True Knowledge of Self

Traps of the Enemy - Appetite, Part 6

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Dwayne Lemon, Lance Wilbur

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Series Code: TKS

Program Code: TKS000023


00:30 Hello, I'm Lance Wilbur.
00:31 I'm Dwayne Lemon.
00:33 And we'd like to welcome you to another edition of TKS,
00:35 a True Knowledge of Self,
00:37 where we get to know ourselves from a biblical perspective.
00:41 Now as we continue our discussion
00:44 regarding appetite
00:45 but specifically eating and drinking.
00:48 We've covered a lot of things.
00:50 We've talked about what the Bible says
00:52 generally about the matter.
00:53 We've discussed what the Bible says
00:55 specifically about the matter
00:56 and now we've even touched upon objections,
01:01 common objections when people say, well, yeah,
01:04 the Bible says this but what about that?
01:05 Hasn't it changed the rules,
01:08 changed the instruction that God has given?
01:11 Didn't God make everything clean
01:13 or possible for men to eat,
01:16 or we looked at Acts 10 and saw that, that wasn't so.
01:19 But that vision that God gave Peter
01:21 was actually referring to his acceptance of men,
01:24 non-Jewish men.
01:26 The idea that he is not to call any man common or unclean
01:31 and so he went to the Roman officer Cornelius' house
01:35 and was able to deliver a message
01:37 and share space with him,
01:39 with them which previously, he would never have done
01:42 because it was unlawful for a Jew to do those things.
01:46 And we saw some other things about clean and unclean.
01:48 Is it a Jewish principle? No.
01:50 We saw that in the Bible
01:51 all the way back in the time of Noah.
01:54 There was no Jewish man existing on the earth
01:56 but there was an understanding of clean versus unclean.
01:59 And we saw that those things
02:00 are dealing with healthy versus unhealthy.
02:04 Now, we know in the inner city communities
02:10 and in the hip-hop culture,
02:13 we're affected by chronic illness
02:16 and chronic disease at a rate much higher
02:19 than the general population statistically,
02:21 and I think and I know and trust that
02:26 if we were to follow God's principles of health,
02:30 God's principles of how we are to govern our body temples
02:34 that we would not see the massive amount of disease
02:38 and early death that we see in our communities.
02:41 So I think God has something here for us
02:43 and it's not necessarily just for us,
02:46 it's for all of humanity,
02:48 and I think the time has come for us to take another look
02:52 and not only to take a look but to actually be willing
02:55 to make some changes, not by our own will power
02:58 but by the grace and power of God.
03:01 Now, Dwayne, we are not,
03:04 we spend a lot of time talking about eating.
03:07 I remember, I made a point early on,
03:09 in an earlier episode that the two main things
03:13 that we do as human beings in the span of our life.
03:16 If we added up all the hours of the average lifetime,
03:19 we eat and drink, excuse me,
03:21 we eat and sleep more than anything else.
03:23 And so, you have to adjust the eating thing
03:25 because people do a lot of it.
03:27 That's right.
03:28 And it is dramatically affecting our health.
03:29 That's correct.
03:31 And not only is it affecting our physical health
03:32 but we understand that it is affecting our mental
03:34 and emotional health,
03:36 and therefore it's affecting our social health
03:37 and most importantly our spiritual health.
03:39 That's right.
03:41 So we've made all these connections.
03:42 We saw, we've seen all these things.
03:44 What about drinking?
03:46 What about the other things
03:47 that we're putting into our bodies
03:48 that I used to put into my body,
03:50 you used to put it in your body.
03:52 And in hip-hop culture, you're not down
03:56 if you don't do certain things.
03:58 That's right.
03:59 You know, there was a time, I remember
04:01 of course years ago.
04:03 I'm in the world, I'm doing everything
04:05 that I think is right in my own eyes
04:06 and I found myself at a house party.
04:08 In at a house party, you know,
04:10 house parties are little different than clubs.
04:12 You know, in the clubs, you have a bar
04:13 and you can just go ahead and pay for whatever you want
04:16 and get something to drink or to eat.
04:18 But in a house party, they just have, maybe a table
04:21 and that table will just have food there or drinks there
04:24 and you can just grab whatever you want.
