Social drinking

We're going to read with you in the book of Leviticus, and we'll read from chapter 9. Leviticus, chapter 9. Just verse 1 of this chapter. And it came to pass on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. And then they are going to make some sacrifices.

We're going to make reference to this in just a moment. Come to chapter 10. And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer and put fire therein, put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.

And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. And Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me. And before all the people I will be glorified.

And Aaron held his peace. And Moses called Mishael and Aspham, the sons of Uzzal, the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp. And they came near and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said.

And Moses said unto Aaron and unto Eleazar and unto Ismar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes, lest ye die. And less wrath come upon all the people, but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled. And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die.

For the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses. And the Lord spake 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.

And there shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. Now, you've got to keep your Bible open to that passage, but we're going to read one verse in Ephesians chapter 5. And then come back to the book of Leviticus. So Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, be filled with the Spirit. And that's all that we are going to read.

We're living in the year 2015. What I'm going to touch just for a few moments comes from a person who has been a school teacher much of my life. And I have witnessed some of the things that I'm going to say as, for a number of years, an overseer in an assembly.

I'll touch a little upon that in just a moment. When you come to Leviticus chapter 9, we have a tremendous chapter. You'll notice that it is on the eighth day.

It was a day of consecration when priests that were consecrated to the service of the Lord were going to make particular sacrifices. The events of Leviticus chapter 9 are very similar to what you would read in Revelation chapter 1 when John says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. There are going to be burnt offerings and sin offerings and peace offerings that they're going to make on this particular day.

The blood of the sacrifice is going to be sprinkled upon the altar. There's a reference to that in verses 12 and verse 18 of this chapter. At the end of the chapter, notice verse 23.

This is the end of chapter 9, chapter when offerings were made. God was being glorified. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation and came out and blessed the people.

And the glory of the Lord appeared on to all the people. And so all the people on this particular day had the appearance of the glory of the Lord to them. Verse 24.

And there came a fire out from the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat, which when the people saw, they showed it and in reverence fell on their faces. Chapter 9 of the book of Leviticus ends with nearness, with the manifestation of the glory of the Lord, with a sense of reverence that has filled the souls of the children of Israel on this particular occasion. It's a rather sad commentary that when you come to chapter 10, all is different.

All is darkness. All is separation. The judgment of God.

Death has come upon the children of Israel. And I would take it that when you come to the end of the passage that we have read, that the two men that are involved have been consuming wine. I will touch a little upon that.

I want to speak for a moment to those who are younger, particularly. But I'm going to end with a note to those of us who are older. When you come to this chapter 10, there are two men.

These two men in chapter 10 have experienced the details of chapter 10. These two men in chapter 9 have experienced the details of chapter 10. They have just seen the glory of the Lord.

They have witnessed the fire of God that has come down from heaven. And yet when you come to this particular chapter, two men that have experienced the wonders of chapter 9 are going to fail. You know their names, Nadab and Abihu.

You know that the names in the Old Testament are significant. That is the meaning of the name. And so Nadab's name means separate liberal.

In other words, Nadab would be saying to himself, the old ways are just too narrow for us. We're going to try something new. We're going to invent some new thing, some new way of doing this offering of incense.

We're going to invent some other way. His name is liberal, not satisfied with the old ways, not satisfied with what God already has instructed them. Abihu's name means he is my father.

And I would take it that that would apply to Aaron. And so he would claim special privilege, special family privilege, because he was related to the high priest of Israel. Outwardly, these two men had the priestly garments.

They were privileged men. They were consecrated men to the service of God. But there was something about them that they were not satisfied.

You'll notice in verse 1 that it says that they took each of them his censer. In other words, it was a censer that they had invented, or the use of a censer. The censer was used for holding coals from off the altar.

Now, I know there might be a little difference of opinion as to the source of the coals. Some would think that they came from the brazen altar. I would take it that the coals came from the golden altar.

They are inside the holy place. And so they would take a censer, and they would take the coals from the golden altar, put the incense upon the coals, and then would enter into the holy of holies. The censer was for the purpose of burning incense.

We're not told particularly that this was a golden censer. It may have been a censer similar to what Korah, Dathan, and Abiram used. Their censers were composed of brass.

And so these men, with their own censer, burned strange fire before the Lord. It says that they burned unauthorized fire. It was fire that they produced.

The fire at the end of chapter 9 was a fire that came down from heaven. Here they are going to practice their own thing, and they're going to do it their own way. And they might have said, well, really, Scripture might not say anything about it or anything against it.

That's a very poor argument. That's the weakest argument that you could ever use, that there's nothing in Scripture against it. What these men were doing involved carnality.

And so we are living today in days of change. Change is not always for the best, perhaps not very often for the best. We are living in days when the ancient landmarks are being removed.

Days when what brethren who have labored in days past and gave their life for is being held very, very cheaply. These men held very cheaply what they had been taught. And so they took their censer, and they were going to offer strange fire to God.

At the wrong time, no command to do it here, no consultation with Moses and with Aaron, they offered their strange fire. We're living in days, particularly when young people are trying to make their way through life at the commencement of life, and it's like walking through a minefield. We have a brother up our way who was in the Korean War, and he would tell you about clearing the minefields so that they could advance across territory.

