NXR Podcast - DAILY TRUTH - The Christian & Alcohol
Aired: 2022-12-01
Duration: 11:29


=== Biblical Command for Sober Mindedness (08:07) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.
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[00:00:19]  Jesus said, Man cannot live on bread alone, but from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
[00:00:25]  You're listening to Daily Truth.
[00:00:30]  So let's begin with not a drunkard.
[00:00:32]  This is the front side of the second page of your notes, Roman numeral number nine.
[00:00:38]  Not a drunkard, some translations say, not given to wine.
[00:00:42]  Now, the Bible does not prohibit all drinking.
[00:00:45]  That's the position of the elders and I here at the Response Church.
[00:00:49]  Now, some, as I mentioned last week, there are some pastors who are absolutely faithful and that we absolutely honor and respect that would disagree.
[00:00:56]  And that's okay.
[00:00:57]  And they're going to attempt to bind the consciences.
[00:01:00]  Not through domineering, not through coercion, but through persuasion, they're going to attempt to bind the consciences of the members of their church, and it's well within their pastoral rights through persuasion, not coercion, but persuasion to do so.
[00:01:13]  And we honor that, we respect that, we recognize that, and we're not going to give them a hard time.
[00:01:19]  But we also likewise have the right, as a plurality of elders, as an elder team of this local flock, to say, well, this is what we see in the Word of God.
[00:01:27]  This is what we think the right position should be.
[00:01:30]  And so, in regards to an elder, the qualification of Of not being a drunkard, not given to wine, we see a biblical theology of alcohol, if you will.
[00:01:39]  We would say that the Bible does not prohibit all drinking.
[00:01:42]  In fact, to the contrary, the scripture actually affirms the goodness of alcohol.
[00:01:48]  Here's one verse from Psalm 104, verses 14 and 15.
[00:01:53]  It says, You, speaking to God, the psalmist speaking to God, you cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man.
[00:02:07]  Who does all this?
[00:02:09]  God does all this.
[00:02:10]  God is the one who waters the earth.
[00:02:12]  He's the one who produces crops so that man can eat.
[00:02:14]  He's the one who produces wheat and barley and all these things so that the livestock have provision.
[00:02:20]  And God, the same God who waters the earth so that he might providentially provide for his creatures, his creation, both man and beast, he also, this same God, produces from the earth wine for the purpose of gladdening the heart of man.
[00:02:39]  This is a positive conveying of alcohol.
[00:02:45]  So the Bible actually does speak positively to the goodness of alcohol when used in a proper way.
[00:02:52]  However, the Bible also warns, to be fair, of the dangers of alcohol.
[00:02:58]  Here's another verse.
[00:02:58]  This is Proverbs chapter 20, verse 1.
[00:03:00]  It says, Wine is a mocker, strong drink, a brawler.
[00:03:04]  And whoever is intoxicated, notice that keyword, intoxicated by it is not good.
[00:03:11]  So, what can we glean from this?
[00:03:13]  Well, we can see that drunkenness is clearly a sin for all Christians.
[00:03:17]  We find this elsewhere in Galatians 5, verse 21, but it is a disqualifying sin for an elder.
[00:03:24]  And we see this in the verse that we're looking at right now, namely 1 Timothy 3, verse 3.
[00:03:30]  Now, as I've already said, just to remind you, I've said this last week and the week prior, but in a nutshell, the difference between elders and all followers of Jesus, elders and Christians, is, in a nutshell, we could say, An elder must be all these things, which, if we were to sum them all up, it would simply be spiritual maturity.
[00:03:51]  So, an elder must be spiritually mature, and a Christian should be spiritually mature.
[00:03:56]  So, all of God's people should not be given to wine.
[00:04:01]  And we take that to mean, in our understanding, looking at multiple commentaries, not given to drunkenness and not even close to drunkenness.
[00:04:10]  There is command after command after command in Scripture, especially in the face of opposition, especially in these last days, this church age where the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour.
[00:04:24]  We take the commands of Scripture to be sober minded and alert and watchful.
[00:04:30]  To mean that not only should a Christian not get drunk, but a Christian shouldn't even be close.
[00:04:35]  Now, I'm going to say one more thing in this regard.
[00:04:38]  I have noticed that the word drunk, as it is used, this vernacular, as it is used by Christians, seems to be different from the way that it's used by non Christians.
[00:04:54]  Because non Christians, there's not necessarily something to be ashamed of, right?
[00:04:58]  They're not holding to the same standard, the word of God that we're holding to.
[00:05:02]  And so they don't have the inclination, the The temptation to avoid drunkenness.
[00:05:08]  They don't feel like I can't be drunk because the Bible says, look, if they're not a Christian, they don't care.
[00:05:14]  So there's not that hindrance or that propensity to, I don't want to be drunk because the Bible says drunkenness is a sin.
[00:05:21]  If you're not a Christian, then drunkenness is not something to be ashamed of.
[00:05:26]  In many ways, in our culture today, especially among young people, drunkenness is a point of pride, right?
[00:05:31]  Last weekend, we got hammered, right?
[00:05:34]  So it's something to boast about.
[00:05:35]  Here's the deal, though I have noticed.
[00:05:38]  That if we were to pair these side by side, comparing and contrasting the Christian and the lost, the lost person might drink seven beers and say, Last weekend was awesome, I got hammered.
[00:05:51]  And the Christian would say, Who also drank seven beers, would say, I was tipsy.
[00:05:58]  Have you noticed that?
[00:05:59]  So the Christian, what I've noticed is because drunkenness is a sin, clearly in Scripture, what the Christian will instinctively do is have, you know, the lost people, because they don't have this problem, they're not trying to avoid drunkenness because they're not ultimately.
[00:06:11]  Trying to adhere to the standards of the Word of God.
[00:06:13]  So the lost person is just sober and drunk.
[00:06:17]  That's it.
[00:06:17]  For the Christian, there's buzzed and there's tipsy, and then there's, you know what I mean?
[00:06:21]  Have you noticed that?
[00:06:23]  Right?
[00:06:23]  Because we don't want to say that we're intoxicated because we know that that's a sin.
[00:06:27]  So again, I would just provide that for you some pastoral counsel there and just saying, the last time you were tipsy, maybe to kind of more objectively measure whether or not you're actually tipsy or drunk, if you have.
[00:06:43]  A non Christian friend asks them what they would have called that.
[00:06:48]  It's very likely they would have called it blackout drunk.
[00:06:51]  And you're calling it a little bust.
[00:06:54]  Let's consider that.
[00:06:56]  The Bible doesn't just say don't get blackout drunk, right?
[00:06:59]  The Bible says avoid intoxication.
[00:07:02]  That's the prohibition.
[00:07:04]  But then what the Bible speaks positively to is sober mindedness.
[00:07:09]  So if the Bible commands, and it doesn't just suggest, it commands sober mindedness.
[00:07:14]  So if the Bible positively commands sober mindedness, And then negatively prohibits drunkenness.
[00:07:21]  We have to consider which, if it's two sides, if you will, two polar ends, which one should we be striving as the people of God to be closer to?
[00:07:32]  Like, here is intoxication, and so I'm going to just live my life right here.
[00:07:37]  Or if the Bible doesn't just prohibit intoxication, but it also positively commands, not suggests, but commands sober mindedness, alertness, watchfulness, then the Christian should be living over here.
[00:07:50]  Now, again, I don't think that that means a Christian can never drink, but we should consider this carefully.
[00:07:55]  Alcohol is something that is, there's a goodness.
[00:07:58]  God speaks to the goodness of alcohol, but God also speaks to the immense danger.
[00:08:03]  And we need to be careful with that.
[00:08:05]  All right, all right, all right.
[00:08:06]  Stop twisting my arm.

