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Now the part of the chapter that I would like to focus on is there toward the end of the chapter. But before I get to that part of the chapter, let me just read for you from verse 20, where the Bible reads, Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh, for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. What I want to preach about this morning is the subject of drunkenness, the subject of drinking. And I was thinking about it, and it's been a while since I've preached an entire sermon. One that I often touch upon in my sermons. But I think it was back in 2011 I found a sermon that I preached called Be Drunken and Spew. You know, the name taken directly from the book of Jeremiah. But I want to preach about drinking this morning. And it's amazing how I was just listening as Brother Garrett read the scripture this morning. I was just thinking about how many things just in that chapter would offend the world that we live in. And would offend America today. And would offend even your average Christian today. Just the way that God words things and just the things that he's, you know, just beating your kids and calling these promiscuous women whores. You know, and I haven't even gotten up to preach yet. I haven't even opened my mouth. I'm not even standing behind the pulpit. And the world's already offended. Just by the word of God itself. Just by Proverbs chapter 23, which is just a typical chapter in the Bible. But anyway, what I want to talk about is drinking. Look at verse 29, it says, Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mass. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick. They have beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake, I will seek it yet again. Now this passage is very clear that there exists a beverage that we are not even supposed to look at. Now people will often say, oh, it's okay to drink. You know, and Christians will often justify their sin of drunkenness by saying, well, it's okay to drink in moderation. It's okay to drink a little bit of alcohol. I just have a glass of wine with dinner, you know, is what they all say. But in reality, every person that I've ever known who was a Christian who justified drinking always became drunk. Always. They lie about it and say, oh, you know, I'm just drinking a glass of wine with dinner, I'm just a social drinker. Wrong. They're getting drunk every time. But not only that, the Bible is clear that there is a drink that we shouldn't even look at. Because he says in verse number 31, look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. Now in that verse, he's describing a certain type of wine that we should not look at. Now why would he do that? Because when the Bible uses the word wine throughout the Bible, it's not always referring to an alcoholic beverage, that's why. Now the proof of that, if you want to keep your finger in Proverbs 23, just flip over to Song of Solomon, just a few pages to the right in your Bible, go to Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verse number 2, and I'm going to show you the only time in the entire Bible that the word juice is ever used. Now the word wine is used 200 and some odd times. Over 200 times. Okay. But the word juice is only used one time in the entire Bible. Now it's obvious that all 200 and some times that God used the word wine, he's not talking about an alcoholic beverage. In fact, the vast majority of the time he's not talking about an alcoholic beverage. And it makes sense that he would not only refer to juice one time in the whole Bible. Okay. But here's why he used the word juice in Song of Solomon 8, verse 2, it says, I would lead thee and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct thee, I would cause thee to drink wine of the juice of my pomegranate. That is the only time that the word juice is ever used in the Bible. And it's used simply to be sounding better than redundant. Because if he would have said this, look down at your Bible there, if he would have said, I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the wine of my pomegranate, wouldn't that be a little bit redundant? Wine of the wine? That's why he used the word juice there, just to make it sound better by using two different words for the same thing. But to prove to you that the word wine often in the Bible just means juice, go if you would to Isaiah 65, verse 8. Isaiah 65, verse 8. And look what the Bible says here in regard to wine, it says in Isaiah 65, 8, Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it, so will I do for my servants' sakes that I may not destroy them all. So right there the Bible is telling us that wine is found in the cluster. Now let me ask you this. Does the juice that's found in the cluster of a grape contain any alcohol? No, it's in the cluster, it's still in the grape. Now obviously, you know, we know that every sugary beverage has minuscule traces of alcohol in them, just because of the way scientifically things break down. You know, if I had a glass of apple juice and left it on the counter for a couple hours, it's going to have minuscule traces of alcohol. Even a can of Coca-Cola has minuscule traces of alcohol. Even a Welch's grape juice. But let me tell you something, it'd be impossible to get drunk because it's such a trace level, okay? And when God is talking here about wine in the cluster, he's not talking about what you buy at the store that's labeled as wine today, which is an alcoholic beverage containing 10 to 15 percent alcohol. It's not what he's talking about. He's talking about juice in a grape that has no intoxicating effect on you. It will not make you drunk whatsoever. And throughout the Bible, we must differentiate when we see the word wine between a drink that is an alcoholic beverage and something that is just simply referring to fruit juice, okay? Now if you would go back to Proverbs 23. You say, well, how do I tell the difference, Pastor Anderson, as I'm reading the Bible and I see the word wine, how do I know which one it is? Well, if he's telling you how bad it is, if he's telling you it's sin, if he's telling you that you're going to behold strange women and say perverted things, which one do you think he's talking about? And if it's what Jesus is serving, which one do you think he's talking about? Budweiser? You know? You think Jesus shows up at a wedding where they ran out of wine and, you know, they've well drunk and he's going to give them more alcohol, right? I mean, you have to be drunk to believe that, okay? And that's what people are using today to try to justify drinking. And they try to justify it by saying, well, it's okay to have it in moderation. It's okay to have a little bit, you know? It's something that God has provided for us. And they always drink it to excess. I remember when I was a child, we had friends that lived on our street and they would always tell us, it's okay, the Bible never commands you not to drink. It just commands you not to get drunk. It's okay to drink as long as you don't get drunk. Okay, then I spent the night at their house, they had friends over and the two couples, four adults, drank a 24-pack together. Okay, I mean, how is that moderation? How is that, well, we're not getting drunk? And here's the thing, they love to tell you how the Bible just tells us not to get drunk. But far more than it