# The sin of alcohol

Category: Obedience to God’s Will
Key Passage: Proverbs 23:29-34
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024

She might be saying amen loud here in a moment, and I am teasing, for sure. When you find out the subject, you’ll know I am. Just believe the Lord has been kind of leading me all week long. I’m going to do a series, maybe before this week, on the sins that are destroying America. The sins that are destroying America. We won’t get them all in. We’re just going to try to follow the Lord on it. But I’m going to try to dedicate just a Sunday per subject. It felt like the Lord just really wanted us to cover this subject: the sin of alcohol. The sin of alcohol.

We’re just going to focus on that this morning. You hear them say a lot of times, “Preachers don’t preach on sin that much anymore.” We’re going to try to change that in the next couple weeks. Hang on, put your seatbelt on, we’ll work at it.

We’re going to be over here in Proverbs 23 to start us out. It’s amazing we hear about billboards and whatnot about cigarettes—and I’m not for smoking, I’m not saying that—but we just don’t hear that much against alcohol. It’s pretty interesting, but let’s just look at this thing a little bit from God’s viewpoint. We’ll try to do a little study on it also. We’re in Proverbs 23, and we’re going to start verse number 29.

You’ve got to help me out this morning. The more you say, “Amen,” the quicker we go.

Proverbs 23, look in verse number 29, if you would. Proverbs 23 and verse number 29.

Let me just say this off the bat: He’s talking about someone drinking here, being intoxicated. As you read this, I want you to know what’s going on in this passage. You’ll see it in just a moment.

It starts off in verse number 29. He says, “Who hath woe? A curse, if you will. Who has a curse against them? Who hath sorrow?” Someone who just regularly drinks is going to have a lot of pain in their life, a lot of sorrow. Who hath contentions? Fussing and fighting with everybody. Sometimes nice people, but they’re just fighting with everybody because they are drinking. Who hath babbling? You say things you’d never say. It just kind of takes a filter away. You know what I’m saying? Thank you, Brother John. Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Where did you get that black eye from? “Well, I don’t know. Somewhere last night I fell or something. I really not sure.” That’s what I was talking about. Who hath redness of eyes? Now, just because somebody’s got red eyes, don’t mean they drank last night, all right? Maybe their wife hit them. But if they drank last night, there’s a real good chance it would have some red eyes.

That’s what we are talking about. Verse number 30: “They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.”

Here’s the thing: Sometimes, especially in Bible times, it wasn’t always quite as clear if that was intoxicated or just wine—the blood of the grape. Is that fermented or not? It wasn’t like they go to the grocery store where it’s very clear: that’s water, that’s sparkling grape juice, non-alcoholic, that’s Budweiser and all. It wasn’t quite as clear. It may be in a skin, a bottle, and it’s been there for a week. You don’t know if it’s fermented or not.

So the Bible gives you instructions about that. Right now we’re about to hear the instruction God gives about whether it’s fermented or not, what to do when it becomes fermented. Let’s look and see what he says.

Right here, verse number 31, he says, “Look.” I mean, he goes to the point. He’s not even talking about drinking it or touching it. He said, “I don’t want you to even look at it when it gets to this point.” “Look not thou upon the wine,” that’s the blood of the grape. “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.”

I mentioned that verse to someone here recently. She said, “You know, it’s so true. When it gets fermented, it starts moving. It’s rotting, if you will. It’s fermenting; it starts to move.” That’s what the Bible is all about right there. When it gets to that point, it starts to get alcoholic, intoxicating, fermenting. The Bible says, don’t even look at it. Is that pretty clear or what, folks? That’s what my Bible says. You have the right Bible. That’s what it says.

“At last, it biteth like a serpent and stinketh like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women.” Sad how many men have affairs when they’re drinking. How many divorces come? Sad thing. We’ll talk about some of that a little bit here.

But he says, “Thine eyes shall behold strange women. Thine heart shall utter perverse things.” Boy, it’s amazing how many people get hurt from someone that’s drunk and they’re just babbling off stuff. Some scars last for 40, 50 years from a drunk person—something they said. I’ve heard it from the wives, “Well, you don’t know what my husband said so many years ago,” and they’re still hurting over it because their husband said it when he was drunk. That’s what we were talking about right there.

