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Proverbs chapter 20. Again, we're in a series right now through this book of divine wisdom, Skill in Living, Applying God's truth, Wisdom for above. And today, starting in Proverbs 20, a couple of verses here. Proverbs chapter 20, verse 1. He got the word of the living and the true God. Wine is a mocker, a strong drink, a brawler. And whoever is led astray by it is not wise. Proverbs 23, verse 20. Do not be, do not be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty and slumber, will clothe them with rags in 2329. Who has woe, who has sorrow, who has strife, who has complaining, who has wounds without cause, who has redness of eyes, those who tarry long over wine, those who go to try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly in the end. It bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. Your eyes will see strange things and your heart utter perverse things. You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast. They struck me, you will say, but I was not hurt. They beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink. Thus far, as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray as God's people. Lord, thank you so much for your word, this gift of your word. Thank you most of all, Father, for the gift of eternal life, the salvation we have in Jesus. Lord Jesus, we thank you for your righteousness, that our sins are washed away, that you do not condemn us, that we have peace with you. We thank you for your resurrection. We thank you that in you we have life, that we are raised up and seated with you in the heavenly places. We thank you, God, that you call us children. We thank you, Lord, that you've sovereignly brought us to this place to worship you. You've given us our breath and our life this very moment. Our heartbeats are borrowed from you right now, God. And that breath in our lungs is from you. And so here we are, your people, saved by you, indwelt by you with your word before us. We pray you bless, Lord, the proclamation of your truth. Today, Lord, guard the mouth of the teacher. Today, the mind of the teacher teach by your spirit. Today, bless us as your church, with wisdom in how we approach what you often call a blessing. And a curse. And so we pray God that you'd be glorified today, that you'd bring help and healing where there needs to be healing in any of your people. Today. We pray this in Jesus mighty name. Amen. So we chose a little less controversial message today, again, something that Christians, you know, all agree on on this issue of alcohol. We need to approach it biblically. We need to approach it with wisdom. We need to be honest with the text. And I want to add this honest with ourselves as we approach the question of alcohol. So, two points to start off with today. This is going to be a heavy text message because it really has to be in terms of if you're going to get the scope of what scripture says about alcohol, you're going to have to get into the text and talk through it and meditate upon it a lot. But two things I want to say at the front of this. I'm not saying, first of all, that everyone should enjoy alcohol. The text of scripture is, I believe, very clear in both directions of alcohol in terms of its being a blessing to the people of God, to the world, and also in many contexts and in many people's lives, it being a curse. And so whatever is said today positively from the word of the living God about alcohol is not an invitation, if you are a person who struggles with the idolatry of addiction, an invitation for you to go and start seeing if you can enter into that blessing and that gift of alcohol. This is not an encouragement for any particular person to enjoy the gift of alcohol. Because we live in a fallen world, many of us have various different struggles and weaknesses. It's important for us to be wise and to consider all that God has to say about alcohol and its dangers. And so, first, I'm not saying everyone should enjoy alcohol. But second, here's what I am saying for the glory of God, for the consistency of God's word and the consistency of our testimony as Christians that we want to behold God's word as holy, as the highest, as the ultimate. We need to make sure that we are biblical about how we talk about alcohol and. And its blessings, and it also, in some contexts, being a curse. Here's the main point. I want you to get in terms of what I am really concerned with. Oftentimes people will say, well, this particular thing leads people into sin. And they are very often completely correct. People have abused particular substances or other gifts and blessings from God. And people will say, well, people abuse this. And so let's put it in the category of sin. And Christians should completely and totally abstain. When we have that perspective, we're going to confront or be confronted by a lot of texts in Scripture that we end up making God look like he is sinning. In other words, if we say this particular thing is a sin and Christians should always abstain from it because people abuse it, we're going to come into contact with Scripture from the holy word of God, where God is actually saying that it is a blessing. It is. It is a gift, and he even calls people to come and worship God with it. So in other words, if we set up a standard of piety around a particular substance or blessing that makes God look like he is sinning, then it is our standard that is wrong, not the word of God. So those two points at the start, one, this is not an encouragement or an invitation for everybody to enjoy this gift and this blessing. Is that noted? Yes. Understood. The second thing is that I want to make sure that at the very end of this, we understand that we have to handle the word of God and be biblical about what we say about alcohol. So the first thing we want to do is cut this into two categories. This is where the text heavy part comes. The first category is what Scripture says negatively about alcohol. And the second category is what Scripture says negative positively about alcohol. And I want to say at the start of this, don't worry, there's no way to exhaust this in one message today. So I'm. When I say tech savvy, I don't mean we're going to be exhaustive. We're just going to talk about those two categories, the blessing and the curse aspect of alcohol and drunkenness in Scripture. So you may just want to take down the notes of the verses and the references. But just a couple of things. You've already read a few in terms of God speaking from wisdom about wine as a mocker and strong drink as a brawler. Just easy, I think, to understand. We understand the categories and levels of aggression when we talk about the person who is mocking you. And then the person who is an actual brawler, one is with words. All right, that's some damage words, right? The mocker, the person who's insulting you, calling you names, there's the words. Next level of amplification is the strong drink. That's a brawler. That's a person who's throwing fists. That's a person who's causing damage. And so the word of God here in wisdom says one is a mocker and one is a brawler. If you are led astray by it. You are not wise. Serious words from Scripture. So there's a warning that's in a negative category. Scripture has lots of. To say negatively about alcohol, drunkenness, the abuse of alcohol. Next, we're just going to kind of jump around to different sections here. New Testament, Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 18. And do not. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. But here's where we should go. But be filled with. With the spirit. So don't be drunk with wine. Be filled with the spirit. There is, I think, the key to wisdom on the question of alcohol. The gift, the blessing, the curse of it, the Christian life before God, worship of God and wisdom. Don't be drunk with wine. Be filled with the spirit of God. Galatians, chapter 5, verse 21 gives us different lists of sins. And I'm just going to start sort of midway here. Galatians 5:21. Envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. That's a rough list there, right? Well, drunkenness is right in there. You might have a drinking problem, you say, might be abusing alcohol, and you think, it's really not that big of a deal. Maybe God's less concerned with this. Maybe this is one of those respectable sins categories. Yes, I'm often drunk. Yes, I deal with drunkenness. How does God feel about it? Well, he puts envy there, drunkenness and orgies together, things like these. The apostle Paul says, I warn you. Remember, this was a personal letter. It's inspiration of God. Absolutely. These are the very words of God. But this was a letter written to a church in Galatia. Paul is dealing with issues. It's a personal letter he writes to the church, read before the congregation in worship. He says, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So if you are a person who practices these sins, practices them, you do these things, they're part of your life. You practice them. You will not, Paul says, inherit the kingdom of God. Another one. Proverbs 23, 29, 35. We just did all of that talking about the person who is lulled into the beauty and the blessing and the gift of alcohol. And it becomes their obsession, and their life is marked by it. And all they want is just another drink. Just give me another drink. They're obsessed with it. It's their daily ritual throughout the day. It's all they can think about. They love to look at it and gaze at it long. It's where their passion is. It's where Their hope is, their peace is, their joy is, their pleasure is, and they always want just another one. Isaiah 5:11. Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them. There is the perfect description of the person who the secular world would call alcoholic. I would encourage you not to use that terminology. That particular terminology is fairly new, coined in recent history. It was particularly used coins to change from a biblical perspective of alcohol and the abuse of alcohol, where the Bible calls it drunkenness and sin. The word alcoholic and alcoholism was again fairly recently coined and it was to move towards what is more of a disease model of addiction. In other words, this isn't necessarily sin, you can't help it, you have the disease of addiction. So I want to encourage everybody just from the heart that we get away from that terminology of alcoholic and alcoholism and just really refer to it the way the Bible does. And that's drunkenness and as sin. Because there's where you can call people to turn to Christ out of it. But that's a perfect description, right? You wake up, probably have a headache because you're abusing alcohol regularly. And the way to take off that headache is maybe to do what. What's the old saying about a little. A little hair from what? The dog that bit you. Right. So I'm experiencing mild DTS right now. Detoxification symptoms. Wake up with a headache. I've been drinking all day, every day. It's what I live for. And so I wake up, I feel like garbage. And so I drink in the morning, I drink late into the evening, and that's my life. That's the life of a drunkard or what the world would say is an alcoholic. Perfect description. Woe to them. There's the curse. Woe to them. Another one, the full. The full one. Sorry. Galatians 5, 1921. We already did. First Timothy 3, 8. To the deacons of the church, the servants of the church, the word of God to the deacons, the servant of the church says, deacons likewise must be dignified, not double tongues, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. So if you're a servant of the church, if you're a deacon in the church, God calls you to not be a person who abuses the gift and the blessing of alcohol. You have to be sober minded, filled with the spirit. It's not a word from God that says this gift and this blessing is not for you, but you can't be in a place as a deacon or servant of the church, to be abusing alcohol. There's a standard. Proverbs 23:20 21 Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty for obvious reasons and slumber will clothe them with rags. You want to go that route. You want to use alcohol in this way. You want to abuse it, you want to be obsessed with it. You want to make it an idol in your life. Well, wisdom from above constantly tells us the consequences of not working, being lazy, abusing rest, abusing pleasure, abusing work. And in this case, here's the consequences. You want to be a drunk, here's the consequence. Down the road from drunkenness, poverty. Poverty is what you have to look forward to. Romans 13:13 Let us walk properly, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. Proverbs 21:17 Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man. He who loves wine and oil will not be rich, for obvious reasons. And the final part here From Proverbs, Proverbs 31:4 through 5 a warning to rulers it is not for kings O Lemuel. It is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. The warning to the ruler is simple. Do not let your mind be fogged by alcohol. Do not let your mind and heart be dulled by this substance, because you are called as a ruler. When you are engaging in the issue of justice, you are to have sober thoughts. You are to be able to think clearly. And so the warning is, don't allow the blessing, the gift of alcohol that God has given to the world to be something that numbs your mind so that you cannot think critically. You must be just. And a ruler is not to walk into this, this instance of justice and the call for justice and have their mind numbed. We're to be sober minded. So there's negative. We could do a lot more. And you all know that there are so many more pages and pages and pages in Scripture that warn us against the sin of drunkenness, the abuse of alcohol, and now some positive first Timothy 5:23 the apostle Paul, speaking to Timothy, says, no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. There's a positive view of alcohol and wine. There as medicinal purpose. So there's a positive. Next, Psalm 104, 14, 15. You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate. So here's the point. Ready? Who is the origin, originator of this? This is from the hands of God. It's not something that sort of just arose in God's universe, that God said, oh, I didn't know that this was going to happen. All this happens by God's creative decree. God is the one who causes the grass to grow. God is the one that gives the livestock plants for man to cultivate that he may bring forth food from the earth. And what wine. God did this. God did this. So when we say, oh, this substance is wrong, we need to turn it into grape juice and pasteurize it and stop the fermentation process and the stuff that it does to the mind and to the body. We have to stop that. God didn't want that. The psalmist is saying, God did this. He's the one that started this. He meant for it to happen. And it says this and wine to do what? To gladden the heart of man. What's the purpose of wine? Why did God make it that way? To gladden men's hearts? It's a blessing, it's a gift. It has a purpose in particular context. To gladden your heart. Oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man's hearts. Another one, in terms of positive category, needs to be added to the list. Matthew 11, 18, 19. Speaking about John the Baptist. It says, for John came neither eating nor drinking. And they say, he's got a demon. He has a demon. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, look at him. A glutton and a what? What's the accusation? A drunkard, friend of tax collectors and sinners. Why is that in a positive category? This is Jesus saying it. Jesus saying, look, you have two different lifestyles here that you viewed. John didn't come doing any of what I'm doing, the eating and the drinking. And you still said he has a demon. I come, I eat and I drink. And you accuse me for doing it, that I'm a glutton and a drunk. Now, they can't make that accusation as false as it was in terms of a drunkard. Unless Jesus was actually engaging in what? Eating and drinking. It's clear in the text. Otherwise you make no sense of the text. So here we have an instance of God himself as a man addressing their lying about his actions in terms of saying glutton and Drunkard. But actually they're showing us that he was engaging in eating and drinking, but they were lying about what he was actually doing with it. Another 1. Isaiah 55:1. Here's what God says. Beautiful, by the way. Beautiful, beautiful. Text of scripture quoted again in the New Testament, Isaiah 55:1. Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and he who has no money, come buy and eat. Come, here's the invitation of God. Here's the invitation of God. Listen what he says. Come buy wine and milk and honey and without. Without money. Wine and milk without money and without price. Some positive. Various texts from scripture. But I think you knew the obvious. One very important one. John chapter two. John chapter two. This is the first public miracle of the Lord Jesus. We like to say it that way because we can only imagine what other miracles were taking place in Mary and Joseph's home, right? So we say, first public miracle. How did Mary know that she can come to Jesus and do something about the wine? How did she know that? I mean, there must been some crazy things that happened in Jesus house. Think about that. God is the man raised as a kid. Like, what's the first miracle? We have to ask Mary and Joseph and of course Jesus brothers and sisters, when we get to heaven one day. Like, tell me about some of those miracles. Like growing up as a little boy, like, did James, like, fall out of a tree and break his leg or something? And then Jesus came over and healed his leg. Can you imagine? There must be some crazy stories that took place in Joseph's home. But this is the first public miracle. And what's the first public miracle of Jesus? There were a variety of miracles. The first public miracle was Jesus turning water. Into what? Into wine. And so here's the text. John 2, verse 1. It says, on the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, why does this have to do with me? What does it have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Do whatever he tells you. Now, there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. So this is approximately 120 gallons. Get that 120 gallons of wine that Jesus makes. That is a lot of wine. I've done a lot of weddings and been to a lot of weddings. I Ain't never seen that much wine. Okay. And I doubt you have either. It's a big wedding, big celebration, and they took these celebrations seriously. I can't completely unpack the historical background of the text today or exeges text in full today, but just understand the way the Jews viewed weddings and the wedding ritual and the whole service. They viewed it as a spectacular event. It took a long period of time. It was a long celebration. We'll tend to do it in one night, in a couple of hours. But they really loved to party when it came to weddings and the celebration of wedding. So Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water. So again, who is responsible ultimately here for the wine? Who's responsible for the wine? Everybody. Jesus. He says, fill them with water. And they filled them to the brim. And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Can you imagine that? They see this mirror, they draw it, give it to them. They're just like, dude, dude, you don't understand what just happened, right? They're keeping it to themselves. Like, you have no idea what we just saw. And they're probably thinking all kinds of, what's this going to taste like? Is it going to be any good? What's, what's going to happen? And the. The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first. And when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. This is the first of his signs. Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him, manifested his glory. This miracle at a wedding, at a celebration to make their hearts merry and glad. Jesus making about 120 gallons of the best wine was to the glory of God, not sinful, not a curse, a gift and a blessing. And it was a sign of exactly who Jesus was. He gave them wine. Now, by the way, there are so many layers to this, powerful layers. We're not doing a full thing on John today, but it is an amazing thing to really look through this miracle at Cana. It is an incredible thing. There's stuff layered there, there's stuff in the background. We can't do that today. But just note that when this takes place, the surprise, the surprise is that you've kept. This has been going on for some time now. Cause We've ran out of the wine at this big celebration. So it's been going for a while now we have no more wine. But you, surprisingly, have kept the good wine until last. What does that mean, the good wine? Well, typically, if you have a celebration, everyone's together there, it's celebrating a marriage and everyone's drinking wine. They would reserve the higher alcohol content wine for the beginning, and as everybody started to have some wine and the celebration is going on, then they would pull out the lower, substandard, lesser alcohol content wine at the end. So that's why he's surprised. You've kept the best wine, the higher alcoholic content wine, the stronger wine. You've kept it for last after everybody's already had some and we're out of wine. That's surprising. People don't usually do that. Maybe it's not as cost effective. But look, the best stuff is for last. That's wonderful. And so Jesus apparently made a tasty and potent wine at a celebration. Next, another verse you need to have in your toolbox as you consider this is. Well, there's a number of. Just look in the Synoptics, just when we talk about, very simply, the table of the Lord, Jesus is the one who gave us wine as a. Listen closely. A central part of Christian worship. So we have to be so cautious as the people of God, as Christians in different lanes of this conversation, we can't be loose with the question of alcohol and the use of alcohol. But we also can't create a standard that makes God look like he's sinning. Because I want to say that Jesus himself put wine on the table as the central act of Christian worship throughout the church age, it is Jesus who put wine on the table. Now, one thing to note in terms of those who deny that it was actually alcoholic wine, we're going to get to this a lot in this message today. But if you just would note As a reference, First Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 21, Paul There has to deal with the church in Corinth, where people are actually abusing the table of the Lord and getting drunk on the wine. You can't get drunk on grape juice, friends. He's confronting the abuse