[0:00] Take your Bibles, if you would, and open them to the book of Genesis, chapter 9. Genesis, chapter 9. This will be our last message in this series on drinking alcohol.
[0:16] This is the third one. I did six in Peru, but I did that in Peru because it was a massive problem that we dealt with on a constant basis until I'd been there a long time to help them learn what the Bible said about it.
[0:32] Now I live in the United States of America, and preachers give you a good report on alcohol and are encouraging their people to drink.
[0:43] In fact, there's some pastors' fellowships currently, not Independent Baptist Fellowships, but they go out and get a beer at the end of it, all the preachers together.
[0:55] Go out and get a drink. And all the time I'm reminded by young people, well, the Bible doesn't say we can't drink. It doesn't say we can't drink. It says don't get drunk, so it must be okay to drink.
[1:06] Just can't get drunk. So I'd just like to walk you through the Bible just a little bit. I want to start in Genesis, chapter 9. Now, you know, the Bible's not written in order.
[1:18] I'm sure you know that. It's not written in chronological order. It is the way the Holy Spirit has preserved it to us. And so I accept the Bible just like I have it.
[1:29] People a lot of times ask me stuff about, you know, well, why is it in this order? I say I really don't care. It's just the Word of God. I'm preaching. That's it. I don't need to know all the ins and outs. I just know it's the Word of God.
[1:39] And, you know, the kings and chronicles, all those prophets, they kind of get intermingled all through the kings and the prophets. So like Isaiah, he's alive in the king's time.
[1:53] He's not after the kings. He's in the kings, but his book is separate. But if you read the Bible from cover to cover, which I strongly encourage everybody to do, you know, you can't say you believe the Bible unless you read it all the time.
[2:05] I heard a preacher say 40 years ago, well, 1977, 78, I'm not sure how many years ago that is.
[2:15] It was a long time ago. He said, he said, independent Baptists brag about believing a book they never read. So I want y'all to read it. But if you read it from cover to cover and you just read the Bible and you weren't trying to look for excuses, you might get the idea that God puts a negative light on alcohol.
[2:32] And I'm going to try to show you that tonight. And so let me say, it is my agenda to show you that. If you say, well, just, but I'm going to do it, but just let the Bible do it.
[2:46] So go with me. Genesis chapter 9. I don't want to read all this scripture with you because I have tons of it. I have probably 14 pages of it in my notes here of scripture to be read with you.
[2:58] But in Genesis chapter 9 and verse 18 and following, we have Noah has come off of the ark. Noah has three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth in chapter 9 and verse 18.
[3:10] And the whole world will be covered up by the people that come out of Noah's family, just like it had been, out of those that came out of Adam's family. And then in chapter, verse 20, Noah became a husbandman, a grape vine farmer.
[3:27] He raised grapes and he raised other things, of course, I'm sure. But he planted, you should underline in your Bible, in verse 20, you should underline vineyard. And then in verse 21, he drank of the wine, and you should underline wine.
[3:43] And he was drunken. And then he got uncovered within his tent. We're not really sure what happened there. Bible scholars have been arguing about that for a long time. But whatever happened, Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren without.
[4:01] And his two brothers, they get a blanket, and they back into the room, and they cover the nakedness of their father, and they don't look on the nakedness of their father. Verse 24, Noah wakes up from his wine.
[4:14] And he knows that his younger son has done something to him, whether it was look at him or do something to him. Not really very clear in the context here. And in verse 25, it says, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
[4:32] Now, that's Noah's grandson. Noah's the daddy. His son's Ham. Ham's son is Canaan. And he curses him.
[4:43] And then he said, And blessed be Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. And God will enlarge Japheth. And Canaan, in verse 27, will be his servant. And in verse 28, Noah lives 350 years after the flood.
[4:58] And totally, he lived 950 years, and he died. Just some interesting things for you to consider with me. If you're reading the Bible, we're 9 chapters in.
[5:09] We're probably a couple thousand years in, at least by the end of this, because we know Adam lived over 900 years, and Noah lives over 900 years, so we're over 2,000 years by the end of the story. In the story, we have a wine, we have a vineyard, we have drinking, and we have drunkens.
[5:28] And does that in any way mean drinking is wrong? I don't know that it says anything about it being wrong, but does it set a tone? You're going to find following through the Bible, it's a tone.
[5:40] It's just interesting that the first time we see alcohol mentioned in the Bible, it was abused. That is the first mention. Go look up the word wine. Go look up the word vine. Go look up the word vineyard.
[5:51] I already have. And see what you find. And you're going to find this the first time. We know at a minimum that Noah is embarrassed because his son saw his nakedness.
