Monday, August 28, 2006

On sobriety

There are so many christians I have known that drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, even do drugs. They say, "I won't go to hell for drinking a beer; smoking a cigarette, etc." But what does the bible say?

Leviticus 10:8-11, "And the LORD spoke unto Aaron, saying, do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations: And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses." KJV

That was spoken to Aaron in the old testament. Alot has happened since then. Mainly, that Jesus Christ came into the world, the Messiah prophesied of by all of the old testament prophets. Some things changed concerning the temple. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"

In the Old Testament, they didn't have the Holy Spirit living in them because Jesus hadn't come yet. Before the Holy Spirit could be sent to us, Jesus had to live the sinless life, die on the cross, be raised from the dead, and then glorified. But now, Jesus lived a sinless life, died on the cross, was raised from the dead on the third day, and has been glorified and now sits on the right hand of the Father in heaven! Praise God! The Holy Spirit has been sent to us and now abides in the believer. That changes things! In the old covenant, they came to the temple to get into the presence of God, but when Jesus died on the cross, the veil was torn! Through Jesus we have a relationship with God and our bodies are the temple in which we worship. The temple that is now your body! It's not a building, it's you!

So we know that drinking, smoking, and ingesting illegal substances aren't just bad for you, but they are against God's word. That's more than enough reason not to do it, but there's more.

In Acts 1:11, two angels spoke to the believers who had just seen Jesus ascend to the throne, saying, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."

What does that mean? It means JESUS IS COMING BACK! He is coming back first for the church (the rapture), and then to judge the world. In regards to the rapture, Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord." Praise the Lord God!!!

Therefore, aside from defilement being against the Word, we have the return of Jesus to look to. 1 Thessalonians 5:6-10 says, "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him."

Tit 2:11-13 says, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;"

1 Peter 1:13 says, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;"

1 Peter 5:8 says, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:"

Ephesians 5:18-21 says, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."

Now some may be thinking, "all of these verses are referring to people getting drunk. Drinking a beer every once in awhile isn't bad." That would be true if your body weren't a temple of the Holy Spirit, but the first verse stated from Leviticus cancels that out. It says, "...Do not drink wine nor strong drink..." the term wine used in Leviticus 10:9 comes from the hebrew word 'yayin', which means fermented grape juice. Wine in most instances in the bible referred to grape juice (tirosh in hebrew, oinos or gleukos in greek), but in the instances that it was fermented, the wine they drank back then contained minimal amounts of alcohol.

Read the Bible. Believe the Bible. Obey what God has commanded. Gird up the loins of your mind and be sober! Be watchful of the return of Jesus! Until next time, may God bless you with all the prosperity and abundance He has promised to those who love Him.

5 Comments:

Blogger Blessed Girl said...

Thanks for visiting my blog. I appreciate your comments. Kris, I pray that God will richly bless you with his unfailing grace, mercy, and love. I have added a new video to my blog--check it out!

God's Child,
Tawanda from Georgia

8:53 PM  
Blogger Walk by Faith said...

Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment! Its nice to see other blogs who are openly talking about the Word of God! You don't see much of that anymore. sadly. Keep the faith.
No regrets faith!

6:12 PM  
Blogger Tim Heider said...

Yeah, that about covers it! Keep up the good blog!

8:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

just a thought...I agree with most of what you say. I do think that you tend to take the Bible a little too literally when it is convenient for you, i.e.how do you know that their wine was low in alcaholic content, and that they mostly drank grape juice...they weren't modern day Babtists who don't believe in transsubstantiation (the real body and blood of Christ consecrated through the celebration of the Eucharist)...anyway, I being to wonder when you say that scripture cancels out scripture. After all, isn't this the same scripture that you take so literal? In no way am I trying to be hateful or rude, these are just my thoughts...I like to look at all aspects of life, it's a lot less confusing. Another thought, and I may expand on this some other time...but, why do you think it is that Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine (the wedding at Cana), and then ended his miracle "career" with the last supper (turned wine into his most sacred and precious blood)? God Bless. Keep the faith alive.

10:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good blog and good insight concerning drinking alcoholic beverages. Proverbs 20:1 says "Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, And whoever is led astray by it is not wise." Being filled with the Holy Spirit is better and has lasting results. Keep it up!

4:56 PM  

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