many crowns.
Welcome to Sherf Foundation Baptist Church.
If you could find your seats and grab your song books
and turn a page number 160,
we're gonna be singing Crown Him with Many Crowns.
Page number 160 let's sing it out together on the first crown him with
many crowns the lamb upon his throne hark how the heavenly anthem drowns all
This king through all eternity.
to thee be endless praise for thou for us has done be the whole Lord through
endless days adored and magnified. Amen. Good
Amen. Our second song by song number 185, My Savior's Love.
Song number 185, My Savior's Love.
Song 185, we'll sing it together on the first.
I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the NAS.
The center condemned unclean.
How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be.
How marvelous, how.
tears for his own griefs, but sweat drops a blood for mine.
How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be.
How marvelous, how wonderful is my savi-
My sins and my sorrows, he made them his very own.
He bore the bird into Calvary, and suffered and died alone.
How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall
Which will be my joy through the ages to
good scene. This time we'll have our announcements. Our verse of the week is
Romans 8 28. The Bible says, and we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. That's
Romans 8 28. We're here at our Sunday evening service. We have one more
service this week, the Wednesday evening Bible study. Still in debate about what
I don't know. We'll see. I might have to just get crazy on you guys. Like we're just going through Leviticus. We're just gonna buckle down.
But we have our 630 Bible study that's on Wednesdays, and then we have our soul any time. We had it earlier at
1 p.m.
Did we get any salvations today with Orion? One salvation. Praise God for that then, yeah. So the total then goes up to
66 for 2025 and then
7 for August, I think, yeah.
I'm not the best at math, OK?
But that's some simple math right there.
And then we have our Saturday soul winning at 10.30 this week.
If you have any questions about that,
you can contact Brother Ryan down there.
Today, we had our song leading class
between the services, which went pretty well.
It's about an hour.
And I preached the 40-minute sermon,
so I did exactly what I wanted to do,
except for it was a little bit long.
But I was telling them in the class,
Doing like a total dweeb like study on like song leading with like music theory and then actually giving stuff
That's practical because the practical stuff helps you come up and lead it
Well, but there is some like information that can help you as well when it comes to the the brainy side of that kind of thing
We just get all dark in here. There's a cloud passing. What's that with that?
But yeah, the song-leading class went pretty well.
Matter of fact, brother Ryan, why don't you come up and show us
what you learned up here?
But no, it was good.
And the point of that class, too, was
to be able to do it in a pinch.
And I was explaining to them in the class,
like, nobody really looks at your hand
when you're doing the song.
You kind of want to know what you're doing,
but I'm like, did anybody actually look at my hand?
Maybe you guys did because you're in the class,
but everybody else is like, I was looking at the words, OK?
So that's good at the very least.
So I appreciate everybody that showed up for that.
And then we also live streamed that on accident, but we do have it unlisted and if you were
interested in looking at that as a man we can, I'll put it like an edited out version
so I can send it to brother Paul because I'm sure he wanted to hear that and anybody else
would be interested in that.
Upcoming events though we have on the 23rd we have Miss Victoria's baby shower at 1pm.
You can still RSVP, my wife for that, you're having it at the church you said this morning.
And then we have on the 30th, the Cheney, Cheney, Cheney, okay.
Yeah, that city, Sony Marathon, you can see Brother Ryan, yeah, Little Utah for sure.
We met like so many Mormons there last time, like went through like a warm
What else we got here? Oh the men's preaching night on the 31st
If you're a man you want to preach just make sure you're putting on a shirt and a tie
both of those things okay at the same time and
No heresy and make sure you preach out of the King James Bible
Just let me know in advance if you want to preach for that or if even considering preaching
Just let me know so we have an account of idea because I think this morning we even up the total
We have five guys that are gonna sign up for it. Is that what you said?
So you and brother Paul, you got, you and brother Paul are cheating though.
You have to do an improv sermon.
You can't do a regular 10 minute sermon.
Oh, so we can't even prepare?
No, he just, I'm just going to give you a topic and you just got to run with it.
No, I'm just, that'd be kind of fun though, huh?
Yeah, yeah, but that's how you preach your sermons anyway, so that's not fair.
But yeah, we have the men's preaching that's coming up and then we have our memory verse
for the children, Proverbs 20, verse number 11.
Advertising said my wife's not here right now, but if you have that memorized and you want to tell it to me
Or you can wait until next week to tell Kylie if you want to for a piece of candy for your kid
The preaching schedule is gonna get a little bit flipped around because I think that now Paul and brother Paul and other Jason are gonna switch for the month
But everything else looks pretty much the same
We got the happy birthdays
Winter's gone
And then we sang the Miss Shanika this morning
And then James is on the 25th, so his time's coming, okay?
But I think that's all that we got for the announcement,
so we'll just go into our prayer requests right now.
Dear Father God, these were wonderful days.
Our last song will be song number 150 my faith has found a resting place
Song number 150 my faith has found a resting place
song number 150 we'll sing it out together on the first my faith has found a
resting place not in device nor creed I trust the ever-living one his wounds for
me
Just says, this ends my fear and doubt.
A sinful soul, I come to him.
salvation through his blood I need no other argument I need no
other plea it is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me my great
the sick, the lost he came to save, for me his pressure.
and good scene.
But Jason, could you bless the offering for us?
Dear Father, I thank you for this day, Lord.
I thank you for everything you've done for us.
Lord, I pray that you please bless the gifts of the givers
and give back to you, and renew this name.
Amen.
Proverbs chapter 20 and here at Sure Foundation Baptist Church we read the entire chapter
before the preaching.