Verse 34: “Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.”

Twenty-three years my wife and I were married before I talked her into going deep-sea fishing. The first trip was great. She didn’t get sick at all. So, for our 25th-anniversary trip, I talked her into going deep-sea fishing with me again, and that was a mistake. It was a little rough out there that day. I didn’t warn my wife about this; I might be in trouble after telling the story, but she did not even put the hook in the water.

I mean, she was—breakfast was gone, lunch was gone. You understand what I’m saying? It was all gone. In fact, she never fished the whole trip, but that cost a lot of money. When we got back to the shore, there was a rate for fishers, and there was a rate if you just rode on the boat. I went to talk to the captain. I said, “Sir, my wife didn’t fish one time. Would you cut a rate down to non-fishing?” You know, like less than half the price or something like that. He said, “I don’t know, I don’t know.” He looked over at my wife and said, “I’ll give you money back.”

Honest truth, I’m in church now. He told me, “Well, look at her. I know she’s been sick the whole time.” That’s what I was talking about when you get drunk. About a month or two ago, I was up in the weekly rentals up in La Verne. There was some metal post about this high. I saw a guy on his knees, kind of holding on, just losing it all, just everything coming up. Real good chance I know he had been drinking the night before. That’s what I was talking about right there.

In that last verse, “They have stricken me, shalt thou say, now I was not sick. They have beat me, and I felt it not.” It’s amazing. And I need to hurry along, but I’ve learned this the hard way: You can talk to a drunk person until you’re blue in the face. They’re blue in the face the next morning, and they don’t remember to think about it. That’s kind of a little bit what it’s talking about.

Here’s the saddest part of this whole reference right here, the whole thing—that last little line right there is the saddest part of it all: “I will seek it yet again.” While our lives are just going to pop, they keep going back to it.

For just a little while, let’s focus on this thing. Would you ask that the Lord will work in your heart this morning?

My son grew up playing—oh, I can’t remember all the different levels of baseball, you know, T-ball and all those good things. I think we were just getting to the stage where it was kid pitch, right along there, and he was playing on the Diamondbacks in La Verne.

Out of all the boys on the team, there was one boy—I’ve mentioned before, some of you probably heard me tell the story—but there was one boy, I believe it was his right arm. I don’t know if he had a stroke or what, but his right arm, he really could not use. It was like this. I’ve watched him many times go up to bat. He’d be holding the bat with one hand, basically swinging with one, but he had to kind of brace it with this hand. He would catch the ball in his glove—just real quick, he’d put the glove up underneath his arm, yank his hand out, and grab the ball on foot.

Here’s the thing about this boy: Honestly, out of all the boys out there, I mean, all the different teams we played, that boy had the best attitude of anybody I ever saw up there. He would come to practice, and, you know, practice is a little bit like, “Okay, we’ve got to practice.” That boy just loved being there. He didn’t have to be the pitcher. He just was glad to be there. He had the best attitude. He was a joy. All of us—I was never the coach; I was always an assistant coach—we loved to be around that boy because he just had the best attitude.

But I saw that boy one time, one time, lose it real bad. Can I tell you, when this boy with the best attitude by far—I mean, he just put forth such great effort and loved doing it—the only time I ever saw that boy lose it was when his grandparents were raising him, but one time his dad showed up for a ball game, and his dad was drunk.

I’ve seen that boy get up to bat, and kids are pitching, so, of course, they’re trying to whip it in there, you know. That boy’s up to bat. He’s only really got one good hand, and his other one’s like this, and he’s got that bat up there, trying to kind of steady it a little bit with his other hand. That ball came whizzing by, and he was just striking out. That’s hard for me to take. Any of me, you know what I’m saying? I mean, we have a softball thing around here, and I strike out—that’s hard to take. I tell you what, you know?

The boy had a little bit of excuse, but then I’ve seen the boy; he’s there, and he’s literally striking out, and I think he would have hit the ball toward the end, but his drunk dad was standing outside the fence yelling at him, “Hit that ball! Swing it! You might as well swing! You hit that ball!” Just yelling.

