Did Paul Command Sin? - [1 Timothy 5:23]

I would invite you to open your Bibles to 1st Timothy chapter 5. I'm going to do something a little bit unusual for me this morning.

Don't get scared. We're going to cover one verse. One verse.

We're going to talk about something this morning that kills thousands of Americans every year.

It destroys tens of thousands of lives every year. Its sale is restricted and even outlawed in some parts of the country, even here in Massachusetts.

Some see it as harmless. Others see it as dangerous and compare it to diseases like cancer.

Having it in your car can be illegal. I know this from experience, not from having it in my car, but from taking people to jail as a result of having it in their car.

It has been called a demon, and it's been used as a medicine.

Of course, I am talking about alcohol. You ever think what the United States would look like without alcohol, what the country would be like?

Well, we tried that. In 1919, the 18th Amendment was added to the

Constitution, which outlawed most means of manufacturing alcohol. In fact, only two states voted against the amendment.

Those drunkards in Rhode Island and Connecticut. It was not illegal to drink just to produce alcohol.

Now, think about that. It's not illegal to drink it. It's illegal to produce it. So there's a demand and no supply.

What do you suppose happened? We know the history of prohibition, and it was an ugly history.

Bootleggers, moonshiners, people running around with submachine guns to protect alcohol and to make money.

Finally, in 1933, by the 21st Amendment, they realized this wasn't working at all, and they repealed the 18th

Amendment. This was one of the most lucrative and yet dangerous businesses in America.

Alcohol and alcohol abuse touched nearly everyone's life at some point. I mean, it's hard to go through a day without seeing some homeless person begging for money, asking for money that they will most likely turn into drugs or alcohol.

Did you ever think about how much your automobile insurance rates would go down if there was no such thing as drunk driving?

I can promise you it would go down quite a bit. The economic and social impact of alcohol cannot be overstated.

Our courts, our jails, our hospitals are literally filled with people dealing with the consequences of alcohol.

And like every important issue in life, the Bible amazingly addresses this topic.

The Bible truly tells us how we ought to think about alcohol. Just to kind of set the context for where we are, 1

Timothy, we have the Apostle Paul's instructions on how to set things right in the church in Ephesus, and how to run a church generally.

The church's priorities are stressed. Qualified male leadership, prayer, sound doctrine, stopping false teachers, and other sundry issues.

The last three messages that I've taught from this book have dealt with ways of avoiding bringing shame upon the church, including the proper care of widows, the proper care of pastors, and the last time

I taught, the proper correction of leadership, elders. If you recall verses 19 and 22, elders get the benefit of doubt, of the doubt.

Secondly, elders get greater punishment if they are found to be in sin. Third, elders must be treated fairly.

And fourth, elders must be chosen carefully. And that took us right up to 22.

And then I come up to verse 23, and I'm sort of in a quandary. And that's where we are today.

Let me read verses 19 to 25. Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

Remember, that was the Old Testament model. You had to verify it. Verse 20,

As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.

Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.

Verse 23. And if you have the ESV, you'll notice the parentheses there. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.

So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

This morning, I simply have one purpose. I want you to view wine and alcohol in general as God does.

We're going to walk through this context of 1 Timothy 5 .23 to understand why

Paul even mentions it. And look at the broader implications of Scripture on the topic of wine and strong drink.

And finally, I'm going to ask some questions and give you some pastoral steering.

I tried in every way I could think of to avoid this message. I thought, well,

I'll just tack it on to the end of the last one. I'll kind of put it on the front end of this one and just sort of use it as an introduction and then talk about what

I really want to talk about. But I didn't want to shrink from declaring the whole counsel of God to you, and I think this is a vital topic.

As I said, one that touches each of our lives in some way. Some more personally than others.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I've not had a drink of alcohol in nearly 17 years, if you don't count

NyQuil. In fact, I think it's safe to say that I worked patrol for less than three years, but I arrested more people for alcohol -related violations of the law than I ever drank individual alcoholic beverages in my life.

None of the elders drink alcohol, so alcohol really isn't something that I struggle with.

