Death
Is In the Bottle
By
Shelby
G. Floyd
May,
2010
Recently I
listened to Paul Harvey’s daily news program on the radio as I drove along in
my automobile. He said something that was humorous but also had a very serious
tone to it. Apparently there was a little boy who had watched too much
television. His father took him to a restaurant for a meal. When the waitress
asked him what he would like to have he said, “I’ll have the largest steak in the house and a bottle of Lowenbrau.”
All
of us who watch television just a little know that the programs are saturated
with references to beer, wine and all kinds of strong drink. Subtly implied is
the idea that it is the “in” thing. The idea is that if you are
young, happy and successful, drinking alcoholic beverages is the thing to do.
We know that is not the entire picture or story of drinking strong drink.
Television
stories and dramas fail to show the broken homes and the people who are maimed
and killed on the highways by drinking drivers. They fail to show the entire
picture. I read in the Indianapolis Star a story by Bob Greene that pictures
the other side of the coin. This is a story about the dangers of drinking
alcohol, especially by young people who start at an early age. It is wrong for
anybody. It is especially sad to see young people start early in life to
destroy their lives and influence by drinking alcohol.
Bob
Greene writes about a girl who is about eighteen years old and an alcoholic. He
calls her a teenage alcoholic. Following, this girl tells in her own words the
tragic story of how she became an alcoholic. She says, “I started drinking when I was nine or ten years old. My dad would give
me half of his beer. I started to take liquor out of the pantry. It was easy
because both of my parents were alcoholics. It was a sick family, but it seemed
normal to me. I would drink rum and coke every day. I never knew why I was
doing it. It was not for pleasure. All I know is that I was ten years old and I
was an alcoholic.”
She
says, “We would go to the relatives’
houses to visit and they would think it was cute if I was drinking. You know, a
little kid drinking. They would say, “Oh, you can have one drink but no more,”
and they would laugh. I would go into their kitchen and fill my glass. It did
not take me long to go from beer to highballs to straight whiskey. Giving a
beer to a little kid who does not know any better! I mean people think it is so
funny to see a little kid sipping on a drink. They would be appalled if an
adult gave a joint or some pills to a little kid. But letting a little kid have a drink is okay. That is the whole
thing about alcohol versus drugs. Everyone thinks that drugs are a big problem,
but they can handle the idea of alcohol because it is so readily available. It
is part of our society. It is everywhere. Everyone does it. It is advertised.
People do not want to admit it is a big problem because it is a part of their
own lives. They can handle thinking heroin is a problem, but when they talk
about alcohol they are talking about themselves.
“Meanwhile, I was hooked. I never
liked school after I started drinking. I could not learn. My parents split up
because my Mom gave up drinking and my Dad could not. So with no alcohol around
the house I had to start finding ways to get it myself. I would steal it. I
started shoplifting to get myself booze. My Mom took me to a psychiatrist when
I was in the sixth grade. sychiatrists always want to put stuff on you, like this guy said I was depressed and I
had mood swings. He said I was hyperactive and he gave me drugs to calm down. I
had to take these drugs for years when the real problem was obvious. It was
alcoholism. It is a disease. It is as simple as that.”
“My Mom knew what was wrong. She
took me to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when I was fourteen. Inside I knew I
was an alcoholic but I did not want to admit it. I thought to myself, I do not
need this AA stuff. I am not that bad off. I knew that I really was, but I did
not want to stop. I thought the skid row type. But actually there are
alcoholics in all walks of life -- senators, movie stars, even priests and
little kids like me.”
“I lost all of my teenage years. I would
make my friends drink with me. I started stealing more to buy the booze. After
I started getting arrested, I started having suicidal tendencies. I always
carried a razor blade in my shoe or inside the patches of my jeans. I told
myself that if I got arrested again I would kill myself but I never did try it.