04:26 Well, I remember one time I was at a party
04:29 and, of course, I love to dance,
04:31 and I find myself dancing, dancing, dancing
04:32 and it got to a point I was thirsty
04:34 and I remember that... I saw this big bowl,
04:38 you know they use these bowls and this is the time
04:40 when fruit punch, you know was still a hit.
04:42 The punch bowl. Yeah, the punch bowl.
04:44 So, you know, here it is that I'm seeing this bowl of punch
04:47 and I'm like, okay, well, I'm gonna get some of that
04:49 and what they did was they would pour cups
04:51 and you have them set aside so you didn't have to go
04:54 and use the scooper and just pour,
04:55 you could just grab a cup and take it.
04:57 Yeah.
04:58 Well, I saw one of these cups available
04:59 and I took it and I began to drink it.
05:01 When I drank it, I realized, I said,
05:03 you know this is not a fruit punch.
05:05 You know, I know a fruit punch tasted like,
05:06 know what a Kool-Aid taste like
05:08 but this was different from all of that.
05:09 So I'm just drinking this thing but I like it, you know,
05:12 it had a buzz to it, you know
05:15 it's kind of making me feel good.
05:17 So I start drinking it
05:18 and as I'm drinking, drinking, drinking,
05:21 they used to have something
05:22 and I'm sure they still have it today,
05:24 but there was something called slow jams,
05:26 you know, the slow songs in this way
05:27 everybody can dance with their girlfriends
05:30 and get close, you know.
05:32 And I remember, there was a dance style
05:34 called the running man,
05:35 and the running man was a dance style,
05:37 you know, you move real fast, real fast
05:39 and you know, I remember that, they were playing a slow jam
05:44 and I was doing the running man
05:46 and I just started doing the running man
05:48 and I just started making noise and kind of talking silly
05:50 and everything and walking all throughout the house
05:53 and everybody was looking at me like I was crazy.
05:55 Yeah.
05:56 Eventually, I kind of sobered up and I realized,
05:59 I asked somebody a day or so later.
06:02 I said listen, what was that in that drink?
06:05 And they said this, that was something called Cisco
06:07 and they...
06:09 You know, there was a term that they used
06:11 in the neighborhood calling Cisco,
06:13 they said Cisco was equivalent to like liquid crack.
06:16 Yeah, crack juice.
06:17 Crack juice, yeah. Now, hold on.
06:18 Let me get this straight. So it wasn't fruit punch.
06:20 It was not fruit punch.
06:21 The whole bowl was Cisco.
06:22 The whole bowl was filled with Cisco.
06:24 So just about all of us got drunk that night,
06:27 and I can only imagine what everybody else did
06:29 because I just had this one cup and I'm dancing
06:31 and I'm going crazy and eventually,
06:33 I just remember everything kind of blanking out
06:35 and then I find myself home and then, next thing,
06:37 you know a day or so later.
06:38 And this is kind of my introduction to alcohol
06:41 and my father, you know, he was big on drinking alcohol.
06:44 We would have this big shelf in the house downstairs
06:47 and he had a lock to it.
06:48 And he would have
06:49 just a lot of different alcoholic beverages there.
06:53 Just about all the name brands that you can imagine.
06:54 A liquor cabinet.
06:55 Yeah, just a liquor cabinet, exactly.
06:57 And I found the key and I found the key
06:59 and I knew how to be sneaky.
07:01 So I would get the key, make sure dad wasn't looking.
07:04 Unlock the door and I started trying
07:06 all these different alcohols and before you know it,
07:09 I found myself enjoying these things,
07:11 and alcohol became a real strong part of my life
07:15 for a period of time.
07:17 And it's interesting
07:18 because even when you go to a club today,
07:21 when you go to a party today or what have you,
07:23 it is almost strange to be in an environment
07:27 where hip-hop culture is being demonstrated
07:29 specifically through the music and entertainment,
07:31 and alcohol is not part of the package.
07:32 Right, and they have something,
07:34 even people who don't drink normally,
07:36 they have social drinking.
07:37 So I don't drink normally but, hey, I'm at a party
07:40 and so I'm gonna have a little wine
07:41 or, hey, I'm at a party and I'll have a beer.
07:43 I'm gonna have a little this or little that.
07:44 Even though I don't normally do it
07:46 but in this context, in this environment,
07:48 I'm just gonna do it because that's what you do.
07:50 Exactly.
