Last week, we talked about the
truth and the reality of sin and hell. And this week we're
dealing with the one that probably is going to shake some people
up. There are some things that that I'll deal with today that
some of you may already have an opinion on and that some of
you may think you're right and that some of you may not realize
that you're right and may think you're wrong or vice versa. But
I'm going to say that as I prepared over the last few years for this
message, I've tried to develop an argument that can carry us
just through the surface of this issue. And you might want to
say, well, why are we dealing with this? Because we don't preach
about this. We don't preach about the things that are politically
charged and culturally charged in our lives. And then we say
that the word of God is sufficient for all good works. And we say
that God's grace is sufficient for all things. And then we turn
around and we go, but it doesn't apply here. And I would say that
that is probably one of the biggest mistakes that we make in our
lives to think that the word of God doesn't have application
for every single aspect of our lives, every single aspect of
our lives. And what we do is we look for
Dr. Phil, we look for Oprah and we look for all of the different
types of ways we might study to find the answers that we need.
We ask our friends who are philosophers and who are doctors and who are
specialists and who are educated, and we ask them what they think
rather than seeing what God's word has for us to hear. And
so today I'm going to speak on the issue of alcohol. Next week,
I'm going to talk about politics, the truth of politics, where
the churches stand should be on this and where Christians
should stand in political issues. And so today, as I talk about
alcohol, there's a couple of things I started to bring like
a six pack or something. I sit up here and I had a visual
aid last week. They get out of hell free card. And so I'm thinking,
what's a good visual aid? And I thought, no, some of you
guys might fight over who's going to drink it after service. So I
decided not to do that. I said, well, I can get me a
couple of empty bottles. I saw some people in San Francisco
that had these foster cans of foster beer. I mean, the can
of beer was that big around about that tall. And I said, well,
I'll grab a couple of those empty ones to bring up here for visual aid.
And I thought, well, they'll think I'm some kind of a drunk
walking around with empty beer cans all day. So I better not
do that, you know. And so I thought, well, visual
aid, I guess I won't have one. And so maybe if the Lord blesses
us with some drunk that walks in through the exit door, we'll
have a visual aid this morning. Either way. This is a this is
a charged issue is an issue in which many of us in the room
today have a view. Most of us probably have a viewpoint.
I seriously doubt that maybe you are. And if you are, I'd
love to talk with you a little more. The anthropologist to me would
be interested in seeing exactly how you thought. But probably
all of us have a stand on alcohol. Some of us would say. We consider
it a sin to drink alcohol as a Christian and that it is prohibitive
for a Christian to drink alcohol. And I won't ask for us to go
ahead and divide on this issue right now. All of your favor,
I know this is not where I am because what I've seen and what
I will get to is the issue of alcohol use is actually an issue
of division as well in the body, which by its very nature, the
discussion of this thing can actually become an issue of sin
in our hearts. And so I want to warn you very,
very clearly. That what the scripture talks about and what the scripture
teaches us to do, first and foremost, is to seek righteousness. And
in all things, we seek unity and the bond of peace through
Jesus Christ, as Paul teaches the church in Ephesus and Ephesians.
And so as we sit here, many of us think it's a sin to drink
alcohol and that it's prohibitive for a Christian. And then some
of us say, hey, moderate use of alcohol is a freedom that
we have in grace. We have the freedom to drink alcohol and
we're under grace. And therefore, we are not going to say that
what God has made is bad. But I'll tell you that. There's a
test that you must take here, and this is particularly the
whole issue of preaching on this topic is that it's not should
we drink or should we drink or should we not drink or should
we drink a little or should we drink a lot or how should we
drink or what brand should we drink or how often should we
drink? But it's the issue of what is our hearts on the matter? Where are our hearts on the issue?
And most of us and I'll just say I'll sort of read what I
have here so they don't get it wrong. This is which of you would
be offended? Or which of you would be upset
if you were told that your view was wrong or that you should
change your thoughts or your views on this issue is for the
cause of the gospel. I see that would be a test in itself, well,
it's called some of us will say it's a sin to drink and some
of us would be right and some of us say, hey, it's a it's it's
it's OK to drink and some of us will be right. But where we're
wrong is where we think that our stance is so right that we're
not willing to compromise for the sake of the gospel. Some
of us are so where we become sinful and prideful and selfish
is where we take that particular position and we say, OK, this
is going to be where I stand and this is a hill for me to
die on. Friends, to die on the issue of the use of alcohol in
the life of a Christian is like telling someone to go to hell
because you're going to eat a peanut M&M. See how silly that sounds? But yet we do, and by the very
nature it shows, and as we get into, we prepare these seven
weeks to get into the holiness of God, to the heaviness and
the glory of God. And oh, gosh, when we look at
it, it's very, very real, because I think these are things where
we become slaves to discussion. We become slaves to flesh. We
become slaves to freedom. We become slaves to things. And
so what I want to do this morning is develop an argument for the
acceptable use of alcohol. What does it look like? How is
it done? What is the Christians response?
But I don't want to spend a whole lot of time there, because the
most important thing is that we look at the text and I have
a lot of I have a lot of text. I've got 14 pages up here and
I'm not going to preach through all of that. I promise I'm just
using it for my reference, because this is one of the issues for
me that until about four years ago, I was I was one of these
men that thought that it was an absolute abomination for a
Christian to even think of drinking alcohol, much less take a drink.
And for me, I will tell you, for me, it is a sin to drink.
For me, if I drank alcohol, I would sin before God, because God and
his Holy Spirit has given me a conscience that it would be
wrong and non-beneficial for me to drink alcohol for many,
many reasons. And I don't want to get into
all those right now. And so according to the scripture, as the Holy
Spirit gives consciousness in Romans and that will be our main
text today in Romans 14, our main text, 13 through 23. It
is a it is a sin for me to ignore the spirit and to ignore my conscience.
and to go against what God has put into my conscience. At the
same time, I must do what is done in my life by faith. So
it must be an issue of faith. And so that's where I'll start
so that you'll understand. I have never had a good, as a
child growing up, I never had a good or beneficial view of
alcohol ever. No one in my family who ever
took alcohol or partake in alcohol, no friends that I ever had that
ever used alcohol ever did it in a godly way. And they've never
had any benefit in their life. As a matter of fact, I could
fill up 50 pages of the negative things that have happened to
the people that I know when alcohol was into the picture, came into
the picture. And so with that, I'll just say a couple of things.