[6:02] That's the minimum. We're not sure what happened. Bible scholars have a lot to say. But this is what we do know. After he finds out what's happened, he curses his grandson.
[6:13] I don't know that his grandson did anything wrong in the story. Don't read anything about his grandson doing wrong. I just had them put up a picture of the new sound man. That's two of our deacons' grandson.
[6:25] And one of them getting mad enough to curse him. I can understand you cursing a kid that looked at you naked or did something to you. I don't get cursing your grandkid. But anyway, old Noah does. When you get drunk, you do do stuff that doesn't make sense.
[6:39] We see that the last story mentioned about his life is a stain. This is a guy that in Genesis chapter 6 found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This is a guy who God picks out of the whole earth to build an ark that we literally believe in.
[6:54] And a flood comes and all that happens. And then the last story told is he got drunk and cursed his grandson and now moving on. That's a pretty bleak story. I mean, that story about the flood was bad, but the hero was God and he used Noah.
[7:09] And if he'd have left that drunk story off, he'd be a great hero. But the last story remembered in the Bible by him is in the last 350 years of his life, guess what he accomplished? He got drunk and cursed his grandson.
[7:21] Interesting. Go with me to Genesis 19.30. I'm not telling you it's wrong to drink. I'm just saying the first story sure was kind of bleak. How many of you would agree that's a bleak story? Say amen.
[7:32] Cursing your grandkid over something your son did. So in chapter 19 and verse 30, we have our next mention of wine and alcohol.
[7:44] You need to do your own study. You do your own. Now we're 10 chapters further in. I mean, we're still in the first book. This is still Genesis, the beginning. And in Genesis chapter 19 and verse 30, Lot has been run out of Sodom and Gomorrah.
[7:58] They've been destroyed. He's got his two daughters with him. And in verse 31, the older girl says to the younger girl, the firstborn says to the younger, verse 32, come, let us make our father drink wine.
[8:11] And we will lie with him. We'll lay down with him that we may preserve seed of our father. So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father.
[8:25] And he didn't even know when she got in there. He didn't know what they did. And he didn't know when she got up. That's all in verse 33. Look at it. Verse 34, it came to pass on the morrow that the firstborn said to the younger, well, last night we got him to drink wine.
[8:41] And why don't you do that tonight? And you go in and you lay with him and we'll preserve seed of our father. Verse 35, they made him get drunk again. And the younger arose and lay with him.
[8:52] And he didn't know when she came in. He didn't know when she left. He didn't know what he did while she was there. And he had two daughters that had sex with him and had children. And in verse 37, the Moabites.
[9:04] And in verse 38, the children of Ammon who will become enemies. We're 19 chapters into the Bible. The daughters knew they could get their dad drunk. You know, my kids know a lot of things.
[9:15] They really know how to aggravate me. They know which buttons to push. They know what smart things to say to me. They know what they can do to put me in a bad mood. They know what they can do to make me laugh.
[9:26] They really do. You know, they've been my kids. The youngest one's 33. They've been my kids a long time. But you can't get a man drunk, doesn't drink. But old Lot gets drunk.
[9:39] His daughters, it's just kind of a matter of a fact statement. If you just believe the Bible like it's written, which I do. So you're reading the Bible and she just says, let's get daddy drunk tonight.
[9:53] Let's get daddy drunk tonight. I mean, I'm like, how could you? What would you do? Is it the 4th of July? Is it Christmas? What is it that makes you think you can get daddy drunk?
[10:04] He must have had to have it hit in the bottle a little bit. They went in and whatever they did, they got him drunk. They got him so drunk, he had no idea what he did. I've been on drugs when I had my kidney taken out and I don't know what I did.
[10:19] I did some really stupid stuff. And they did get me drunk on the drugs, I guess. But these daughters knew they could pull that and get away with it. And they did. Both of them.
[10:31] I guess they thought he was stupid enough they could deceive him. He's so drunk he doesn't know what happened. And he brings forth two nations. No direct condemnation is made in the story. But by now we might be getting an idea.
[10:44] First time I tell you a story. You're sitting with your parents at the house and they tell you a story. And in that story they tell you about everybody. Bad stuff happening when you do this or that. And then they tell you the second story.
[10:54] And they say bad stuff happens when you do this or that. Let's go to the second book of the Bible. Now we're in Exodus chapter 32, if you would. We're in Exodus chapter. We're just reading through the Bible.
[11:04] We're just reading through the Bible. And as we read through the Bible, we kind of get a tone. We kind of get an idea of what's going on. If you're a Bible reader. I'm a Bible reader.
