Kissing Snakes - Words of the Wise

Would you take your Bible and turn to Proverbs 23?

Last week's message was one of those that you preach with fear and trembling.

You know that there will be some that get upset by that.

So you just pray and you pray that God would use it and it would keep you from saying stuff you don't need to say.

And...

From time to time I'll get encouragement from people on a sermon preached.

Most of the time they're lying to me, I know that.

But it is always good to get encouragement.

And so this weekend, or this last week from last Sunday, I received more encouragement from that one sermon than I think any other sermon in my 20 years of preaching.

And you guys are very encouraging.

And it lifted me up, and they were praying for me, and I thank you for that.

And it felt so good that I thought, you know what?

I'm just going to preach on that again next week.

But then I changed my mind.

I said, no, I'm just going to go ahead and preach whatever the Bible has next.

We're preaching through Proverbs, so let's just focus on what's next in the book of Proverbs.

So let's read that.

Proverbs 23, beginning in verse 29.

Who has woe?

Who has sorrow?

Who has conflicts?

Who has complaints?

Who has wounds for no reason?

Who has red eyes?

Those who linger over wine and those who go looking for mixed wine.

Well, it's what's next, but dadgummit, I've got to preach on it again, huh?

The first thing from this text that we see is the problem of drunkenness.

The problem of drunkenness.

He begins with a riddle.

Who has woe?

Who has sorrow?

Conflicts?

Complaints?

Wounds for no reason?

Who has red eyes?

And he gives an answer.

We would expect the answer for who has woe and sorrow and conflicts and complaints.

We expect that to be the fans of the Dallas Cowboys, right?

That fits the bill, I think.

But that's not who he gives.

That's not the answer.

He says, who has this misery?

Who has this difficulty in life?

Who should we pity to such a degree?

Who has all of these problems in their life?

Who are the unfortunate souls that have to live a life like this?

And he answers it in verse 30.

They are those who linger over wine and those who go looking for mixed wines.

He gives the answer very clearly.

Now, we need to ask the question, what exactly does this mean, this idea of wine and mixed wine?

We need to identify that.

Well, let me give you a couple of presuppositions that I think that we have had in American Christianity that we need to not have.

And so the first is, and I went over these a little bit last week, but I know not all of you were here last week, so let me go over them again.

And I do know that all of you remember everything that I say the first time that I say it anyways.

Yeah.

God heard y'all lying in church, I'm just saying.

The first presupposition is this.

We, many times, believe that wine means, 100% of the time, an alcoholic beverage.

So if I say wine today, I'm talking about something that's an alcoholic beverage.

And we then apply our definition today 2,000 years ago to the New Testament, 3,000 years ago to the writing of Solomon in Proverbs, and we believe that our definition of the word wine is the same definition that they had.

And so the reason that's important is because whenever we read the word wine, we automatically, because of our presupposition, read an alcoholic beverage.

But that is not accurate.

That is not true.

That is, in fact, a fallacy called semantic anachronism.

There, you learned something today.

What it is is when we take our definition and we apply it backwards to another culture and another time, what we find is that both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, that the main word for wine is used for both alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic beverages.

You've got to think about how wine was made.

You have grapes.

Those grapes are then mashed out.

You extract the juice from those grapes, and the extracted juice is called sweet wine.

It is...

sugary.

It is non-alcoholic whatsoever.

We would call it grape juice today.

Now that then, if you leave it alone, there is yeast in that juice.

That yeast will attack the sugar, will take all the sugar out and exchange it for alcohol and carbon dioxide.

That is when it becomes alcoholic.

It goes from bringing a sweet tasting beverage to a bitter tasting beverage because all the sugar is removed from it during fermentation.

Now, when we look at this text, we can see that the word wine, when we look at these passages, I'm going to show you a few in a minute, the word wine in the Old Testament is yayin, and it means both the alcoholic fermented beverage and the sweet wine that comes right off the wine press.

Let me give you a few passages to help you.

Isaiah 16 and verse 10.

Joy and rejoicing have been removed from the orchard.

Your translation may have the word wine there.

This is the juice that immediately comes from the press.

The juice that immediately comes from the wine press is a non-alcoholic grape juice, and the word yin is used for that juice that is non-alcoholic.