I watched that boy—the first time I ever saw it—he just crumbled. He just could not take it. It was everything inside him. I think just to stand there. I think that boy just wanted to—he didn’t care if he struck out. He just wanted to get out of there because this drunk dad was over there yelling at him. Friend, that is what alcohol does all across the planet. It ruins families.

Before you go over there and defend alcohol and all that, you better realize what you’re defending. You’re defending divorce. You’re defending a little child getting beat up. You’re defending a wife and a husband getting divorced. That’s what you’re defending when you defend the bottle. That’s why God’s against alcohol. It’s amazing what the bottle does.

Here’s the thing: America spends over—listen—over $37 billion on beer alone. And they say wineries and hard liquor, man, they’ve had record sales. By the way, this is up since COVID. Alcohol spending in America, they say some—and you’ll get a little different numbers—but alcohol, all these combined, they say, is $90 billion in the United States of America. Love of money, root of all evil.

They say two-thirds. By the way, I’ve talked to Brother Jerry Hunter. There he is. I’ve talked to Brother Jerry Hunter. You talk to him later on if you’d like to check a little bit. I say that because he was a police officer in Nashville for 33 years. He’s seen it, folks. He’s backed these numbers up. I’ve talked to him about it. But this is what they say: Two-thirds of victims of spousal abuse report that the person that did it had been drinking at the time of the incident. Two-thirds. Men with alcohol problems are six times more likely to abuse their wives. Yet TV and Hollywood promote it, and they make it out to be a light thing, a wonderful thing, with all their lies and commercials.

I’m changing the name of this lady in this story; I don’t want to use her name. It was on the internet, but I don’t want to use her name nonetheless. But can I just say this before I read this? It’s amazing how drinking amongst women is up greatly. Go to the local universities and ask them who’s drinking a lot nowadays—it’s young ladies. A very sad commentary on our country.

This lady, we’ll just call her Joan Smith, says she enjoyed drinking alcohol before she became a mother and would drink a few times a week as part of a successful advertising career and active social life. “The drinking changed for me then,” she says. (By the way, if she hadn’t been doing that at the beginning, she wouldn’t end up where she was.) “The drinking changed for me then,” she says. “I was struggling really hard to adjust to things: being a new mom and a cross-country move, losing my job. My nerves were shot. So I drank more, thinking it would help me sleep, help me cope, but it made me worse.”

Smith says as time went on, her drinking started earlier in the day, and the booze began to play a part in play dates. She and her friends would do yoga and go out and drink wine. Her book club was all moms in their 30s drinking like they did in their 20s, and alcohol even started to show up at their birthday parties for one and two-year-olds.

“It didn’t matter that I had to go and breastfeed or parent when I got home. I didn’t stop anything,” she recalls. Smith didn’t realize it at the time, but she had joined an inevitable and growing group of women with alcohol disorders. Recent research has shown the gap between men and women with drinking problems is shrinking.

Female alcohol use disorder in the United States more than doubled from 2002 to 2013, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Even though she didn’t drink all day, every day, Smith says alcohol was a daily habit, and she knew she relied on it too much. Hangovers were common. So, as… blacking out for hours at night after putting her daughter to bed and self-medicating by combining wine and sleep medication.

“I didn’t know how to be in my own skin without drinking,” she explains. She separated from her husband—very common—got a DUI, and knew she was headed down a bad path. But she says she didn’t start to consider getting sober until an accident with her daughter.

She got drunk and blacked out at a wedding, and her family had to step in to watch over her child. “I put her in danger at the wedding. I left her unattended for a long period of time. She was four,” Smith says. “I knew eventually I would lose custody of my daughter if I kept drinking. It was inevitable. I knew I would lose pretty much everything.” Even so, it took Smith a year to get serious about sobriety.

Now, I read that just to kind of show you the progression, and that story is happening all across America. Can I say this? The sad thing is we have Christians defending alcohol. Shame on them!

