Wine and Strong Drink (Part 3)

[00:00:00] All right. Proverbs 20, verse one. And then also the main part of our subject will be from proverbs 31. So if you will go to proverbs 31. And I'm going to ask. Well, I'll read proverbs 20, verse one, just as a review. [00:00:23] Okay, you. Let's pray together. And then I'll read proverbs, chapter 20. Our father, thank you for the opportunity to assemble together as your people. To study your word and to understand, to dive deep into your truth, to know what the Bible says, to know what you have spoken, to know what your will is. Lord, we don't know what your will is apart from what you've told us. And, Lord, you've told us a great deal that will keep us occupied for a long time. [00:00:56] But, Lord, especially we thank you for the gospel that your will was to save sinners. And that your will is now to save sinners. Most evidently seen by the cross by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, Lord, we pray your blessing upon our Sunday school today. And upon Sister Pam and Sister Priscilla. And that you'd bless them. And the kids down there that are also studying the word. And trying to be encouraged with what the scripture says. Bless them, Lord. And I pray for those that are listening in that you would help them, Lord, to be attentive to your word just the same. And to glean truth from it and to grow by it. And, Lord, we also pray that you would bless those that are sick. I think especially of the McLean's. And give grace to Sister Angela and the Baruch family there. And Sister Mark and brother Mark. Lord, help them. And those others among us that are sick. I think especially of Sister Pitt, Judy Pitt and Woody. Please help them. And whoever else might be sick, I'm unaware of. Please bless them. Keep them, heal them quickly. Lord. [00:02:07] Lord, we pray for our church. That your blessing would rest upon it. Even as we meet together today. Lord, please help our hearts to be focused. And to just be, as it were, sanctified to hear your word this morning. And not only that, but also to fellowship with one another. And to encourage one another and exhort one another. But also to give you praise and to give you worship. Even as we sing in Jesus name, we ask. Amen. [00:02:37] So last week we were in proverbs 20, verse one. At least that's where we started. We talked about a mocker. Somebody tell me what a mocker is. A mocker? [00:02:51] Somebody's going to say, one who mocks, right? Okay, what does that mean? Come on. [00:02:57] Ridicules. Exactly. And what we looked at, wine is a mocker because of what it does to the person. In other words, the person drinks it and then does things that appear comical. [00:03:10] And wine, the picture is that wine is standing to the side and saying, look at you. Look what I've done to you. Look at how foolish you're acting and mocking the person who drank it. And then we also saw how it is raging. Now, going back to the mocker, I don't know if I mentioned this last week off the top of my head, but actually, I think I did in Genesis 21, verse nine. [00:03:40] In fact, let me just peek back at that just so I make sure I tell you the right thing. Obviously, Genesis 21, verse number nine says about Sarah and Abraham and about Hagar, her son, who was Ishmael, who mocked little Isaac when Isaac was first born, and that is poking fun at him. And there's all kinds of other verses that could be used. You think of lot's, what happened with Lot and his daughters, all because of alcohol. And you think of what happened with Noah right after the flood and his sons there, all because of mean. You could just go on and on and on, the shameful things that happen as a result of alcohol. And that's true, of course, to this day. So that's one facet. And then you have wine is a mocker, and strong drink is raging. Raging is a reference to anger and violence and fury. And we saw how that these two things, mockery and raging anger, are usually the two ways that alcohol affects. Affects people. One of two ways. Either it either makes them silly and giddy, or it makes them angry. [00:04:58] And I'm sure you've seen things like that in your own personal life. That is, you've observed yourself. [00:05:08] And then the last part of the verse says, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. And the thing to take away from that is you could look, there's many layers to this idea of deception. [00:05:20] There's not just one. There's different facets to it. There is deception, because the effect of wine is to inhibit the judgment, right? And that starts from the very beginning. From the very start of when a person begins to drink alcohol, the judgment is progressively inhibited. In other words, the ability to judge rightly becomes less and less and less. [00:05:46] And it is at that moment that the person must decide how much they're going to drink. But the problem is that judgment at that moment is already inhibited. So it's kind of a self defeating a cycle that is always going to end up poorly. It always does, because the very judgment by which we judge how much we should drink is itself inhibited. [00:06:15] That's one of the aspects of the deception of wine and strong drink alcohol. Another deception that is common, and these are just meditating things that you observe, as