Living Life Gods Way

Lesson 7:

Part 3

The Un-Intoxicated Life

Here’s how alcohol is described in the Bible. First, alcohol has positive effects. We already read that. Remember

 the person that read Proverbs 31. Paul told Timothy, drink a little wine for your stomach’s sake. But secondly,

 most of the scriptures are about the negative effects of alcohol. And basically, God says, anyone who surrenders

 to alcohol or other mind altering substances, like drugs and chemicals – we find that in Revelation, is part of

 those who have become dominated by sin and not Christ, are slaves to sin and not Christ. And, thus are eternally

 damned. Did you know that?

Let’s look at Galatians 5:19.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

The same could be said in many other passages. Especially, when you get to

Revelation 21, when God describes those who are forever in the Lake of Fire. But I’ll just read what Paul said to

the Galatians. In chapter 5, verse 19, he said the works of the flesh are evident. Adultery, those who can’t keep

within the bounds of marriage, and they’re chasing other married people. Or fornication, those who are involved in

porneia. Wow. Porneia is the Greek word for what we call pornography. Do you know what porneia is? Feminine. That’s

 a feminine word. Do you know what a porneia was in Greek? A woman who on the stage wore clothing to appeal to the

 men or wore not [no] clothing. I guess that would be more appealing to the men. And so, pretty soon pornography

 became, causing desire by exposing the body. And those that are involved in that, both men and women, are right

 there.

Those who are, verse 19, fornication. And then uncleanness. Those who have kind of off color humor, lewdness. Those

who do horrible things, idolatry, sorcery, that’s witchcraft, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath,

selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders.

Look at Galatians 5:21

Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also

told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Drunkenness is on the list of people that never repent and never allow Christ to set them free. Look what it says.

Those, verse 21, at the end, who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Whoa.

So, now let’s reconcile this. What does God say about Christians, about alcohol, about addictions? What did

Matthew Perry die of? He was addicted. He wore down his body. He was in the hot tub. He got overcome, but he

was addicted. They said his addictions are what drove him to his untimely death. Did you know there are Christians

that are addicted? Addicted to all kinds of stuff. Addicted to painkillers. Addicted to pot. Addicted to alcohol.

Addicted to pornography.

What about gray areas? Things the Bible doesn’t talk about? What is sin? What is God’s goal for us in sanctification?

 What about our Christian liberty? And what about legalism? There’s a whole conflict in Christendom that people say,

 once you get saved, you can live like the devil the rest of your life, and God has to take you into Heaven. That’s

 actually a philosophy in America. So, how do we reconcile all that?

Well, the Bible, Romans 14 talks about the gray areas, Christian liberty. Proverbs explains about addictions. And

Ephesians 5:18 says, be not drunk with wine. Period. But be filled with the Spirit.

I don’t drink because God commanded that any priest who came before Him in the tabernacle or temple was

not to drink. You ought to read Leviticus 10. You know what’s interesting? What is one of the attributes of the

character of God? It’s called immutability. What does immutability mean? God doesn’t, what? Change! If God said

that a holy priest who came holding in his hand the sacrifices for the altar was not to drink at any time when

 he’s inside the offering time in the temple, do you think that God changed His mind about that? So, I started

 thinking about the fact that I represent My church and I was writing the blog for them. Talked about

 body of Christ, the bread, and the blood of Christ, the cup. I’m also the temple of the Holy Spirit. So, that’s

 the reason I don’t drink.

Second, I don’t drink because God, who said in Proverbs 31, the verse that was just read, that kings are not

 to drink. So, leaders were not to drink and look what it says in

 1 Timothy 3:3.

 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

 It says, 1 Timothy, chapter 3 verse 3. It says, a bishop then, that’s an episkope which is an elder,

 must be blameless. The husband of but one wife, temperate, sober minded, good behavior, hospitable,

 able to teach, not given to wine. Here, let me write that out for you in Greek, okay? You want to see a

 little Greek? It’s me paroinos. That’s not Greek, that’s the English letters, just so you can see it.

 Me, not, par, by, oinos, wine. Now, that’s interesting. This is an elder. Elders were never supposed to

 stand by the wine bowl. There was a bowl filled with wine, this 4% stuff I told you about and people would

 just keep coming, kind of like at a reception, they’d get their cup refilled. It says,

 later on, that deacons could come to the wine thing, but not very much. You know, it says, don’t be given. Deacons

 are not supposed to be given to wine. In other words, they don’t love to drink. They drink, like Timothy, some for

 their stomach’s sake. But because Timothy was an elder, he wouldn’t take any. So basically, I don’t drink because

 God said, elders are me paroinos. They never partake. That’s interesting.

I don’t drink because God led Paul to say he would limit his freedom. Now, look at

Romans 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.

I love this. This is Paul. Remember I said Romans 14 talks about gray areas and questionable things.

