thy stomach's sake.
It's nonsense, my friends.
Go back to Proverbs chapter 23, Proverbs chapter 23, you know in light of that can we really say that alcohol is a gift from God?
No
It's not it doesn't come from God and in fact the Bible specifically says their vine is the vine of Sodom
The Bible says that it's a poison of dragons according to the Bible
Comes from the fields of Gomorrah
Their grapes are the grapes of gall their clusters are bitter their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of
Asps the Bible tells us why because it's trying to communicate the fact that alcohol will kill you it will destroy you
There's nothing good about it. Okay, which leads me to my last point and that is that alcohol alters and corrupts the mind
Okay
Now there's other things that alcohol does that I'm not going to cover in this sermon. It does feminize you men
Okay, makes you very emotionally unstable. It feminizes you it gives you breasts for those of you who are men
It gives you, you know the beer belly
Contrary to what the billboards show
It does not give you a six-pack
Does not give you muscles. It's actually completely against it destroys your muscle
Okay, there's a lot that we can set up say say about that. It makes you dumb
But it alters and corrupts your mind now
It's very sad because when you think about it, you know, the brain is just such a wonderful gift from God
The brain is just an absolute
Incredible part of our body, okay
And God created it in such a way, obviously, so we can think deeply, think logically, memorize scripture, understand the things of God, function in our day-to-day life.
Your brain is just capable of so many things.
And, you know, the brain is made up of all these neurons, right?
And these neurons, your brain actually has something called these neurotransmitters and some of the most important ones, really the most powerful and important neurotransmitters in your brain are known as GABA and glutamate.
GABA and glutamate are extremely important in your brain, the most important neurotransmitters in your brain.
because they work together to keep you awake,
to put you to sleep, to help you to think,
to help you to store memory.
These two work hand in hand.
And so GABA, the neurotransmitter known as GABA,
is something that is turned on
when you start feeling sleepy, you know?
Or when you need to relax a little bit
and you kind of take a breather,
that neurotransmitter known as GABA turns on
and you're able to calm down.
Glutamate turns on when you need to stay awake
when you need to be lively.
You know, I got a lot of glutamate going on right now.
Everything's just like shh, right?
So these are responsible for sleep, memory, thinking,
very important neurotransmitters.
And God gave it to us so we can function properly
throughout the day, we can get good sleep at night.
And so these are very important.
In fact, humans obviously have experienced ways to actually
superficially create anesthesias in order to trigger these.
And you think about the fact that when people fly in
airplanes, for example, as soon as you get all the way up,
where do they start rolling out?
They start rolling out the alcohol.
You know why because of the fact that you are overly stimulated your people are anxious
They're scared so they roll out the alcohol to trick of the Gabba in order to relax you a little bit
Okay, I'm not saying that that's what you should do. Just just raw dog the flight. Okay
That's what you should do
So what happens is when someone consumes alcohol it's absorbed very quickly
And one of the first things that it does is it attacks the frontal lobe cortex.
Frontal lobe cortex is that which is responsible for your reasoning, for your logic, and for your self-control.
Which is one of the reasons why people who drink alcohol end up binging a lot.
Because once the frontal lobe cortex is affected, there's no governor.
So this is why people die sometimes the first time drinking oh, I just turn 21
I'm just gonna go out and drink and then the frontal lobe cortex is affected and they end up dying because of it because they're
They're reasoning their logic their self-control is completely removed now think about this, you know when someone
You know in the medical realm profession when someone has a surgery they give them anesthesia, right?
This is fairly new within our you know human society
They give them anesthesia, and what anesthesia is supposed to do is turn on the GABA neurotransmitter
in order to put you to sleep, depending upon the extent of the surgery, right?
And if it's a really hard surgery, they'll give you something, some anesthesia, that
will block the glutamate receptors that keeps you awake, okay?
And so you know you're asleep and it just keeps you from waking up and the reason for that is because if they're you know
If your stomach is wide open
And you just wake up you're like
So they don't want that so they want to keep you asleep, right?
Well depending upon the surgery sometimes the surgery is so extensive
that they have to block a lot of the glutamate neuro transmitter receptors and
What that ends up doing is it actually causes you not to breathe, which is why they give you a ventilator
They put, you know, tubes so it can breathe for you.
Right?
And, you know, so, you know, obviously,
technology's very advanced, we're thankful for that.
The ability to do all those things.
But, you know, the crazy thing is that alcohol
actually does the same exact thing.
It works as anesthesia.
And this is what we call what?
Alcohol poisoning.
When someone receives alcohol poisoning, their GABA is turned on completely so that they're all tired and sleepy
but then it also blocks all of the glutamate neurotransmitter receptors
so that you don't wake up and you know what happens you don't breathe and
you know what happens is
alcohol also affects the serotonin in your gut that makes you throw up.