Proverbs chapter 20 the Bible reads, Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever
The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion,
whoso provoked him to anger sinneth against his own soul.
It is an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling.
The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold, therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing.
Council in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find.
The just man walketh in his integrity. His children are blessed after him.
A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away, all evil with his eyes.
Who can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin.
Diverse weights and diverse measures, both of them, are alike abomination to the Lord.
Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure and whether it be right.
The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. Love not sleep.
lest thou come to poverty, open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
It is not, it is not, sayeth the buyer, but when he has gone his way, then he boasteth.
There is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.
Bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.
Every purpose is established by counsel, and with good advice make war.
He that goeth abound as a talebearer revealeth secrets, therefore meddle not with him that
Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not
be blessed.
Say not thou, I will recompense evil, but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee.
Diverse weights are an abomination unto the Lord, and a false balance is not good.
Man's goings are of the Lord. How can a man then understand his own way?
It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to make inquiry.
A wise king scattereth the wicked and bringeth the wheel over them.
The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.
Mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is upholding by mercy.
The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is the gray head.
The blueness of a wound cleanses the way evil so do stripes the inward parts of the belly brother Kyle
Could you please pray for the preaching?
Hey man, all right, so we're here in Proverbs chapter number 20 and if you want to go ahead
and look down to verse number one where the Bible reads, wine is a mocker, strong drink
is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
And the title of my sermon this evening...
is do not be deceived by alcohol.
Don't be deceived by alcohol.
And of course, alcohol is one of those things
that is very pervasive in our society today.
Meaning that there's, I would say,
probably a vast majority of people in America
partake in alcohol, obviously to varying degrees.
But you know, according to the Bible, this is something that we are not to be
Deceived by and so I wanted to preach a sermon this evening on why we should not be deceived by alcohol and
Going turn to John chapter number two and if I could get a cup of water that would be
fantastic
John chapter number two because um
You know, whenever whenever we go to preach on this subject
There's always going to be people that say that the Bible is totally fine with people
drinking alcohol.
It's actually not a sin to drink alcohol, there's actually nothing wrong with it.
It only becomes a problem when somebody becomes actually drunk.
And they'll use certain verses in the Bible, specifically John chapter number two, this
is like the most common one, this is the most famous one, to try to prove that drinking
alcohol is fine and that there's nothing wrong with it.
But you know, I would say that these people are being deceived by wine when they say that
But let's just see what the Bible says because right. I mean at the end of the day, we're Bible believers
So whatever the Bible says, that's what we're gonna go with, right?
So if the Bible says it's okay to just drink a bunch of alcohol and get drunk then
Then that will believe that but what does the Bible say it says here in John chapter number two look at verse number one
It says and the third day
There was a marriage of Cana in 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 said unto him they have no wine
Jesus saith unto her woman. What am I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come
His mother saith unto the servants whatsoever. He saith unto you do it
there was set there six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying
of the Jews containing two or three furlicks apiece. Jesus saith unto them,
fill the water pots with water and they filled them up to the brim and he said
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,
Anew not once 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 dost set forth
good wine, and when men have well drunken, then that which is worse, but thou hast kept
the good wine until now, this beginning, excuse me, this beginning of miracles did Jesus in
manifested forth glory and his disciples believed on him. And so people will take
this story and they say well you see Jesus is A-O-K with people drinking
alcoholic wine because look he turned water into wine and then had them serve
it to the guests. And you know the proof that like the big proof for this is
Basically, in verse number 10, he says,
and said unto him,
every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine,
and when men have well drunken, you see,
they're well drunken.
That means they're drunk, right?
Well drunken, or well drunk.
Then that which is worse, but thou has kept the good wine until now and they'll see you see you know
Why why would they be saying that they're you know
You have the really good wine and then you have the worst wine and you give people the good wine first if we're not talking about
If we're not talking about alcohol or whatever, but that to me that's just a really stupid argument
Because if you think about it this this idea can be true for any drink and any food
Because if you think about it when you're like really hungry
What's the best tasting bite of pretty much most meals?
The first one right and if you're really thirsty
What's the most refreshing drink the first gulp or the last one?
It's the first one and if you're and if you're just like craving, you know, you're just like oh, I want a coke really bad
and you take a sip of Coke,
which sip are you going to enjoy the most,
the first sip of the can of Coke or the last sip?
It's going to be the first sip.
Hey, man, I mean,
this is pretty simple to think about, right?
It's actually not complicated at all.
Usually, people give,
and you can have like different quality of juice.
Has anybody had juice that they thought was
just really trash juice?
They're just like, yeah, this wasn't very good.
Right. Yeah, I mean and how many people have had really good juice. They're like, wow, this must be the the natural like
Freshly squeeze, you know, whatever high quality juice. So you can have like different quality levels of juice, right?
I mean we've all experienced this and so it would make sense like okay
We're gonna give we're to maximize, you know the enjoyment or whatever
You know, you give the very best first
And then, you know, once everybody's taste buds are kind of like, you know,
gotten used to it or whatever, then you give the lesser quality stuff later.
But then Jesus here, you know, the wine that Jesus makes is going to be high quality wine.
Like if you had the wine, I'm sure this is probably the highest quality wine,
the, you know, the top grade A, you know, wine is what Jesus turned it into.
Now, this obviously, this does not necessitate it being alcoholic wine, okay?
And now here's the thing about wine in the Bible.
Is that there's, to me, and it's pretty obvious that there's two different kinds of wine in
the Bible.
What do I mean by that?
