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So, really the verse that I wanted you to look at is verse one. So this chapter goes through a lot of different stuff, but verse one is really what this sermon is about. Where it says, Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. The title of the sermon today is wine is a mocker. So what I'm going to be preaching on is alcohol in the Bible, drinking in the Bible, drunkenness or just drinking in general. This is a controversial topic it seems these days, whether we should drink alcohol. And even in churches today, there are people that try to prop up a doctrine that it's okay to drink. And even pastors that are saying, yeah, we can drink just in moderation. We can drink, just don't get drunk. Isn't that what you hear a lot in these beer churches, that's what I would call them, beer churches. And it's a lot of these reformed Baptists, the same Baptists, the same guys that believe Calvinism and that preach that we don't need to go out soul winning are the same ones that are knocking back beers and drinking wine and preaching that it's okay. But what does the Bible teach about alcohol? What does the Bible teach about wine and about strong drink? It says it's a mocker, it's raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. What's that saying? You're a fool if you think that wine is a good idea. You're a fool if you think strong drink is a good idea. The only thing that wine and strong drink is going to do for you is ruin your life. Only thing it's going to do is just add misery. It's going to add drunkenness to thirst as the Bible says. And so wine is something the Bible talks about and there's a lot of stories about things that happen when people got drunk. And we'll talk about it at the end of the sermon, what's the consequences of getting drunk or drinking alcohol. And so go to Proverbs 23 and I was actually, the idea, obviously I knew I wanted to preach on this eventually, but I was reading the Proverb of the day. So there's 31 chapters in Proverbs and a lot of times there's 31 days in a month. So I was just reading each day corresponding to, and today's the 26th so as you know I've gone through 20 and 23 and I'm like I need to preach on this, you know, when you're reading this and stuff like that. But Proverbs 23, coupled that with wine as a mock or strong drink is raging. And I want you to see here that in the Bible, the term wine can mean either alcoholic wine or fermented wine as we would call it, or it can mean like grape juice. It uses that word interchangeably and you have to use context to understand that. I'll prove to you through the Bible that wine can definitely mean grape juice, but I want you to know that. So when you look, when you see wine in the Bible, it's not automatically alcoholic. But by context, if they're, if they're ripping someone's face off for drinking wine, then it's probably not grape juice, okay. But all that to know is that you got to take context when you're looking at that. But we'll see here that there is a wine that is alcoholic. And so Proverbs 23, starting there in verse 29. And as we read this, let me know if this, if you want to be this person. So remember, wine is a mock or Proverbs 23 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. Now this is where people would stop and say, well, it's only people that drink a lot of wine that get drunk, okay. But look what the next verse says, look not, look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its cover color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. So notice, it says not even look on the wine when, now when it says when, that means that there's a time when you could look at it. Does that make sense? It wouldn't make any sense to give that caveat of like when it's red, when it giveth its color in the cup, if it was, if there wasn't another wine that you could look at. Does that make sense? So it's basically saying that there's, there comes a time when the wine does something because there's something that happens to the wine to where you're not supposed to even look at it. Let's keep reading. It says, 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 mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick. They have beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. So anybody that's known anybody that's an alcoholic, or someone that deals with alcohol, isn't this exactly what you're looking at? Someone that can't even stand up straight? They have all kinds of bruises on them, they don't know how they got there, and notice when he awakes he's going to seek it again. Now these are, when you deal with the hardcore drunks, they're waking up in the morning and cracking open a beer, they're waking up, that's all they seek for is that. And so, but it says not even to look at it. Now here's the thing, if you never drink wine, you never drink alcohol, you'll never get drunk. But if you never look at it, you'll never drink it. So the Bible always takes it to an extreme, you think of Jesus when he says, you know, you've heard it been said, thou shalt not commit adultery, he says, but I say unto you, if you look upon a woman the lust after, you've committed adultery already in your heart. So you always need to, Jesus took it a step further and says, hey it's a sin to even look at. Now obviously, I'm not saying, you know, like if you're walking down the aisle and you look at, you're like just, I mean, obviously you're going to see stuff, but this is talking about, this is a warning to say, hey, you shouldn't even stare at it, don't look at it, and same thing with if it's some scantily clad woman and I see her, I should be, I'm automatically, I'm not looking at that. Does that make sense? I'm not going to stare at it, I'm not going to think about it. And so that's what it's saying here, don't look at it when it's red. Now it gives these three things here and I think it really covers all the alcoholic stuff that you would deal with. Obviously you have red wine. Now grape juice, what is it usually? Purple or white, you know, you think of like white grapes or whatever, but when it's red, you know it's fermented at that point when it giveth its color in the cup. So there's obviously other types of wine besides red wine. Most of the time it's red though, especially in the Bible because of how it was fermented because of the grapes and just the skins that would cause it to be red. But when it moveth itself aright, now what is that talking about? Carbonation. If you think about if you had a glass of like champagne or something like that, you see the bubbles coming up and we drink, you know you drink pop, it has bubbles so you can see it's moving itself aright. And so fermentation causes, you know, that whole process will cause carbon dioxide and that's what carbonation, I'm not getting into a whole lesson on this as far as fermentation and what it takes to make stuff alcohol, but that's what this is talking about, it's talking about being fermented. Now I want to prove to you that there is, the Bible does use the term wine in a non-alcoholic sense, notice in Isaiah 65, so turn to Isaiah 65. So we know that there is a wine that we're not even supposed to look at, the wine when it's red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright, so there is, so that means that there's a wine that we probably could look at, right? I mean it's just giving that caveat, it wouldn't make any sense to say that, it would just say don't look at the wine at all, it wouldn't even give you the caveat. So Isaiah 65, go down to verse 8 there, so Isaiah 65 verse 8 says, thus saith the Lord as the new wine is found in the cluster and one says destroy it for a blessing is in it, so will I do for my servant's sake that I may not destroy them all. So we're not getting into what actually is being talked about here, but it's basically saying, you know, they're destroying all the grapes and everything out there, but it says the new wine that's in the cluster, now this clearly is not talking about, this is talking about the juice that's inside