In his sermon 'Elders: What they must be (Part 6),' Peter Allison discusses the qualifications of an overseer with a focus on the biblical guidance regarding alcohol consumption. Referring to 1 Timothy chapter 3, he outlines 17 qualifications for a bishop, emphasizing sobriety as a key requirement. The sermon highlights the varying interpretations of the phrase 'given to wine,' ranging from total abstinence to responsible consumption. Allison presents four scriptural principles about alcohol: God's creation is inherently good and should be received with gratitude; everything has a purpose that should be discovered and used accordingly; God's laws should not be added to or taken from; and there is a proper time for everything. Allison also delves into the biblical warnings about alcohol misuse, stressing its potential to impair judgment, lead to sin, and affect one’s standing in the kingdom of God. The sermon concludes with a call for elders to prioritize their spiritual responsibilities over lingering with wine and to seek to be filled with the Spirit instead.

Yes, the oracles of God are a great privilege. Let us turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3. I'd like to read again these seven verses that list the 17 qualifications that an overseer must have. Here God's word. This is a faithful saying.

If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, Not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous. One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. For if a man does not know how to rule His own house. How will He take care of the church of God?

Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride, He fall into the same condemnation of the devil. Moreover, He must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest ye fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." May this word give you life and be your comfort in affliction. Heavenly Father, Your word is refined as if it were seven times. It is pure, it is true. It is without error.

It is able to make us wise. To make the simple wise. We ask that it may guide our path this morning. And I ask that you would bless the proclamation of your word to us to sanctify us by it. And I pray that you would sanctify my lips that they may proclaim the truth and that you would preserve me from error through Jesus Christ, we ask, amen.

The last week we looked at the requirements to be hospitable and able to teach. And the next qualification in verse 3 for elders is that they are not given to wine. And like that requirement to be the husband of one wife, there is a wide variation among Reformed evangelical people in how this is understood. At one end of the spectrum is the teaching that total abstinence from alcoholic beverages is either required for elders or is the path of wisdom. And at the other end of the spectrum is the elevation of intoxicating drinks, even to the point of describing their presbytery meetings as occasions for drinking whiskey and talking theology.

And this wide variation in one's view of the place, the proper use and place of alcohol is reflected actually in the translations of the Greek word that is behind the phrase given to wine as it's put in the New King James. The translations range from not a drinker to not a drunkard in the ESV or NIV and some other recent translations. Not a drinker is total abstinence. Not a drunkard is tending to the opposite end of the spectrum. And part of this variation is due to the fact that there is no simple single word in English that adequately translates this Greek word, which the New King James and many others have rendered given to wine.

It's probably as good a translation as there is. A more literal translation might be lingering at the wine, staying next to it for a long time. An elder is not to be someone who lingers besides wine. But a big part of this difference in how we understand this word and what this requirement is arises from how the biblical data on alcohol is handled. The scripture has actually quite a lot to say about wine and fermented alcoholic beverages.

And So this morning, we'd like to look at the four principles given in Scripture that are relevant to examining this requirement that an overseer not linger with wine. This requirement regarding an overseer is we might say relation to wine and by analogy to any alcoholic drink. And the first principle is that material things that God has created are good. And they are to be received with Thanksgiving. God pronounced creation to be very good when He had finished it in Genesis 1.

And in 1 Timothy 4, Paul reiterates this, telling Timothy that Every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused. Every part of God's creation, everything that God has made is good. And nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving as God's good gift. For, he says, it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. So this principle is selfless, that God's creation is to be enjoyed with thanksgiving for all of the pleasures that it gives us.

We are to enjoy them and give thanks to God for them. Ecclesiastes expresses this same thought in several places. Ecclesiastes 5 says, Here is what I have seen. The preacher says, Solomon, It is a good and fitting thing for one to eat and to drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God has given him, for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth and given him the power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and to rejoice in his labor, this, Solomon says, is the gift of God." So we can say of wine that it is good and it is to be received with Thanksgiving.

