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Transcript 853A
Drinking Wine and Christ's First Miracle
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes. Is drinking wine a sin?
HC: Is drinking wine a sin? Actually, in the Old Testament God used many physical ideas as He laid out the Gospel message, letting them be types and figures of the Gospel. In the Old Testament, for example, God made a big point about the ownership of land, particularly in the land of Canaan. God made a big point about having plenty of bread to eat, and crops that would be very plentiful. God made a big point of the fact that the wine vats would be full, and that wine could be a blessing, even though intermingled with this are His warnings, "Don't look upon wine when it is red," and so on.
Now all of these physical blessings were pictures of spiritual ideas. The land was pointing to the kingdom of God, that is eternal in character. The plentiful grain fields, the plentiful harvest, was pointing to the plentitude of the bread, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, that the Gospel would be sufficient for every need. The wine was pointing to the blood of Christ, that it was more sufficient for all of our needs.
But in the New Testament God disassociated Himself with anything of that kind. He says, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink." And in fact, when we study the New Testament, we only find a couple of verses that relate to the matter of wine. We find that it says, "Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit," in Ephesians 5. And we read in I Timothy that the deacon is not to be given to much wine. And we read in I Timothy 5 that God really defines what "not much wine" is by saving that you can take a little wine for your stomach's sake, and your many infirmities In other words, it can be used for medicinal purposes.
On the other hand, God laid down a lot of rules in the New Testament as to the conduct of the believer. For example, He indicates that we are to crucify the world. And the world is to be crucified to us. He has indicated that to be a friend of the world is to be at enmity with God. Now when we look at wine in the world today, we find that it is the hallmark, it is, you almost could say, the foundation stone of the happiness of the world. You watch this on the TV programs as, when people are showing hospitality, they go to the liquor bar, and offer a drink. Or we find this at the office parties. The center of attraction is the punch bowl that has been spiked with alcohol. Alcohol is the first source of happiness for the world. Now the Bible says we are to be an enemy of the world. We are to crucify the world, and the world is to be crucified to us.
Therefore God sets up entirely different standards for the believer. Instead of looking for our happiness in booze, the Bible says that "Don't be anxious about anything, but with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to the Lord, and the peace of God that passeth understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." In other words, we're an entirely different kingdom than the world. And therefore wine and strong drink have no place for the believer. You can use it for medicinal purposes, certainly, and perhaps in the Lord's Supper, as a ceremonial, a sip of wine. Beyond that the Christian wants to stay as far away as possible from it, because he realizes that this is the cornerstone of the world's happiness.
CALLER: Didn't Jesus, at His first miracle, make those people stumble?
HC: The question is, did Jesus in His first miracle make the people stumble? Number one, we must remember that Jesus turned the water into wine on the Old Testament side of the cross. It was still at a time when wine was a picture of the plentitude of the blood of Christ. As a matter of fact, in that marvelous miracle, the first miracle that Jesus did, He showed Himself to be the Creator, as He turned the water into wine in six stone jars, reminding us very heavily of the six days of creation. And He also showed Himself as the Redeemer. That water was water of purification, anticipating the shed blood of Christ. And by turning it into wine He focuses on the shed blood of Christ. The wedding feast is a picture of the believers, who are married to Christ, and ultimately, spiritually speaking, will sit down at the wedding feast with Christ. The fact that they drank wine was in accord with God's provision in the Old Testament, where God was using wine as a figure or picture of spiritual things. But it gives us no encouragement at all, none whatsoever, that now it is the Christian's privilege, or the Christian's liberty, to drink wine. The fact is, I always shudder when I hear people talk about Christian liberty. Normally what this ends up as is simply Christian license to live as close to the world as possible and yet still call themselves Christians.
CALLER: That means, you're saying, if you crucify the world, that means that you shouldn't go to baseball games, and you shouldn't enjoy yourself, and so on. That's what you're really saying.
HC: Well, the question is, how far do we go in crucifying the world, and letting the world be crucified to us? There are many things that we may have to give up. If we find, for example, that we become obsessed with baseball games, and find that we just, once we get involved with them, can't leave them alone, and we can't stay from the TV or radio when a baseball game is on, and we spend more time than we should going to games, and so on, yes, then we have to deny ourselves. If it is not an incidental part of our life, then we have to realize that it has become a problem to us, because our focal point has to be on far more important things than this.
Now there isn't anything in itself wrong with a baseball game. And certainly the Bible does not teach that believers cannot observe a game or engage in a game, as long as the game itself is not sinful. But in the case of alcohol, the purpose of alcohol is to deaden the conscience just a little bit. The rigors of this life are very severe. By taking that glass of wine for dinner, or the high ball before dinner, or the glass of beer, or whatever it is, that little bit of alcohol will make life look a little more pleasing, make it a little more livable. But the believer does not want that path. The believer goes to the Lord Jesus Christ to make life more livable. God has given us the wonderful privilege of being able to pray to God, and having the Peace that passes understanding, a peace that no glass of wine can ever give to a person.
CALLER: What is vainglory?
HC: Vainglory is pride. The word vain really means empty or futile. And the only glory that God wants us to focus on is on the Lord Jesus Christ. If we try to glorify ourselves, what our conquests have been, or how great we have become, or whatever, it is vainglory. It is futile, empty glory. It is an altogether sinful kind of glory.
CALLER: Well, how would you know that you got somewhere, but you appreciate God putting you there.
HC: The question is, suppose that you were at the top of the class. Let's say you're going to school. And you worked real hard, and you got all A's, and so you ended up at the top of the class. Am I to glorify myself now because I am there? Am I to parade that around? Am I to let as many people know as possible that this is where I am? The answer is, no. The Bible says we are to walk very humbly. If someone else wants to pay attention to it, that we are at the top of the class, well, fine; let them say it. But it's not very important. We realize that the only reason that I was able to be at the top of the class is that God designed me with a good mind, and qualified me with an attitude where I would study hard, and so on. So God has to get all the glory. And so it's not a big deal. The Bible says, whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, do all to the glory of God. So in this, too, as I studied, or whatever the achievement may be, God is the one who receives the glory.
CALLER: You can use your full potential, just as long as you have your priorities right.
HC: You can use your full potentials, but you have to keep your priorities right. And living in a world as we do, that is very secular, very secular, we can very easily be tempted down a path that is contrary to the Word of God.
CALLER: Okay, thanks a lot.
HC: Thank you for calling. Good night.