Because you know when you put poison in your body your body is like what is what is this?
He's just good then wants to get it out
so what if you have that along with your
glutamate
Neurotransmitter receptors blocked. That's why people die in their sleep and they drown in their alcohol in their vomit
Which is what happened to Alexander the Great for example, okay?
This is how people die my friends. Oh, but it's supposed to be a gift from God though
You know people who literally die from alcohol poisoning because of the effects that and they'll say they'll tell you like different drugs
Actually affects different neurotransmitters in different ways
But they said alcohol is the most promiscuous out of all them because it literally affects all of them
It affects all such a powerful drug such a powerful toxin it can literally just completely destroy you
It alters and corrupts the mind.
It removes your judgment.
Look at Proverbs chapter 23 and verse 29.
Or we'll skip down to verse 31.
Look down upon the wine when it is red
and when it giveeth this color in the cup
when it moveeth itself right.
At the last it bided like a serpent
and stingeth like an adder.
He says here, skip down to verse 33.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women.
Now, what is this referring to?
Well, this is famously referred to today
as the beer goggles, right?
That's what it's talking about.
Apparently, a lot of people in our church
know exactly what I'm talking about.
Why?
Because alcohol actually attacks,
or should I say not attacks,
it increases the effects of serotonin in your body.
And serotonin makes you more empathetic, okay?
It makes you like people more.
So, you know, this is the cause for a lot of fornication,
a lot of adultery, a lot of sexual sins
that when people wake up the next day, they're like,
what did I do?
Well, your serotonin was so increased by alcohol,
your empathy was so increased
that you ended up having beer goggles,
and you know, you actually like this chick or something,
and that's why you did what you did.
So it increases the serotonin, gives you beer goggles,
dye and eye, shall be whole strange women.
And they also, you know, along with the whole front
to low cortex thing, because it removes your self-control,
your self-restraint, this is why people,
let's say for example, you've abstained from cigarettes.
You quit cigarettes.
You quit drinking cigarettes, okay?
Aren't you drinking cigarettes?
Hopefully you quit drinking cigarettes too.
You know, you quit smoking cigarettes.
If you drink, you're actually more likely
to start smoking cigarettes again.
Because things that you would previously not do,
you're more capable of doing because of the fact
that it turns off that front to low cortex.
So it increases the effects of serotonin giving you beer goggles dying I shall be old strange women dying heart shall utter perverse things
Why is that because alcohol?
Also increases endorphins, which makes you more bold
Makes you more talkative makes you more brazen. This is why people say stupid things when they're drunk
Wake up, and you're married to someone. You're just like one the world. Yeah, you said I do
And again, alcohol stimulates nerves in the stomach that causes vomiting.
The Bible talks about that in Isaiah chapter 20 verse 6 for all the tables are full of
vomits and filthiness so that there is no place clean referring to the profits that
are filled with strong drink.
Alcohol as I mentioned also releases dopamine that gives you that drive, that motivation,
makes people bolder and louder, okay.
Verse 35 says this they have stricken me shalt I'll say and I was not sick they have beaten me and I felt that not when shall I awake
I will seek it yet again and by the way before anesthesia
That's what they would use to amputate people's limbs. They just give them alcohol because it has the same exact effects
Okay, and
Then lastly it releases endorphins, which is why it gives you that high, okay?
Look at go to Proverbs chapter 31 Proverbs chapter 31
Isaiah 5 verse 11 says,
"...wown to them that rise up early in the morning,
that they may follow strong drink,
that continue until night,
until wine and flame them."
The Bible says.
And often they'll say,
you know, alcohol helps you
in the personality deficiencies that you possess.
It's like you don't have certain personality traits
that you want to have.
Alcohol will help you to have those things.
Yeah, but at what cost though, right?
And here's the thing, folks, is that as Christians we don't need alcohol to turn us into another man.
To make us more bold, to make us more courageous.
We have the Spirit of God that dwells within us, that turns us into another man.
We have that new man, we pray for boldness, we pray for courage, but it comes through sobriety.
That's why the Bible commands us to be sober.
and guess what tonight you know today I'm preaching we're discussing doctrine
we're fellow shipping you know I'm preaching on Chomos tonight that's the
title of the sermon tonight Chomos and you know what I don't wake up tomorrow
with a hangover like I wake up like what did I do I can't believe I just preach
that okay what happened Sarah what did I say how many times that I dropped the
And, of course, drinking impairs judgment.
Look at Proverbs 31, verse 1, it says,
the words of King Lemuel, the prophet that his mother taught him,
what my son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows,
give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.
So what destroys kings?
According to this verse, women, but also in the context as we're going to see, alcohol.
