WOL2025 – Proverbs-06
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Transcript
WOL2025 – Proverbs-06 – The Un-Intoxicated Life
Let’s finish Proverbs. God offers to us the ever brighter path for life. In fact, He offers it to the whole world, but most of them think it’s foolishness because they are foolish. And God says there’s only two kinds of people, the vast majority of foolish people, and sprinkled among them the wise, who have the wisdom that is from above. And that’s the message of Proverbs, and that’s what the Lord says. The path of the just, those who are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Those who are just, He gives the wisdom that is from above. In fact, Paul tells us, Jesus, 1 Corinthians 1:30 becomes for us wisdom. Every time we make a wise choice we’re reflecting Christ. Jesus becomes for us the wisdom that is from above through the Holy Spirit. And it’s like the shining sun. We’re with him. He is the light of the world. When John saw Him, His face look like the brightness of the sun. And our path looks like the shining sun. And it shines ever brighter onto the perfect day and Paul described the perfect day in 2 Corinthians 3:18. Remember what he said, but we all with unveiled faces beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image.
You should have someone around you that knows you for a long time that you can ask, am I more patient than I used to be? Am I more gentle? Am I kinder? Am I more loving? Because we’re supposed to be getting brighter and brighter and brighter. Our pathway is brighter. We’re with Christ and we’re looking more like Him. That’s the way of wisdom. That’s the brighter life. But the way the wicked are is darkness. They don’t know what makes them stumble, they are there.
And so, the whole book of Proverbs, by the way, was breathed out by God. 15,028 words are in this. Can you imagine copying all those in those 915 verses? Of Solomon’s 3000 proverbs God wanted 513 of them to be recorded. It’s kind of like Paul. Paul wrote other letters that aren’t in the Bible. So did… I’m sure Peter and everybody else. Solomon wrote lots of stuff. This is the stuff that God said that is what I want, that I have breathed out and inspired. There are over 140 topics and we’re on our sixth one and last. And all the topics in the book of Proverbs talk about the bright path, the just path, the righteous path, which is the way of salvation, which is wisdom. And then man’s way contrasted. The way that’s headed toward destruction and damnation, which is foolishness.
This morning, everything in Proverbs, you can just… all 915 of those verses are either stacking up on the wises or the foolish side. Wisdom versus foolishness, the save, the narrow way with the Holy Spirit verse 23 talks about, or the lost broad way. We are ever more sensitive. We’re living connected and sharing Christ’s most frequent emotion. When you read the 89 chapters of the Gospels and analyze the four Gospels, and look at Jesus, the most frequently written about emotional response He has. It’s the word splagchnon. In Greek it means to be moved with compassion. The more we walk with Christ, the more sensitive we are. Remember it says that we’re supposed to sorrow with those that sorrow We’re supposed to rejoice with those that rejoice. We are synced with the other members of the body. And moved with compassion by the lost who are like blind people staggering toward the edge of a precipice. And were moved, we’re sensitive. The lost are not like that. They’re hardened. Remember how Paul describes them in Romans 1 we worship God. They think their way is better. They became hardened by their sin, Paul said, and they refused to acknowledge God and they’re going their own way. We flee from sin. They mock sin. That’s just how you can tell. Paul says that us the wise, that he talks about in verse 30, that Christ becomes wisdom, in 1 Corinthians 1 are in the book of Proverbs, the ones that are perishing in the dark. And such a contrast, our path gets brighter, their path gets darker.
So basically, we could summarize the characteristics of fools. Verse 15 of chapter 12, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. So that’s how you know a foolish person. They don’t want advice, they don’t want counsel, they don’t want anything. What they, whatever they think of is wise in their own eyes, but it says the contrast… he who heeds counsel is wise. So, there’s a pause with us. We go uhhuh. The person that speaks first usually sounds right, but we go, wait a minute let’s hear the rest, let’s know more. That’s a reflection of wisdom. Proverbs 14:9 says, the fool mocks at sin. So that’s… just they are mockers.