07:51 So, you know, at this point now,
07:52 I'm looking at this and I'm saying,
07:54 you know, it's not just the eating habits
07:55 but it's also the drinking habits
07:57 that's affecting society at large,
07:59 specifically the urban communities
08:01 and definitely in the hip-hop culture.
08:03 Now, and do we think it's a coincidence
08:07 that we're talking about the health and the food aspect.
08:11 Now we're talking about the alcohol.
08:12 You know, I watched the documentary,
08:13 I won't mention it, you know, it's a mainstream documentary
08:18 looking at health in black America, right.
08:20 Yes.
08:21 And they interview a lady that lives somewhere in,
08:24 I forget which borough, it might have been Manhattan
08:27 or maybe it was Bronx, I'm not sure,
08:28 a certain borough in New York.
08:30 And it's an older lady and she was explaining
08:33 how she has to take a two hour ride on the metro
08:36 just to get fresh tomatoes.
08:38 Yeah.
08:39 Yet you can walk in any borough, in any,
08:43 you know, even the poorest neighborhoods,
08:45 you know, it seems like almost every other block
08:47 on some places more than one on a block,
08:50 liquor stores all over the place.
08:51 Yeah, isn't that something?
08:53 I mean, you know, and therefore we have to understand that,
08:56 yes, there are powers that be,
08:58 that are beyond even our control to a large degree
09:00 anyhow where there is a debilitation
09:04 that is consistently being introduced to the people
09:06 in urban communities and what have you.
09:08 Those things need to be addressed,
09:10 but there is a decision we can make right now,
09:13 even if the liquor store is right down the block for me,
09:15 and again it comes from true education.
09:17 It comes from understanding the Word of God,
09:20 because alcohol is responsible for several accidents
09:23 that we see taking place throughout our world
09:25 especially in our country, where individuals get drunk
09:28 and they do drunk driving.
09:29 And then, of course, we have alcohol
09:30 being behind several of the most horrific crimes,
09:33 homicides, robberies and things of that nature.
09:35 So alcohol is a very destructive drug
09:39 quite honestly, and yet this is something
09:41 that has become the regular drink
09:43 for those of us or those individuals
09:45 who are in the hip-hop culture, those who may even be involved
09:49 in other forms of new age
09:50 and those who are not even religious of any kind.
09:52 Right, and for those of us who used to, you know,
09:55 get into that and be, I could say, I was alcoholic.
09:57 I drank just about everyday, you know, as a young child
10:01 going all the way into my teenage,
10:02 late teenage years.
10:04 You, I guarantee, those of, you know,
10:08 the viewers and as in my experience,
10:11 you found yourself doing things,
10:14 some of the worst moments in your life or doing things
10:16 that you would never do normally when you were drunk.
10:19 That's right.
10:20 And it almost becomes a joke,
10:22 you say, oh, you tell the story, oh man
10:23 I was drunk last night and XYZ.
10:26 And but it's, some of the most grotesque
10:29 and detestable and destructive things
10:32 that you could do to yourself or to other people
10:34 happen in that circumstance.
10:35 That's right.
10:37 And you know, we have to understand our value
10:38 because it's possible that you can go to somebody
10:40 and say, listen, when you drink alcohol
10:42 even in moderation, it destroys thousands of brain cells
10:45 that cannot be revived.
10:46 And when a person can hear something like that,
10:49 they can say, well, that's interesting fact
10:51 but they are not moved.
10:52 In other words, I don't care.
10:53 I like it and therefore I'm gonna go ahead and do it.
10:56 So we have people who have this kind of mindset
10:58 and that's why while scientific facts
11:00 definitely hold their place,
11:02 we want to take them to other facts as well.
11:05 And one of the facts that I like to present
11:06 to individuals is to let them know, listen,
11:08 first and foremost, when God looks at us,
11:12 He looks at us in a very special way
11:13 and it's found in the Book of Zechariah 2,
11:15 and I like to talk about this
11:17 because when an individual can understand
11:20 something about their value in the eyes of God,
11:22 I believe it helps them as it relates to, you know,
11:26 how they should be viewed and how they should,
11:29 you know, function in life.
11:30 Yes.
11:31 In the Book of Zechariah 2,
11:33 I want you to notice what it says in verse 8.
11:34 Zachariah 2:8.
11:36 The Bible says, "For thus saith the Lord of hosts:
11:39 after the glory hath he sent me unto the nations
11:42 which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you
11:46 toucheth the apple of his eye."
