(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Let's start reading there in verse number one. Verse number one says, Wisdom hath builded her house. She hath hewn out her seven pillars. She hath killed her beasts. She hath mingled her wine. She hath also furnished her table. She hath sent forth her maidens. She crieth upon the highest places of the city. Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. As for him that wanteth understanding, sayeth to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live, and go in the way of understanding. So here we see again wisdom being more personified using that poetic language and basically having an established house. Like everything is set. She's killed her beasts. She's mingled her wine. Say, look, I've got the feast ready. Everything's ready to go. Come on in. Who's so simple? Come on in. You know, here, get some wisdom. The house is ready. Everything is ready to go. I'm calling out to you. Just come on in. We see this invitation to receiving wisdom. And we've talked about this in other chapters. So what I want to focus on here tonight, one of the things that kind of stuck out to me, and it's a problem in churches today, it's a problem among Christianity, I think in general is this understanding or misunderstanding of the usage of the word wine in the Bible. Now we notice here, look at verse number two. It says she hath killed. This is all about wisdom, right? So this is a good thing. Like everything that's mentioned here are good things. She's killed her beasts. She hath mingled her wine. She hath also furnished her table. And then in verse number five, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Wine is being used there in a good context, in a positive context. Everything here in verses one through six are good things, you know, good attributes of wisdom. Hey, I've got the food ready to go, the table's all set, you know, I've got the wine and everything's good to go. And see, people don't understand that wine does not always mean an alcoholic beverage in the Bible. And I want to really go into depth tonight and kind of cover this. It's not going to encompass the whole sermon, don't worry, but it's going to be a significant portion of it because this is an important concept because a lot of people who are weak, a lot of people who are ignorant that don't know any better can look at something like this and be like, well, wine's a good thing. And you'll find throughout the Bible, you'll find two extremes. You're either going to find that wine is a really good thing and makes the heart glad, it's a blessing from God, or it's extremely wicked and bad and evil and you shouldn't even look upon it. And when you go through, and I encourage you, if you have any problem with this at all, if you don't agree with what I'm saying, to look it up and do your own study on this to see if what I'm saying is even true, because we're not going to look at every reference to the word wine tonight. I have many of them. It's almost, it's mostly going to be from the Old Testament because guess what? This subject's going to come up again and again as we continue through Proverbs. This is not the only time we're going to deal with this subject, but this is one of those truths and wisdom in the Bible, especially in the book of Proverbs, that is important in our lives because I'll tell you what, you start drinking alcohol, it's going to ruin your life. That's right. And that's not just some dramatic statement that I'm just making to try to scare you. It ought to scare you, but that's not the point. It's the truth. Drinking alcohol will ruin your life. It's going to cause you to do things that you never would do otherwise. It's going to get you to walk in the flesh and not be walking in the Spirit. It's only going to bring sorrow and pain into your life. Now, I'm going to start with a little bit of worldly wisdom or proof rather, not wisdom, just proof that the word wine historically in the English language has been used to refer to non-alcoholic beverages. That is a fact and I don't know why people stumble over this fact. It's mostly ignorant, but anybody who's going to claim, nope, if it says wine, it just means alcoholic wine and that's all wine has ever meant, that's a lie. That is false. And I have here, I'm going to read for you, I copied off, you know, I found this book online, Google's great, I got these eBooks up there and you kind of skim through it and even search through it. And this is just one example. I have found many because I've dug into this. This is a subject, I'll just let you know, I'll bear my heart to you a little bit. This is close to home for me. This was a problem that I had in my own life. This is one of the big sins that was a part of my life and it's ruined a lot of the time that I could have, while I was saved, that I could have been doing work for Christ, but I wasn't because I was living like a fool. Because I was like the wayward son, the prodigal son that was just off in the gutters in the swine pit, just off in the pigsty somewhere. And this will ruin your life. And I am so much against this drinking of alcohol and people that promote it, especially the pastor, the Christian, I'll say, oh no, drinking's fine in moderation. It's just drunkenness. No, it's not. But let's start off. I'll start off by just giving you some history of the usage of the word wine. While yes, it has always referred to alcoholic beverages, that is not the only reference that it's ever used for. I'm going to be quoting here from a book and I don't have the reference for it, I apologize for that. I didn't write it down in my notes. But there's plenty out there. And this was referenced from other references anyways in this book. There's a whole bibliography and stuff. It says until the close of last century, and this was written in the 1800s, by the way. So until the close of last century, which was the 1700s. It says nearly every dictionary of science included several species of unfermented wine under the head wine. So when you go and look in a dictionary, right, you have the main word, and then usually you could have a bunch of other, or you go look up a certain word and it refers you back to another definition because it's like the same thing or it's all included under that definition. It says several species of unfermented wine was found under the header wine. So you look up wine in a dictionary, you're going to find the references to unfermented wines. For example, Blount's Glossographia 1070 has must. So the