[11:16] A lot of you are Bible readers. Praise the Lord. So you're amening me in your hearts if you won't do it out loud. You are in your heart. In Exodus chapter 32, Moses has gone up in the mountain to get the Ten Commandments.
[11:30] He's taking his time and he's not getting down. And so they all get with Aaron and they say, get up and make us the gods. Make us gods. In verse 1. And Aaron said, well, y'all give me all your golden earrings.
[11:41] And give me all the golden earrings that your wives are wearing, your sons are wearing, your daughters are wearing. Bring them to me. And they did. And he received them. And he fashioned with a graven tool.
[11:52] That's a funny thing. Because in a little while, he's going to tell everybody. I just threw the stuff in and it came out. But here, the Bible says that he was sitting there going, let me grave out and make us a golden calf.
[12:03] But in a little bit, he's going to lie and say, I just threw them in there and it popped out. I mean, what can I say? I think I can show it to you. And so they, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of Egypt.
[12:14] Verse 5. Aaron saw it and Aaron made a proclamation. He said, tomorrow we'll make a feast to the Lord. That's God. And the people sat down in verse 6 to eat and to drink.
[12:27] And they rose up to play. Let me explain that. They're having a lot of food, a lot of drink, and they're playing. They're having a party. There's a party going on.
[12:39] In verse 7, they corrupted themselves. And they, in verse 8, they turned quickly out of the way. You should underline out of the way. It's interesting in the Bible.
[12:49] Well, sin is basically when you get out of the way. He has a way. And when you get out of the way, you're not where you're supposed to be. So that's wrong. They were out of the way. And they had a molten calf and they worshiped and they sacrificed to it and said, these be thy gods that brought you up out of Egypt.
[13:04] And Joshua heard the sound in verse 17 and he thought they were going to war. And in verse 18, he said, Moses said, no, boys, no, boys. That's not what's happening. Don't listen. I hear a party.
[13:16] I hear a party. In verse 19, he saw the calf and the dance. In verse 20, he took the calf and he burned it in fire and ground it to powder and spread it on the water. And he made the children of Israel drink it.
[13:28] They had committed such a great sin. In verse 21, their hearts were set on mischief. To tell you how far they've gotten, in verse 25, the Bible says the people were naked.
[13:39] Aaron made them naked unto their shame among their enemies. Moses steps out and said, who's on the Lord's side?
[13:50] Let him come to me. And so he then tells them, strap on your sword and go kill your friend, your brother, and your companion. In verse 27, and 3,000 men die.
[14:03] Verse 28. I wish you'd go back to 2200 line. Their hearts were set on mischief. That's just interesting. I can just hear a country preacher going to town on that one.
[14:16] Their hearts were set on mischief. In verse 6, they sat down and they drank. They eat, they drink, and they rose to play. Amazingly, drink is mentioned.
[14:26] It was a banquet, a party gone wild. In verse 25, they got naked. Now, look up the word naked. It means to expose, to dismiss, to bear, to set at naught.
[14:41] It's the idea of being out of control, no restraint on your activities. It's the idea of being an open defiance to authority. It's running wild, lawless, that causes disorder and promotes wickedness.
[14:55] And I think, if you're honest, you know they were drinking alcohol the other day in that party. I mean, this is a party that goes so crazy wild. It kind of reminds you of, what was the name of that rock and roll thing they did when I was a kid up in New York, wasn't it?
[15:13] Woodstock. They were drinking and partying and making noise and doing all that wickedness. I'm pretty sure alcohol was involved in this party here. Like in America, it would be drugs. They were drinking drugs. Go with me to Deuteronomy 21, 18.
[15:26] We're now into the fifth book of the Bible. We're just reading our Bibles. I'm going to tell you, as you read your Bible, you didn't find one time where there was a mention of, man, we sat down and had a nice glass of wine.
[15:40] Sat by the fire and had a nice glass of wine and just enjoyed that together. Just not in the Bible. Not so far. Maybe you can show me. I'll be glad you'll teach me that. So in Deuteronomy 21, 18, if you have a stubborn and a rebellious son that you have spanked and chastened, then he will not listen.
[15:59] Verse 19, they lay hold on him. And verse 20, they bring him to the elders of the city and say he's stubborn and rebellious. He eats too much and he's a drunkard.
[16:11] And they kill him. It's still pretty negative here. Just to be blunt honest, it's still a pretty negative picture. The alcohol in the Bible. You know, God doesn't have to say, I don't like something.
[16:23] If he tells you negative stories, you ought to go like, I don't think he likes that. I mean, you know, he doesn't have to say, I don't like that for him every time he tells a story to have a negative story to it. Your kid's a party animal.