ever tells you not to get drunk is the command to be sober. And over and over again, all throughout the New Testament, he said, be sober, be sober, be sober, be sober, be sober. And you say, well, how much do you have to drink to be drunk? A better question is, how much do you have to drink to not be sober? And, you know, if you're sober, you've drunk nothing. And the Bible says here in verse 29, who hath woe? Basically what that means is that this is going to bring the curse of God on your life, not the blessing of God on your life. The word woe is associated with the curse of God, Old Testament and New Testament. Who hath woe? That means bad things are happening to you. Who hath sorrow? This isn't going to make you happy. It's going to make you sad. It's going to bring heartache. He says, who hath contentions? What do contentions mean? Fighting, strife, not getting along with people. And you know what the Bible also says? Only by pride cometh contention. And the Bible tells us in Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 5, Yea, also because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man. Neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell and as his death, and cannot be satisfied. The Bible teaches that drinking will make you a proud man. And the Bible says only by pride cometh contentions. Hence the bar fights. You know, hence the, you know, blustering and tough guys that go out and drink and get in fights and they won't suffer any insult. It's because of pride, contentions. Who hath babbling? You know what babbling is? Sink stupid things. And you know what? There's nothing more irritating than for a sober person to be around a drunk person. It's the most irritating thing in the world. Because here you are in your right mind, here you are having a brain in your head and you're hanging around with people who are acting like complete idiots and imbeciles and babbling. It's the most boring thing. To listen to them talk, there's nothing interesting about what they're saying. It's annoying, it's stupid, you have to be drunk to enjoy it. I don't know who could ever be the designated driver for these people and go out and not drink while they all get drunk and listen to all their stupid babbling the whole time. And listen to all the stupidity that comes out of their mouth. And you know what? That's why every drinker I've ever known never had a designated driver. Never. I've never known somebody who drank that didn't drive when they drank. But everybody I've ever known who drinks then gets behind the wheel and drives drunk every single one. Well I know somebody who did. Well whatever, I don't. The people that I know who drink, they all drive drunk. And people are constantly being killed, people are constantly being injured by drunken drivers who get behind the wheel because you know what? People that are drunk only care about themselves. Let me prove that to you. Flip over in the Bible if you would to the book of Joel toward the end of the Old Testament. Look at Joel in the Minor Prophets. See people that are drunk, they only care about themselves. That's why they'll get behind the wheel. That's why they'll endanger the lives of others. That's why they'll waste all their money and waste all their time drinking. Look what the Bible says in Joel 3-3 about those that are drunk. It says, and they have cast lots for my people and have given a boy for a harlot and sold a girl for wine that they may drink. This is talking about people selling their children to get booze money. Selling their children into prostitution that they might receive money to buy more booze. Isn't that a lovely image that the Bible paints in Joel 3-3? Because people that drink are selfish. That's why they get in contentions. That's why they babble and tell everybody their stupidity that nobody wants to hear. It says next, he said, Who hath woe, who hath sorrow, who hath contentions, who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? There's your injury. There's your drunken driving accident. There's your bar fight. Who hath redness of eyes? You know, you can spot people that are drunks. You can tell by the features of their face. You can see the redness in their eyes. You can tell by their nose. You can tell by the beer gut. You can look at them and say, this person's a drunkard. It says, They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine. And you say, what does that mean, going to seek mixed wine? He's saying, you know, you're looking for a high alcohol content. You're looking for something that has more alcohol than just basic wine. You're going to seek mixed wine. You know, this is your mixed drinks, your hard liquor, your distilled alcohol, okay? And by the way, when you're mixing alcohol and drugs, you're seeking mixed wine. And you know, today, everybody's on prescription drugs. That's a whole sermon in and of itself. The addiction to painkillers, the addiction to mind-altering drugs. But let me tell you something. When you're mixing alcohol and drugs and then you're going to tell me you're a social drinker, you're taking Vicodin. I talked to somebody recently who had experience with this that told me, they said, if you take Vicodin and then you drink, multiply however many drinks you had by four. If you had one drink, it's like you had four. If you had two, it's like you had eight. Because you're mixing drugs and alcohol. And today, everybody's on prescription drugs. Then they go out and drink. They're drunk. They're stupid. You know, the Bible says it's wicked. He says don't even look at it. He says, Thine eyes shall behold strange women. What's that tell you? In verse 33, the Bible's telling us that under the influence of alcohol, you will begin to lust after women that are not your wife. You're going to start looking at strange women. What does strange mean? It doesn't mean that they're weird. Strange means foreign. Like a stranger. You know, don't talk to strangers. It's just somebody that you don't know. And he's saying your eyes are going to look at women that are not your woman, that are not your wife. You're going to look at them because you're drunk. And then your mouth is going to utter perverse things. Now let me ask you this. Does it say your mouth might utter perverse things? Does it say you might behold strange women? It says you shall behold strange women and you shall utter perverse things. And then it says in verse 35, they have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick. They have beaten me and I have felt it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. You see, drinking alcohol becomes an addiction where people actually drink in the morning even. Because they're so addicted to it, they get to the point where they just have to have alcohol in their blood all the time or they don't feel right. So they wake up in the morning, they must ingest alcohol. Hence the Bloody Marys. The Baileys and the coffee, right? You know, they drink liquor first thing in the morning or take drugs or whatever it is. And by the way, everything I'm preaching, you could apply it to drugs. You could apply it to marijuana. You could apply it to cocaine. You could apply it to methamphetamine. You know, it's all the same thing. It's all a lack of sobriety. You're not being sober. You know, God deals especially with alcohol because that's the most common. I mean, how many