Last year was the year it really got bad. There was one four-month period when
I was arrested twenty times. Mostly it was little stuff like being drunk in
public or shoplifting, but once I got arrested for armed robbery. What happened
was, I was on my way over to the supermarket to purse snatch and I saw this
newspaper delivery boy on his bike. I figured he was working so he had money. I
had a knife on me. I went up to him and said, “Do you have any money?” He said,
“No.” I pulled the knife out and held it to his side. He promised he did not
have any money so I let him go. But when I was walking out of the store he was
there with a policeman and pointed me out and I was arrested.”
“It was about that time that I knew I needed
help very badly. It was fun up until then and then it was not fun anymore. I
talked to my Mom about it. The time had come when I finally said, “Gena, you
are an alcoholic and you need help. It is either get help now or end up killing yourself or getting yourself killed.” So I
went to a psychiatric hospital. I was there for four and one-half months. I did
not do too well at first, but I started doing better. I am not ready to go back
into the real world yet, but I am getting there.”
That
is the story of a little girl who was given beer, graduated to stronger drink
and became an alcoholic. The story shows how her life, the youthful years when
she should have been having friends and enjoying herself the right way, was
lost and destroyed.
In
the Old Testament in 2 Kings 4 there is a story about Elisha the prophet. He
went down to GiIgal and there he assembled himself
and the sons of the prophets. He said to his servant, “Set on the pot.” The words “Set
on the pot” do not mean he was to get a pot out and climb up and sit on it.
Elisha said, “Set on the pot.” To “Set on the pot” meant that he was to
set the pot on the fire. He said, “Seethe
some pottage for the sons of the prophets are hungry.” Elisha sent his
servants out to gather the materials for the pottage. The Bible says one of
them went out into the field to gather the herbs, spices and whatever else they
used then. This person found a wild vine and gathered some gourds from this
wild vine. He brought all these ingredients back and then shredded them up. The
wild gourds were also shredded into the pot. They stirred in and cooked all the
ingredients. About the time the pottage was ready to serve to the sons of the
prophets, somebody cried out and said, “There
is death in the pot!”
Elisha
told them to go get some meal and mix it into the pot. It was an antidote to
the poison of the wild gourds. Having added the meal, it was served to the sons
of the prophets and they were not poisoned.
I
want to apply this story to alcoholic beverages. We need to cry out as the
people did back then. We need to say, “There is death in the bottle, or can, or other container in which
beer, wine and whiskey is found!” We need to cry out to our friends and
neighbors, “There is death in the bottle, there is death in the can!” We need
to explain to our young people in plain terms that they will destroy themselves
if they drink that stuff. Somebody has said that alcoholic beverages destroy
internally, externally and eternally. Alcoholic beverages will destroy one
physically, morally, mentally and spiritually.
Someone may say, “Well, I really do not see anything
wrong with drinking in a social way.” He may use John 2 as support for social
drinking. John 2 is the story about a marriage feast held in
From
this story some have drawn the conclusion that Jesus condoned social drinking.
They conclude he would encourage us today to drink wine, go to marriage feasts,
cocktail lounges and anywhere else to drink socially with people. Let me tell
you that simply is not true.
In
the Bible the word “wine” is used three ways. Sometimes it is used for the
grape while it is still hanging in the cluster on the vine in the field. It is
used in the sense of fresh grape juice that is on the vine, not yet gathered
and squeezed out. The second way it is used is for fresh grape juice squeezed
out of the grape. That is the way it is used in John 2.
I
would encourage reading a book called “Bible Wines.” The ancients had many ways
to preserve grape juice to keep it as fresh and sweet as Welch’s Grape Juice
you buy at the supermarket today. They could preserve it for a year at a time.
When it was opened it would be as fresh and sweet and unfermented as the day it
was squeezed out of the grape. For a party or wedding back then, it was the
mark of a good host to serve grape juice that was still fresh and sweet, despite
whether it was in or out of season. This undoubtedly is the sense in which the
word “wine” is used in John 2 concerning the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee.