Well, what I mean by that is that you have wine that is simply juice, right?
Like if you squeezed a bunch of grapes into a container and then you drank that, that
But then, if you took those same grapes, and then you squeezed the grapes, and then you
let the rinds sit in the juice, it would ferment and then become alcoholic wine.
So you have two different types of wine.
Which the Bible condemns? Okay, and I think this is actually very clear in the Bible
This is you know one of I would say this is one of the more clear subjects in the Bible
You know people always they want to make this gray area out of a lot of subjects
But with this subject there really is no gray area. It's pretty simple
But let me just prove to you that there's these you know multiple types of wine these two different types of wine in the Bible
Go to a song of Solomon chapter number eight song of Solomon chapter number eight
Because if we if we have two different kinds of wine in the Bible and then you know
We have one wine that's non-alcoholic wine. It's basically it's just juice and then you have the alcoholic wine
Would it make sense for Jesus to have made the alcoholic wine or the non-alcoholic wine?
Pretty pretty much makes sense. He would make the non-alcoholic type of wine, you know
And you know people were getting excited about that because look back in Jesus's day
Wine would have been something that rich people have wine is something that like basically only rich people would drink because it would have been very expensive
You know, we get this idea, you know, we live in this modern world where you can go to Walmart
and grab a gallon of grape juice for like $3.99, you know, and that's very inexpensive.
That's a very cheap drink.
And so we don't think of juice as something that's fancy, but that's just because we live
in the modern world where we have modern technology, and we can pretty much just grow as many
There's just an overabundance of all different types of food, and so food today is cheap.
And juices and different drinks are cheap today, but back in Jesus' time, and if you
just think about just like 200 years ago, this would have been true as well, where food
in general was expensive.
somebody's budget probably you know probably more like 70% you know because
back in the early 1800s 70% of all Americans were farmers which means you
only had 30% of the rest of the population to do literally everything else
so food has been expensive throughout history and it's you know now at our
modern day
You know, it's become extraordinarily cheap because of the technology and so you know our our our view has kind of been warped
About this stuff nowadays, but but that's that's a side point
Let's get back to my to the point. I was getting at earlier, which is that there's two different kinds of kinds of wine
Because a lot of people will say,
no, no, no, there's only one kind of wine in the Bible
every single time the word wine is used in the Bible
as talking about alcoholic wine.
Well, that is just frankly not true, okay?
And the Bible proves it.
It says in Song of Sullivan, verse number eight.
Verse number two. Now, this is the only time the word juice is used in the Bible, okay?
It says, I would lead thee and bring thee into my mother's house who would instruct me
I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
Now notice that it says I would cause thee to drink of the spiced wine
of the Jews of my pomegranate.
Now why does the Bible say that?
Well basically, the Bible, you know,
the translators, the King James translators,
you know, they were some smart people
and they were, you know, whatever you read the Bible,
the Bible is just, it sounds beautiful, amen?
The Bible sounds beautiful.
And, you know, the King James translators,
Did that made it that way on purpose they wanted the Bible to sound beautiful?
And if you if you just compare the King James Bible with the modern versions the modern versions always sound like trash
You know they're always they always sound really trashy and you know you find like it's like okay
Well, you know basically the closer to the King James any version of the Bible gets
The better it sounds
But let me tell you the King James Bible sounds way better than any other modern version bar none
Okay, the King James Bible is beautiful. The modern versions are just they're just trash. Okay, but so the King James translators
they didn't want to just repeat themselves, right?
And so instead of using the word wine twice
in this one verse right after they just said it,
they replaced that with the word juice.
Why?
Because juice and wine are synonyms.
What does that mean?
It means they have the same meaning.
It's just a different word to say the same thing, right?
And so
Wine is simply juice, right?
And of course, that brings us to our modern day
where we always think of wine as something
that's always alcoholic.
Like if I came to church this morning
and say, hey, I had a big ol' bottle of wine last night,
like what would you guys think of that?
You'd be like, huh, that sounds pretty suspicious.
But if I said, hey, I had a big ol' bottle of juice last night,
would anybody think anything of it?
No, but at the end of the day, though, according to the Bible, which is our final authority,
in all matters of faith and practice, according to the Bible, they're the same thing.
They're synonyms, right?
And so we need to remember that when we go to the Word of God, okay?
And I have further proof that wine is not always talking about alcoholic wine, but in
fact, sometimes it's talking about just juice, right?
And there's two different kinds of wine in the Bible.
Proverbs chapter number 23 and I would say that Proverbs chapter number 23 is
basically I would say it's like the foundational passage when it comes to
alcohol in my opinion. Now we're just gonna we're gonna we're gonna come back
to Proverbs 23 a little bit later and look at what look at the broader context
but we're just gonna look at one verse here real quick
Proverbs chapter number 23 verse number 31 it says look not thou upon the wine when it is red
When it giveth its color in the cup when it moved itself a right now this verse in and of itself
Absolutely proves without a shadow of a doubt that there's multiple types of wine in the Bible that there's two types of wine
Why do I say that well because it says look not a look the can't I'm like apparently I'm like avenues
I can't read
But it says, look not thou upon the wine when it is red,
when it giveth its color in the cup.
So that word when there, that tells us
that there's a specific time and place
that when we're not supposed to do a specific activity.
And so it's telling us that there's
a time basically that when you can look at the wine,
but there's a specific time when you cannot
Look at the wine. Okay. Now. Now. What is it talking about? When when are we not supposed to look at the wine?
When is it okay for us to look at the wine and when is it not okay for us to look at the wine?
