Is Alcohol Sinful (Part 3)

Alcohol Abuse Does Not Cancel Proper Use

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church. My name is Mike Abendroth, and if you are a lady, if you have young ladies in your family, or if you�re a single dad and you�ve got young ladies in your family, we have a conference at Bethlehem Bible Church, 2011, May 20th and 21st, Reflections of a True Heart by Donna Shannon.

Her husband, Bill, is an elder at Grace Community Church, serving under and with John MacArthur, and we have session topics, Principles on Adorning Ourselves, Controlling Our Thoughts, Biblical Femininity, Taking Our Cue from the Word, Not the World.

And so those are the topics at this conference. You can go to bbcchurch .org, that is bbcchurch .org, to register online, or you can send up some smoke signals and we can interpret those the way we�d like and perceive those in our own tent of meeting.

The Nature of Biblical Wine and the Problem of Drunkenness

Today we are going to do our final installment, part three, on wine, wine, alcohol, strong drink. What should the Christian do? Now, I�m not going to recap by points my last couple messages, as a matter of fact, I don�t even really know what I said the last two, but whatever I said, it was certainly biblical and it was certainly provocative, and I hope it was in that order.

On No Compromise Radio, what we try to do is we try to give you a unique alternative approach to biblical theology. No, I don�t want unique, I don�t want alternative, I just want the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of Jesus and his love.

I want you to study the Bible. Do you know the Thessalonians were great Bible students? And they received the Word of God, it says, which powerfully performs its work in those who believe. And they received that, and that was a good thing, but Berea, in Berea, those Bereans were more noble, more noble than even the Thessalonians, because, why?

This is caught around my neck, this thing here, maybe that�s a sign. They were more noble because they searched the Scriptures to see if these things were true. So, even if you disagree with me, even if you have a different slant on something, a different take, a different outlook, a different theology, heretical teaching, that�s fine.

We can disagree on some of these things. My wife and I even disagree on some smaller, finer theological points, but that�s not what we�re after. To me, that�s a misuse of the concept of love, that is a misuse of the concept of biblical masculinity.

It�s fine to sit and disagree, and so that�s why I want to challenge you today. Am I teaching the right things? And you can always email me, info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. We have a group of writers that would love to write back to you, and if you send money then I�ll actually write back.

That is not true, that is not true. Once in a while I write back. Sometimes to the people who are mean, I�ll write back and just say, �Thanks for listening, thanks for writing etc. But I am fairly busy these days, so I�m glad to have these other young bucks writing the emails.

Some of the young bucks aren�t so young, but that�s a scoop. So, we�re talking about alcohol, and I don�t want you to immediately say to yourself and maybe this is a little bit of review, that the Latin phrase �abusus usum non tollet.

Now, I�ve got kind of a funny thing going on in my eyes, tollet, T-O-L-L-I-T. What does that mean? Well, if you knew what that meant, you would probably be a Latin teacher or a Latin student. Abuse does not take away proper use.

What I don�t want you to do is automatically say alcohol and strong drink and wine, beverages, beer, that has caused a horrible amount of damage, which, by the way, it has. But then I don�t want you to put a comma there and say that�s why you must abstain if you�re a Christian.

Because of the damage it does, because of abuse, therefore, we have to take away proper use. You wouldn�t do that with guns now, would you? Maybe you would. You shouldn�t do that with food. Now, people can abuse food and eat too much, but that doesn�t take away its proper use.

People abuse sex, but that doesn�t take away its proper use. God has given things to us to richly enjoy, whether that�s food or whether that�s sex, and he has given parameters so it is used to the glory of God.

And when it�s not used to the glory of God, i .e. gluttony or i .e. sexual immorality, all sex outside of marriage, then, of course, there�s misuse. And that�s what the human heart does. That�s what has happened because we�re sinful people.

We�re fallen in Adam and we�re sinners ourselves as well. So just because it�s misused, I don�t want you to automatically say, therefore, we can�t use it. And we talked about that quite a bit. But I�d go so far to say that legalism is just the exact same problem except on the other end.

Biblical theology is 6 p .m. 7 p .m., 8 p .m. is licentiousness, i .e. drunkenness and going overboard. God has given us the fence of where and when and how we can use alcohol, sex, food, etc. But then we overdo things.

And that is just why we need Scripture because the human heart will overdo things. And so licentiousness is always sinful. Using alcohol to get drunk is always sinful. Using food in a gluttonous way is always sinful.

Having sex outside of marriage is always sinful. But on the flip side, 5 p .m., 4 p .m., 3 p .m., etc. Legalistically imposing rules onto Scripture in some kind of ascetic fashion, that is also sinful.