of the grape, does that make sense? The cluster of grapes, the grapes of escrow grow, you know, we sang I want that mountain, so the cluster, you remember they took the cluster of grapes and they put it on a pole and they took it out of there, took two men to carry the cluster of grapes, so in there the new wine inside the cluster, so a lot of times when you see the word new wine, do you see with that, now it's not always attached to it though, it doesn't always say old wine, it doesn't always say new wine, but obviously that makes sense right, because old wine would be something that's fermented, something that has been there for a while and caused to ferment. And so, you know, the Bible is clearly teaching here that a fermented wine, a strong drink, is something that we are not to even look at, it's raging, it's a mocker, and whose service to see thereby is not wise. Now, I believe it's a sin to even drink it, okay, now there's a lot of things, you know, and people are like well you may have done that or you've done that before, it doesn't matter what I've done, it doesn't matter what anybody's done, it matters what does the Bible teach, okay, and so I've sinned, you know, and we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, but what does the Bible say, and we need to look at the Bible, and I believe it's a sin to even drink it, not just to be drunk, but to drink it. I think we shouldn't even look at it, but you say well it doesn't say it's a sin to drink it, okay, well I'll take that and I'll up your ante, the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin, it isn't wine, isn't it foolishness, isn't wine, isn't not foolishness, is it not being wise if you're deceived by wine and strong drink, isn't that foolishness? Well the thought of foolishness is sin, so even the thought of you saying well that's not a sin is foolishness and therefore you sinned even by thinking that, you know, so the Bible's very clear about this subject, and so I'm going to talk about basically what the Bible teaches about being sober and about not drinking, obviously, I'm not even going to get into the drunkenness aspect because I don't think anybody argues with that, I don't think anybody argues with the fact that we shouldn't be drunks, okay, and so I'm going to go on the offense on it, but once I get to that point I'm going to show you what people try to say, what they try to use to say well it's okay to drink, it's okay, the Bible consents to it, and we'll deal with those passages, but what you need to know, first of all, is that you need to take the clear scriptures of the Bible first of all, don't find obscure passages, the Bible's very complex, it's very deep, and it's very big, okay, so you could find some passage in some obscure place to try to prop up some doctrine, but if you have clear, I mean you think of the Proverbs, there's just clear statements that are being made in the Proverbs, and to say that a pastor should be drinking wine, or that a pastor should be drinking strong drink, how could you read Proverbs 20, how could you read Proverbs 23 and tell me that? I mean it's unbelievable to me that someone would try to make that case, you basically just have to negate those passages, go to Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5, the Bible tells us not to be drunks, not to be drunkards, and actually if you are a drunkard, you're not even supposed to be in the church, that's church discipline right there, it doesn't mean that you're not saved, it just means that if you are a drunkard, and it's known in the church that you are just a drunk, then you're to be kicked out of the church, there's that list in 1 Corinthians 5 on different things, fornicators, drunkards, railers, covetous, and all that, so I'm definitely not for that at all, but I'm taking it to the extreme as far as not even drinking it, now if you just drink like a little bit here and there, I'm probably not going to know about it, right, but if you're like coming in here sloshed and you have a hangover the next day when you come into the church, that's going to be a little more noticeable, okay, and so, but Ephesians chapter 5, notice verse 18, this is a famous passage, it says, be not drunk with wine, so is this alcoholic or non-alcoholic, probably alcoholic, right, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Now notice in Colossians 3, 16, this is a parallel passage, being filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the word of God too. In Colossians 3, 16, it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Now I'll kind of really apply to what, you know, why is there this dichotomy with being drunk with wine and being filled with the Spirit, because I'll actually give you a case that people try to use to say, you know, this is okay to drink in these certain circumstances, but what does the Bible teach? The Bible says, you know, we're supposed to basically be lifted up in the Lord through the Spirit, not through the spirits of alcohol. Isn't that what they call alcohol? They even have stores that are called like the spirits, you know, and so they call it like a spirit, and so you don't want to be filled with that spirit, you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and so we need to stay far away from alcohol, not even to look at it. But what the Bible really talks about a lot, more so than even drinking or being drunken, is on the offense of that, which is being sober, okay? Because you may say, well, you know, there's so many scriptures on being drunk, but not necessarily about just drinking in general. Here's the thing, you drink one glass of wine, you're not sober. You drink one beer, you're not sober. So you can say, you can use the case that you're not drunk, okay, but where's the line there? Who determines that, when you're drunk and when you're not drunk, okay? But the Bible says to be sober. So I'm going to show you a lot of verses on this, and so 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and this is dealing with end time stuff, and we've already kind of went into this when we were dealing with the rapture and the coming of the Lord, but this is something that's brought up a lot when it talks about the coming of the Lord. So even some more now than before, because the day of our salvation is closer than when we believed, then we need to be more sober as we get on. And so I know this is a simple sermon. I mean, it'd be ludicrous to think that I would say anything other than don't drink, right? But there are actually pastors out there. There's actually churches that teach it's okay to drink, and it's not. The Bible teaches against that, and, you know, adults, you need to listen up to this, because this, if you want to ruin your marriage, you want to ruin your kids, start drinking. Kids, if you want to ruin your life, if you want to have vomit-filled tables and just ruin everything about your life, make bad choices in your life, start drinking. Start by just even looking at it. But the Bible says to be sober. So as Christians, we should be staying far away from that garbage. It's poison, but we should be sober. Notice what it says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 6. It says, Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober, for they that sleep sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunk in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for in helmet the hope of salvation. Now notice that's talking about the whole armor of God. You are not clad with the whole armor of God, and you're not filled with the Spirit if you're filled with some other spirit known as alcohol. So any pastor that thinks that he can get up here and drink a glass of wine and preach the Bible, he is not filled with the Spirit. He's not someone you should be listening to. He's a drunkard. And someone that, and mark it down, my friends, these people that say they're social drinkers, they're a bunch of drunkards. Only a drunkard would go through the Bible and try to find where they can drink and try to pick that stuff out, and they tried, trust