The
third way the word “wine” is used is in the sense of fermented wine or strong
drink. In both the Old and New Testaments, when the word “wine” is used in the
sense of fermented wine, it is always condemned. Let me give you an example in
the Old Testament. Solomon was the Sage of the nation of
“Who
hath woe? who hath sorrow? who
hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who
hath redness of eyes?” Then he answered those questions. “They
that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not
thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his
color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At
the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine
eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart
shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he
that lieth down in midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me,
and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.”
Nowhere
else in the Bible can a passage be found that condemns drinking wine, beer and
strong drink more plainly! Notice Solomon said, “Who hath wounds and contentions and redness of eyes and babblings?”
It was the people who tarried long at wine and mixed drinks. So they had mixed drinks back then.
Then he said, “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red.” That is a
prohibition. It meant the people could drink wine when it was fresh grape
juice. When it was red and moving itself, or fermenting, they were not to “look
upon it.” That meant they could not drink it. The Old Testament is very clear
in its condemnation of drinking fermented wine. There are other passages also.
The Book of Proverbs says, “Wine is a mocker, but strong drink is raging and
whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” This covers any other strong drink.
What
does the New Testament say about drinking alcoholic beverages? In Ephesians
5:18-19 Paul said to the Ephesians, “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.” Notice he said, “Do not be filled with the one thing, but be filled with
something else.” Do not be filled with wine. Why? It will cause drunkenness and
the loss of self-respect. Be filled with the Spirit.
How
are we filled with the Spirit? Colossians
In
1 Corinthians 6 the apostle Paul wrote words to some Christian people who had
come from very immoral backgrounds. They had done just about everything named
in the Gentile world, but had been baptized into Christ. Paul told them to
leave their former manner of life because now they were Christian people. He
said, “Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the
I
appeal to all who are Christian people. Maybe you have done things in the past
mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. If you have been baptized into Christ, you
should do those things no longer. Paul said, “Such were some of you.” In other
words, you did those things in times past, but can no longer do them and be
consistent with the doctrine of Christ. Why? You have been washed in the waters
of baptism. You have been sanctified by the name of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of
God has justified you. Is it consistent for a washed, sanctified, justified
person to drink alcoholic beverages? No! Nor is it consistent to do any of the
other sinful things that might previously have characterized his life.
I
especially appeal to those in their teenage years. The Devil is trying to work
on you and tempt you to drink alcoholic beverages. He uses every avenue, every
means and every media to try to get you away from serving God and to cause you
to lose your spiritual influence. If somebody tries to get you to take a drink,
cry out and say, “No, there is death in the pot! There is death in the bottle
and I will not destroy my soul, my body and my influence.
The
Bible tells us that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 6)
The Bible says that if we destroy our bodies that are the temples of the Holy
Spirit, then God will destroy us. Let us not think of our bodies as receptacles
for strong drink, cigarettes, drugs and things of that nature. Let us instead
tell ourselves, “I will keep my body as healthy as I can. It is a gift from God
and I will not mistreat it. I will not put poison into it. I will try to stay
as healthy as I can so I will have good years and good influence to serve God
and our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the way we ought to think.
Think
seriously about the lesson. Think seriously about a teenage girl who is
alcoholic because her parents started giving her beer when she was just a
little girl. Think about what Solomon said. Think about what Paul said, and
think about your influence as a Christian.
If
you are not a child of God, the Church is the best place on the face of this
earth to be. There are no better people than Christian people, even with all of
their faults and shortcomings. Christian people are the salt of the earth and
the light of the world. I believe that if the Church were taken off the face of
this earth, God would have to destroy it because we could not stand to live on
it. We are the influence on this earth to change the hearts of men and women.
We can change them with the gospel of Christ. We can change them when people
see the gospel changing and molding our lives and making us into the image of
Jesus Christ. Let us not partake of anything that would cause us to lose our
influence.
If
you are not a Christian, confess your faith in Jesus Christ, repent and be
baptized and live the Christian life. If you have lost your influence and are
no longer faithful to Christ, be restored. God will forgive you. You can start
where you left off and grow unto eternal salvation.*
*A Sermon
Delivered By Shelby G. Floyd,