REFORMED CHURCH, BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 13
JANUARY 2002: MORNING SERVICE
Our help is in die the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
AMEN.
Psalm of Praise: 103 : 1
Confession of faith
Commandments
Hymn 26 : 11
Prayer
Psalm 69 : 5 (melody of Psalm 59)
Scripture reading: 1 Samuel 25
Text: 1 Samuel 25 : 36
When
Abiggail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that
of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him
nothing until daybreak.
In our preparation for our engagement with this new year we shall in a
series of sermons pay attention to some commonly found practical
everyday sins. The purpose is that we shall listen to what the
Scriptures teach us about them so that the Holy Spirit may lead us
through introspection and remorse to repentance – for those of us who
need it. Then we can all with a pure and genuine joy live towards the
coming of the Lord.
1. Let us first look at the negative
matters concerning liquor abuse:
The Lord considered it important that it be written of Nabal that the
Lord saw that he was very drunk.
- It is a serious matter when the last testimony that the Lord
gives of your life is that you were very drunk.
- So drunk that those who were sober (your wife!) did not consider
you to be approachable.
- Especially relates with it what kind of ill-mannered person you
were.
Shortly after this heavy intoxication Nabal died. The last testimony
the Lord gives of him leaves us with the perception that this man did
not die saved. Therefore in this morning’s sermon we shall examine use
and abuse of liquor.
This is one sin which runs through the Bible like a thread. From the
first to the last book mention is made of this sin.
- It is as if this sin runs together with man’s history to
demonstrate physically what became of us after we deserted the Lord.
- At the same time this sin probably is the one which warns us the
strongest to refrain from any wrong conduct because it shows us in our
sorrow and in our brokenness away from the Lord.
What is striking is the manner in which the Lord refers to it:
- When people are involved it is emphasized that the sin of
drunkenness destroys the image of God in them.
- The image of drunkenness is used to show what a person looks like
who has (temporarily) lost the image of God”. Proverbs 23 : 29 – 35
Who
has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has
needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine,
who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is
red, when is sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the
end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see
strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. You will be like
one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. “They hit
me”, you will say, “but I’m not hurt! They beat me, but I don’t feel
it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?
Let us follow the tracks of this sin through our history.
- The first time we read of drunkenness is after the deluge when
Noah commits this sin.
- To understand the full consequences of this transgression we must
first look at the testimony the Lord gives of Noah prior to the deluge: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among
the people of his time and he walked with God (Genesis 6 : 9).
- After the deluge we read that Noah planted a vineyard and made
wine. The Bible tells us that this led to Noah’s down-fall. When he
drank of the wine he became drunk and lay naked in this tent (Genesis 9
: 21).
- Note that Adam and Eve after they had fallen into sin also
first discovered that they were naked. The first time that we read of
sin after the deluge the same happens – in his drunkenness he shed his
clothes and lay naked in this tent.
Take note of the dangers of sinning:
- The Lord reveals that the sin committed by one person sometimes
breaks through its boundaries and drags others with it, so that they
also sin and anger the Lord.
- This transgression of Noah caused Ham to tell his brothers that
Noah lay naked in his tent.
- For this he was punished in that his son was cursed – the Lord
changed the firstborn blessing, which was to be pronounced over Ham’s
son Canaan, to a curse.
- The meaning of this event is easy to understand: we must take
care that our sins do no cause innocent people to be subjected to the
Lord’s judgment.
2. Let us look closer at the meaning
of liquor abuse as we find it in the Bible:
That it is objectionable to the Lord when people are naked, especially
when drunk, is shown in various places in the Bible. The prophet
Habakkuk prophesies of something similar. The Lord told him to say to
the people:
You
will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink
and be exposed! The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming round to
you, and disgrace will cover your glory (Habakkuk 2: 16).
This text may appear to be outmoded, but this is the sort of thing that
happens at so called ram parties.
It often happens that the men start drinking and then get rid of their
clothes and take all sorts of photos and videos with which they later
brag. The Lord God hates these orgies. That is why He says that He will
turn the cup of liquor in the hand of the drinker into a cup of
judgment and of disgrace.
The Lord shows clearly the shame of people who are drunk (or
half-drunk).
He says that they are loudmouths and sit around tattering nonsense -
see Jeremiah 25 : 27
Then
tell them, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:
Drink, get drunk and vomit and fall to raise no more because of the
sword I will send among you.