Female alcohol use disorder in the United States increased 83.7% between 2002 and 2013, according to a 2017 study sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. A 2018 study found a steep rise in the rate of alcohol-related ER visits between 2006 and 2014, and increases were larger for women than…

I’m just telling you that we’ve got a major problem in our country, folks, and it’s time somebody just stands up saying, “Hey, it’s wrong.” The whole thing is wrong. Don’t get close to it. Don’t touch it. The Bible says when it gets fermented, don’t even look at it. That’s what the Bible says. Pretty clear.

Here’s the sad thing about it, folks. I’ve already quoted the verse one time. Here’s the sad thing about it: You know what it’s all about for them? It’s all about this green thing here. It’s for them. They don’t care about people. They care about that right there. “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Ask the problem: Why do they do that? That right there—not money, but the love of money. Willing to do whatever to make an extra buck.

Restaurants make a lot of money off of booze. The most profitable restaurant in America in 2011 was in Las Vegas. The most profitable restaurant in America during that year made 75% of its income from alcohol sales. It’s all about that. Friend, that’s why they do it.

Here’s the sad thing: Even Cracker Barrel, because they lost during COVID, they’re saying they’re going to start selling alcohol in 20 stores in Florida. They’ve already started selling alcohol because they said they lost a little money during COVID, and they’re applying for beer permits in Tennessee already. What a sad thing. By the way, you can go to some websites and petition against it. That’s a good thing to do—write them a letter, call, do something. Don’t go burn them down, all right, folks?

The Bible says in Habakkuk chapter number two; let me just read for you a verse from God’s word. The Bible says it’s pronouncing six woes in this passage, a couple verses long here. But Habakkuk 2:15 says, “Woe, it’s a curse. Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor to drink.” There’s a curse against that.

Somebody says, “Well, Jesus turned water into wine.” Friend, the Bible says there’s a curse if you give your neighbor to drink. That wasn’t alcoholic. That was just the blood of the grape. Wine is what the word means. That’s what it was. No, he wouldn’t say there’s a curse. Praise God, Jesus took my curse because he was sinless and perfect, friend.

You said, “Well, I’ve got to do it at my job.” I’m just going to preach the Bible for a little, but we’ll just say it that way. I’d rather not have a curse on me, amen? Go work at McDonald’s if they have to. I just don’t want to give my neighbor something to drink.

And by the way, the government is making so much—literally billions. It’s hard to get an exact number. Some say close to $6 billion off taxes from alcohol every year: federal, state, local. The last time we had a run-in with a bar being close to our church and one of our storefronts before, they were really trying to keep it quiet, but there were 66 beer permits at that time in Smyrna, Tennessee.

While we’re unloading the wagon, let’s just unload it all. Shame on the Catholic Church. St. Luke’s Catholic Church has got a beer permit for their fall festival. Shame on them. Don’t be afraid to say, “Amen,” it’s all right. Truth to truth.

Somebody has to stand up and say, “Man, this thing is just eroding the morals and the strength of America and the marriages,” and so many Christians are defending it and get mad at me for standing against them while that child gets abused by somebody that’s drunk. It’s the truth of it. While the governments are collecting their money, we see more divorces, more fighting, more child abuse. They say one-third of inmates were intoxicated at their arrest.

By the way, the Bible says in the back here, too, when it’s pronouncing those six woes, it says, “Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood and establisheth a city by iniquity.” They say alcohol is the third leading cause of preventable death in our country.

Praise the Lord. The real estate agent wanted to sell those two acres over there to a gas station. At first, I thought, well, you know, then I started to think about it: Man, there’s tobacco and alcohol and all that. Praise the Lord, I wanted to stand on that. I stood no matter what. You said, “Man, Pastor, well, let’s stand on that.”

Praise your Lord, we put a restriction on the deed. We’re not selling those two acres to alcohol. We’re not going to do it. Someone was like, “Man, we’ll never sell that property.” Hey, God sold that property. If we didn’t stand on God’s word and what’s right, we probably would have never sold those two acres. They’ve been trying to sell the whole 15 acres for nine years for him.