Now, with that said, let's see what Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has to say.

He gives Timothy two commands, and they're kind of interesting. Look at verse 23. Stop being a water drinker, he tells them.

Look, 23, no longer drink only water. I like to drink water.

Water's good. Without water, you're in a lot of trouble. But right in the midst of addressing

Timothy about the disciplining of elders and the care that must go into their selection, keeping himself pure, we have this unusual sentence.

What does it tell us? I mean, it's really kind of weird. If you just skip from 22 to 24, there's more of a natural flow.

So why this, and why there? Well, it tells us that the Holy Spirit thought that this was of such importance that it needed to be here.

It's jarring. It interrupts the flow of thought. And it also tells us, though, how well

Paul knew Timothy. Let's put it this way. If I was to take a survey this morning, and we were to guess what my favorite drink was, a lot of you would probably say coffee.

That really wouldn't be accurate. How many of you would even know what my favorite thing to drink is? Paul knew what

Timothy's favorite thing to drink was. It wasn't with him every day. This is a letter.

But he knows what Timothy drinks. This is Paul's true son of the faith, his protege, the man in whom he had enough confidence to send to Ephesus to set this church aright.

This is a man he dearly loved. And he knew what Timothy drank.

Second command, use a little wine. Now, it's interesting here.

He uses that little word, but. And as I've said before, there are two different Greek words for it.

There's one that shows a mild contrast or a shift in thought. This is the one that says, okay, this is one possibility.

But, on the other hand, in contrast, it's a strong adversative. It means big contrast.

Paul didn't write, it's also interesting that he didn't write drink a little wine. He said, but use a little wine.

Different verb entirely. And he further qualifies it with a little. It's the same kind of adjective that you would expect to find if you went out fishing and, you know, we were talking to Mike Huber last night.

If we said to Mike, how did it go? Well, I caught a few fish. Well, that wouldn't mean you'd expect to look in the back of his vehicle and see it all packed full.

It would just be a couple. Or if you said you were going to be gone for a few days, that wouldn't mean you were gone for a couple of years.

So when he says to use a little wine, he means a little wine.

Now, there were probably reasons Timothy didn't want to drink anything but water. Maybe he didn't want to cause anyone to stumble.

Some writers have gone so far as to say that Timothy had taken some kind of a Nazirite light vow.

You know, that he just wasn't going to drink. And I think that's kind of speculation. We don't know.

What we do know is that he was in the habit of drinking only water because Paul tells us that.

And we do know that he didn't drink wine at all. And listen, Paul commands him, commands him to use a little wine.

It's a present tense imperative, meaning he is telling Timothy to habitually use a little wine.

So my question this morning is, can Paul command sin? Can Paul, writing under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit, command Timothy to do that which would violate God's will,

God's commanded will? And the answer obviously is no. Alcohol, wine, in and of itself, is not a sin.

Otherwise, we're saying Paul commanded Timothy to sin. Consider the context.

Timothy has just warned or been warned not to participate in the sins of others by putting them into ministry too soon.

He's been told to keep himself pure, to keep himself free from sin. And in the next breath,

Paul is going to tell Timothy to sin? It doesn't make any sense. Going back a few verses,

Paul was dealing with the proper way to handle elders who were caught in sin.

So now he's going to order Timothy to sin? Again, no. Let's consider the greater context.

In 1 Timothy, as an elder, what are the requisites for being an elder?

Well, they are, in 1 Timothy 3 .3, they cannot be drunkards, those who are given a drinking.

The precise same word is used in Titus 1 when describing elders. 1

Timothy 3 .8, deacons cannot be occupied with much wine.

Again, an interesting word. They are not prohibited from drinking wine at all.

They're prohibited from drinking much wine, many wines, a lot of wine. And that is the nature of the

New Testament. Let's turn to John 2. John 2.

In this chapter, we see that Jesus turned water into wine. It is his first recorded miracle.

Some say that Jesus turned the water into grape juice.

It was Welch's. It's an interesting theory. Let's see if it holds any water.

