SERMON NOTES:
Isaiah 5:20-22: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink.”
My dad always said: “when you see that word “woe” in the Bible, you know God is not happy with who or what he is talking about. In this case: He is talking about alcohol consummation.
What claims 50 times more lives than all the illegal drugs combined?
What costs the American people $185 billion every year to mop up its effects?
What damages 1 in every 4 families in America?
What kills over 200,000 Americans each year?
Alcohol!
No wonder the Bible says in Proverbs 20:1: Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
The consumption of alcohol – not just drunkenness is condemned in the Bible. The Bible clearly warns against the drinking of it. There are a number of passages from Scripture that condemn the consumption of alcohol.
That says it all!
Many of you have heard me teach on the importance of the law of first mention in Scripture when trying to get to the bottom of a subject. That gives you a foundation for understanding any subject. Notably, the first time alcohol is mentioned in the Bible it is in regard to sin. Noah drank fermented wine and it caused him great shame.
Scripture is always admonishing us to avoid alcohol and drunkenness.
Proverbs 31:4-6: “it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.”
Isaiah 28:7-8: “the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.”
Having been a police officer for 15 yrs I have seen a small glimpse of the destruction it causes humans, families and society. It is no wonder police officers call it the demon drink. A lot of the evil we dealt with on duty was the result of alcohol intake.
Why do people drink alcohol?
The overriding reason why people take alcohol is to change the way they feel.
Professors Emmanuel Kuntsche and Sarah Callinan at the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University Melbourne, Australia: “Generally people drink to either increase positive emotions or decrease negative ones.”
Many people turn to alcohol to get a buzz when they are socializing, but it might surprise you to know, experts have found that the largest group of people that drink do so as a coping mechanism to forget their worries.
When human beings go through tough times and rough experiences, and they do not have Jesus, they often turn to alcohol. They look to it for comfort when dealing with the problems of life. They use it as an escape from their reality.
Many turn to alcohol for self-medication. They take it to deal with disappointments, depression, sadness and sorrow. It is a coping mechanism.
Many are trying to drink away their problems! I want to say at this early juncture, if you are trying to drink your problems away, it’s worth remembering, those problems will still be there in the morning.
I am here tonight to tell you that alcohol is a crutch that fools lean upon. Jesus is a crutch that Christians lean upon. Alcohol is an unreliable alternative to the healing, peace and purpose that our Savior gives in salvation. If He us not enough, people will try for something else. Alcohol is a carnal substitute for many Americans. It keeps them away from the Lord, it doesn’t draw them to Him.
Research suggests that people who give up drinking feel about 20% more productive at work – and eat less than people who drink. A June 2015 study in the journal Obesity found that people under the influence of alcohol ate 30% more than those without.
Former professional footballer, and founder of One Year No Beer – a challenge to stay ‘dry’ for an entire year, Andy Ramage says that “giving up drinking changes your life far more than you would imagine.”
Ramage says, “I lost three stone in weight – and my body fat dropped from 30% to 10% … Once you give up, you can stick to a healthy diet – you’re not throwing in that hungover pizza once a week. I’m now 12st – that’s a weight I could have never achieved when I was stuffing myself with pints of Stella.”
He continues: “I definitely suffered with terrible anxiety after drinking. It’s terrible for people’s mental health, falling in the hole, the longer it took me to climb out. When I was drinking, it felt like there was always a cloud hanging around me. I’ve never experienced that since.”
I shared all this, to say this, despite these well-established facts in society today, we live in a day were many so-called believers can happily go into bars, sip on alcohol, sit in that carnal atmosphere, enjoy the music and enjoy the fellowship and no one is offended. Neither the supposed Christian nor those that are around him are in the least troubled. There is something wrong!
Pro 23:20 Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
Pro 23:21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty:
If you fit in with the direction this world is going (and it is going down fast), if you fit in with the carnal crowd, there is something wrong with your Christian experience.
Influence
People justify alcohol with statements like “there is no harm in one drink” or “one drink will not take you to hell!’