First, there is no prohibition. There is no prohibition. There's
nowhere I've looked and there's nowhere in the scriptures that
says do not drink ever. I don't see that. There's not
an 11th commandment that's invisible in there somewhere that says
thou shalt not ever drink wine. However, there are very, very
many opportunities, especially in the Old Testament, where there
were many people whom God told never to consume wine at all
because they had been set apart for his work. And there have
been many opportunities of showing the negative issues of where
alcohol has negative consequences in the in the scriptures, Old
and New Testament. And so what I want to do is to
start and say that there is no prohibition from actually the
use of alcohol in Scripture. So we can't stand up here and
say that it is never OK to drink, because if you were in Europe
and there was nothing to drink but wine, what would you drink? And how would you drink it? Maybe
you would drink it like they drank it in the New Testament,
maybe you would take and you would spend and take a very strong
wine and you would dilute it a little bit. But it wasn't water
with a wine drip in there. It was wine with a little bit
of water in there. Sort of like I drink grape juice at home.
You ever had that Welch's grape juice? You can't drink it that
strong. It burns your nose. So you could add a little water.
The children, they don't like it that strong, you know, like
grape Kool-Aid concentrated. They would water it down a little
bit. However, it would still intoxicate. It would probably
be equal to about the wine we have today. that you'd buy in
the jar or the whatever you call it, the bottle. But as we get
started, I want to look at alcohol use in America. And these statistics
are from 2006 and they are compiled from surveys through medical
surveys to the American Medical Association, to the APA, through
MAD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and some different things. They've
been compiled and I've sort There's a lot of them, but I just want
to read this. I want to read this to get you a picture of
what alcohol is for Americans. An estimated 6.6 children under
18 live in households with one alcoholic parent. By the time
they are high school seniors, 80% have used alcohol and 62%
have been drunk. Treatment for alcoholism has
been shown to reduce criminal activity 80% among chronic offenders. It has increased their rate of
employment It decreases homelessness and reduces health care costs. In 2002, U.S. alcoholism statistics
reported that 2.6 million binge drinkers were between the ages
of 12 and 17. In the United States, there are
three times as many men as women who abuse alcohol or are alcohol
dependent. Fifty-six percent of students
in grades 5 through 12 say that alcohol advertising entices them
to drink. Alcoholism and alcohol abuse
are the third leading cause of preventable deaths in the United
States. Approximately 14 million people in the United States are
addicted to alcohol or abuse alcohol. 65 people every day
die on the highways of America due to alcohol. 3 million teenagers
between the ages of 14 and 17 are alcoholics. 14 million Americans,
7.5% of the adult population, meet the diagnostic criteria
for alcoholism. More than 7% of the population
ages 18 years and older, 13.8 million Americans have a drinking
problem. 8.1 million suffer from alcoholism. Long-term alcohol
use is the leading cause of illness and death from liver disease
in the United States. The cost of untreated drug and alcohol
abuse in the United States in a year is estimated at $276 billion
in lost productivity, law enforcement costs, health care and welfare
programs. One out of every two highway
fatalities is due to alcohol or a drunk driver. Ninety-five
percent of alcoholics die from their disease and die approximately
26 years earlier than the normal life expectancy. There are approximately
14 million people in the United States addicted to alcohol and
millions who display symptoms of abuse, including binge drinking.
There are 14 million Americans who abuse alcohol or who are
alcoholic. That breaks down to one in every
13 adults abuse alcohol in America. Alcohol is a factor in nearly
half of America's murders, suicides, and accidental deaths. Underage
drinking costs Americans nearly $53 billion annually. If this
cost were shared equally by each congregational district, the
amount would total more than $120 million per district for
12 months. Half a million Americans who depended upon alcohol. This
blew my mind. A half a million Americans who
are dependent upon alcohol are between the ages of 9 and 12. Low doses of alcohol. can increase the incidence of
a variety of aggressive acts, including domestic violence and
child abuse. According to statistics on alcohol abuse and alcoholism
statistics and facts, 43% of United States adults, namely
76 million individuals, have been exposed to alcoholism in
the family. That is, these people grew up with or married an alcoholic
or a problem drinker or had a blood relative who was an alcoholic
or a problem drinker. Now, there's tons of things there.
Interesting enough, I have been looking for the last four months
for positive statistics on the use of alcohol. I can't find
any. Even the alcohol companies have
nothing to show. The issue is that alcohol relative
consumption, alcohol consumption relates to child abuse, alcoholism,
disease, death, domestic crime, sexual abuse, rape, sexual crime,
gang bangs, whatever you want to call that, burglaries, homicides,
suicides. And so I think as we enter this
opportunity to discuss the liberties of alcohol, we need to take a
good look at how this country is looking at alcohol. And what's
interesting enough is that in Europe, most European countries
have the same problems. And I sillily thought or stupidly
or ignorantly thought that in places where it was non-prohibitive
to drink and to a certain age that it actually was better.
But there are people still in the young ages that are suffering
from alcoholism and from alcohol abuse. So it's not the issue
that has been prohibited and that we have allowed it to go
into certain states or certain ages and certain things. But
the issue is, is that people are looking to escape this life
and they are looking to escape by either killing themselves,
murdering themselves or numbing themselves. The Christian should
be not looking to numb themselves or escape or to kill themselves,
but to live in pain in this world for the glory of God alone. Let's
pray before we continue, Father. Lord, these are the times in
which the church needs to listen. So help us to hear. Help us to
hear with issues such as alcohol and drugs and God, the truth
about the reality of who we are as Americans and the culture
that we live in and how that culture has impacted even our
spiritual growth. And Lord, help us to not be haughty
and frustrated and belligerent or condemning or judging. Help those feelings, God, take
those away from our hearts that we might focus on ourselves and
not be thinking about someone else that may be sitting next
to us or may even be at home indulging in alcohol right now.
Or, man, I wish somebody else was here. Lord, may our burdens
be pure out of concern for the souls of man, not for the behavior. Lord, help us not to try to think
that this is about people doing the right thing for God as we
do what we do, even if it is right, if it is not in love and
it is not from faith and it is not from the spirit, it is sin.