people do you know that are addicted to street drugs? Probably very few. Okay, how many people do you know that drink? A lot. And how many people do you know that are addicted to prescription drugs? And you know why people like being addicted to prescription drugs? Because they're free. Because the government, Obama will pay for them. You know, Obamacare pays for it and your health insurance pays for it and you can go down and get drugs. And let me tell you something, go to Proverbs 31. Let me tell you something about these drugs that they give you. Because people try to justify this like, oh I need these drugs because I have pain. You don't understand, you know, I've got this illness or injury. And you know, a lot of people become drug addicts because they actually have a legitimate injury. And then they start taking narcotics for their injury and then they just get addicted to it. And then it goes from being, you know, okay I got this for an injury to just a recreational use is what it becomes. Or just an addiction or whatever you want to call it. And I'm going to tell you something. When you're taking narcotics, okay, I don't care if you've never experienced any pain in your life. Let's just say, for example, let me just teach you something, okay. Because I actually know quite a bit about drugs. I've never taken, you know, any type of drugs except for, you know, I think a couple times I was prescribed painkillers or something as a kid, you know. Nothing that I do anymore. Never drunk a beer in my life. So I'm not really an expert on these things as far as first-hand experience. But when you say, well you can't talk, then you know what? It's a lot smarter to learn from other people's experience than your own. I don't have to wake up in a pool of my own vomit. You know, I'll let somebody else do that and I'll just take heed and be wise and not have to experience it myself. But let me say this. If you were to start taking a narcotic painkiller, like let's say Vicodin or let's say morphine, right. And these are things that you can get from the doctor. I mean you can get oxy, what's that stuff called? Oxycontin. What is it? Oxycontin. You can get all that stuff. Okay, I do know quite a bit about drugs because my wife and I used to translate medical articles. This is something that I actually did for a living for a few months is translating medical articles from German into English. And so, you know, we did a lot on anesthetics and narcotics and drugs, you know, that are prescription drugs. Let me just explain something to you if you don't already know this, okay. If you start taking a narcotic painkiller every day, like let's say Vicodin for example, right. And let's say you take that every day for months and then you stop taking it. You're not going to believe what you're going to experience. What do you think you're going to experience? It starts with a P. Pain, okay. Now that doesn't mean, oh yeah, well I need this stuff because I'm experiencing pain. It's called withdrawals. You're experiencing withdrawals. If you take drugs every day and then stop taking those drugs, you're going to feel pain. You know why? Because your brain knows I want that drug. I'm addicted to that drug. Give me that drug. It's that drug is a painkiller. I'm going to simulate pain in the body. Because look, all pain is in your head. Pain is in your brain. I mean, it's your nerves are saying the rest of your brain. So your brain can just turn on pain when it wants to. And so what happens is, when you stop taking drugs, your brain will just turn on the pain. Give me more drugs. Okay? And let me tell you something. You say, well I have a legitimate reason for a prescription drug. Okay, I'm not going to argue that with you. Then you should never touch alcohol. Because anybody will, even the unsafe world will tell you not to mix drugs and alcohol. But you should never touch alcohol anyway. But if you're mixing both, it's like it just escalates both when you mix drugs with alcohol. But look if you would at Proverbs 31. The Bible reads in Proverbs 31, just a few pages to the right in your Bible. And let me tell you something. I'm not going to drink in moderation. I'm not even going to look at alcohol. The wine that I'm going to look at is Welch's. I'm going to look at, what's that one, Martinelli. That's what I'll look at. I will not look at alcoholic beverage. I will not look at Budweiser. Let alone drink it. I'm not going to look at it. I'm not going to touch it. I don't want to be anywhere near it. Because there's no good that comes of it. It's woe. It's sorrow. It's contention. It's pride. It's drowsiness, the Bible tells us in Proverbs 23. But look if you would, adultery. Look at Proverbs 31 verse 3, it says, Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyed kings. And you'll notice, almost always when the Bible's talking about alcohol in Proverbs, there's something about a strange woman, some about adultery, some about fornication, side by side with it. Because think about it, when you're drunk you're much more likely to commit those sins. I've talked to people who are completely faithful to their spouse, went to a party, got drunk, committed adultery. Because your good judgment's gone. Your righteousness is gone. He says in Proverbs 31 verse 3, Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. 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 the afflicted. Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts, let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more. Now look the Bible says right there, it's not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink, because they will drink and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of the afflicted. Look, alcohol is going to make you forget the word of God. Alcohol is going to make you pervert judgment. And that's why even the traffic school will tell you, the first thing, you take one sip of alcohol, the first thing that begins to go, even before you're impaired, even before the reaction time, is your good judgment. And the judgment that tells you, I'm only going to drink X amount, once you drink X amount, that judgment's gone. You say, eh, one more. Every drunkard started out as a social drinker. Nobody just starts out the first time they drink and just drinks a ton of liquor and mixes it with drugs. No, you start out with just a beer. And then pretty soon you get used to drinking a beer, it doesn't do anything for you anymore. And so people who drink, they have to keep escalating the drinking, because it stops having an effect on them. And you know, if you talk to somebody that says, well I drink and it doesn't affect me, you know what that tells you? That person drinks a lot. Because everybody knows that if you don't drink much, it affects you more, right? Somebody who's never drunk is going to be much easier to get drunk than somebody who drinks all the time. So if somebody says, oh I can drink two beers, I can drink three beers, they have no effect on me, that just tells you that they're constantly drinking, to have built up the tolerance to it to be able to do that. But he says it's not for kings, it's not for princes, it'll cause them, he said it'll destroy kings. It will destroy kings, because look what it says. It says, thy ways to that which destroyeth kings, verse 3. It's not for kings, O Lemuel, it's not for kings to drink wine. You