[16:37] He's in rebellion. He will not get right. I have no intention of allowing my children to try to get to that point. Not while they were under my control. I had no intentions of it. I will not risk my child's life inviting them to drink.
[16:52] And yet, I saw Peruvian parents give their kids a beer when they're three and four years old. Not a whole beer. Just drinks a beer. In America, it's becoming much more common.
[17:04] Still pretty negative. But let's go to 2 Samuel chapter 11 and verse 12. I just want you to get a picture here.
[17:15] It's apparent that God didn't tell pretty stories. He never said, if you'll pop a bud, you can have a party and all your friends will come. He never said, if you want to have buddies, get out your brew and watch them come.
[17:32] He never said, set up your own private brewery in your basement. You want to brew something? Brew coffee. Amen. 2 Samuel chapter 11 and verse 12.
[17:43] David said to Uriah. This is a wild story. We're a drink. Everywhere I see it. In my Bible. In my Bible. You've got to understand, I didn't grow up around alcohol.
[17:57] My dad had been a drunkard. I never saw alcohol. But about 15, I started reading this book through at least once a year. I've read it up to four or five times in a year. I've averaged way over once a year since I was 15.
[18:11] When I read it, I just get negative undertones about alcohol. I'd ask you to ask somebody else that read the Bible. Because maybe it's my prejudice.
[18:22] But if they agree, you might consider it. Or maybe if you just read the Bible. A bunch. 2 Samuel 11 and 12. David says to Uriah. Now here's what's happened. You know the story. David slept with Bathsheba.
[18:34] She's gotten pregnant. David wants to get out of trouble. So David knows what you can use to manipulate a person. Like Lot's daughters knew what you could use. And so David invites Uriah to the house to talk to him.
[18:49] And then he says, why don't you go home and spend a night with your wife? And Uriah says, no sir. My men are out camped under the stars. I'm not about to do that. So then he has him in and he gets him drunk. Look at 2 Samuel 11, 12.
[19:00] It says, David said to Uriah, 11, 13. David called him and he did eat and drink before him and he made him drunk. Because David has to get rid of Uriah.
[19:15] He has to do something so he can marry Bathsheba and make it look like he hasn't committed adultery. He's got to get it done quick. He's got to get it done quick because she's already pregnant.
[19:27] They already know it. They didn't have early pregnancy tests back then. They didn't find out three hours later. It's a while later. They figured this out. So he's got to move and move quick.
[19:40] So it can look like the baby's a preemie. I used to have that a lot in Prue. When I was pastoring in Prue, they'd come to me with an eight-pound baby and say he was six months. He was born in six months.
[19:52] He was really early. And I was like, Lord, help me. I'm glad he was early. If he'd have gone full term, he'd have been a 20-pounder. Amen. Come on. And he made him drunk. David sinned, and David uses alcohol as his weapon.
[20:07] He wanted to make him lose the use of reason, what alcohol does. He was using drink to try and control him. Well, he fails. And so he calls Uriah in the house.
[20:17] And he says, here, Uriah, here's a letter I need you to take to your boss so that he'll kill you. Don't open it and don't read it. Just take it up there and let him kill you. I want you to see the picture of drink.
[20:28] I want you to picture when they put that nice commercial on there. I just want you to see David calling Uriah in to get a drink before he kills him. I want you to see that.
[20:40] Well, that's okay. We're reading the Bible. It's been pretty negative. We get through David. Now we're to David's boy is Absalom. Go with me to 2 Samuel 13 and verse 28.
[20:51] Now, quite a few years have gone by. He's got grown sons. And Absalom commanded his servants, saying, Mark ye now when Amnon's heart is merry with wine.
[21:02] And when I say to you, smite him, you kill him and don't be afraid. Well, what had happened a couple of years earlier was Amnon had fallen in love with his sister Tamar. And Amnon had called his sister Tamar into the room to cook the meal for him because Daddy even said she could go cook the meal.
[21:19] And she goes to cook the meal. And when she goes in the room to cook the meal, he gets somebody to leave the room. He grabs his sister and he rapes her. And she says, at least marry me.
[21:30] And he said, I'd hate you. I've done what I want to do and I will not marry you. He's a pervert. He throws her out. She rips her the clothes that she wears as a daughter of the king.
[21:43] And she leaves the room. And Absalom, the other son, waits two years for Daddy to do something to Amnon. But Dad does nothing to Amnon. Amnon.