Paul said, I’ll start in verse 20. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things are indeed pure,

 but it is evil for a man who eats with offense. It is good to neither eat meat or drink wine or do anything by

 which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak. What Paul said is, I will limit my freedom. So,

 Paul said, I know that if I go by the bowl and get a little wine it’ll help me not have E. coli in my water that

 I’m drinking. I have the freedom to do that because I told Timothy he could do it. But he said, I will never eat

 meat or drink alcohol if it causes any believer to veer off God’s path. So, I decided that I wouldn’t drink so

 I wouldn’t encourage others to think it was okay.

I don’t drink because God contrasts alcohol with the Spirit in

Ephesians 5:18.

 And be not drunk with wine, wherein* is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

 And I want to be known as a man that seeks the influence of the Holy Spirit, not of alcohol.

I don’t drink because God says elders have a higher standard. Remember, me paroinos, right there.

And finally, I don’t drink because our whole beer drinking, bar hopping, clubbing society portrays alcohol almost

always with things that displease God. It says this in the book, in the Minor Prophets, in Habakkuk, Do you know

what it says? It says, woe to those who give drink to a woman so that they can lie with her. Did you know that

there’s this knowledge that if you take someone and they drink enough, they lose their what? Inhibitions. And so,

 we live in a culture of beer drinking, bar hopping, clubbing society that almost always are associating their

 drinking with things that God does not approve of.

So, there are four simple biblical reasons why I don’t drink. Number one, God’s word always condemns drunkenness.

Number two, God’s Word teaches drunkenness disqualifies someone from spiritual service. Both Titus and Timothy say

 that any elder or deacon that becomes characterized by loving intoxication, – did you know there are many things

 that can intoxicate us, not just alcohol? And we are now in a society… Colorado is one of first who make pot legal.

 Now almost every state in America is a marijuana state. But in the early days, people came to our state because it

 was okay to smoke marijuana. Is it okay to put any substance into my body that causes my mind to not be under my

 control anymore. No. How do I know that? Because Revelation 9:21 says that people in the Tribulation will not

 repent of their pharmakeia their addiction to drugs. That’s the Greek word pharmakeia. Kind of like pharmacy or

 a drugstore. Drug addiction at the end of the world in the Tribulation, there’s going to be this global drunkenness,

 drug usage, demonism, and fornication. By the way, those are the sins of the final generation. They’re totally

 addicted to stealing, drinking, demons, drugs, and all kinds of physical violence. That’s kind of like back in

 the flood time. So, God’s Word teaches drunkenness disqualifies a person.

Number three, God’s Word teaches drunkenness is not a part of a citizen of God’s life. Look at

1 Corinthians 5.

1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.

2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,

4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

 And this one really got me because I love how Paul describes things in Corinth. He says in verse 9, I wrote you

 in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet certainly I did not mean the sexually immoral

 people this world or with the covetous or extortioners or idolaters, since you would need to go out of the world.

 He said the whole, all of Corinth is filled with all those kind of people. But I’ve written to you not to keep

 company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral, who is covetous, who is an idolater, who is a reviler,

 or a drunkard or an extortioner. Don’t even eat a meal with them. For what have you to do with judging? Put away

 from yourselves these evil persons? So, what Paul said is, those, any Christian who behaves in this way, drunkenness

 or immorality or anything else, is acting like a lost person. Don’t tolerate Christians who act that way. He said,

 by the way, if the church did that, it would be transformational. The church is not supposed to even allow someone

 who claims to be a Christian, who does any of those things, who is covetous, extortioner, immoral, idolater,

 reviler, drunken, whatever. That’s called church discipline.

Okay. Number four, recreational drinking with lost people, who drink to drunkenness, does not please God in our

lives. And it’s part of the world that’s passing away. Here’s the simple way that God describes what He’s interested

in us wisely being. It’s the very first Psalm, and it says, Blessed is the man… Let me get to

Psalm 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.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

 Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the

 scornful. Don’t walk, stand, or sit with those that live ungodly lifestyles. It’s okay to befriend and share

 the Gospel, but we don’t comfortably live life like them. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in

 His law he meditates day and night.

 I have a large amount of friends and family on this group on The Church blog, Facebook and other Medias I use to teach with.

 Whenever one of them, their mother got sick, got cancer, their brother got in a car accident, or something horrible

 happened to them, they would come to me and they’d say, you’re religious, right? Could you pray for me?

 Does the Bible say anything? See, if we, if we live a life of walking with the Lord, we can’t walk comfortably

 like they do, and they’ll make fun of us. The Christian. You see Christ wants us Christians to walk with him.

 But, it’s only possible by the grace of God that brings salvation.

This is what Titus 2:11 says.

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

For the grace of God that brings salvation, teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and to live soberly,

 righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for the glorious hope, the return of Christ.

God wants us going through life energized by grace. Living this balanced life, being sober minded, living as

 Pilgrims. 1 Peter 2:11 says,

  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

 As pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust. And that is the un intoxicated life.

 Thank you.