Okay, well it tells us it says when
it is
Red now that is actually an extraordinarily important
phrase, okay, because because of the fact
Wine, whenever wine is naturally made,
when the juice is squeezed from the grapes, it's clear.
There's no color to it.
And it doesn't matter what kind of grape you have.
If it's a purple grape, if it's a green grape,
if it's, you know, whatever.
Cause a lot of people think, oh well white wine,
that just comes from the green grapes, right?
Well that's not true.
All juice that comes from grapes is clear.
Now you say well what about I bought a bottle of Welch's the other day and it was purple. It was dark purple
What are you talking about Jason?
Well, the reason why it's dark purple is because they put dye in it
Okay, remember
We're living them on the modern world and when this verse was you know prescribed down when it was given to man
They weren't using dye, okay?
They didn't have purple dye to dye all the wine, right?
To make it feel like it's grape juice or whatever.
So.
the reason why wine turns red is because of the fermentation process because
basically the way they would make wine is they would crush the grapes get the
juice out of the grapes but then they would let the grapes sit in the juice
because on the outside of the grape if you've ever if you've ever had grapes
and there's like that that for us almost like frost and you can you can wipe it
That's yeast. Okay, and so that yeast will if you just let it sit in the juice
It will naturally start to ferment and turn the sugars that are in the juice into alcohol
Okay, and when it adds that process happens the color that is in the skin of the grape leaches out
into the liquid, and that is what turns it red. So as the wine becomes alcoholic,
it turns red. And that, my friend, is why the Bible here says, look thou not upon
the wine when
It is red because if you're if back in this time if you're drinking red wine
That does mean that it's alcoholic wine because there's no other way for the wine to turn red because they didn't have die
Okay, it says when it is red when it giveth its color in the cup
What you know, that's kind of another way of saying what it's changing colors, right?
when it move with itself or right.
Now, what's the last phrase mean,
move with itself or right?
Well, I believe that that's got to be talking
about basically the carbonation.
Because when the sugars and everything
have turned into alcohol,
the beverage becomes carbonized.
That's why you have different bubbles and whatnot
that come out of these different drinks
is because there's that natural carbonation, right?
So when it moved itself right, it's like it's boiling.
Whenever you open a can of something that's carbonated,
it's like it boils up, right?
And I mean, probably all of us at one point in our lives
have opened a can that somebody had shooken up, right?
And it's like,
But it's almost like it's boiling, right?
It's like it's moving by itself.
You know, so that's why the Bible says, you know, when it moved with itself are right.
So basically the Bible is telling us here that there's a specific time when you should
avoid looking at the drink.
And basically to boil it down, Proverbs 23 verse number 31 is saying, don't look at the
So again, you know, there's these two different types of wine because it's saying you can't look at it when it's alcoholic
Which means that it's fine when it's not alcoholic
Right. I mean the Bible is not teaching us here that you can just never drink any kind of juice ever
That's not what the Bible saying. It's only saying that you can't drink it when it's alcoholic. Does that make sense everybody?
so
Go ahead and turn to Genesis chapter number nine.
So I think I've firmly established that there's two different kinds of alcohol in the Bible.
And so when we read the word wine in the Bible, we have to discern, we have to rightly divide
whether or not it's talking about alcoholic wine or whether it's talking about what we
would call grape juice, okay?
And so we you know you kind of have to just use common sense when you're reading the Bible to figure out which one
It's talking about and it'll it's pretty much always really easy to figure out
Because if it's telling you that they're you know
It's causing them to earn and it's causing drunkenness and it's causing them to do stupid things
And it's causing all kinds of problems and issues. It's probably talking about alcoholic wine because that's what it does
And if it's talking about you know wine being a blessing and it's a good thing to have and Jesus is turning water into wine
It makes sense that Jesus, when the Bible says stuff like that,
it's talking about non-alcoholic wine,
or what we would call juice.
Makes sense.
But why is it that the Bible, why do I
say that the Bible condemns drinking alcoholic wine?
Well, I want to give you several different reasons.
And the first reason I wanted to give you,
and this is going to be kind of similar to that baptism sermon.
Where you know I'm gonna give you kind of the pattern and then statements from God's word, right?
And you know the pattern of alcoholic
Wine in the Bible is not a good pattern
Okay, the Bible does not paint a positive picture of alcoholic wine at all. Okay, and
You know there's lots of different scriptures that you can go to
But I just picked out a couple here and we have the first one I wanted to take you is
Genesis chapter number nine because this is actually the first time wine is even mentioned
in the Bible at all.
And it says in Genesis chapter number nine verse number 20 it says, And Noah began to
be a husband man and he planted a vineyard and he drank of the wine and was drunken.
I think we're talking about alcoholic wine because he's drunken and he was uncovered within his tent
So this you know, it's like all right. This is kind of weird
You know Noah's drinking some wine and he's getting drunken and he's getting uncovered in his tent, huh?
This is uh sounding weird. I'd you know this I don't like where this is going
It says, And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two
brethren without.
So that's not something that I personally would want to have happen.
I mean, I get drunk and then I'm naked in my tent and then my son's seeing me and telling
everybody about it.
That's kind of weird.
And, you know, honestly, this section of Scripture, it just gets weirder, okay?
It says, And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders, and
went backwards and covered the nakedness of their fathers, and their faces were backward
and they saw not their father's nakedness.
Okay, so Shem and Japheth seem to be doing the right thing here, okay?
They're like, Oh, what's going on?
Okay, we're going to take care of the problem.
We're going to cover his nakedness.
Here's where it gets weirder though.