me, and we're going to go to that type of stuff, but, I'm getting on a rant there, but the thing is the Bible says is to be sober. Be sober. Be sober. This would apply to any drugs. You say, well, it doesn't talk about pot. Be sober. It doesn't talk about cocaine. Be sober. Do I need to say that? Okay, don't be an idiot. That's what I should say. Don't be an idiot. Don't be a moron to do any type of crazy drugs like heroin or cocaine, but here's the thing. You start drinking, you may start doing pot. You may start doing pot. You may start doing other drugs. Once you start doing one, you're like, well, I didn't die doing that, so maybe I'll try this. Maybe I'll try this. Maybe I'll try this. Now, the Bible says be sober. Be vigilant. And you cannot be sober. You're doing pot. You're probably just eating too many chips, and then you become a sluggard on top of that. I mean, so but the Bible says to be sober. It says 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy 3, the Bible says to be sober. So we're going to go to 1 Timothy 3, and this is the qualifications for a pastor. In 1 Timothy 3, in verse 2, it says, a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. Then you go, as you go down in the chapter, in verse 11, you're talking about the, actually these are the wives of the deacons. It says, even so must their wives be grave, not slander, sober, faithful in all things. Go a few pages over to Titus. Titus chapter 2 is kind of going through like the old men to the old women to the young women to the young men, and basically saying here's what you should be doing. And starting in verse 1, it says, but speak thou of the things which become sound doctrine, that the age of men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity and patience, that the age of women likewise, that they be in behavior as become as holiness, not false accusers, not given the much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chase keepers at home, good obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men, likewise, exhort to be sober minded. See something that keeps popping up in all these lists of what everybody should be doing? Be sober, be sober, be sober. First Peter chapter 1. First Peter chapter 1. I just want to show you just some of these that this just keeps popping up. Some very famous passages too, but being sober is a commandment that's in the Bible. So you may say, well, you know, it doesn't say that I, you know, it doesn't say thou shalt not drink wine. Well, it says thou shalt be sober, so therefore you can't drink wine. Does that make sense? I mean, one, you can't have one without the other. If you're drinking wine, you're not sober, therefore you're not keeping that commandment. So it is sin, the thought of foolishness is sin and it's foolishness. It says in First Peter chapter 1 and verse 13, wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Go to chapter 4 in First Peter. Chapter 4 and verse 7. It says, but the end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober and watch unto prayer. Chapter 5 verse 8. Here's a famous verse. Chapter 5 verse 8. It says, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion. Walketh about seeking whom he may devour. And let me tell you something, you start drinking, you better believe that the devil is going to be waiting for that. He's waiting for you to not be sober, to not be in your right state of mind so that you can look upon a woman to lust after her, you can commit adultery or you can do all these other things. And make no mistake, my friends, especially in the college realm, why do people drink? So that if when they make bad decisions and they know they're going to, they can blame it on the alcohol. They say, well, I was drunk when I did that. That doesn't excuse what you did. And they do that in order to do other wickedness. And so the Bible teaches that. This isn't some new thing underneath the sun. So here's the thing, if you cannot have fun without alcohol, don't be my friend because I don't want to hang out with you because you're that boring. Okay? Because that's what they keep saying, you know, oh, you're no fun. You're no fun. You know, if you need alcohol to make that event fun, then that event is awful. It sucks. You know, I don't want to go to it if it needs to have, if you have to have alcohol to make it fun. I have good times. You know, when we hang out here at church and we play like games and we do other things, I have a great time. I'm never thinking, man, I wish we could add alcohol to this. That'd really make it a really good time. No. But the thing is, is that people that are weak, people that are boring and people that are losers choose to have alcohol as their their definition of fun. And so why am I preaching hard on this? It's a warning, my friends. It's a warning not to even get near it, not to look at it. Don't ruin your lives with alcohol. The Bible strongly rebukes it. Now, this is what people say. Well, Jesus turned water in the wine. That is the wino's favorite passage in the Bible is Jesus turned water in the wine. Well, let's go to that passage. And again, remember that there is wine that's nonalcoholic. We saw the new wine that's in the cluster. So we're going to read that passage and we'll see if it makes sense that God, that Jesus, the God of the universe would make alcoholic wine for these people. Okay, so in John chapter two, this is the only place in the Bible that this this actual event is found is in John chapter two. So we're just going to read that passage of him turning the water in the wine. We'll start there in verse one. So John chapter two in verse one, it says, And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there, and both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage. And when they they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said unto him, They have no wine. Jesus said unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother said unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there were sent there six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews containing two or three firkins of peace. Jesus said 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, and knew not whence it was, but the servants which drew the water knew, the governor of the feast called the bridegroom. So this next passage, this next verse is really going to give us a lot of information about this. Notice what it says. And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning does set forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse. But thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus and Canaan of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed on him. Now notice verse 10 there. So he turned the water in the wine. Notice what it says. It says every man at the beginning does set forth good wine. Now the alcoholic, what he sees when he says good wine is alcoholic wine. Does it say old wine? Does it say anything that would say strong wine? Did it say strong drink? No, good wine. Now the alcoholic is like, well, you're saying to me that Welch's grape juice is good wine. Yes, I'm saying that to you because I'm not an alcoholic and grape juice is pretty delicious, especially Welch's or the organic, you know, straight from the cluster grape juice. But it says good wine. Notice what it says there. It says and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse. So what he's saying, he's saying that at the beginning of a feast, they give the best wine that they have. But then after men have well drunk, then they get the worst because at that point, you know, like you want the best stuff to be first. Does that make sense? And so then that which is worse. So just talking about better, better grape juice than others, right? Better wine than the rest. What they hear in their mind is, well, they give the old wine first and then the new wine doesn't say that it says good and it says worse. And notice it says that that after men are well drunk. Now imagine this, let's say that was alcoholic wine. Let's say they were just sloshed out of their minds. They're well drunk. So now Jesus is going to give them more. Does that sound like something that your Savior would do? These people are sloshed out of their minds. And he's like, all right, here, have some more. Hopefully you get alcohol poisoning and fall over and die. Now what does the Bible teach about giving drink unto your neighbor? You know, back in chapter two and verse 15, it says, 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. Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink that putteth his mouth to the bottle. So what does the Bible teach about that? To make someone drunken. To make someone a drunk, it says, woe unto them. Did Jesus sin? No, this is clearly talking about just regular wine that the Bible talks about, the new wine out of the cluster, the grape juice. And what that means is that the miracle here is that he turned water into wine and it was the best wine that they had. It was the best grape juice that they had. They had already drunk the best that they had and they said, this is better. And so it's clearly, obviously Jesus did not cause them to be drunk when they were already drunk, right? It's a miracle, it says in verse 11, it says, this beginning of miracles, this miracle that Jesus just got these people sloshed out of their minds. They got them so drunk after they were already drunk. So only a fool would look at that passage and say, yeah, this is alcoholic wine. Jesus is getting these guys really drunk. It's just stupidity. But they want to see that. They see good wine, they want to see old wine. They want to see fermented wine. They want to see that. They say good, that means it's got to be alcoholic. Only to you, you drunk. Only to you. They say, well, wine and oil give gladness, therefore, you know, the wine has to be alcoholic. Who here has had a meal that's being prepared and you're just excited about it? I mean, unless I'm the only one that gets really excited about food, but Thanksgiving feast or you have like a meal that's getting prepared and you have good stuff to drink, that's exciting. I'm rejoicing as I'm eating, but the alcoholic says, no, no, no, whatever joy just drinking, you know, grape juice. No one would just be filled with joy from that. One thing you got to realize too is that back in Jesus day or back in this time, they didn't have a Costco. They didn't have a Sam's Club where they can go just get like bottles of grape juice. Have you ever tried to juice stuff and make juice? How many, how many lemons do you have to do to make lemon juice? Okay. Now obviously when you make like lemonade, you're mixing in water, but orange juice. Who here has tried to make orange juice out of just squeezing oranges? Good luck with that. I mean, you have to get like a whole orange tree to get that thing juiced if you're just putting the orange juice in there. So, but you can go to the store and get your simply orange or get your organic orange juice that's just plain orange juice and maybe it'll cost you five bucks. I don't know. I don't buy orange juice all the time, but you know, but back then in order to get grape juice, in order to get an orange juice, to get any type of juice, that was, that was a lot of money. That was a luxury. That was something that wasn't cheap. And so it was something that if you had grape juice for your dinner, you're like, man, this is gonna be great because most of the time they're drinking water. Okay. Now doubt nowadays we're so, we're so pampered as far as all the conveniences that we have, we have running water, we have all these different things that they didn't have. So anyway, the next one that they say is, well, Jesus drank wine at the last supper. Oh, did he? Did it say Jesus drank wine at the last supper? They throw this one out there so confidently too. They're like, well, Jesus drank wine at the last supper. Did it say that? Well, let's look at it. So go to Matthew chapter 26, Matthew chapter 26. I always love it when they pull out stuff and it's not there. It's like the old I.B. with the school of the prophets and like these different things that are like, oh, it's in there, the school of the prophets. It's like, yeah, no, it's not. And so there's a lot of things that people parrot that just aren't there. And this is one of them. And what you'll see here is really, if you want to know what Jesus drank, and this is exactly, I believe, what he fed the people at Canaan Galilee at the marriage. But Matthew 26, I'll show you all three in Matthew, Mark and Luke where it talks about specifically what they were drinking. But you will not find him drinking wine at the last supper. It won't say the word wine, although I think you could use it here. But I believe, just like when we were talking about the end times and why does God use these three different ways of saying the same amount of time, three and a half years, because I believe God knew that there was going to be people that were going to say that he was drinking alcoholic wine at the last supper. Because this is an ordinance, this is something that we're supposed to be keeping as a New Testament church where we're supposed to do the last, that we're supposed to do the Lord's Supper so that they, there's no doubt what type of drink we should be doing when we do the Lord's Supper. So Matthew 26, verse 27, just to get some context. And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Now I think that's as clear as you can be of what he's saying they're drinking. They're drinking fruit. They're drinking juice. They're drinking the fruit of the vine. So what are they drinking? They're drinking grape juice or some kind of juice that's off the vine. And grapes come off the vine. And so Mark 14, 24, so I just wanted to show you this is consistent throughout the last supper that he had with his disciples. So don't believe everything you hear when people start parroting stuff off. Well, Jesus drank wine at the last supper. Does it say that? Even if it did, it doesn't mean that it's alcoholic, but it doesn't even say that. I don't even have to defend that. I don't even have to try to prove that. Mark 14, verse 24, it says, and he said unto them, this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. Now notice he keeps saying new in the kingdom of God. Do you think we're going to have alcoholic wine in the kingdom of God when we're up in heaven? No. So in Luke 22, verse 18, for I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. So it's very consistent. And this is the argument. People say, you know, and I grew up Catholic were a little bit there and they'd have alcoholic wine. It's not just Catholics that do this though. You go to other churches, they'll have alcoholic wine too. So you better watch some of these Baptist churches you walk into nowadays too. But they say, this is what they say because they'll have one cup and they'll be like, everybody will be drinking out of it. Now who would want to take a drink of my water today? But anyway, they'll have one cup and what they say as well, you know, it, it kill the, the alcohol kills the germs. Now what does, what is that supposed to represent? What is the, the, the wine or the, the, the, the fruit of the vine supposed to represent Jesus's blood? Did Jesus's blood kill or does it make alive? So you got to think about what is representing. We're going to get into that with the, the, the wine. If it was fermented, then it's leavened. The way that they would make wine is basically just stop it. You think of the wine presses, the wrath of God. How did they make wine? They press the grapes, right? They press the grapes and actually the, there was yeast that would be on the outside of the grape that would cause the fermentation. And that's a lot of times why you'd have red wine because you have red grapes and then that would make it red. And so the, the, the, the yeast or what we would, what the Bible calls leaven. So when you make bread, what do you put in bread? Yeast. Why? Because that makes it, it makes it puff up, right? And the same thing is the yeast on the grapes cause the, the, the