So I don't think the translation that not a drinker can be the right one. The second principle is that everything God has created has a purpose. And it's part of our purpose to discover the specific purposes for the things that God has created and to utilize them according to their proper purpose. And many things obviously have many multiple purposes. But it's our responsibility as the people that God has put on the earth or to whom He has given dominion over the earth to discover those purposes according to His Word.

For example, God has created green herbs bearing seed to be our food and to be the food for animals. And after the fall, he also gave us animals to be for food. The sun and moon and stars are for signs and seasons to mark days and years, to give light on the earth. And they establish the day and night. That's why God created them.

He created, it says, the earth to be inhabited. To be in habitation. He didn't create the planets and the moon to be inhabited. And that's why I don't think they ever will be inhabited, although we might certainly visit them. The beasts, the creeping things, the birds, are created to fill the earth and to be under the dominion of man.

Rain and snow are sent to water the earth to make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, Isaiah says. That's the purpose of the rain. And we rejoice and we give thanks and we pray for the rain in its season. The heavens were created to declare the glory of God and to demonstrate His handiwork. Psalm 19 tells us.

The trumpet was created to give a signal, but it has to give a clear sound, a clear signal, otherwise no one would know what it's signaling. And Paul tells the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 14. The Sabbath was made for man. Man wasn't made for the Sabbath, Jesus said in Mark 2. The scriptures tell us that marriage was created for companionship and for fruitfulness or procreation.

Marriage was created to fill the earth, which means to have babies, to have children. That's one of the purposes of marriage, along with companionship and pleasure. And there are many, many, many other things, if not most things, for which the scripture doesn't give us exactly what they were created for, but the scriptures give us the tools and the principles for which, so that we can discover the purpose for which everything was made. And this was Adam's work in the garden. To name the creatures according to their purpose and their function.

He was the very first taxonomist. And that's a forgotten science, but it's actually one that we all live with every day, practice every day, and probably don't realize it. In other words, we almost instinctively know what the proper use of things are without really having to be instructed specifically in it. But the scriptures do tell us the purpose for wine It gives two main purposes for wine Psalm 104 says he causes the grass to grow for the cattle. There's the purpose of the grass vegetation for the service of man All right, we use trees to build with and we also use leaves for medicinal purposes and to eat, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine that makes glad the heart of man, oiled to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart." So there's the purpose, One of the purposes for which God has made wine.

Wine and fermented or alcoholic beverages are things that God created for rejoicing. It's God's gift to us. It's not the devil's weapon. But it must be rightly used. It must be rightly used.

Deuteronomy 14 tells us, You shall spend money, it's speaking of here the rejoicing tithes, that which is set apart for rejoicing. You shall spend money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink. For whatever your heart desires, you shall eat that before the Lord, and you shall rejoice, you and your household." There's the purpose, Again, for wine. It was a means, a part of rejoicing, of enjoying God's good gifts. Second use of wine was for medicinal purposes.

Proverbs 31, 6 says, Give strong drink to him who is perishing. And the word strong drink or similar drink is all the same word. Similar drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart. And you remember in the parable of the Good Samaritan that Jesus told that where this Samaritan came across a person who had been beat up and lying helpless on the road and injured, you Remember that he treated that injured person with oil and wine. Wine is an antiseptic for treating wounds and an analgesic for reducing pain.

So wine have a medicinal purpose as well. There's an antiseptic and an analgesic. The word that's translated there, strong drink, is probably a reference to alcohol from grains or sources other than grapes. And one of the reasons we get that is because they often are paired together, wine and strong drink, as if they are two slightly different things that are similar in nature. So it could refer to beer, and I think it could also include distilled spirits.

There is an indirect reference to essential oils in the Old Testament that indicates they had some ability to distill spirits, and They were able to distill the essence from these compounds. And they put in that anointing oil. But there's some uncertainty there as to what exactly this is. But I think it's probably useful, helpful to simply understand it as alcohol that comes from non-grape sources and could also include distilled spirits. So Timothy, remember, did not drink wine.

He did not drink at all, which is a perfectly valid choice. We have the ability, the freedom, to choose not to drink or not to eat. We're warned not to do that for the wrong reasons, but it's certainly a very valid option if we decide not to eat a particular plant or not to eat a particular meat or whatever. We have the freedom to do that. God has given us that authority to make those decisions.