It says, And Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
And he said,
"'Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.'"
Now, you know, the Bible does not specifically tell us much here in this situation.
It just tells us that Noah awoke from his wine and that he's mad at his younger son
because he knew what he did unto him.
Now you ask Jason what did his younger son do unto him, and I'm gonna tell you I don't know and I don't want to think about it
Because he's really mad about the situation
Okay, so I don't want to think about what his younger son did to him
All I know is it wasn't a positive thing and it wasn't a good thing
Where Noah he's just cursing his basically his grandson. He's gonna be you know ham son
He's gonna be a servant of servants shall he be unto his brother
So this is a very negative thing, and again, this is the first time that wine is mentioned in the Bible,
and there's this really weird story with weird stuff that we're left kind of wondering exactly what happened.
And I think there's a reason why God left it that way, right?
And so, as far as a pattern goes, I would say just based on this story, I would want to avoid alcohol.
Why? Because it's making you do weird stuff. Okay, it's making it's making weird things happen. Okay, go ahead and turn to
Go ahead and turn to Isaiah chapter number 28. I'm gonna read for you. Isaiah
511 it says wall unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow
Strong drink that continue until night till wine in flame them
Okay, so the Bible saying wall unto them
woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow after strong drink.
So again, you know, the Bible is not painting a positive picture.
Now, you know, in Genesis chapter number nine, there's no necessarily commentary directly
from God condemning Noah drinking alcohol.
He just lets us read the story and see the story.
And you know, it's kind of, you know, let this be a lesson to you, right?
But in Isaiah chapter number five we do have God here condemning those that are that wake up early
That they may go follow after strong drink. He says whoa unto them, right?
And in Isaiah chapter number 28 look at verse number 7 it says but they also have erred through wine
And through strong drink are out of the way, the priests and the prophets have erred through
strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink,
they err in vision, they stumble in, notice this, judgment.
For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there is no place clean.
You know, people that are erring through wine, people that are drinking alcohol with having no place clean.
And you know, what oftentimes happens when people, you know, people go, they go out to the bar, they go out, whatever, and they get plastered, what do they oftentimes do?
They run into the bathroom and they're in the toilet and they're just puking.
Or even they'll get so plastered or whatever, they'll puke all over the table.
You know, they'll be, you know, they'll be, you know, drinking and playing poker or something like that and you know,
just all over the table. And then after that, there's no place clean.
You know, then everybody's got to get out the mop bucket, you know. And so, you know, this is what the Bible is associating with that, right?
But notice in the previous verse,
You know, basically he's talking about the priests, right?
These are supposed to be people that are sober,
they're making good decisions,
they're supposed to be of sound mind,
they're supposed to be serving God, he says,
but through wine they have earned, right?
They're making major mistakes.
You know, that word err there, it's like error, right?
You know, you have like an error on your computer.
Well, that means it ran into a major problem, right?
And so they're making these massive errors.
And it says they are swollen up of wine,
they're out of the way through strong drink.
It says they air envision, they stumble in judgment.
And judgment is something that's very important
to us Christians, having proper judgment.
And of course, even the world will tell you this,
what is the first thing to go
when somebody starts to drink alcohol?
is their better judgment, right?
And so, you know, basically, once somebody starts
to drink alcohol, their better judgment leaves them,
you know, because somebody will say,
well, you know, I'm just gonna have one drink,
or I'm just gonna have, you know, two drinks or whatever.
But as soon as they have that one or two drinks,
their better judgment has left them,
and then they're like, okay, well,
I can handle three, four, five.
You know, what's wrong with six?
You know, I can have six,
but you know nothing, I think about it.
Why don't I have just have a shot at tequila?
You know, and I was listening, I was on the radio, I heard they're on the radio earlier,
you know, two Pina Coladas, I got to have one in each hand.
You know, I want to set sail with Captain Morgan, let's bring, you know, just, let's
hammer down, you know, and all of a sudden, you know, they're just making all kinds of
wild decisions that they would have otherwise never have made, okay.
And so, this is a situation that we as Christians should never find ourselves in, because we
Okay, and when people, they get sucked into alcohol,
what happens is their judgment has been taken away.
And all of a sudden, you know, they're just doing things
that they're just completely foolish and dumb, right?
You know, and of course, you know,
one of the great tragedies in our modern day,
is that, and I should have looked up some statistics on this,
but one of the most common ways for people to get killed
is people, they get behind the wheel drunk,
and they go out and they get into some horrible accident
and people die.
I don't know what the statistics are,
but I believe there's over like 30,000
car related deaths in America every every single year and there's like a huge percentage of that number that's basically caused
by drunk driving
Okay, and why is that happening?
Well, because people lose their better judgment
after they've had multiple drinks.
And, you know, maybe in a normal situation,
they would say, no, I would never drink and drive,
but after they've had those drinks,
all of a sudden they're like,
I'm the best driver on planet Earth.
I mean, have you ever heard of Dale Earnhardt?
I taught him how to drive, okay?
I know what I'm doing.
And, you know, all of a sudden they're behind the wheel,
flying down the highway, getting into a wreck, right?
So, you know, the Bible, again, it's not painting a good picture
of people that are drinking alcohol, okay?
So that's kind of the pattern, right, of alcohol in the Bible,
of specifically alcoholic wine.
But what are the commands in the Bible?
Go ahead and turn to Proverbs chapter number 23.
If I could get a another drink here, non-alcoholic, that would be preferable.
Yeah, if I take a drink and it's like, you know, tequila, that would not be ideal, okay?