11:48 I always love to let people know
11:49 that God when He looks at us
11:51 and when we are willing to receive Him in our hearts,
11:54 He looks at us and He says to us,
11:56 you are the apple of my eye.
11:58 You know, there has been songs that have come out years ago
12:00 that talk about you are the apple of my eye
12:02 in secular world.
12:03 And that phraseology is about you're special,
12:07 you mean something to me, you are dear to my heart.
12:10 God has made it known to us that we are dear to His heart.
12:12 That's why He sent His Son.
12:14 While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
12:16 And we find that God looks at us and says,
12:19 I find value in you,
12:20 and that's why I was willing to let My Son die for you.
12:22 So when we look at ourselves, we have to see ourselves
12:24 through the eyes of God.
12:26 We have to see that God loves us.
12:27 We have to see that God looks at us
12:29 and He says, you're the apple of my eye,
12:30 and not only that but then God says,
12:32 I also want you to be My ambassador.
12:37 You know, to be an ambassador,
12:38 you're representative of a nation.
12:39 Right.
12:41 You know, in this case, we are representative
12:42 of a heavenly country and God says that
12:44 I want you to represent Me when you go to other people
12:47 and therefore when we go to other people,
12:48 we want to give a clear picture of who God is,
12:52 so that way when they behold us by God's grace,
12:55 they can see Christ in us, the hope of glory.
12:57 We need to let our friends know in our urban communities
12:59 and in hip-hop culture to say, listen,
13:02 when Jesus came to this earth, He had you on His mind.
13:04 Yeah.
13:05 And when He died, He had you on His mind,
13:07 and when He rose, He had you on His mind,
13:08 and He said when He's coming back,
13:10 He has you on his mind.
13:11 So throughout the ages, God has us on His mind,
13:14 and as a result of that it should help a value system
13:18 to come into me that says, listen,
13:20 God has an expectation for me and by the grace of God,
13:23 I want to be ready when He comes.
13:24 I want to live for Him.
13:26 And so that's very important, because, you know,
13:28 that's one of the tenants, you know,
13:30 that's one of kind of the hooks
13:31 for this knowledge of self in the street
13:34 and, you know, all these other groups
13:36 that we talked about
13:37 that, that knowing yourself, knowing your true identity,
13:40 your true value, your true worth
13:41 and racial pride and all these things.
13:43 Yeah.
13:44 That's not where the security lies.
13:46 It's not in racial pride.
13:48 It's not in black power or whatever other power.
13:51 It's understanding our true value
13:53 in the sight of God will give us all those things
13:56 that every human being needs and desires.
13:58 That's right.
13:59 Now when I understand that God has called me
14:03 to be an ambassador,
14:04 representative of Him to others,
14:07 then that automatically means
14:08 that there is certain behaviors about my life
14:10 that should be different from others.
14:11 So that I can understand that
14:13 I'm not called into this world for a common task.
14:14 I'm called into this world for a special task.
14:16 I'm a representative of God. That's what I'm called to be.
14:19 Now, one of the instructions
14:20 that God gives to His representatives
14:22 is He says, I want you to give Me glory.
14:24 Remember, we talked about that in the first angel's message,
14:27 "Fear God and give glory to Him."
14:29 One of the ways we do that practically
14:32 is found in 1 Corinthians 10:31.
14:34 In 1 Corinthians 10:31, the Bible says,
14:39 "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do,
14:44 do all to the glory of God."
14:47 So it's not that I'm just simply to give God glory,
14:50 God says in my eating and drinking habits,
14:54 I'm also to give him glory.
14:56 Now, that has to be broken down
14:59 because I can either go through a private interpretation
15:01 or I can go through a biblical interpretation.
15:03 Yeah.
15:04 I believe the biblical interpretation is better.
15:06 Okay.
15:08 We saw in Exodus 33:18. We reviewed it.
15:12 And we saw that Moses came to God and said,
15:14 Lord, show me Your glory.
15:17 God responded by saying, I'll show you My goodness
15:19 and proclaim My name in verse 19.
15:22 Then in Exodus 34:5-7, Gods reveals His glory.
15:28 He reveals His goodness.
15:30 He proclaims His name unto Moses
15:32 and he says the Lord, the lord God,
15:34 merciful, gracious, long suffering,
15:37 abundant in goodness and truth,
15:38 keeping mercy for thousands,
15:40 forgiving inequity and transgression and sin
15:42 and will by no means clear the guilty,
15:44 visiting the inequity of the fathers unto the children,
15:46 unto the third and fourth generation.