Thank you. John 2.

Verses 1 -10. On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.

And the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.

When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, to Jesus, They have no wine.

Now there is the statement of the obvious, right? Wine is gone. She says, hey, Jesus, wine's gone.

Jesus says to her, woman, what does this have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you.

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water.

Excuse me. And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.

So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him,

Everyone serves the good wine first. And when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine.

But you have kept the good wine until now. Now in that culture, the groom was responsible for the wedding celebration.

He was responsible for providing the food, the wine, the entertainment, everything that went on.

And these celebrations could go on for up to a week. So it was no small party,

I guess, to put on. And in that culture also, to run out of something would be a shame.

When Baptists get together, what do we say? If we run out of food, it's a disaster.

Well, imagine having to keep people in food and drink for a week. It could be quite expensive, but it would be a big shame on the groom if they ran out.

So really, ultimately, Jesus is stepping in and helping out the groom. But the idea in verse 10, when it says,

Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, there's a verb there, that drunk freely, kind of indicates a certain level of not really drunkenness, but feeling fairly good.

And this is about the time when people were feeling pretty good and pretty happy that you could bring out the cheap stuff because nobody would know the difference.

You could save a little money there. So if Jesus had turned the water into grape juice, it would still be a miracle, right?

I mean, nobody can just walk up and say, grape juice. But it would not really solve the problem.

The groom ran out of the cheap stuff, and grape juice was no substitute. There was no package store in sight.

There was nothing. Something had to be done. The expectation would be that the groom would provide some watered -down wine.

And yet Jesus instead turned about, I mean, it says here 120, but somewhere between 100 to 150 gallons of water into wine of the best quality.

So again, is drinking wine a sin? No. To say it is would be to say that the

Lord himself provided the means to sin at this wedding. Furthermore, if we were to look at other contexts, and just to give you one other, we won't turn there.

You can go back to 1 Timothy. But in Psalm 104, verses 14 and 15, in the midst of praising

God, the psalmist writes this, You caused the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth, listen, and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man's heart.

You can't praise God for giving you sin.

Wine in and of itself is not a sin. Going back to 1 Timothy. The simple truth, as I said before, is that Paul knew

Timothy quite well. And he also knew that Timothy had some medical problems.

When you're around someone consistently, I don't care if they're in your household or if you just work with them daily, you get to know them fairly well.

You get to know their aches and pains, all their troubles. Look what he says here again in verse 23.

Use a little wine. Why? For the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

Timothy is my hero in ministry in this sense. He also had a weak stomach. Talk to me about that sometime.

In fact, the word ailments indicated that it could get so bad, he didn't have the strength to do anything.

His stomach was a great weakness. This may come as a shock to you, but a man can't pastor or preach when he's that sick, when he can't get out of bed.

Many scholars think that he may have suffered from dysentery, which would have been caused by bacteria or parasites in water.

Now, bacteria is not something that they would have understood back then. It wouldn't be discovered or really comprehended for another 1600 years.

Timothy could not have known what was causing his illness. But listen to some of the extreme symptoms of dysentery if you have a really bad case.

And this could last for up to a week. Vomiting of blood, severe abdominal pain, fever, shock, and delirium.

You don't want that man in your pulpit if he's got those symptoms. Those would be some sermons you'd never forget, especially the delirium part.

I have a feeling, just a guess, that Timothy would have loved to have had some chlorine, maybe just a few water purification tablets, just to ease the burden, ease the pain there.

One source says that as late as the 18th and 19th centuries, dysentery, or as it was called, the bloody flux, probably killed more soldiers and sailors than did combat.

Listen to this. During the Civil War, more than 80 ,000 Union troops died from dysentery.

80 ,000. Now, the alcoholic content of wine would be a little bit of a help there.

It might kill a few germs, some of the weaker ones. But wine itself is known to help digestion.

So he says, use a little wine to help with your frequent ailments, your stomach.

You'll feel better, you'll be able to minister better. This is a little personal address in the midst of how to run a church.