word must, it's another usage, another, it's almost synonymous with the word wine, but it's a non-alcoholic. It says for must, new wine is the definition. Must is new wine that first pressed out of the grape. That's called the must. When you first press the grape, what comes out here, the dictionary definition of this Blount's Glossographia, if I'm even pronouncing that right, that definition was new wine for must, for something that's just brand new came out of the grape. That has no alcohol in it. It just was pressed out of the grape. And it was defined as being new wine. It says Parkinson, the king's herbalist, in his Theatrum Botawicum in 1640, right around the time of the translation of the Bible, says the juice or liquor pressed out of the ripe grapes is called venum, wine, venum, right, it's from the vine, it's wine, it's probably a Latin root. And that word liquor, too. It's real close, that word liquid, it's a liquor, the liquor of, you know, again, it's another word that we think of today, oh, you can't hold your liquor and you just think of spirits, you think of really strong alcohol. But liquor also historically has not always meant, you know, alcoholic drinks. Because it's the liquid that comes out of the fruit or whatever. That's what it is. And that's, you know what, and that's just a fact. Okay, I hate that you'd come to church and be confused with facts, but that's a fact. It says here, of it is made both sapa and diffrudum, in English cute, that is to say boiled wine, and both made of must and new wine. Dr. Sprett Bishop of Rochester, 1702, says in his History of the Royal Society, the juice of wine, when dried, does always granulate into sugar, as appears in raisins and also in those vessels in which cute or unfermented wine is put. Chambers' Cyclopedia, 1750, enumerates six distinct kinds of unfermented wine. The fact in language for which we contend is admitted by Dr. Urey in his Dictionary of Chemistry, as late as 1831, under wine, he says, this grape juice, when newly expressed and before it has began to ferment, is called must, and in common language, sweet wine. The newly pressed grape, the newly pressed fruit is, it's called must, but he said in the common language, it's called sweet wine. That's a common language. And do you remember the purpose of this book that was translated in English and the revisions of the previous verses? It was to be so that the people could have the God's word in the common language. It was a common language of the day. English, it was a common language and the common man can pick up God's word for once and be able to read it for themselves. Because the Catholic Church was keeping it all, you know, in other languages, in Latin or whatever, and people didn't speak those languages anymore or whatever, and they're trying to keep the word of God secret and we have the Bible in the common language. This is all just historical evidence that the word wine has been used in the English language and in the Greek language, by the way. This is all, these are English examples, but there's evidence in ancient Greek literature that the same words that were used in the New Testament for wine, that are translated as wine, correctly so, properly so, those same words were used in other works. And I'm trying to remember, who was it, Plato, I think, has references to the new wine, to the wine that is unfermented, all the way back, you know, in those times, in ancient times and biblical times or whatever, you know, like way back old. So it's specifically referring to non-alcoholic beverages. There's plenty of evidence out there and if that's something you really are interested in, it's out there. Go ahead and research it for yourself or try to prove me wrong on this stuff. You're not going to be able to. But I don't even think, you know, that's as far as I want to go down that train of thought because we don't even need this type of evidence in order to prove this to be true. You can use it based on the context of the Bible itself. And that's what I'm going to spend more time focusing on right now, is looking at the scripture, looking at the Bible verses, and honestly looking at it and trying to understand, okay, if this is so great, I mean, we see here in wisdom and in Proverbs 9, it's a very good reverence. You know, it's, hey, if wisdom is having wine, why can't I? Right? Well, what wine are we talking about? Either there's contradictions in the Bible, even within the same book of the Bible, Proverbs, because as we go on a little bit further, we're going to see, look not thou upon the wine when it is red. And notice there's a condition there, when it is red, when it, give it this color a couple, when it moveth itself aright. There is a time when you're not supposed to look at wine. And that time is when it's fermented. But turn, if you would, to Genesis chapter number nine. Keep your finger in Proverbs. We're going to be back to it. We're going to be flipping around quite a bit to look at some examples here of just the usage of the word wine. Genesis chapter nine, it's going to be the first time you're going to see the word wine used here, Genesis chapter number nine. We're going to start looking at some examples here of not positive examples of the word wine. Genesis 9, 21, this is talking about Noah after he got off the ark. And he drank of the wine and was drunken. And he was uncovered within his tent. So in the context, this passage is obviously referring to alcoholic wine because he drank wine and then he was drunken. And then he passed out and didn't even know what his younger son had done unto him until he woke up. And that's what he said in verse number 24, and Noah awoke, not from his sleep, from his wine because he was passed out drunk. Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him. Not what he saw, what he had done unto him. This is a very bad first usage or reference of the word wine. Wouldn't you agree? Now this also demonstrates the fallibility because people want to put too much emphasis on the rule of the law of first mention is what people call it, or the rule of first mention. Now I think it's very useful because it's used for determining what a word means. If you want to know what a word means, generally in the Bible you go to the first time it's used and get a pretty good understanding of what the word's talking about. However, just because you find the first place it's used does not mean that that is the only meaning for that word throughout all the Bible regardless of the context. You can't state that. It's the same thing with the word repent. The very first time that it's used God repented himself that he made man upon the earth. He was sorry about us, he was upset that he even made man, but that one usage is not all encompassing of the definition of the word repent. You have to look at the context of where it's used. I don't even think repent always has to include sorrow. Just like when it says that God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he thought to do unto them. I don't think God was sorry that he turned from the evil of destroying the city. I don't think he was sorry about that. He was probably glad that they turned from their wicked ways and he said great, now I don't have to destroy you, but he changed his mind. There was no sorrow involved in that decision. So you can't just go off of the first time. Again, it's a tool, it's a concept, but the Bible doesn't say every time I mention a word first, that is the meaning and always use that meaning throughout the Bible. No, that's a man-made thought. So while it could be a useful tool, just don't get so caught up into that where that is dictating how you interpret the Bible, because it shouldn't. If that were the case here, we could use the rule of the first major and say, well, see, wine is always talking about alcoholic drinks, because it was here in this passage. That would be ridiculous. And as we get on, you'll see how ridiculous that concept would be anyways. But pay attention to the result of drinking that wine. This is one of the reasons why I'm so hard against it, because look at what happens. I mean, that's horrible. What his son had done unto them and then he gets this great curse. I mean, I'll let you use your own imagination on what he had done to them as he was passed out in the tent. It's what any, you know, even guys do this to women, but guys do it to guys too. Taking advantage of people when they're passed out drunk. It's wickedness. Turn to Genesis chapter 19, we'll see another mention. Another negative mention, and it's not going to be that very difficult to figure out what type of wine we're talking about. Genesis 19, we're going to see a story about Lot. After he comes out of Sodom, and he's in the cave, Genesis 19 verse 32, his daughters are talking, says, come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he perceived not when she laid down, nor when she arose. He had no idea why, just like Noah, he was passed out drunk. Based on the context here, it's not very difficult to figure out what wine they're referring to. And again, look at what's happening as a result of drinking alcoholic wine. It's not good. I mean, these are some of the worst things that can happen to a person in your lifetime. Being solemnized by your son, having your daughters commit incest with you, I mean, how much worse can it get as a result of getting drunk and passing out? Who knows what's going to happen? You're vulnerable to anything. Leviticus chapter number 10, turn if you would to Leviticus 10, I'll wait for you to get there because this is important that you see this. We see another reference to wine in Leviticus, in God's law. And again, from the context, I think you'll be able to tell that we're talking about an alcoholic beverage here in Leviticus chapter 10. Leviticus chapter 10, I'm going to start reading verse number 8, about the reason the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, 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, and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, between clean and unclean. God says, if you drink wine and you come into the tabernacle, you're going to die. That's how serious God treats it. And you know what? Drunkenness in the Bible is a sin, but it's not the death penalty. In God's house, He says, when you enter the tabernacle of the congregation, that's the death penalty. He says, you're going to drink wine and you come in here. Why? Why is it the death penalty? Well, because you need to show there's a difference between that which is holy, that which is sanctified, that which is set apart for God, and that which is unholy. That which is unclean, and that which is clean. What does that say there, that that wine and strong drink is unclean? It's unclean. If it's not even allowed, it's unclean. Why would you want to be taking something that God says is unclean and putting that in your body? Consuming that. It's unclean. It's unholy. In the Old Testament, the priests were not allowed to drink wine or strong drink in the tabernacle because it's unclean, but Christians want to use alcoholic wine to represent the blood of Christ in communion. Unbelievable. It was unclean in the tabernacle, but now in church, let's pour the booze and say that that's Jesus Christ's blood. And by the way, that's blasphemy. It absolutely is. I've proved this many times. I've preached this in the past. To say that Jesus Christ, and even when he turned the water into wine, to say that that's alcoholic wine in John chapter 2, I believe is blasphemy. Because he made the reference that that wine was representative of his blood. When his mother came to him, when Mary came to him and said, hey, they ran out of wine, he says, what have I to do with you when my hours not yet come? Why? Because he's talking about his blood. And the blood was referenced and it's symbolic when he turned that water into wine. It was symbolic of his blood. Now just as much as when you take the communion or the Passover, you know, you're eating unleavened bread because leaven is symbolic of sin. Well, in fermented wine, alcoholic wine, that is there as a result of yeast. It is a fermented wine. It is a leavened, if you will, to put it in those terms, it's a leavened wine. So when leaven represents sin in the Bible, and you have to eat the unleavened bread because Christ was sinless, Christ's body was sinless, so was his blood. So why would you want to defile that and use an unholy beverage to represent or signify the blood of Christ? Jesus didn't do it. I guarantee you didn't do it at the wedding in Cana. I guarantee you that the early church that was eating and drinking the unleavened bread and wine for the Lord's Supper when Jesus Christ met with his disciples, it was non-alcoholic wine. It was unfermented because it was representative of the blood of Christ, which is pure and perfect and without anything unholy or unclean. Now so far we've only, if you were to Deuteronomy 32, we've only looked at references of alcoholic wine. It's obviously clear from the context