you observe people, is people think, they know, people think that alcohol will not or does not affect them like it affects other people. And they're just wrong. They're just wrong. In other words, they think, have you ever seen those people that are getting ready to have surgery? They have videos and things. Or maybe you've had surgery and you've heard people say, or on the videos, they'll say, oh, well, whatever that white medicine is that they inject to make you go to, like, Elmer's glue. And I was in surgery with Josh when he had surgery on his neck, and I was in the room when they put him to sleep. And you can't fight that. [00:07:14] You could try all you want, but when they put that stuff in you, you're going to sleep no matter what. That's kind of the way alcohol is, is you could fight it. You could say, it doesn't affect me. You can whatever. You're only deceiving yourself. It will control you and it will cause evil things, cause you to do evil things and cause evil things to happen unto you. So that's the deception of alcohol. Now, I'll say this several times today, because we have to say it in the christian world today. [00:07:47] It's just such a mess. It's just such a mess because basically people want to have liberty to do anything and everything unless there is a thou shalt not that forbids it. In other words, there's no consideration of anything else. In other words, I'm going to do this unless God just says plainly, thou shalt not do it. [00:08:15] And no consideration is given to whether something is wise. [00:08:21] No consideration. And I'll give you an example. You have a perfectly good car, right? You have a perfectly good car, and you're also a person that doesn't have a lot of extra money. [00:08:35] If you have a perfectly good car and you don't have a lot of extra money, then you probably should not be going out and getting a car loan right now. Does the Bible say, thou shalt not get a car loan? No, you're not going to find it black and white like that. But the aspects of wisdom, as seen especially in proverbs and Romans and other places, the aspects of wisdom should weigh in and influence that decision, right. It should have a part in it. But to somebody, listen to somebody that has a destination that they want to be at, a place they want to go, where they want to end up, no amount of wisdom is going to stop them. That's the thing. Nothing is going to stop them. If they want that 2024, whatever, that's $70,000, they are going to find a way to make it happen. Even if it bankrupts them, even if it makes it so they can't pay their mortgage or their rent or whatever, they're going to do it. [00:09:38] That's what we have to understand about human nature. The same is true of alcohol. [00:09:43] We won't find a verse that says, thou shalt not drink alcohol. But there's a great many truths in scripture that should influence that. [00:09:52] And for a person who has a heart that wants to do the will of God, the truths of scripture, the appeals from wisdom, are going to influence their decisions in that way. [00:10:10] So when you have appeals to wisdom and decisions like that, in decisions like that, to a person who is wise and a person who is honest about God's word and a person who has a desire to do the will of God, that will be enough. But to the person who doesn't, not even a plain scripture verse will stop them from doing it ultimately. [00:10:36] And that will eventually demonstrate their lack of wisdom, and it will also demonstrate what their motivation is. [00:10:46] And so I could give you another example of this facet of human nature, just to illustrate it is issues between husbands and wives. [00:10:58] You're not going to find a Bible verse that says, you will find a Bible verse, thou shalt not commit adultery. We study that. But you're not going to find a Bible verse that says, thou shalt not be alone with a person of the opposite sex. When you're married, you're not going to find that that's not in the Bible. But wisdom dictates that you should be careful. Right? [00:11:18] Well, the people who end up committing adultery and violating the scripture plainly are those who are not careful and do not heed that. That's stupid. I don't care about that or whatever. And there's a lot of things that motivate people like that. But listen, and I say that. I don't mean to sound like, well, that's them. And I know I won't do that, and I'm not subject to that or whatever, whether it be alcohol or any other sin. That's not true. We must use God's wisdom. We need his wisdom in all these things. [00:11:52] So it really, again, goes back to an issue of the heart. All right, now let's look at proverbs 31 and verse number four. [00:12:04] You should already be there. All right. The Bible says, I'm going to start in verse one because there's some things that connect to verse four. The Bible says, the words of King Lemuel, or Lemuel, depending on how you want to say it, the prophecy that his mother taught him, what my son and what the son of my womb, and what the son of my vows, give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. [00:12:38] Now, notice in verse three, the warning is about women. Okay, speaking now, again, this is a mother speaking to her son, who is a king, right. A prince who is royalty. [00:12:55] And