that's happening in the church and they're getting drunk on the wine used in communion. And Finally, Deuteronomy, chapter 14. Go there. Old Testament, Deuteronomy, chapter 14. This is, I think, one of the central texts we need to have in our minds when we talk about the issue of alcohol. These are the words of God Amen. We agree. These are the words of God. God spoke this. And here's what God says. In Deuteronomy 14, verse 22, he says, you shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field, year by year, and before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose to make his name dwell. There you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. And if the way is too long for you, all right, so you have to go to this place to eat and to celebrate. And God says, here, if it's too far away, it's a long way, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, then the Lord your God blesses that. The Lord your God. When the Lord your God blesses you because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses to set his name there, then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hands and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses. What is he saying here? Go and celebrate. Bring it to this place. But listen, if it's too far for you, then turn the tithe of your wine that you were going to bring. Just sell that where you're at, the wine. Sell it. Turn it into money so you can carry it. And he says this, and when you get there, then spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and rejoice you and your household. So here, brothers and sisters, is a critically important text. So you heard me at the beginning. Circle back to it. What did I say? What we want to avoid as God's people, is having a standard of piety. Christians ought to live this way. Christians ought to do this. You shouldn't touch that. You shouldn't go there. If we have a standard of piety where we say, this is just sinful, Christians shouldn't touch it. You shouldn't do it. Then we are confronted with a text in Scripture where God himself calls his people to come and feast and celebrate and to worship. And it is God himself, the creator of us all, the Holy One of Israel, the righteous God, who says to his people, by wine or strong drink, whatever your heart desires, then come rejoice before me. If our standard makes God look like he's sinning, our standard is wrong. Amen. It is not the word of God. So There's a variety of texts, so you get somewhat of a sampling of scripture in both lanes. Alcohol as a blessing and a what? A curse. A blessing and a curse. Scripture speaks about it clearly in both lanes, in both ways. Now we have to address the objections. We have to address the objections. And I won't be able, unfortunately, to get to all of them today, of course, in a single standalone message. But the objection, somebody will say, now here's the thing, everybody, here's the thing. The wine being referred to there is grape juice. It's just grape juice. And I've always been perplexed by this particular argument because it's impossible to make the text work by calling it grape juice. But people today that make that argument may not be aware that grape juice, grape juice is somewhat of a modern innovation. It is not to say that people didn't, as they had vineyards, squish grapes and drink it on the spot, but when you talk about having grape juice, maybe 120 gallons of it, and having that for a wedding that lasts days, we have to understand that grape juice, the challenge with it is essentially almost immediate fermentation. That's the problem when people would squish grapes, get the juice out of it. One of the things that was necessary was to make sure that you had a watchful eye on it and had concern for how you control the fermentation process. And so, no, we're talking about, in biblical times, wine that could not have been grape juice, because there's dangers in it. One is it ferments almost immediately. And the second thing that happens is that you could get ill by having grape juice that sat out. You can get illness from that. And so where did grape juice come from in terms of large scale preservation of grape juice and then selling it to others? And it's staying on the shelf. Well, this is from the Concord Grape association, the history of Grape Juice. So quote, the first unfermented grape juice known to be processed in the United States was by a Vineland, New Jersey dentist, Dr. Thomas Welch. You all know Welch's grape juice. Dr. Thomas Welch In 1869, 1869, Dr. Welch, his wife and 17 year old son Charles gathered 40 pounds of Concord grapes from the trellis in front of their house in their kitchen. They cooked the grapes for a few minutes, squeezed the juice out through cloth bags and poured the world's first processed fresh fruit juice into 12 quart bottles on the kitchen table. To preserve the juice, Dr. Welch stopped the bottles with corks and wax and boiled them in water. Hoping to kill any yeast in the juice to prevent fermentation. Dr. Welch's process was a success in his application of Louis Pasteur's theory of pasteurization to preserve fresh grape juice. Pioneered the industry of canned and bottled fruit juices in America. Listen to this part, though. This is where it came from, and this is why it was done. The first juice was used on the communion table in the local Methodist church for sacramental purposes. And most of the first orders for grape juice came from the churches for communion. So why? What was the ultimate purpose of this process and the preservation of grape juice? You need to understand. It was from a Methodist preacher, a Methodist minister who was part of the temperance movement. By the way, the word temperance here in this discussion of alcohol, it doesn't make sense. Temperance is a biblical term with alcohol. Temperance is to do it wisely. Temperance rights, not to abuse or misuse. What these people were actually doing was total abstaining. Don't use it. It's wrong. We're saying no to it. That's not temperance. So it's weird that that movement was called that. But this Methodist preacher changed the wine that had been on the table of the Christian church into grape juice because of his perspective of alcohol. And so grape juice itself is a modern innovation. So the whole argument that what you see in the Bible is not wine but grape juice is fallacious, doesn't work with the text. You can't make it work. And again, grape juice is a modern innovation. So answering objections. All right, here's what people will say. Texts are before us. Blessing and curse. Blessing from God, curse depending on how you use it, abuse it, and who you are. People will say we have to respect these arguments. We have to respect them and answer them honestly and directly. People will say alcohol has destroyed so many lives. And that is true. That is undeniably true. Without question. We shouldn't back away from that, shouldn't minimize the claim that is the truth. It has, it does. Today, it will continue to destroy many lives in a fallen world, not because of the tool itself or the gift itself, but because of what sinners do with the gift. You guys all know Apologia Church, this church here that God brought out of darkness into light. This church came initially out of a drug and alcohol rehab hospital where I was the chaplain. And so every day I walked into that hospital, and every single day, I saw the devastating consequences of the abuse of alcohol and substances ruining people's lives. As a matter of fact, the worst detoxes that I saw every day at the hospital for over four years. The worst detoxes were