Jeremiah 48, 33.

Gladness and celebration are taken from the fertile field and from the land of Moab.

Moab, I have stopped the flow of wine from the wine presses.

No one will tread with shouts of joy.

The shouting is not a shout of joy.

Again, a liquid directly from the wine press is referred to.

The word in English is wine.

The word in Hebrew is yayan.

This tells us that the word yayan is used both for alcoholic grape juice and non-alcoholic grape In the New Testament, the Greek word is oinos.

Oinos is used to describe both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

Mark 2, 22, it is an example of non-alcoholic.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.

That's the word oinos with the word new next to it.

It refers to the fresh wine.

non-fermented, non-alcoholic juice.

Otherwise, the wine would burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins.

No new wine is put into fresh wine skins.

In the middle of that verse, the word wine is used twice without the word new, which means that oinos, wine, means new wine.

It refers to non-alcoholic wine.

When we take that and we understand that the word wine is non-alcoholic or alcoholic, The word itself does not dictate the meaning.

Now we are looking at the context of the passage to dictate the meaning of this word.

And so when you look back at the content of this passage, this yayan results in woe, sorrow, conflicts, complaints, wounds for no reason, and red eyes.

I have never seen Welch's grape juice result in any of those things.

Have you?

Have you?

So we are not talking here about the non-alcoholic yin.

We are talking about the alcoholic beverage made out of wine.

That's what we're talking about.

He goes on to say...

He talks about mixed wine at the end of verse 30.

Now what they would do is they would harvest the grapes, they would squeeze them out, and then they would boil that juice.

When they boiled that juice, they would boil it before it fermented, but if they didn't get around to it quick enough and it had fermented a little bit and there was some alcohol in it, boiling the juice would boil out the alcohol.

And they would boil it down from a liquid form into kind of a jelly form.

A must is the word for that.

And it was kind of a jelly or a thick paste.

And they would put that jelly or paste inside of a wineskin in order to store it.

And when you pulled it out of there, they would take it, they would squeeze it into a cup, put water in there, mix it up, and they would have a sweet, fresh, non-alcoholic beverage that was called...

Wine.

You guessed it.

Very good.

And so you could be talking about wine that is mixed in that way.

In fact, when you look at Proverbs chapter 9 and verse 2, and it says that wisdom has mixed her wine, I believe that is what she has done.

Proverbs 9 · chapter mention

She has taken that must and she has squeezed it out.

She has mixed it with water and gave that as a sweet beverage to drink.

But there was another way that they mixed wine.

We see this word used one other place, and we see its verb used in Isaiah Isaiah 5, verse 22.

Isaiah 5:22

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, who are champions at pouring beer.

And the word to pour means to mix.

What they would do is they would have this sweet wine that would ferment and would turn into alcoholic wine.

All the sugar is gone, and it became a nasty, tasting, bitter beverage.

I hear from wine drinkers today that that's not much different than what they've got today.

And so in order to make it something that you want to drink, you would have to mix other things with it.

They would mix sweet wine in there and mix that up.

They would also mix in other spices to try to give it flavor and taste so it wasn't so bad.

And so they would mix these drinks up kind of like they mix cocktails today.

And so they would mix those up.

In this context, that is what we're talking about.

We're talking about alcoholic wine and alcoholic mixed wine.

Now, who are these people that have these drinks?

Those Verse 2, verse 30, It's not just that they linger over alcoholic beverages, but it's the fact that they go to them to begin with.

Here we have a description of people who are drunk with alcohol, and we see the negative effects of drunkenness.

Many of you have come out drunk.

of alcohol and drunkenness.

And if you had the willingness to say amen out loud, you would say, yes, drunkenness leads to woe, sorrow, conflicts, complaints, and wounds for no reason.

and the red eyes.

Now we were in Africa on our mission trip and we had set up in a village.

And at that village we set up a TV and we were showing the Jesus film.

And all these native Africans gathered around to watch the Jesus film and to hear the gospel.

Well, whenever a crowd gathers, entrepreneurs find an opportunity.

