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Part of the chapter I want to focus on is verse 1 where the Bible read, Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. And the title of the sermon tonight is Deceived by Wine. Now, this is a topic that affects our culture, our country, Christians. Tons of people today are deceived by wine. And so this evening, I have five deceptions that I want to address when it comes to what the Bible has to say. Now, this topic is actually a wide topic in the Bible. The word wine is mentioned in 233 verses in the Bible and it's mentioned 256 times. So even if we were just to read every single time the word wine was used in the Bible, it would be like hours just reading every single verse. So this is a topic that there's a lot to speak about, but the focus I want is on the fact that there's many people that are deceived by wine. When you think of deception, what are we talking about? It's talking about a mentality. It's talking about the fact that your mind is deceived. When we think of the word deceived, what does that mean according to the dictionary? It says to cause someone to believe something that is not true, typically in order to gain some personal advantage. Some synonyms of the word deceived are swindle, defrauded, cheated, tripped, hoodwinked, hoaxed, duked, misled, deluded, fooled, outwitted. I mean, it goes on and on, there's a lot of synonyms with the word deceived, and there's a lot of people today that are deceived by wine. Now it's clear from the Bible what this is saying is it's talking about alcohol, when you use the word wine here. But go to Song of Songs, if you would, or Song of Solomon. The first deception that I want to speak to is that of ignorance. Those that this Bible verse is talking to would be those that are deceived by wine in what area of ignorance? There's so many people today, they're ignorant of what the word wine even means in the Bible. They have a false view of what the word wine means. There's two ways you could be ignorant in this topic. One would be what the Bible says. Not only that, you could just be ignorant of the fact that wine is a bad thing. There's a lot of people that think wine is good in the context of it being alcoholic, meaning what we think of when we go to the, you see a drug store, we see a store that sells liquor and they sell wine today. When we think of the word wine in our modern culture, we always think of it being alcoholic. But according to the Bible, that's not true. Look at Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verse 2. I would lead thee and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me. I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. Now, some people will mock and scoff at this idea, but the Bible, when it uses the word wine, could mean one of two things. It could mean an alcoholic beverage, or it could mean a non-alcoholic beverage. But what it always is, is a fruit juice. It's always a liquid that came from a fruit. And we see the definition of wine kind of given to us in this verse, because you see at the end it says, the spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. Now, the word juice is only used one time in the Bible, but we see it's defining what wine is. It's juice. Now, it's saying specifically this wine is of a pomegranate. Juice could be from a grape, it could be from all manner of fruits, but wine in and of itself is always going to be liquid that comes from a fruit. Now, whether or not it's fermented or unfermented, you'd have to use the context of the Bible to discern that. Now, go to Proverbs 23, go back. And I'll read for you from Numbers chapter 6. The Bible says, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink. Neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dry. So another way the Bible would refer to juice that comes from wine is calling it liquor of grapes. Our modern word for liquor there would be liquid, thinking of the juice or the liquid coming out. The Bible does not use this word over and over for wine, it just uses wine over and over. And you have to use the context of the Bible to determine what's being said there. In Psalms 104, there's another positive mention of wine, it says, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which shrinketh man's heart. Now, those that want to say that drinking alcohol is okay, those that preach that drinking alcohol is not a sin, they love to focus on verses like this. They say, oh, wine makes, you know, your heart glad, and wine is, you know, a good thing. And they'll point to some of the verses in the Bible that say it's good. But that would be to reject and ignore all the verses in the Bible that clearly say that there's a wine you shouldn't drink, that wine is negative. I mean, like the verse we just started off with. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Now, my question is, how is that compatible with it being good? It's because it's talking about two different beverages, you have to use the context to let the Bible determine what it's saying. So we're gonna see a negative mention here of wine. See, in Proverbs chapter 23, you say, well, how do I know which wine I should be drinking? Well, the Bible's gonna tell us exactly what kind of wine you should stay away from. It says in verse 31, look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself on rind. Now, if I just had a bunch of grapes in my hand, and I had a cup, and I just squeezed all the grapes into that cup, the juice is not gonna be red. I mean, you see the outside color of a grape, it might be red or it could be green or it could be purple, could be all manner of colors, but when you squeeze that liquid, it's just a clear liquid. Now, when a drink or beverage that is like this goes through the process of fermentation, and it's been sitting with the shells of the grape, maybe the outside skin, it will start to change its color, it will become red. It's being dyed on the leaves, as the Bible used that in different parts of the Bible. But what it's saying here is it's saying, you're not even supposed to look at this wine when it's going through that process. If it's gone through the process of fermentation, if it's gone through the process of changing color, now it's something completely different. And it's a wine in the corner of the Bible you're not even supposed to look at, let alone in jest, let alone drink. Now, here's the problem I have is you say, well, how am I supposed to know which context I'm supposed to use? That doesn't make any sense. Wouldn't God just clearly tell me? Well, there's a lot of words in the Bible. You actually have to have the context to tell what it means. I mean, think about the word God. How many times is the word God used in the Bible? Now, is every single mention of the word God always positive? What about false gods? What about, what about, it talks about Satan being the God of this world. How are you supposed to know which one's right or wrong? Now, luckily in your King