say, what does that have to do with me? I'm not a king. Are you saved? The Bible says that Jesus Christ, in Revelation 1, has washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father. Give me glory forever and ever, amen. The Bible says we're kings. We will rule and reign with Christ, we're priests. He told the priests, don't drink wine. He told kings, don't drink wine. In the New Testament, you're both. And he says, give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish. And what's funny is that people will actually use this scripture as a justification to drink. Well the Bible says, give strong drink unto those that are of heavy hearts. So, you know, I've got a tear in my beer or whatever, you know, so I'm going to go ahead and have some to drink. I have a heavy heart, you know, and they put on their honky-tonk country western, you're cheating heart, tear in my beer, my hound dog done up and died, you know, and my old home town and my old, you know, old holler and, you know, they listen to all this music, they get all, you know, drunk and they go, I'm just a sad guy. You know, why don't you turn to the comfort of the Holy Ghost? But they sit there and they say, oh this says to give it to those that are of heavy hearts. It says, give it to him that's ready to perish. I thought whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And you know what? Have you ever heard of sarcasm? I mean, what if I also told you it's raining cats and dogs outside? I guess you're going to think that animals are falling out of the sky. Like, you just don't understand what it means to basically use a figure of speech to say, hey, it's not for you, Lemuel, to drink wine, give it to the guy who's ready to perish. Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more. The derelict in the gutter. What's he say? Drinking is for derelicts. Drinking is for losers. It's not for princes. It's not for kings. It's not for God's people. It's for losers. And let me tell you something. If you drink, you're a loser. There, I said it. You're a loser. If you have to drink to have a good time, I say you're a loser. I don't want to be around you because you're boring. You're boring and stupid. I want to hang around with somebody who's interesting to be around. Because if you have to get drunk to have fun, it shows that you don't know how to have fun. And the most simple-minded, imbecilic, stupid people who have nothing to live for, they don't know the Bible, they don't want to talk about Genesis, they don't want to talk about Exodus, they don't want to talk about Leviticus, they don't want to talk about family, they don't want to talk about righteousness and godliness and peace, they want to say stupid things and they have to get drunk so they can forget how stupid they are. They have to get drunk so they can forget how ugly they are and how ugly their spouse is and how ugly their friends are and how they all get up and sing karaoke and they all sound like garbage. They sound like a cat that's being strangled. And they have to forget, we're stupid. We're in a building that smells like piss. We're drinking. We're partying with a bunch of losers and derelicts and deadbeats and we have to pretend that we're having a good time. So let's get so drunk that we don't even know where we are, we don't even know what we're doing, let's just drink and forget it all. This is a great justification for drinking. In fact, I'm starting to rethink my philosophy that drinking is wrong. Because I mean, come on, we're all derelicts here, right? We all need to forget our poverty and misery, right? We're all laying in the gutter ready to perish here, right? We're not kings, we're not princes. You know, this Bud's for you, we're all a bunch of derelict losers who hate our life so much that we have to forget about it and drown it in a bottle. I can't believe he said the word piss. Piss, piss, piss. The Bible says the word piss six times. And you know what beer smells like? Piss. It's piss in a bottle. And you know what? You don't like that? Tough. Because I'm sick of God's people drinking. I'm sick of churches justifying drinking. I'm sick of everybody going soft on liquor, soft on drinking, soft on drugs, and I'm here to tell you this preacher's not going to put up with it. I'm going to scream and yell, I'm going to use the word vomit and piss. That's what the Bible talks about. That's what the Bible says. It's filthy. Go if you would to the book of Isaiah. Let's go to Isaiah chapter number 28. And you know what? Do I have kids in the service? Thank God they're hearing this. Thank God. This is the kind of preaching I heard which is why I never touched it. Because I heard this kind of preaching, that's why. Because I heard the preaching that said if you drink you're a loser, you're a derelict. You're a ghetto loser derelict. Say well I drink. Repent. Quit drinking. Say I'm offended. I drink. Then quit drinking and then you won't be offended anymore. Then you can quit being a loser. Look what the Bible says in Isaiah 28 verse 7, but they also have erred through wine and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink. You know it's a sad day when pastors are drinking. And I've known many pastors who drink and who condone of drinking and then all their members go out and get drunk because they're setting that poor example. When I was a child my friends from the Christian school went to a church that we called the beer church because everybody there drank, the pastor drank, everybody drank and it was the beer church. He said the prophet has erred through strong drink. They are swallowed up of wine. They're out of the way through strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment for all tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there is no place clean. Children, listen to me children. Maybe some of the adults today can't handle this kind of preaching, but children, will you listen to me? This is what alcohol really is like. Forget the Budweiser ad. Forget the billboard you saw. Forget Miller Time. Forget all the shiny, and this way, crisp, clean, refreshing, cool, like it's Gatorade. Like it's a bottle of Gatorade. I mean seriously. It's clean. It's crisp. It's liquid. Crisp is pizza crust. Crisp is crunchy. Crisp, clean, clear, refreshing, and they show a bunch of bikini babes and then they show a bunch of guys with their six-pack abs. Where's the beer belly? You don't get a six-pack abs drinking Budweiser, you get a beer gut. Everybody knows when you see a man that looks like he's pregnant, okay, where the rest of his body is a normal size, but he looks like he's pregnant, and that's a beer gut. That's your six-pack abs. I mean you want to talk about six-pack abs? Six-pack abs is a male pregnancy belly, okay? And the Bible says here that all tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there is no place clean. If that appeals to you children, grow up and drink. If it sounds fun to be in a place where tables are full of vomit and filthiness and there's no place clean, then you know what, Budweiser, hams, and Miller, and Coors, and all of it, you know what, this is what you need. Now if you would, let's look at some other scriptures while we're in Isaiah. See this sermon, I got so many pages of scriptures, it's just kind of like, I'm just kind of flipping pages in my notes and just reading stuff. Because there's just so many, I mean, you can't even write a sermon on alcohol. Because you've got like 150 verses, how do you put it all in one sermon? So you just have to just go with it. You know, you just start looking down at your page and you see, okay, here's another one about vomit. Make him drunken, for he has magnified himself against the Lord. Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision. Look at Isaiah 19 verse 14, since we're in Isaiah, there's no method to this sermon. It's just a bunch of verses that talk about how bad it is to drink. This is not three points in a poem. This is a bunch of verses that tell you that if you drink, you're a fool. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Bunch of verses that tell you you're a loser ready to perish. Bunch of verses that tell you that, you know, if you're drunk, you're going to be wallowing in your own vomit. Look at Isaiah 19, 14, the Lord have mingled a perverse spirit. Why is the word pervert coming up like four times? Well, we'll get to that in a minute. That's the next point I've decided. Isaiah 19, 14, the Lord have mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof, and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. Go if you would to Genesis chapter 9. Let's look at the first time alcohol is ever mentioned. Let's see the pervert connection. Genesis chapter number 9. Genesis 9, this is the first mention of alcohol in the Bible. And let me tell you something, we should always take note the first time something's mentioned. The first mention of alcohol in the Bible. Look at Genesis 9 verse 20. And Noah began to be a husband, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. So the first time we see drunkenness mentioned, he gets naked. And then it says, Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. 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. Look right there, that tells you that, you know, and you can debate, and different people debate upon, you know, what the Bible actually meant when it talked about uncovering his nakedness, because a lot of times that's a euphemism for something worse. Whatever it was, it was homo stuff. Whatever it was, it was something bad. You can debate about what exactly took place, I don't want to know, I'm glad God didn't tell us, but he basically just tells us, look, Ham had done something unto Noah to the point where him and all his descendants were cursed, and the Canaanites were cursed. Because it said when he knew what Ham had done unto him, he cursed Canaan. Look, it's something perverted happened to Noah when he was drunk and didn't even know what was happening. He didn't know what his younger son had done unto him until he woke up. Now go to the second mention of alcohol, Genesis 19. That was Genesis 9, Genesis 19. So the first time we see alcohol mentioned, we see homosexuality mentioned in the same breath, okay? Listen to this verse while you're turning to Genesis 19, Habakkuk 2.15, Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that putteth thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness. Isn't that what we saw in Genesis 9? Getting someone drunk for the purpose of looking on their nakedness. But it gets worse because if we read the verse carefully, I read that verse my whole life. I memorized the book of Habakkuk when I was 17, the whole book, quoted the whole book, but it wasn't until years later that this dawned on me, that it says, woe unto him, is that male or female? Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor, male or female, that thou mayest put thy bottle to him, and make him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness. That's a him getting another him drunk to look on their nakedness. Correct me if I'm wrong, that's homosexuality. This isn't even about a man getting a woman drunk. This is about a man getting a man drunk, a sodomite, a pervert. I mean look, the Bible is associating these things. Maybe that's why in Deuteronomy, God tells us, their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are the grapes of Gaul, their clusters are bitter, their wine is the poison of dragons. By the way, dragons are devils in the Bible. Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps. That's why when you go to the bar, they say pick your poison. The Bible says their wine is poison. It's of the devil. It's of the serpent, he said. It's of dragons. It's of the asp serpent. He said it's the vine of Sodom, because sodomites love drinking, because they love to get people to do things that they don't want to do, and alcohol is the perfect tool to do that. Anybody I've ever talked to who came to me, because I've had a lot of people come to me concerned about their soul, saying, you know, man, you know, one time I experimented inside of me, and I'm afraid I'm a reprobate. You know, I'm afraid it's too late. I mean, look, I've had many people come to me and say that. Not people in our church, but people outside of our church, they've just been just afraid, man. I don't know. Am I perverted? Am I perverse? And they always say, well, one time I was drunk, one time I was totally drunk at a party, and this person did that, you know, and I was grossed out by it, but, you know. Good night! I mean, that is just horrible. I mean, just the, look, the sodomite culture we're living in in America, the homo culture, I mean, if you're in high school, you're surrounded by sodomites. If you're in college, you're surrounded by sodomites. I mean, if there was ever a time to be sober, it's now. So that you don't end up being abused by a sodomite when you're so drunk, you don't even know what's going on. Are you in Genesis 19? Look at this in Genesis 19. Says in Genesis 19, 31, and the firstborn said unto the younger, our father is old and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. I'm not going to take the time to tell the whole story here, but this is right after Sodom and Gomorrah has been destroyed. These daughters of Lot who grew up in Sodom, they, you know, they grew up going to Sodom Unified School District and, you know, they grew up raised in Sodom. They grew up and they say, come, let us make our father drink wine. This is the second time alcohol is mentioned in the Bible. Come, let us make our father drink wine and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night and the firstborn went in and lay with her father and he perceived not when she lay down nor when she arose and it came to pass on the morrow that the firstborn said unto the younger, behold I lay yesterday night with my father. Let us make him drink wine this night also and go thou in and lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father and they made their father drink wine that night also and the younger arose and lay with him and he perceived not when she lay down nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. He didn't even know, and I mean, he's a man. He's laying there. He is taken advantage of in his sleep. He doesn't know when they arose. He doesn't know when they got. Who wants to be that vulnerable? At a party? With strangers? In a dormitory? With college kids? With high schoolers? With friends? With, I mean, who wants to be just totally in a coma where someone can lie down, get up, do all manner of things to you and you have no clue. You're completely just unaware of anything that has happened and, you