that that is what it is talking about in all those passages we just looked up. When you see people being drunk and passed out, it's not grape juice, my friends. So why do I think that wine can also refer to a non-alcoholic beverage? Where is the evidence? Okay, we're just going to start looking at some of that. Deuteronomy 32 and verse number 31. Deuteronomy 32 verse 31, the Bible reads, For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall. Their clusters are bitter, their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps. So why do you keep saying their wine, their vine, their grapes? Because it's different than our wine and our vine and our grapes. What they have is different than what we have. There's a distinction there. He said, the wine that they got, that's the poison. He says, the poison of dragons, the cruel venom of asps. Who wants to drink that stuff? The wicked, the sodomites, they want that stuff. It's not for you. Their wine is not as our wine. Their rock is not like our rock. Turn if you would to Amos chapter 2. And I think that proves, I mean, there's a distinguishing between two types of wines and their wine versus our wine. Their wine is bad. Their wine is wicked. Their wine is poison. And alcohol, my friends, even science will tell you this, alcohol is poison. It is not good for you. Drinking alcoholic beverages, you can find the studies that say, oh, drinking glass of wine a day is good for your heart or whatever. You know why there's any benefit at all? It's because it's coming from the juice. It's not coming from the fermentation of the alcohol. It's coming from the juice part. Amos chapter number 2, is everyone there Amos chapter 2? We start reading in verse number 6 of Amos chapter number 2, Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes. That pants after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek. And a man and his father will go in unto the same made to profane my holy name. And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God. The wine of the condemned. So that sounds like a little bit of a different wine than the wine that's being served in the house of wisdom. The wine of the condemned is a specific wine being referred to here. It's a specific wine being mentioned. You know what? They're drinking the wine of the condemned. And you know what this is showing to me? That drinking the wine of the condemned is a transgression. Because the Bible said there, we start reading in verse number 6, For three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof. And then he lists off what they're doing that are transgressions. Because they sold the righteous for silver. That's one of them. And the poor for a pair of shoes. They pants up to the dust of the head, they turn away the side of the meek. And a man and his father going in unto the same made. I mean, that's wickedness. That's extreme wickedness that the Israelites were doing at this time. And it says, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God. All of these are transgressions. It doesn't even say they were getting drunk. It says they were drinking the wine of the condemned. We know, I mean, you could prove, even these people that promote drinking in tolerance or in moderation is fine. They'll say drunkenness is a sin. Because that is, I mean, you have to just be deceiving yourselves or stupid or just have never read the Bible at all to think that being drunk is okay. But this doesn't even say getting drunk is the sin. It says drink the wine of the condemned. Their wine, their poison, their cruel venom of asps. That's what they were drinking. It was what they were drinking is the problem. Proverbs 20 verse 1 says wine is a mocker. Wine is a mocker. Strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived by it is not wise. So wait a minute. Wine is a mocker? Again, does this say drinking too much wine will make a mockery of you? It says wine is a mocker. I thought wine was a blessing from the Lord. Well, it is. Now, we either have a contradiction in the Bible because, you know, the Bible is somewhat schizophrenic here saying one thing and then another thing or we're talking about two different beverages. It's the wine. It's the beverage. There are two different things. There's one that has alcohol in it that will make you drunk and the other one that has no effect on you at all. It's just wine. And you know what? Wine is a blessing from God. I don't know about you. I love when we have, especially like these days you get juice in the store and it's like there's a little bit of juice and it's got high fructose corn syrup and it's got sugar and all these other things added to it. That's not juice. That's not what the Bible is even talking about. That's just like some perversion of juice. We used to go to my wife's grandmother's house and get all these oranges off her orange tree and squeeze juice. Oh man, that fresh squeezed orange juice is so good. I mean, it's a real treat. And you know, people, I've heard people, I've seen people mock on Facebook saying, oh, what do you think? You think that the juice is so good and oh, and that makes you so happy and that makes your heart glad. Like because to them, the only thing that makes them happy is getting buzzed or getting drunk. That's what you need to have a good time is the booze, is the alcohol. That's the really good wine. That's the good stuff. The old wine's bitter. That's not the good stuff. Look, I've had plenty of wine in my days and it has nothing to compare. The only reason why you would like that old wine is because you like the way that it changes and it feels inside of your body when the spirits come over you from the alcohol. That's what you like about it. You like the losing your inhibitions. You like the drunkenness or the onset of drunkenness. And I've seen people push for this and say, oh, you drink enough to make your heart merry. And you know what they're saying? You drink enough to get to catch a buzz. That's their equation. And they'll never say that, but that's what they mean. Oh, you just enough to make your heart merry. Yeah. You're getting a buzz. And you know what? When you're getting a buzz, you're not sober and your judgment's already screwed up. And I'm not even going to get into that, but wine is a mocker. Strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived by there, thereby is not wise. Turn if you would to Psalm 104. Or actually, you know what? Stay in Proverbs. Stay in Proverbs. I'll read for you from Psalm 104 because that beverage is not