So Timothy did not drink wine. There's nothing wrong with that choice. But Paul did instruct him to drink a little wine for medicinal reasons. He said, no longer drink only water, But use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent ailments. Timothy was apparently somewhat sickly, and Paul said that wine had a medicinal benefit for him, maybe in reducing some pain, dulling some pain, or helping his stomach.

So, everything has a purpose. Second principle. And our purpose is to discover what the right purposes are of the things that God has made and use them for those purposes. The third principle is especially important in coming to a proper view of alcohol. It's found in Deuteronomy 4, verse 2.

It says, you shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. We can't add to God's commandments. We can't be more righteous than God. We can't add to His commandments thinking that that makes us more holy. It doesn't.

God says, don't do it. You can't take away from God's commandments, but we can't add to them either. That doesn't make us better. Going above and beyond. It doesn't work that way.

We're not to go to the right or to the left. That's another corollary in Deuteronomy 5. You shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you, you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left. You know, there are abstract entities, faculties like freedom, like love, like joy. And those are not in the same category as these physical concrete entities.

Yes, rightly understood, you can never have too much love, you can never show too much love, you can never have too much freedom, you can never express too much joy, right? These are these are abstract things or faculties or their gifts. But it's not that way with with the physical things that God has created. So We can't add to God's commandments nor take away from them. If God doesn't forbid alcohol, then neither can we.

That would be adding to God's law. It's not more holy to never drink. And to say that it is, is to add to God's law, which is something that we are explicitly forbidden from doing. The fourth principle though is that there is a proper time for everything. For every matter there is a time and a judgment.

And a wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment. There's a judgment, and then there's a time to say that. And so, there is everything, including the use of alcohol, has a proper time and a proper season to be used what is lawful use of something that God has made on one occasion is not necessarily lawful on every other occasion or on another occasion. Ecclesiastes 3 says, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. And it goes on to list a number of specific examples.

A time to plant. A time to pluck what is planted You don't plant in the fall or you know when the winter is coming generally there are some things I guess you do there's specific crops that are made for that, but you don't plant spring crops in the winter. There is a time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh.

A time to mourn and a time to dance. There's a time to rejoice. And there's a time not to rejoice, where it would be wrong to be rejoicing or dancing. There's a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace.

And a time to refrain from embracing. For example, it's good for a husband and a wife to embrace, to show affection for one another. But there's a proper time and a place for that. What's appropriate in a family setting in the home is not appropriate in a public setting. Embracing in the public may not be appropriate.

But it would be fine and good in the home. And the same principle here then applies with alcohol. Alcohol is for rejoicing and for use as an analgesic. And since there's a time to rejoice and a time to mourn, a time to kill and a time to heal, so There's a time to use alcohol and a time to refrain from using alcohol. Alcohol is not appropriate where sound judgment is important.

That means that discussions of important principles of life and death, such as theology. They're not appropriate occasions for alcohol. These are serious matters where sound judgment is needed. Alcohol is not appropriate on those occasions. And Paul explains the same principle in 1 Corinthians 10.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but not all things Edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being. So we have to ask also in determining whether something is appropriate for that time, whether it's going to be edifying to others in that setting and in that circumstance. Or is it simply seeking our own?

You see, just because it's lawful doesn't mean it's edifying or appropriate. In an extended discourse on this principle of needing to edify that everything may be good and is to be received with thanksgiving, has a right use, but it's not always useful in every occasion. He says, let us pursue, In Romans 14 verse 19, Let us pursue the things that make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. So it may not be harmful. You can say, well, it's not forbidden, but there's more that we have to ask.

Is it edifying? Is it going to build up other people? Is it going to be helpful to them in their Christian walk? And if they're rejoicing and then, yes, rejoice with them. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.

All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat or drink wine, nor to do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. And it could be more than just a drunk or somebody who has trouble with alcohol by which we can cause people to stumble. And we'll get to that in a minute. The Corinthian church was misusing wine even in the Lord's Supper.