then immediately following, the warning about women is, it is not for kings, O Lemuel. It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink. In other words, it's the same kind of structure in verse number three and verse number four. So you have a connection now being made between women and wine. [00:13:19] Women and wine. [00:13:21] And actually, in Cambodia, they have a saying. There's three things that go together. They say, sre, sra, see song, which is Sre is girls, sra is liquor, and sisong is gambling. So in the cambodian mind, those three things go together. And if maybe gambling is not so big of a thing here as it is there, or at least it didn't used to be. But it's getting more. I see a lot of these. What a bookies, what they call them. [00:13:51] Speak up. Speak up. [00:13:53] But, yeah, that kind of getting. That's getting a lot more common. I don't remember hearing about that as much before. [00:14:00] Who remembers the poker machines in the gas stations? That was a big deal, right? It was like a big deal in Greenville when they outlawed that. [00:14:11] But in the Bible, you definitely have a connection between women and wine. Proverbs 23, which we'll study later, probably next week, makes definite connection between women and wine. You'll see why in just a minute. But then there's another thing you can add in there that kind of make up the triad of vice for men, which is women, wine, and wealth. [00:14:37] Those three things often go together. [00:14:41] That's just an observation. So you have proverbs 31. You have the mention of women as far as kings are concerned. Of course, we think of kings as, you can have whatever you want, you can have women or whatever. That's how it's often you see people doing that in the scripture, and then you can have whatever you want. You can have as much wine as you want here. In both cases, the Bible is saying, stop. [00:15:09] So you see the connection. And then verse four, it is not for kings, o la mule. It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. [00:15:23] Okay, we looked at this last week a little bit, but we ran out of time. So I want to look at it more fully this morning. [00:15:32] Now, why in verse four? Well, first of all, let's establish this. Verse four is not saying limit your alcohol consumption. Would everybody look at the verse there and look at it and make sure what it says? Is that verse indicating that you need to be moderate in your alcohol consumption? No. So there is one verse in the Bible where it actually does say, it is not for king. It's a teetotaler verse, we might say. All right, now listen to what Matthew Henry said. I was talking about Matthew Henry earlier. Matthew Henry said this about this verse, he must not drink wine or strong drink to excess. [00:16:17] And then later in the same section, he applies it to christians. Here's what he says. It is not for christians. It is not for christians to drink to excess. [00:16:30] But that verse doesn't say anything about moderation or excess now. [00:16:36] And you might say, well, hopefully no one here would say it, but you might say, well, I'm not a king. I'm not a prince. That's all this applies to. And strictly speaking, that's true. Okay, strictly speaking. But what is the principle being taught here? All right, why are princes. Why are kings singled out and said, and this one in particular is told by his mother, listen, you don't need to touch it. Stay away from it. It is not for you. You know why? Like we said last we saw, we saw last week, a prince. A king is a person of reputation, is a person of honor. They're not a common person. They're a person that others look to for guidance and for an example. [00:17:22] In other words, there's something associated with their person, with their honor, and with their reputation that is different than other people. [00:17:32] They're not a commoner. [00:17:34] And so when that goes into it, you realize that there are others that are looking to them. [00:17:41] There are others that are looking to them. That's the influence part. But really, the core and the crux of this verse is in verse number five, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. So that's the real. Now we know as far as a king, a prince, someone of reputation, and honor in our world, you think of a judge or maybe a senator or congressman, president, something like that. You think of someone who is in a place of authority, someone that is supposed to set an example. [00:18:11] In ideal world, perhaps, but the primary reason the Lord says this is because of the power and of the responsibility that this person has. This person is a person who is supposed to judge rightly. This is a person who is supposed to have wisdom and have the law of God in his mind. [00:18:37] And he's going to be making decisions. This is right, this is wrong. In matters of people, you think of, biblically speaking, a king. He's going to be making those decisions. [00:18:49] Now watch this. [00:18:52] Verse five says, lest they drink and forget the law. [00:18:58] Verse seven, let him drink and forget his poverty. So here you see a factor of alcohol. And this is the problem is alcohol makes you forget, at least in the short term. It makes you forget things that you should remember. [00:19:15] We talk