It might not, but it might. One thing it could do is start a human down a road that could end up in hell. After all, the walk of a thousand miles starts with the 1st step.
When people say ‘it is ok to take 1 drink’ and ‘it is ok to sit in a bar’ they are basically saying: “alcohol is good and the bar scene is an acceptable place for believers to fellowship.”
Psa 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Psa 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
At the age of 16 I would argue against alcohol when there was a function at school. I would tell them I was a Christian. The rest of the kids kept unto to me saying “there is no harm in one drink” or “one drink will not take you to hell!’
I finally put the bottle to my mouth and took a big mouthful to the joy of all my friends. I was now one of the boys. I was now accepted.
That one drink led me to 10 years of drunkenness and all the others sins that emanate from drunkenness.
They say at AA: “Alcohol is cunning, baffling and powerful.” They also argue: “One is too many and a 1000 never enough.”
• Every alcoholic you meet started off with someone giving them their 1st drink.
• Every alcoholic in hell tonight started off with someone giving them their 1st drink.
It is a medical fact that one drink can start to affect the mind and behavior of a person – all depending on their mood, if they are well or sick, whether they are on medication or not, the amount of rest or lack thereof or the amount of food they have consumed during the day. Basic human functions, such as walking and talking become impaired.
In an extensive recent study, UK and Chinese researchers followed 500,000 Chinese people for 10 years examining the effects of moderate drinking. They found, even light-to-moderate drinking increases blood pressure and the chances of having a stroke, countering previous claims that one or two drinks a day could be protective.
Medical experts have known for years that heavy drinking is harmful to health and increases stroke risk. But recent detailed studies have shown there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.
The researchers, from the University of Oxford, Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, found that:
• One to two drinks a day increased stroke risk by 10-15%.
• Four drinks a day increased the risk of having a stroke by 35%.
For the purposes of their study, one drink was defined as either:
a small glass of wine, a bottle of beer, a single measure of spirits.
Study author, Prof Richard Peto, from the University of Oxford, stated: “Claims that wine and beer have magical protective effects is not borne out.”
Prof David Spiegelhalter, at the University of Cambridge, “I have always been reasonably convinced that moderate alcohol consumption was protective for cardiovascular disease, but now I am having my doubts.”
Despite the impotent arguments of alcohol supporters, according to recent research, about 50% of all the alcohol consumed by adults, and about 90% of all the alcohol consumed by young people is consumed during a binge drinking session.
Binge drinking is considered by the medical profession to be 4 drinks for a woman and 5 for a man.
Understanding the harm that alcohol does, understanding how it opens someone up to the life of destruction, why would any Christian even want to defend it in anyway?
Rom 14:13 that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
Rom 14:21 It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
1Co 10:23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
That should be the end of the discussion.
But, sadly, today, it is not.
Moderation
Nations are bringing their DUI laws down to one drink because they recognize after that a person is impaired in their response time and judgment.
Even low to moderate alcohol consumption significantly increases the risk of cancer and can shorten life-expectancy generally according to medical experts.
In ‘a million women’ study conducted in the UK, research revealed women in developed countries have an incidence of 118 cancers diagnosed per 1000 women up to the age of 75 years. Consuming one drink per day increased this to an extra 15 cancers per 1000 women, and two drinks a day increased it to an extra 30 cancers per 1000 women, they report.
Drs Michael Lauer and Paul Sorlie (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda) said: “From a standpoint of cancer risk, the message of this report could not be clearer. There is no level of alcohol consumption that can be considered safe.”
In the third and fourth “Special Reports to the United States Congress on Alcohol and Health, “Congress was presented with chilling statistics regarding alcohol consumption and its destructive effects upon our country. The report states that with every drink, one shortens his life 20 minutes.”
The findings were published recently in the British Medical Journal concluding that there are no guaranteed safe level of drinking.
Dr. Cary Nelson, who is one of the leading pioneers in stomach research in recent years, and its effect upon our general health, including our immune system, tells us that “alcohol kills off friendly bacteria in your digestive tract.”