And I think Justin Taylor has some very interesting quotes about this. And again, I don�t think Justin is trying to do this. I don�t think Chantry is trying to do this when he�s got his book, God Gave Wine.

My goal in this show and the last two shows is not to promote alcohol use. That�s not what I�m after. I�m not trying to promote anything except biblical thinking. That�s what I�m trying to promote. As I�ve said before, I don�t drink.

I have no horse in this race. If there�s no race in the horse, then you�ve got to kill the horse. And it�s time for Alpo. But since I don�t have a horse in this race, I don�t have anything that I want you to do except think biblically about the issue.

Because I know this. If you think biblically, then you�ll do the right thing. So see, I don�t have to tell you moderation in all things. I don�t have to say, if I come to your house and see a bottle of wine, boy, are you in big fat trouble.

I don�t have to say, why don�t you use wine for your communion cups. I don�t have to say a lot of things. Why? Because I�m after what you think about it biblically. And if you change your mind biblically, theologically, that�s called repentance.

You change your mind. That�s what repentance means. But the change of your mind will yield itself in a change of lifestyle, change of behavior. Your methodology will flow directly from your theology. And so that�s what I�m after.

I�m not after people to drink more. I think you can save a lot of brain cells and save a lot of money and save a lot of fat cells around your waist if you don�t drink alcohol. But that�s not a reason not to drink it theologically.

So I�m not going to try to be a pragmatist. I�m not going to try to say that abuse cancels out proper use. Abuse does not take away proper use. And so we will look at probably Romans 14 a little bit. But listen to what Justin Taylor said about legalism.

This 4 o�clock, 5 o�clock, 3 o�clock swing to the other extreme. And by the way, most people listening probably struggled with alcohol before they were saved. Then when they get saved, they go overboard the other direction.

Now once in a while you will find some legalist, some kid grew up in some fundamentalist kind of home. And then they get saved and then they go overboard to drink more. But I found out these days we have people, the pendulum swings from alcohol is no, no, no, no, no, always sin.

To now think, all right, now it�s biblical. And I have other people who would believe the opposite. But here�s Justin Taylor regarding legalism. Quote, �Legalism is more dangerous disease than alcoholism because it doesn�t look like one.

Boy, that hurts, doesn�t it? �Legalism is more dangerous disease than alcohol because it doesn�t look like one. We were in the Boston, I was going to call it the T, I think it is the T. It�s the L in Chicago.

It�s the metro in, it�s the S-Bahn in Germany, U-Bahn, underground. And we watched the lady who was drunk fall down the steps going downstairs in the T stop in the subway at Boston. And you could just see, she has woes, she has sorrows, she�s, how did I get these bruises?

Totally what Proverbs is talking about. And I was glad I said, look, to my son, it was after Celtics game I think, look at that. Look at what alcohol does. Alcohol is gross. It looks horrible when people are drunk and slurring their words.

It is not a very pretty sight. When I first got saved and I would still go to a bar to see a band or something and drink, you know, 7-Up or Diet Coke, which I think today is day 45, I haven�t had a Diet Coke.

So, where�s my coffee? Alcoholism looks bad. Drunkenness is not pretty. They might have pretty girls and handsome men in the beer ads, but once you overdrink to the point of drunkenness, there�s nothing pretty about it.

I hate being around people who are drunk because they think they�re funny, they think they�re normal, and I just think they�re drunk. Legalism is a more dangerous disease than alcohol because it doesn�t look like one.

Usually legalists, you know, they�re like Mormons. They look good on the outside. You�d rather have a neighbor who�s a legalist than you would a drunkard, but both of those are just as damning. Taylor goes on.

Alcoholism makes men fail. I lived that because my grandfather was a drunk and he would meet his wife at work afterwards. The wife would have to go to work, my grandmother, Nona, and she would have to get the money from the boss because otherwise he would spend it all on alcohol on the way home.

Couldn�t keep any jobs. He was a drunk, and that was my grandfather. My father, well, he could keep jobs and kept a job until later in his life when he got cancer and then died. It�s hard to keep a job when you�re dead.

You know, it�s interesting because he could function as an alcoholic, at least with this job, but there�s a lot of memories that I wish I could have had if my father wasn�t drunk and a lot of memories I have that I wish I didn�t have because my father was a drunk, and so I don�t live in some kind of little oasis in some bubble.

My wife�s father, he was also a drunk, and my wife�s mother was also a drunk, which both led to tragedies, and so I�m not immune. I�m not living in my little bubble, but alcoholism makes men fail. Legalism, Justin Taylor said, helps men, helps them succeed in the world.

That�s exactly right, so it seems like one from the outside is right and the other is wrong, but both theologically are incorrect. Alcoholism makes men depend on the bottle, Taylor said. Legalism makes them self-sufficient, depending on no one.