There are minefields today. There are many of them. The drug culture is one of them.

It's around us on every hand. Not too long ago, we heard the expression zero tolerance. But when a million people get involved with marijuana, zero tolerance fades very quickly, and you discover that many are using marijuana.

That's a minefield. As a former high school teacher, I know that that can be available in nearly every high school in Canada and the United States, a minefield, and Christian young people are making their way through that minefield. The computer could be a minefield with a little push of a button.

You're going to have all kinds of illegitimate things to be looking at. Sports could be a minefield. Christian students listen to teachers who believe in evolution.

That's a minefield. But here's another one. Social drinking is a minefield.

And I would gather that these two men were involved in that. That's the context of the chapter, and that's why at the end of the event, Moses was told that those who entered into the presence of the Lord were not to be consuming strong drink. A holy God requires holy men to worship in a holy place.

The minefields are many today. Remember that the Lord Jesus said, I pray not that thou shouldst take them from the world, but that thou shouldst deliver them in the world. I was at a conference, and they had a question box.

I don't particularly like question boxes. I was asked to join a number of brethren to answer the questions, and I told the brethren the only questions that I will answer is questions that have a name on them, that the person who put the question in that box sign their name. I don't answer anonymous questions.

I don't read anonymous letters. There must be a signature. And so one of the questions, and I also say we're not going to mention the name of the person that put the question in the box, but one of the questions was, what is wrong with social drinking? You think about that for a moment.

How would you answer that question? I was sitting in the middle of two brethren on this side of me and two men on this side of me. I'm not going to tell you their names. I took a look at the brethren on that side and then the brethren on this side, and it was obvious that they really weren't going to answer the question.

Maybe I was the oldest man. Maybe they were looking to me for an answer. So I said, I'm going to give you four things that are wrong with social drinking.

I'm going to tell you those four things. I have covered these four things. I had personal contact with Brother Norman Crawford.

He agreed with the four things that I'm going to mention. Social drinking is wrong because it lowers inhibitions. In other words, it makes it easier to talk.

It makes actions freer. It puts a thing on inhibitions that makes them freer, makes it freer to express yourself. And a Christian is to be in full control of themselves.

And so our expressions are to be fully controlled. A friend of mine went to a restaurant with a group of young people. This brother who went to the restaurant is presently a missionary in the Lord's work.

Not at that time when he went to the restaurant with the younger folks. The waitress came and asked them if they would like something to drink. Went around the circle, however many of them there were, and they ordered what they wanted to drink.

I don't think that is a very rare thing today until they came to the brother who is my friend. He looked at the waitress and he said, No, thank you. I'm a Christian.

And of all of the ones at that table, he was the only one who declined. Social drinking lowers inhibitions. To recline or to refuse would be an example to others.

If I had a glass of wine on my table at home and the younger people from the assembly came in and were sitting at a table, I would not be an example. And so to older brethren, we are to be an example. Back in the city of Toronto, there is an assembly, which is an Italian assembly.

They speak Italian. I go to the assembly there, and when I go, I'm permitted to speak in English. And they will sing some of the hymns in English because I'm there.

They are my friends. I know a little bit about Italian culture. It might be, I'm not certain, but it might be that because of the Italian background, they may have a glass of wine.

But they respect me. When I go into their houses, I have never seen that. There is a power of example.

What I'm going to say, I have excellent evidence. Those who study alcoholism and those who deal with alcoholics will make this statement, and they have proved it by experiments and by testing. They will conclude that 11% of people have an affinity to alcoholism.

In other words, we'll just reduce that to 10%. So if there are 300 people in this auditorium, 30 of us who take our first drink will become alcoholics. That's proven.

That's a fact. The alcoholic is not necessarily the person who struggles down the street and lies in the ditch. The alcoholic is the person who can't live without his alcohol.

In the morning, coming home from work, he's got to have his drink. He's an alcoholic. It may not be an evident thing, but that is part of him.

He has to have it. So think again. 10%? 30 of us here who were to take our first drink would become an alcoholic.

But I have read a verse in the New Testament, Ephesians chapter 5. I'll tell you a little bit about that statement. Be not drunk with wine. That's the part of the statement I'm on just for the present.

I know there's a contrast between being drunk with wine and being filled with the spirit. We have kind of murdered the English language. I say that because grammar is not taught any longer.

I've asked a few students here in the United States what I know back our way. Younger people start university and the university professors lament that they can't write a good sentence. Grammar is not taught any longer.

And so there's some parts of the Bible that are difficult for us to understand because of that. This word drunk is a very special word. It's called an inceptive verb.

And I began to wonder when I found that out what an inceptive verb was. So if you go to Mr. Vine's dictionary of New Testament words, he will tell you that the word drunk is an inceptive verb. An inceptive verb emphasizes the commencement of an act, the beginning of an act.

I had some material from a Greek scholar just last week. And he was asked the question, is the word drunk an inceptive verb? And the person who asked him the question must have had Mr. Vine's dictionary. The Greek scholar knew nothing about Mr. Vine's dictionary.