He says, you know what? Right here, Timothy, I just need to talk to you for a second. Stop drinking water only.

Use a little wine. Now, let's get some questions out about alcohol.

Is today's wine the same as the wine in Bible times? Well, as I said, the wine that Jesus turned the water into wine,

I think that probably was the same kind of caliber of wine. But typically, they would water it down with anywhere from two -thirds to 90 % water.

In other words, they added a lot of water to wine because they didn't want to get drunk.

Now, can you imagine that today? You go to the liquor store. I don't even know where you buy wine, honestly, in this state.

California was simple. Massachusetts, you know, I don't really get it. But if you went to the liquor store and you said, you know what?

I'd like the really watered -down stuff. Where is that? They wouldn't know it. Now, I do know something about, because, you know, having dealt with alcoholics for most of my life,

I do know something about fortified wine where they actually add alcohol to it, make it taste like cough syrup.

It's probably cheaper than cough syrup too. So our wine isn't the same as, but it doesn't matter.

The Old Testament, if you drank, or in the New Testament, if you drank water that was 90 % watered down, or wine that was 90 % watered down, you could still get drunk on it.

And I think there are other things that we need to think about just in terms of how weak they would be.

They didn't have all the medicines and everything that we have. I think it probably impacted them a little bit more than it does today.

So is wine the same? No, not exactly. Is it the best choice? In other words, is wine a wise thing, or alcohol, is it a wise thing for us?

Let's look at Romans chapter 14. I'm just going to read verses 20 and 21.

Do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God. Everything indeed is clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.

It is not good to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.

Now people say, you know what, it's wrong for you to drink in front of me because you'll make me stumble.

Well, I think you have a wrong view of Christian liberty. But on the other hand, my view is this. I would be terrified to drink in public.

I'd be scared. What if someone saw me? I feel like a little kid. What if I got caught? And it's not that I would think, oh, you know, it's a sin.

The issue is I wouldn't want someone to think he's a pastor and he shouldn't be drinking. Or, you know, well, if he can drink,

I can drink too, or whatever. I mean, I don't really have any desire to drink whatsoever.

But I think I would be terrified of causing someone else to think wrongly about it.

That doesn't mean it's a sin to drink in public. It just means that I would be personally, this is my personal conviction,

I would be concerned about it myself. Now I could say, well, it's their problem if they don't handle it rightly.

But I think I feel compelled to love other people more than that. Now there's no doubt in my mind that I do have the freedom to do it.

But I would not want to have someone, I would not want to risk someone having my freedom understood or misunderstood as hypocrisy on my part.

Now how should I think about those that I see drink? You know, if I see someone in a restaurant and they're drinking.

I have to be honest, you know, I come from a background that's worse than fundamentalism, you know, Mormonism, where, you know, drinking keeps you out of heaven.

So my first response is, and then I just think, well, wait a minute, they have the freedom to do that, it's not that big of a deal.

Now what would I do if I saw someone who was drunk? My first response is, I want to help them.

If it's someone at the church, I want to help them. I want to get them home and safe. Then my second response is, when they sober up,

I'm going to talk to them about it. I'm going to confront them about that. So is it the best choice?

I don't think so. You know, I have to be honest too, I mean, I'm blissfully ignorant about, you know, different wines and stuff like that.

I just don't know that much. I wouldn't, you know, I know generally speaking what wines are supposed to taste good, but I've never had an alcoholic beverage, you know, a wine or a beer or anything that I thought was any good.

So I'm perfectly content with that. I'll stick with root beer, thank you. Another question, is it potentially habit forming?

You don't have to turn there, but 1 Corinthians 6 .1 just says this, All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.

Think about that word for a moment. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything.

That verb enslaved is an interesting one. It literally means to have something achieve mastery over you.

Can alcohol do that? In the beginning, I talked about people who are homeless.

You know, some of them have taken up signs now where they just hold them up instead of, you know,

I have six kids, Vietnam vet, I also served in Korea, you know, World War II, World War I.