He says, it is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes, strong drink.
Lest they drink, listen to this, and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
So the Bible says that the effects of alcohol is that it removes your judgment, and it causes you to forget the law of God.
Well, yeah, but that's written for kings. Well, you think that it will remove judgment from you?
You think you're the exception to forgetting the law of God if you drink alcohol?
This is obviously showing us that we are kings and priests
and the effects of alcohol on a person is that you will forget the laws of God.
You will pervert the judgment of those who are afflicted.
And in fact, you know, she says this in verse 6,
Give strong drink unto them that is ready to perish
and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.
Now you're like, oh, you know if someone's sad give him a strong drink well
Why is he telling why is she telling your son not to drink it?
Well because of the fact that he's not ready to perish and he's not a person of a heavy heart
He's someone who is rejoicing in the Lord. He's a safe person. He's a Christian. He's a believer
He rejoices in the things of God. What is the same? You know alcohol is for the inferior of this world
Alcohol is for the winos.
Alcohol is for those who are ready to die.
Alcohol, those are for those who don't have
any purpose in life.
Whereas Christians, we have purpose.
We have the word of God, we have joy,
and you know what, you don't need alcohol or drugs,
any mind-altering substance to make you happy.
We have Christianity, we have the Spirit of God,
we have the brethren, and you know what?
The great thing is, we know how to have a good time
with minimal things, with just the simple things in life.
Food, a meal, a Red Bull.
We don't need to just consume alcohol
and forget our woes and forget our sorrows.
No, you know, we face our sorrows head on is what we do.
See people who drink alcohol to forget their sorrows. That's the lame way to go out
God didn't tell us. Oh, you know, just just don't even think about it
Just you know, just ignore it. Let let that monster just continue to grow in your life
Don't don't you know confront your problems. Don't confront the people God wants us to confront our problems
You know what sometimes God wants us to be sorrowful, too. Did you know that?
Depression is not always bad
Sometimes it's okay to be a little depressed
Now, if you're just constantly depressed, then you need to go live some weights, get
some protein in your system, go step outside and get some sun and work a little bit and
get some purpose in your life, go win some souls to Christ and you will no longer be
depressed.
Okay?
Maybe it's a chemical thing, but in general, it's okay to feel a little bit of sorrow in
your heart.
Why?
Because God ends up drawing nigh into those who are of a sorrowful spirit.
And often people who are of a sorrowful heart who are driven to seek out the Lord end up benefiting from that sorrow in the long run
But oh, no, I'm just gonna drink my sorrows away, and I'm gonna forget my problem. You know, I've had a long day at work
I'm just gonna crack open a six a six pack of whatever
to kind of calm me down.
Why don't you go for a walk?
Go for a hike with brother Jose, you know?
Why don't you go lift weights instead?
Why don't you go spend time with your wife
and your children?
Why don't you do things that actually help
your mental health?
Instead of whining about it in June,
oh, June is mental health.
Is it men's mental health, is it?
Or is that November?
That's probably November, huh?
You know, oh man, this month is for men's mental health.
Forget that.
Don't dedicate a month to that.
That's embarrassing.
What is that?
We don't need a month.
You know, we don't need a month of sodomy,
and we also don't need a month of men's mental health.
How about we just glorify the Lord Jesus Christ
all 12 months of the year, you know,
and rejoice in our salvation and the word of God,
and in manhood.
Oh man, there's just so many men struggle with,
yeah, because they're watching pornography,
they're not eating enough protein, they don't lift,
they're not involved in their local New Testament church,
they're not soul winning, they don't bleed,
they don't cry, they don't do things
that normal human beings do.
Go scrape your knees, go get active.
Hey, you know one thing I do to deal with depression?
I laugh a lot, cause I'm very hard to do with good
like a medicine the Bible says.
You know one of the reasons I'm not depressed is because I'm always laughing because people in our church are roasting each other
I'm roasting them. They're roasting me and we're having a gay old time
And look studies have shown. Let me just veer off this real quick studies have shown
Listen to me. Okay, because sometimes people are like, oh you guys are so mean to each other. I
Can't believe you guys say that to each other
Studies have shown
that friends that absolutely, just unmercifully
roast their friends, often end up being
some of the most loyal people, like the greatest friends
you actually make.
And they actually say it's actually
a very healthy thing to do.
Whereas people who are just constantly tiptoeing
around the tulips, they're walking around you,
like they're walking on eggshells,
actually end up being bad friends, and very disloyal.
So based upon that assessment, I think we just have
Because the roasting here is very extensive people get flamed here really, you know a lot, okay?