And in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul deals with this misuse of the wine at the Lord's Supper. That people were becoming drunk. So even where it's commanded, it can be misused. They had corrupted the sacrament through selfish misuse of wine and food. So those are four principles that the scripture gives regarding, that I think are very helpful and necessary in coming to a right understanding of how we should view alcohol and how it should be used and how we should understand this passage, this command on an elder is not to be one who is given to wine.

But the Scriptures have much more to say about wine, actually. They have much more guidance. They have a lot more guidance. And they give many warnings about wine. And those are also very relevant.

First, because they give many warnings because it's so easy to misuse alcohol. And secondly, the misuse of alcohol has many dire and calamitous consequences. Not only for the one using it, but for all those that are with them or connected with them in any way. And so we also need to look at the warnings that Scripture gives regarding alcohol and clarification on the right use of wine. Alcohol is like anger or the marital relationship.

It has a right and a proper use. It's good and holy, but it is also very easily misused to our great hurt. You know, for example, sex is God's design within marriage where it is holy and undefiled. That's its proper use. But outside of marriage, or even wrongfully used within marriage, it's a great evil, becomes an abomination.

And the same is true of alcohol. So first in the warnings that are given to scripture is that the unlawful use of the marriage Relationship and the unlawful use or misuse of alcohol both are put together Are characteristics of those who are living according to the flesh and not being led by the spirit now that is a very serious charge Those because those who live according to the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God Paul told the Corinthians first Corinthians 6 do not be deceived neither fornicators that's those who engage in unlawful sexual activity, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, that's three more unlawful uses or unlawful sexual practices. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards. That's the unlawful use of alcohol. Nor revilers, that's the unlawful display of anger.

Nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God." And Paul gives a very similar list in Galatians 5. And notice this, notice that unlawful sexual activity, unlawful display of anger, and unlawful use of wine comprise the bulk of this list of the deeds of the flesh. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness. Those are all related to unlawful sexual activity, the unlawful use of a good gift. Paul goes on, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders.

That's a long list, but except for idolatry, sorcery, and heresies, those are all related to unlawful or unrighteous anger. And that's going to be coming up in the list of qualifications for elders. But then he goes on. Drunkenness, revelries, and the like. These two relate to the sinful use of alcohol.

Revelries refers to sinful or unlawful celebrations, which typically include the misuse of alcohol and are often fueled by the misuse of alcohol. The word translated revelries there originally referred to a festal occasion in honor of Dionysius, a debauched festival like the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. That's a revelry. And those who engage in that, Paul says, are showing that's work of the flesh, the deed of the flesh. And Paul continues, I've told you this before, of which I tell you beforehand.

I'm warning you, he's saying, just like I have warned you in the past. I'm warning you that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God That's a pretty serious consequence very serious this is not a trivial matter the right and the wrong use of alcohol the right and the wrong use of alcohol, the right and the wrong use of sexual gift, and the wrong use of anger, or simple display of anger. These are evidences of somebody who is living according to the flesh, not according to the spirit. And so the right use of alcohol is very important. This is not necessarily a secondary matter for believers and or for elders.

Those who habitually misuse it will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And it really doesn't get any more critical than that regarding what we do. The second class of warnings in Scripture regarding alcohol relate to alcohol's impairment of judgment and the ease with which the unguarded use of alcohol can lead to further sins. It's easy to be impaired by alcohol without being fully aware of the impairment. Sound judgment is the very faculty that we need to recognize the impairment due to alcohol.

And so when sound judgment is missing, we're missing the very faculty that's needed to even recognize that sound judgment is missing. And you can see that puts you in a very precarious position. In engineering terms or physics terms, that's called a runaway reaction, when the very feedback that you need to control that is actually causing it to get worse. That's what happened at Chernobyl. It's called positive feedback instead of negative feedback.

And it brings disaster. The fact that alcohol causes many people, well, this fact about alcohol, This fact that it impairs the judgment impairs a very faculty that we need to know that our judgment is impaired It causes many people to to reach a level of impaired judgment that had no intention Of becoming impaired or drunk when they took the first drink. It's very easy to sin when you're angry. And then likewise, it's very easy to become impaired through alcohol. See, impaired judgment is a gateway sin that opens us and makes us liable to a host of other sins.

