Questions (Sex and Alcohol)

1. Why is having sex before marriage wrong?

When looking at this question we are first going to look at the entire purpose for sex.

When God created everything, He created it for a purpose and also he created it to be good both morally and physically.

The purpose in which God created everything brings about the issue though. God created everything for a purpose but the purpose was not for Adam and Eve to disobey God. The moment they ate the tree they caused sin and chaos to invade the earth.

Their one flaw is that they did not adhere to the purpose that God gave for the tree.

This same instance comes about with this question.

Let’s first look at Genesis and the entire purpose for sex:

Genesis 1:26-28

Genesis 1:26–28 NLT

26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” 27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

God created Adam and Eve in order for them to be fruitful and multiply and they are also supposed to govern the earth!

The purpose behind sex is for multiplication within the family structure. But so often we look at sex as just being about pleasure.

When God created anything He created to be good and beneficial within certain parameters.

Sex is created by God to be within the confines of marriage.

Let’s look at the seriousness that God places on sex inside of marriage.

Ephesians 5:22-33

Ephesians 5:22–33 NLT

22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. 25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body. 31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Marriage is considered an example of the church and Christ. Marriage is intended to be a perfect sacred union between one man and one woman until death.

This is supposed to be a freeing place to enjoy what God intends as a good thing.

Since this is God’s intended purpose for sex and marriage then anything that is opposed to this concept is in rebellion against God.

Hebrews 13:4

Hebrews 13:4 NLT

4 Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.

God honors marriage and commands all of us to as well. When sex is had outside of the context of marriage then you are abusing the command in which God laid out for us.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

1 Thessalonians 4:3–5 NLT

3 God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. 4 Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor—5 not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways.

God’s command is to totally abstain from sexual sin. This sexual sin is any sexual act that is not with in the confines of marriage and this even encompasses lust after someone. As christians we are called to be different than the world and that includes how we respond and act when dealing with our own sexual desires and actions.

God’s ultimate command for sex is the be had within marriage between one man and one woman. In order to fulfill the initial command he gave to fill the earth.

But the other question comes to mind what happens if you have had sex outside the confines God has placed? Are you useless to God? No!

Let’s briefly look at this redemption story in

John 8:1-11

John 8:1–11 NLT

1 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. 4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. 9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” 11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

God forgave her but told her not to continue in that sinful life style.

To conclude this question:

Marriage is between one man and one woman in order to multiply and fill the earth through sex.

When we do not adhere to the purpose of sex we then add chaos within our lives!

Sex outside of marriage adds unneeded stress in to a marriage because there is now baggage that is brought in to it.

Marriage is difficult on its own without extra issues added to it.

This added stress causes tension and some resentment towards the spouse.

I would say one of your goals in life is to have a happy, healthy, and successful marriage where you are both committed solely to each other and love each other well.

If that is the goal why would you trade momentary pleasure for your ultimate goal.

The main issue with sex outside of marriage is this:

Don’t trade what you want most for what you want now!

2. Why don’t Baptist drink alcohol?

The first question is alcohol a sin? No it is not.

Is it also wrong to act as if all the references in the Bible about wine ultimately mean grape juice?

YES!

There are multiple places within scripture where wine is consumed.

BUT

The time period then was drastically different then and they did not have clean drinking water.

But let’s look at Jesus’s first miracle and the the verses that are most commonly brought in about alcohol and then we will discuss the proper stance on the issue.

John 2:6-10

John 2:6–10 NLT

6 Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, 8 he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions. 9 When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. 10 “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!”

Jesus turned water into wine not grape juice.

If wine was a sin why would Jesus turn the water in something that was sinful?

He wouldn’t Wine in itself is not a sin. Let’s also look at an instance in which Jesus consumed wine.

Matthew 26:29

Matthew 26:29 NLT

29 Mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”

Jesus was perfect in all that he did and drank wine with his disciples.

Paul encouraged Timothy to drink a little wine in order to help with stomach issues he was having due to unclean water.

1 Timothy 5:23

1 Timothy 5:23 NLT

23 Don’t drink only water. You ought to drink a little wine for the sake of your stomach because you are sick so often.

Alcohol as a drink is not sinful but the over consumption of alcohol is sinful.

This is the reason in which Christians abstain from alcohol.

We as Christians are called to live a life in which we are not controlled by anything else except the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18-19

Ephesians 5:18–19 NLT

18 Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, 19 singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.

What is the purpose of drinking alcohol typically? To get drunk especially in high school and college.

The sin behind alcohol is the drunkenness that occurs from it.

The problem with this though is that no one knows their limit unless they reach that limit.

For this reason a best practice is to abstain from it so that drunkenness is not an issue.

And you should all abstain from it due to it being completely against the law!!!!!!

But since alcohol is not sinful what are other reasons to abstain from it:

1 Corinthians 8:9-13

1 Corinthians 8:9–13 NLT

9 But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. 10 For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? 11 So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. 12 And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. 13 So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.

What is the main intent of drinking alcohol and is it beneficial for the building up of the kingdom of God?

Or are you becoming and issue in which you are driving people further away from Christ by your actions?

Our purpose is to point people to Christ in everything that we do!

If what we are is turning people away from him than we are becoming what we talked about last week. Where Peter was called Satan by Jesus because he was acting in complete opposition to God.

In concluding this question:

You are not allowed to have alcohol because it is completely against the law!

Even though it is not sinful it is by its nature dangerous like skydiving.

It is best practice to stay away from it because you do not know what amount will cause you to be drunk.

You also do not know if it will become an addiction to you.

Our goal in life is to live a life that is drawing people to Christ and the public image of you having a drink could deter someone from coming to Christ or cause a person to stumble in their faith.

Remember don’t trade what you want most with what you want now!