So, Father, we thank you, Lord, for that discernment. May you
fill us with your spirit this morning that we might be sober. That we might be somber. That
we might truly see. what it is that you're calling
us to see. And we pray these things in the name of Christ,
our King. Amen. So why should we consume alcohol?
I mean, I sit there and I could come on with I mean, there's
many, many, many more pages of bad things. So is it bad? So we could draw a line right
now, say, OK, let's just make a vote and let's make it a covenant.
We're not going to drink alcohol as Christians. All right. Hallelujah.
What does that do? What does it do? And why? Where do we get the biblical
standard for that? I don't think that the Scripture
calls for that. And you might argue, and I would
say, and part of my argument is that the indulgence of anything
is sinful. It's the issue of anything, like
I share with some of you on Wednesday nights about my chocolate cake
addiction, if you would. That if someone played a song
last night, Robin decides to make some chocolate chip cookies
around 930. And I ate a good number of them and I was pretty
sick. This morning when I got up, I
was stomachache and everything else. There's just too many indulgence. But those chocolate chip cookies
didn't thwart my mind into going and falling into further sin.
I'm not going to die from chocolate holism, chocoholism, you know. However, it is it is a sin to
indulge. It is a sin to overeat. It is
a sin to be a glutton. It is a sin in anything. So why
should we consume alcohol? Well, sometimes we're thirsty
and maybe it's what we have available to drink, maybe because it tastes
really good and it's OK to enjoy the taste of something. It's
all right to say, I like the taste of this. Otherwise, Starbucks
would be bankrupt, right? I mean, yeah, Starbucks, we enjoy
things. I believe God is God gives us
the taste buds in our mouth that we might take pleasure in what
we eat. Otherwise, we just all walk around
these little capsules of bean paste and just sustenance and
drink water out of a swill or something. However. Even sometimes alcohol makes
us feel good. Now, I have never consumed an
alcoholic beverage, I have always been too afraid because of my
past and what I've seen, but I will tell you this, that there
have been times where I see people who have just had a drink and
they just seem to be more relaxed than I am and I'm thinking, man
alive. It would be nice to be able to be relaxed and even sleep
a little bit longer, a little bit better, a little bit more
deeply. However, we have to be careful there, because when we
begin to depend upon something to give us a feeling, if alcohol
is that something we can put ourselves in a place of reproach
and a place of debauchery, according to the scripture. And so for
the Christian, it is OK to consume alcohol in moderation. I will
say that to you and we could argue that. That it is non-prohibitive,
even through teaching of Paul, that you don't have to be a teetotaler,
but the decision is yours and you must pray and you must search
the Scriptures and you must earnestly ask yourself, am I struggling
with this decision? If you're struggling with the
decision, my response to you would be don't partake in alcohol
until you get clear from the Lord what it is that you're able
to do. But don't be legalistic in thinking
that you cannot because you can for me. I don't want to do it. And God has made it clear for
me. For my purposes, for his calling in my life that I will
not. Now, that may change one day, I don't see it changing,
but alcohol for the Christian, there are certain things that
are very clear. Number one is that alcohol can never be used
for drunkenness. It can never be used for drunkenness.
Drunkenness is on the list of sins, along with homosexuality,
rape, incest. Thievery, blasphemy, you see
drunkenness in these list of sins and what you find strange
and sometimes Paul's writing this right in the middle of certain
heinous things like pedophilia. Why? Because he says that drunkenness
leads to these things. Sometimes drunkenness will open
the door for us to consider other sins. My grandmother Tippins
used to always say a drunk man can tell no lies. And if you
don't believe that, get somebody drunk and then ask them a question.
They'll tell you not only the truth, but they'll tell you a
lot more than you ever wanted to hear. It's interesting. I cannot be used also to escape
or as a way to deal with life. And friends, it cannot be used
as entertainment in order to have a good time. I mean, how
many friends I asked someone this morning, you know, how many
friends do you have that are have a problem with alcohol?
About one. So how do you know? Well, because
he can be broke and not have a dime, but he'll go buy beer.
Talks about how he can't pay his electricity or his light
bill, whatever bill it might be, but he'll go buy alcohol
because he's got to have it. For the Christian, Christ should
be our hope. Christ should be our life. Christ should be our
sustenance. His grace should be enough for
us. Would Jesus drink wine? Yes, he did. But not on the cross. As a matter of fact, he drank
the water and then when they offered him the sedative of of
intoxicating drink, he turned his head, for he wanted to feel
the fullness of the cross in his mind and in his soul and
in his flesh. He was not going to numb the
will of God. So let's build this argument
via scripture, enough of my word. Let's build this argument via
scripture. So wine is good. We see that wine is used. I did
a word study on wine and oh my gosh, I had to quit. I mean,
after four hours of looking through the Hebrew text, just in the
wine, wine is symbolic in the Old Testament as a blessing from
God. Did y'all know that? You ever
thought about that? You ever look? In other words,
God promises them bread and grain and wine. You know what I'm saying? Well, that's just what they drank,
Pastor. Well, that's right. That's what they drank. But it
was good. It was good for them. They enjoyed wine. However, there is no time where
God shows that drunkenness is a blessing or an act of obedience,
but rather every time an act of pagan living. And that when
Israel was drunk, or other leaders were drunk, everything that could
possibly go wrong became wrong. And so let's look at the positive
focus. We say, and I don't want to go
through all this text. If you want to go to the ESV online or you
want to go to word search online or crossword online or whatever,
just look up the word wine in the King James or the ESV or
whatever. And you'll see that God uses wine symbolically and
even literally, I think, in some sense of showing blessing. He
will give you as part of Of the sustenance is also part of the
positive nature of pleasure for a small point in the sense of
that the good things that actually God wants good things for you. And then in Second Timothy, 523,
Timothy had decided he had decided in his consciousness that he
was not going to drink ever. That it was not beneficial for
him, and Paul called him out and says, stop drinking just
water, drink a little wine. Drink a little wine, it's good
for your stomach. And so Paul tells Timothy, drink
a little wine, Timothy, because you're in a mess. Not get drunk
and take a break. But why don't you take and add
a little wine to your water? Why don't you drink a little
glass of wine every night? Why don't you take some time and
just understand that this is good for your stomach? It's medicinal. So wine is good. Wine is a blessing
from God. And there is that one area where
we see Paul telling Timothy that there is a positive use for alcohol.