Proverbs 15 says, the tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the fool, the mouth of the fool pours forth foolishness. Foolish people, contaminate others. They don’t just have bad ideas. They don’t just have bad character. They don’t just have bad conduct. They spew it out, and our words are so powerful. They reject wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise. We find that, don’t we… when we share the Gospel. I don’t want to hear that. I’ve had people as soon as they can tell what direction I’m going, that God is going to get… I don’t want that. I’ve had actual people that they put that hand out. It’s like they’re blocking it. They don’t…, they despise Proverbs, they reject.
Do you remember when Stephen was preaching along just before he got stoned, and it said that they were gnashing at him with their teeth. Can you imagine a bunch of religious, hugely powerful wise, at least educated men, grinding and gnashing and banging their teeth again, they are so hateful of truth. That’s what a fool looks like. And eventually they self-destruct. The turning away of the simple will slay them and the complacency of fools will destroy them.
Proverbs 1:32 is a very interesting verse. It introduces us to the fact there are four types of fools. Verse 32. If you look at it, the turning away of the simple, there are four fools. The simple fool is the first one. The word is peį¹ÆĆ® in Hebrew, do you know what it means? If you ever watch a John Wayne movie, you ever seen John Wayne go in the saloon and he pushes against those two swinging doors, those swinging doors? The Hebrew word for swinging like that is a peį¹ÆĆ®. What a peį¹ÆĆ® is, if everybody’s going this way, they’re going that way. If they go that way, they’re going that way. Are you going that way? I’m going that way. They’re simple. They just, whatever’s going on, they go that way. They’re simple. Everything influences them. They have no discretion. And they self-destruct. By the way, that’s the entry level fool.
All of… Do you know the final form fool, the fourth one that’s described in the Bible, because it’s the name of a person? Remember Abigail’s husband? They said his name is Nabal and he is what his name means. He is the hardened self-destructing fool. That’s the word for the ultimate fool, Nabal. N-A-B-A-L. Like we read about in that account.
Look at what Proverbs is applied by, as we look through the rest of the scripture. When do believers sometimes act like fools? Look in the New Testament. What does it say in Luke 24:25? Jesus said, oh, fools and slow of heart to believe the scriptures. When we disbelieve God, when we don’t take God at His Word, but without faith, it’s impossible to please Him. When we disbelieve Him, we sometimes act like fools. How about Galatians 3:1. Paul said, why have you foolishly departed from the truth of the Gospel? Who bewitched you to not obey the truth? Oh, foolish Galatians, who bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. When they disobeyed God’s truth, they were acting like a lost person, like a fool, like one walking in darkness. Believers can act that way.
Now, the good news is, if I was teaching 1 Corinthians chapter 11, God doesn’t let us stay that way. It’s called the chastening, Hebrews 12 calls it, and God loves His children and He chastens them. And Paul said He chastened them to the point that some in Corinth were weak, first of all, then they got sick, and then they died. And I’m not talking about the octogenarians. I’m talking about the young, healthy, strong people. And because they were disobeying God’s truth, God chastened them and He starts by unnatural weakness that there’s no reason for it.
We have 33 minutes. Rich, you really started me early, so I have time for one more story. I was pastoring in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A wonderful church, an amazing church, an exploding church, and one of the most famous people in our congregation worked for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and they were a regular writer in the Decision magazine. And they were gifted and amazing and powerful and God was blessing every part of their lives. In fact, that was the wife. The husband owned 200 rental properties in Tulsa 200. Wow. That’s in the millions of dollars of value. And so, they were just mega, revered people and all of a sudden. The Decision magazine writer got sick. It was strange. There’s nothing wrong with her. She started losing weight, lost her strength. Pretty soon she’s being pushed in to church in a wheelchair. She still looked great, but her body was just [weakened]. So, Mr. 200 rental houses, he took her to Mayo, he took her to Hopkins, he took her to Boston General. He, if you have enough money, you can go everywhere, went to MD Anderson. Did everything. They said, there’s really nothing detectable wrong, anywhere. They did every scan, every…, they pulled enough blood out of her to study everything. There’s nothing wrong they said, with her. She was just shriveling up like an apple you leave out too long in a fruit basket.