So in one sense, if Taylor is right, alcoholism makes you depend, and drunkenness makes you depend on the bottle, on alcohol, on Jim Beam and Jack Daniels, where legalism makes you depend on yourself.

I mean, what�s better? Neither of them are better. One, again, is better for society, but that�s not what we�re talking about here. We�re not talking about society. We are talking about theologically.

What about alcohol? What about wine? Info at No Compromise Radio. You can write us. You can listen on Facebook. You can go to iTunes and just hit �Subscribe. Our subscriptions are increasing, and so I�m very glad for that.

Why don�t you tell your friends, hey, there�s a crazy guy on the radio named Mike Ebendroth. He thinks he knows everything. He thinks he�s a big shot, and you should check this guy out just so you can prove him wrong.

Look at the arrogance of evangelicalism. Well, sadly, I do struggle with arrogance. I do struggle with pride. I do struggle with all those things because knowledge puffs up, but I am just trying to tell people the truth.

I don�t think it�s that shocking, really. Somebody said the other day, we listened to your show on tithing. We were shocked. Well, I�m just trying to tell you this is what the Bible teaches, and if somebody�s trying to exact 10 percent out of you and wants to see your paycheck and other things, then that guy�s trying to get your money.

Tell him to get out of your business. I�d get out of that church is what I would do. Taylor goes on to say when it comes to alcohol here and wine, alcoholism destroys moral resolve. Liberty gives it strength.

Alcoholics don�t feel welcome in the church. Legalists love to hear their morality extolled in the church. Boy, that is very, very fascinating insight from Justin Taylor. By the way, you probably should look at his blog because if you had to read only one blog to get a survey, the panoply of evangelicalism, I think Taylor�s blog would give you that.

I think Phil Johnson in his Pyromaniacs blog is a better theological contributor. I think his insight is more precise, but Taylor�s insight is certainly good and balanced. It�s fair. What�s the Fox News slogan?

I don�t even know. I don�t get TV, so I can�t watch Fox News. I guess I could watch it on the Internet. But certainly Taylor does a great job at Crossway, and he has a theological acumen. I�m probably a little more where Phil�s coming from, but I read Between Two Worlds every day or close to it.

Wine in the Bible, Sacrifices, and the Lord's Supper

If I miss a day, then I just skim down. So when it comes to wine in the Bible, what do you think? If you go to somebody�s house and they have a couple glasses of beer or they have a couple bottles of beer in the refrigerator, do you freak out?

If you walked up to somebody in a restaurant and there�s a pastor and the pastor was drinking alcohol, what would you do? How do you work through these issues? Certainly, when you look at the Bible, there is wine in the Bible, and it�s got alcohol in it.

People try to jump through all these hoops. I would grant that the alcohol content is not the same, and there are ways to get a higher alcohol content now than they had then. But there had to be alcohol in the wine back in the Bible days because, A, we lived under a cursed world, a fallen world, and grape juice left to itself does what?

It ferments. And I look here in Genesis 9, �He drank of the wine and became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. Now certainly, look at the damage that drunkenness does, but that wine had alcohol in it or otherwise you wouldn�t be able to drink it.

That�s why Paul says in Ephesians 5, �Do not get drunk with wine. How could you get drunk with wine if the wine didn�t have any alcohol? Do not get drunk with grape juice. Do not get drunk with pomegranate juice.

You have to say to yourself, you know, wine in the Bible has alcohol in it. And if you want to show me a couple of things in Yayin and all these other places and oikos and different things, I guess we could look at some of those, a new wine.

But when you see the word wine in the Bible, and you just say to yourself, every time I see the word wine, I�m just going to retranslate grape juice. You�re not doing yourself any favors because the wine in the Bible sometimes is coming across as a blessing.

Sometimes it�s seen as good. When you see Genesis chapter 27, �Now may God give you the dew of heaven, and here is Isaac blessing Jacob, and of the fatness of the earth and an abundance of grain and new wine.

You just can�t get around those verses. �You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them. So God here chastens Israel in Deuteronomy 28 by having them have no access to wine.

Let�s see what else I read. Proverbs 3, �Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. Something to be enjoyed.

If you look at God judging, again, He judges by taking away wine. If you look at something that is a sacrifice to God back for the economy in Israel, it will be wine given to God. There�s many verses.

I will read you one. 1 Leviticus 23, 13. �Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a smoothing aroma, with its drink offering a fourth of a hen of wine.

So sometimes the sacrifices given by Israel were wine. Exodus 29. �A fourth of a hen of wine for a drink offering with one lamb. Numbers 15. �A drink offering one half of hen of wine as an offering by fire as a smoothing aroma to the Lord.