Psalm 69 : 12 Those who sit at the gate mock me and I am
the song of the drunkards.
Proverbs 20 : 1 Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler;
whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
It is bad when the Lord feels like this about you. How is the Lord
going to receive somebody about whom He feels like this in the
hereafter?
It is not a strange or modern phenomenon that people have parties where
they drink from noon till night.
In the days of Isaiah people did this already. But the Lord disapproved
of it. Therefore the Lord says that disaster awaits those who get up
early in the morning to go after strong drink and who get drunk on wine
(Isaiah 5: 11).
Statements like this put the lifestyle of our time under the magnifying
glass of the Bible.
It has become part of our culture not to do anything without alcoholic
drink being part of it. We can not have a braai of visit or be happy
without alcohol.
By itself it is not wrong. What is wrong is that out of these customs
problems arise for people whose bodies cannot resist alcohol. It is a
well known fact that the problem of many alcoholics started with wine
at the table.
A further problem is that there are people who simply cannot take “no”
for an answer. Such people try to force a drink or more on everybody
who is present. Centuries ago such people were there too. Therefore the
Lord made a statement about his feelings about such people and what He
intended doing to them:
Woe to
him who gives drink to his neighbours, pouring it from the wineskin
till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies (Habakkuk
2: 15).
Do you remember how unhappy the Lord was with David because he had
murdered Uriah? A number of matters about which this sermon is, were
also present then.
Alcohol and somebody who had made another person drunk. But more
accompanied it – adultery and murder.
The Bible tells it thus:
At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him
drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his
master’s servant; he did not go home (2 Samuel 11: 13).
As in the case of Noah, this sin of David gave birth to more sin – the
murder of Uriah.
Early in the Bible the Lord shows that sins often come in groups of
more than one.
There are sins that go together. Drunkenness is connected to sexual
transgression. A warning example of such a case is in the history of
Lot where his two daughters agreed to make him drunk so as to sleep
with him in order to beget children from him. The Bible relates how his
daughters made their father drunk twice and did what they had planned.
Lot was unaware of what had happened. The Lord’s displeasure is clearly
shown in that both the children born of these acts became the
progenitors of heathen peoples which rejected God and fought His people.
Although the Lord does not say each time that the drunkenness which
occurred was sinful, He shows it clearly in the consequences thereof –
as was the case with Lot’s children.
It is amazing to see in how many fields of life this sin presents
itself.
In Deuteronomy we read that the problem of alcohol abuse was found in
boys. In those days the Lord ruled that such a son was to be brought
before the elders of the town. The parents then had to testify that the
son was rebellious and disobedient to his parents. After they had
testified that he was a glutton and a drunkard the elders of the town
had to lapidate him (Deuteronomy 21: 20).
Because people become used to the way in which drunken people behave,
it happens that righteous people who are very sorrowful and sad are
wrongly suspected of being drunk. We have the example of Hannah who was
praying in her heart without sound and only her lips moving. Eli the
priest, could not hear her voice and he thought that she was drunk. Eli
then said to her: “How long will you
keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine”. (1 Samuel 1 : 13,
14).
We read in 1 Kings 20: 16 that Ben-Hadad and the 32 kings who were his
allies were drinking in their tents just before they moved out to
attack Ahab. The principle the Bible points out here is that this sin
removes man’s sense of responsibility from him. Drink is notorious that
it damages the kingly, prophetic and priestly image which God gave us.
Somebody who abuses liquor cannot act responsibly or think soberly. We
should not take umbrage at these words for God says so Himself. He
says: They reeled and staggered like
drunken men; they were at their wits’ end (Psalm 107:27).
In the New Testament Jesus tells a parable in which irresponsibility
and drunkenness run together. Listen to one sentence from this parable:
But
suppose the servant says to himself: ‘My master is taking a long time
in coming’, and he then begins to beat the men servants and women
servants and to eat and drink and get drunk (Luke 12:45).
The lack of respect the Lord has for such a person is shown in the
words of the Lord when He says that Egypt is like a drunkard who
staggers around in his own vomit (Isaiah 19: 14). The fact that the
Lord depicts a drunkard so horribly reveals how repulsive such a person
in his sins is to the Lord (cf. Jeremiah 25: 27, Psalm 69: 12, Proverbs
20: 1).