James Bible, every time it refers to God the Lord Jesus Christ or God the Father, it's capitalized. So you kind of have that luxury of knowing, hey, this is talking about God the Father. And every time it's talking about a false god or talking about a demon or someone else, it's a little g. So we kind of get that context, but you may not always get that depending on what language you have or what, you know, in certain languages, it may not have that distinction in their Bible, but you can use from the context to determine who it's talking about. Even the word love, think about the word love. Is every context of the word love positive? Okay, I mean, is loving everything positive? The Bible says that we're not supposed to love the world. We're supposed to love the Father. The Bible says we're supposed to love one another. It also says that husbands are supposed to love their wives. Now, is that the same love? Are you supposed to love your brother the same as you're supposed to love your wife? No, you have to let the context of the Bible determine what these words are meaning. They can mean different things by their connotation. The word desert, now this is an interesting word because I always thought desert just meant like only a barren land or, you know, a wilderness or something like that, but the Bible actually used the word desert a couple places to mean what you deserve or something that you deserve in the book of Proverbs that'll give them to their desserts, meaning what? Not deserts, but it's giving what they deserve. It's an older word, but you have to let the context determine what the word means. We even have the word fruit. Fruit in the Bible can mean like apple. It can mean grape. Sometimes it's used to determine a child. It's saying when a woman, her fruit would depart from her, saying like she lost her child. So the words can mean different things based on their connotations. It's not crazy to believe that wine, according to the Bible, is two different beverages. You have to let the context of the Bible. The foolish position is the one that says, oh, alcohol's always, you know, when it says wine, it's always alcoholic because there's all kinds of positive and negative mentions in the Bible. Those people are deceived today. They have a mental delusion. They're ignorant of what the Bible teaches. Go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Even the word man. Man could mean what we think of the word gender male. It could also just mean mankind in general. A man could just refer to the fact that we're human beings, not the fact that you're an animal or you're, you know, a goat or something like that. We're made in the image of God. We're all mankind. Men are made in the image of God, male, but also in the context of we're all mankind. Now I'm gonna read through some statistics for you because another way that people would be deceived or be ignorant is the fact that they think that drinking's good. You know, they hear all these studies online. They say, oh, have a glass of wine with dinner. It's really good for your heart. You know, it really helps you out. It just makes you a stronger person. It's really good for you. Well, I looked at a bunch of different articles and I'm gonna read a lot of different statistics for you, but according to the National Survey on Drug Use, it says that 86.4% of people over the age of 18 reported they drank alcohol. It says in 70.1% reported they drank alcohol in the last year and 56% reported they drank in the past month. So this is not something that affects a few people. And according, I don't even think that this is completely honest because I think a lot of people probably just lie. I mean, I bet more than 56% of people have probably drank alcohol in the past month, but you know, let's just go with their numbers. Now the thing about alcohol is it really affects your brain. And I looked at the National Institute of Drug Abuse explains, let's understand what alcohol is first before we get into that. It says that alcohol is an ingredient in beer, wine, and liquor. And it's referred to as ethanol or ethyl alcohol. And how we get this is from a process known as fermentation. It says when yeast is fermented, sugar breaks down into the carbon dioxide and alcohol. Carbon dioxide exits the process through gas bubbles and leaves behind a combination of water and ethanol. The process is so precise that if any air is present in the yeast, the result will be ethnoic acid, a chemical found in common vinegar. So it's actually, you know, such an exact process that you could end up getting vinegar, which would not be alcohol. It could be something used in a completely different sense. But you also look at Encyclopedia Brittanica when it describes how alcohol is created. It says pure ethyl alcohol is colorless, flammable liquid with an agreeable ethereal odor and a burning taste. Ethyl alcohol is toxic, affecting the central nervous system. Modern amounts relax the muscles and produce an apparent stimulating effect by depressing the inhibitory activities of the brain, but larger amounts impair coordination and judgment, finally producing coma and death. It is an addictive drug for some persons leading to the disease of alcoholism. So now the Encyclopedia Brittanica, in some cases, is one of the most authoritative pieces of resource for knowledge. And it says very clearly that ethyl alcohol is toxic. Now look at Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 33. Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of ash. Now in this context, he's contrasting, you know, our rock with their rock. He's saying, hey, not our wine. Their wine is the poison of dragons. Now before any of the Encyclopedia Brittanica was ever written, the Bible's already saying, hey, there's a wine that's a poison. And you know what? Anybody that's teaching you anything other than the fact that alcohol is a poison is lying to you today. If they say that it's good, they're lying through their teeth. They don't know what they're saying. They're ignorant, they're deceived by wine. Because according to the Bible, and according to just secular research and study, they all say it's a poison, it's a toxin. It's not something to be ingested. It's not something to be consumed. It's not something to have, you know, with your drinks. It doesn't matter how much good you mix with toxin and poison. I don't want to drink any poison. And to say that drinking poison is good for you, you're deceived by wine tonight. And I looked at another article. This is giving us statistics of people that drink alcohol. It says that 52.2% of Americans age 12 or older were current alcohol users. Saying, I mean, you know, it's sad today, but in the public school system, kids in junior high are drinking alcohol. Kids in high school, I mean, kids in high school, tons of them are drinking alcohol. But even in the junior highs today, there's tons of children drinking alcohol. And it says that approximately 6.3% of the population aged 12 or older were heavy alcohol users. Not only are they drinking like a little bit, they're heavy alcohol users. And you say, oh, this is 6%. That's 16 million children. 