So finally, they came to us, the elders of the church where they attended. And they, he pushed her right in to elder prayer meeting before the service and said, do you pray over sick people? I said, oh, we sure do. I had my Bible tucked under my arm ready to go preach. And I said, but before we do pray over them, I said, we even anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. I said, we do have to talk to them. So, I got down on one knee in front of her wheelchair. I looked her in the eye. I said, James 5 tells me that before I pray over you and anoint with oil, I have to ask you, do you have any unconfessed, unforsaken sin in your life that would be hindering God from healing you? And she looked up at me, just staring at me and her husband, started crying. That’s an indicator something was going on, right? And the husband just shook with weeping. And she just looked straight at me. And she said, I could never forgive him for what he did to me. Whoa. There is the cause.
An unforgiving person, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6, is going to face the tormentors. And she was weak and she got sick. And the doctor said, we don’t know what’s wrong with you, but at your current decline you should start making preparations. You know what that means? Get the whole cemetery package, the funeral home thing, get it worked out because it’s going to go fast.
And I said, I got up from kneeling in front of her. I said, we can’t pray over you and anoint you with oil until whatever you’re talking about, and just you need to get that dealt with between you and the Lord, and you and each other. So, he wheeled her back in very soon and the elders gathered and she looked totally different. Her face, she’s still like a shriveled apple, but her face looked totally different and she had no longer cried. And they said, beaming… they said, we’re ready for those prayers. And we pulled out the olive oil and put it on her head, and all of us laid our hands on her and prayed for her. That was the most remarkable recovery I’ve ever seen. Within a couple of months she’d gone from, what, 60 some to 70 to 80 to 90. I don’t know how much… People ask me what size my church is, I said, I know most of the women are about a hundred pounds and most of the men are about 200. I don’t know. I don’t figure all that out. But she went to whatever’s normal, a hundred pounds or whatever like that, and back to her radiant writing and everything.
When we disobey God’s truth, we are foolish. And God says He chastens. And Paul says He has three levels of chastening, which is weakness, sickness, and death. Wow. So sometimes believers act like fools when we desire wrong things. What Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:9, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful lust, which drown men in destruction and perdition. What’s that? Desiring the wrong things. Did you know it is, God says it’s wrong to have an insatiable longing to be rich. That’s the American dream, isn’t it? To be financially independent? To have no one telling you what to do? To own your own castle? Now see, there’s a lot of good stuff in there. The Bible says that we’re supposed to have food and raiment. We’re supposed to have covering. We’re supposed to have food. We’re supposed to provide for our own family. But when there is a consuming desire for something God says is wrong, how are believers supposed to live on an everyday basis?
The Lord’s Prayer tells us. The Lord’s Prayer is one of the most crucial passages in the Bible. And the very center, there are seven parts of the Lord’s Prayer petitions, do you know what the middle one, the fourth one is? Give us this day, mega millions? No. Give us this day, winning or closing that final deal to be set for life? No. What does it say? Give us this day, our what? Daily. Do you know what God wants? Do you know what His will is? Do you know what He longs for? That we need Him. Do you know what your best time, if you had children, do you know what the greatest days of your life with those children were? The days when everywhere you went, woo, their little hand went up and they would walk through life holding onto you. And they could look at anything, but they were secure because they were holding onto you. And when they heard a crash or a siren or a crack, a peel of thunder, they were in your arms. They would run from their beds or crawl out of the crib and come to you if something scared them. Those are the greatest days because, as a parent, we love to protect, to provide to, to comfort. How much more does the perfect Father love to protect, to provide, to comfort?
