[2] Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.
[3] Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites;
[4] And I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door:
[5] And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine.
[6] But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever:
*****
Proverbs 20:1 says, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is
raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”
Proverbs 23 says, “Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide
thine heart in the way.
[20] Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
[21] For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.”
[20] Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
[21] For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.”
Verses 29-32 read, “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath
contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness
of eyes?
[30] They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
[31] Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
[32] At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.”
[30] They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
[31] Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
[32] At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.”
*****
Here is a passage on this subject from Preacher Richard
Jordan:
“I used to love that ad slogan talking about ‘the finest
product of the brewer’s ark.’ Some beer company. I used wonder why somebody
didn’t talk about the FINISHED product! I wondered that at 18 years old down at
the rescue mission where you SAW the finished product!
“At the last, look at what it does. ‘It biteth like a
serpent and stingeth like an adder.’ I
mean, they’re just hooked. They got to have it, got to have it. Though it’s
stupid and foolish they’re hung up by it. If you haven’t got sense enough to
get beyond that in your life, well, you’re going to find out that what God says
about it’s true, okay?
“I say all that to say to you that is not exactly what Paul’s
talking about in Eph. 5:18. I’m going to disappoint you. Eph. 5:18 is not a
verse where Paul is teaching abstinence. It’s a verse talking about drinking
wine in a little different context.
“Come with me to Isaiah 28. When Paul’s talking about the ‘be
not drunk with wine’ over there, he’s got something more in mind than just
social drinking and social issues. He has some religious issues in mind. Isaiah
28:7 says, ‘But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are
out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink,
they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink;
they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.’
“I mean, you went down there to church in Jerusalem and the
priests were up there drinking and carrying on and they just were vomiting and
puking. You ever been on a dance hall on a Sunday morning after a Saturday
night spree?
“I remember years ago down in Mobile when I was working at
the rescue mission there was a little church that started in a dance hall. It was
called a Junior Achievement building. On Saturdays they would rent it out to
this dance band and they had dances in there and then on Sunday morning this
church would use it.
“And I used to go down and preach for them every now and
then and you’d go in there sometime and there’d be people just get sick and you
know, if you’re drunk and you’re sick, you’re going to get up and be careful
you go to the restroom and take care of it, right? Yeah, sure you are! I mean,
you just find an empty pocket and puke, is what you do. I don’t mean to be
uncouth but that’s what you do. Might as well call it what it is. Listen, they’re
not called ‘upholstered sewers’ for nothing.
“Only in this verse they’re not down at the Club 500 and
they’re not down at the discotheque; they’re at church! They’re in the temple.
And what they’re doing is they’re worshipping idols and the idolatry.
“The idolatry in Israel is associated with the drunkenness
because the heathen contacted their gods through getting these out-of-body
experiences. Isaiah 5. You see the first drug addicts were not in the 20th
century in America. The drug culture and all that business, like in Revelation
9, all that stuff comes through the occult and the idolatrous systems of the
heathen out there.
“Hosea has said, ‘Ephraim has joined idols; let him alone.’
The mark of it and the outward manifestation of it was this drunken debauchery
up there in the temple. These are the woes upon the nation Israel for which God
destroyed them.
“Isaiah 5:11-12 says, ‘Woe unto them that rise up early in
the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till
wine inflame them!
[12] And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.’
[12] And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.’
“Listen, he’s not talking about somebody having a fling on
Saturday night. He’s not talking about somebody sitting with a six-pack in front
of the TV eating pretzels and watching football on Sunday afternoon. He’s
talking about the religious system out there and this is part of the worship of
the heathen.
“It’s part of the idolatrous system out of which the
Ephesians were saved. They had that great goddess Diana at Ephesus. These people
were saved out of a life and a religious life that consumed them in these ways.
“I Cor. 10:20. If you go back to Deut. 32 where that passage
is a quote from, and study down through that thing, you’ll see that cup he’s
talking about is filled with wine! And a religious ceremony where they’re
taking wine and they transform it into blood! The pure blood of the grape! The
only people who take wine and transform it into blood in order to drink it is
religion. Paganism.
“When you come to Ephesians in that light, and he says ‘be
not drunk with wine where is excess,’ what he’s saying to them is, ‘Don’t try
to worship God and serve God like you used to in the heathen church. Lay all
the traditions of the former life, all the religion that you used to have, all
of you viewpoint about how God can be happy with you, lay aside all of that.
We’re not going to worship God today like we used to!’
“Now, maybe you came out of a religion like that. I don’t k
now. Maybe you didn’t. I didn’t. I never came out of a religion that did any of
those kind of things. They did worse kinds of things in other areas. See?
“Hey people, I’ve seen people so drunk on pride, if they had
gotten that drunk on whisky they’d be
dead! Let’s be honest about the thing!
“So we’re going to get rid of one sin for another sin. You
didn’t improve yourself; you deceived yourself. But when Paul says, ‘Be not
drunk,’ he’s saying the Christian life isn’t going to work the way . . . we’re
not going to worship the way we used to.
“We’re not going to worship with the wine. Experience-based
religion is to satisfy the flesh. That’s the way they used to worship! It was a
religion based on their experiences: ‘I feel it, I see it, I touch it, I
experience it, my senses are involved in it and it satisfies the lusts of my flesh.’
The desires of my flesh.
“What religion is designed to do is to make you feel good
about doing good: ‘Give me something to do and make me feel good about doing
that.’ Feelings. Your experience. Listen, folks, when the basic content of your
religion is what you experience, and what you can feel . . . I mean the
beautiful building and the wonderful music, and the wonderful message, and the
warm cordial feeling. Feeling good in the place and that kind of stuff.
“As soon as your religion is based in that you’re going to
be outdone a hundred to one by the Adversary because that’s his realm. His wisdom
is first, sensual. James 3:15 says, ‘This wisdom descendeth not from above, but
is earthly, sensual, devilish.’
“God works on our inner man by His Word resident inside in
our spirit and that works out of us. The other is just the religious external
form. Experience-based religion. Paul says that won’t get it.
“There has to be a reality in your life that goes far deeper
than the external activities you’re involved in. In fact, it has to be exactly
the other way.
“I had a woman come to me the other week who was raised in a
church just like ours and believes what we believe; more or less, she
acknowledges the doctrines that we preach. She sat there and said, ‘Brother
Rick, I’m just dead on the inside and I’m tired of carrying all the baggage on
the outside.’
“You see, that’s the opposite of the way it ought to be! And
yet that’s how we get sometimes.
“Now there’s one of two answers to that. No. 1., you didn’t
have any life on the inside to start with. Or No. 2, you put so much baggage on
the outside that the life’s gone to sleep. In her case, it was the latter. The
answer to it is verse 18: ‘Don’t do it that way but be filled with the spirit.’
“Ephesians 3:16-20 says, ‘That he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the
inner man;
[17] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
[18] May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
[19] And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
[20] Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, inner man.’ ”
[17] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
[18] May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
[19] And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
[20] Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, inner man.’ ”
(new article tomorrow)
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