16 million children in this country are already heavy alcohol users. And now the thing about alcohol is it affects people differently based on their body type and size. So a little child, I mean, they don't even have to have that much alcohol for it to wreak havoc on their body, to cause all kinds of problems. And it says about 10.9% of Americans age 12 or older reported that they had driven a car under the influence at least once in the past year. It says that approximately 8.7 million Americans under the legal drinking age were current alcohol users. This statistic includes 5.4 million binge drinkers and 1.4 million heavy drinkers. I saw in another place it said when kids drink at that age, they're like six times more likely to be an alcoholic. I mean, when they get started that young and they get addicted to this stuff, because this stuff is so addictive, I mean, they're just set for life to be an alcoholic. Now, what does it mean to be someone that would excessively use alcohol? Let's try to prove all things. If you go to the CDC, which they might not be the most reputable in some areas, but in some ways they just report facts and they give their analysis of what an excessive alcohol use is. It says that someone who drinks 15 drinks or more per week is considered a heavy drinker, and that's for men. Women who drink eight drinks or more per week are considered a heavy drinker. But they also say people are binge drinkers. That's where someone would drink five or more drinks on a single occasion. It says for men, or for women, it'd only be like two or three drinks on one single occasion. And it talks about how these have negative effects in the short term and in the long term if you do these. It says what health problems are associated with excessive alcohol use? And now we kind of understand it's about 15 drinks a week for a man. Two a day, or maybe five, three days of the week, or I've actually seen it, 15 drinks in one day, or even more. There's tons of people today, they're just drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. It would be mind-boggling if we actually knew what was going on behind closed doors. These people a lot of times are drinking way more than this. I mean, there's probably people drinking 60, 70 drinks a week. I mean, there's people that drink just exorbitant amounts of alcohol. But here's some problems that are associated with drinking alcohol long term. They say, oh, well, maybe it's good for you. It's good for your heart to drink alcohol. It's good to just constantly be drinking. Well, according to the CDC, it says there's chronic diseases that come with this type of drinking, like liver cirrhosis, like pancreatitis, like various cancers including liver, mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, high blood pressure, physiological disorders, unintentional injuries such as motor vehicle traffic crashes, falls, drowning, burns, firearm injuries, violence, such as child maltreatment, homicide, suicide. It says it's completely unsafe for anyone that's pregnant to ever drink alcohol. It would definitely mess up a baby or a fetus that is growing in the womb. And many times it's linked to sudden infant death syndrome. You know, if you just go to a restaurant, they'll have a poster that says like, no women should ever be drinking alcohol. Now, how in the world can you say, oh, it's good. It's a great thing to ingest. We should just all get a bunch of alcohol. This sounds great. I can't wait to get all these cancers and cirrhosis and have all these unintended consequences. Look, it's obviously wicked. It's obviously wrong. And the people that teach that this is somehow okay and somehow justified, they're deceived today. They don't know the Bible. They are just completely ignorant of what the Bible teaches. And they're deceived by wine today. And they're not wise. Go to Genesis chapter 19. So the first way that you can be deceived by wine is just thinking it's good. Thinking it's a positive thing. Saying that it's good. Look, I'm gonna read a lot more statistics, but according to this, the secular world. I mean, we're not talking about bad this year. The CDC is not independent fundamental Baptist, okay. They're saying it's bad. They're saying you get all these diseases. It's a toxin. I mean, this is not good for your health. If you're pregnant, you should avoid it like the plague. You go to Christian churches today and they fall all over themselves and say, oh, it's not a big deal to have a couple beers. It's not a big. It's not a big deal to drink poison, to have toxins, to have all these issues. They're deceived by wine. The second point I have though, how you can be deceived is you forget. Probably the most obvious thing that comes with drinking alcohol is forgetting things. Look at Genesis 19 verse 31. And the first born said unto the younger, our father is old and there's not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. 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 first born went in and lay with their father and he perceived not when she laid down or when she arose. And it came to pass on the morrow that the first born 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 would 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 laid down nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. Now this is a horrific story. This is an awful story. But according to the story, Lot didn't even know what was going on. He didn't even remember what happened the night before. What a wicked situation to be in. I mean, just gonna, I guess in a few months, find out his dogs are pregnant. That's gonna be kind of awkward. What happened? I mean, he doesn't even remember that he got his own daughter and pregnant. That's sick, that's gross. But you know, people that drink, they often, they completely black out or they completely have memory lapses or they just don't even know what they're doing. And they go into these horrific situations. This is a horrible situation. But you know what, people go into even worse situations than that in today's culture. They'll do all kinds of wicked things with family members, with people they didn't want to. Why? Because alcohol will affect your brain where you will stop remembering things. You just will not remember everything that happened. I'll read for you from another article. It says that there's neurotransmitter effects when it comes to drinking alcohol. It says now, when it comes to the effects of alcohol on our neurotransmitters, there's three categories. There's GABA, dopamine, and endorphins. When it comes to the GABA neurotransmitters, these are gamma-aminobutyric acid, okay? It says that they are responsible for reducing excitability in the brain. Alcohol increases the amount of GABA transmitted, which inhibits the brain to abnormal degrees, essentially sedating the drinker. This