15:47 So God is revealing His character.
15:49 Yes. His character.
15:51 So to give God glory is to reflect His character.
15:55 Well, now that I understand that,
15:58 then to eat and drink to God's glory
16:01 would be to eat and drink things that enable me
16:05 to reflect God's character.
16:06 Okay.
16:08 To eat and drink things
16:09 that are reflective of God's character.
16:12 Right, so things that help and not harm.
16:13 That's right.
16:15 Things that encourage, not retard the process.
16:16 Well, let's think about it this way,
16:18 an attribute of God's character.
16:19 God says that He is life.
16:21 Remember that, Deuteronomy 30:19 and 20.
16:23 Yeah. God says, choose life.
16:24 Verse 20, He says, "I am life."
16:26 John 14:6. John 14:6.
16:30 Jesus says, "I'm the way, the truth and the life."
16:32 John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life."
16:36 So over and over again, God says I am life.
16:40 So watch this.
16:41 So then whatever I eat or whatever I drink
16:44 it should reproduce life in me, not death.
16:48 Psalms 46:1 and 2,
16:50 "God is our refuge and strength,
16:53 a very present help in trouble."
16:55 So therefore I look at that and I say, hmm,
16:57 God is my refuge and strength.
17:01 So therefore whatever I eat or drink,
17:03 it should strengthen my body not weaken it.
17:07 Another one, God says in 1 Corinthians 14:33,
17:11 He says, "I am not the author of confusion,
17:16 but of peace, as in all the churches."
17:19 So if I put something in my body
17:21 that puts my body in a state of confusion,
17:24 I know that I can say,
17:26 wait a minute, this is not good.
17:27 If I put something in my system that causes my heart
17:29 to begin to have unnatural beat rhythm,
17:31 so palpitate.
17:32 I can say, wait a minute, I don't think this food item
17:34 is something I should be putting in me.
17:35 It puts my body in a state of confusion.
17:39 But God says, I'm a God of peace,
17:42 so therefore whatever I put inside of my system,
17:44 it should keep my body in a state of peaceful,
17:46 normalcy that my body can function,
17:49 the way God had designed it.
17:50 This is eating or drinking to the glory of God.
17:52 So now, I look at alcohol and I say,
17:54 well, does alcohol fit the bill.
17:56 Yes.
17:57 Well, Proverbs 20 has an answer for that.
17:59 Let's go to Proverbs
18:00 and we're gonna look at chapter 20
18:02 and let's notice what the Bible says.
18:03 Proverbs 20
18:05 and we're gonna look just at Proverbs 20:1
18:08 and here is what it says.
18:09 It says, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging:
18:15 and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise."
18:21 The Bible is clear that wine
18:24 and in this context it's speaking of alcohol,
18:26 'cause we gonna look that word wine in just a moment.
18:28 Yeah.
18:29 When speaking of alcohol,
18:30 it's talking about that it has a mocking effect.
18:33 Now, we know that God does not represent
18:36 such a character as this.
18:37 We know, there is one
18:38 however who was a mocker, is that right?
18:40 Yeah.
18:41 So therefore wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging
18:45 and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
18:48 Right, and essential that theme there is not wise, you know,
18:52 we've been speaking about that almost every episode.
18:54 That's right.
18:55 The true wisdom of God, the knowledge
18:57 and the true knowledge of self, if you partake of these things,
19:01 it's the opposite.
19:03 That's right.
19:04 So this is why we have to understand
19:06 that God is trying to introduce a thought process to us
19:08 that when I drink, I'm to drink to His glory.
19:11 His glory is His character.
19:13 So whatever I drink,
19:15 it should reproduce His character within me.
19:17 It should have something about it
19:18 that helps me understand
19:20 or tells of the experience of God's character.
19:22 When I drink water it has a cleansing effect.
19:25 That's what water does to the body.
19:27 It cleanses, it hydrates and it cleanses out.
19:29 So it is that Jesus, in His character,
19:31 He is one whose blood cleanses us from sin.
19:34 So I can look at water and say, I can see benefits
19:37 that come from this that are in harmony
19:39 with the attributes of God's character.
19:41 But when I look at alcohol, it's a mocker,
19:44 it's raging and it's deceptive.
19:47 None of that is reflective of God's character.