Our church life and faith life is also not free from this sin.
The Apostle Paul mentions that in his time there were members of the
church who arrived drunk at church and in this condition they
participated in Holy Communion. He warns the people that this is a
serious transgression (1 Corinthians 11: 21). This sin of taking drink
before attending church is as old as worship itself. The first warnings
against this we find in the Old Testament. The instruction and the
judgment that God gives about the taking of liquor before the church
service was not expunged by the Lord Jesus’ reconciliation for God
Himself declares this statement to a lasting ordinance. Hear what the
Lord says: You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented
drink whenever you go into the tent of meeting, or you will die. This
is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come (Leviticus 10: 9).
This Bible text also speaks to our congregation. There have been men
who smelt of liquor at our services. And the fact that they smelt of
liquor has offended some other members of the congregation.
This statement by the Lord should be a serious warning to such members,
especially the Lord’s words that He shall kill such people. The words
“you will die” point to hell as the final destination. The point is
that the men – and particularly the elders and deacons - must set an
example to the congregation. They must remember that at least once in
history the abuse of liquor by the leaders of the church resulted in
the destruction of the entire church and the people of which this
church was part. The Lord describes it as follows:
And these also stagger from wine and reel from beer; priests and
prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine, they reel from
beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering
decisions (Isaiah 28 : 7).
Soon after this Judah was taken into exile.
3. Let us look at the positive about
liquor use.
Of course we are not all alcoholics, but this does not mean that we
should not know how the Lord feels about this sin and its consequences.
We need this knowledge so that:
We can stay away from this sin; we can strengthen the congregation by
not giving offence through alcohol abuse; we can set an example to our
children and grandchildren in that they may be raised kingly and to the
glory of God.
The use of liquor is not sinful. The Lord Jesus also used wine during
His life on earth. For example He drank wine when He celebrated
Passover and when he instituted Holy Communion. The example God gives
in Him is that man must rule over the use of drink.
- You must not think that the Lord Jesus was not subjected to the
temptation of abuse of drink.
- He was a human being like us and in his time there were many
drunkards for the Bible warns against drunkenness.
- In these days alcoholism was especially rife among older women.
- But Jesus never allowed Himself to be seduced by liquor.
By itself the use of liquor is not sinful. The point is that we
believers must use alcohol with control.
- We read that the Lord Jesus in one of His parables calls Himself
the true vine. The church are the branches grafted onto the true
(noble) vine.
- The Lord accepts that we may keep wine in our home – He tells us
that you cannot put new wine into old sacks.
- At the wedding at Cana the wine ran out and the Lord made wine in
abundance. The Lord clearly shows that it is not sinful to drink wine
at a wedding.
- When the Lord Jesus instituted Holy Communion He clearly said
that this would be the last time that He would drink of the fruit of
the vine here on earth – but He added that He would drink it new with
us in heaven. We should therefore drink wine in heaven but we should do
so in the way that befits bearers of the image of God.
Temptations by and through liquor there will always be. We must deal
with it carefully. The devil doesn’t care who and how he tries to
damage people with liquor. On the cross the devil attempted for the
last time to tempt Jesus with liquor.
- It was customary to mix wine with gall and to give this to the
crucified by means of a sponge on a stick. This drink benumbed the
person and eased his suffering.
- When it was offered to the Lord Jesus He refused to drink it
(Matthew 27:34).
- He was sober and full conscious during His suffering.
- The greatest stress and suffering there can be is to appear
before God on behalf of all mankind and their sins and to be punished
therefore. Applied to us it means that there can be no reason
whatsoever for any person to drink.
But there is another kind of drunkenness in which believers may
participate. That is the one in which we live so holy that we are
filled with the Holy Spirit. It is as if the Apostle Paul puts us
before the choice in which kind of drunkenness we wish to participate.
Do not
get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with
the Spirit. Speak to one another with Psalms, hymns and spiritual
songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord (Ephesians 5
: 18 – 19).
Here is the road. This is the direction where we find joy and honour in
God. A joy and the highest experience is where He is part of us and His
presence fills us with the highest joy and peace. Come; let us fill
ourselves with the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Closing prayer
Closing Psalm: 107: 1, 3
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
AMEN.
Rev. M.J. du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
13 January 2002