is why drunken people have trouble walking, talking, and remembering things later on. So what this does is it basically, when you get really excited, or you have a situation that you're kind of nervous about, these are basically telling you to calm down. They're kind of telling your system, oh, it's okay, you need to settle down. You're getting a little too excited. Maybe you're a little too nervous. You're kind of shaking. It's basically just kind of a control mechanism to try and bring you back to a normal level. Your heart rate will start to pound. The GABA will come in and try to tell your body, no, you need to slow down. You know, your heart can't just pump at a certain rate over and over. It'll wear out. So your body has these mechanisms in them to slow them down. Well, what alcohol does is it falsely starts bringing all these GABA neurotransmitters into your brain, telling you to slow down when you're not excited, when you're just sitting there and you're just normal. And you're just like, oh. So that's why people would come, you know, really slow. You know, they kind of, you know, kind of just all around. Hey, how's it going? You know, what's going on? Drunk people sound like idiots. Why? Because all the GABA that's being released to their brain is telling them to slow down. They're like, hey, what's going on, man? Hey, how's it going, brother? Yeah, I believe in Jesus too, man. I mean, you're like, they look like an idiot. Why? Because they get all these GABA neurotransmitters going onto the brain. And what it causes them to not remember things. They can't remember stuff that's happening from the day before. Why? Because alcohol's affecting their brain. Go to Proverbs 31, if you will. It says, over time, high GABA levels can cause shortness of breath, high blood pressure, increased heart rate, and night terrors, among other disorders. GABA's also responsible for creating tolerance to alcohol, forcing alcoholics to consume more and more. So what this is saying, the first time you do it, it works really well. The second time you do it, it doesn't work as much. The third time, not as much. Because it starts to regulate itself. So now you have to drink even more to feel the same effect that you did before. Look at Proverbs 31, verse four. It is not for kings, O them you will, 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. The Bible says that when you drink, you will forget the law. The Bible already told us, hey, those that drink, they have problems remembering things, they're gonna forget stuff. And the person that's constantly drinking alcohol is consuming this type of wine, they're gonna forget what God said. They're gonna forget the commandments. They're not gonna even remember the things that they have. Not only that, what is the second part of the verse? They're gonna pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. That's my third point. Not only are you gonna forget the law, it's gonna pervert your judgment just and altogether. You know, even if you look at the CDC, they'll say the first thing that happens when you start drinking alcohol is your judgment. Your judgment will start to change. The judgments that you have and the judgments that you make right now are not the same as when you start drinking. They're immediately changed, immediately. As soon as you take just one sip, now your good judgment has changed, it's altered, it's degraded. Your judgment that said, oh, I only have one drink tonight. As soon as you start drinking, that's evaporating. Now it's starting to turn into two. And then as soon as you're done with the fat one, you start drinking the second one, oh, now it turned into four. Before you know it, you don't even know where you're at because you've forgotten everything. That's how alcohol works. Go over to Leviticus chapter 10. It's explained with the neurotransmitters again with the endorphins. It says that endorphins are morphine-like molecules produced by the central nervous system, released by the body to counteract physical pain. Endorphin release can also create a feeling of euphoria produced naturally in response to pain. Endorphins are also produced by human activities such as working out, laughing, and abusing alcohol. Well, those are just three, you know, the same things. Working out, laughing, and abusing alcohol. That's something you never see in the same situation. You might be laughing at someone abusing alcohol, but you're definitely not gonna be working out and abusing alcohol. It says different parts of the brain release endorphins according to different responses. And alcohol releases endorphins in two different parts, the nucleus accubens and the orbitofrontal cortex, which control addictive behavior and decision-making. Over time, high endorphin levels can cause depression, lower sex drive, low testosterone, infertility, extreme fatigue, among other complications. Now, some people get confused about the word judgment means. The word judgment is just like decision. Your decisions that you make. We're supposed to make decisions, you make decisions every day. You made a decision to come to church today. You made a decision to do everything that you did, the clothes you put on, where you're gonna drive. How many decisions do you make when you're driving? You gotta look in the mirror. You gotta be looking at how fast you're going. You're turning the wheel. You're deciding how fast to accelerate, decelerate. I mean, you're making literally hundreds of decisions every second while you're driving, every second. That's why it's so dangerous to get behind the wheel after you've had any alcohol because your decision-making has been slow. Your decision-making's been altered. It's perverted. You have a perverted judgment. And we see it get so bad, it can get to the point where you don't feel pain. Now, this is a big problem. Some people think that, you know, it'd be great to live in a society or a place where there's no pain. Oh, the absence of pain would be great. No, you need pain. Pain protects you. You know, when you put your hand in the fire, pain tells you get it out so you don't burn your flesh off. You know, pain is a good thing. Pain will keep you safe. Pain is just there to help your body be healthy. I mean, you don't want your body to be burned. You don't want your body to go bad. When you get alcohol, when you get so much alcohol in your brain, you don't feel pain anymore so you can damage your body very severely. It says in Proverbs 23, 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. According to the Bible, it already had it in there. It said, look, you can drink so much alcohol, you can get to a point where so much is literally beating you and you wouldn't even feel it. You wouldn't even know. They can take your life. Look at Leviticus chapter 10, verse one. And Nadab and Abi, the sons of Aaron, took either of them in censure and put fire there and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord. Now these two men, if you read the book of