know, this is something that God's people should stay as far away from as they possibly can. I mean, who, look, you say, well drinking's not that bad of a sin. Okay, what kind of sins is it going to lead you into that are that bad? But wait a minute, drinking in and of itself is that bad of a sin. Go to 1 Corinthians 5, I'll show you what I mean. 1 Corinthians 5, you see, the Bible teaches that drinking is a major sin. So you can sit there and say, well drinking's not a big deal. Okay, is adultery a big deal? Is lusting after strange women a big deal? Is saying perverted things a big deal? Is pride a big deal? The Bible says the devil's the king over all the children of pride. The Bible says that God hates a proud look, okay? And if alcohol brings pride, if alcohol brings all these things, if alcohol makes you covetous because the Bible says, yea also because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell and is as death and can never be satisfied. I mean, look, isn't that the effect of alcohol? Because he transgresses by wine, he's never satisfied. His desire is constantly enlarged and he is a proud man. These are not the attributes of God's people. And the Bible says, wine is a mock or strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. What does that mean that you're deceived by it? The person who's deceived by it is not the one who's saying, I understand all the effects of alcohol, I understand how bad it is, I understand how sinful it is and I'm going to drink it anyway. That person's not deceived, that person's just stupid. But wait a minute, the Bible teaches of Adam and Eve, it says, for Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. You see, Adam knew what he was doing when he ate the fruit. Did you get that? He was not deceived, Eve was deceived. So if the Bible says, who's ever deceived thereby is not wise, that means there are people who are deceived by alcohol, meaning that they think, oh, there's nothing wrong with it. It's not bad, it's not a sin, it's okay, it's not harmful, I'll be fine, I can handle it. Look at 1 Corinthians 5, let's see if drinking is a major sin, or if it's just not that big of a deal. 1 Corinthians 5, it says, verse 9, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters, for that must needs go out of the world. Listen on verse 11, but now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a what? Or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat. For what am I to do to judge them also with that or without? Do not ye judge them that are within, but them that are without? God judgeth, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Now what does he mean when he says, what am I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within, but them that are without? God judgeth, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person? God says, look, I will judge the people that are outside the church. Isn't that what he means when he says without and within? Because in verse 1 of the chapter he says, it is reported commonly among you that there is fornication and that's why he starts out with fornication, but then he expands it to include the covetous, the idolater, the drunkard, the railer, and the extortioner. So if we think about this, he says look, people that are outside the church, God judges them. But God says it's your responsibility to judge those that are within the church. He says, don't judge, don't judge, don't judge. He says look, you judge the people that are within, I'll judge the people that are without. And he says that our judgment of those that are within, in verse 13, is that we are to put away from among ourselves that wicked person. Now who is the Bible referring to when he says that wicked person? He's referring to those who are fornicators, covetous, idolaters, drunkards, railers, and extortioners. So look, God's saying if you're a drunk, you're a wicked person. Well I'm a good person, but I'm a drunk. No, you're a wicked person if you're a drunk. That's what the Bible teaches. And let me tell you something. I do not believe that we should be talebearers and tattletales and tattlers and busybodies. I don't believe that. And that's why if there's somebody in our church who commits sin, I don't want to know about it. I don't need you to come tell me so-and-so smokes or so-and-so listens to rock and roll and so-and-so is dressed inappropriately or so-and-so told a lie or so-and-so did. You know, I don't need everybody's sins reported to me. I don't need you to be a tattler and a busybody. You know, just mind your own business, pass over a transgression, but let me tell you something. If anybody in our church is doing one of the things on that list, you come and tell me about it and I'll throw them out of our church. Did you hear me? I don't need to know about everybody's sin. I don't want to know about your sins. I'm not without sin. You're not without sin. We're all sinners. We don't want to go around exposing everyone's sins, but let me tell you something. If you are doing something on this list or if someone you know is doing something on this list, come tell me and I'll throw them out of the church. You say you wouldn't have the guts. I've thrown several people out of this church. I've been pastoring for seven and a half years. I've thrown multiple people out of this church. You say, well, why would you do that? Because the Bible commands me to. Hello, is anybody out there? The Bible says put away from among yourselves that wicked person. The Bible says you go to that person with one person by yourself. You try to talk sense into them. You go to them with two or three witnesses and then when you don't go to them with two or three witnesses and they don't get it, you bring it for the church and if they won't hear the church, then they're to be to you as a heathen man and a publican and you put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Let me tell you something. If you're a drunk, get out of this church. Did you hear me? You drink, you're a drunk, get out because we don't need God's curse and woe on this church. Do yourself a favor. Save me the trouble of throwing you out when I find out you're a drunk by just throwing yourself out and then God will judge you when you're outside the church and you know what? God judges everybody who's outside the church because you know what? You're supposed to be in church. You're commanded to be in church, but you know what? You're going to be thrown out of this church and you can go find a liberal church to go to. Pastor Jack Daniels will be glad to welcome you into his flock, okay, and he might even drink socially with you or whatever, okay? Go to Pastor Daniels' church. Go down the street. Pastor Captain Morgan or whatever will be glad to welcome you into his flock, but let me tell you something. You are not welcome in this church if you're a drunk. Did you hear me? You're not welcome. And if you're here and you're a drunk, you're only here because I don't know that you're a drunk. And let me tell you something. You're living in fornication. You're going to bed outside of marriage. Get out of this church or if I find out, I'll throw you out of this church. And you say, well you can't make me, I'll pick you up and throw you out of this church. Did you hear me? I'll pick you up and throw you out of the church. You will not, it's either me or you. I will not