fermentation to happen. Now are we supposed to be eating leavened bread or unleavened bread when we, when we take the Lord's Supper? When they took the Lord's Supper, do you think they had leavened bread? When the Bible teaches that at the Passover they're not even have any leavened bread in the house when they do the Passover. And then the Feast of Unleavened Bread is what it's called. So we're not to have leavened bread, but we're supposed to have leavened wine. Does that make any sense? No. We're supposed to have unleavened bread, unleavened wine, which would be grape juice. So when we, when we take the Lord's Supper, we're not going to have a puff of bread here, okay? And so we're not gonna have a loaf of bread like normal. We'll have unleavened bread. We'll have bread that doesn't have any yeast in it, okay? Because that represents a sinless body that represents sinless blood that Jesus had. And so we're gonna represent it that way. So the fact that Jesus would drink fermented wine at the Last Supper is ridiculous. So, so other arguments that they use, I just want to give you some of these big ones. That's the big ones. You know, when people say, well, Jesus made water into wine. He drank wine at the Last Supper. Well, we already saw that was foolishness to try to say that. And so here's some arguments that they use. Remember, we were talking about be not filled with wine where it is excess, or be not drunk with wine where it is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Go to Proverbs chapter 31. I'm going to give you one of their arguments to try to say, well, you know, there's cases. So say, well, you know, yeah, most of the time you shouldn't be drinking it at all. But there's some cases that you should or that you could. Proverbs 31, if you know, this is the prophecy that Lemuel's mother gave to him, and I believe this is Solomon, but just another name for him. But even if it isn't, it's just the prophecy that the mother gave to him. It also shows you that at the beginning of Proverbs 31 there, prophecy doesn't always mean end times. It could just mean preaching, you know. Prophecy, especially in the New Testament, it talks about the gifts of prophecy and prophesying. Like it says in 1 Corinthians 14, it's just talking about preaching. And it could be on end times. You know, obviously on Sunday nights we've been doing end times prophecy, so we're talking about stuff that hasn't happened yet. But this prophecy that he gives to Lemuel and this prophecy that she gives to him is not something in the future. This is just something that she's telling him to do. But notice in verse 4 there, this is where they go with this. It says, 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. You may think, how in the world are they using that to say you should drink? Good question, but we'll keep going. This is where they go with it. Verse 6, it says, 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 this is literally where people go to try to say, well, there are some cases though where you should drink. Now think with me for a second. If I said this to you, you know what? I don't want the queers in America. Send them to Canada. Give them to Canada. Now am I condoning cases where I think queers are okay? Am I saying, well in Canada they'd be great, you know? They'd work out fine there. No, I'm saying I don't want anything to do with it. Give it to someone else, right? And that's exactly what she's saying to him and saying, hey, this is not for you. This is not for you at all. Give it to this person. Give it to the person that's ready to die. Give it to someone that's a heavy heart. Now think with me for a second. I'm going to get into the point that this definitely proves that Christians should never drink. But if I lost a loved one, let's say we're at a funeral. Could you imagine someone coming up to me and saying, hey, here's some beer. Drown your sorrows. Could you imagine doing that? Who would ever say to do that? You've got a heavy heart. You're in sorrow of heart. Drink this Budweiser. Drink this. It's like you're insane because what is that going to lead to? They're going to end up becoming an alcoholic because they're going to drown their sorrows in the bottom of the bottle. So just because she's saying let them do that doesn't mean that she's saying that they should do that. She's just saying it's not for you. Give that to someone else, okay? And so if I said to you, you know, I don't want Donald Trump as president. Give him to Canada. You know, that doesn't mean that he'd be a good president in Canada either, okay? And so but this definitely proves that Christians should never drink because notice what it says. It is not for kings. It is not for kings. Now what does the Bible say that we are as Christians? Go to Revelation chapter 1. So it actually says it's twice in Revelation but you turn to Revelation chapter 1 and we'll look at verse 6 there. We'll start in verse 5 to get some context. Revelation 1 verse 5. It says, and from Jesus Christ who is a faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and have made us kings and priests unto God and his father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. This is repeated in Revelation 5.10. It says and has made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. What does the Bible say about Christians that are washed in the blood of Christ? We're kings and priests. The Bible says in 1 Peter that we are a royal priesthood. So as kings and queens for women, obviously the Bible uses the masculine term to cover all. Are we supposed to be drinking wine? Are we supposed to be drinking strong drink? It's not for us my friends. Give that to the loser. Give it to the derelict. Give it to the person that's, you know, give it to them. But just because I say that doesn't mean that it's good for them. Does that make sense? Doesn't mean that that's, you know, a right thing for them to do. But it's basically just saying I don't want to let someone else have it. Okay? And so it's a stupid argument. When you read that, when you start reading that and you're like, man, this is a good passage to say I can drink. It's like what are you talking about? Talk about turning the Bible on its head by saying when it says it's not for kings, it's not for you, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. And is this not exactly when you got churches of the pastors, the priests, whoever these people are, that are a bunch of drunks and they preach a bunch of false doctrine. They're perverting the Word of God. They don't know the right hand from their left. They don't know the Bible from a hole in the ground. It's because they're a bunch of drunks. First of all, they're not saved half the time. But on top of that, even if they were saved, how are they going to discern the scriptures when they're not sober? How are they going to be filled with the Spirit when they're not sober? And so it's a ludicrous thing to me that there's people out there that think it's okay to drink, that it's okay to go pick up a bottle. Think about that. Could you imagine seeing me just out in public and I'm just putting down a Budweiser. I'm just putting down, you know, I'm just drinking some wine or whatever. You just saw me coming out of the Spirit store, you know, with my liquor. I mean, you'd be like, I'm not going back to that church, you know, and rightfully so. Because if you saw me doing that, then I am not qualified to be a pastor. I'm not qualified to lead anybody at that point. I didn't get my house in order. I didn't get my stuff in order. But so this idea of, well, you know, if someone's ready to die, you know, just let them. Here's the thing. As Christians, are we supposed to be in sorrow? Are we supposed to be in heaviness of heart all the time? Or are we supposed to be in the joy of the Lord with joy unspeakable and full of glory? You know, think about what it says in Ephesians chapter four, or chapter five, you know, where it talks about being filled with the Spirit. It says, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. When you're filled with the Spirit, you're supposed to be, you know, making melody in your heart, rejoicing evermore. Isn't that a commandment in First Thessalonians chapter five, rejoice evermore? You know, we're supposed to always, we're supposed to be rejoicing in the Lord, even when in persecution it says, happy are ye, jump for joy, right? We're not supposed to be in heaviness even when we're dealing with, you know, persecution. Now, there's obviously times to mourn, you know, when you have a lost loved one or whatever. We're not the sorrows of others, which have no hope, but there's a time to mourn, there's a time to weep, and all that stuff. But, in general, we're supposed to be happy people. We're supposed to be joyful. And so, this idea, it's like the Bible says, adding drunkenness to thirst. I love that verse. It's just, you think about that, adding drunkenness to thirst, because alcohol just makes you thirsty. It doesn't, it doesn't quench your thirst. But, so they say that with this. Now, there's another one that they say, and this one's a little trickier. I'll admit, it's a little trickier. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 14. This one was like, you know, you got to think about it a little bit. But again, when they go to these verses, they usually take it out of, they don't read you the first part of Proverbs 31. They just read you where it says, give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish. They don't read the part where it says it's not for kings, that you pervert judgment and do all this other stuff. They don't read that part. They just take the context, out of context, and that's what they do with this one too. Notice what it says in verse 26 of Deuteronomy 14. Deuteronomy 14, in verse 26, it says, thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, for sheep, for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth, and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice thou and thine household. So, if you just read that verse, doesn't it look like God saying, go ahead and buy wine and strong drink and eat it, whatever your soul lusteth after, desireth and rejoice? Now, what you've got to understand is that you're getting at the tail end of a sentence here, and so go back a couple verses. Let's see what this is actually talking about. This isn't just talking about in general, like just buying stuff. Notice in verse 24, it says, and if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it. Now, what this is talking about, and I don't want to get in too deep on, they're going to the house of the Lord, okay? And it'll say that here, that basically, if that's a long distance to go, so it says, and if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it, or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. So now you've got some context. They are coming from a faraway place, and he's basically just saying, if this is the case, okay? Because at this point in Deuteronomy, we don't know where the house of the Lord is going to be, or the tabernacle, right? Right now, it's in the wilderness, and they're just kind of moving it where they go. But they're saying, once you have the land, and let's say the tabernacle, which eventually, remember it was in Shiloh, and then eventually went to Jerusalem. Well, what if you're in northern Israel, and you're coming down all the way to Jerusalem? That's a journey, okay? And what they're saying is that, when you come down to sacrifice, and you're going to come down to the house of the Lord, if it's too long for you, basically turn everything that you want to take with you into money. So now you're only carrying money. Does that make sense? You're exchanging it for money. Now, we don't think about this too much, because that's exactly what we would do, right? Because we're not carrying around oxen and all this stuff with us as money. So, let's say you're going down to the house of the Lord, and you're wanting to offer an ox, or you're wanting to offer a lamb, or you're wanting to offer the two young pigeons, you know, or whatever you're trying to take down to the house of the Lord, instead of taking that with you on this caravan, you basically turn it into money. You sell it where you're at, you turn it into money, and then you buy it when you get there. Does that make sense? Because in context, it's talking about the tithe, it's talking about different offerings, and so, and I'll prove to you that there is an offering, and I'll just say it, the offering of wine and strong drinking, there's an offering for alcoholic wine. And let's go back to Numbers 28. Now, I'm not here to explain, or to say I understand exactly why that was the case, or why, but I'll show you another case where they offered leavened bread. And what you'll see, most of the time, when you're dealing with the offerings, it's unleavened bread, no leaven, no leaven, no leaven, and then there's one time where it's leavened. And same thing with the drink offering, but Numbers 28, Numbers 28 and verse 7, it says, and the drink offering thereof shall be the fourth part of a hen for the one lamb in the holy place, shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto the Lord for a drink offering. So, in this case, and this was a Thanksgiving offering, so it was like, it's like a special thing, I don't know. So, I don't know why exactly they were using strong drink for this specific offering, but not all the drink offerings were using this. Does that make sense? There's other types of drink offerings, but I go to Leviticus chapter 7. So, we see that there is an offering with strong wine. So, how do you make sense of that verse in Deuteronomy 14 verse 26? Well, when they got there, they'd buy strong drink for a Thanksgiving drink offering. Does that make sense? They would take their money, and then when they got there, whatever they were going to offer, they bought. And so, he's just giving examples of stuff they would buy. Remember, it says oxen or sheep. Now, think about this, and they'll say, well, they're eating there, you know, that thou shalt eat there. Do you think someone took an ox or a sheep and just slew it there, cornered that thing, and like put it on a fire and ate it right there? You know, like, is that what he's saying? That someone is just going to buy a sheep and just kill it right there and do all that stuff with them? Like, instead of bringing your own sheep to eat, you know what I mean? The thing is, is that it's just giving you a list of things that you're going to buy. And so, the eating is just something else, you know, on top of all this stuff, buying a sheep, buying an ox, because all that stuff is offered on the altar, or buying wine, or for a strong drink, all those things can be offered on the altar, offered as an offering. But then it's also saying, you know, and whatsoever thy soul desireth, and thou shalt eat there. So, it doesn't mean that, like, everything that was just mentioned is going to be eaten. Because here's the thing, what they want to pick out is say, well, strong drink, that they're going to eat that, or they can eat the sheep too, they can eat the oxen, they're going to, man, they must have a big family, they're just going to slay an ox right here and just eat it, okay, a stalled ox for this family. Now, I'm not saying maybe they do have a big family, they can do that, but all I'm saying is that this is clearly just talking about, hey, when you get there, you're going to buy whatever you're going to do to offer. Now, this is what Jesus, now Jesus, what he did is he rebuked them selling stuff like oxen and sheep and doves and all that stuff, because they were selling it in the house of God. But there was nothing wrong with them selling it in Jerusalem, just not in the house of God. Does that make sense? Don't make my house a house of merchandise. But why were they selling stuff in there? Because it was for the offering. The doves, the oxen, the sheep, all that stuff was there because people were traveling in from long distances. Think of Joseph and Mary, they were traveling in to do these