Leviticus, the Bible says making all these commandments from the Lord. He's making exactly clear, exactly how all the Levites are supposed to handle the sacrifices, who's supposed to go in, what they're supposed to do, and then immediately we see these two guys, they do it wrong. They do it bad. And they're immediately slain. Now skip down to verse nine. Now God immediately brings this up after these two kids are slain. I don't think it's a coincidence. It says, do not drink wine, nor strong drink. Thou nor thy sons with thee. When you go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest he die, it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. And that you may put difference between holy and unholy, between unclean and clean. And that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken unto them by the hand of Moses. Now, I can't say definitively that Nadab and Abi who were drinking, but it seems to indicate that that's probably what's happening. Because as soon as they're killed, he's like, hey, you and your sons better not go in there and drink, or you're gonna die. I mean, two and two make four, so when I look at this, I think that's probably what might have happened. And it makes sense because why? They forgot the law when they entered because they had been drinking. And guess what? They have perverted judgment. Now they don't even know what they're doing. They're making bad decisions. And when you make bad decisions under the influence of alcohol, it can cost you your life. You know, how many lives do you get? One. I don't wanna screw that up. I wanna be sober-minded. I don't want the Lord to take my life because I make one bad decision. And I certainly don't wanna make it when it wasn't even my right mind. I mean, you can be in a completely different mindset when you're under the influence of alcohol. We see they don't put a difference between holy and unholy. You know, bars, these type of liquor establishments are the most filthy, disgusting places on the planet. I mean, their floors are like just disgusting. Their countertops are filthy. You go into the bathroom, you don't even wanna touch anything. You know, when someone gets drunk, they'll go and they'll lay on the floor. They'll lay around the toilet. They'll be hugging that sink. They'll be hugging the most filthy, disgusting, vile, ugly things. Why? Because now that they've been drinking, they don't understand the difference between clean and unclean. Everything's clean under them. They drop a burger on the floor and it's got, you know, mud and maggots and whatever. They'll pick it up and eat it. Why? Because once you start drinking, you forget, hey, there's clean and unclean. Hey, there's things that are filthy and not filthy. Go to Isaiah chapter 28. Drunks will be passed out in their own vomit and they won't even know. It's disgusting, it's filthy. It's not glamorous like the TV wants you to believe. The TV wants you to believe it's all clean. It's crisp, it's cool, it's fun. I mean, look, we're on the beach. We're just having fun. No, it's a bunch of beer bottles and trash and vomit and filth and dirt and disgusting. You know, nobody even wants to walk in these places. You open the door and it smells like piss. It smells terrible. It's awful. It's not a place you want to be in. And the only way you can even stay in that establishment is to get drunk. Because if you're not drunk, you're going to want to immediately leave. You're going to feel completely uncomfortable. It's not fun. So you have to get drunk just to enjoy it. Just to, oh, it's not that filthy anymore. Oh, it's not that bad. Look at Isaiah 28 verse one. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim whose glorious beauty is a fading flower which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine. Skip down to verse six. And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. 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. They are swallowed up with wine. They are all 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 there is no place clean. You know, people that drink alcohol all the time, they're just filthy. And they live in a filthy establishment. They go to filthy places. They're just gross. And this is what the Bible is painting a picture of those that are drunks. It's not what you think on the TV. It's not what you saw on the movie. It's not super cool. It's filthy. It's gross. It's disgusting. And they all vomit all the time. I hate vomiting. You know, I sometimes, I mean, when I feel queasy, you know, some people are like, just go ahead and throw up because you'll feel better later. I don't even want to do it. I, you know, I'm like a chicken. I'm like, I don't want to vomit. It just, I hate it. It hurts. It feels bad. But you know, people that are constant drunks, they're vomiting all the time. They're vomiting all over themselves. They're vomiting in the toilets. They're vomiting on the sidewalk. They're vomiting everywhere. That's the description of what someone is that's a drunk, someone that loves alcohol. Why? Because it's poison. Your body does not like poison. Your body does not like toxins. It wants to vomit it out. That's why you're constantly vomiting. Go to Proverbs chapter 23. Not only are you deceived by not understanding what wine is, the Bible's already told us what it is. The Bible already told us it was poison. The Bible already told us that you're going to forget. The Bible already told us that you're not going to be able to have good judgment. Not only that, it's addictive. Talk about the third transmitter, neurotransmitter, dopamine. Says, the brain's reward system consists of dopamine, which is released when we feel pleasure. Dopamine is released in excess by the consumption of alcohol. The pleasurable effects of alcohol are to be blamed on dopamine. However, because of dopamine, the brain considers alcohol used to be rewarding and contributes to affirming addiction. Over time, high dopamine levels from alcohol can cause an inability to feel pleasure without alcohol. Other effects from high dopamine levels include aggression, depression, delusions, hallucinations, and muscle spasms. So what it's saying here is, before we look at this, you would say, why would anybody drink alcohol? I mean, if it's just going to give you all these diseases, if it's like poison, if it's going to cause you to vomit, if it's all these negative things, you're going to forget. You're going to be in filthy places when you wake up and come into this sober mind. It's because it releases a lot of dopamine, and it gives a pleasure reward system in your brain. It tells you you like it. It tricks you into thinking you like it when you don't. You don't actually truly enjoy it, because if you truly enjoyed it, it would be naturally releasing this dopamine. You actually would enjoy it, like when you laugh, when you enjoy your spouse, when you enjoy your children, when you have fun, when you read your Bible and God shows you something out of his word, and it releases dopamine in your brain. That's real dopamine being released. Do you know what alcohol does? It releases a fake dopamine. It tells you you really like it when you don't. And that's why all these people are addicted to it, because they need it to feel that pleasure again. They feel that pleasure, and now they need that type of release again. Look at Proverbs 23 verse 35. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick. They have beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I wake? I will seek it yet again. What a fool. You get beat up. You get stricken. You wake up, and you're bruised and battered. Things went badly for you. You don't even remember what happened last night. Let's do that again. I mean, what kind of a fool does that? A person who's a slave to it, the person who's been tricked by it, and the dopamine levels have gotten ahold of their brain, have gotten ahold of them and convinced them they like it. You know, you talk to alcoholics, you talk to these people that drink all the time, they say, I love drinking. I just love the taste, liar. Tastes like piss. Tastes like garbage. It tastes like poison. When it goes down, it burns, and you don't like it. You're just being tricked. You're being deceived by the dopamine telling you you like it but you don't really like it. It's lying to you. You've been deceived. Go to Isaiah chapter five. It says, over time, high GABA levels also are responsible for creating tolerance to alcohol, forcing alcoholics to consume more and more. So to get that same pleasure effect that they did with the one beer, they gotta drink two now. The same thing they had with the two, now they gotta drink four. Same thing they had with the four, now they gotta drink eight. Now, some people can get to the point where they never really feel that pleasure anymore. They never feel that buzz that they did that first time, but they, guess what? They just keep drinking and drinking and drinking, just hoping that they'll get that feeling again. It says in Joel three verse three, and they have cast lots for my people and have given a boy for a harlot and sold a girl for wine that they might drink. The Bible says people can get so addicted to this disgusting toxin, this poison, that they would be willing to sell their own children just to get it. You look at the bum down in the corner that's saying, oh, we'll work for food? No, he'll sell his child for alcohol. I'm not gonna give that bum any kind of money. I'm not gonna give him any money out of my wallet so he can go drink himself drunk again the next night. That's not what he needs. He needs a bunch of people to stop giving him money so that he'll get hungry enough to go work, to get a real job, to get sober, to get cleaned up. It says in Isaiah five verse 11, woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow a strong drink, that continue until night till wine inflame them. The Bible says there's people, they just, they have to get the alcohol. They have to get started early just so they can get that feeling in the evening. Oh, I wanna be inflamed, so I gotta start early. I gotta start seeking it right in the wood. I gotta get my mimosa. Give me some orange juice and mix it in there. Give me my drink at lunch, and give me my drink in the afternoon, and give me my drink before dinner just so I can get that feeling again. Why would someone do that? Because they're addicted. You're deceived by wine tonight because you're addicted. Go to Genesis chapter nine, if you will. We see, though, those that drink have a lot of problems, a lot of physical problems. People think, well, it's just my liver. Well, unfortunately, the liver also protects the brain. The liver is actually what causes a lot of toxins and chemicals to not enter your brain. And when the liver is constantly being used for alcohol, it doesn't stop all these other toxins and poisons going to your brain, and there's a lot of brain damage, a lot of harmful effects to the brain. Says many people are not aware that prolonged liver dysfunction, such as liver cirrhosis resulting from excessive alcohol consumption, can harm the brain, leading to a serious and potential fatal brain disorder known as hepatic encephalopathy. Hepatic encephalopathy can cause changes in sleep patterns, mood, personality, psychiatric conditions, such as anxiety and depression, severe cognitive effects, such as shortened attention span, and problems with coordination, such as flapping or shaking of the hands. In most serious cases, patients slip into a coma, which can be fatal. It says that in new imaging techniques, they've been able to scan the brain, and it says that alcohol-damaged liver cells allow excess amounts of these harmful byproducts to enter the brain. It's saying ammonia and manganese and other harmful toxins will be entered into your brain just because your liver's not functioning. You know, we don't always understand all the parts of the body and what they do, but God put them there for a reason. And lots of times, there's a lot of consequences from things that you don't even understand. If your liver's bad, hey, it's gonna mess with your brain. Not only that, you're gonna have drooping heart muscle. You're gonna have a regular heartbeat. You're gonna have stroke. You're gonna have high blood pressure. You're gonna have fatty liver, hepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, all kinds of cancers. Not only that, it weakens your immune system so you can get more sick. We saw in the Proverbs chapter 23, it talked about being sick. Look, the more you drink alcohol, the more likely you are to just get sick because it just wears out your immune system. Look at Genesis chapter nine. This is the first mention of the word wine. Now, any time a word's mentioned for the first time in the Bible, we oughta pay close attention to it. Now, like I said, wine has positive mentions in the Bible, but the majority are always negative. The majority are always talking about alcohol, and the majority are negative. Let's look at verse 20. And Noah began to be an husband then, and he planted a vineyard. And he drank of the wine and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. And 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 both on 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 woke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Now again, we see another perverted act. And that's my last point, how you can be deceived by wine tonight, is you'll commit perverted acts under the influence of alcohol. You'll commit actions and things that you would never do in a sober mind. Things that you think I would never do that, you will do under the influence of alcohol. And we see that Noah was taken advantage of by his children. What happened in the Lot situation? He was taken advantage of by his children. I think the Bible's bringing this up because it happens a lot. You know what happens a lot? People are taken advantage of by family members, by friends, by people close unto