But you know what that's because we're really good friends
And you know what I leave home. Let me just tell you this I go home tonight with a full heart
Inflamed not from alcohol
But because of the word of God and the fellowship did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us
By the way, why he opened to us the scriptures. That's how I inflame my heart
And so, you know, if you're like, oh man,
I just, I'm depressed, so I just feel like
I just need to drink my sorrows away.
Yeah, but you know, here's the thing though,
is that you're simultaneously destroying your body.
You're destroying your liver, you're destroying your
pancreas, you're destroying your stomach,
you're destroying your brain, you're destroying your heart.
And that's not even, that's like the tip of the iceberg
of the destruction that alcohol brings to your life.
You will destroy your social life.
You're destroying your skin.
It'll look older, no offense to the older people
and everybody, it'll look older.
It'll age you, it'll dehydrate you.
Whereas you know what, laughing, lifting,
eating red meats, lots of red meats, eating eggs,
is actually good for you.
Walking, getting those, naturally getting those
endorphins out, and look, go step out on the sun
for 15 minutes, I'm telling you right now,
you'll feel a lot better.
Hey, this is not gay go smell the roses
It's not gay it's not zesty
To smell the roses
Let me just tell you something right now
Who did who did God make the garden for Adam or Eve?
Yeah
That's right
You don't think Adam was just
Of course it's pleasant
Go smell the outside, go talk to people,
get off of social media every once in a while,
go get active, go lift, go deadlift,
go squat, go bench, go have some goals about yourself,
be goal-oriented, go to work.
And then you won't need that stupid whiskey
to relieve you of that depression.
Go do some jiu-jitsu with these guys.
Go punch someone in the, no, I'm just kidding.
Go spar go do something and I'm telling you right now. You'll feel a lot better. You don't need alcohol
alcohol is the devil's solution
For the natural problems that we face in this world
You know alcohol wine
Alcoholic wine is the devil's solution. The new wine is God's
Okay, here's my last verse first Thessalonians chapter 5 verse number 6 is therefore let us not sleep as do others
But let us watch and be sober for they that sleep sleep in the night and they that be drunken or drunken in the night
But let us who are of the day be sober
Putting on the breastplate of faith and of love and for a helmet the hope of salvation the Bible promotes
sobriety
Okay, and I don't believe any level of alcohol is permissible in the Bible
I mean, even the medical world tells you
there's not a single level of alcohol
that will ever benefit you in any way.
Now, let's just pretend for a second
that there's just, they even said this,
they're like, let's just pretend
that there's just a little bit of benefit,
health benefits, to drinking red wine.
Let's just say it does have that polyethanol compound,
those antioxidants, and the anti-inflammatory properties
that can help you.
Let's just pretend for a second that it did have it.
They say this, the overwhelming amount of negative effects
that alcohol has immediately cancels out anything good
that it has.
That's what it says.
So you can be delusional and think,
oh, man, I'm gonna benefit from this one little thing.
No, actually you're not,
because all the negative effects
just completely cancels that out.
You're better off just eating a double cheeseburger.
Cause at least that's not sinful, you know what I mean?
You know, you're better off getting some,
like raising Cain's combo, going in and out,
you know, just indulging in your favorite foods.
Plain and simple.
What's the point that I'm making?
I'm just giving you a case against alcohol consumption.
Because it is sinful, it is wicked,
I don't care what any Calvinist beer, drink, and church says.
It's sinful in the eyes of God wine is a marker strong drink is raging who serve as the sea of Dubai is not wise
And I hope that this morning you're not deceived. Let's pray father
We thank you so much for your word and thank you for the clear teachings of the word of God
Thank you for helping us to abstain from destructive habits and
Sinful things that can absolutely annihilate our lives this side of eternity Lord and Lord I I've had family members
I've known people there were alcoholics and Lord their end was sorrowful
And Lord, I'm thankful for those examples, but I'm thankful that they simply reinforced what the Bible already teaches.
And I pray that you help us as First Works Baptist Church to remain a sober church that we would glory in sobriety, that we would glory in that virtue.
And I pray that you bless us because of it. We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Please turn your song books to song number 183
Song number 183 oh how I love Jesus
Song number 183, all together, nice and strong on that first verse.
There is a name I love to hear, I love to sing its worth.
It sounds like music in my ear, the sweetest name on earth.
Jesus, oh how I love Jesus, because He first loved me.
It tells me of a Savior's love who died to set me free.
It tells me of His precious blood, the sinner's perfect plea.
Oh, how I love Jesus, oh, how I love Jesus, because he first loved me.
It tells me what my Father hath in store for every day.
Jesus, because He first loved me.
Listen to your song books to song number 66.
Song number 66 at Calvary.
Altogether, nice and strong in that first verse.
Here's I spent in vanity.
true salvation's plan. Oh, the grace that brought it down to man. The mighty gulf that God did
spend at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace was free. Pardon there was multiplied to me. There my