But when we desire the wrong things, especially riches, we don’t need God. We need Him. Later sometimes, but not all the time. He wants us on the daily bread level. And so, it’s foolish… We act like fools when we desire to be rich and fall into temptation and the snare and foolish and harmful to us, which drown men. It’s, that is an amazing verse in destruction and perdition. And then finally, James, the first epistle of New Testament says sometimes we act like fools. And he’s flat out… when we neglect wisdom. And he says in James 3:13, who is wise? Who is understanding among you? How do you know who the wise people are instead of the foolish? They show up by their good conduct, that their works are done in the meekness of wisdom. See the wise, the people that are going God’s way, they don’t neglect. They eat it up. Wisdom is vital for them.
God’s ever brighter path is for those who are saved. They live God’s way. That’s the message of the Bible. They’re servant hearted. They want to do the will of God. They reflect Christ. He said, I didn’t come to do My own will. I came to do the will of My Father in Heaven. Not My will, but Thy will be done. That was His repeated prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. And the book of Hebrews chapter 5 tells us while He was praying it, He had strong crying in tears. What a graphic picture of Christ wanting with all of His heart.
And we’re selective. We make choices in life. We avoid ruining our life. Solomon ruined his life. And we’re submissive to God and submission to God causes us to want to be humble. To want to… and I was talking to someone about this. When Paul came back in the book of Acts to his home church, Paul had a home church. He loved Antioch. He’d been, brought from his house or his hometown in Tarsus by Barnabas to Antioch, and he’d been nurtured there and discipled. He’d already gone to school with Jesus. He went to seminary with Jesus. Paul had the ultimate education, but he still needed to be nurtured by a Barnabas in a local church like Antioch. And then Paul started being sent out and coming back and sent out and coming back. And when he would come back, he always had this pattern. Do you notice it? In Acts 14, Paul came back and told the Antioch church all that God had done. What had God done? He had saved Sergius Paulus. He had, blinded elements of sorcery, all those things that God had done. But he didn’t stop there, did he? What did Paul do in his Antioch mission reports? He said all that God had done all over the Roman world through him. God uses people who are submissive to Him, who guard against thinking they did it. God did it but it’s through me.
See, that’s being full of the Holy Spirit. You know what fullness of the Holy Spirit is? It’s like going to Walmart and buying gardening gloves and just setting them out there in the garden and see if they do anything. They do not. You’ve got to what? Put your hand in them. God is the hand. We are the glove. And apart from the hand, the glove can do nothing. That’s the way I would translate John 15. Apart from Me, you can do nothing. It’s like getting a golf glove and putting it on the cart. Nothing happens until you wear it. You understand what I mean?
And see, that’s the idea of humility. It’s not that we don’t do anything. It’s not that we can’t talk about it. I could tell you endless stories of what God is doing… endless. And they certainly are not because of me, but the Lord used me just as He used you, as all the stories I hear from you, of all that God is doing through us.
And then yesterday, we looked at God’s amazing plan for marriage and the fact that we’re all going to be in a perfect marriage forever, whether or not we ever have one or are in one here. But if we are married, God has the wise marriage, and that was yesterday. And it’s a marriage that reflects the love of Jesus Christ and His responsiveness to the Church, to a world that’s amazed when they see that.
Now today, God offers the ever brighter path for those who are self-controlled. Now remember, that’s something the Holy Spirit wants to work in our lives. But we have to cooperate. And how do we cooperate? The book of Proverbs tells us, God wants you and I to live the unintoxicated life of wisdom. So, let’s look at that. The unintoxicated life.
Now, whenever you talk about intoxication, isn’t that what you think about? Alcohol? Alcohol? We have an entire generation of Christians who are teetotalers. They have nothing. They are temperate. They have nothing to do with alcohol and they live a totally intemperate life. They don’t touch alcohol, but they’re intemperate in many other ways. That’s why the New Testament goes way beyond the book of Proverbs and says that our being sober minded always in the New Testament, that’s metaphoric, it’s not talking about alcohol, it’s talking about everything. We’re supposed to be sober in everything. So, let’s look at that.
