The Believer & the Bottle

This morning we deal with another subject many preachers avoid today. It is sad that the culture has affected so many pulpits. Many are afraid of preaching what the bible says because churches are filled with so much carnality.

Profanity

Fornicators

Drunkenness

I can almost hear them saying:

The Bible doesn’t say a person can’t drink.

Jesus drank wine.

I have noticed that those who defend drinking alcohol also never preach on drunkenness. They never mention it. The Bible is filled with condemnation of drunkenness.

1 Cor. 6:10- Drunks don’t go to heaven.

I make no apology for my position on alcohol. I believe in total abstinence. That’s my conviction.

I’m not saying it is a sin to have a glass of wine. The Bible doesn’t say it is. But the Bible doesn’t say you have to drink it. It gives you a lot of good reasons not to. I hold the position of preachers like:

Billy Graham

John Macarthur- He said he doesn’t and never has and that their church requires that all their elders practice total abstinence.

John Piper- “Total abstinence is the best way to treat alcohol today.”

Illust.- Let’s say we were on a safari in Africa. We were camping out in an area filled with wild animals. Our leader told us there were man eating lions all over the area and we should stay alert through the night.

How crazy would it be if someone broke out a bottle and said “Hey, let’s have a drink!” We would want to be sure none of our senses were dulled.

The Bible says that Satan is like a lion roaming about seeking someone to destroy. We should stay alert. We should be sober. Alcohol will make us less sensitive to sin.

1. The warning against alcohol opens with a riddle (29-30).

Six questions:

Who has woe?

Who has sorrow?

This world is full of suffering but the drunk creates his own. He invites sorrow and suffering.

Who has strife?

Who has complaining?

Alcohol leads to fighting with others. Bars have bouncers for a reason. When you get drunk you will argue. Complaints will be made to the drunk as well because he is causing so much trouble.

Who has wounds without cause?

Who has redness of eyes?

He can’t remember what happened to him. There was a reason I always kept a bottle of Visine when I was lost.

Let’s summarize this:

Alcohol leads to emotional problems- guilt and sorrow

Alcohol leads to relational problems- fussing and fighting

Alcohol leads to physiological problems- injuries, diseases.

This is the truth about alcohol you want see in our culture.

Illust: We were at Fireworks show for fourth of July. Waiting. Lots of people running around. Playing music. A song came on I didn’t know but I looked it up. It is called Tipsy:

Someone pour me up a double shot of whiskey

They know me and Jack Daniеl's got a history

There's a party downtown near 5th Street

Evеrybody at the bar gettin' tipsy

This is the sad part: All around us the kids were singing it. You could hear them singing loudly.

We don’t warn people about alcohol anymore. We celebrate it. Kids are singing about getting drunk long before they start getting drunk.

The answer to the riddle is in verse 30.

The world says alcohol means:

Fun

Joy

Unity

Compliments

Beauty

The Bible says alcohol leads to:

Sorrow

Strife

Ugliness

“tarry long over wine”

“Mixed wine” is wine that was mixed with spices or sometimes another wine.

God has given us a warning with alcohol. Strong alcohol can barely be drunk by itself unless you’ve been doing it a while. Shot glasses are small for a reason. Hard liquor must be mixed if you want to enjoy it. That is a warning. The body can’t take much of it.

2. Alcohol is deceptive (31-32).

“Do not look at wine” The text says not to even look at it!

It is attractive:

It is red (attractive)

It is sparkling- the movement in the cup. Don Ho used to sing “ Tiny bubbles in the wine, make me feel happy make me feel fine”

It goes down smoothly- Tennessee Whiskey illust (song)

It goes down smooth but doesn’t come up that way!

Producers of alcohol will tell you all kind of lies:

Head for the mountains- head for Busch beer

For all you do, this Bud’s for you.

Miller- The High Life

Our infatuation with alcohol should be a warning sign.

Oh, I just drink in moderation!

Why do you buy it by the case then?

Why do you buy it by the half gallon then?

Bars couldn’t stay open if people drank in moderation. The beer and liquor section at the stores would be a lot smaller if people drank in moderation.

I admit it, I fell prey to the allure of alcohol.

I liked those Budweiser beers. I drank so many of them I memorized the can. To this day I can quote those small words on a Budweiser can:

“This is the famous Budweiser beer. We know of no other beer produced by any other brewer which costs so much to brew and age. Our exclusive beechwood aging produces a taste, a smoothness and a drinkability you will find in no other beer at any price.”

Didn’t have a single Bible verse memorized but I knew that!

I was a fool! There was nothing more beautiful to me than an iced cold Budweiser. I knew the King of Beers, but I didn’t know the King of Kings!

Look at verse 32. “In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.”

Alcohol is like a poison injected into your blood stream.

It is destructive!

2022 -32% of all traffic casualties involved alcohol. 13, 524 people who died because someone was drinking. Casualties from car wrecks in the USA would have been 32% lower without alcohol.