However, most of the references to the use of strong Greek or
a negative stance in the scriptures, if you look in Genesis, we see
and I won't give you all these references and I'll have these
online, but there's just too many pages of notes to try to
hand out this morning. So I decided I would do that
later and truncate them a little bit because I may not use all
of this. But Moses drank wine and became drunk and lay naked
uncovered in his tent. And we know the situation there
began that his son, one of his sons, decided to make fun of
him and gaze at his nakedness. And the other one went in and
covered him up. And because of that, you know, it says that
he woke up from his drunkenness. He came back. He passed out and
he came back and he was enraged at what had been done. That's
not a positive issue. Genesis 9, 32 locked. His daughters
decide they want to continue their father's seed. And so they
say, let's get him drunk. And they got a lot drunk. And
what did they do? They had sex with their own father.
So that they might bear children and keep the name alive. And
we see in numbers when God spoke to Moses, telling the people
of Israel, it's just where when either a man or a woman makes
a special vow, the vow of a Nazarite, To separate himself from the
Lord, sanctify himself, to be holy and set apart for the use
of God. He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. See, there was a difference.
And 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. All the days of his separation,
he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not
even the seed or the skin. Why? Because God knew that what
he made was good, but that in our depravity we would abuse
it. We take what is good and we make
its usefulness evil. We make the use of it evil. For
instance, and you say, what in the world does that mean? God
made the body, friends. And when I talk in four or five
weeks about sexuality, God made the body and he gave us the pleasure
of looking at the body and going, wow, beautiful. There's nothing
sinful about looking at a body and saying beautiful and even
being aroused by that body in the context of the marriage bed. But yet, what have we done with
the body? We've made it an image of pornography. We've taken someone
else's daughter and we've placed them on a pedestal, sometimes
literally, and taken pictures so that men would be aroused
and spend money cheating on their wives. If they're not married,
cheating on their future wives. Somebody's baby girl. One of
my daughters. And we call that pleasure. So
we've taken what God has made good and we have destroyed it. And so, yes, what God has made
is good, but our use of that good is evil when it is not for
the glory of God. And so in Deuteronomy, listen
to the words of the Lord, I've led you 40 years in the wilderness.
Your clothes have not worn out on you and your sandals have
not worn off your feet. You have not eaten bread and
you have not drunk wine or strong drink. That you may know that
I am the Lord, your God. Samson and the angel of the Lord
appeared to the woman and said, Behold, you are barren and have
not born child and you shall conceive and bear a son. Do not
let drink or wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean, for
behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, no razor shall come
upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God and
from the womb. And he shall begin to save Israel from the hand
of the Philistines. So those set apart for God did not drink. Those set apart for God did not
drink. Those that had special purpose
and calling in their life did not drink. Now, what's the implication
for us? Has God called you to a special
purpose? That in itself is one of the main reasons that as a
pastor, I will not drink alcohol. And I'm not any better than any
of you who may drink on a daily basis or regular basis. I'm not
any more holy. This is a call that God has given
me. But I base it somewhat on the Old Testament. But I also
base it on the New Testament, as you'll see in a few minutes.
He tells, oh, gosh, I could just keep keep going, I'll just listen
to this. Thus said the Lord of hosts and
the God of Israel, drink, be drunk and vomit, fall and rise
no more because of the sword that I am sending among you.
God's judgment on Israel, he says, just go ahead and drink
and be drunk and vomit and fall in it and you're never going
to get up because I'm coming. Psalm 78, 65, the Lord awoke
us from a sleep like a strong man shouting because of wine.
Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they run after
strong drink all day, who tarry late into the evening as wine
inflames them. And even Solomon in his wisdom, he says, I search
with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still
guiding me with wisdom. Now, this is unreal. Wisdom from
God, and yet he continues to search for happiness. And he
says, I must drink and I'm going to try to cheer my body with
wine and how to lay hold on folly. Till I might see what was good
for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days
of their life. He sought it out, and if you know, he says, it's
all for nothing, nothing works, but God and his glory that we
might live for the purpose of God. John the Baptist, he will
be great before the Lord in Luke one. And he must not drink wine
or strong drink and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit,
even in his mother's womb. For the sake of the gospel. We
should abstain. Ephesians 5, 15, look carefully
then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best
use of the time because the days are evil. So not only is it a
negative portrayal of the use of alcohol, but also a positive
portrayal of the abstinence of alcohol in the life of a believer
in the New Testament. Just making the best use of time
because the days of evil, therefore, do not be foolish, but understand
the will of what the will of the Lord is and do not get drunk
with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit.
Do you see the formula? If we're drunk with wine, we're
not filled with the spirit. And if we're not filled with
the spirit, according to Paul and Galatians, we don't yield
the fruits of the spirit because the spirit is not in control
of us. The consciousness is altered.
We are inhibitions are lowered, right? I'm making sense. But we should be filled with
the spirit and address one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
giving thanks always and for everything. To God, the Father,
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another
out of reverence for Christ, Luke, but watch yourselves, let
your heart be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and
cares of this life and that they come upon you suddenly like a
trap. What day? The day of judgment. Careful. Be careful. Watch yourselves.
Lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and with drunkenness
and cares of this life. In other words, we don't have
to worry about this world as Christians, for we are the children
of God. So why are we looking to an alternative
substitute other than the power of the cross to give us joy?
And why are we looking at an extra thing or an intoxication
or even the warmth of a drink instead of looking at the grace
and the sovereignty of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Here's
a little idea. Two glasses of wine or one drop
of blood. I tell you what. We either find
joy in Jesus or we don't have him. He's not ours. And it may very well be that
he says, depart from me, I never knew you. But I was a Christian. I went to church and I studied
the Bible and I love people. Good. Depart from me. Do not be hasty in laying on
hands, young Timothy. Don't take part in the sins of
others. Keep yourself pure. Don't drink only water, but use
a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent
ailments. That's the thing that Timothy
was told. Titus 2, But as for you, teach
what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober minded,
dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love and in steadfastness. And the men in my life that drink
are not any of those things. None of those things ever. Ever. Older women, likewise, are to
be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves to whine.