[21:54] Amnon. Not Amnon. He does nothing to Amnon. And so finally Absalom says, well, somebody's going to have to do something. So he says, let's have a party. And let's get Amnon to come to the party. And he gets with his brothers and sisters and says, we're going to kill him.
[22:07] I'm killing him tonight. Let's just get him drunk first so he can't fight. And so they got his heart merry with wine. And they killed him.
[22:18] It's still pretty dark. How many of y'all think stories are dark? If you think they're dark, say amen. I'm not seeing very many popular stories. These aren't the kind of stories you want to tell your children.
[22:30] So now let's go on to Joel chapter 3 and verse 3. Joel chapter 3 and verse 3. I'm almost through it. Joel chapter 3 and verse 3.
[22:40] We find that drink causes people to do lots of wicked things in the Bible when God's telling the story. And Joel is a prophet of God. Now we believe, you know what we believe about the Bible, don't you?
[22:52] That God uses men to write the story, but they're just the writers. He's the author. It's the Holy Spirit writing the book. These are the words of God, not Joel. These are the words of God, not Moses.
[23:02] These are the words of God, not any writer of any other book. We trust that God wrote the book. In Joel chapter 3, they have cast lots for my people. Joel 3.3. They have cast lots for my people.
[23:14] They've given a boy for a prostitute, a harlot. And they sold a girl for wine that they might drink.
[23:29] They sold a girl. They sold little Abby, my five-year-old granddaughter. They sold Abby. They could buy a case of beer.
[23:42] That's a Bible story. Bible story. I saw it in Peru. I never saw anybody sell a kid. But you'd see them sell their TVs, their refrigerators. Because when they get on a drunk, they need to keep buying.
[23:54] And they just go in their house and take everything. And their kids are crying. Their kids are crying. And their wife is crying. They beat their wife up to get the stuff out the door. Go with me to Habakkuk 2.15.
[24:09] Another minor prophet. Word of God again. Woe to him that gives his neighbor drink. That puts a bottle to him to make him drunken. That they may see their nakedness.
[24:26] Woe to him that gives his neighbor drink. To get him drunk. To get him drunk. To see his nakedness. Well, nobody ought to do that. But people do that kind of thing.
[24:37] That word naked right there actually is a word in Hebrew for genitalia. Get him naked. Naked. Real naked.
[24:48] Go back to chapter 2 and verse 5. He transgressed by wine. The alcohol made him do wrong.
[25:00] I've shown you a lot of verses. I'm through. I've shown you a lot of verses. And I've shown you that in the Bible, everything we've done for two months, this is the third month, everything's been negative. The only time you give the alcohol is when somebody's dying or so depressed, I'm never going to get their life straightened up.
[25:16] The only time. And yet, cool young pastors say, it doesn't say I can't drink, so let's go get a beer. I'm just going to say, if you're a Bible reader, you're going to get a negative feeling in your stomach about alcohol.
[25:36] If you're a Bible reader. I mean, if you start reading in Genesis, I mean, it's not mentioned on every page, but every time he brings it up, and there's, yes, there are going to be some verses. You're going to say, well, it doesn't seem to be that bad there.
[25:48] But just watch the tenor. This is a dark movie. The music that's playing behind every scene here is terrible. Alcohol destroys.
[26:02] I would just challenge all of you, be careful. This modern world wants you to think it's okay to drink. This modern world wants you to think it's okay to play with alcohol.
[26:15] It's okay to play with drugs. It's okay to play with any of that. But it's destroying our people. It's destroying our families. We only see the bad.
[26:27] And then we're like, well, he couldn't control it. Well, if there's a chance somebody can't control it, then stay away from it. We don't need to mess with it. I grew up with a highly negative attitude towards alcohol because my daddy had been a drunkard.
[26:41] And all he ever did was tell me how bad it was. That's all my dad ever taught me. Kill you, son. Ruin your life, son. Uncle Frank was a drunkard, so drunk. He called every weekend asking my daddy for money.
[26:53] Collect phone call. Frank Gardner. Every weekend. My mom and dad wouldn't even answer the phone when it was time for Uncle Frank to call because he just needed long enough to run out of money. Uncle Frank got married in a night and divorced the next day more than one time when I was a kid.
[27:09] Alcohol. Alcohol. So you might think, well, I think Austin doesn't like alcohol. And the Bible doesn't ever say it's wrong. Let me just clear it up for you. I don't like alcohol.
[27:20] And I got a funny feeling God don't like it. And you could say, well, he doesn't say don't do it. Well, there's a lot of things he doesn't say don't do. But if you read the scripture and you get a tone, you'd have an idea.
[27:32] I'd like to ask you to read the book.