them, under the influence of alcohol, when they didn't even want it. I mean, who wants that? Who wants, it says in verse 24, what his younger son had done unto him. So it's not Noah just getting drunk and being unclothed and his son saw him. Because look, when you wake up from that, how would you know if someone saw you? He did something unto him. And I'm so glad it doesn't tell us what happened. But when he woke up, he realized, hey, he'd done something unto him. Maybe it was that he's the one that got him drunk in the first place. Maybe his son's the one that's trying to entice him to drink. The Bible talks about in Habakkuk chapter two about a man getting another man drunk so he can look upon his nakedness. That's the reality today. And with so much sodomy and so much faggots and so many reprobates in this country, why would you want to be around other men causing you to get drunk so they can look upon your nakedness and then when you wake up, you realize what they did unto you. That's horrible. That's wicked. I don't want that to happen one time. I'd rather die. I would rather die than anything like that happen to me. Guess what? I'm not gonna touch alcohol. I'm not even gonna look at it. I don't want to be deceived tonight by alcohol. Go to Micah chapter two. It says in Revelation 17, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Now I have not even touched 10% of the verses on wine. How in the world can pastors get up in the pulpit and say drinking's fine, drinking alcohol's great. I mean, where are they getting their information? The secular world condemns it. The secular world thinks it's wicked. The secular world will tell you to avoid it. They say, look, after you've had one or two drinks, you shouldn't even drive, is what the secular world, they're not Baptists. Now, of course, the secular world, they indulge heavily with the inventions of things like Lyft and all these driving services. Now people are like, oh, let's party it up. Let's drink it up. But still the CDC's warning, look, a lifestyle like that's gonna wreak havoc on your body. You're gonna wake up from situations you do not want to wake up from. You'd rather just perish. Bible says in Titus chapter two, young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. You know what the Bible says over and over, like a dozen times to be sober. It says for the old men to be sober. It says for the women to be sober. It says for the older women to teach the younger women to be sober. It says young men be sober. You know what sober is? Not affected by alcohol. It's not one drink, it's zero, it's none. If you look at the CDC's chart of safe driving, it says zero percent. As soon as you go from not zero percent, it already says moderately unsafe to drive. I mean, just the CDC. How in the world are people justifying this junk? In Mark chapter five, it says when they came to come see Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil and had a legion sitting and clothed, and in his right mind, and they were afraid. There was a man who was possessed by a demon, who was possessed by a devil. He was deceived, and guess what? When he didn't have the devil, when he didn't have the demon, he was in his right mind. People that are drinking alcohol, they're not in their right mind. And often times when you drive down the street today, what do you see on the billboard? Spirits. It is another spirit. It's a mocker, and it's gonna mock you when you get under the influence of this spirit. Because just think of these demon-possessed people. What are they doing? They're making a fool of them. They're falling in the fire, they're cutting themselves, they're naked, they're speaking with weird voices. You know, I mean, they're doing all kinds of silly things. They're under the influence of that spirit. And you know what happens when you're under the influence of alcohol? You're under the influence of another spirit. It's controlling you. You know what? A saved person cannot be inhabited by a demon. I don't believe that. The Bible doesn't teach that. But you can congest, you know, alcohol, you can ingest tons of this kind of spirit, and you can do all kinds of wicked, weird things. We see Noah did some weird stuff. We see Lot did some weird stuff. They're saved! I don't wanna do any of that kind of stuff. I'm not gonna let any of these spirits be influencing me. I want the Holy Spirit to be influencing me. You know how you get that? You're singing the hymns, through reading your Bible, through never touching alcohol ever. It's not a good reason to ever drink alcohol. Look at Micah chapter two, verse 11. If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and a strong drink, he shall even be the prophet of this people. Isn't that the American preacher today? Isn't that the American prophet today? He'll tell you that drinking alcohol is okay. He'll even have a beer with you. I mean, and this has affected a lot of people. There was a family member of mine who drank, but they drank privately because they thought it was wrong, probably, at least to some degree. But one time they saw a pastor that was going to our church drinking at the restaurant that he worked at. And ever since then, now it's public. Now he's just drinking all the time in front of everybody. Now it's been justified in his mind because now a pastor's doing it because the pastor thinks it's okay. And it obviously negatively affected that person. You know, there's a lot of pastors today that'll drink alcohol. Not even that, they'll just preach it. How about John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church? He says, of course you can't defend teetotalism in an absolute way from the Bible. It's clear that wine is a blessing in the Bible. He says, wine's a blessing. I think you forgot about 200 verses there, John. I guess you just forgot the law because you're a drunk because you're deceived by wine tonight. Teetotalism is the practice or promotion of complete personal abstinence from alcoholic beverages. That's what I believe, that's what I teach, that's what I think my children ought to do. Complete abstinence, don't even look at it. Not even don't have it, don't even look at it. How about Jefferson Bethke? This guy is like a self-proclaimed YouTube prophet. He thinks he's really special because he just makes YouTube videos. But why are you going to this list? You just go on YouTube and you say, is alcohol a sin? These are the people that popped up. These are the top results. These are the views that everybody in America is looking at. These are where they're getting the information. This guy has millions and millions of viewers. Just because he has millions of viewers on YouTube, people will bring him into their pulpit. This guy is not even a pastor, doesn't have any credentials. He wrote a book condemning people that go to church. Yet pastors will bring them into their pulpits to pre-find their pulpits. What idiots! This guy, what do you say? Is alcohol a sin? The short answer is no. The scriptures