37% of sexual assaults involve alcohol

40% of murders involve alcohol

40% of domestic violence includes alcohol

178,000 people die a year from excessive drinking.

Crime and death would drop considerably if people didn’t drink. That is a fact.

“but my doctor said it’s good for you!”

A Harvard study shows that any health benefit of alcohol has proven to be a correlation rather than a causation. In other words, there is no certainty alcohol is directly connected to the benefit. No doctor in his right mind would ever say you need to drink more alcohol.

One of the reasons moderation is difficult is alcohol is so deceptive.

You feel good when it starts kicking in.

You are more outgoing.

You are happier.

Intoxication doesn’t mean sloppy drunk. It means the alcohol is affecting you. Once you realize that, it’s normally too late to put it down.

Most people won’t admit they’re drunk. They don’t think they are!

3. The effects of alcohol are not virtuous (33-35).

Your eyes will see strange things- Some translations “strange women”. Illus.- Old Song- The girls all get prettier at closing time.

You don’t see danger correctly

You don’t see morality correctly.

You don’t see yourself correctly

Your heart will utter perverse things. Hard to find a drunk that doesn’t cuss. As well, drunks say perverted things.

You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea-You cannot walk properly. You stumble around like a person in a boat that is tossed by the waves.

You forget. Verse 35 is a pitiful sight. The person is bruised and beat up but didn’t feel a thing.

Look how it ends. When he wakes up, he must have another drink.

Illust. I remember many mornings my mother would wake up and start making Bloody Mary’s. It’s vodka and tomato juice. It’s supposed to help with the hangover.

Alcohol is so powerful it can beat us to death, and we’ll come back for more.

Warning- You may not know what you do when you get drunk but you are still accountable.

“I was drunk” doesn’t work with the law or the Lord.

I’m going to close by giving you some reasons I think complete abstinence from alcohol is the best choice for the Christian.

1) We are an example to a watching world.

Romans 14:21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.

This is especially true with our children. You don’t know if your child can handle alcohol. If your child becomes a drunk, kills someone in a car, etc you don’t want to be the first person that gave them a drink.

Maybe you can handle it but many people can’t. Listen close- the alcohol industry wants the moral church member as an advertisement. They can’t use the drunk. They want to put out the idea that drinking is a beautiful thing.

2. Abstinence from alcohol is celebrated in the Bible.

Here are some examples:

A. The priests were to practice abstinence from alcohol.

And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, “Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. (Lev. 10:8-9)

B. Nazarites were to abstain from alcohol.

Numbers 6:3

he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried.

Who could be a Nazarite? Anyone.

John the Baptist was a Nazarite and Jesus said he was the greatest born among women.

C. Kings were to abstain from alcohol.

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. (Proverbs 31:4-5)

D. The Rechabites abstained from alcohol.

They were a nomadic people who practiced abstinence. God used them to teach Israel a lesson. He told Jeremiah to go get some Rechabites and offer them wine. In Jeremiah 35 he brought them to the temple, filled pitchers with wine and put them in front of them. They wouldn’t drink. They said our father made a vow and we are keeping it. It had been about 200 years, and they were still keeping it.

God told Jeremiah to tell the people of Israel these people obeyed their ancestor and Israel won’t obey God even though he has persistently commanded them to.

While many say “the Bible doesn’t condemn all alcohol use” they seldom say “The Bible in many places celebrates total abstinence.

3. We have a solemn responsibility in this world to lead people to Jesus.

We should be different. “Why don’t you drink?”

We should be sober minded. (Reason priests and kings were to abstain).

Our goal is not to party it up in this world. We are the light of the world and the salt of the earth.

Illust. Frederick Charrington- son of and heir to one of London’s largest brewing companies in 1800’s. He got saved. Not long after he was saved he was walking down a street and saw a woman with two kids outside of a pub. She looked pitiful and was yelling to her husband to come out. She was asking for money for their children to eat. He said she shoved her to the ground. He tried to intervene and the man shoved him down too. When he looked up from the ground, hanging above the door to the pub were the words “Drink Charrington Beer”. The following are his words:

“When I saw that sign, I was stricken just as surely as Paul on the Damascus Road. Here was the source of my family wealth and it was producing untold human misery before my own eyes. Then and there I pledged to God that not another penny of that money should come to me.”

He turned down an inheritance that in today’s currency would be about 23 million $. He preached. He did lots to clean up London. Even built what was known as The Great Assembly Hall- A Christian place where 5,000 people could gather at a time to hear the gospel, eat, and fellowship with other Christians. It stood from 1886-1941 when the Germans destroyed it.

People are often moved by what they have seen alcohol do. I know it’s given me a zeal for evangelism.

We need to warn the world, as Scripture does about the dangers of alcohol.

If you are in its grip, God can rescue you. The gospel is for you. Don’t believe the world’s lie that you can’t be delivered. God will save you and deliver you if you come to Jesus.