What is unintoxicated living? The book of Proverbs starting in chapter 20. Here, if we were doing a topic study on drinking the first chapter you would go to in your small group would be Chapter 20. Wine is a mocker; strong drink is a brawler. Whoever’s led astray by it is not wise. Then we go to chapter 23 and look at verse 20. And it says, do not mix with winebibbers or with gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags. Then go to verse 29. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at wine. Those who go in search of mixed wine, verse 31. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirl around smoothly. At the last, it bites like a serpent. It stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things. Your heart will utter perverse things.
It just makes me think of Andy Griffith’s guy that was always acting funny and putting himself in the jail cell. Or who is the one in Gunsmoke? I can think of all these people that are… I think in pictures. They mutter strange things. But look at this, verse 34, you’ll be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea or one who lies at the top of the mast saying they struck me, but I was not hurt. They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I wake that I may seek another drink.
And then the last time Proverbs addresses alcohol is in the virtuous woman chapter. And look what it says. It’s not for kings oh Lemuel, it’s not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert justice to all the afflicted. Now look at this, verse 6, give strong drink to him who is perishing and wine to those who are bitter in heart. Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more. That’s fascinating. God has a lot to say about unintoxicated living.
Okay, alcohol is mentioned 256 times in the scripture. 80% of the mentions are positive. It talks about the harvest, and the wine, and the new wine, and that the wine ran out and this is the best wine we’ve ever had. There’s 256 different mentions of the scriptures including that one in Proverbs. So, alcohol is described in the Bible first, positively. I just read it to you. You all know the other one. In fact, everybody at the rescue missions, I started out at Rescue Missions. That’s where my parents said, you think you’re gifted? If you’re gifted, go speak at the rescue mission. If you can speak to those people, you can speak to anybody. So, every time they didn’t have a speaker, from when I was 13 years old on, I would go to the rescue mission and I would speak. And dinner for them was right there and they were all right there. And the entire time I was speaking they would be moaning and going like this and crawling on their hands and knees by me and going to the food. And if you can persist speaking with everybody moaning and beating on their chest, and acting crazy, and going to the food… my parents said, I guess you are called. And so, I grew up. And finally, I said, you can’t eat if you don’t stop.
But alcohol has positive effects. And you know what those men would tell me? 1 Timothy 5:23, drink a little alcohol for your stomach’s sake. I said, your name’s not Timothy, bub. You cannot. So, there are positive effects. But alcohol’s negative effects can lead to eternal destruction. All of my grandfathers died alcoholics, all of my family that I knew drank, drank, drank. My parents met in a bar. My mother was led to the Lord by a door to door pastor who knocked on her door and she was drinking the cheapest wine out of a one gallon bottle like this, like drinking out of the milk jug. That’s how she drank, and he knocked on the door. And back then, to make sure everybody knew what he was doing, he carried the Bible from the communion table. Do you know how big that thing is? Yeah! Under his arm. So, it was very clear what he was doing door to door. He wasn’t selling. He had the Bible, this giant Bible. And he knocked on the door and she saw that Bible and said, come on in. She felt pretty good. Come on in. And he put that Bible on the table, opened it up and sat there long enough reading her the scripture, that all of a sudden, she realized what he was doing. And that day she bowed and called the name of the Lord and was saved. He came back to work on my dad, who he brought back to the Lord. So, praise the Lord.
