“A Biblical Position Regarding the Use of Alcohol”
(Sunday Morning May 20th, 2012)
Passage: Proverbs 23:29-35
Rom 14:21 “It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles”
(Emphasis Added)
Solomon specifically warns us in the book of Proverbs about three things that can cause a person to veer off
of the road to success and onto the road of failure, and a______is one of those three things.
Prov 5:23 (Reference)
Prov 19:27 (Reference)
Prov 20:1 (Reference)
I. Alcohol is a P______to S______
1) It Leads to I______
Prov 23:21“For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe one
with rags”
In our country, the use of alcohol and alcoholism results in the loss of a staggering ______billion dollars
a year in lost work time alone.
2) It Leads to I______
2 Pet 2:7 (Reference)
This is why the Sailors used to say, “Candy is dandy, but l______is q______.”
Dan 5:23“(You have mocked)…the God who holds your breath in His hand…” (NKJV)
3) It Leads to I______
Prov 20:1 “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise”
One article I read this week said that drinking alcohol will reduce a person’s life expectancy
by ______years.
4) It Leads to I______
Prov 31:4-5 “4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to desire
strong drink, 5 For they will drink and forget what is decreed, and pervert the rights
of all the afflicted”
Question = Where do you think that more liquor is sold per capita than anywhere else in the United
States of America? (What City?)
Answer = ______
II. Abstinence is the P______S______
1) The Bible Presents D______
a. “S______G______” describes what we might call “Hard Liquor.”
Prov 31:6 “Give strong drink(Shah Gah) to him who is perishing, …”
b. “T______” refers to what the Bible calls “new wine” or non-fermented grape juice.
Isa 65:8 (Reference)
c. “Y______” could refer to either fermented or non-fermented wine.
Isa 16:10 (Reference)
d. The New Testament word “Oinos” (Winos)is Also a g______t______.
Matt27:34“they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink”
Matt 27:48 (Reference)
2) The Bible Provides D______
Hab 2:15“Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk
so as to look on their nakedness!”
In all three of the synoptic accounts where the Lord’s Supper is mentioned, Jesus was careful to use this
phrase “The f______of the v______.”
Matt 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18 (References)
Lev 10:9 "Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent
of meeting, so that you will not die -- it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations”
Since Moses said that we should not bring intoxicating beverages into the tent of meeting, I believe this would include the T______of God.
1 Cor 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have
from God, and that you are not your own?”
3) The Bible Prohibits D______
Isa 5:11 “Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink, Who stay up late
in the evening that wine may inflame them!”
1 Cor 6:10 (Reference)
1 Cor 5:11 “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person,
or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such
a one” (Emphasis Added)
a. We Should be Concerned About Our I______on Others
Rom 14:21 (Reference)
b. We Should be Concerned About Our Own V______
1 Cor 10:12 “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall”
Eph 5:18“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit”