Let’s Have a Drink?

By Mark McCrary

  1. A billion dollar industry.
    1. A huge temptation for young people, but one that older ones wrestle with as well.
  2. What is to be the Christian’s attitude toward it?                                  

Biblical Perspective

  1. The drinking of wine was a common practice from the pages of the OT to those of the NT as a social practice
    1. Melchizedek, king of Salem, offered it to Abram after he rescued Lot and many of the inhabitants of the region of Sodom.
    2. In the NT, the story of Jesus at the wedding feast, and the presence of wine at the Lord’s Supper
    3. All of these show the common social place of wine

  2. Drunkenness is unquestionably condemned
    1. Prov. 20:1; 23:20-21; 31-35; Rom. 13:13; 1 Cor. 6:10; Gal. 5:21; 1 Peter 4:3-4
  3. It was also used in Scripture for medicinal purposes
    1. Prov. 31:6
    2. Luke 10:34
    3. 1 Tim. 5:23

  4. The Dangers of Alcohol
    (Note:  These are dangers attributed to drunkenness and to wine itself)
    1. It mocks us, Prov. 20:1
    2. It leads to poverty, Prov. 23:20-21
    3. It brings on woes, sorrows, contentions, babblings, and wounds w/o cause, Prov. 23:31-35
    4. It impairs judgment, Prov. 31:4-5; Gen. 19:33-35
    5. It inflames passions, Isa.  5:11
    6. It enslaves, Hosea 4:11
    7. It leads to Violence, Prov. 4:17

  1. Wine is viewed in Scripture as both moral and immoral
    1. Moral (something good, or at least indifferent)
      1. The wedding feast
      2. Paul to Timothy
    2. Immoral
      1. Prov. 23:31—note, the evil is not attributed in this text to the person, but to the substance
    3. This leads us to the conclusion then that in the Bible, there is represented one type of wine that is good, and another type that is bad
    4. This distinction is born out in historical research…

Historical Perspective

  1. Two types of wine:
    1. Fermented
      1. While they did not have distilling processes that produced wines with high alcoholic contents we see today,
      2. Fermentation is possible in areas where temperatures consistently between 50 and 75, sugar, yeast and water were in the exact proportions
      3. Even when fermented, the maximum alcohol from fermentation was @ 14%
        1. Palestinian wines, because of the hot and humid weather, rarely reached more than 8%
        2. Even then, for common occasions, it was mixed with water
        3. This is what the Bible calls “strong drink!”
      4. Very different from the wines of today
        1. Distilled, 45% up; wines, 20%, Beer, 4-6% (more comparable to the strong drinks of the Bible).
    2. Unfermented
      1. Smith’s Bible Dictionary, “Wine was sometimes preserved in its unfermented state and drank (freshly pressed wine before fermentation)”
      2. Barnes Commentary, John 2:10, “The wine of Judea was the pure juice of the grape, without any mixture of alcohol, and commonly weak and harmless.   It was the common drink of the people, and did not tend to produce intoxication.”
      3. These wines were kept from fermentation in several ways:
        1. They were placed in airtight containers
        2. They were boiled down to a thick syrup (demanding higher ratios of water when drank)

  2. So, from a historical perspective, we must understand going into this study that there were two types of wine in Bible times, and even those in their strongest state, which is condemned in Scripture, barely compare with the alcoholic beverages we have today.
    1. Must keep this in mind as we deal with this issue in our lives today

We Drink Today?

  1. We cannot say that because the drinking of wines in the Bible was permissible we have permission to do the same today.
    1. Not all wines were alcoholic
    2. Even those that were alcoholic were nothing compared to the ones we have today
    3. Like comparing apples and oranges

  2. The ultimate fruit of alcohol, drunkenness, is condemned without question by all, even those who advocate drinking in moderation
    1. But, one will never get drunk if they never drink at all will they.
    2. b.   We are told by researchers today that all it takes for some to become alcoholics is one drink.
    3. c.   Two primary views today by Christians regarding drinking:

  3. Drinking today as a liberty--
    1. “Nothing is wrong with drinking in moderation.   Self-control is the issue.”
      1. Gluttony is condemned as well.  It is a lack of control in eating, yet eating is alright; While drunkenness is condemned, it is a lack of control in drinking that is wrong, not the drinking itself.
      2. We must all eat to live; we don’t have to drink alcoholic beverages
    2. “What about Jesus and the wedding feast at Cana?”
      1. When you look at the way the Bible condemns strong drink, the idea that Christ provided a wine that would mock me and destroy them is unacceptable.
    3. “What about Paul’s admonition to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:23?”
      1. Medicinal purposes.  Still used today and would have little objections if ordered by doctor (if no other alternative.)
      2. Interesting to realize that Paul told Timothy only to take a little and that he only did this at the urging of his mentor!
    4. “Jesus was called a ‘winebibber,’ Mt. 11:19.”
      1. I would take anything the Pharisees said about Jesus with a grain of salt!
      2. Also called a glutton—is that our permission for gluttony?
      3. We are not told that He was, just that was what they called Him.
    5. “The Bible doesn’t say we can’t do it.”
      1. “But, is it wrong if we do it?
        1. It always comes down to this.  Why would we even ask that?
        2. When we know that our wines in question are more than likely stronger than the wines in Bible times that were condemned over and over again.
        3. Submit that God does not have to tell us “Do not do this” on everything that is bad for us. Would be a thicker book!
          1. Instead, given basic principles of conduct, with some specifics to illustrate the principles
        4. The warnings given ought to tell us we should avoid it.
  4. Drinking today as a sin—admittedly, not based on a verse that says it is a sin to drink, but based on a whole lot of biblical principles that I believe are relevant to the topic:
    1. We are not to allow anything to control us, 1 Cor. 6:12
      1. Remember Hos. 4:11
      2. When we begin to lose our control over self, and God’s control, Satan will step in a take advantage.
    2. Phil. 4:8
      1. Where does alcohol fit into any of these categories?
    3. Social drinking is condemned in 1 Pet. 4:3-4
      1. Peter speaks here about the things associated with the heathen culture, of which Christians no longer associate.
      2. Drunkenness is mentioned, but also something else:  Drinking parties—separate from drunkenness.
        1. What is condemned here?  Not a party where people are drunk, but one where they are heading that way—drinking.
      3. But, the Christians’ response is to no longer run with them in these acts of “dissipation,” or wickedness.
        1. They begin to speak evil of you.  Talk about you.   What is that referring to?
    4. Your influence!
      1. It is your influence that Peter is addressing in 1 Peter 4.
      2. Others can look at you and know you don’t drink.
      3. None of us live in a vacuum.  Our lives, and our actions, influence others
        1. Matt. 5:13-16; Phil. 2:15
        2. When you take a drink before others, are you telling them that you are different?
        3. Even in private, what of your children?  Perhaps you can handle it; can they?
        4. Did you buy the liquor from a store?  What about your influence with him or her?  How different are you in His eyes that the drunk and wino?
  5. “You’re just like the Pharisees and laying down laws.”
    1. If you can say that after reading of the dangers of alcohol, the positive influence we are to exert, the fact that we are to be brought under the influence of nothing, then little more I can say.
    2. Hope you will at least admit it to be a practice that is dangerous and risky for a child of God to be involved in.
    3. I’m convinced it is a sin.

Conclusion

  1. READ Prov. 20:1

  2. We have seen:
    1. What the Bible says about wine—its been around for a long time, but the Bible speaks of its dangers
    2. What history says about wine—in the Bible there were both fermented, the dangerous kind, and unfermented, the kind socially accepted most situations.
    3. While there are some who argue it to be a liberty for Christians to drink in moderation, there is so much smoke coming from that house we ought to avoid it.

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