All right, so we're in Proverbs chapter number 23. Look at verse number 29.
So this is, you know, this is, we were here earlier, but I want to give the broader context to that verse.
It says in verse number 21, it says,
Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babblings? 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 its color in the cup, when it moved 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 lieeth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieeth
upon the top of the mast.
They have stricken me, thou shalt say.
And when, excuse me, and as I was not sick, they have beaten me, and I felt it not.
When shall I awake?
And so, you know, again, the Bible here is not painting a positive picture of people
that are going out and partaking of wine and getting drunk, okay?
This is not a positive thing.
Why?
Because, again, because of the fact that people lose their better judgment, they're getting
whoa, right?
They're getting sorrow.
They're getting contentions.
They're babbling, they're saying stupid things and they're getting wounds without cause.
Because there's a lot of people out there, they'll get so drunk, they'll get into a fight.
Then they'll wake up the next morning and they won't even remember what happened
They'll have like a bruise and you know multiple bruises or whatever and they'll be like you know
Hey, you know so-and-so. Do you know do you remember what? Hey, you know Earl or whatever
Do you remember what happened last night? Can you tell me and they'll be like I don't know man?
I I forgot everything too
You know and so again, this is not painting painting a positive picture
But again, what is the command in this section of scripture?
Okay, the command is in verse number 31. Once again, it says, look thou not
upon the wine. Now, we already covered when we're not supposed to look at the wine, but I just want to focus on
the actual command where it says, look thou not upon the wine. Now, this is a command from scripture, okay?
And it's very clear.
That when the wine is alcoholic, you're not supposed to even look at it. Okay, let alone drink it now
Of course, you know some holier than now or something will come along and be like well, what if I close my eyes?
You know
And this is just this is just foolish saying right this is just a stupid
You know they say hey, there's no such thing as a stupid question
Well, if you come to me and you're asking me like is it sinful Jason if I just close my if I if I close my eyes
If I walk into the store right and I close my eyes because I haven't memorized where the beer section is
Open the open it up grab one out
You know and then I put it behind my back and then I can open my eyes and then I then I check it up
Pay for it and then I get in my truck and then I close my eyes
That's a stupid question, okay? You know that's that's obviously that's completely ridiculous if the Bible is telling us
So you're not supposed to even look at something to not to look at a beverage
It's telling you don't drink it
Okay, that's that's that's pretty common sense and if somebody lacks that level of common sense
Just go and do whatever you want. You know, I can't help you at all. There's nothing I can do for you
You know, it's just if you're if somebody's gonna say well, I closed my eyes, you know
Then just you know forget about it, right? What's the Bible trying to say? Don't drink it
It's that's obviously what it's trying to say here look not upon the wine when it is red when it give this color
I'm the couple and move it to self-right. Okay, very
very simple
And, you know, why is it that the Bible is telling us this?
Well, because look at what all the different things
that the Bible is telling us that alcohol is going to do to you.
You know, at the last bite it's like a serpent
and sting it's like an adder.
I mean, who's ever been bitten by like a snake,
like a poisonous snake?
nobody okay well the you know if anybody ever gets bit by a snake I want
you to come and tell me what it was like because that's what the Bible is
telling us that it's like when when somebody gets you know you know drunk
they're gonna make these kind of decisions where it's like okay well you
know what I rather have you know gotten drunk and then I know all this horrible
stuff happened to me or would have been better for me to just get bitten by a
poisonous snake
You know because you know maybe it'd just be better to get bitten by a poisonous snake
And you know pray that you're like the Apostle Paul and you could just shake it off and you know
And then all then the people of the island just think you're like a god or whatever and then you ever like no
I'm not a god. I'm just the Apostle Paul. Okay, but um
But I mean I mean all this
terrible stuff is is
Described to happen to people that are partaking of this
And it's basically, it all goes back to that lack of judgment.
I mean, what's going to cause somebody to have all these contentions and
other perverse things and do all these foolish things,
it's their lack of judgment, right?
Is what causes people to do those type of things.
And that is what alcohol does,
it takes people's judgment away.
Now in Proverbs 31,
we have another section of scripture which tells us,
were commanded to not partake. Proverbs 31, look at verse number one, it says,
the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy 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
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong
drink, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of thy afflicted.
Give not strong drink under excuse me give strong drink under him that is ready to perish and
Why unto those that be of heavy hearts let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more
Okay, now this to me. This is very clear
That you know, I believe it's a sin for anybody to drink alcohol
But this makes it very clear that especially if you're a saved Christian, you're not to drink alcohol.
Why? Well, because it says, hey, it is not for kings.
Okay? Now here's the thing.
In the New Testament of the Lord and Savior of Jesus Christ, it's very clear.
You know, I covered this last week that we are made kings and priests unto God.
Okay? We that are washing his blood are made kings and priests unto God.
Again, for Christians, we're supposed to know God's word.
We're supposed to know God's law.
But if we're getting drunk and we're drinking, then what are we going to do?
We're going to forget the law.
We're supposed to know God's law and have proper judgment from God's law,
but if we're in an inebriated state,
we lose that proper judgment and we're going to forget the law and then pervert judgment.
That's not for Christians, once again.
It says later in verse number six and verse number seven,
it says, hey, give strong drink to them that is ready to perish.
Those who are ready to die.
you know, if you think about it in a spiritual sense, you know, are Christians ready to actually
die? No, because, I mean, what is it that Jesus said? He said, in John 11, He said,
I can't remember the verse. Let's just, let's turn to John chapter number 11.