You know, I stood next to Abraham Lincoln during the Gettysburg Address. Now they just hold up signs, I want a beer.

You know, give me some money. At least they're telling the truth. Can it enslave you?

Yes. Absolutely. Now, again, you know, in the interest of, you know,

I feel like this is true confessions this morning. I did get drunk once. It was 31 years ago.

And I will absolutely never forget it. Because when I stood up, I'd just been sitting down.

And when I stood up and just kind of wandered off and eventually wound my way into bed.

And I just remember thinking that my body was not cooperating with my brain. And thinking that I was never going to do this again in my life.

I was not saved. And by the grace of God, God gives grace even to those who are not saved yet.

If you don't believe that, I mean, think about all the times that you could have died before you got saved. But by the grace of God, I've never done that again.

I would never want to. It's a miserable experience. But for some people, that is an escape.

And they literally bow the knee to alcohol. They become enslaved by it. It is powerful.

It changes the way you think. So yes, it is potentially habit -forming.

It is enslaving. Is it potentially destructive? Well, if it can enslave you,

I would think so, yes. Proverbs 20, verse 1. Wine is a mocker.

Strong drink a brawler. And whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

Again, not necessarily a sin to drink. But you're not wise if you're led astray by it.

One commentator says this. Drinking in excess degrades one's respect for authority and propriety.

As a police officer who dealt with many drunken people, I can tell you it definitely messes with your authority for, you know, your respect for authority.

The mocker is one who has no regard for authority or moral integrity. As such, mockers receive many beatings and serve as negative examples for others.

When I was in the service, I was an MP, and at one point I got assigned to one of the big air bases on Okinawa for a couple of weeks.

We got a call one night that a sailor had gone out and come back.

He'd gone off base, come back, and had ditched the taxi driver. So we were out there looking for this guy for ditching the taxi driver.

We found him. You know, he was, I don't know, maybe 5 '4 and 125 pounds or something like that.

He was drunk as all get out. We arrested him. We took him into the brig. And we had to unhandcuff him before we put him in the cell.

And we just said, okay, now we're going to unhandcuff you. He was drunk. We just said, we're going to unhandcuff you.

We just want you to go in there. We don't want any problems. Okay, okay. We unhandcuff him, and of course the fight's on.

And you just think, okay, now really, seriously, what did he think he was going to do?

No matter how drunk he is, he's 5 '4 and 125 pounds. This is what drinking does to your mind.

We cannot know what impact alcohol will have on us. You know, it's amazing to me that people who have lived with alcoholics would ever drink.

For me, you know, people said, do you ever smoke a cigarette? The only example

I ever needed was my father. He smoked a cigarette, and I never wanted to smoke a cigarette after that. I hated it with a holy passion.

So for people who live around alcoholics, I don't understand that. Why would you ever think, well, I'm just going to find out what it does to me.

Why? For some people, a drink or two is all it takes to set them off on a life -destroying binge.

For others, they'll drink in moderation their entire lives, and it will have absolutely no negative impact on them.

Is it wise? I don't know. I don't really, I think,

I guess you just have to ask yourself, what am I really giving up? Let's ask a more difficult question.

Is alcoholism a disease? Medical experts say so.

Psychiatrists, psychologists say so. A lot of Christians say so. However, I don't know of many other diseases that you get by choosing to do something.

Certainly, we can be injured choosing to do something, but what about picking up a disease? The Bible is pretty clear that drunkenness is a sin.

Ephesians 5, 17 and 18. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the

Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the

Spirit. There's a contrast there. Drunk with wine, that is debauchery.

It leads to a life of uncontrolled thinking and acting. But instead, be filled with the

Spirit. Simon Kistemacher says this. The desire to be happy, the desire to be exhilarated is not wrong, but exhilaration is wrong, however, when the method of inducing it is wrong.

It's great to be joyful. It's wrong to be joyful because you're drunk.

He says, thus it is improper to seek excitement from the excessive use of wine. We know from Galatians, the fruit of the

Spirit is self -control. When people choose to get drunk, it is precisely, explicitly to lose self -control.