sacrifices. When she was purified after having Jesus, she came and offered the two young pigeons. When they came for the Passover, they had to travel there, so they very well could have just bought their lamb when they got there. They could have bought their two young pigeons when they got there instead of having to bring them on the trip with them. Anyway, so Leviticus chapter 7, I want to show you where there's this one case here where leavened bread was used. So in Leviticus 7 and verse 13, it says, so Leviticus 7 verse 13, it says, besides the cakes he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings. So throughout the Bible, when you read Leviticus, it's like unleavened, unleavened, unleavened, unleavened, all of a sudden there's leavened bread. It's like, okay, that's interesting. It pops out to you. Now I'm not saying I know, you know, a lot of times leaven can mean sin, but sometimes it doesn't. You know, there's one case in the New Testament where there's a parable about heaven and it says it's like a woman that took three measures of meal and put leaven in it and it basically is talking about expanding. It's basically saying that like what you do on this earth will be exponential in heaven, okay? But most of the time when you're dealing with leaven, it's talking about the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy and their doctrine and all that, you know, all the stuff that they were teaching was leaven. And it talks about the unleavened bread of sincerity. Jesus Christ is our Passover, right? Christ our Passover and we're supposed to eat it with the unleavened bread of sincerity. So unleavened is usually what we're dealing with. But in some cases here, they would use strong wine for a drink offering. In some cases they'd use leavened bread for an offering. So Deuteronomy 14 is just talking about that when they would get there from a far area or even if they were coming in from, let's say people were coming in from other countries, they would just buy it when they got there. They would sell what they needed to sell where they were at, where they were coming from. Once they got there, they would pay for it there. That's their heavy hitter. That's their big one. So we put that one in the bed. But now there's other ones that they use. Now this is one, it's an interesting one, not given to much wine. Now we read about the the aged women are not given the much wine. But the deacons also, it says in First Timothy 3.8, it says, likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy or filthy lucre. Now what's interesting about, you know, I've always found this interesting, that a pastor, a deacon, or a bishop, an elder, it says they're not to be given the wine, period. But then a deacon, and then it says with the aged women, they're not to be given to much wine. Now I always thought, well, then maybe it's alcoholic, and maybe, you know, if a deacon were to take a sip of, but it just never made sense to me. I'm like, how in the world, you know, I can imagine if someone saw me as a deacon drinking like a beer, right? But I actually believe that this is actually talking about non-alcoholic wine. But what you got to understand is that being given to something is different than drinking, than just partaking of something, right? So, and look at this with me, and I'll kind of prove what I'm saying here. Because remember what I was saying about wine? Back when this was written, you know, wine was something that was very expensive. It was a luxury. And what the Bible really teaches about pastors and deacons and servants of the church, they're not to be, they're supposed to be pretty much kind of like minimalist, you know, they're not supposed to be like luxurious. You know, I'm not supposed to come in here with like Armani suits, or I don't even know what the suits are these days that are like really expensive. But if I came in here with like a 10, you think of like all these false prophets, like Joelstein has million dollar homes and all this stuff, you're not supposed to be living like that as a pastor, okay? You're supposed to be living just a comfortable life, and not living off luxury. And I think that's basically what it's saying is that a pastor is not to be given to that. Now, what's given, like if I said I'm given to hospitality, that means that I'm basically like, I'm apt to do that. I'm, you know, I'm basically ready to do that at all times. Does that make sense? And so, given to much wine, or given to wine, can be in the sense of, well, you're, you're just like after that all the time, right? You're not, it's not that you just drink grape juice every once in a while, it's just that you're given to a lot. And in context with the Bible, it's just like, if you think about, you know, a penny in the Bible, you got to take the context of the Bible in order to look at that. When it says that you're gonna buy a measure of wheat for a penny, if you looked at it in our mindset of what a penny was, you'd be like, we're good. You know, what is a penny worth these days, right? But if you look at the Bible, and look at the Bible define what that worth was, that worth is a whole day's wage. Now, it puts a little more gravity on when it says that a measure of wheat and three measures of barley for a penny, you're like, oh, man, I'm gonna have to work a whole day just to get a measure of wheat, right? And so, but I want to give you a passage to kind of prove that. Go to 1 Timothy 3, or Titus. Now, when I memorized, and the reason that I kind of saw this is because I had Titus, Titus was actually the first book that I ever memorized. And it was a short book, that's why I memorized it. So, but I had recently memorized 1 Timothy. And what's interesting when you memorize passages that are paralleled, you got to watch because the wording is a little different in there. And so, it's actually harder sometimes, even though the passage is very similar, if you're trying to make sure you don't mix them up. So, Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3 are parallel passages when it's dealing with the qualifications for a pastor or for a bishop or an elder, they're all synonymous. But in Titus, in verse seven there, so chapter one, verse seven, it says, it says, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. Notice it says, not given to filthy lucre. Go back to 1 Timothy chapter three and verse three. Remember, this is a parallel passage. So, we already read the first part, you know, like the, to be sober, be vigilant, be sober. So, 1 Timothy 3 and verse three, it says, not given the wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous. And it goes on, but notice that in Titus it says, not given to filthy lucre, and then in Timothy it says, not greedy of filthy lucre. You get a little idea as far as like someone that's greedy of wine, right? Someone that's basically, that's all they want. You know, they're all about luxury. They're all about, you know, the expensive drink, okay? And so, you don't want a pastor that's covetous, right? The covetous is mentioned in there. You don't want a pastor that's all about having the nicest things in the world, okay? You don't want to see me come up in a Bentley, you know, and like all about the nice things in the world. And I'm not saying it's wrong to be rich. I'm not saying it's wrong to have money, okay? That's not wrong to do that, but I shouldn't be given to it. Does that make sense? I shouldn't be given. It's just like money is not bad in general, but the love of money is bad. The love of money is the root of all evil. And so, given to wine is the same thing given to, you know, I had to deal with lucre. You know, I am the pastor of church, and right now I'm the only person that would deal with the bank account. I have to deal with the money. I have a church bank account. I'm buying stuff for the church, but am I given to that? Am I given to that lucre? No, because I don't, you know, I'm not like in it for the money, right? That doesn't go into my bank account. That stays in the church bank account, and what we use that money for