John chapter number 11 in verse number 25 it says Jesus saith unto her I am the resurrection in the life
He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and
Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die
Believe us now this that's what the Bible says my friend
And so we're not ready to perish. We're not ready to die because Jesus said who's over living believe in the me shall never die
so
We don't need to drink alcohol because we're not ready to perish and we're not ready to die
We're ready to live and be with Jesus amen even at the end of our life even when you're on your deathbed
You're gonna actually die physically
Is that a good time to get drunk? No, because you know what? You have the hope in Jesus Christ.
You're gonna be alive and with the Lord. Okay, you may be asleep in Jesus,
but you're gonna be with the Lord spiritually. Okay, so guess what?
Verse number six doesn't apply to you either.
Right? It says let him let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more.
Well, here's the thing. If you're saved today, you've been made rich in Christ Jesus.
you know what you shouldn't have? Misery. Why? Because you've been given the
greatest gift that can ever be offered. You have the gift of eternal life paid
for by Jesus Christ. And so we shouldn't be just miserable people. We
shouldn't have to go home and just drown our sorrows in Bud Light or Bud
Wise or whatever all night. Because you know we have the hope of eternal life.
And we're not ready to die. We're not ready to perish.
What we are ready is to see the Lord.
That's what we're ready for, my friend.
And so, you know what?
Strong drink, that's not for kings, let me well.
That's not for kings, that's not for priests.
That's for those who are ready to die,
for those who have misery,
their parish, and they're in poverty.
That's who that's for.
Okay. If they want to drink,
you just go ahead and let them drink,
but you are a king.
A strong drink is not for kings.
And strong drink is not for those who need to have sound judgment, and that is every
single Christian on planet earth, my friend.
So it's not for us.
So we have multiple commands from the Bible that says, hey, no alcohol.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red.
It is not for kings to let me know.
It is not for kings to have strong drink, okay?
It's not for us.
Chapter number five, we have one more command and we actually have a couple more commands,
but so far these have all been basically negative commands,
meaning they're saying, hey, don't do this.
But then later we're going to get positive commands telling us to do something specific
But in Ephesians 5 verse number 18 it says and be not drunk with wine weren't his excess but be filled
with the Spirit
So according to the Bible the opposite of being drunk with wine is basically to be filled with the Spirit, okay?
And you know I could see you know somebody somebody might say well you see
The Bible is just saying not to get drunk. You know
There's absolutely nothing wrong with drinking just a little bit and of course, you know
The people that that believe this doctrine of saying hey, it's okay to drink and the Bible actually doesn't condemn alcohol
They want to have this like gray area, you know
They'll say well, it's you just can't get drunk. Yeah, but but who's deciding what drunk is you?
Are you going to get out of a breathalyzer and blow 0.8 and blow? Oh, no, it turned into a sin
You know a few minutes ago before the last drink I was at 0.7
Then I blew a 0.8 and now now it's a sin
You know, it's like no, you know, this is this you know
God is not giving us this just giant gray area where it's just kind of up to us to decide when when we started sinning or not
No, he get you know look you know there could be in the Bible there could be some gray areas in the Bible
Okay, I don't believe this is one of them
This just this isn't one of them. He says look not upon the one you look now up on the one when it is read
Okay, very simple
You know and I would I would say this basically I would say
That if you can have you know because people say well, you know well how much alcohol or you know
How much is too much or whatever?
Because they'll say well, you know all
Juices basically have some some amount of alcohol. So technically you're drinking alcohol. You know if you had kombucha before
There's a little bit of alcohol in there
You know and these you know these you know these are navel-gazing people, but but but here's what I would say though
I would say that if the FDA says you have to put the label on that says it's alcoholic. I
Wouldn't drink it and I can't I think it's like a quarter of a percent
I you know I looked this up a long time ago, but I can't remember exactly what it is
But but I would say like if you could drink
You know enough of something like if you if you had a beverage
Like a gallon of it and if you drank that whole gallon and you started to get to lose a little bit of your better judgment
I would say it has too much alcohol in it. I would say
Because like like kombucha for instance technically does have a small amount of alcohol in it
But here's the thing like if you just go to the store and buy kombucha you could literally never drink enough of it to cause
You to earn judgment in any way you would literally have to die first
Like because you know you'd have to drink like ten gallons or something or probably more
I don't I don't know what the number is but you literally could not
Get drunk in any way from drinking just regular kombucha from the store because there's not enough alcohol content
So that's what I would say. That's that's that's always that's been my rule of thumb
It's like okay if there's enough alcohol in this beverage to where if I drank
Enough of it. It could eventually start making me cause you know to err in judgment or to lose my better judgment
Then it's too much. There's too much and I'm not going to drink it
Okay, that's that's that's that's my rule of thumb
You know, honestly, I think that's a pretty good rule of thumb
you know because if
If you if you go by that that means you can literally
Never get drunk at all or never even get close to getting drunk, right?
But you could still drink and butcher from the store my friend, you know now if your buddy if you're a
Your buddy Earl down the street, you know, he's got his kombucha in the garage, man
And you know, I would be a little bit worried of that, you know
Because I think you could like if you make homemade kombucha or something you can get the alcohol content up a little bit, you know
but I
Believe that to be true. I'm not totally sure so I don't drink homemade kombucha. I just drink this stuff from the store
I'm good
Where was I? I don't even know. What happened? Okay, so we read Ephesians 5 now go to 1 Peter chapter number 5
So we covered that the negative
Commandments meaning
Don't do X right so the Bible says hey don't drink alcoholic wine
So let's get into the positive
The positive commandments that we're supposed to do something and these
Commandments also prove that we're not to drink alcohol
And in 1st Peter, this is a very famous verse, 1st Peter 5.8 it says be sober, be vigilant
because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
So what's the positive command in 1st Peter 5?