But look at the, for those that don’t anyone enslaved to alcohol or any mind altering substance, drugs and chemicals, is part of the list of those who have become dominated by sin and not Christ, and thus are slaves to sin and not Christ. And thus, what does it say in Galatians 5 let me read it to you. Galatians 5. Now the works of the flesh are evident. Verse 19, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lewdness. Verse 20, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contention, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies. Verse 21, envy, murders. There it is, I heard it. Drunkenness. Whoa. Revelries, and the like of which I tell you beforehand, just I told you in times past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
What does that mean? Jesus said, if you are born again, you inherit the kingdom of God. If you’re saved, you inherit the kingdom of God. If you are those things, you’re part of the list of those who do not. What does God’s Word say about Christians, alcohol, addictions, gray areas, sins, sanctification, liberty, and legalism? If we were studying all those wonderful topics, which are hot topics especially among young people. They all want to know about gray areas and sanctification and liberty, and they don’t want to be legalistic. And what is really defined as sin in the Bible and where do these addictions… You all know what the current debate is? Immorality imagined with a very expensive headset on with an electronic person, I’m talking about vr, virtual reality, those things you’ve seen them wear ‘them, vr, pornography. Is that sin? That! Can you believe that? They’re actually debating that. Why? Because in Japan, so many young people are living in the VR world that they said nobody is actually dating real people anymore, and their already low birth rate is really getting like, non-existent. Young people don’t want to date. They can have the same sexual sensations with all their electronic gear as married people or unmarried people hope to have, and they’re actually debating whether that’s sin.
So, what you do when you want to know what Christians think of alcohol, addictions, any kind of addiction in gray areas and sin? Of course you go to Romans 14, that is the mother lode of what to do about things we’re not sure about. And 1 Corinthians 8-10 for sure. But Proverbs gives us the illustration. And this morning we’re going to talk about what God says in Ephesians 5:18.
So, what does alcohol have to do with God’s servants and what should be our convictions? Let me just share mine with you before we go. Number one, I don’t drink because God always condemns drunkenness. That’s one thing you can say, God always condemns drunkenness, he never condones it. He always puts it with those who are forever going to be separated from His presence. So, no matter what view you have, drunkenness is bad. I think most people would agree.
Second, I don’t drink because God commanded any priest who came before Him in the tabernacle or temple wasn’t to drink. Do you remember Nadab and Abihu offering the improper fire? It isn’t even fully clear what they did. Did they take the wrong coals? Did they put them in the wrong way? Did they put the incense in wrong? But what we do find is, as soon as Nadab and Abihu are smitten dead by the Lord, what’s the very next thing God says? I don’t want any more of you drinking before you come into the tabernacle or temple. Whoa. There we go. They offered strange fire because they were under the influence.
Third, I don’t drink because God said that those who lead His people are not to drink. We already read the proverbs one. What does 1 Timothy 3:3 say? It says that an elder, by the way, there are three synonymous inter connected words that are used in Acts 20 that describe what we call, most of us call, a pastor. Greek word poimÄn, Shepherd. Overseer, episkopoi. Elder, presbyteros. Those three Greek words describing the same person, three different functions of them. So, a pastor is an elder who is an overseer. So, a pastor shepherds of flock as he oversees and he is characterized as an elder, which is presbyteros, which speaks of his dignity and all. So, God said, those who lead His people, 1 Timothy 3:3 an overseer, then must be… and then you know what the next word is in Greek mÄ paroinos. āMÄ, not. āParoinos, wine. You know what that means? Elders were not to drink alcohol in the New Testament Church. Boy, a lot of people haven’t read that verse, have they? Or they don’t want to read it? Elders, pastors, the episkopoi, the leaders of the church. What does that mean? āMÄ paroinos?
They used to serve, see… they didn’t have strong stuff, they did not have vodka and whiskey and distilled spirits. Distillation wasn’t even figured out until the… in the Islamic world. They were geniuses and architecture and literature and everything, and they learned about distillation. And they finally started. They knew about brandy, which is your heating or burning wine. And it took away some of the alcohol and it increased the concentration, but they didn’t know about distillation. So, what they had is, they had the wine of the biblical world. Which was, they’d put it in a big bowl and they would add water. And the Talmud says that you had to add four parts of water for every one part of the wine that you had in your little wine bag. But people found out, if they didn’t add any water, it worked faster. And so, people used to, with the wine that was, [that they] added water to, they would stand there and keep drinking by the wine bowl until they drank enough that it start affecting them. And so, you know what that verse says, 1 Timothy 3:3. Don’t stand by the wine bowl. Don’t even be by it. Don’t get involved in alcohol for an elder.