So when your judgment is impaired, you are in a very, very precarious position because you lack the necessary judgment and self-control to restrain yourself from committing further sins. Proverbs 20 says, wine is a mocker, and strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. See, impaired judgment leads to fighting. Wine breaks down inhibitions so people do things under the influence of wine that they would have never conceived of doing without wine, with sound judgment. And because alcohol breaks down inhibitions, wine makes rational people into a laughing stock.

That's why it's called a mocker. Everybody that is around drunk people has stories of stupid things that are done for which people are mocked. Wine brings delusions of grandeur, makes weak things believe they can defeat the strong man, which leads to all sorts of fights. It brings hallucinations, the seeing and hearing things that aren't there. It brings trouble telling what is real and what is not real.

See, people with impaired judgment are easily led astray and they're easily manipulated. That's not a condition an elder should ever be in. Or anyone. Anyone. And even as they are being led astray, the drunk will adamantly maintain, or those with impaired judgment will adamantly maintain that their judgment is not impaired and that they are in full control.

They have been let astray and are not wise all the while believing that other people might be led astray and do foolish things, but not them. You see, and by this habitual lingering at wine, many unsuspecting souls have been steadily and almost imperceptibly Enslaved by this habit of drinking alcohol Its greatest danger is when we think we're wise, concerning it. And we linger by it, thinking that we can do so without being harmed. But you can't take fire into your bosom and not be burned. And Paul said to the Corinthians, He who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.

Noah didn't plant a vineyard, intending to become drunk and expose himself to the mocking of his son. And countless people ever since have made fools of themselves lingering at their wine. They didn't intend to become impaired, but it happened. Just like people that fall into adultery don't intend to. They fell into fornication because they didn't flee fornication.

They lingered around the strange woman, usually first in their mind. And then as they lingered in their mind, they lingered with their physical body. But there's a third class of warnings that is also especially relevant to this qualification, because they relate to where alcohol is forbidden because of the impairment of judgment that it brings. Alcohol is specifically not for those who are in positions of public trust where judgments must be made. Priests were forbidden from drinking alcohol when they ministered in the temple upon pain of death.

Leviticus 10. 9. Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink. And that intoxicating drink is the same word as similar drink or strong drink. It's probably beer or other distilled spirits.

Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you nor your sons with you when you go into the tabernacle of meeting lest you die. And it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations." Proverbs 31 says, "...It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine nor princes intoxicating drink." And Isaiah speaks to this impairment of judgment by church leaders in Isaiah 28. It says, "...but they also erred through wine, And through intoxicating drink are out of their way. The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink. They are swallowed up by wine.

They are out of their way through intoxicating drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment. These are people whose judgment has been impaired and it leaves them to stumble. Joshua and the elders and the rulers of the congregation, Their judgment was impaired.

We don't know whether it's from alcohol or not. It doesn't say. Probably not. But their judgment was impaired and it led to them stumbling. And when elders and leaders stumble in judgment, they bring harm not only on themselves, but they bring destruction into the lives of others.

Just as those elders did in the congregation that we read this morning. Their stumbling and error in judgment had a generational effect for hundreds of years on the children of Israel. So the Bible says wine is not for rulers, it's not for princes, it's not for the priests or the prophets, or those who are engaged in the proclamation of the Word of God. But the fourth area of warning about alcohol concern the dangers of lingering over it. We're not talking about drunkenness here.

We're not talking necessarily about impaired judgment. These are warnings over simply lingering. Isaiah 5, woe to men who are mighty at drinking wine. Not, yea for them, look how strong they are, but woe to them. This is not something to be proud of.

This is something that puts you in a precarious position. Woe to you. Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink. And that's that same word that refers to beer or distilled spirits, non-grape Alcohol. Woe to the people who are mighty at this, a drinking wine or mixing these drinks.

They are people, these are people who are lingering at the wine. It's become a habit, a passion, what they spend too much time doing. You see, the problem here isn't that it's wrong to drink these things. The problem here is that by doing so, They are consuming time that should be spent on other matters. The enjoyment of alcohol has displaced other work.