And so the local bootlegger showed up and set up shop about 50 feet from where we were watching TV and she was making it was a lady and she was cooking up some local brew she had a I don't know what she was doing exactly but she had a couple of buckets over there and she was mixing stuff around and putting that formaldehyde in those whatever she was doing she was pouring her poison together and people were showing up and they were going to visit her and then they'd come talk to us and buddy they were staggering and they were slurring their speech I couldn't even speak the language but I knew whatever they were saying was slurred.

They were having trouble.

And do you know what we saw in that community?

We saw poverty everywhere.

We would go into these villages, and it'd be full of old men, women, and children.

And we asked the missionaries, where are the men?

Why aren't they around?

Where are they?

Are they out with their herds and their flocks?

No, they're not out With their herds and their flocks?

Are they out working a job somewhere, making money?

No, they're not out working, making money.

Well, where are all of the men?

They are at the corners with the bootleggers.

A community of men who abandoned all responsibility in order to drink the mess that was getting cooked up in those plastic bins.

While their family was starving...

underclothed, sleeping on dirt floors, living in poverty, living in misery, there they were having a hard time filling their body full of that embalming fluid.

My friends, when you see that happening, you cannot doubt that drunkenness is a problem.

We do not have to look very far to see broken homes, ruined lives, and misery caused by alcohol and drunkenness.

I dare say that there's not a single person in this room that has not been impacted directly or indirectly by the abuse of alcohol and drunkenness.

I do not have to convince you of the danger and the problem of drunkenness.

It is terrible.

The Bible is clear to condemn drunkenness from the beginning until the end.

Ephesians chapter 5 and 18 is a very clear statement.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

It says, and don't get drunk with wine.

Do you think he's talking about grape juice there?

He says, Don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5, 6 says, So then let us not sleep like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled, sober, it says.

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.

But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, sober, and put on the armor of faith and love and a helmet of the hope of salvation.

Again, 1 Peter 4, 7, The end of all things is near, therefore be alert.

alert, and sober-minded for prayer.

I believe that idea of sober means a whole lot more than just drunkenness, but it cannot mean less.

The word there literally means without wine.

Without wine.

Let's be without wine.

Let's be sober.

My friends, drunkenness is condemned from the beginning until the end.

It is condemned by the Bible and is sin against Almighty God.

So we see the problem of drunkenness.

Well, preacher, I don't want to get into that.

How can I avoid that?

How can I keep from drunkenness?

Number two, I want to show you the protection of abstinence.

The protection of abstinence.

Look in verse 31.

The Bible reads, Don't gaze at wine because it is red.

because it gleams in the cup and goes down smoothly.

This is describing wine in a certain situation, and in this context, it is alcoholic wine.

We've already established that.

And then he describes a certain situation.

Look, he says it is red, it gleams in the cup, and it goes down smoothly.

Now, this particular text does have some issues and difficulty translating from Hebrew into English, and so we're not exactly sure what some of the meanings are, but we do know what the gist is overall.

It says when it is red, it is alluring.

When it sparkles in the cup, literally, when its eyes sparkle.

And then it goes down smoothly.

That translates a phrase that if you're to translate it literally, it walks in the right ways.

Solomon used this to describe sweet wine, I believe, as it went across his lips and went smoothly.

It insinuates possibly that a drink has been taken.

And it could be here that we're looking at a digression to where it starts with the look when it's read...

It then goes to where it's sparkling and it becomes very attractive and tempting.

And then you take that first drink and it goes down smoothly.

I'm not sure that's exactly what it means here.

Because when we look at it, we need to look at the word that is used.

It says, don't gaze, in my translation.

That is an unfortunate translation to be sure.

The word translated don't gaze is the word to look.

It can have a lot of different semantic meanings.

One of those is looking with emotion or with longing.

It's kind of like when the girl walks by and you begin to gaze at her, you are looking at her with emotion or with longing.

And so the translators of the CSB think that's what he means there.

I don't exactly think that's what he means.

I believe when he says don't look at her, he means don't look at her.

King James says, don't look or look not.

The New America Standard says, don't look.

There's no reason to say that we're gazing here or staring here.

The Bible says, don't look and don't see.

Well then, what does it mean if it's not a digression?

Remember, it uses the word eyes and it's personifying alcohol.

And it says alcohol be dressed in red and alluring.

When they're trying to be seductive, maybe they'll dress in red.

Please don't be offended if you've got something red on today, okay?