19:49 So why would I want to drink something like that.
19:51 Right. Proverbs 23.
19:53 In Proverbs 23:29-35,
19:56 it also talks about alcohol and its effects upon us.
19:59 And here's what it says, Proverbs 23:29-35.
20:04 It says, "Who hath woe?
20:06 Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions?
20:10 Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause?
20:14 Who hath redness of eyes?
20:17 They that tarry long at the wine:
20:21 They that go to seek mixed wine.
20:24 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red,
20:28 when it giveth his color in the cup,
20:30 when it moveth itself aright.
20:32 At the last it biteth like a serpent,
20:34 and stingeth like an adder.
20:36 Thine eyes shall behold strange women,
20:38 and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
20:42 Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down
20:45 in the midst of the sea,
20:46 or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
20:48 They have stricken me, shalt thou say,
20:50 and I was not sick,
20:52 they have beaten me, and I felt it not.
20:55 When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again."
20:59 I mean, this is literally the story
21:01 of the experience of alcohol.
21:03 I know, you got experiences.
21:04 Well, I mean, we've gone through these experiences,
21:06 the strange women and finding yourself in places,
21:08 you're saying, where am I?
21:10 The redness of eyes. Yeah.
21:11 All of these effects that come upon an individual
21:14 when God's Word all along says, don't do this.
21:16 And then you sober up and do it again.
21:18 And then you sober up and then we seek it again.
21:21 Where is some more, where is some more?
21:22 But that's because it's a drug
21:23 and it's having chemical reactions in us
21:25 that creates, you know,
21:27 an addiction towards these things.
21:28 And so we find that the Bible, I believe is very clear on it
21:32 that God does not want us
21:34 to partake of this type of drink
21:36 because it's not to His glory and whatever God gives to us,
21:39 it should be for His glory.
21:41 Now of course, you're gonna have people
21:43 who will say, "Didn't Jesus turn the water into wine?"
21:45 Yeah.
21:46 That's what people are gonna say.
21:48 They say, "Jesus turned water into wine in John 2."
21:49 Now this is why the word wine has to be understood,
21:54 because when you look up the word wine,
21:55 especially, if you look it up in the New Testament,
21:57 the Greek word oinos, when you look up that word,
21:59 it actually can apply both to alcohol
22:04 or non-alcohol
22:07 or unfermented grape juice.
22:09 Alcohol is basically the fermentation of the grapes.
22:12 It's going through a rotting process
22:13 and eventually the alcohol content builds up
22:15 and hence it becomes
22:17 more of this poisonous type of substance.
22:18 But more so, grape juice, we know is that which is fresh.
22:21 Yeah.
22:23 Now the question is, which one did Jesus give
22:24 because the word can go in either direction.
22:26 It can either be alcohol
22:27 or it can also go in the other direction.
22:30 It can be grape juice.
22:32 I believe, it's very simple to find out
22:33 which one did Jesus provide.
22:35 Okay.
22:36 When we study the Bible carefully,
22:37 we will find that Jesus did not just come on the scene
22:41 amongst human beings when He was born through Mary.
22:44 Jesus was very interactive with humanity
22:47 before the birth.
22:50 The way we know that is when you read 1 Corinthians 10.
22:52 In 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, the Bible shows
22:56 that when the children of Israel were leaving Egypt,
22:58 it says, as they left Egypt,
22:59 you know they went through the Red Sea.
23:01 It says, eventually they were going and it says,
23:03 and there was a rock that followed them
23:06 and it says and that rock was Christ.
23:09 That's in 1 Corinthians 10:4.
23:11 So the rock that, that followed them,
23:14 it says that rock was none other than Jesus Christ.
23:16 So Jesus was interactive with the people of God
23:19 because Jesus did not begin His existence with Mary.
23:22 He preexisted that.
23:24 Now understanding that principle then,
23:26 that means that the same Jesus who was with His people
23:30 while they were on their journey
23:32 from even Egypt to Canaan land,
23:33 guiding and instructing and so on,
23:35 it's the same Jesus that was with Solomon
23:38 when Solomon was inspired to write wine is a mocker
23:41 and strong drink is raging.
23:43 Yeah.
23:44 All scriptures come by inspiration of God.
23:46 So as a result of that,
23:48 would God one minute say to Solomon,
23:51 tell everybody that wine is a mocker,
23:53 strong drink is raging, when you look at the redness,
23:55 don't look upon it, don't drink it,
23:57 don't do this, don't do that.