about how it lowers our inhibitions, right? In other words, inhibitions come from remembering things. [00:19:24] Should I do this? Is this right? Is this acceptable? Is this proper for a married man to do, a married woman to do? Is this proper for a christian to do? [00:19:40] These are all things that come of judgment, that come from knowing and remembering God's law. [00:19:47] Okay? That is what is affected, because the two times in parallel, these things say, the alcohol makes you forget. Forget. [00:20:00] Now, as a believer, now, we know as far as this goes, we're not a king, we're not a prince, in the sense of we're not on a throne. [00:20:10] But just hold your place here. If you would look at Leviticus, chapter. Let me find my verse here. It slipped away from me. Chapter ten. Hold your place here, please, and look at Leviticus, chapter ten. I'm going to show you another factor, verse number nine, verse eight and nine. Leviticus, chapter ten. Verse eight and nine. [00:20:41] And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, do not drink wine nor strong drink. Now, are we talking about moderation? No, this is prohibition entirely. Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee. When ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die, it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. [00:21:06] Now, Aaron and his sons were the. [00:21:09] They were the priests, the God ordained priests in the Old Testament. Okay? [00:21:14] So in chapter 31 of proverbs, you have the king. His mother says, not don't drink it to excess, but don't drink it. In Leviticus, there was a law that said no drinking allowed when you go to serve the Lord as a priest. [00:21:32] So that is in the literal sense. But listen to this. [00:21:37] Revelation one five says this. And from Jesus Christ, this is one, four and five I believe. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. So God calls us kings and priests not in the future, but now hath made us us. Now that means right now, if you're a child of God, if you're a man, you're a woman, doesn't matter. Even if you're a child and you're a believer in Christ, you are a king and a priest. Now the fullness of that has not yet been revealed. Now, the priestly part of our spiritual life is something that we have because we intercede for others and we offer spiritual sacrifices to God. Hebrews says that. But the fullness of that hasn't been fully manifested yet. But right now, you're a king and a priest. Now based upon the old testament principles, you can see that because of those roles, right? Their function as a priest, the function as a king, and the honor and reputation that came with that, there are actual prohibitions for total prohibition, what we would call complete abstinence from alcohol. Okay? Now, I know, I'm well aware, and I think anyone who's honest, even though you make this connection, that is not a very good argument from the scripture, but it does present a facet of the argument that's based upon a scriptural principle. Okay? In other words, if you went up to somebody who wanted to drink and you said, why shouldn't christians drink? Because the Bible says they're priests and they're kings. And in the Old Testament, priests and kings weren't supposed to drink alcohol. That's not going to hold water very well. I'm just telling you, even though there is a principle there, there is a principle there. [00:23:46] But let me ask you some questions. [00:23:54] If the king or the prince forgets the law and perverts judgment, then he makes poor decisions, right? The alcohol. And again, remember, we talked about the deception. Let no one say, this is not going to affect me. If I drink a little, it's not going to affect me. That's false. That is part of the deception, okay? [00:24:23] When our judgment is affected, our decisions are affected, okay? That is the reason that in proverbs 31, verse four, the prohibition against alcohol for the kings is mentioned. [00:24:40] Now, I want to ask you a question. [00:24:45] Is there ever a circumstance. [00:24:48] Is there ever any circumstance in which a child of God should put himself in a position in which it is likely for him to forget God's law? [00:25:02] Now, think about it. Is there ever any circumstance in which a child of God should ever put himself in a position in which he is likely to have a lapse in judgment? Don't we have enough trouble with that when we're sober? [00:25:21] Aren't we good and adept at doing stupid, even when we're completely clear minded? [00:25:31] So you ask yourself, all right, what we're doing is we're trying to take scriptural truths and principles and apply them. Now for the king. That's the idea, is king. [00:25:43] You should never be in a place. Look at who you are. Look at what you represent. You should never be in a place where your judgment is clouded or distorted, because that affects a lot of people. [00:25:59] You should never be in a place that belies and brings shame upon your position and your role and your reputation in that place of honor. You should never be in a position where you might cause yourself to forget even a little God's law. So it says, don't touch it. Don't drink it. All right. Now to the Christian, what I'm saying is there's never a time when a Christian should ever