pastor a church filled with drunkenness and fornication, covetousness and idolatry. And you know what? Let's go down the whole list while we're here. Let's go down the whole list. You know, this would make a great series, like a six part series. I'm serious. Like a six part series. Things that will get you thrown out of any Bible believing church. Number one, fornication. Okay? Fornication. You, you say, well everybody's a sinner. You know what? He that's without sin among you. You know what? If you're committing fornication, you're going to be thrown out of the church. You can quote those verses to me till you're blue in the face. I'm reading the New Testament. I'm reading 1 Corinthians 5. If you're a fornicator, you will be thrown out of this church. I've thrown fornicators out of this church and I will do it again. Okay? Fornication is when you are, when you're, if you're living together before you're married, I'm going to assume you're in fornication and you'll be thrown out of the church. You know, and you're going to sit there and commit fornication and bring wrath of God on the whole congregation like Achan. Like Achan the son of Carmi, the troubler of Israel. Listen troubler of faithful word Baptist. You get out or I'll throw you out. You fornicate, you're out. Number two, covetous. You say, well come on Pastor Anderson, everybody covets from time to time. Everybody sometimes wishes that. But you know what the Bible is talking about when it talks about covetous people? It's people who are just constantly talking about money and they just constantly talk about getting a better car, getting a better house, getting this, getting that, and boats and yachts and, and everything and they brag about how much they have and they brag about their possessions. And if you hang around with people like that, you're going to begin to be infected with the love of money. And the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. And let me tell you something. If, if, if I find somebody in our church who just goes around bragging about their wealth all the time and showing off their wealth and talking about money and talking about buying things and talking about spending money and just wants to just talk all day about the fancy purse and the fancy clothes and the fancy garb, why don't you dress like a godly lady, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but as becoming women professing godliness with good works. You go around flaunting all your wealth and talking about money and wealth and buying this and buying that and I wish I had this and I wish I had that. Get out! Because this isn't going to be a materialistic type church. It's a spiritually minded church and to be carnally minded is death. Get out. No covetous persons allowed. No fornicators allowed. And thirdly, idolatry. What's idolatry? Statues, graven images. You know, you're bowing down to the Virgin Mary, you're bowing down to the saints, you got a statue of Jesus, get out of here. Go join the Catholic church where you belong. The next thing he said is drunkards. So what do we got so far, fornicators, covetous, idolaters, drunkards. We already went over that. You say well I'm not a drunk, do you drink every day? You're a drunk. Did you hear me? If you drink on a daily basis, you're a drunk. You're mixing drugs and alcohol, you're a drunk. You're drinking and driving, you're a drunk. Now if you drank a beer one time, I'm not going to call you a drunk, but when you're drinking and driving, when you're drinking on a daily basis, when you're mixing drugs and alcohol, when you're, you know, you're a drunk. And if you're one of these that barely ever drinks a tiny bit, you're just on your way to becoming a drunk. You're just going to get thrown out eventually anyway. Either quit drinking or just self, self cast yourself out, okay? And then the next thing he said is a railer. You know what a railer is? Railer, whenever you look up the word railing, it's talking about somebody who's a false accuser. Somebody who goes around, lies about people, makes railing accusations, hey so and so did this, and it's just a lie. Just making things up. False accusers. And the Bible talks a lot about, you know, false accusers. That's the railer. And then the extortioner, you know, is one who's basically taking bribes. You know, they're basically extorting money out of people, getting people to give them money, forcing people to give them money. You know, kind of like on the playground, the guy grabs you and says, you know, give me your lunch money or I'm going to, you know, beat you up or whatever. You know, whatever you want to say about extortion, the sermon's not about extortion this morning. You know, but the publicans were told not to exact more than was appointed them and so forth. Otherwise they're an extortioner. And let me tell you something. I know nobody's perfect. I know we're all sinners. I know we all make mistakes. I know there are people in our church who struggle with sin. I know that I have sinned. My wife has sinned. My children have sinned. We're all sinners. But we are not all fornicators and we are not all covetous and we are not all worshipping idols and we are not all railers and we are not all drunkards and we are not all extortioners. You are. Get out. And you don't belong, you say, well everybody's welcome in church, not in this church. Say well this kind of preaching, I bet you're going to lose people just from this sermon this morning. I hope so. I hope so. You're offending people. Yeah, well, you know what, great peace have them which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. You know who's offended today, drunks. You know who's offended today, fornicators. You know who's offended today, covetous people. You know who's offended today, worldly people who are not interested in living for God because people who are interested in living for God, they've already read the Bible, they've already heard all these horrible words that are coming out of my mouth this morning, all this offensive stuff that I'm saying, they already read it before they even got here. They already know that, they just like to hear it out loud, but they've already read it on paper, they've already seen it. And I'm going to tell you something, I am not interested in just how big of a church we can have here. Now I hope that our church runs a thousand some day, and I believe it will. I mean our church grows every year. And newsflash, the preaching has always been like this, okay? You know, it's always been like this. Pastor Anderson has always been like this, okay? And let me tell you something, our church has always been growing, and you know what, we don't need you and your booze, and we don't need you and your fornication, we'll go on just fine without you. And you know what, you say, well, the offerings, we don't need it, what do we need it for? Well, you know what, we don't need this building, we'll go meet out under a tree somewhere. Well, how are you going to get paid, bud? You know what, I know how to go out and make money, I know how to go out and work with my own two hands. I'm not a derelict, I'm not a drunk, I can go out and work. You know, I can go out and pay the bills, we can meet under a tree somewhere. It doesn't cost a dime to sing hymns and preach and go soul winning. You say, oh, you know, you got to pay for the church van, the