Well the command is to be sober.
Now here's the thing, it is physically impossible to be sober and be drunk at the same time.
That doesn't work. They're mutually exclusive. So if we have a command to be sober
That basically doubles as a command to not be drunk
okay, now
if I
If if I came to church in the morning and right before I got to the stairs I
Took out a cold beer and just you know or shotgun did
And then I came into church.
Am I sober at that point?
No.
Now would you say that I'm drunk?
Maybe not.
You know, or maybe if I had one of those
like hard iced teas or something,
or Mike's hard lemonade.
You know, it's not that much alcohol.
It's only one and a half percent.
It's not that bad.
But if I had a Mike's hard lemonade
right before I came into church,
am I sober at that point?
No.
I'm not. So, by having that small amount of alcohol, where I'm not drunk, like nobody
would say if I had a Mike's Hard Lemonade, one of them, I would be, nobody would say
I'm drunk, right? But yet, at the same time, I'm not sober anymore. And so, I have violated
first Peter 5-8, which says be sober, okay? Now, people will say, well, that's not talking
about being drunk and whatnot, that's just talking about spiritually watching out for
Well, here's the thing, what's one of the best tools
that devil has in his pocket is to get people drunk
so they make stupid decisions.
So I think being sober physically applies to this verse.
And I don't see how it could not apply.
To me, it's pretty obvious.
It's just be sober and be vigilant.
I mean, can you be vigilant while you're just
plastered or drunk, or you're inebriated or whatever, no, okay?
And so, I do believe 100% that drinking basically any amount
of alcohol is in fact a violation of first Peter 5.8.
Because again, the command is to be sober.
We'll go ahead and turn to Titus chapter number two.
Titus chapter number two.
Titus chapter number two, look at verse number one, it says,
but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine,
that the aged men be, notice this, sober.
Now, you know, I do believe that this is talking
about being physically sober and not being drunk,
okay, physically.
You know, and of course it applies in multiple ways,
you know, being serious as well.
But I mean if somebody is drunk, that means that they're not being serious, okay? By definition, they're not serious
And so I believe that this applies once again. It says the aged men be sober
grave
temperate sound and faith in charity in patients
The aged women likewise that they be in behavior as become of holiness not false accusers
notice this
not given to much wine, teachers of good things that they may teach the young women to be sober,
to love their husbands, to love their children, right?
So what are we talking about here?
That they may teach their young women to be sober.
What? That means that they're not inebriated, okay?
That means they have sound judgment, okay?
I mean, which kind of wine are we talking about here?
Because if it's saying not given to much wine,
that means you can have a little bit of wine.
Now is the Bible saying that you can have
a little bit of alcoholic wine?
No, because if you have a little bit of alcoholic wine,
once again, what are you not?
Sober, okay, you're not sober.
And so they're violating the commands that are above
and below that verse
if people are drinking a little bit of alcoholic wine.
But it's saying, hey, not given too much wine.
Again, you know, this is basically there
because back in Paul's day, wine was a big deal.
Wine was a very fancy thing.
And so somebody that's just given to a lot of wine,
that means they're given to a lot of a very fancy item.
And basically, somebody can be spoiled,
and they can be given to covetousness.
If they just have to have all the most fancy things
in the world or whatever, that means
that they're given to covetousness.
And that's not something that we should strive for.
So that's kind of what that not given to much wine
is talking about in this verse.
And that's being contrasted with being, well,
not given to much wine.
But being sober is contrasted with being drunk,
with not having good judgment.
Look at verse number five.
To be discrete, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the Word
of God be not blaspheme.
Young men likewise also exhort to be sober-minded.
So we have, you know, multiple times, you know, throughout this small section of Scripture,
Again, this is a positive command that tells us that if we're not sober, then we're violating
that command.
Anytime somebody is having any drink of alcohol where it causes them to no longer be sober,
they have violated these commands.
Because that's the command from the Bible.
And so don't let alcohol fool you.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
And that's what the Bible says, my friend.
And so don't be deceived by it.
Just avoid it.
You know why because I believe it's a sin to drink any amount of alcohol that could cause you to not be sober
Because that is the command from God. Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer
Do you have any father? I thank you for this day Lord. I thank you for everything you've done for us Lord
I pray that you please help us all to
Avoid alcohol and to avoid drinking any amount that would cause us to no longer be sober
Lord we pray that you please help us to be you know to not be drunk with wine
But to be filled with the spirit Lord that we can have proper judgment and live a good proper Christian life for you
Lord and your Jesus name. Amen
All right, let's remember the Jason our last of us on number 254 who's whoever will
This chair that up here this whole time
one the world
All right
We got our first deacon right there. He's chilling song 254 whosoever will
Song number two five four whosoever will let's sing it together on the first
whosoever hear it shout shout the sound spread the blessed tidings all the world
around tell the joyful news wherever man is found whosoever will may come
Tests a loving father, calls the wanderer home.
Whosoever will, may come on the second.
Whosoever cometh, need not delay.
Now the door is open, enter while you may.
Jesus is the truth.
Send the proclamation over Vailand Hill.
Tis a loving father calls the wander home.
Whosoever will may come.
Whosoever will the promise is secure.
Whosoever will.
life forevermore. Whosoever will may come. Whosoever will, whosoever will send the proclamation
Good seeing you brother Jake, could you close the water prayer?