not people detoxing off of heroin and pills. There was no detox protocol for marijuana. So that really wasn't a thing. It wasn't people detoxing off of cocaine and methamphetamines and crack. The worst detoxes that I saw every single day were people who were detoxing off of alcohol and benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines have essentially the same chemical effect on the brain. And so people, they distribute benzodiazepines today, like Tic Tacs and candy, to people who are struggling with anxiety issues and those sorts of things. And you get into a benzodiazepine addiction, you are essentially in the same area as an alcohol addiction. But the worst DTs, the worst detox I saw were people who had been drinking morning to night every day for weeks or years. Their detox symptoms were the most dangerous, severe. And oftentimes hear this, people would come into the hospital and they'd say, I want to detox. I need help. I've got to stop. How much you been drinking? I've been drinking probably 36 to 40 beers a day. For how long? The last year. How much you been drinking? Two or three bottles of vodka or rum or whiskey every day. Okay. They would say, we're here to help you. We're gonna check you in. But the very first thing you have to do is you have to go to a higher level of care, a regular hospital, because if you stop where you're at now, you could die. You cannot just simply stop an alcohol addiction to that degree. If you do, you'll die. If you and I had a. A heavy heroin addiction, IV heroin addiction, and somebody took us and locked us in a room so we had no more access. They locked you in that room for a week, only fed you through a hole in the door, water and food, you'd want to die, but you wouldn't. You'd feel like you are, but you wouldn't. If you were in an alcohol addiction. If you are a drunkard and somebody threw you in a room and just cut off all the alcohol from you immediately, cold turkey, you could die. An alcohol addiction and a benzodiazepine addiction could kill you if you just stop cold turkey. That's why you need detox. And by the way, interesting fact of history, Presbyterian and Baptist ministers used to keep whiskey at the church, so that if somebody was turning away from the sin of addiction and alcohol, they learned very quickly the Pastors learned very quickly, we can't have them stop cold turkey. They might die. So pastors used to keep whiskey on hand to help drunks taper down safely from their alcohol addiction. Isn't that interesting? But someone says alcohol has destroyed so many lives. We take that seriously. Scripture takes that seriously. Drunkenness is a sin that will send you to hell. Drunkenness has consequences for your family, for your job, for your heart, your mind, your soul. Yes. However, we need to be critical in our thinking as Christians and biblical. Somebody says alcohol has destroyed so many lives. So Christians shouldn't do it. Drink it, use it. Well, so is food, so has food. Here's another one. So has sex. So has work, so has rest, and so has the pursuit of pleasure. So somebody might say, okay, I'll respond to that. I'll use your argument. I'll stand where you're standing. Alcohol has destroyed so many lives. Okay, well, people abuse sex. So people abuse sex. This gift of sex from God. So here's the answer for the Christian church. Ready? People abuse sex. So we all need to abstain from sex. We good with that, husbands and wives? We good to abstain from that. What an ignorant thing to say. Amen. Yes, guys, this is in the Bible. We're allowed to talk about it. Okay, let's answer the arguments. Alcohol has destroyed so many lives. You can point out the instances easily. And I can point online right now to how that gift from God, physical intimacy, has also destroyed so many lives. So if we take that line of reasoning, well, this has destroyed lives. So Christians should view it as sinful and not do it. Then let's put some more things on the table then. Great. So has sex, so we need to all abstain. That's not biblical. It's not true. Or how about the fact that people abuse food? How many times have you seen the shorts or the reels come up in your feed? Is it just me that is happening to you? Where the clips from that show or those people who are like morbidly obese, 650 pounds, 750 pounds, can't stop eating, won't stop eating. Some of those cups are kind of funny too because, you know, we have people who are abusing food and of course they're sitting in the area of work and rest, they're abusing food, and they just can't stop eating and control themselves. Okay? So in their cases and in many people's cases, people abuse food. So I just saw a 600 pound woman. Look what food does to people. All right, so here's the answer for the Christian church. People abuse food. So Christians, here it is. We're gonna all stop eating. Is that biblical? Is that consistent? Is that right? It's a bad argument or people abuse work. Maybe you are one. You're a workaholic. Maybe you know people who are workaholics. How many marriages or families or childhoods have been ruined because of a workaholic father? He. He has the idol wrapped around the work, and he bows before that throne on a daily basis. He totally neglects the duty he has to his wife, to his children, to what's most important in his life as a follower of Christ. And he just idolizes work. Okay, great. So someone abuses work. Does that mean that we now have a stake standard for Christians that say that says people abuse work? So, gentlemen, stop working. It's not the answer or another one. And I think this is a little more obvious and we're all more used to seeing this than the workaholic. I think people abuse rest. I mean, the proverbs. We've talked about the proverbs in both ways. What God says about working in a way that glorifies God, being like the ant, right? Look to the ant. Oh, sluggard, the lazy person. Look at that life. We've talked about that. But also what proverbs says about the sluggard and the lazy person who just sort of turn over every day like on a hinge in their bed, right? Just a little more rest. Just a little more rest. And I think we live right now in a particular time where people abuse rest in a big way. I mean, you have people today in our modern colleges and in academia that will try to argue that we shouldn't be having the work week that we have today. You know, people are working five days a week and eight hours a day. This is obscene to work eight hours a day. You ever seen those clips of people online, young people in particular, complaining because they work like a six hour workday? I saw a video the other day of some gay guy. Sorry, that's what he was complaining that he had to work a shift. There was like a minimal shift for a couple hours a day. And he was bawling his eyes out. He couldn't believe that the manager would have the audacity to put him on the schedule to work a few hours a day. That's the world we live in because we abuse rest. All right, so here's the standard. Now. Alcohol's destroyed lives. No alcohol. Okay, well, rest for some people has destroyed many lives. So ready, brothers? And sisters, the new standard for this church, at Apologia Church is because rest has destroyed lives. Ready? No more rest. Stop resting. And how foolish is that? I mean, just consider, it is God himself who built the schedule. He said, what, six days you labor. And what did he say? Rest on the seventh. So here's God saying rest, but people abuse rest. So is rest sinful? No, in its right context. To the glory of God. Or how about this? People abuse pleasure. Yes, humanity is plagued with that