Instead of being reserved for special times of rejoicing, You know, the rejoicing tithe that it talks about there, that was three times a year they went up to Jerusalem. There were at most a few more other feasts that they could go up. This wasn't a daily activity, necessarily. Instead of being reserved for special times of rejoicing, Isaiah is saying that the use of alcohol has become that which these people live for. Isaiah 5 goes on earlier and says, Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may follow intoxicating drink, who continue until night till wine inflames them.

The harp and the strings, the tambourine, and the flute and the wine are in their feasts. But they do not regard the work of the Lord nor consider the operation of His hand." See, the problem here is that it has displaced something that they should be doing, more of. See, this class of warnings is important, especially because it deals with the misuse of wine that falls short of becoming drunk. It speaks to a path that over time leads to drunkenness and addiction to alcohol. And Proverbs 23 spells out this progression in some detail.

And it begins with lingering over wine. Proverbs 23, 29, who has woe, Remember woe to those who are mighty at drinking wine. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions?

Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause as a result of fighting? Who has redness of eyes? The answer? Those who linger long at wine.

Those who go in search of mixed wine do not look on wine when it is red. When it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly. So there's this enjoyment of wine beyond what is appropriate. At the last, it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. You see, it was the lingering over wine which led to being enamored with it.

Enamored with its aromas and smells and the aura of it. Lingering at it leads to being enamored with it, which in turn leads to addiction and to all the woes that accompany addiction. And here they are, it lists them. Your eyes will see strange things. Your heart will utter perverse things.

Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies down at the top of the mast." Those are absurd things that only somebody with impaired judgment would ever think of doing. And they say, "...they have struck me, but I was not hurt. They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. Why? Because of the analgesic properties of alcohol.

And when shall I awake that I may seek another drink?" Now that's an addict. But see, it started with the lingering at the wine, then becoming enamored with it, and then becoming addicted to it. And so this requirement says elders doesn't say they may not drink, and it doesn't say that they just shouldn't be drunkards. It says that they should not linger over their wine. It's the lingering over wine that is prohibited in this list of qualifications for elders.

Wine has its proper place and time. A little wine in its proper place serves man. But too much wine and lingering at wine reverses that leading to man becoming the servant of wine. In any area that demonstrates a lack of self-control disqualifies a man as an elder. Now these may not be, this may not be a permanent disqualification.

Something like this can be overcome. And by the grace of God, is overcome. So this is one, a matter of self-control. But secondly, it's a matter of priorities in our life. Time spent with wine and strong drink is time that is not being spent in something else.

And this is true of every area, of every aspect of our life. An elder is not to be one who lingers over wine because that is going to detract from his calling as an elder and a shepherd of God's people. It leads to the wrong priorities. But this also applies to everyone as we've seen all of these qualifications do. Instead of desiring to be filled with more wine, we are to be filled with the Spirit.

And this contrast between wisdom and wine is also found in the New Testament in Ephesians 5. Paul says this to the saints at the Church of Ephesus, and he says it to us here today, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil." Now, how do you redeem the time? That means how do you make use of it? Because we will have to give an account of every minute that we have spent, whether it was well spent or poorly spent. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

And here's his next line. Do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit We are responsible for how we use every minute Every minute wine is a blessing but lingering over wine is a misuse of our time. Almighty Heavenly Father, We know how many minutes that we have misused in many other things, in addition to the lingering over alcohol. And we ask, Lord, that You would give us that we might be filled with the Spirit, that we may speak what is edifying, that our words may be filled with grace, seasoned as it were with salt, that our heart might be, and our treasure might be, more and more in heaven, and less and less. On the pleasures of this age, the lusts of the flesh which are passing away.

Father, may our treasure be in heaven, where nothing can corrupt it, Where thieves can't steal it, the moths can't destroy it, and where it can never be lost. We ask, Lord, for Your Spirit to guide us, to direct our steps according to your word, and not to let any iniquity have dominion over us. We ask this through Jesus Christ, the one who is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us faultless before your presence with exceeding joy. Through Jesus Christ, amen.