is either for the church or spreading the gospel. Does that make sense? And so, you know, just you got to understand what it's saying, not given to it, not greedy of it, okay? So, I believe that's actually what it's talking about, but here's the thing. If I ever have a deacon and I find out they drink one sip of alcohol, they will not be a deacon anymore, okay? And so, that's always been my policy, you know, and here's the thing. What you got to understand is that these are guidelines that God is giving us anyway. Let's say that were even the case. Let's say it was alcoholic wine, which would just be kind of weird that a deacon can drink a little bit but don't get drunk type thing. My standards for that deacon will be more, okay? These are like the baseline qualifications. It doesn't say how many times you have to read the Bible, does it in there? It doesn't say, but I will have a qualification for that. If I ever send anybody out to be a pastor, you better believe I'm going to ask him how many times you've read through the Bible. I'm going to ask him, you know, have you been going soul winning? How long have you been saved? You know, these different things that I'm going to be asking them. And so, anyway, I believe that's what it's talking about, being given to it. It's like being given the hospitality, you know, it's basically you're ready to do it. Are you just ready to drink wine all the time, you know, as far as grape juice, you know, like stuff that's just expensive, stuff that's, you know, and it just goes into the fact of a deacon doesn't necessarily have to be to that high of a level of minimalism. Does that make sense? And I use that loosely because I'm not saying you have to be like, we're selling everything, we're living out of a van, you know what I mean? I'm not saying you can't have nice things, but you need to, you need to have like the priorities. And here's the thing, I got kids, so I'm never going to have nice things again. So it's just the truth. I'm going to be poor for the rest of my life. But that's okay, you know, we're at no oxen are the crib is clean, but there's much increase by the strength of the ox. So, but what I want to end with this is that drinking list, drinking just leads to shame, it leads to destruction. And there's nothing good that will come out of it. Okay. And you may say, Well, I've drank before and I'm not well, that's great. But the exception proves the rule. Okay. That's, but this happens if you look statistically, you know, as far as who ends up ruining their life with alcohol, you think of children out of wedlock, how do you think that happens a lot of times? Drinking, making poor decisions when you're when you're not sober. You think of all these different things that go on. Alcohol is usually in that mix. Okay. But I'm going to give you a couple stories in Genesis of someone that drank and what happened. So Genesis nine, we're dealing with Noah. Genesis nine, he just gets off the ark and then he becomes an alcoholic. So, but he, he does, I mean, Noah obviously was a great man of God. And you know, the Bible says about Noah, and I'm not here to knock Noah, but he does make a mistake here. Even a great man, like Noah, you know, it says in Ezekiel, though, though, Noah, Daniel or Job be in the city, I only those people would I save out of that city. So God has these inner three of Noah, Daniel and Job, as far as righteous people in the Bible, he's mentioning in Ezekiel, Noah, Daniel and Job. And so they know what's in there. Okay, so I'm not against Noah, but he does make a mistake here. Notice what it says in verse 20. So Genesis nine, verse 20 says, and Noah began to be in husbandmen. And he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine and was drunken and was uncovered within his tent and ham the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And we'll just stop with that. But basically, remember, Canaan was cursed from that day on. And it says that when he woke up, he knew what his younger son had done unto him. Now, we don't know exactly what that is, what he did to him. Was it just because he looked on his nakedness? That could be the case. Either way, I mean, you're not to look at your father's nakedness, you're not to look at your mother's nakedness. So the Bible talks about that. But usually when it's talking about covering the nakedness of somebody, it's talking about something a little more. A lot of times, like in Leviticus, it's talking about laying with somebody. And so we'll leave it at that. It doesn't say that, but it does say that he knew what his younger son had done unto him when he woke up. So a lot of shame right there. A lot of shame. If anything, your son came in and like saw you in a very shameful state. Let's say at the very least, your son came in and saw you like uncovered and just in a drunken stupor and asleep. So getting to Genesis 19, and these aren't pleasant passages, but you know what? Maybe we need to hear these so that we'll be warned about alcohol and what it can do to you. But in Genesis 19, we know this is where Sodom and Gomorrah is destroyed, but this is after Sodom and Gomorrah. This is where Lot and his two daughters that survived are with him. And notice what it says in verse 32. We're not going to read the whole discourse of what's going on here, but Genesis 19 verse 32 says, come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father. So you know what happens. Thorns make them drunk. The one daughter lies with them. She gets pregnant, and then the other daughter makes them drunk. She lies with them and makes them pregnant. Incest in the Bible. Disgusting. But two people came out of that, the Ammon and Moab. So the Ammonites and the Moabites. And so we'll see those are plagues, you know, basically thorns in the side of Israel from there on out, that nation, just like Canaan with ham. And so what does alcohol do to help any situation? Show me a place in the Bible where alcohol, where someone getting drunk is anything good. All I see is where it says that their tables are full of vomit and filthiness when they're filled with strong drink and wine. I see where the prophets can't discern between good and evil because they're drunk with wine and strong drink. All I see is a bunch of foolishness. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. We are not to be deceived by wine and strong drink. It is a sin. It is foolishness. The thought of foolishness is sin. We're not to look at the wine when it is red, when it is given this color in the cup, when it moved itself aright. So let it alone. Drink it. So stay far away from it. All it will do is ruin your life. All it will do is cause shame. All it will do is just destroy your life. At the last it viteth like an adder. And so don't become one of these fools. Don't become one of these people where someone's saying, give it to that guy. Give it to that guy. You know, let him just drink himself to death, right? Let that guy who's just got sorrow of heart. Hey, no, I don't have sorrow of heart. I'm joyful. I have a lot of joy in my heart. I have joy unspeakable and full of glory because my salvation is in God and my faith is in God that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And what I should do with the flesh is to free my labor. But I'm in a strait betwixt two to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. So I don't have any, you know, obviously you have down times, but there's always this joy that's just there that you can't get rid of, of salvation. No matter how hard things get, you always have that joy. Do not go to the bottom. Do not go to wine. Wine is a marker, my friends, and don't be deceived by it. Let's end with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today and Lord we just pray that you'd be with us as we go out today and Lord we just love you and pray that we wouldn't be deceived by any alcohol, but Lord that that we would stay sober and vigilant and Lord just help us to bring glory to your name and Lord we love you and pray all this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.