They're to teach what is good, and it continues to go on. So
it's men and women. The New Testament calls drunkenness sin. In Ephesians
5.18, Romans 13.13, Galatians 5.20, 1 Thessalonians 5.7. I
mean, I could go on. But now let's look specifically
at the text that I want to... This is the meat of where I want
to go right now. Romans 14. Let's look at the Word of the
Lord. Romans, chapter 14, starting in verse 13. And my prayer is that you would
hear the word of God. That you would not listen to
me, but that you would hear God's word and that in doing so you
would be freed. You would be free. Oh, there's so much here, I hate
starting in the end of a letter, but here we go. Therefore, in
verse 13 of chapter 14 to the church in Rome, therefore, let
us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide
never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a
brother. I know that I am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing
is unclean in itself. But it is unclean for anyone
who thinks it's unclean. For if your brother is grieved
by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love by what you eat. Do not destroy the one for whom
Christ died. So do not let what you regard
as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not
a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is
acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue
what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for
the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed
clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what
he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything
that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have keep
between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no
reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever
has doubts is condemned if he eats because the eating is not
from faith for whatever does not proceed from faith to sin.
Oh, Lord. That text is tough. But it is
so liberating. Let's look at it verse by verse.
Verse 13, therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another
any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block
or hindrance in the way of the brother. Now, there have been
a lot of commentary and commentation and thoughts on this particular
issue, especially when it comes to the consumption of alcohol.
It's funny that never in my life have I ever had a Bible study
or a pulpit that ever taught me that we could put a bunch
of things in this place. It's always comes to the use
of alcohol in this particular passage. And for the reason being,
is I think that that was probably one of the biggest things other
than meat served to idols and certain types of unclean foods
that were unclean to the Levites in the days of the priesthood.
But the issue here is what we have in our day is that they're
dealing specifically with alcohol in today's culture. But it says,
do not pass judgment on one another any longer. In other words, judgment
in the sense that I'm looking at you and you're looking at
me and we know what's in each other's hearts. And we're saying,
well, I know where you stand and I know where you stand. Well, you can't
be a Christian because you're eating that. Well, I know you're not
saved. You don't have the Holy Spirit
in you because you just drank a glass of wine. Well, I know, I know
you can't. You can't be a Christian if you
eat Krispy Kreme doughnuts. There's no way the devil makes
those things. I saw him back there. Dipping
his finger in the sugar and pouring it over the thing. Yeah, that's
my aunt Lucy. That's not the devil. Well, she
looked like the devil. You know, but when it comes to
alcohol, don't we go there, some of us go, you're a sinner, you're
not saved, and some of us go, but I'm really saved because
I don't drink. And then those who think it's OK, look at those
who say it's not OK. And then the next thing you know,
it's an absolute horrible disunity, which is exactly what the enemy
hopes to do in the life of the church. Is to use something as
stupid as alcohol, as insignificant, that if we never drink again,
we've lost nothing. If we say we have, we really
got a problem with an idolatry. Yeah, there used to be a time,
man, man, if I couldn't have doughnuts or sweet tea, I'd die. But Jesus is bigger than that.
He's bigger than all of this. So we have to be careful, verse
13, to avoid spiritual failure in another. For instance, there
is what we call the weaker and the stronger Christian. The stronger
Christian is one who has firm convictions that are more in
line with grace and instead of legalism. Now, let me explain
this to you. The stronger Christian is the one who understands that
they can have a glass of wine without sinning and that it's
OK. To do so, the weaker Christian
is the one that thinks it's sinful to drink wine. And who is God?
Who is Paul saying should take the higher road? The stronger
Christian. Pay attention. Because what is it all about?
Why are we why does God not just take us to eternity when we get
saved? Because we're here to glorify
him, to the praise of his glory. To unify and to be forgiving
and repenting. for the rest of our natural lives
so that we might help each other finish the race. This body that
we live in, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us
and gave himself for us. Those are the words of Paul.
And those should be the words of the church today. And that
we are living here not for our pleasure, but for God's purpose. And these churches who teach
that the purpose of God is for the pleasure of man, they're
liars. They're liars. How do I know
that? Jesus, go tell Saul how much
he's going to suffer for my namesake. Then Paul tells Timothy and Peter
and all the Jews, Jewish Christians, he says, you're going to suffer.
Do it with joy. You're not going to live a life
of happiness in this world. For when you are called out,
the world hates me. Who do you think you are? The
world's going to hate you because you're in me. Embrace it. Run with it. But we've got in
our mind that this world is about us when we get off work. And
it's about us enjoying our time together. And it's about our
children growing up in a safe place. And friends, I'm as guilty. I'm saying stuff like that because
it's how God is dealing with me. certain areas of my life
as a parent, as a father. It was the best for his children,
you know, the best for my children is is to suffer for the glory
of God. Katie reminded me this morning,
you know, we're never going to really have nice things as long
as you're a pastor, daddy. Really? I think you've got too
many nice things that you don't know what nice things are. Y'all come, y'all come to my
house and you tell me. If we've got nice things, if
my children have nice things, I think they do too many. But see, that's where we focus,
we don't focus on the idea that we are not here so that we might
enjoy our lives, but we're here to build each other up. Do not
be a hindrance. Do not be careful. Let me do this in the positive.
I've been trying to say, how do I say this in the positive? Be careful
to avoid spiritual failure in another person. Verse 14, because I know and
I am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.
In other words, I will use that in the context of alcohol. I
know and I am persuaded by the Holy Spirit of God that it's
OK for me to drink wine. That's what Paul's saying, because
it's clean. It's not a it's not an evil thing.