the same as this beverage in Psalm 104. I'll start reading for you in verse 14. He calls it the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man that he may bring forth food out of the earth and wine that maketh glad the heart of man and oil to make his face to shine and bread which strengtheneth man's heart. Completely opposite. Completely different. Wine that maketh glad the heart of man. And as I was talking before about the orange juice stuff, that makes my heart glad. I mean, my kids are always like, can we get some more orange juice? They love that so much. It doesn't last in our house. I mean, we have to keep it in the freezer and just bring them out like one at a time because if we didn't, they would just all be gone right away because it tastes so good. And it truly is a blessing. I mean, you have that nice fresh squeeze. I mean, no matter what it is, I mean, I love grape juice. I love getting the, they have the brand at Sprouts. It's like just grape juice, just cranberry, just whatever, you know, it's like that's what it is. You know, it's like almost nothing added to it, maybe a little bit of water or something, but it's like that's, you're drinking that pure juice. That stuff is good. And that makes glad the heart of man. And you also have to remember this too. All throughout history, the access to this juice was not as readily available as it is today. I mean, with industrialization and refrigeration and stuff, we take things for granted, being able to go to a supermarket and having all this food just on the shelves all the time of the year and going to the refrigerator section and getting any type of juice that you want. So again, all times a year, that's not the way, that's the way that we know things, but that is not the way things have been for very long at all. Having this juice, and you know how much fruit it takes to make just a glass of juice? It takes a lot. I mean, when we go through that, that orange juice, I mean, we just get piles and piles and piles of the pea, of the orange peels left over from squeezing them and just, I mean, garbage bag after garbage bag after garbage bag after garbage bag. And the amount of oranges that you use to get the amount of juice is a huge ratio. You don't get very much juice for each orange, which makes it more expensive, right? It makes it more valuable and desirable because it's like, hey, I'm getting all of this juice. This is like 20 oranges or whatever, right, in one little glass of juice. It is something to be happy about. It is something to be glad about. And it also shows, you know, if God's going to bless you with that wine, then you are abundant in what he's getting, you know, in your crops and your yields of the fruit in order to be able to make juice out of it. In Proverbs 3, verse number 9, again, this is a blessing of God. He says, honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. I mean, you see the stark contrast here of something that's really good versus something that's really bad. If every mention of wine is only alcoholic in the Bible, then how do you explain this verse? In Isaiah 65, verse 8, Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster. And one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it. New wine found in the cluster. A cluster is a cluster of grapes on the vine still. Right? He's saying the new wine is in that. But wine always means there's alcohol in it. Hmm. Isaiah 65, verse 8 doesn't seem to point to any alcoholic content when the new wine is found in the cluster. It doesn't come from, it's found in the cluster. It's there because the juice is still within the grape on the cluster. And that is referred to as wine. Jeremiah 48, 33 says, In joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field and from the land of Moab, and I have caused wine to fail from the wine presses. None shall tread with shouting, and their shouting shall be no shouting. Now, the reason why I'm pointing to this verse is because a wine press is just that. You press the grapes. It's something that's used to press grapes. So you've probably seen pictures of people in France or whatever that are barefoot and they walk around those tubs and they smash on the grapes. They're wine pressing. They're pressing and smashing the grapes because when you press them, the juice comes out. Right? It makes sense. I know this is stupid simple, but people who want to promote drinking alcohol don't seem to get it through their heads. Jeremiah 48, 33 says, I have caused wine to fail from the wine presses. Wine is coming out of the wine press. It is not having alcohol content at that point, yet it's still referred to as wine. I can go on and on and on with these examples, but for some people, just never enough because they want to justify their sin. That is all it comes down to. And don't let any of these people try to deceive you on this subject because all they're doing is just opening the door to sin. The determination on alcoholic or not when it comes to the wine in the Bible is strictly on the context. That is how you know what the Bible is talking about. I believe that even strong wine or strong drink when you see those terms, I don't think that's always necessarily talking about alcoholic. It's strong. It's a strong drink, but see, we refer to strong drinks as being really alcoholic drinks or how much alcohol content is in it. But a strong drink, think about this, have you ever had a strong coffee before versus just a regular coffee? Because I have. I've had some really strong coffee before versus regular coffee. Now did that have anything to do with alcohol? No. I've had some strong teas before. Even juice, because this is what we're talking about. That cranberry, have you ever had pure cranberry juice? I mean, you notice how almost every juice that you get in a store that's cranberry, it's cran-apple, it's cran-whatever, they mix it with other things because cranberry is so tart and it's so strong, man, you get that just cranberry from Sprouts, it's like $10 or something, you get like in this little jar. That stuff will blow you away, I'll tell you what. That is tart, but it is strong. That is a strong drink. You need like a water chaser after you drink that cranberry juice, because it's so strong. But that is a strong drink. Now I think many of the mentions are talking about an alcoholic beverage, it talks about a strong drink or whatever, but I don't think it always is. Again, you look at the context, if it's negative, it's talking about an alcoholic beverage, if it's a