For a Christian to do so, it's virtually like expelling the Holy Spirit, desiring His presence to be gone out of your life.

How can that not be sin? It's as if a

Christian could say, God, I love you, but I don't want you to control me. Kistemacher goes on, he says,

Intoxication is not the effective remedy for the cares and worries of this life. The so -called uplift it provides is not real.

It is the devil's poor substitute for the joy unspeakable and full of glory, which

God alone provides. Satan is ever substituting the bad for the good.

We want joy and we think we can find it in a bottle. There is no substitute for the joy of Christ.

I have seen unbelievable things. People who are so drunk they couldn't walk and yet they were driving cars.

Alcohol destroys lives. I mean, I think, just for a moment, the very first person

I ever arrested for drunk driving, he got out of the vehicle and he literally fell into my arms.

If I didn't catch him, he would have hit the asphalt. Too drunk to drive or too drunk to walk home, so he drove.

Now, what advice would I give young people? Well, first I would say, don't believe the way

Hollywood typically portrays alcohol as benign, meaning harmless, or even fun.

It is dangerous. Avoid it. You don't know, again, you don't know how you will respond to alcohol.

If your parents seem over -controlling, over -protective, thank

God for them. If you have parents who don't seem to pay any attention to what you do, then surround yourself with friends who are not self -destructive.

I mean, I'm so blessed when I think back on my own life and the people that I was really close to. I mean, I had some friends who, you know, wanted to experiment in all kinds of drugs and other things, and yet I had the restraint, even though it was not salvific,

I had the restraint of a cult and the friends in that cult that kept me from wanting to do these things.

Drugs and alcohol may seem like fun. You may not want to be left out. However, what seems like a way to have friends or to escape the pressures of life can often lead to isolation, sorrow, lying to your family, getting into legal trouble, or even worse, you might wind up ending somebody else's life by getting behind the wheel and not being able to control the car.

Listen to Proverbs. In fact, let's turn there. Proverbs 23. Proverbs chapter 23.

This is a great description of alcohol. This will really make you want to go out and have a drink.

And I'll tell you what, as somebody who has seen the before and after of alcohol, this is a great description.

People who, you know, night before were just happy as all get out, and then I see them in the morning and they're not so happy.

Who has woe? Verse 29 of Proverbs 23. Who has woe?

Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause?

In other words, we're going to get that cut. How did I get that bruise? They don't even know what happened. Who has redness of eyes?

Those who tarry long over wine. Those who go to try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.

In other words, don't just look at it and think, oh, it's so beautiful, it's so enticing. In the end, it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.

Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things. Trust me, people do bizarre things under the influence of alcohol.

You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of the mass because you can't move.

They struck me, you will say, verse 35, but I was not hurt. They beat me, but I still did not feel it.

When shall I awake? I must have another drink. Under the influence of alcohol, you won't feel people beating you.

You'll feel it the next day. It will be multiplied. Alcohol can have profound effects on us.

It slows our reactions. It deadens our senses. It lowers our inhibitions. People under the influence of alcohol do all manner of things they would never do apart from it.

Why? Why? Because if they weren't drunk, they'd be in their right minds. Avoid it.

Wait. That's what I would say to young people. Wait.

You don't need to do it now. What advice would I give to parents? I would say this, first of all, spend time with your young people.

And you say, well, I do. Every night we watch everything I want to watch. No. Spend time talking with them.

One -on -one time. You can say I love you a million times, but nothing says

I love you like spending time with them, talking with them, having fun with them, and doing something that they care about.

You can't know what's going on in your young person's life if you don't know them. What they do, what they like, who they hang out with.

And you'll find out all kinds of things this way. And some of them will surprise you.

I'd even suggest monitoring your children as they're on the Internet. There's a shocking thought. Or not letting them get on the

Internet. If you have teenagers that are on Facebook, you should know what they post. And by the way, there are ways, and this will really blow the cover for a lot of kids, there are ways that they can hide their posts from their parents.