be in a place where there's a lapse in judgment like that. [00:26:26] Our entire life is God's right. Every minute, every hour, this neat little way that christians these days like to. Like to kind of cordon off a certain portion of their life that's secular and the other part would be religious. Or worse yet, people that want to come into church and say, oh, I better not say that in church. You better not say it at all, ever. [00:26:50] This idea that somehow we walk in here and certain things are off limits, that aren't off limits, ever. Hold on the scripture, our whole life is God's. [00:27:00] Remember, the Lord is at hand. [00:27:03] That means he's here. When you go out, he's there. So there's never a time, there is never a time when a believer should be in a position where his mind is being affected and his judgment is being affected, because that will. Here's the other reason. This is really important. Please. I know we've talked about this so many times, and I don't do this on purpose, I promise. We talked about the depravity of man so many times. Right. [00:27:35] Listen. [00:27:38] Proverbs 20, verse one ends by saying this. Whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Here's another deception. So we talked about a couple of deceptions already. Here's another one. [00:27:52] When we partake in alcohol, we ignore our own wicked nature. [00:27:59] We forget, because, listen now, the wicked nature that is in us, that is in our flesh, even as a believer, it's there. It's latent. Now, when you're sober and you're walking with God, you got to have those two prerequisites, right? When you're sober and you're walking in fellowship with the Lord, it's not that the wicked nature is not there. Your adamic nature is not there. Oh, it's there. All you must do is just simply stop yielding to the Lord and yield to it, and it will completely take over your life in an instant. Right? But the spirit of God works in us to enable us to walk with him. And when we walk in the spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh, right? That's all these scriptural principles kind of mixed together, but it's still there. [00:28:50] So knowing we have a wicked nature, the problem is that alcohol, when we're inflamed by alcohol, those wicked thoughts and those wicked tendencies that are already there are going to be exposed because the inhibitions are not there like they normally would be. That is the spirit of God's influence on us. And so those wicked things come out. [00:29:19] This is why when someone gets drunk, they say things they wouldn't normally say. [00:29:24] And those fleshly and carnal tendencies that are already there manifest. [00:29:32] You know what? That's a shame and a reproach. Upon the name of Christ. [00:29:38] We as his representatives, priests. Right. We as people upon whom he has put his honor, he has laid his name, called us by his name. There's never a time when our inhibitions like that should be compromised. [00:29:55] That's the principle being taught here. [00:29:59] That is the principle being taught here. And this actually teaches total abstinence from alcohol. [00:30:10] Now, some people look at verse six and verse seven. [00:30:19] It says, give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more. [00:30:32] Now, if you read a commentary, almost every commentary in unison, and they're all going to say the same thing. [00:30:37] In other words, it's okay to give somebody liquor if they're about like a condemned prisoner or somebody who's in severe pain. [00:30:47] In other words, they use these verses as basically a pretext or a reason to use alcohol in a medicinal way. Now, I'm not saying, you shouldn't. That's alcohol used medicinally, is in the scripture. But I don't think that. I am not sold on that idea of what? These verses. To me, these verses. And I've always thought this from the time I first read the verses, all the way up until today, I read these verses. And I, as an individual, again, I could be wrong, but I pick up a little bit of sarcasm in these verses. [00:31:24] The Bible does say plainly that giving wine, giving strong drink to someone who is in poverty, actually worsens his poverty. [00:31:34] All right? [00:31:36] And it actually exacerbates. [00:31:41] Yeah. It makes someone temporarily forget their problems, yes. But ultimately it exacerbates their depression, their misery. That's why I look at this, and I don't necessarily think this is a recommendation for alcohol. To me, it sounds like it's a little bit sarcastic, but I'm open. If someone has a different opinion, I'm open to that. But what I read in the commentaries is not convincing. I can tell you that. All right, look at one more. [00:32:08] If you would look at one Timothy five. [00:32:14] Brother York brought this up to me, and of course, I'm familiar with this verse, but seeing how he brought it up, I thought it would be fitting to cover it, since we're on this subject, even though it is not in proverbs. One Timothy five, verse number 23. Paul speaking to Timothy, he says, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. All right, number one, we have to remember the word wine. [00:32:53] The word wine being used here is not going to be comparing apples to apples to what we call wine in 2024. Okay? They're just