Dr Jurgen Rehm at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, said people with a family history of cancer “should consider reducing their intake to below recommended limits or even abstaining altogether, given the now well-established link between moderate drinking and alcohol-related cancers”.
Bro/Sis, you are talking about known harmful effects of alcohol on the body. What does the Bible say?
1 Corinthians 3:16-17
16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
So why would a Christian (whose body is the temple of the Holy Ghost) want to harm it?
2 drinks?
Once you get to 2 drinks even our ungodly society deems you unsafe to drive a car – 2 drinks. They consider you drunk!!! It is called DUI or Driving under the influence or drunk driving.
And then you hear some Christians say “it is alright to take 1 or 2 drinks.”
Before I go any further, I should say: I have learnt when it comes to right and wrong God’s laws are always more stringent than man’s.
Php 4:5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
The word “temperance” here means self-control. It comes from the Greek word enkrateia, which means “possessing power, strong, having mastery or possession of, continent, self-controlled” (Kenneth S. Wuest, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament).
Is drunken company known for their “moderation” or “self-control”? No!
The opposite to self-control is self-indulgence. We find that word in 2 Tim 3:1:
2Ti 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2Ti 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
2Ti 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
This word “incontinent” means excess or without self-control.
Jesus rebukes the Pharisees in Matthew 23:
Mat 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
1 Corinthians 7:5 speaks about physical intimacy in marriage:
Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
Do you remember the story of the demoniac that was set free in Mark 5?
Mar 5:14 And they went out to see what it was that was done.
Mar 5:15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.
This guy got the whole package. He got full salvation. He was totally healed. He was immediately and wholly set free.
Interestingly, the Greek word here interpreted “right mind” (sōphroneō) means: “a sound mind.” It means to be sober. This is what Jesus does.
This man was in the right place with God. He had a clear mind. That is the way you and me should be when we are in the right place with God
The demoniac did not need alcohol to change the way he felt. Jesus did that perfectly. He did not need to increase his positive emotions or decrease his negative emotions with alcohol. That is what Jesus did. He was enough!
So, one of the elementary objections I have to alcohol is that it alters the state of your mind, something a Christian should not want or experience.
That is why I preach against alcohol and its destructive effects. People make wrong choices when they are under the influence of alcohol.
• Many are dead today because of the demon drink.
• Many are divorced today because of alcohol.
• Many are addicted today because of alcohol.
• (worst of all) Many are in hell tonight because of alcohol.
As long as I live, and as long as I am a pastor I will fight it. As long as I have influence we will never condone alcohol from this pulpit.
The liberal supping saints who go down this road are driven by their own carnal flesh, and most don’t seem to care about the terrible example it is for others, the confusion it brings to the body or the potential door it opens to untold resulting sins. Frankly, they are playing with fire.
1Th 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
1Th 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Jesus healed the demoniac spiritually, emotionally and physically. But, Jesus healed the mind of this demon-possessed man just as He wants to heal each of our minds this evening. A sign that He has succeeded with you is that your mind is clear and at peace. It is sound! You are not troubled. You are not tormented.
Does alcohol alter the state of your mind?
Yes!
Should a Christian’s mind be altered like that?
No!
What is the antithesis of or the opposite to being drunk?
Being sober!
Paul admonishes believers in 1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 to have a sober mind:
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober
The word for “sober” in the original Greek is nepho; meaning to abstain from wine (keep sober).
We find that same word in 1 Peter 5:9: “Be sober (or nepho; or abstain from wine), be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
You should not want to put anything in your body that going to diminish your understanding or your vigilance. The reason being: “because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
1Pe 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
This is wise counsel tonight. Would you agree? Rather than wanting to be drinking in a bar, you should desire rather to be in the house of prayer.
Tit 2:6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.
Tit 2:7 In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,
Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Charles Spurgeon: “We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right [then] … our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word.”
What type of example are you to others?
Do you want to pitch your tent where society does or do you want to flee the influence of this world?
What type of legacy would you like to leave?