sin. That's part of the exchange of God for idols. We're made. I believe with all my heart to seek pleasure in God. I agree with Piper. I think that we were created by God to be pleasure seekers to the glory of God. Pleased. Finding our pleasure in God, finding our peace and hope and joy in pleasure in God and in his pleasure in us. I agree with that. That's a thoroughly biblical thing that Piper didn't get himself in the Pleasures of God series. He stole it from Jonathan Edwards. We were made to seek pleasure in God. In your presence is fullness of joy. And in your right hand there are what? Pleasures forever. Okay, so let's use the argument. Someone says, people abuse pleasure. They're pleasure seekers. They abuse it. So ready? Christians abstain from all pursuits of pleasure. No more pleasure. It's really a poor form of reasoning that obviously, on the face of it can't be held to consistently by Christians. Or here is another one. Somebody says, okay, but alcohol is bad for your body. Alcohol is bad for your body. And my answer to that is, yes, it can be. It can be. Amen. And yes, acknowledge the truth, where it's at. Yes, don't deny it. Alcohol is bad for your body. And I want to say, if you are in the state of the person described in the Proverbs, waking up to the strong drink, drinking throughout the day, drinking throughout the evening, hiding alcohol in your cups, drinking day, drinking all day, bringing your alcohol to work so you can drink on the job, then coming home and drinking into the evening. I want to say you do have a problem. You do. You're finding peace, pleasure, and joy in something that you can only ultimately have in God. And yes, it is damaging your body. My grandfather never met him. On my mom's side, he died around 33 years old of cirrhosis of the liver because of an addiction to alcohol. My mom only knew him for the first couple of years of her life. I never met the guy, but he died from liver failure from drinking obsessively. So, yes, acknowledge what's true. Alcohol can be very bad for your body, depending on the context. In some contexts, a glass of red wine can be very good for you. So again, it depends on the context. So alcohol is bad for your body? Yes, it can be. But so can be your Oreos, your Flamin Hot Cheetos, your Ben and Jerry's, your sugary breakfast cereals. Sorry, I'm gonna throw this one in. It's a personal thing. If you don't like it, it's okay. You only have to believe for me, what is in the word of God. This is personal. So are your seed oils. We got enough crunchy moms in here. We got a team. Right? So is your soda addiction. So are your energy drinks, and more. You get the point. It's how we use these things. It's how often we use these things. You could say, hey, this woman over here, this 650 pound woman over here, she eats ice cream morning, afternoon and evening. So it's bad for your body. Obviously it's causing some damage. And so no more ice cream. How'd you feel about that, kids? Right. On your birthdays. Sorry, kids. Because this lady over here can't control herself. No ice cream. That's insane, right? It's really bad for your body, obviously. Well, not on special occasions. Every single day. Ben and Jerry's. I'd love that, but no, no, I really would love that. Here's another one. Objection. Alcohol can alter your state of mind. Alcohol can alter your state of mind. First point I'll say to that is, so does caffeine. Nobody in here takes any caffeine, do they? No. Anyone? No. That's the stimulant. It also alters your state of mind. And so what's the standard? Is it arbitrary? Is it just this substance that you're saying, it alters your state of mind? So no one can use that, but we can use this to access. Are we being consistent? But when someone says, alcohol can alter your state of mind, I want to say biblically. That's kind of the point. That's kind of the point of making your heart glad. Why not? Listen, let's be real with the text here. We're at a wedding. It's a celebration. God incarnate is there. Why didn't he just fill the vats with water so that everybody wasn't thirsty at the wedding? Why did Jesus put wine in those vats? Why? Some of you guys are smiling. You don't want to say it out loud. Why? Because it was a celebration and they wanted wine. It makes the heart glad. That's the point of alcohol. It does alter your state of mind. But we are to be sober minded and in control. And there's a difference between making your heart glad and making everyone around you sad because of your behavior, because you're not thinking clearly, because you're saying stupid things, because you're an angry drunk or whatever the case may be. There is a line, a clear line. And when you lose control of your ability to control your own mind or your own spirit, you are not walking in step with the spirit of God. But when someone says alcohol alters the mind, right, that's the point. That's why Jesus gave it at a wedding. And that's why God called his people to come to a celebration and have wine or strong drink to rejoice in God. And that's why God says that wine makes the heart glad and merry. In Psalm 104, 14, 15. It's about the proper use of the gift and the blessing. Now more the Bible speaks negatively about alcohol. So one of the strongest arguments that can be made in this lane is somebody says, yeah, but the Bible speaks very negatively about alcohol. I would say first point, yes, it does. Devastatingly bad about alcohol and drunkenness. Like you will not inherit the kingdom of God. Like you will go to hell forever outside of Jesus Christ. You will go to hell forever because of sin of drunkenness. It's listed next to a whole host of sins like orgies, drunkenness and orgies right next to each other. That's how bad this sin is considered in Scripture. It's not respectable. But the Bible speaks negatively about alcohol. Yes, in its abuse, with severe condemnation of drunkenness. But second point, it also speaks positively. Positively. And God made it at a wedding. God put it as a central aspect of worship for the Christian church. And God even called people to buy it and bring it to a celebration and worship in Deuteronomy 14:26. So ready? So is drinking alcohol a sin? Is drinking alcohol a sin? First answer we say is no. Second answer is yes. No. Yes. Is that a contradiction? No category no. Scripture does not condemn drinking alcohol as a sin. But yes. And it depends on who is doing the drinking and how they are doing the drinking. Who and how? In other words, if you're a person who has just recently turned to Jesus Christ, you have new affections, new desires, God lives in you now. Your mind's changed about who you once were and your past and where you're pursuing now. And God and your life is transformed. You love Jesus, you're saved. And you've just come out of just a wicked addiction to alcohol. Should you go to all the passages speaking about the blessings of alcohol and go, all right, I'm in Christ now. Let's get the drinking on? Should you do that? No, that's ignorant. It's unwise. You need time for your heart and your mind and your passions to heal and get reordered, to desire God for pleasure and peace and fullness and wholeness over against the substance that you were just worshiping with your whole life. So the who really matters. When I came out of my addiction to drugs and alcohol many, many years ago, one of the first things that I understood very early on is my heart had changed. I loved God. I didn't want to pursue that anymore. But I recognized that I was also in a very weak and fragile state. And so I surrounded myself with believers who were stronger than me. I