=== Funding a Theonomy Documentary (03:21) ===

[00:08:08]  I know you want to hear the inside scoop.
[00:08:10]  Here it is the glorious vision of Right Response Ministries for the first half of next year, 2023.
[00:08:17]  We have not one, not two, but three massive endeavors that we will accomplish by the grace of God.
[00:08:24]  Of God.
[00:08:24]  The first you already know about.
[00:08:25]  It's our Theonomy and Postmillennialism Conference, May 5th, 6th, and 7th, with James White, Joe Boot, Gary DeMar, Dale Partridge, and yours truly, Pastor Joel Webbin.
[00:08:36]  This is selling out incredibly fast.
[00:08:38]  By the time this commercial airs, you may not even be able to get a ticket.
[00:08:42]  I really don't know.
[00:08:44]  So don't waste another moment.
[00:08:45]  Go to RightResponseConference.com, RightResponseConference.com to join us for the Theonomy and Postmillennialism Conference next year.
[00:08:54]  Now, This is where you come in.
[00:08:56]  We need your help.
[00:08:57]  Our next two endeavors are number one, a documentary style film, and number two, a brand new studio.
[00:09:05]  Both of these things are seeking to accomplish one primary goal, which is excellent, high quality, glorious Christian media.
[00:09:15]  We are tired of, as Christians, doing things poorly.
[00:09:20]  We've done our best with what we have, but by God's grace, we want to do even better.
[00:09:25]  This is not going to be just another video.
[00:09:28]  This is not going to be a sermon or an interview or a podcast, but we're going to make a documentary style film.
[00:09:34]  And we're going to be hiring Nathan Anderson, the director of On Earth as It Is in Heaven, a very, very successful post millennialism documentary that's on Amazon and YouTube, came out a couple years ago.
[00:09:47]  He's going to be flying in from Chile to help us direct this film.
[00:09:51]  And our documentary is going to be on post millennialism and theonomy.
[00:09:56]  Why it's biblically valid, why it's absolutely necessary, and why, by the grace of God, theonomy and post millennialism are currently on the rise.
[00:10:06]  So, we're going to make this film, and we need your support.
[00:10:09]  And not just this film, but we're going to make all of our videos and podcasting and everything we do here at Right Response Ministries better.
[00:10:18]  We want to achieve the highest level of quality and Christian excellence that we possibly can.
[00:10:25]  That's where the new studio comes in.
[00:10:27]  This new film.
[00:10:28]  Our date that we're shooting for is that it would be complete and publicly available in May or June of 2023, next year.
[00:10:37]  The studio, our goal is that it would be completely done in its construction and the equipment and the setup and the stage and everything by January, February of 2023, next year.
[00:10:49]  We need your prayers.
[00:10:51]  We need your encouragement.
[00:10:52]  And for those of you who are willing to do so, we need your generous support.
[00:10:57]  You can give towards these endeavors by going to Right Response Ministries.
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[00:11:09]  Thank you so much for all your help.
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