positive reference, it's not alcoholic. In Deuteronomy 14, verse 24, here's an example of this, it says, And if the way be too long, for this is talking about bringing in your first fruits, or bringing in your tithe, back then to the house of God. If it's too far for you, now I'm just going to summarize what most of this is, and then I'm going to get into the verse. You could turn it into money, you could convert your food, your cattle, whatever it is that you're going to bring it in, that's your first fruits to give for your tithe, or for the offering of first fruits, or whatever it is that you're bringing in. If it's too far away, he says, go ahead, convert it to money, because it'll be a lot easier for you to travel then. And then, it says, Then shalt thou turn into money, and bind up the money in thy hand, and shalt go unto the place with the Lord that God shall choose, and thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth. Now again, he's not saying there, I don't think at all, that's talking about alcohol. He's saying, look, when you get there, whatever your soul wants, you want to get, you know, sheep, wine, oxen, whatever it is that you're going to use your tithe money now to convert back into a sacrifice, into something that you're offering and giving to the Levites, because that was, you know, part of the purpose for it anyways. He says, whatever you want, and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice thou in thine household, because you partake in that tithe giving and everything that else you are given with the Levites, and with the fatherless, and with the widows. So when it says there, for wine or for strong drink, a strong drink does not have to imply an alcoholic beverage. Based on the context of it, if it's an unholy thing that's not allowed in the tabernacle, you think it's going to be allowed for the offering unto God as a sacrifice? No way. No way. And then there's, of course, there's a fallacy of people, they'll say, oh, people back then, they didn't know how to preserve juice, so it couldn't be juice because there had to be alcohol because they didn't know how to do it. Yes, they did. And there is evidence for that too. And you know what? Look it up for yourself. There is old literature out there describing the ways in which they were able to preserve juice. You didn't have to have a refrigerator. You know, for the longest time, people had cellars. They had wine cellars. Why? Because it's cool and damp and dark in those areas and it can stay at a cool temperature. Many places in the world that have that, it's like a natural refrigerator for one. But even besides that, you know, you could clean the grapes, you could clean to make sure that you're getting all of the yeast and anything else off of there that would cause the fermentation process to start to begin with. There is many, you know, you could boil it down and have a syrup and then use that later. I mean, you have now, they've got the stuff you put in the freezer, right? That's just all this condensed, like concentrate, right, as we call it, concentrate. They knew how to do that back then. They weren't idiots. Right. Okay, we're not just, we just know everything today and they didn't know anything 2,000 years ago. Right. No. They actually knew probably more because they didn't have the convenience of having a refrigerator plugged into a wall. They had to know more on how to preserve things. So don't fall for that. And you know what, if you're really interested in it, the information's out there. I've looked it up before. I didn't bother to put it in with the sermon tonight because I want to get on to some other subjects. So you say, why did you spend so much time? You've already spent 40 minutes talking about wine in Proverbs and where it's not even really talking specifically about drinking wine and just using wine in light contents. Well, because there are the prophets out there that are going to tell you that drinking is just fine as long as you don't get drunk. Because there are plenty of people out there that are going to tell you if that's what you want to hear, they'll say it. And just like Micah chapter 2 verse 11 says, if a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink, he shall even be the prophet of this people. That was a cut on the people that he's talking about there because he's saying, you know what, any prophet that comes around, he's going to be saying that, oh, go ahead, drink the wine and the strong drink, it's good for you, you know, like that's the prophet of this people. It's a people who are looking for any excuse to sin for whatever it is their sin that they enjoy. If you enjoy drinking alcohol, yeah, there's going to be, you're going to find a prophet that's going to be able to tell you that, it's just fine. But it's not. And I think we've amply proved that for tonight. Let's go back to Proverbs chapter 9, I'm going to continue on here. We're going to move on to our next topic. And these ones aren't going to be taken, don't worry, I don't have as much time dedicated to these subjects as I did for the wine. But the wine thing, you know what, you've got to hit that like regularly. That is something that is so part of people's lives, it's being pumped around you all over the place. You can't drive down the highway without seeing the bud dumber signs and all the different types of alcohol and booze just being thrown at you, and it's all over the place. And it ruins people's lives daily. Next time we touch this subject, though, I'll probably get into a lot more New Testament context. We did a lot of Old Testament tonight. But I just wanted to prove to you that, you know, just because you see the word wine, it does not imply it's alcoholic. And we saw the word wine used here as a positive thing, it is not an alcoholic beverage. Let's keep reading here. So verse number 6 says, forsake the way of the foolish and live, and go in the way of understanding. He that reproveth a scorner, getteth to himself shame, and he that rebuketh a wicked man, getteth himself a blot. Now I'm going to spend a little bit of time kind of going over a scorner and who a scorner is because this is mentioned multiple times, excuse me, in this chapter. Verse 8 says, reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee, rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. So this is just, first of all, just starting to talk about, you know, being careful who you reprove. It's not always a wise thing to just tell everybody that they're wrong regardless of