surrounded myself with accountability. I had a meeting with these men every single night of the week to get into the word of God at night, specifically because that was where I was in most danger of going to lose myself again and having a weak moment. So I surrounded my life with accountability. And I did not drink then, because I could not. So the who matters and the how matters. But let's ask this question about substances, because we do need to be consistent brothers and sisters on this. And I believe consistency could heal the church in many ways, heal relationships in many ways, either direction. On the blessing of alcohol or the curse of alcohol, we have to ask this question. Someone says, is taking alcohol a sin? Is drinking alcohol a sin? Let's ask a different question. Let's ask a different question. Is taking opiates a sin? Let that hang for a second. Think about it. Is taking opiates a sin? Now, on my way to come to worship with all of you, I was driving eastbound on baseline and eastbound on baseline. When you pass under the i10, there is every day, every day, just a lot of young people in that corner sitting there, of course, asking for change and money. But many of them just sort of wandering around. Many of them, you can tell they're on opiates. It could be oxycontin, Oxycodone, it could be Dilaudid, it could be Percocet, and it could even be fentanyl. You know what you're looking at very easily, is this an opiate addiction? By how they're doing the nod or how they're almost leaning completely backwards, just almost like they're passed out, but their body is Somehow stuck to the ground and still hovering. That's an opiate addiction. It's devastating. Fentanyl is devastating, but it's in the category of opiates. So you ask this question to be consistent as a Christian. Someone says, is alcohol a sin? I would say, well, here's another good question. Is taking opiates a sin? Now, every one of us recognizes the context. If you and I were together tonight to have dinner together, and we drove past baseline and the i10 and we saw all these young people nodding off, passed out, hovering, looking like zombies. And I said, is opiate sin for them? What would we say? Instantly, every time, yes, yes, sin, evil, destroying them. But when you have a massive kidney stone. When you have a massive kidney stone, drop out of nowhere. You ever had one who's had a kidney stone, Raise your hands if you. Don't be ashamed of it. It's nothing like cell. I'm sorry. No, it's a horrible thing. I had to help this guy, nurse this guy with a massive kidney stone. And it was a hard thing to watch. It was a very painful thing. My wife one morning said she wasn't feeling well, her stomach didn't feel well. And I was like, okay, we should probably go to the doctor. You should get checked out. So I was all for like, let's go to the doctor. But she doesn't like going to the doctor. She doesn't want to go to urgent care. She doesn't want to go to the hospital. She always, really, always tries to avoid it, and she usually is rather successful at it. So this morning, she said her stomach didn't feel well. She woke up, something's wrong. I said, we need to go to the doctor. And she said, no, let's just sort of wait it out. Then she turned around after this conversation, goes into the bedroom. I walk in about a minute or two later, and she's like, basically on the floor, and she says, call 91 1. So we went from I don't need to go to the doctor to call 91 1. She thought that she was dying. And so when I called 91 1, EMS comes there, and they kind of get the idea of what it is. And they're like, you need to get to the hospital. You'll get there. They actually said this to me. They said, you'll get there faster than us. I said, is that permission? Okay? And so as we're leaving, Candy's in so much pain that she thought she was dying. She was saying goodbye to our children. That's how painful apparently kidney stones are. And I'm praying to God it never happens me, she was saying goodbye to our children because she never experiencing any, experienced anything that sinful or sinful. Sorry. Painful. Painful. Wrong word, sorry. I got children keeping me up again, painful in her life. So we get to the hospital and you know what I said? We got to the hospital and they gave her morphine. She and I both said, praise God. Praise God. So it depends on the context. It's a fallen world. Sometimes this is a gift, sometimes it's a curse. In some contexts, you'll pass by the I10 and Baseline Road and you'll say curse on opiates. And at the hospital, when you've broken your leg in a car accident and they inject you with the morphine or the opiates, you are saying, glory to God for opiates. When you have an intense major surgery and they send you home with Percocets, you are thanking God for the next few days. Praise the Lord for Percocets. Praise God for opiates. It depends on the context, how you use this gift and this blessing from God. Amen. Same thing goes, someone says, is drinking alcohol a sin? Let's ask a different way. Is taking a benzodiazepine a sin? Yes and no. Yes and no. If you're taking benzodiazepines right now, you need to understand that that pill is giving you the same chemical effects as alcohol. And you do need to understand also that long term use of benzodiazepines is extremely dangerous. And it's extraordinarily hard to get off of benzodiazepines. But when a woman is in a car accident, hit by somebody going 100 miles per hour, who runs the red light and loses her two children in the back of that car and she is completely broken and out of her mind, is it a good gift and blessing from God at the hospital for the doctors to give her something like a benzodiazepine or volume so she can be calm. That's called a grace and a mercy from God. So is taking a benzodiazepine a sin? Yes and no. It depends on who and how. Now here's one that's more interesting. Okay. Is taking ketamine a sin? Many people are like, what is ketamine? Well, in the late 90s and early 2000s, ketamine K, special K was a huge party drug. A huge party drug. But now there are known medical benefits to ketamine. So a couple of years ago, many years ago now, Actually, I had a seizure that came out of nowhere, Totally took me by surprise. I have no history of it. My family, there was no reason inside of me for that to take place. We found out later that it was essentially some toxicity that came into my bloodstream and so that's what caused the seizures. But when it first happened, it never happened to me before. So it took my family by surprise. All my family was in my house when it took place. And we had just got back from Australia for a missions trip there. And so I was walking out of my bedroom and here's the last thing I remember. I walked out of my door, my bedroom, to see my family and everything went pitch black, Just darkness. And I woke up at the hospital. That happened about 7pm I woke up at the hospital about 1 o' clock am or something like that. Didn't know where I was. I thought I had just woke up after sleeping the night through. I was confused, didn't know what happens. Turns out one of the reasons I was especially confused was because after the seizure, when the fire department and the medical got there, I was so confused. I didn't know what was going on, they didn't know what was going on with me. And so they needed to find a way to calm me down. And so apparently they hit me with ketamine to calm me down. And so this is used oftentimes to calm people down in the medical industry. Now, unfortunately, they didn't communicate with each other and so they hit me with ketamine