God has made it. But it is a sin for those who
think it is. So now it's relativism, Pastor,
now it's whatever we think, now it's whatever we believe. Oh,
this is true for me, but it's not true for you. That's what
it sounds like. What are you doing here? You're talking out of both
sides of your mouth. Friends, listen to Paul. He wrote he writes
in a rhetorical form of contrast. He's showing the polar opposites
of both things. And he's saying not what you
do or not do is sinful or not sinful or clean or unclean. But
he's saying you missed the point. We read right over what's important
and we see what we want to hear. We read right over this. I am persuaded in the Lord Jesus. The word persuaded means strongly
drawn by the power of God. OK, that this is OK, not strongly
drawn by my analogies or by my rationale or by my logic or by
my culture, by my upbringing. I was strongly drawn by my upbringing
against alcohol for my entire life. And for me, that wasn't
OK. And so my even my view on it
was legalistic and it had nothing to do with the persuasion of
God. And so now I am persuaded in my soul that it's OK to partake
in alcohol as a Christian, but I'm also equally persuaded that
James Tiffins will never drink a drop. For him. For me, you see what I'm saying,
why, because the Lord, it's about the spirit of God persuading
us and convicting us. How do you know that? Because
he tells us back in verses 21 through 23, he deals with that
in a minute. But let's keep going. And so
we have to understand, verse 14, that things that God has
provided for the purpose of food and drink are not bad, but that
what is bad is our passion and our use and our lust over these
things that are bad. Like I've already said, culture
can make light of our liberties and can make light of the things
and then therefore they become fleshly. I said, OK, that's no
big deal. It is a big deal. It is a big
deal. And at the same time, we don't
ruin each other's conviction, look at verse four, 15, for if
your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking
in love. Now, friends in the Greek, you
know what that says, if you eat what your brother is convicted
of not eating, you're a hater, you're a liar. Oh, yeah. How do we deal with that? Where
do you get that? That James, you're just you're preaching
in your personal interest. No, I'm not. John says in his
first epistle, if anyone says I love God and hates his brother,
is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has
seen cannot love God whom he has not seen, and it continues
in chapter two, that was in chapter four. Back before then, he says
in chapter two, whoever says I know him, but does not keep
his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But
whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected. The love of God is perfected
by this, we may know that we are in him. John's own words,
because I care about the brothers and the sisters more than I care
about my liberties, more than I care about what's going on
in my life. Paul says that I'm going to take and I will lay
down and he fights for his rights. Don't think Paul doesn't stand
up in an argument of sense and say, I have the right. I have
the right. Don't tell me I can't. I have
the right. He says I have the right to marry.
And so does Barnabas. Don't you tell me I can't get
married. I will if I want to. But God has called me to singleness. It's not a sin for me to get
married. It's a sin for me to disobey God. And it's a sin for
me to tell you to be single and that kind of crap's going on
right now for some young people. Right here in this area where
people have got a good constituency of 20 and 21, 22 year olds, and
they're telling them to stay single because that's what the
Bible teaches. Let's just jump a little side there. The issue
here is this is not legalism, but the fruit of righteousness.
The question is, do we hunger for righteousness? And friends,
it may not even be an issue for alcohol for you. It may be an
issue of something else. It may be an issue of what you
watch on television or the clothes that you wear. It may be an issue
of what you enjoy in the context of our worship services or the
kind of music or the kind of preaching you might look at on
the television on Sunday afternoons or on Saturday nights or Friday
mornings. It might be the type of books that you like to read.
It's not legalism, it's the fruit of righteousness. Do we hunger
for righteousness? Verse 16. So do not let what
you regard as good be spoken of as evil. What does that mean? Correct it. Can you hear that? Correct it. Well, it is a sin to drink. Christian
can't drink. No, no, no, no, no, no. Don't
say that. It's a sin to be drunk. It's
a sin to long after alcohol. It's a sin to think that that's
the only way you can enjoy yourself. It's a sin to think that you
got to escape and it's a sin to use it as a way to go to sleep.
It's a sin to use it. You know what I'm saying? The same thing could be said
about the marriage bed. You could be addicted to sex.
You could be addicted to Bible study. You could be addicted
to wisdom. I have to say that if you were
addicted to Bible study, you probably wouldn't have much negative consequences.
But you could love study more than you did, Jesus. So what
does it mean for you, what what are you looking at, what legalism
has jumped into your life and is holding you bondage? I cannot
do that. See, that's not what Grace says,
Grace says, I can, but I don't have to. And therefore, I'm not
because it's not beneficial for me. Verse 16 through 19, basically. They're saying to be careful
not to ruin your witness. Don't ruin your witness. Do not
let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. Don't destroy
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't throw away the greatness
of the cross because of your stand on an issue that has no
eternal value. Be careful, Paul says to the
church in Corinth. For though I am free from all,
I have made myself a slave to all." You see the difference? Those are Jesus' words. Nobody's
putting me on the cross. I'm putting myself on the cross.
Jocaphas, he said, I'm not here because of you or them. I'm here because he delivered
me to you. And I have the power to take
my life up again. I'm going to put it on a cross. And I'm going
to take it up again. I gave you myself. You understand
that people? That's what Jesus was trying
to help them see. Paul is saying. I'm free. But I'm going to become
a slave to all that, why, why, why, why do we want to be a slave
to all that I might win more of them to what to the gospel? That's why you're here, Christian,
you're not here for your happy little house and your happy little
home and your happy little job and your happy little future.
You're not here so that when you get to be 150 or however
long you live. You're not here to at the end
of your life to look what I've done, you're not your own anymore,
you don't. It's OK. Yeah, we get tired in
the work. There have been many years that
I've been tired in ministry. And many years that I didn't
serve with joy. Which is the sin, as we learned just a few
weeks ago. But there are many times that we serve and we pour
ourselves out. But is that not what the example
of the saints of Scripture? We pour ourselves out. Paul actually
used that term in Second Timothy as being poured out like a drink
offering. And my run is done. My race is almost finished. And
I'm enduring and I have endured and I'm so thankful that I stayed
with the faith. And Timothy, you're going to
suffer like this. Hold fast. Hold fast to the confession of
hope. Hold fast to Christ. Hold fast to our high priest.
Finish the race. And as long as you are alive,
breathe breath of life through the Word of God to the gospel
of peace and to the people around you so that they might hold fast
to that confession as well, so that they don't look and go and
fall into the things that ensnare us, as it says in Hebrews 12,
to be careful. To not trip up on all the things,
but run past and disentangle yourself from the sin that so
easily ensnares and trips us up and keeps us from finishing.