I noticed some of y'all looking around to see what I'm wearing today.

You look great, all right?

Don't worry about it.

But even in ancient times, red was the color of seduction.

It says that her eyes are twinkling.

Ladies, you know, I don't know how y'all know it, but you learn at a young age how to bat your eyes and what that does to fellows.

And then it says she walks aright.

In other words, the hips don't lie, is what it's saying.

So you have here this idea of seduction.

Alcohol being a seductress.

And how do you avoid a seductress?

The way you avoid it is, don't even look at her.

And if it says don't even look at her, then how can it not mean don't even drink it?

I guess that when we drink our alcohol, we can just close our eyes and drink it, and that will be faithful to the Word of God.

Do you think?

No, I don't think so.

One of the great blessings of having children is that you have a workforce at your house.

Can I get a witness?

And if you ain't trained your children to be a workforce at your house, then you are doing something wrong.

We've got a few acres at my house, and On Saturday, yesterday, we put them to work doing some chores.

They did a little mowing and a little weed eating, and they did what is their favorite job to do, picking weeds out of the flower beds.

Can I get a witness?

I think weeds must have come with the fall.

I think that's what happened.

Before the fall, they had no weeds.

Now they got it.

And so we divided up the different flower beds.

And we put different kids in different flower beds.

And there's one flower bed that is off limits that the kids are not willing to go into.

It's right by the back door.

It's the main one everybody sees when they walk in the house.

It's that flower bed.

And the reason they do not like that flower bed is because a couple of times in the last five years, we have encountered snakes in that flower bed.

And so I say, go in there and pick them weeds of that flower bed.

And they say, I don't want to.

There are snakes in that flower bed.

We saw them snakes like twice.

There are no snakes in the flower bed.

Get in there and pick the weeds.

And they get in there to pick the weeds, and Jolie is doing it.

It was her job because she is the toughest of my five.

And I looked over at her, and she's just staring.

Jolie, pick the weeds.

We got to get done.

Dad, I don't want to.

There's snakes in there.

Jolie, there are no snakes in there.

Dad, I see a snake right there.

This is a true story.

Snake in the flower bed.

So I said, okay, well, I guess we'll figure something out.

Well, Mama came home, and she is not afraid of snakes.

In fact, if it were up to her, we would have snakes all over our house.

She loves them.

That ain't a joke, man.

She loves snakes.

Don't know, man.

Don't know.

Loves them.

To me, there's one good kind of snake.

Y'all know what it is.

A dead snake.

That's right.

She loves them snakes, I'm telling you.

So she's like, look, I will pick the weeds in that flower bed.

I'll take care of that.

So I'm on the mower.

I'm mowing around.

I look up.

There's a big commotion going on.

They're running around.

And guess what?

They had seen that snake.

And I come back to the house, and Kim is almost crying because she killed that snake.

She killed it.

She thought it was a bad one and killed it.

She was almost crying.

And you say, well, preacher, why are you letting your wife kill that snake?

I'm not going next to that flower bed.

What are you thinking?

I got more sense than that.

Listen, if you don't go where the snakes are, you're not going to get bit by the snake.

You're not going to get bit.

If you don't take the first drink, you will never experience drunkenness.

Beat that logic, I dare you.

No, the biblical answer to drunkenness is to abstain, to don't even take the first drink, to when you see it, turn and go the other way.

That is the biblical answer to drunkenness.

And you say, oh, well, I don't think that can be true.

There is no way that that can be the biblical answer.

After all, the word wine always means alcoholic beverage.

Okay, we already dealt with that, right?

Y'all remember that?

So that's out.

Well, they had the Passover in the spring and grape harvest was in the fall and they did not have a way before pasteurization and Welch's grape juice and all that.

They didn't have a way to preserve sweet new wine all the way up for six months.

No, no, we have read and seen in history that that must that I was talking about earlier, that little jelly they made, that it would maintain year round and that whenever they made wine out of that, it was always sweet wine that came out of that.

And non-alcoholic wine, they had access to non-alcoholic wine year-round.

So we've got to take that out of the equation.

They say, oh, well, it can't be abstaining because Jesus drank wine.

I will tell you, the Bible never states that definitively.

It definitely does not state that it was alcoholic wine.