If you don’t know—and I don’t say this to brag on us, but to brag on God—we bought the whole 15 acres for $1.3 [million implied] and sold two acres for a million dollars. That’s God. That’s because we stood on what’s right and said, “We’re not going to depend on all that to get the dollar. We’re going to depend on God to bless.” Somebody just has to stand. God blesses. He’s still capable today. Praise the Lord, you’re all about it. What a blessing. No wonder God hates the sin of alcohol.

I mean, no wonder. He says in verse 31, there we read it in Proverbs 23: “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.” Don’t even look at it, he says.

Can I say this? Don’t fall for the lie of Satan that social drinking is okay. Satan would love—he would just love to pull the wool over your eyes, and you say, “Well, what’s so bad about that?”

I got a pamphlet that some of those are on the back table. Brother John went out and slipped my bottle aside in the car and pulled those out. There was a bottle of water, okay, friends. Anyway, it is, and it’s what it says. It says 75 Bible references on drinking. 75 verses in the Bible that mention alcohol in a negative way. It’s not just Proverbs 23; 75 Bible verses mention alcohol negatively in God’s Holy Word.

And yet we have preachers—I don’t even know if I’ll call them preachers. We have so-called preachers that have actually taken wine or liquor up on the platform and drank it, trying to show the people it’s all right. That’s a blast against God’s word when 75 times the Bible mentions it negatively. That’s part of the big problem in our country: 75. You don’t believe it? Pick up that off the back table back there and check it out. 75 of them.

Jesus did not have anything to do with intoxicating alcohol. We don’t have time to get into it, but in fact, they tried to give it to him during one of his last moments on the cross, and he said, “No, I’m not going to take that.” He stood against it to the very end.

An alcoholic rehab guide says alcohol is found in relation to nearly one-third of suicides. So you want to defend that? According to NCBI, 39.9%, almost 40% of people murdered, had alcohol in their body when they were murdered. So you want to defend that? You want to encourage people to just drink some of that? It’s all right.

I like this story. I believe it was R. G. Lee, pastor over Memphis for years. He was preaching one service, just preaching away on a different subject, and all of a sudden, he just switched everything and started preaching on liquor for a while. Somebody was like, “Man, what got into the pastor?” He just reeled on drinking: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”

Afterward, somebody asked him why he stopped everything in the middle of that message to start preaching on liquor. He said, “I saw a man down there. He looked like he was wanting a drink of liquor, so I thought I’d preach on it for a while. I wanted him to know where I stood on it.” Boy, we have come a long way from having those old-time preachers that would stand for something, haven’t we? To where now we say, “Oh, it’s all right.” 75 times the Bible mentions it negatively.

Psalms 15 is a passage where it talks about somebody who is going to be close to God. Psalms chapter 50—we won’t read the whole thing, and you know how to look it up—but I like the chapter because I like to be close to God. Here’s one of the verses he says in that: He says, “In whose eyes a vile person is contemptible, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord.” It’s a shame we lift up as heroes people that are promoting alcohol. Listen, the Bible says if they’re vile, if they’re representing and standing and promoting sin, they ought to be contemptible to you. No, I’m not saying you hate the person; you hate the sin. But if they’re promoting that, you say, “I have a problem with that. I’m not going to let you be a hero in my life.”

The Bible talks about sin being exceedingly sinful.

The saddest part of the whole reference we read over there in Proverbs 23, the saddest part of it, is that last verse. Let’s look back one more time at it, would you please? Proverbs 23. He’s told by the alcoholic, someone drinking and seeking. After all of that, in verse number 35: “They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick. They have beat me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.” Their lives are ruined. Families are ruined. Countries are ruined. So many times we stand by highly, and unfortunately, early on, we’re defending it. Sad commentary.

Can I just say this? Praise the Lord for the cross. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been, how long you’ve been, what all you’ve done. Praise your Lord, there’s forgiveness and victory through Jesus Christ.

Pastor, my background’s not so good. That’s all right, friend. You won’t get to heaven based on your background. You’ll get to heaven based on Jesus’ background. It’s perfect. And a lost sinner, someone that may have been tied to the bottle for the majority of their life, can come to the blood of Jesus Christ and get forgiveness and cleansing, and he’ll wash away every drop of that stuff. When Jesus shed his blood across Calvary, he was paying for every drop you ever drank. Forgiveness is available if you come to Jesus for it.