who they are and what they're about. There is times when it's wise for you to keep your mouth shut. Even if it's just or righteous for you, you know, like you're not judging hypocritically, you know, and you have a sincere heart for that person, look, if that person's a scorner, the Bible's saying here, he that reproveth a scorner, get it to himself shame. You're going to shame yourself when you go out and try to reprove a scorner. It says, reprove not a scorner in verse 8, lest he hate thee. So you need to look out for the, the scorners and you don't waste your rebuke on them because honestly a rebuke is a good thing. A rebuke is a good thing because a rebuke is letting you know if it's done properly, if it's done appropriately, if it's done biblically, a rebuke is going to let you know that you're doing something wrong. And I don't know about you, but I like to know when I'm screwing up because I don't want to continue to screw up. I want to do what's right. And if it means a rebuke, that's fine. But you know, a scorner, someone that scorns, let's look at this word scorning. So basically the word scorning is just like a disdain for someone or having contempt as a scorner or someone who ridicules and mocks. So often times in Bible you see people are laughed to scorn. They laugh them to scorn. They laugh them to scorn. What were they doing there? Mocking them and ridiculing them. And that is being called being laughed to scorn, right? But it's also just when you have disdain for something or contempt for something is being scornful. So a little bit of wisdom here. You don't need to correct everybody, but there's definitely times when it's wise to keep your wisdom to yourself and to not do that reproof or rebuke. Proverbs 13 verse 1 says, a wise son heareth his father's instruction, but a scorner heareth not rebuke. See the scorner's not going to hear it anyway. So there's no point in rebuking a scorner because they're not going to hear it. They don't have anything to do with it. Now the wise son's going to hear it. But the scorner, they have nothing to do with it. Proverbs 15 12 says, a scorner loveth not one that reproveth him. Neither will he go unto the wise. A scorner wants nothing to do with being told that they're wrong. It's kind of a proud attitude, thinking that they know everything. They don't want to hear it. A scorner is better dealt with in ways other than rebuke. Proverbs 19 verse 25 says, smite a scorner. That means hit them. Smite a scorner and the simple will beware and reprove one that hath understanding and he will understand. Now you're saying, you know a scorner, the only thing that's going to get through to a scorner is just like a slap in the face. Like a physical smiting. That's a language that they could understand. Because when you try to reprove them, you try to tell them that they're wrong, they're not going to hear it. If you've got an understanding, you know what, you might not need a swift kick in the pants. But a scorner, that's about all they're going to understand. Proverbs 19 verse 29 says, judgments are prepared for scorners and stripes for the back of fools. Why? A fool, that's all that's going to get through to them is just the beating. The whipping. That'll get through to them. Proverbs 21, 11 says, when the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise and when the wise is instructed, he receiveth knowledge. Need to be aware of who these people are. Nothing is going to get through to them and satisfy them other than some kind of beating or something. And the Bible is not saying to just beat them, but that's basically what's going to get through to them. And why is a scorner like that? It's because they're proud and because they're wrathful. Proverbs 21, 24 says, proud and haughty scorner is his name who dealeth in proud wrath. And in Proverbs 22 verse 10 says, cast out the scorner and contention shall go out. Yea, strife and reproach shall cease. The scorner causes problems. The scorner, like I said, he's mocking people, disdaining what you have to say, not wanting to hear the truth, and there's always a fight and always a contention. He says, you know what? Get rid of that scorner. The guy that scorns and scoffs at what you believe or what you think, you know, if someone comes in like that at church, we need to just get out of them because all it's going to do is just cause strife and contention within the church. In Proverbs 29, 8 says, scornful men bring a city into a snare, into a trap, but wise men turn away wrath. Scornful men are just going to get you into trouble, and that's all they're about, and they can't be rebuked, they can't be told that they're wrong, they're real proud, and they're full of wrath. So we need to watch out for the scorner. So he's saying here, go back to Proverbs 9 here, where were we at? I don't think I had you turn anywhere else. Proverbs 9, reprove not a scorner, in verse 8, lest he hate thee, rebuke a wise man and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. And I think we could learn kind of two sides of the same coin here in verse number 9. It says give instruction to a wise man. So you, as someone who might know or have instruction, is telling you who to give it to. Give instruction to the wise man. Don't give it to the scorner. Be careful who you're giving the instruction to, who you're rebuking and who you're correcting and who you are opening up your mouth and providing instruction to. And if you do that, hey, the wise person, they're going to be even wiser. Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. But you could also look at this from the other standpoint of if you want to be a wise man, you ought to be able to receive instruction. The wise man will be yet wiser when you can receive instruction from someone else. You're not so proud that you don't want to hear what they have to say. And you could receive instruction from a lot of different sources. We need to make sure that none of us allow ourselves to get to a point to where we're above being taught. We're above someone else rebuking us. Now I'm sure there's going to be people on YouTube that are going to hear us and be like, oh, yeah, but you answered me. You know, it's like, it's because the majority of that that you deal with online is so far out there. Like people are saying, oh, I tried to rebuke you. It's because what you're saying was stupid and wrong and just completely just so far from being correct that you actually needed the reproof, not me. It's not because I'm some proud person and