Fourthly, I don’t drink because God led Paul to say, that he would limit his freedom and never eat meat or drink alcohol if it caused any believer to veer off God’s path. Remember, I grew up in a family of alcoholics. Every Christmas my uncles would invite me behind the bar and try and teach me a new drink. I didn’t drink, but they sure did. And they wanted someone to mix it up for them. And they have funny names, and you put in all different stuff. And that’s how we grew up. Can you imagine if you’re ministering to former alcoholics and they see you drinking, they could veer off the path. So, Paul said, I’m going to limit my freedom.
Fifth, I don’t drink because God contrasts alcohol with the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5:18. And I want to be known as a man that seeks the influence of the Holy Spirit, not alcohol. I remember when I was on staff with John MacArthur, he lamented to us. He said… one of his dear friends was a highly selling Christian author who sold 20 million of his books about prophecy. But every time he called John to meet him, he was always at a bar. And this guy was characterized by struggling with drinking. And John said, I don’t want to go in and meet him at that bar because I want to be known as a man that seeks the influence of the Holy Spirit, not alcohol. Now this guy, that was at the bar, was used by God to lead many people to the Lord but one of his real struggles that came out later in his life was he really struggled to live without alcohol.
I don’t drink because God said elders have a higher standard than deacons. If you notice what it says, the elder is mÄ paroinos. That means not near wine. Do you know what it says about deacons? Don’t drink too much. It’s a clear distinction. Elders, not at all. Deacons don’t ever get near intoxication. And so, there’s a higher standard and that’s for me.
I don’t drink because, and here’s the last reason, our whole beer drinking bar hopping clubbing, society that portrays alcohol almost always with things that displease God. Do you know what the minor prophets, do you remember what Habakkuk says about alcohol? He says, don’t give alcohol to your friend, and they uncover themselves and show you their nakedness.
Do you know what? That’s a description of what’s going on in Florida this week and last week and next week, spring break. They’re all there with their tubes and they’re guzzling the drink and they’re getting drunk. And the police are constantly trying to keep them from lewd and indecent acts. It’s just like, on national television they’re living out what God says is the negative after effect of drinking too much. Why? Because Romans 12 says, our body belongs to the Lord, and we don’t want to do those things with our bodies. So, the simple biblical reasons why I don’t drink could translate into reasons that anybody shouldn’t drink, okay? that knows and loves the Lord.
God’s Word always condemns drunkenness. God’s Word teaches, drunkenness will disqualify a person from spiritual service. Wouldn’t you want to be the most effective, the most useful? That’s the desire of all of us. The greatest thing in all my life is loving You and knowing You and serving You and being useful. And sanctification is all about being useful to God. And I want Him to change anything in my life that would keep me from being useful to Him.
God’s Word teaches that drunkenness is not part of a citizen of Heaven’s life. I love 1 Peter 4:3. This is what Peter said. I love it. For you have spent enough time in your past doing what pagans choose to do, living in debauchery, lust, and drunkenness and orgies and carousing and detestable idolatry. Peter and Paul and God say that drunkenness isn’t a part of the life of someone that’s going to Heaven.
Finally, recreational drinking with lost people who drink to drunkenness does not please God. What is the opener of the psalm say? Blessed a man who walks not in the council of the ungodly nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. What did Paul say? 1 Corinthians 15:33. That bad company corrupts good manners or morals. So, this whole brew hopping, wine tasting, bar attending, social drinking thing vastly portrays everything that displeases God. So, we should not be a part of that.
Besides that, when, remember yesterday we talked about the curriculum. I just in passing talked about that grace energized living is an unintoxicated life. Do you notice what was on all those cards? These are the cards we pass out at the conferences. We make them little, they’re the size of a credit card and they fit in your wallet.
For men’s conferences, the Titus 2 older man is sober. Now remember, that’s metaphoric. It’s way beyond alcohol. They’re temperate. It’s metaphoric. They’re way beyond alcohol. The same for the younger men. They’re sober.