23:58 Would God give those instructions in one place
24:01 and then at a wedding, which by the way marriage
24:04 is a holy institutions that existed before sin
24:06 even touched this earth.
24:08 Would God at such a holy institution
24:10 now go ahead and literally give to the people
24:13 the very thing that He inspired others
24:15 to tell them was poisonous, I think not.
24:17 It makes no sense.
24:19 There is no variableness with God,
24:20 the Bible says in James 1:17.
24:23 So therefore I believe firmly that there is no way
24:26 anyone can truly say that Jesus provided alcohol.
24:30 However, in Isaiah 65,
24:33 the Bible does say something about wine.
24:34 Let's notice this one.
24:36 "Thus saith the Lord,
24:38 as the new wine is found in the cluster
24:41 and one saith, destroy it not for a blessing is in it:
24:45 so will I do for my servants sakes
24:47 that I may not destroy them all."
24:50 The Bible shows that there is a wine
24:53 that is definitely a mocker and is raging
24:56 and is deceptive and all these other things
24:58 that we read in Proverbs.
24:59 That's the alcohol, that's the fermented grape juice.
25:02 But in this case, this is the grape that's...
25:05 This is the juice that's coming out of the grape
25:06 while it was still in its cluster.
25:07 So this is dealing with the fresh grape juice.
25:09 Yeah.
25:10 And the Bible says that there is a blessing in it.
25:12 When Jesus came to the wedding,
25:14 we find no evidence that He wanted to condemn or curse.
25:17 He wanted to bless and He did.
25:19 And so we find that consistent with Bible teaching,
25:22 consistent with God's character,
25:24 He would have provided grape juice
25:26 in comparison to alcohol.
25:28 Another point that's very important is remember,
25:31 Jesus uses wine to also reference His blood.
25:36 Remember that the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11
25:39 when Jesus, when the Bible talks about communion
25:41 and it talks about how when we drink,
25:43 the drink it was to be a representation of God's blood
25:47 or the blood of Christ that was spilled.
25:49 And so we find that the blood of Christ,
25:51 1 John 1:7 cleanses us from sin.
25:53 Yeah.
25:54 So we would dare not use something
25:55 that God associates with sin like alcohol
25:59 to suddenly say that this is representative
26:01 of the blood of Christ.
26:02 So the blood of Christ has a cleansing,
26:04 a purifying ability to it or a power to it
26:07 and therefore it is consistent that the grape juice
26:10 would have been that what Jesus provided
26:11 in comparison to, you know,
26:14 these alcoholic type of items that many people think.
26:17 Right.
26:18 In fact, when we really think about it,
26:20 if we carefully study the Bible,
26:22 you will find that the Bible records history
26:24 of individuals who partook of alcohol
26:26 and the detrimental things that took place thereafter.
26:28 You have Belshazzar in Daniel 5.
26:31 And Belshazzar, he was there, taking the vessels of God
26:35 and filling it with alcohol and then he was drinking it,
26:37 and it was on that same night of that festive party
26:39 while they were all drunk that the Bible says
26:42 Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.
26:43 You have been weighed in the balances
26:45 and you have been found wanting
26:47 and his kingdom was gonna be went from him.
26:49 You also have the story in the Book of Leviticus 10
26:53 specifically verses 8-10,
26:55 and it talks about the children of the priest
26:58 that was supposed to be the servants of God,
27:00 but as a result of partaking of alcohol,
27:03 their minds became so debilitated
27:05 that they began to profane the very worship service of God
27:08 and they offered strange fire in comparison to God's fire
27:12 and they were consumed on that very day
27:15 in the sanctuary as a result of this horrible act.
27:18 Of course, we have Noah in Genesis 9:21-25.
27:23 And in that story we find also
27:25 that Noah was partaking of alcohol
27:27 and here it is this deplorable thing took place
27:30 amidst even his own children.
27:33 Absolutely powerful, brother.
27:35 And we want to encourage you to come again
27:38 and see what God is willing to teach us
27:42 if we are willing to learn and listen.
27:45 Thank you for watching TKS, a True Knowledge of Self.
27:48 And remember in Proverbs 2:6, it says,
27:50 "It is the Lord who gives wisdom
27:52 and out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding."
27:55 God bless you.


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Revised 2017-09-05