anybody that comes to church and knows me personally should know that by now. But we need to be wise in who we're giving instruction to. And if we want to be wise, you ought to be able to receive instruction. Verse number 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. For by me, thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself. But if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. Now we're going to move into the last section here for the sermon. We're almost done. The last verse is here, Proverbs 9, verse 13. A foolish woman is clamorous. She is simple and knoweth nothing. So I'm going to read a little bit about a foolish woman. Clamorous means she's loud, kind of loud and obnoxious. She doesn't have the gentle and quiet and meek spirit that's a godly spirit that is in God's eyes of great value. The foolish woman is clamorous. She's simple. Simple means stupid, doesn't know very much. Very ignorant is what simple is. And knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house on a seat in the high places of the city to call passengers who go right on their ways. Whoso is simple, let him turn and hither. And as for him that wanteth understanding, wanteth meaning lacking, like you don't have understanding. She sayeth to him, stolen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depths of hell. This is a similar concept that comes up all throughout the book of Proverbs. We've dealt with this before. We dealt with the strange woman and we dealt with this is just, and look, I had someone write to me recently. This is not all just one person or one woman. These are attributes of different types of women that are wicked, that are doing bad things. They're not, you know, when we read about the strange woman, different areas and stuff, it's not just like there's this one woman that encompasses all of these things. And that is the type of one woman that you need to look out for. These are all attributes of women of different types of women that you need to be looking out for. They're not necessarily all going to have all the same attributes, but we need, you know, men need to be looking out for it because this is an adulterous woman. This is someone who at the very least is, you know, talking about fornication. When she refers to stolen waters are sweet, bread eaten in secret is pleasant. It's talking about hiding something you shouldn't be doing and saying, hey, you know, adding a little bit of excitement, a little bit of wonder to the sin, trying to entice you with this sin by saying, you know what, yeah, I know, you know, you know what water tastes like, but have you ever stolen water and drank it? That's really good. And just trying to tempt you and entice you and get you to think, oh, wow, I've never had stolen water before. That's better? Oh, is there some excitement to that? And obviously this is a euphemism. I mean, this isn't just talking about stealing some water and drinking it. This is talking about her, you know, calling under the simple men that are passing by, hey, come in here, you know, commit adultery with me. It's going to be way better than what you have with your wife because stolen waters are sweet. That which is done, you know, the bread that's eaten in secret, that's really good stuff. Don't be deceived. This is the allure of sin and in one form here, all sin puts on this great facade, puts on this great, you know, face of, oh man, it's going to be the best thing ever. Oh man, drink this alcohol, you're going to be so much fun, it's going to be the life of the party, everything's going to be great. And like it says here in verse 18, but he knoweth not that the dead are there and her guests are in the depths of hell. It is never, sin is never what it's made up to be. It's never what it's cracked up to be. The simple man that gets deceived by this and says, oh wow, stolen water is sweet. You know what? He goes in and is like, that's what that was? And now you have to deal with the guilt, now you have to deal with the consequences, now you have to deal with, you know, in those days, possibly being put to death because you commit some stupid act of adultery, don't be deceived by this. It's not worth it ever. Gain some wisdom. The three main topics I covered tonight was wine, the scorner, and the foolish woman. And that's kind of what this is. I think, you know, sometimes you read the book of Proverbs, you think, what does this have to do with each other? I think that all of these topics blend together really well. When you look at the wine, and you might say, okay, I stretched that a little bit, but even just having the wisdom and being able to have all this knowledge and be able to sit in a good place, okay, because I'm not going to say that my whole sermon I did tonight on wine is necessarily like found in this chapter, right? That was a little bit of a stretch, but I wanted to teach on that subject. But having this wisdom, because that is what the first part of chapter 9 was talking about, this place of wisdom where the table's set, the beasts are there, the wine's ready to go, and then referring to the scorner and showing that you have that wisdom not to deal with the scorner, and then again with the foolish woman. Watch out for these people. Watch out for the scorner. Watch out for the woman that is clamorous, that is loud, that wants to get your attention, that wants to get you and entice you into doing something extremely wicked and sinful. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for this great book of wisdom. God, we thank you for teaching us. Help us to have a humble heart and a humble ear to be able to receive your words, dear Lord. Please just help us to always be ready to hear, rebuke, and also be wise enough to determine who we should be rebuking and who we shouldn't be, dear Lord, that we're not rebuking scorners and just bringing on extra problems to ourselves that are unnecessary because they won't hear anyways. Lord, give us the knowledge to have that discernment. God, I pray that you would please never let anyone here or anyone under the sound of my voice ever be deceived by alcohol and that we fully understand the concept that you put forth in the Bible of these various beverages and some that are great blessings and others that are wicked and poison, dear Lord. I pray that no one here would ever be deceived by the wine. And God, we love you and we thank you. We pray that you would please just continue to teach us and instruct us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.