Never does it say it was alcoholic wine.

We have established that that word means both sweet and alcoholic.

We have established that sweet wine can be preserved...

all year round.

So let me ask you a question.

Do you think that when Jesus drank wine, if he did, do you think that when he did, that he ignored Proverbs 23, 31?

No! And so when and if he did drink wine, no doubt it would have been sweet juice that would not have been alcoholic.

Oh well, Jesus turned water into wine.

He sure did.

We read about that in John chapter 2.

John 2 · chapter mention

He turned water into wine.

There was a festival related to a wedding.

They would last sometimes seven days.

They were having a big party, and they were having a feast and eating and drinking, and they were drinking wine at that.

And so they ran out of wine.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, comes, and Jesus says, Hey...

Jesus, I need you to hook them up with some wine.

And Jesus said, well, it's not my time yet.

It doesn't matter.

That's a whole back story.

But Jesus turns water into wine.

He takes this nasty water they'd been using to clean the dishes and clean their feet, and he turned it into wine, 120 gallons of it or more of wine.

They take some of that wine.

They take it to the steward, the boss hog in charge.

They give him a little bit of it.

He gets a sip of it and drinks it, and he says, oh, this is the best thing I've ever tasted.

Usually they bring out the good stuff first, and then when everybody gets full, then they'll give something else.

And so people assume that that means that the good stuff is the hard stuff and the alcoholic stuff, and then after they're drunk and don't know what they're drinking, that they keep drinking the bad stuff.

That's what people assume.

Well, when you look at history, the ancients preferred sweet wine over alcoholic wine.

You say, oh, well, they didn't.

You can't prove that.

Okay, great.

Practically, he created and made wine out of water.

When was the time for it to ferment and turn alcoholic?

Well, I think that Jesus, when he creates things, it doesn't have to be new.

It could be decayed and in a state of rottenness.

Well, I guess he could have made it all the way alcoholic.

I don't think he would do that, but maybe he did.

Well, then there's a third thing.

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that he did make the best alcoholic wine that history has ever known.

And he brought it in that massive amount of wine into that party.

Are you telling me that every single person at that party, that none of them were going to be tempted by that wine when it was red and it was going down smoothly and it was sparkling its eyes at them?

Are you telling me that no temptation to drink unto drunkenness would be found at that party?

No, you cannot tell me that because if he made the best wine there ever was and it was alcoholic like some argue that it was, he would be tempting them unto alcohol And the book of James says that God cannot tempt anyone.

Is Jesus God?

And if God cannot tempt anyone, that means that Jesus cannot tempt anyone.

And theologically, I would say, and I believe it's true, that he could not tempt anybody and therefore could not give them the best alcoholic wine there ever was because he would be tempting them.

Jesus did not make alcoholic wine.

It was sweet wine and it was the best thing I ever tasted.

I heard one theologian say, he has nothing to back this up, but the Bible says, Jesus says that I'm going to enjoy this sweet wine in heaven.

There is a heavenly recipe for wine, and they believe that's what Jesus cooked up that day because no one had tasted anything like it.

I don't know if that's a fact or not, but I'd like to try some of that.

Non-alcoholic sweet wine.

Well, wisdom mixed her wine, yes.

She mixed the grape molasses and the must, and she mixed it with water in order to drink it.

It wasn't alcoholic.

Well, Paul says don't get drunk.

He didn't say don't drink wine.

Just because I say don't jump in the water with sharks while they're in a feeding frenzy doesn't mean that you ought to jump in there with them other times.

The same thing here.

That's an argument from silence which you cannot make.

No, my friends, nothing in Scripture contradicts this passage where the mandate to avoid drunkenness is to abstain from alcohol.

That is God's solution to drunkenness, the protection of abstinence.

Number three, the pretense of moderation.

The pretense of moderation.

The argument for moderation goes something like this.

Drunkenness is wrong, but it's okay if you drink alcohol as long as you don't get drunk.

So I drink a little here and a little there as long as you don't get drunk, it's okay.

That's what moderation teaches.

That is what American Christianity seems to be teaching in the mainstream.

Moderation.

Well, let's read what he says about this.

Verse 32.

In the end, the end result, if you look at it and you drink it, the end result is that it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.

Now, stop just for a moment.