I’ve told you many times before I was born—my dad was basically a functioning alcoholic, but he drank every day. He went to work and all that. You probably remember me saying he tried to get everything straight before I got saved. One day he just realized God loved him as he was. Don’t try to get everything right, don’t try to get better to get saved. You get saved, then God helps you get better. He realized God loved him just like he was, and Jesus Christ saved him. He came to his heart, and praise the Lord, he rode down the road and got rid of the bottle. Why? He tried that before, but now he had victory through Jesus Christ.

The Bible means in John chapter 8, when the Bible says, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” There’s victory in Jesus.

We sing one of our theme songs, “Oh, Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever.” It’s talking about us going home to that mansion he prepared for us. But it’s also talking about you can have victory down here in your life every day because of Jesus. There’s forgiveness at the cross. Can I just say this? You don’t have to live and spend your life in guilt and shame. There’s forgiveness because of Jesus Christ.

I love this verse, Isaiah 38:17: “Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” I like that. Oh, Satan, man, he’s been keeping records. “Well, Pastor, he did this.” Okay, let’s get somebody else’s sins. I don’t want to do my brother Frank. He did this. And Brother John Fontaine had that big fish and it got off. Brother Mike cheated in class during Sunday school playing that game. I’m joking.

All of our sins. Hey, you can come to Jesus Christ at the foot of the cross. If you are honest and sincere, do you accept that shed blood as a payment for your sin? And God says, “Hey, let me take all those sins. Maybe I’ll just toss them up, just rip them up a little bit.” All those sins and that shame and that guilt. God says, “Let me just toss it all behind my back.” It’s gold. Amen.

The Bible says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far have he removed our transgressions from us.” You won’t see those sins anymore. What a blessing over the years to watch God change lives. I was thinking just the other day of people who used to be addicted and God has delivered them from that.

I think of a man who walked forward on a Sunday night and rededicated his life. He had said, “Well, I don’t drink that much,” but his wife had told me, “Pastor, he drinks all the time.” He said, “It doesn’t affect my marriage.” He came forward, rededicated his life, and as far as I know, years ago, he hadn’t touched another drop.

Another man came; the first day he came, he sat over here. God worked on his heart, and he cried the whole time. He came back the next week and did the same thing. Here’s what he would do: He’d get up in the morning, go to work, and on his way home, he’d stop by the liquor store, get some hard liquor, go home, sit in his easy chair, and drink it with his dog. He’d drink until his feet went numb, then he’d go to sleep, wake up the next morning, and do the same thing. That was his life.

Praise the Lord, he came back the next Sunday. God spoke to his heart again. As far as I know, he hasn’t touched a drop now. In fact, he’s helping other people get off the bottle now. I’m saying, friend, there’s deliverance, there’s strength through Jesus Christ. It’s available through Christ.

I said, “Preacher, well, I’m saved, but I’ve backslid.” Hey, praise the Lord. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Praise the Lord for that. Just the other day, I just felt like I’d been away from the Lord. I have my problems like you. I don’t drink, but my wife uses marijuana, and I smell it sometimes. I’m joking. Folks, you know that.

First John spoke to my heart. I honestly felt that if we confess our sin, it has to do with us seeing our sin like God sees it. I needed to. My old heart got so whirly and fleshly, and I just felt like I needed a lot of time. I said, “God, let me see my sin like you see it.” I needed that time, and I kept praying, “Lord, you said you’ll cleanse me from all unrighteousness, and I need cleansing.” It’s available. Victory through Christ, power through Christ, free indeed.

Can I make a challenge to you? We’re going to be done today. Praise the Lord, nobody said amen when I said that right there. I appreciate that. Here’s my challenge: Young people, everybody, all of us, would you pledge with me that you’ll not drink one drop?

You said, “Pastor, I’ve already messed up.” That’s all right. Let’s start today. Let’s get it under the blood. Let’s get it right. Let’s confess. By the way, you might need some help to overcome that thing. That’s what God gave you: a church family, people, a pastor, whoever, to help you with those things. But from today on, would you take the pledge? Not one drop.