And I would go so far to say that you�ll have to admit with me that Bible says the Lord�s Supper, when Jesus instituted the Lord�s Supper, it was used with wine. The same wine they�d have for Passover.

�But I say to you, I will not drink this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it with you in my Father�s kingdom. You have to say that. Can you imagine the future kingdom Jesus is going to be drinking wine?

Well, that�s pretty amazing if you�re going to say it�s bad. It�s always bad. Well, Jesus makes wine, John 2. He has wine. He�s associating himself with people who are wine drinkers. He uses Passover wine.

He drinks wine in the kingdom in Matthew 26. He speaks of that. And so we want to think biblically. And if God wants to gladden people�s hearts with wine, then that�s his business. Why do I want to freak out about it?

Psalm 104. �Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God, you are very great. Skipping down to verse 13. �He waters the mountains from his upper chambers. The earth is satisfied with the fruit of his works.

He causes the grass to grow for the cattle and vegetation for the labor of man, so that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine which makes man�s heart glad, so that he may make his face glisten with oil and food which sustains man�s heart.

Down at the bottom. �Bless the Lord, O my soul, praise the Lord. It�s something that gives joy. That�s what 1 Chronicles chapter 12 talks about. �Wine, oil, oxen, and sheep, there was joy indeed in Israel.

So, Mike Ebenroth, Bethlehem Bible Church. We are saying that wine is always� if you drink wine to the point of drunkenness, then you�ve got a problem. It�s sinful. I�m not trying to promote wine drinking.

I�m trying to promote biblical thinking when it comes to wine. �And yes, there are certainly cases where you say, �Watch out! Drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 6. �Those walking according to the deeds of the flesh, including drunkenness, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. �I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, covetous, idolater, reviler, or a drunkard, not even to eat with such a one.

That is true. Ephesians 5. �Do not get drunk with wine. And even as Christians, if you say to yourself, �I want to have some wine you need to be careful that you don�t make another Christian stumble.

Now, that�s probably a whole show. What does it mean to make a Christian stumble? They just don�t like what you�re doing? Is that what stumbling is? There are some regulations, of course. Don�t make other Christians stumble.

And how about don�t get drunk? So, you have to be careful. And if you say, �If I never drink, then I never have those problems. That�s your own decision to make, but I want you to know what the Bible teaches.

Qualifications for Church Leaders and Final Conclusion

I�d go so far to say that wine can be imbibed by leadership in the local church, both elders and deacons. Paul could have easily said in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and in Titus chapter 1 that elders and deacons cannot drink any alcohol.

You must abstain. You cannot. It is verboten. It is forbidden. Paul knew how to write that. He knew how to forbid wine drinking by leaders. He could have said that. But actually, we know in 1 Timothy 5, Paul commands Timothy to drink some wine because of his whole probably legalistic mindset.

The text in 1 Timothy 3 for elders is that they�re to be not addicted to wine. Literally, they don�t sit next to wine for a long time and drink it. It doesn�t say they can�t have any, like a Nazirite vow or like for kings in the Old Testament.

It�s not good for kings to do that. No, here it says they�re not addicted to wine. You don�t want an elder not addicted to wine. You say, �Well, we have a higher standard. Well, then I guess you have a higher standard than Jesus and a higher standard than the apostle Paul as he writes under inspiration.

Why would I give a higher standard? These are the standards for biblical leadership. Deacons, verse 8 of 1 Timothy 3, are addicted to much wine. They ought not to do that. Titus chapter 1, not addicted to wine.

Titus chapter 2, for older women, likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslave to much wine. It doesn�t say that they can�t drink it. So why do we now tell our leaders you can�t drink wine?

I used to say to elders before I�d interview them, �Do you drink any wine? It would require teetotaling. Well, now I don�t do that, but I still ask them, �Do you drink Because I�m curious. But teetotaling is not the first Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1 requirements.

I know it�s not good to eat meal or drink wine or do anything by which your brother stumbles. That�s Romans chapter 14. I think we have to be very, very careful. I understand that. But here�s what I�m saying is, why tell elders they can�t drink wine if the Bible just says they can�t sit next to wine for a long time?

This is not some Nazarite vow. This is not some king. This is not for some person like John the Baptist who�s got that Nazarite vow. No. My name is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. Again, I�m not going to come to any conclusion for you.

Here�s what I�m going to say. Alcohol can be used by a person improperly or properly, but it is not by definition wrong. So you�re going to have to come to some conclusions what to do after that. I�m not trying to promote drinking, and I�m not trying to promote abstinence.

I�m trying to promote biblical, critical thinking like those on No Compromise Radio. Always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. So in this one, you�re going to probably have to come to your own conclusions because I�m kind of tired of talking about this subject, and I�m moving on to other topics.

And so, case closed. Mike Abendroth. God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God�s Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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