How does a snake bite?

How does a viper sting?

Well, think about it.

A rattlesnake will rattle and say, hey guys, I'm over here, you probably don't want to come over here.

But it's protecting itself.

But without a rattle, you've got this snake over here, and it looks innocent enough.

In fact, if you don't know any better, you'd think it's just a little animal on the ground.

And when that thing bites, does it do like this?

Hey, dude, I'm finna bite you.

Does it go like this?

Open my mouth, slowly come over, start gnawing a little bit, and then bite.

No.

How does a snake do it?

I mean, you don't know what's happening.

All of a sudden, pow, it's surprising.

It is shocking.

You're not expecting that snake to strike.

There was a fellow, I read about him like yesterday.

A guy was on a trail like at a national park.

I don't remember where it was.

And they say that he died of a snake bite from a rattlesnake.

Dude died from it.

And the story went on to say, they don't know why, but he was walking along and he saw the rattlesnake.

and he reached down, and he picked the rattlesnake up, and it bit him, and he died.

You see a rattlesnake, and you pick it up.

You are one thing.

Help me.

What is it?

Stupid.

That's what you are.

Yeah, just stupid.

Don't do that.

But if I pick up a rattlesnake, or if I jump in a bucket full of rattlesnakes, what should I expect to happen?

They get bit.

There's no surprise there.

There's no suddenness there.

I'm not just going along and saying, oh, I got bit by a snake.

When you intentionally grab that snake.

So when we're looking at this context, someone who is drinking with the intent to get drunk is not bit like a snake or a viper.

It's not sudden.

It's not a surprise.

The only people in which there is suddenness and surprise are those who are drinking in moderation, hoping that they don't get bit by the snake.

They're thinking, I'm going to drink in moderation, but I'm not going to get drunk.

My friends, it doesn't work that way.

It starts that way, but it doesn't finish that way.

And so what happens, you start, I'm going to just do it in moderation.

I'm just going to have a few.

I'm not going to be a big deal.

And then all of a sudden, without knowing, guess what happens?

Bam! They say it takes about 30 minutes for you to feel those effects, that you can get past that line and not even know it until 30 minutes later.

How are you telling me that you know that that snake is not going to strike when you get around it?

when you're drinking in moderation.

You cannot.

It will strike.

And so we see the surprise of the snake bite, but look at the suffering of the snake bite.

Tell me that this isn't true.

You ready?

Look in verse 33.

When you bit by the snake...

You will have impaired vision.

Your eyes will see strange things.

Impaired speech.

You will say absurd things.

Impaired mobility.

You will be like someone sleeping out at sea, going back and forth, wobbling around.

Impaired decisions are like someone lying down on the top of a ship's mast.

Nobody goes to sleep on the top of a ship's mast.

It's the very tip top of the sails.

You don't go up there to go to sleep.

If you're up there sleeping, there's something wrong with you.

You're making bad decisions.

Impaired decisions.

Impaired awareness.

They struck me, but I feel no pain.

Every man drunk thinks they're Superman, and they are not.

Impaired memory.

They beat me, but I don't know it, don't remember it.

And impaired self-control.

When will I wake up?

I'll look for another drink.

That's what happens when the snake bites you.

That snake of moderation.

Moderation promises the benefits of alcohol and none of the negativeness of drunkenness.

Moderation to avoid drunkenness is a pretense.

It is a lie.

Imagine this.

You take that bottle or that can or that glass or that whatever you're drinking out of that jug, whatever it is.

Every time you hold that up to your mouth, imagine that you are kissing a rattlesnake.

It's that Louisiana cotton mouth.

And you put that up to your mouth and nothing happened.

Now I have a little bit more boldness to do it again, don't I?

Nothing happened.

Well, let me do it again.

I mean, it may not be on the first, it may not be on the second, but I'm telling you, as long as you're kissing that snake, you are going to get bit.

And every time you put an alcoholic beverage to your lips, you are kissing a rattlesnake, you are kissing a watermouth, and it will, a cottonmouth, and it will bite you.

It will do it.

The only way to avoid getting bit by a snake is to stay away from it and to abstain.

You drink in moderation.

What is your definition of drunk?

Where is that line between moderation and getting drunk?

We've found, science has shown, that the effects of alcohol happen almost immediately upon drinking it.