You need to know what they're doing online. More importantly, even if your young people have deceived you, if they've let you down, they've sinned against you, if you've spent the time with them, if you've developed that relationship, you have a place to go to start rebuilding the relationship.

Don't let your children become alienated from you. And you say, it's too late.

I've already lost them. Not if you know that. Not if you recognize that. This is not a phase of their life.

It's not a time where kids just naturally turn rebellious. It is a time of their life when they need you more than you can imagine.

And you cannot check out. Now, another question.

Is there hope for those addicted to alcohol? Is there hope for anyone who's trapped in any sin?

And the answer is yes. Why? Because God saves sinners. God grants repentance to those who are sinful.

2 Timothy 2, chapter 2, verses 24 to 26 says this, And the

Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth.

And listen. And they may come to their senses. This is a perfect description of someone escaping the snare of alcoholism, other sins too.

But listen. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

Perfect picture of what happens. There is hope for those addicted to alcohol.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 to 11. The pastor just taught on this. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. Now why do we gather together on Sunday mornings?

Are we here this morning to celebrate how good we are, how we've overcome our various sins, our various addictions, our various weaknesses?

No. Because such were some of us. Right? We were all these things.

Not all of us individually were all of them, but individually we all participate in some of these different sins.

God delivered us from them. That's why we're here. He forgave us of them. That's why we're here.

We worship a great God who forgives sin, who delivers sinners. Yes, there's hope.

But it's not found in 12 -step support groups. It is found in a person, the

Lord Jesus Christ. Now, would I rather have you in Alcoholics Anonymous than getting drunk?

Yes. But Alcoholics Anonymous or any 12 -step group is no substitute for church.

12 -step groups, and as a veteran of one I can say this, are ecumenical at best.

In other words, it's this idea that all roads... I mean, you'll gather together and basically all roads lead to sobriety.

That's even worse than all roads lead to heaven. Sobriety is fine, but that's temporary.

Heaven, getting rid of sin, of the guilt of sin, is our biggest problem.

We were all sinners. We all still sin. God is a gracious and loving

God. Finally, I would just say this.

Whatever your problems are in life, alcohol is a temporary mask and not a permanent answer.

Drinking wine is not a sin. Paul could not command it. Paul could not command, and he does command using wine, but he could not command it if it was a sin.

All that God has given us, all that He has created is to be enjoyed, but wisely, rightly, according to His Word.

We know Jesus said in Mark 7, it's not what goes into your mouth that defiles you, it's what comes out.

Why? Because what goes into your mouth is expelled. It goes through the stomach, just as alcohol does.

In Colossians, he says, don't let anyone, Paul writes, don't let anyone judge you with regard to feasts and food and drink and all these kind of things.

Alcohol is not the problem. How we handle alcohol, how we respond to it, is the problem.

Getting drunk is always a sin. And it's a sin that leads to more sin because it virtually expels the

Holy Spirit from our lives, drives out, we can't be filled with the Spirit, we still can be infilled with the

Holy Spirit, but we cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit to His fullest extent if we have given up self -control, if we have pushed that aside.

The Bible never condemns alcohol, it condemns drunkenness. Let's pray.

Our Father in Heaven, I'm sure there are many here today who have struggled at some point with alcohol, have been afflicted by the results of alcoholism, drunkenness.

Father, I pray for any here who are struggling yet right now, maybe even came in this morning after being out too late last night.

Father, I pray that You would just cause each of us to look at alcohol as what it is, part of Your creation, a part that we can rejoice and be glad for, a part that we can joyfully abstain from.

Father, for many of us that is the best, most wise course. Father, we are to do all things in moderation, and I pray that You would just convict us of our need to be wary of alcohol, to understand its enslaving nature.

Lord, to confront those who need to be confronted, to give grace to those who are simply just having a glass of wine with their dinner.

I pray that we would view things exactly as You do, and that we would stand ready not to condemn, but to help to come alongside and to preach the

Gospel of Jesus Christ, who came to save sinners, of whom we all were and are.

Father, never let us forget His work on the cross, dying that we might live, being raised from the dead on the third day.