not the same thing. The way it's used is differently. We already saw that the Jews would not drink. It was not something that they did to drink undiluted wine. Okay. All right, so let's put that to the side. Whatever you want to argue, and people use this verse all the time. Whatever you want to argue from that verse, you have to first acknowledge that you're actually talking about two different things. Number one. Number one. Number two, the main issue at hand in verse 23, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. [00:33:40] The main issue at hand is the use of wine versus water as a beverage, as a liquid that you drink. Right. The question in verse 23 of whether drinking. The question is not in verse 23 whether drinking alcohol is permitted. That's not even in view. That's not even in view. Okay, so I got to get these kind of off. Kind of take them off the table to begin with, because this verse is misused. [00:34:12] So this verse is most certainly not encouraging anyone to the regular usage of alcohol by a preacher for social purposes. That's not what's happening. Here's how I know that verse 23. [00:34:30] First of all, drink no longer water, but use. You see that word use, okay, that's important. [00:34:37] But it says a little. [00:34:40] A little. [00:34:42] So even if you want to use this verse to say, well, preachers can drink, too. [00:34:48] Some of the movies our family watches, sometimes they mock preachers, right? [00:34:57] And the preacher will come visit the person's house and they'll fix the preacher up like an actual cocktail, not wine, but like straight up liquor. [00:35:09] And the preacher is just. [00:35:12] And that's the caricature that the preacher is going to drink. Right. [00:35:21] So that is not being. It says, use a little wine, little wine. But notice the purpose. The purpose is for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. [00:35:35] So there's two reasons given for this admonition from Paul to Timothy. Number one, his stomach. And number two, frequent illness. [00:35:43] Okay. [00:35:44] And what Paul says here is given to Timothy as an individual due to his personal and individual health problems in his particular health circumstance. Paul is concerned with Timothy's health and recurring health problems that he's been having. So Paul says, use the wine as a medicine. [00:36:09] There weren't pharmaceuticals like we think of. And so natural things like this were used as medicine in a lot of places in the world. That's still true. So he's essentially saying, use it as a medicine. [00:36:21] And listen to this. [00:36:26] I looked up, what are some medicinal benefits or health benefits to grape juice? Red grape juice. It's rich in antioxidants. [00:36:36] It's good for heart health, improving blood flow, reducing blood clotting, lowering blood pressure, which can lower the risk of heart diseases. It has antiinflammatory properties and can help reduce conditions such as arthritis. It helps with the brain, the brain, health. [00:36:57] It helps support the immune system because it has vitamin C and other immune boosting nutrients. [00:37:06] It helps with digestion because of its fiber content. [00:37:11] Also mentions helping the skin. So there are benefits to the fruit of the vine. Now, here's the key. People say, I drink wine because it's good for my health. So I drink a little. There is no health benefit to the alcohol. The ethyl alcohol inside the wine, there's none. Zero. [00:37:31] There's also benefit to the fermentation before it completely dies off. [00:37:40] But there's no benefit. Once a day. Yeah. [00:37:43] So that the alcohol, which is what distinguishes it primarily, what distinguishes it from the grape juice, that portion of it is not helpful. It doesn't do anything. [00:37:55] People drink because the way it makes it feel, period. [00:37:58] Okay, so he's saying use it as a medicine. [00:38:08] So using this verse to promote social drinking or giving permission, in essence. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. How can you say you can't drink when you got a verse like this in the Bible? Right, but when an honest person looks at this verse and you can see the purposes he's giving. But there's one other thing which is kind of the kicker in this verse. [00:38:33] Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. [00:38:40] Is this verse not actually a better argument for abstinence from alcohol? [00:38:46] What was Timothy doing before Paul wrote him this? [00:38:50] What was he drinking? [00:38:52] He wasn't drinking any wine. None. Why not? [00:38:56] Paul had to tell him to drink it because he wasn't. [00:39:01] So if anything, it's a better argument for using things like that medicinally, like not just as an excuse why I need some medicines, I'm going to drink three or four glasses of. No, no. But actually using it medicinally, it's a greater argument for that than it is. [00:39:18] It's a greater argument for abstinence than it is for using it socially, because Timothy wasn't drinking it. He had to be old to do it to help his health issues. So, anyhow, hopefully, that's been a blessing to you. [00:39:33] And next week, lord willing, we'll be going into proverbs, probably proverbs 23. For what might be our last study in this subject, let's pray.