The NXR Podcast - DAILY TRUTH - The Christian & Alcohol

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00:00:19.620 Jesus said,

00:00:20.740 Man cannot live on bread alone, but from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

00:00:25.380 You're listening to Daily Truth.

00:00:30.500 So, let's begin with not a drunkard.

00:00:32.840 This is the front side of the second page of your notes, Roman numeral number nine.

00:00:38.340 Not a drunkard, some translations say, not given to wine.

00:00:42.380 Now, the Bible does not prohibit all drinking.

00:00:45.440 And that's the position of the elders and I here at the Response Church.

00:00:49.340 Now, some, as I mentioned last week, there are some pastors who are absolutely faithful

00:00:53.080 and that we absolutely honor and respect that would disagree.

00:00:56.180 And that's okay.

00:00:57.000 And they're going to attempt to bind the consciences, not through domineering, not through coercion, but through persuasion.

00:01:03.980 They're going to attempt to bind the consciences of the members of their church, and it's well within their pastoral rights through persuasion, not coercion, but persuasion to do so.

00:01:13.780 And we honor that, we respect that, we recognize that, and we're not going to give them a hard time.

00:01:19.620 But we also, likewise, have the right, as a plurality of elders, as an elder team of this local flock, to say,

00:01:25.320 well, this is what we see in the Word of God.

00:01:27.360 This is what we think the right position should be.

00:01:30.580 And so in regards to an elder,

00:01:32.240 the qualification of not being a drunker,

00:01:34.640 not given to wine,

00:01:36.460 we see a biblical theology of alcohol, if you will.

00:01:39.920 We would say that the Bible does not prohibit all drinking.

00:01:42.440 In fact, to the contrary,

00:01:45.240 the scripture actually affirms the goodness of alcohol.

00:01:48.860 Here's one verse from Psalm chapter 104, verses 14 and 15.

00:01:53.620 It says, you, speaking to God, the psalmist speaking to God, you cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man.

00:02:07.820 Who does all this?

00:02:09.300 God does all this.

00:02:10.940 God is the one who waters the earth.

00:02:12.600 He's the one who produces crops so that man can eat.

00:02:14.860 He's the one who produces wheat and barley and all these things so that the livestock have provision.

00:02:19.920 And God, the same God who waters the earth so that he might providentially provide for his creatures, his creation, both man and beast, he also, this same God, produces from the earth wine for the purpose of gladdening the heart of man.

00:02:39.060 This is a positive conveying of alcohol.

00:02:44.720 So the Bible actually does speak positively to the goodness of alcohol when used in a proper way.

00:02:52.740 However, the Bible also warns, to be fair, of the dangers of alcohol.

00:02:58.180 Here's another verse.

00:02:59.040 This is Proverbs chapter 20, verse 1.

00:03:00.920 It says,

00:03:01.740 Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated,

00:03:06.060 notice that, key word, intoxicated by it, is not wise.

00:03:11.780 So what can we glean from this?

00:03:13.160 Well, we can see that drunkenness is clearly a sin for all Christians.

00:03:17.260 We find this elsewhere in Galatians chapter 5, verse 21.

00:03:20.360 But it is a disqualifying sin for an elder.

00:03:24.320 And we see this in the verse that we're looking at right now, namely 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 3.

00:03:30.080 Now, as I've already said, just to remind you, I've said this last week and the week prior.

00:03:34.960 But in a nutshell, the difference between elders and all followers of Jesus, elders and Christians,

00:03:40.780 is in a nutshell we could say an elder must be all these things which if we were to sum them all up

00:03:48.980 it would simply be spiritual maturity so an elder must be spiritually mature and a christian

00:03:54.180 should be spiritually mature so so all of god's people should not be given to wine

00:04:00.220 and we take that to mean and our understanding looking at multiple commentaries not given to

00:04:05.880 drunkenness and and not even close to drunkenness there is command after command after command in

00:04:12.640 scripture especially in the face of opposition especially in these last days this church age

00:04:20.300 where the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour we take the

00:04:25.660 commands of scripture to be sober-minded and alert and watchful to mean that not only should a

00:04:32.620 christian not get drunk but a christian shouldn't even be close now i'm going to say one more thing

00:04:37.160 in this regard i have noticed that that the word drunk as it is used this vernacular as it is used

00:04:46.440 by christians seems to be different in the way from the way that it's used by non-christians

00:04:53.620 because non-christians there's there's not necessarily something to be ashamed of right

00:04:58.360 they're not holding to the same standard the word of god that we're holding to and so they

00:05:02.340 don't have the inclination, the temptation to avoid drunkenness. They don't feel like,

00:05:09.460 I can't be drunk because the Bible says, well, if they're not a Christian, they don't care.