Well, how do you know if you're even enduring? I don't know.
Where's the word of God in your life? That's the biggest thing
for me. When's the last time you studied the scripture? Or
is this a last ditch effort? Or is this what you're hungry
for when you wake up before you even eat breakfast? And where do you get that, James?
Well, because it's the example of every believer that are written
in these pages. They hungered for His Word. Because
you hunger for Him, you hunger for the Word. Jesus isn't an
experience. Jesus isn't a feeling. Jesus
isn't a warm fuzzy. Jesus is God Almighty. By the
power of His mouth spoke and the universe left into existence.
And He afforded us the privilege of repentance, gave us the eyes
to believe, gave us a heart to love and then set us in this
earth so that He might be glorified. So at the end of time, the perfect
returns and we stand holy. And He says, well done. My good and faithful servant.
Jesus is not the map to the treasure. He is the treasure. It's a man
and he was in a field and he found a treasure and he put the
treasure back and he goes and he sells everything he's got,
all of it, so that he might buy that field. For he knew the value
of the treasure. And there's a man and he was
looking for pearls and he found an oyster and he opens it up
and he found the pearl of great price, of great value. And he
closed it back up and he goes and he sells everything he's
got so he could buy that one oyster because the pearl inside
was priceless. Jesus, those are his parables.
And he is the pearl, he is the treasure, he is he is the one
who is most valuable, and if he's not your treasure, something
else is your hope. If something else is your treasure,
please hear me. Be saved today by trusting in
the grace of God alone, by faith. Trust that He is the only way
you'll ever have joy. And you, friend, can keep hunting
and searching and fighting and begging and changing and moving. You can do everything. You'll
never find fulfillment in life. This life is nothing but a vapor
of garbage. And it is going to pass away.
And all that you accomplish is going to be nothing. And all
that you will be left with is a man. And his name is Jesus. And he'll stand before you. Look
at Hebrews chapter 12. We just got through this. He
says, I will shake again the foundations of the earth. And
all that will be left is my glory. What is the glory of God? Look
at John. We've seen the glory of the man Jesus. And we will
stand before him. What is pulling our heart strings? Is it Jesus? Verse 17, For the
kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I almost
just preached that verse this morning. I almost preached that verse
this morning. And when I got that verse this week, about two
in the morning one night, I like to broke my chair to get up to
get a pad. Just because I'm reading it, I'm looking at it. That's
it. Let me take out what isn't needed there. The kingdom of
God is of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The
kingdom of God is about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit. So you can say the kingdom of
God is not everything else can go in that blank blank, but of. The kingdom of God is not a matter
of alcohol. The kingdom of God is not a matter
of children. The kingdom of God is not a matter of career. The
kingdom of God is not a matter of church work. The kingdom of
God is not a matter of this. The kingdom of God is not a matter...
You just think of anything on the count of three. Think of
a word and stick it in there and it works. Unless it's righteousness, peace
and the joy of the Holy Spirit. Or any relative terms that are
similar to that. Like Jesus Christ. For he is
righteousness. The righteousness of God. And
peace in the church is the righteousness of God. For he gave us the privilege
to become the righteousness of God. And so we see that, be careful,
be careful not to ruin your witness, be careful to avoid spiritual
failure in another, be careful not to ruin another due to their
conviction. I didn't even look at that. I
didn't even mention that. Look at verse 15. If your brothers
grieve by what you eat, you're no longer walking in love. By
what you eat, do not destroy. You know what that is in the
Greek? Destroy. Ruin, the word there
is utter ruin, the one for whom Christ died. What does that mean?
In other words, you can so shake the faith of someone else that
they may not have grace. And friends, people who are legalistic
in their ways and go and the people who have a list of what
the stuff they can't do, nine times out of 10 are not saved.
Those people, nine times out of 10, are not saved because
they've yet to understand grace and by faith, trust in Christ.
And they look at a Christian who decides they want to drink
a glass of wine and they go, that Christian there is, oh my
Lord, they're not a Christian. So what should our response be?
Our response should be, I'm going to pour my wine out for your sake
because I love you and your soul. And I want to take you under
my arms. And I'm not going to get you drunk with wine so you'll
see my place. I'm going to abstain from wine even though I have
the liberty to drink it because I love you more than I love me. So what verse 17 is saying, be
careful to love and to pursue righteousness above pleasure,
pride and the flesh. Philippians 111, filled with
the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to
the glory and praise of God. Joy is the goal. Christ is the
mark that should be our focus. Verse 18 and 19, serving Christ
is the goal of the body, not our flesh or our desires, but
we're to build up whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to
God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes
for peace and mutual up building. We must pursue the building up
of the body of Christ. Paul says of the Church of Philippi
in chapter two, that you may be blameless and innocent children
of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted
generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. Isn't
that beautiful? Because only God can do that.
Only God can give us that righteousness that in the midst of a twisted
generation, and crooked and twisted generation. You are going to
be the children of God without blemish. And you would shine
as lights in the world. Ephesians 4, 3, Be eager to maintain
the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. But that's not
our nature, is it? Our nature is to get our rights
and lay them out there. You offended me, I'm going to
show you. You disagree with me, I'm going to prove you wrong.
I'm going to prove myself right. But that's not the mark of a
believer. The mark of a believer is, I'll be wrong so that you
may see the love of God. Don't believe that, read sixth
chapter of 1st Corinthians. And if you haven't studied that
in a while, Wednesday night, seven o'clock. Verse 20 and 21, be careful not
to ruin the work of God. Now, I don't want to get into
this theological debate here. But what God is doing through
his word and through his saints. Listen to what Paul says, do
not for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is
indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble
by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat. It
is good not to drink wine. It is good not to do anything
that causes your brother to stumble. So what is it that we should
do? Be careful not to ruin the work
of God. And as I think about this and I'm putting some things
in here that may not truly be there, but think about it. We ruin the work of God through
our testimony. We ruin the work of God through the testimony
of the church, the disunity of the church, we ruin the work of God through
our pride, we ruin the work of God in our own minds and hearts,
and that we are cold to his word and don't even care about what's
in it anymore because we are so bound and determined to be
right and to get our way. That we twist it to the point
that we know better to go in it. We ruin it. In verse 22, be careful not to
give up on your liberties. Don't throw them in the trash.