in their entirety say nothing about alcohol being inherently a sin. What Bible are you reading there, Jefferson? Not the one I'm looking at. How about Mark Driscoll? Who's this guy? Well, he's a pastor that's actually in Scottsdale, Arizona. He's not even that far from us. He's a disgraced pastor from, I think it was in Seattle where he had his Marsh Hills church, somewhere in that area. He basically was committing fraud. He was writing a bunch of books. He wasn't really writing them. He had somebody else write his books for him. But then he just plagiarized all of this information. Then, in order to make his books sell, because he had a private company that owned his writing, so every book sale was actually giving money to him. Well, his church would buy all of the books and then just give them to the people. So he'd become a number one bestseller. His church would buy thousands of copies of his book just to get on the bestseller list, and then you would hand it out to his church for free. Basically, he's just paying himself through the church. Anybody that's a tax accountant or knows anything about financing, we're like, this guy's just paying himself a bunch of money. Well, then it came out, all this information about him. He's a false teacher. His whole church just kicked him out. I mean, the guy's definitely not even saved. The church isn't saved, but at least they could tell he was a disgraced pastor. Well, then just a year later, now he's in Scottsdale planning another church. When do these guys quit? Never. Just like Perry Noble, another guy who was disgraced from his church because they caught him being a drunk, from being a person. He actually preaches that drinking's okay. He was thrown out of his church for being a drunk. Guess what? He's already started another church. Just a few months later, Second Chance Church. I mean, these guys, I mean, it's like a gimmick. He literally has Second Chance Church T-shirts and the cups, he's got it all. I mean, you can watch them on YouTube. I mean, these guys will not stop. Mark Driscoll of Trinity Church in Scottsdale said, "'Jesus drank alcohol, even though there were undoubtedly "'people in his day who were alcoholics.'" Now, that's blasphemous. I hate it when I hear someone say that. I've even seen billboards say, "'Oh, Jesus drank alcohol.'" Wicked! You really think Jesus was drinking poison? Was drinking, you know, this filth? No. You know, they're not pointing to the fact that when Jesus was walking to the cross, they offered him wine mixed with gall, but you know what he did? As soon as it touched his lips, he spit it out because he knew it was disgusting. It was filthy. Why? So he could feel every single ounce of pain when he was on that cross for you. He didn't forget any of it. It didn't soften a bit. No, he felt every single whip, every single nail. He felt it all just for you. He was in a sober and right mind when he was on that cross. You know what? If he's gonna spit it out, I think that's what our approach would be if you're ever offered some wicked beverage you didn't realize. Jim Burgin from Flatirons Church in Lakeview, Colorado, he said drinking alcohol in moderation doesn't make you a bad Christian. Being a Christian doesn't mean you have to be a boring, weird, freaky person that doesn't have any fun anymore. I'm done with stupid rules that someone other than Jesus thought of. I didn't know that I was a weird, freaky, boring person that never has any fun. I mean, wow. I guess you're so much more Christian than I am calling you this weird, freaky, boring person. You're the C by one, idiot, teaching this damnable junk, causing people to go home and drink and then go out and drive and kill their family, kill other people. Wicked. Bobby Conway of the One Minute Apologist, now this guy, I don't even get it. His video was two and a half minutes long. How are you one minute, every single one of his videos was like two or three minutes long. He calls himself the One Minute Apologist. He's a pastor in Lake and a Life Fellowship church. He says one thing is clear. The Bible doesn't condemn drinking in moderation. How about the one thing that's clear in the Bible is that it's a belief on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. Is that clear? Yeah, but you know what? It's not clear that drinking in moderation is good because it talks about being a poison. It says don't even look at it. It says whoever believes that it's good is not wise. It's mocking them. Perry Noble, he said before he got thrown out of his church, so can you be a Christian and smoke and drink and watch radar movies? I think so because I love Christ. What a great argument. The Bible says if you love me, keep my commandments. Pastors Mike and Monica of City Light Church says there isn't a verse that forbids drinking. No verse. I guess if you just say it, it's true, right? Because I mean, everybody's saying the same thing. Well, don't look in the Bible because it never says anything about it. I mean, we know that there's not a verse in the Bible. That makes me believe that these people in the pew have never read their Bible, have never opened their Bible, have no idea what it says. They're just completely just following what man says. Well, that's a dangerous life to live. Matt Brown of Sandals Church. This guy, he just starts off by saying my mouth is an idiot. Why are you a pastor? I mean, you're just saying my mouth's an idiot? He says I will never have more than a beer or two with dinner because then you'll start talking like more of an idiot than he already is, I guess. This guy is deceived by wine tonight. You just take the top results from YouTube, everybody's apologizing for alcohol. Everybody's trying to argue for alcohol. Everybody's trying to justify alcohol. That's the condition of our nation today. Why are there so many people drinking alcohol and deceived by alcohol? Because the pastors are ignorant of the Bible. Because they don't want to preach the Bible, they want to preach the lust of man. And the lust of man wants to drink. He's deceived by wine tonight. I'll close on this last verse, first Peter, verse one. 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. Our commission from the Bible is to be sober. That's avoiding all alcohol. And those that preach alcohol, they're deceived by wine. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you so much for giving us clear commandments and instructing us in the way to live. He would not want us to just throw our lives away with poison and junk. That we could actually get real joy in our life that comes through serving you. Through getting people saved. Through raising a godly family. For loving our family. For spending time with our family. For reading our Bibles. For praying and singing praises unto you. The true joys of life. I thank you that we don't have to constantly be forgetting things. That we can remember all the things that you teach us and instruct us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.