Where is that line?

And who are you to say that you can control yourself?

Who are you to say, well, I'm so spiritually strong that I know exactly when I can say no and when I can stop.

You cannot.

You cannot.

Moderation is not the answer to drunkenness.

It is the cause.

Proverbs 20, verse 1.

Proverbs 20:1

Wine is a mocker.

Beer is a brawler.

Whoever goes astray because of them is not wise.

In other words, if you are led astray by the deceptiveness of alcohol, the Bible says you are not wise.

When someone says you are not wise, that is a good way of saying you are a fool.

who be deceived into thinking that you can drink in moderation, thinking that you can control it, thinking that you can play with the snakes and not get bit, you are a fool.

If you drink, whether in moderation or for drunkenness, you should stop right now.

If you do not, you should never start to begin with.

Now, I'm fully aware Many of you are struggling with this concept, and you don't want to hear it.

Fully aware that many of you are getting a little upset with the preacher.

When Jesus preached, people got glad, they got sad, or they got mad.

And I'm in good company.

Why do you struggle so much with the idea of abstinence from alcohol?

Ask yourself that question.

Why are you struggling and upset about what's been preached today?

Have I misinterpreted the Bible?

Have I brought presuppositions and misunderstandings to the text?

Have I missed it trying to intentionally hurt or harm you?

I will tell you that while I am not perfect, while I do at times bring presuppositions to a text...

that my heart's desire is to take God's Word, to properly read it and study it and interpret it, and to properly give it to you as God's Word and not the Word of Brother James.

And in the event that I do put too much James into the preaching of God's Word, I'm sorry.

But I will tell you the heart behind this today is to tell you what the Bible says.

And I would challenge you, To give me a biblical argument that would contradict what you heard today.

I'm not saying stand up and holler it right now.

I guess not.

But you can't do it.

You can use arguments from silence.

You can use misdefinitions of words.

You can have misunderstandings of history and how things work.

But you're not going to be able to give an argument against this.

You're just not going to be able to do it.

Okay, then why the problem?

Could it be the reason that you're upset is because you have already made up in your mind what you believe about this topic?

Could it be that you have already decided that it does not matter what the Bible says and it does not matter what that preacher says, that I have already made up my mind that I am going to drink and that's going to be part of my life.

I'm going to drink in moderation.

And I've already made up my mind about that and so I am going to find arguments, even if they don't make sense, to justify the decision that I have already made.

Do you think that's possible for people to do that?

Do you think it's possible that's what you're doing and that's why you're so upset?

Listen, guys, if you name the name of Jesus, it is your responsibility to find out what God's Word says and wrap your life around God's Word instead of taking your life and your decisions you've already made and trying to wrap God's Word around that.

And so right now, the Holy Spirit of God is working in your heart and in your life.

The Holy Spirit of God is bringing you conviction.

What do you think He wants you to do?

What do you think, how do you think he wants you to respond?

He is working, and he is speaking, and he is drawing.

And if you've got this in your life, and you're under conviction of the Spirit of God, then you have one answer, and that is to repent and confess and turn and get rid of that mess and give it over to Jesus Christ.

In fact, I'm going to give you a chance to do that right now.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes with me for a moment?

You may say, Harumph! I'm not doing it.

Well, don't distract those that are.

There are others around where God's working in their life and bringing them under conviction.

Maybe they've never heard this perspective before.

Maybe they've never thought about it in this way before, but God's working on their life.

Are you willing to give that up in order to follow the Lord?

Are you willing to give that up in order to be faithful and protect your family from drunkenness?

Are you willing to turn from that, sir?

Ma'am, are you willing to turn from it?

I encourage you to respond.

It may be that you respond right where you sit with your heart turning to God.

Say, forgive me.

I'm giving this over to you.

Deliver me from this addiction.

Deliver me from this idolatry that's in my life.

It may be you realize I've never given my life to Christ.

I need to do just that.

We've got spiritual leaders here at the front to help you do that.

You may need prayer about this or some other topic.

You come and let us pray over you and pray for you.

We're going to stand and sing, and when we do, it's your time to respond to what God's doing in your life.

Father, we give this time to you as a response in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's all stand together.

You come right now as we respond.

You come.