The same for the older women. They’re not given to too much wine. That’s not metaphoric, that’s direct. Period. You want to be useful; you want to be godly, you want to be an example? Do you want to tell people, be followers together of my life like I’m following God? I don’t care if you’re spying on me and have hidden cameras [that] are so prevalent in our society. You just watch me. You watch what I do and I will lead you toward God. That’s what our lives are supposed to be. So, God wants us living unintoxicated lives as holy pilgrims.
To close, 1 Peter. Oh, this is so good. 1 Peter chapter 1. Starting… Now, these should be, and what I would tell the kids… as I call the precious students at the Bible Institute, these should be underlined. I tell them that all the time. You should have these underlined. These are really important. Starting in verse 13. Therefore, git up the loins of your mind. Be sober. NĆ©phalios. Don’t be under the influence of anything but God. NÄphÅ speaks of being under influence and they were under all kinds of influence.
You ever heard of the Oracle of Delphi? Bonnie and I were teaching in Greece and the students, we took on a field trip to Delphi. Delphi is great. It’s up in the mountains, it’s beautiful. Do you know why Nero went there and Alexander the Great went there and all the Caesars went there? Do you know why they went there? Because the Delphian Oracle told them the future. Do you know how the Delphian Oracle knew the future? The Delphian Oracle would be put into a chair and suspended over a chasm, and the chasm had these vapors that came up from a volcanic rift. And they would become under the influence of this poisonous gas. You say poisonous? Yeah. What does in-toxic-ation mean? What’s the middle of the word in-toxic-ation. It’s the root of its poison and if you poison your brain, you get into an altered state, whether it be a chemical or alcohol or whatever. And they would get in this induced trance state and demons would speak through them.
And so, Peter says, don’t be like that, be sober. Verse 13, rest your hope fully on the grace to be brought to you as obedient children. Don’t conform yourselves to the former lust in your ignorance, but as He who called you as holy, you should be holy in all your conduct. And in verse 11 of chapter 2, beloved I beg you as aliens (the word is sojourners), and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust which war against your soul.
Temperate in alcohol, but intemperate in life is where America and many Western society Christians are. If we could see your heart and mind and habits as God sees them, would we conclude the only thing you’re addicted to is the Lord? Would we find there’s no idols you’re secretly hiding? That you sacrifice your time and money on them instead of God. An idol is a chosen, humanly made object or practice that we turn to instead of needing God. Isn’t that interesting? Typical American idols are:
The media. We listen to music more than we listen to God.
Money. We trust in our wealth and our job, and our savings and our security and all that stuff instead of God.
Our appearance. We’re more concerned about our clothes and looks. People won’t even come to the gathering of God’s people if they don’t have exactly the right outfit.
Our status. We sacrifice to have things and pleasures and experiences that aren’t pleasing God.
Our personal agenda. We sacrifice eternal time with God and His Church and His Word and ministry for the temporal.
Our schedules filled with sports and amusements and pleasures and even sinful activities that crowd out God.
We still live every day of life, but there’s a high calling to seek first the rule of God. And so, God says, I want you to have the unintoxicated life. Not only don’t drink alcohol, don’t miss out on the brighter path that says, God wants to fill us with His wisdom and He wants us to sense it and know it and follow it and not have anything clouding our mind. And so, that’s another one of the wonderful topics of the Book of Proverbs. Let’s bow for word of prayer.
Father in Heaven, I thank you for Your saints that have chosen to come and live in this place, committed to reaching youth with the Gospel of Christ. And they don’t just come here, they participate and they invest and they give and they serve and they adopt the kids and they’re a part of all this. Thank you for Your servants here. And I pray that all of us would seek to have a life characterized by the wisdom from above in every part of our life so that those young people that are around us and everyone else can follow us through life and be following You. And we influence people every day to follow You, oh Christ. In the precious name of Jesus we pray. And all God’s people said, amen.