But the questioner said, Mr. W.E. Vine in his dictionary calls this word inceptive, this word drunk, an inceptive verb. And the Greek scholar said, not knowing Mr. Vine or that dictionary said, Mr. Vine is absolutely correct. An inceptive verb.

There are other inceptive verbs in your New Testament. For example, when Peter's wife's mother arose and commenced to minister to them, that word minister is an inceptive verb. The inceptive verb emphasizes the commencement of an act.

In other words, Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18 is saying very clearly, don't take the first drink. An inceptive verb, the commencement of an act. And so when we come back to what we have read here in Leviticus chapter 11 and in verse 3, God reminds Moses, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh unto me.

And so God requires holy men and holy women to draw near to a holy God in a holy place. And what we have read in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 8 brings a person's life into question as to the issue of holiness. And so Aaron here was in silent subjection, even though it was his own family, even though it was his own sons.

Aaron here says nothing. There is no attempt to defend his sons in Leviticus chapter 10. And yet, even in this chapter, there is a sense of the compassion of God.

Those two men had to be removed. Aaron and his surviving sons could not remove them. They were disqualified from touching a dead body.

And so Moses summons Aaron's uncle, and Aaron's uncle had three sons. Two of them were older sons, Elsham and Mishael, but there was another one, Zephri. He was the youngest of the three.

And there is a sense of compassion here. The youngest was not required by Moses to remove the body of those who had experienced the judgment of God. Could I just suggest that from Leviticus chapter 10, there is a solemnity even in the Old Testament.

And when you come to the New Testament, when it says here, You know the proverb says, Now, back to the English language for a moment. The word drunk is not only an inceptive verb, but it's in the present imperative active sense. The present imperative means it is a command.

Do not ever take wine as a drink. With two exceptions. The Lord suffered.

We believe that there is wine in the cup. And yes, Paul did say to Timothy, But in our modern day, you don't need that. I was told by the cardiologist that a glass of wine would be good for the heart.

I said, I'll go home to heaven before I have the glass of wine. There are all kinds of medications that you can get. You don't need the wine that Timothy was allowed for because he didn't have access to what you have access to.

And so, wine and the spirit in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18 both control the user. The wine controls the person who uses it. The Holy Spirit controls the believer.

Both produce boldness. Wine, as we already have said, allows for the inhibitions to be lessened and to cause boldness. A person who is possessed by the Spirit of God, who is filled with the Spirit of God, is guided and controlled by the Spirit of God.

And both fill the soul with a desire for more. In other words, to be more greatly filled with the Spirit of God. That is, allowing the Spirit of God to have control of the life.

Not getting more of the Spirit of God. Because the Spirit of God indwells the believer in the entirety of this person the moment that the person is saved. But the drink of wine, more.

I'm just going to close with this. I was driving down the street one day. And I saw a man staggering down the street.

I immediately recognized him. I stopped the car. And I told him to get in the car.

He got in the car. I've heard that man worship on Sunday morning at the breaking of bread. I've sat and I've listened to him preach the gospel.

When he would worship on Sunday morning, there was a little touch. He would take you into the very presence of God. He could present a very sound, acceptable gospel.

This is the man that got into my car. His first name was the same as mine. His first name was Larry.

I suppose that he was maybe in his mid-forties. I looked at him. I said, Larry, at this present moment, you would not be able to convince anyone that you are a Christian.

He lost his job. He lost his family. He had to be excommunicated from the assembly.

He might as well have said to himself that first drink, I can handle it. I'll be all right. But it wasn't very long before he discovered that he couldn't handle it.

That he wasn't all right. I have said what I have said just now because I have a burden. I have a burden for what I have seen.

And I have a burden for what I know very personally, very accurately from some younger folks back our way. And I have concluded because of what has been said that it's not limited. It's fairly widely spread.

I probably haven't emphasized this like I would have a burden to emphasize it. But there's certainly a warning here for younger and for older ones. The man that I had in the car was an older man.

I went to his funeral. He was never restored to the assembly. And what hurt even more, he was my brother-in-law.

And the time came when I had to join my brother-in-law to read a man out of the assembly who thought he could handle it. But discovered that he couldn't handle it. And so if I can just leave a little word of warning here.

My brother maybe will have a different word, maybe lift the meeting a little in just a moment. But this comes from a burdened heart. Be not drunk with wine or in his excess, but yes, be filled with the spirit.

Only one life. And that life will soon be past. Don't ruin your life.

I don't know about my brother-in-law. I know something about this person before you. I wouldn't take a drink of wine because I would be greatly afraid that that would just be the first one.

I wouldn't have confidence in myself to do that. And so here are two men. They wanted to do it their way.

They wanted to have their own thing. To use their own censor. To put their own fire in it.

Because this wasn't a fire that was kindled by God. And God smote them. God may not come in judgment like that today.

But it doesn't please God anymore today. Than it did when Nadab and Abihu offered their strange fire. And it seems very clear that when Moses was told that to come into the presence of the Lord, he wasn't to drink wine or a strong drink.

Because God requires holy men to worship a holy God in a holy place.