Oh, I’ve messed up a whole lot. That’s all right. There’s forgiveness and cleansing and power through Christ. Somebody’s got to break the cycle in some people’s lives. They say over 14 million alcoholics grew up in homes where alcohol was used. Somebody’s got to break the cycle. Would you let God use you to break the cycle? Not one drop.

Young people, all of our young people, I’m going to ask you, and I’m going to ask you to make this commitment openly: Not one drop.

I’m going to ask Brother John, our youth director. I asked him again this morning because he’s my son. He hides things from his dad, you know. I asked him, “John, have you ever drunk one drop?” And he said, “No, Dad, I never did. Never drank one drop.” Now I say that to say: Young people, you can make it without drinking one drop. Don’t you believe the lie of the devil that you have to drink it to find out if it’s right or wrong. That’s a lie. Nobody takes their first drink and says, “Well, I’m just going to become an alcoholic.” They all say, “Just a drink or two.” That’s a slippery slope.

Young people, if you are 18 or under, during the invitation, I’m going to have Brother John stand right there. Would you come shake his hand? When you shake his hand, you are committing, “I won’t touch it. I’ll never drink a drop.” You can do that. I guarantee you, somewhere along the line, some worldly person that’s drinking is going to try to convince them to drink. It’s going to happen. Can I tell you why? Because a worldly person feels convicted when somebody’s shining some light of the Lord through their life. And so they try to bring those boys down to their level. That’s what’s going on.

But Jordan and Jaden, you’re going to have to say, “Nope, I’m not going to do it.” Even if they make fun of you or do whatever, I’m not going to drink it. They’ll do it, I promise you.

Those others that have been drinking, they can never go and become what they are because they’ve already drank. But those boys, anytime they want to, they can give it up and drink. They can never be [free from that history]. Don’t lose that. You can stand up one day and say, “I’d never touch a drop either.” You can do that.

Young people, would you commit, “I’ll never touch a drop”? Adults, all of us, wherever you are right now, let’s just get forgiveness, let’s get cleansing. And all of us, let’s just pledge, let’s just pledge: “I’m not going to touch a drop.”

I’ve got to close it out. Over in the book of Jeremiah—we won’t look it up—Jeremiah chapter 28. Jeremiah is one of those old-time preachers, and he’s preaching against the sin of Israel. He says, “Look, you people of sin, God is bringing judgment.” He’s got a wooden yoke around his neck.

One of these fancy, dancing preachers comes along—must have been a big fellow. He comes along while Jeremiah has this yoke on him and says Israel will be modest because of sin. This fancy dancer preacher comes along and breaks that wooden yoke off of Jeremiah. Jeremiah leaves. But when he walks away, God Almighty says, “Jeremiah, I want you to go back. Tell those people that fancy preacher, tell him God didn’t tell you that. You might have broken that yoke of wood and told them everything’s fine, God’s going to deliver us from Babylon.”

Then tell him, “Fellow, you aren’t going to live long.” In fact, about two months after that, the fancy dancer preacher died. Then God said, “Tell them, he might have broken that yoke of wood, but he’s causing many of those people to put a yoke of iron on them.” That’s exactly what’s happening all across America. A whole lot of people are breaking that yoke of wood—“I don’t want that old-fashioned stuff; you can’t do anything”—and they’re putting on a yoke of iron of sin. “Whosoever commits is a servant thereof.” It’s a sad thing to see people all across America with a yoke of iron.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? No one is looking.

You said, “Preacher, I need forgiveness and victory. That’s me.” If that’s you, would you lift your head? “Preacher, I need it. I need forgiveness and victory.” God bless you. It’s available—praise the Lord—the blood of Christ. There’s a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins. It never runs dry.

Thank you for letting the Lord work in your heart. You can put your hands down in just a moment. I’d beg if you’d just come down and get that fountain flow and get forgiveness, get cleansing. Let’s go forward today.

If you hear and you say, “Preacher, I’m not even saved. I need to get the blood applied. I need to be saved. I need to go to heaven one day. I’m not saved.” “Preacher, I need to get under the blood. I need the shed blood across the cross on my heart. I need to be saved.” If God spoke to your heart, slip your hand up. “Preacher, that’s me. I need to get saved.”