00:05:13.840 So there's not that hindrance or that propensity to, I don't want to be drunk because the Bible

00:05:20.760 says drunkenness is a sin. If you're not a Christian, then drunkenness is not something

00:05:24.980 to be ashamed of. In many ways, in our culture today, especially among young people, drunkenness

00:05:29.500 is a point of pride, right? Last weekend we got hammered, right? So it's something to boast about.

00:05:35.360 Here's the deal though. I have noticed that if we were to pair these side by side, comparing and

00:05:40.720 contrasting, the Christian and the lost, the lost person might drink seven beers and say,

00:05:49.180 last weekend was awesome, I got hammered. And the Christian would say, who also drank seven beers,

00:05:54.820 would say, I was tipsy.

00:05:58.180 Have you noticed that?

00:05:59.460 So the Christian, what I've noticed

00:06:00.720 is because drunkenness is a sin,

00:06:02.760 clearly in scripture,

00:06:03.780 what the Christian will instinctively do

00:06:05.720 is have the lost people

00:06:07.760 because they don't have this problem.

00:06:08.900 They're not trying to avoid drunkenness

00:06:10.040 because they're not ultimately trying to adhere

00:06:12.220 to the standards of the word of God.

00:06:13.540 So the lost person is,

00:06:15.140 they're just sober and drunk.

00:06:16.980 That's it.

00:06:17.860 For the Christian, there's buzzed and there's tipsy

00:06:20.120 and then there's, you know what I mean?

00:06:21.360 Have you noticed that?

00:06:22.880 Right, because we don't want to say

00:06:24.560 that we were intoxicated

00:06:25.440 because we know that that's a sin.

00:06:27.000 So again, I would just provide that for you,

00:06:29.740 some pastoral counsel there,

00:06:31.480 and just saying,

00:06:32.880 the last time you were tipsy,

00:06:36.280 maybe to kind of,

00:06:37.780 to more objectively measure

00:06:39.760 whether or not you were actually tipsy or drunk,

00:06:42.440 if you have a non-Christian friend,

00:06:45.320 ask them what they would have called that.

00:06:47.920 It's very likely they would have called it

00:06:49.780 blackout drunk.

00:06:51.580 And you're calling it a little buzzed.

00:06:53.640 Let's consider that.

00:06:56.120 The Bible doesn't just say, don't get blackout drunk, right?

00:06:59.720 The Bible says, avoid intoxication.

00:07:02.240 That's the prohibition.

00:07:04.320 But then what the Bible speaks positively to is sober-mindedness.

00:07:09.280 So if the Bible commands, and it doesn't just suggest, it commands sober-mindedness.

00:07:14.580 So if the Bible positively commands sober-mindedness, and then negatively prohibits drunkenness,

00:07:20.800 We have to consider which, if it's two sides, if you will, to two polar ends, which one should we be striving as the people of God to be closer to?

00:07:31.960 Like, here is intoxication, and so I'm going to just live my life right here.

00:07:37.620 Or, if the Bible doesn't just prohibit intoxication, but it also positively commands, not suggests, but commands sober-mindedness, alertness, watchfulness, then the Christian should be living over here.

00:07:49.200 now again i don't think that that means a christian can never drink but we should consider

00:07:53.940 this carefully alcohol is is something that is there's a goodness god speaks to the goodness

00:07:59.260 of alcohol but god also speaks to the immense danger and and we need to be careful with that

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The NXR Podcast - December 01, 2022

DAILY TRUTH - The Christian & Alcohol

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