church van is paid for. We'll sell it. Well, you know, I mean, what do we need, we'll meet, we'll have church, you know, I'll stand on the van and preach, you know, what do we need that church van for? You know, we'll just walk to soul winning, we'll ride a bike. We don't need nothing. You know what we need? Bible preaching. That's all we need. We don't have any debt. We don't need you. We don't need anybody. But you know what? We love you. We hope you'll stay if you're not going to be a drunk. Now if you don't want to be a drunk and you don't want to live your life for the love of money and you don't want to worship idols and you don't want to fornicate, you know, come on in. We love you. I'll do anything I can for you. I'll help you. I'll give you the shirt off my back. What do you need? I love you. You're my friend. But you know what? I'm going to throw that garbage into our church. And that's my stand and that's always been my stand and that'll always be my stand. And you know when I started throwing people out the first year of our church's existence when we were running. Look, if I kicked people out when we were running 15. Let me tell you something. When you're running 15, you don't want to kick people out. You know what I mean? When you're running 10 and you're kicking people out, you're going to kick people out when you're running 100. You know what I mean? Let me tell you something. I hope our church grows. I hope it runs 1,000. But this is who we are. A leather-lung preacher that says no fornication and drunkenness allowed ever. Sick of it. And you know what you say? Are you mad? You know what? Sin makes me angry. And you know what? Ungodliness makes me angry. It hurts people. People get hurt. You know? And I guarantee you, now I don't have the first-hand experience, but I guarantee you if we were to just, and we're not going to do this, of course, we'd never do this, but if we just decide let's just open it up and let's just have people come up here and tell all the stories that they have about alcohol, all the bad things that have happened, all the pain, all the contention, all the wounds, we could literally take people from this room that could probably get up here and tell you all the stories of people getting hurt, of people committing adultery, of people getting injured, of people, you know, just all the dumb things. We could easily do that. Do we have to do that or do you just believe the Bible? You know what I mean? Let's just have faith in God. Let's not have to sit there and, you know, hear all the stories. We don't need any stories. We just, this is the story we need, Lot, Noah. It's enough of a story. And you know what? If it's a serious enough sin to get you thrown out of church, that's a big sin. It's a very big problem. Very big deal. He doesn't throw you out for everything. He doesn't even throw you out for stealing. Did you hear me? He doesn't throw you out for lying. He doesn't throw you out for smoking. He doesn't throw you out for stealing. He throws you out for drunkenness because it's a major, major sin. You know, there are all kinds of scriptures that people try to use. They say, well, you know, the Bible tells us, you know, to drink wine, you know, drink no longer wine, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake. Obviously, we know that wine is often referring to juice. I already illustrated that earlier in the sermon. But you know, it's funny because in 1 Timothy 3, in the passage giving the qualifications for the pastor, he says, not given to wine. Okay, then two chapters later, he's telling a pastor, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake in the nop and infirmities. But I'm supposed to think that that's an alcoholic beverage. He's telling him, hey, make sure when you pick pastors, make sure that they don't, they're not giving you wine. But Timothy, drink wine. You're the pastor? Drink alcohol. Okay, no, no, no. You said vinegar. You know, basically, he's just, you know, fermented beverages or just fruit juices or things of that nature can have healing properties and health properties. But we're not talking about drinking alcoholic beverage that is, you know, what they sell at the store as wine. When he's saying, use a little wine, mix in a little wine for thy stomach's sake. You know what he's talking about? He's talking about drinking a glass of water because he says, use no longer water. But he said, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach. He's talking about adding a tiny bit of wine to your water like, and again, we're not talking about the stuff they sell at the store today, we're just talking about a grape juice that might have some minuscule alcohol content, whatever. You're just mixing juice in your water to help your stomach. Now, anybody will tell you that alcohol is bad for your stomach. I heard about a guy who had to have part of his stomach removed because of alcohol because alcohol is bad for your stomach, give you stomach cancer, literally, okay? But when he's saying a little wine for your stomach's sake, we're talking juice here. We're talking putting a little juice in your water or whatever to give you some kind of, you know, a health benefit rather than just drinking pure water. You know, it's kind of like, you know, when people are doing sports, they don't just drink pure water. They do like a Gatorade or a Powerade in order to get the electrolytes, in order to get the sugars, and you know, it helps them actually, you know, you get hydrated better with a little juice in your water than you do from just pure straight water, and he's giving him health advice here. But look, if he's saying drink no longer water, switch to booze, how is that compatible with telling him that pastors aren't supposed to drink in chapter 3? So you got to use some discernment, but if you're drunk while you're reading it, that probably doesn't help. And so we as God's people are to be sober, we're to be vigilant, we're not to be given unto wine. You say, well that's just the pastor's not supposed to be given unto wine. Yeah, but you know what? The pastor doesn't live by a separate set of rules than the rest of the people. We should all live by the same rules. And we could go on and on and on, you get the idea. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much that we're not losers and that we actually have lives that are fun and interesting and we actually have a purpose where we can go out and win souls and accomplish something of eternal value, where we can actually go out and serve you and have meaning to our life and have meaningful relationships and meaningful service for you and we can read our Bibles and pray and be joyful and have the joy of the Holy Ghost. And that we don't have to turn to a bottle as our only source of entertainment and joy and fun. I thank you that I can have a great relationship with my wife without having to be fueled by alcohol. I thank you that we can go to church and rejoice and sing hymns without having to drink up the courage to do so. And we can go soul winning, not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but rather filled with the Spirit. Please help no one in this room to be deceived by alcohol. I pray that every child, every child would remember this sermon for the rest of their life and not be deceived by alcohol. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.