If you’re there and you said, “Preacher, I’m not saved,” right there in your seat, if you know you’re a sinner, you understand there’s a penalty—death and hell—you believe Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood for you, right there where you are, with your head bowed: “Oh, dear Jesus, I need your shed blood. Would you forgive me? Would you cleanse me? Would you save me, Jesus? I’m trusting in you and long to take me to heaven. Thank you, Jesus. Help me to live for you.” If you just ask Jesus to be your Savior, you just did that. Yes, would you slip your hand up? “Preacher, just ask Jesus to be my Savior.” God bless you.

Let me ask you this: Would you make a pledge? Adults, seniors, young people, all of us, would you make a pledge? From today forward, would you make a pledge? Not a drop. “Preacher, I’m making that pledge.” Everybody, would you make that pledge? Not a drop. If that’s you, would you lift your hand? “I’m going to make that pledge, not a drop.” God bless you. Would there be anybody else? “Preacher, I need to step out on faith and make that pledge, not a drop.” Anybody else? It’s called faith. Anybody else? “Preacher, I’m going to make that pledge, not a drop.” God bless you. Many, many hands. Thank you so very, very much. You can put them down.

Let’s all stand, and let’s pray. Young people, Brother John will be standing down front here. He’ll be standing down. Come, young people, 18 and under, if you’re making that pledge, shake his hand down front. “I’m not a drop.” Adults, let’s all come to an altar. Maybe you have a grandchild you need to pray for, a neighbor, someone. Let’s all get forgiveness, get cleansing. Let’s get some strength from Christ. It’s available. Let’s pray, and you come.

Lord, thank you that you don’t just condemn us. Lord, I could never stand before a holy, righteous God. Thank you, Jesus, for your shed blood. Thank you for forgiveness and cleansing. I thank you for power to live for you, by you. Lord, help us to get to you this morning. Help our young people to be brave enough to step out and make this pledge. Help us adults to help and guide and lead in this thing: not a drop. Lord, would you use us to help a whole lot of folks that have been chained by this sin? But we don’t want to condemn them. Use us to help them, Lord, please. Thank you, Lord, for what you do in these next five, ten minutes. Work in our midst in a great way. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

If God spoke to your heart, if you’re going to make the pledge, would you come? Young people, did you do that? If you need to get saved, come. There are some men standing down front; they’d be glad to help you. Salvation is the most important thing in all the world. That’s awesome, young people. Praise the Lord for it.

I like the man who was out back shooting his BB gun up at the moon. Somebody asked him, “You’ll never hit the moon.” He said, “No, I won’t, but I get a whole lot closer than you.” Step out. God’s saying, “Not a drop.” You said, “Well, I might fall.” Let’s try through the grace of the blood of Jesus Christ. Let’s try. Forgiveness, healing power through the blood of Jesus Christ—it’s available.

If you want one of those pamphlets—there are 75 Bible references on drinking—get that. I don’t want to preach hard on the Bible, but I don’t want to condemn anybody. I have my problems myself, but somebody’s got to stand on the truth in love. Friend, there’s forgiveness, there’s cleansing, there’s power through Christ. You win.

If you’re battling some of these things we’re preaching on the next couple of weeks, hey, we’d love to help. We don’t want to condemn you; we want to help you. Shake my hand, let me know. Talk to one of our people, talk to Brother Anthony, Brother John, one of our deacons, or something. We want to help. But let’s stand on the other side also. Let’s not give in and compromise. Let’s stand in love and praise God for these young people. They need somebody to lead them and guide them and encourage them. Young people, I’m so proud of you coming forward. That’s a great commitment right there.

Brother Jerry’s got his hand raised up. He was a police officer in Nashville for 33 years; he’s seen a lot. I’m glad every person’s here this morning. I’m glad you’re in the House of the Lord. Don’t let fear make your decisions. Let’s be faithful. Let’s be obedient to the Lord. God bless us in that faithfulness. I’m glad you’re in church.

Original File: The sin of alcohol - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday AM 72620