The faith that you have, keep. But keep it where? Between you
and God. See, it's difficult. And as your pastor, I guess I
need to share, you know, as I share, I won't drink. Don't do it because
I said I wouldn't. Because if I'm in Germany or
Australia somewhere and somebody offers me wine at a table and
where's the tea or where's the water? I don't know what I'd
do. I'd have to see. I would like to say I probably
wouldn't. I'd hate to be my first experience with consumption of
alcohol in another country. But that's like going to our
Muslim friends and eating pork at their table. And you realize
that when we have our fellowships, we don't provide any pork. Even
the ham is turkey. Because we have Muslims that
come and fellowship with us and we can tell them all this meat
is fine for you to eat. How horrible would it be for
us to have a pig over a pit? And carve it up and eat it in
front of them, they go, oh, my God, they're eating an unclean
animal. And we go, would y'all just grow
up? Y'all are so stupid, if y'all just get saved and realize you
can eat this. That's what we do. Don't give
up on your liberties, but most importantly, don't brag on them.
Whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats because the eating
is not from faith for whatever does not proceed from faith to
sin. I just want to. Take a second and close with
this. There's a lot of ways that I
could explain this, there's a lot of more pages to my thoughts
today. But I'll tell you this. You can
change your thoughts on things. You can follow a list of rules.
You can do some things in life. But if God hasn't called you
to do them by faith, trusting in him first. Then to do these
things just because the culture dictates or because you feel
like it's OK or you feel like it's not OK, it's not an issue
of faith and therefore it is sinful. And so I will say this
and then we can move on. Everything that we do, I used
to say that everything we do in the life and our lives as
Christians is a spiritual issue, is spiritual in nature. That's
not true. But everything that we do should be an issue of faith.
How we spend our time, money, talents, how we serve, how we
love, how we eat should be an issue of faith. God, is this
enough? Is this what I should be doing?
Is this what I should be eating? Is this beneficial for me? And
is it beneficial not? For me, but is it mostly beneficial
if I do this for others? It's beneficial for my family.
It's beneficial for my testimony. Nine to 15, half a million people,
half a million children a year become alcoholics between the
age of nine and 15. Or maybe it was more than that. You can change your thoughts.
I may change my thoughts, but you must have good reason to do so.
But on alcohol, I don't have this conviction. So my conviction
on alcohol is that if it's beneficial for the glory of God and for
the gospel of Jesus Christ, then do it. Because here's the issue. Holiness
is the mark. Holiness is the mark. Holiness
is the mark. It is the focus. It is the purpose.
It is the end. It is the ultimate. The Jesus
is the. prize, Jesus is righteousness,
holiness should be what we strive for. And so with that. Holiness comes
with soundness, sound teaching, sound thinking, sound minds not
being controlled, Paul says in Ephesians, don't be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk
on wine for that's debauchery, but be filled with the spirit.
Romans 12, 2. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern
what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. All things are lawful for me.
Matter of fact, this is the verse, this one verse we're dealing
with this Wednesday. All things are lawful for me, but not all
things are helpful. It's a Stoic quote. All things are lawful
for me, but I am not enslaved by anything. See that we should be slaves
to righteousness, not food and drink. Not prosperity and peace,
not hope and happiness, but righteousness, holiness. Our hope is in Christ,
not the escape and the feeling of food and drink. But far be
it for me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus,
by which the word, the world has been crucified to me and
I to the world. Paul speaking to the church in
Galatia. Boasting in the cross does not
say, I think I need a drink or I need to relax or I'll have
this or I'd love to eat that. Boasting in the cross says that
that stuff is no consequence to me. I don't care if it's there
or not, for my joy rests and my hope rests and my peace rests
in Christ. How do we know that, Pastor?
How do we know that we have peace? Because Jesus says in Matthew
6, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. Whether what
you eat or what you drink or about your body, what you put
on it. It's not life more than food and not body more than clothing.
And he says, look at the birds of the air. They have what they
need. They don't gather everything
up and sit with anticipation of starvation. Why are you anxious
about what you wear? Why are you anxious about your
food? Even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one
of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which
is the lot today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven. Will
he not much more clothe you, O you people of little faith?
Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat or
what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek
after these things, and their Heavenly Father knows that you
need them all. But here's the solitude of the verse. Here's
the key. Seek first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness.
And I'm going to give you the understanding, we say all these
things, here's what it means. Then everything you need, you
already have. Do not be anxious about tomorrow
for tomorrow, be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day
is its own trouble. What holds you slave in this
life? Is it righteousness or is it
something else? Are you able to say, Lord, Lord, and know
that Christ is your sufficiency, are you able to say, Lord, Lord,
I got to hang on to this or Lord, Lord, I'm going to run after
that or Lord, Lord, I need this or Lord, Lord, and I want that.
Well, listen to the words of Jesus. Not everyone who says
to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the
one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. And on that
day, many will say to me, Lord, do we not prophesy? Do we not
cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name?
And then He will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you
workers of lawlessness. See, God's will for us is to
be adopted as His perfect children. To be holy and set apart for
Him. So this is an issue of what you
can and can't do. It's an issue of the heart. It's an issue of
faith. Do you have faith in Christ or
are you putting faith in something else? Because honestly, if you
were honest today, that is the crux of everything we choose
in life. It's either an issue of faith in us or it or an issue
of faith in the sufficiency of the cross of Jesus Christ. And for the true believer, Jesus
fights like a jealous groom. And when we give love to other
things, we're adulterers, we're idolaters, we're sleeping around
on Jesus. He pursues us and we push Him
out the door. And He pursues us and we file
for divorce. And He pursues us and we tell
Him we don't love Him anymore. And yet, He still lays His life
down. And we don't deserve it. Are we ready? Are we truly lovers
of our bridegrooms? Are we brides? Are we the bride
of Christ? Spotless and blameless. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, He predestined
us for adoption as sons through Christ Jesus, according to the
purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which
He has blessed us in the beloved. Friends, you've got it. You've
got it. If you understood what I just
read, you've got it. And if you didn't understand what I just
read to you, your heart's calloused. And your mind is focused on other
things. And the Lord is calling you today
to listen and hear.