when they first got to my house. And when I got to the ambulance, for some reason, they hit me with ketamine again. So I had two hits of ketamine and so I was very calm, very calm. That's probably why I was also asleep until 1:00 clock in the morning. There's a little too much Special K, guys. So can it be a benefit and a blessing? Yeah, it depends on who and how. One more. And here's the controversial one. I'm sorry, it's a big discussion, but we need to have the discussion because it's all around us now. Is drinking alcohol a sin? Let's ask it this way. Is taking marijuana a sin? Now, I will say that in some of these states where it's completely legal now, it seems sinful to smell it in the air as much as you do. It's one of the stinkiest things ever. It's so annoying. It's so annoying. But we should be honest and ask the question, is taking marijuana a sin? This might surprise some of you that I say this, but I think I have a biblical worldview and the facts to back this up. Same answer, Same answer. It depends on who and how did you know that in the past, not very far in our past, they used to put cannabis into medical tinctures to help people with pain relief. And taking cannabis tinctures for pain relief was a better choice than the opiates. Why? Why? Anyone know why? Because the opiates that you would take was a guaranteed chemical addiction, long term. And so what you would feel if you tried to stop the opium for pain, opium for pain, what you would feel was so excruciating, so painful, so hard to stop. They realized, hey, there are these things in the body. Cannabinoids. This has it. It works for pain. And you don't get the chemical toxicity for pain that you would get with the opium. So even the Queen of England used to use cannabis to help her with her debilitating menstrual cycle. She would have every month. It wasn't as taboo. It's become very taboo. Why? Because of its what? Abuse? Because of its abuse. So to be consistent, I would say we ask the question the same way. Is it a sin? It depends on who and how. One example in my own personal life here, Piper, last year was having a very rough first six months of her life. I was in and out of the hospital a number of times. I slept at the hospital more times than I can honestly remember at this point. We thought that she was going to die numerous times. We thought that she was so severely disabled she may never walk. She may. She'd be in a wheelchair, maybe never to be able to communicate. She had something called infantile spasms that came out of nowhere. As soon as we realized what it was, we looked into it. We discovered that infantile spasms, if they are not stopped pretty much immediately, if they continue on, it will cause irreversible damage to the brain. And that child that has infantile spasms that aren't thwarted, that child will essentially be in a vegetative state for the rest of their lives. This is what we are facing. And so it's a mad rush to figure out how to stop these infantile spasms, which are essentially very dangerous seizures that are rolling around the clock. They are happening in the brain non stop, damaging the brain every single time. What we learned, because we knew nothing about it, was that in that community that has dealt with infantile spasms, one of the only known surefire ways to get those seizures to stop and to let Your child live a normal life. Is THC and cbd, two chemical compounds in what? Marijuana. And so my daughter was prescribed by a medical professional marijuana tinctures to stop her seizures. And guess what? They did? They did. And so somebody could say, I think, as Christians, inconsistently, you could say, people abuse this. It's just sinful. So therefore, it is just sin. It is off limits. I would say, tell that to all the children who have had their lives changed by this substance being used in a God glorifying and honoring ways that make sense. It's the how and the who. All right, quickly. What about the weaker brother? What about the weaker brother? We need to take it seriously. Somebody says, I struggle with alcohol. I don't like alcohol. I don't want it around me. The first thing we should say is, don't destroy your brother with your liberty. In other words, don't throw it in their face. Don't boast over them. Don't try to encourage them to violate their own conscience. We need to take the weaker brother seriously, as scripture does. However, we also need to reject the tyranny of the weaker brother, which is a good sermon by Dr. R.C. sproul. I encourage you to look that up. The tyranny of the weaker brother. That is the Christian in church who says, well, I struggle with these various things in my conscience, and so you therefore shouldn't do it or should never do it where I can see it because you're damaging my conscience. That's the tyranny of the weaker brother. We need to avoid both pits, all right? We need to protect the weaker brother in their conscience. Don't abuse it. Don't encourage them to violate their conscience. And at the same time, the weaker brother should not try to tyrannize the rest of the Christian church. We cannot have standards. Here it is again that make God look like he is sinning. Now, here's the questions. Ready? These are very fast. When you think about substances that can be gifts, but also curse alcohol. Questions. First thing Scripture tells you, do not be drunk, but filled with the spirit. My question to you, if you are enjoying the gift of alcohol, is simply this. Why are you doing it? Is it to worship and be thankful to God, or are you actually worshiping the bottle? Are you going to this substance, this gift from God for what only God can deliver to you? Do you go to the alcohol daily for peace, happiness, pleasure, freedom from guilt, freedom from shame, to wash away your anxieties? Why are you going to it? Are you going to it with thankfulness? To God and control and balance? Or does it control you? Are you under its influence all day? And a final question. This is an important one. If you stop right now, if you stop drinking right now, are there going to be serious or dangerous physical consequences? Here's a good test. If you're enjoying the gift of alcohol and maybe enjoying it a little too often, if you've been enjoying it every day, pretty much all day, here's a test. If you stopped seeing tonight, how would you feel in the morning? Would you feel sick? Would you start to shake? Would you have a headache? Would you start a serious detox? If that is the case, brothers and sisters, there is grace, there is mercy, there is forgiveness in Jesus. Amen. There is, but I want to say steps to freedom from that is number one, Christ and his Gospel. Flee to Christ from the sin. Come to Christ and trust in him and him alone. Number two, if you're at that dangerous level, you need to get to detox immediately. There's no shame in that. Get to detox. Next, you need to get accountability with believers around you. Be honest about your struggle and your idolatry. Get believers around you and the next learn to pursue God as your ultimate pleasure and peace. And finally, here's the verse we end on everyone. Go to it. In First Corinthians 10, First Corinthians 10:31, the summary of everything we just talked about was this a blessing? Everybody praise the Lord. Here's the summary. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. We pray that this message would be a blessing to your church, that you would heal, bless, grow us. We rejoice in your great gifts, but we also look at them with great caution, considering our weaknesses. And we thank you for your love for us. In Jesus name, Amen. Sa.