The Portrait of Drunkenness part 1 (Proverbs)

Well, take your Bible and turn back with me to Proverbs 23. Proverbs chapter 23, we looked at or we read verses 29 to 35 earlier in our scripture reading, but we will only be dividing verse 29 to 32 tonight. Now, we are continuing our study on the subject of alcohol. Really more specifically, we're looking at the subject of drunkenness. We're looking at the subject of drunkenness. Now, we are still in our Wednesday night series. Since last August, we've been in a series going chapter by chapter in the Book of Proverbs, not taking every verse, but the title of the series or the theme of the series has been Wisdom for Christian Living.

We are seeking wisdom out of the Book of Proverbs to apply to our daily lives so that we can be the Christians that God wants us to be, no matter where we go, no matter who we are. And this is real basic. It's very easy to understand. It's a lot of nuts and bolts, but this is still a part of that series. But I'm altering this normal progression. We've been going chapter by chapter. Sometimes we'll have one or two messages a chapter, sometimes just one, but we're altering that progression. I felt very strongly that we needed to stick with this subject. The first time we've seen drunkenness or alcohol is in chapter 20, verse 1.

And so I want us to move from chapter 20, verse 1, over on over into chapter 23. We're going to look at verses 29 to 35. Then we're going to back up and we're going to look at verses 19 to 21. And like I said earlier, I do believe this is more practical. It's more important. It's more personal for some than you may know. Now, listen with me. I want you to notice how important this is. The book of Proverbs deals with three great traps in life. We've already seen a lot of this through our study so far. These are three great traps that we must avoid in life. One commentator that I read last week called these three traps the fearsome trio.

Now you need to write these down. First, the trap of laziness. And then the second, the trap of adultery or immorality. And then the third trap is drunkenness. And Solomon spends a lot of time writing in the book of Proverbs about these three traps. Laziness, adultery, and drunkenness. Now think about it. Think about it. How many men and women have played the fool and fallen off one of the cliffs that are before us? That would be laziness, adultery, or drunkenness. How many people do you know who have been destroyed or they have destroyed others by one or more of these three sins?

There's someone listening who is dealing with this trap, with this cliff. You could be dabbling with drinking and drunkenness. And you could be on the precipice of falling off that cliff. There's some of you here. You have family members who are alcoholics. This is far more personal than maybe some of you know. And listen, if God inspired Solomon to write this, and we know he did, if God inspired Solomon to write extensively on laziness, adultery, and drunkenness, shouldn't we take the time to study carefully, faithfully, thoroughly what's before us? I think we should. Now remember what we looked at last week.

The message that we looked at last week is what I called the personification of drunkenness. We looked at the personification of drunkenness in chapter 20, verse 1. We learned that a personification is attributing human characteristics or human behavior to something that is not human. I gave you an example. That that bluebell ice cream carton calls my name when it's in the freezer at my house. Now can bluebell ice cream talk? No. That is a personification. Many of you know that I drive an old Chevrolet Z71 pickup truck. That truck's been good to me.

But you know, if that truck started breaking down, I could say stuff like this, "Well, my truck is acting up." You know, that thing's just being pretty stupid. Well, can a truck act like that? No, that's a personification. Well, we saw this personification. It was a teaching tool. It was a teaching tool, and we've seen it in Proverbs already. Solomon has used this personification when he's taught on wisdom. But in chapter 20, verse 1, wine was pictured as mocking. It is pictured as scoffing. Strong drink is personified as brawling and raging. Of course, it is the drunk that is acting this way. It's the one under the influence of alcohol.

The alcohol within the man or the woman is making that man or woman act that way. We then saw a very important warning at the end of the verse. Solomon teaches us that the one who is led astray by wine and strong drink, well, they're not wise. They are foolish. They're being very, very foolish. Now, before we jump into the message for tonight, I also need to remind you of what we learn concerning alcohol in both the Old Testament and the New Testament scriptures, not just in their culture, but what the Bible says about alcohol. Wine as an alcoholic beverage was used in the Old and the New Testament. There is no way around that.

Drinking alcohol is never condemned in the Bible except for certain people or offices. It was drunkenness that was condemned. Always in Old and New Testament, drunkenness is always, always, always condemned. And I know this can be a heated debate among some people. Certain groups can debate this. That was one of the reasons why I said we needed to study the subject. Well, tonight we move from the personification of drunkenness to the portrait of drunkenness. This is the title of our message, the portrait of drunkenness. And this will be a part one and a part two. And part one comes out of verse 29 on down to verse 32.

So let's look back at those verses. We start off in verse 29 was a series of questions. Verse 6, "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?" Verse 30 is the answer. "Those who tarry long over wine, those who go to try mixed wine, do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, and it goes down smoothly." And then verse 32, our last verse for tonight, "In the end it," I mean that would be the drink, "It bites like a serpent and it stings like an adder." So we have this portrait. We have this picture.

And so let's look at this portrait as we see in the verses. So number one in our outline or our first truth is, the who of drunkenness are what the drunkard looks like. This is the who of drunkenness or what the drunkard looks like. We see this in verse 29. We see this in verse 29 in these six questions. Now, back in chapter 20 verse 1, we saw a vivid picture of the drunkard. Remember? Here we see a vivid picture as well. We see a description of their behavior. Now this can be a man. This can be a woman. This can be a young person or an old person. This is a broad description. This is a portrait of the drunkard.

Like I said earlier, we have six questions. One commentator said that this is presented as a riddle. And in the six questions, we have six different descriptions, but I'm going to combine them as we examine these questions. I'm going to combine these descriptions for the sake of time. So notice first, the drunkard has woe and sorrow. Go back to the beginning of the verse. Who has woe? That's the first question. Who has sorrow? So we see the drunkard, they are the one, they have woe, they have sorrow in their life. Now in the original language, these two words are communicating that the drunkard has distress. They have distress in their life.

Now question, don't we all have distress? I mean, think about it. Don't we all have woes and sorrows? Well, I think all of you would say, definitely, pastor, for sure. We may have financial problems. We may have health problems. We may have work problems. We may have family problems. Listen, there are a ton of problems in life that can cause us great distress. And we may never even touch a drop of alcohol. Think about it. So what is Solomon saying? Well, we know life happens. Isn't that the truth? If we live very long, we know that life happens. But the drunkard willfully, let me say that again.

The drunkard willfully, he invites distress and sorrow into his life. Think about it. The drunkard brings woe and sorrow into their family relationships. Isn't that true? The drunkard brings woe and sorrow into their marriage. The drunkard brings woe and sorrow into the lives of their children. The drunkard can bring woe and sorrow into their financial life, into their work life, really even into their standing with the law and law enforcement. You see, the drunkard brings woe, brings sorrow, brings distress upon them and others. This is self-induced. You need to get that. It's not bad luck. No, this is self-induced.

But this distress spills over onto others as well. So we see first the drunkard, he has woe, he has sorrow, he has distress. Then second, notice the drunkard has contentions and complainings. He has contentions and complainings. Go back to the verse, verse 29. Who has strife? Who has complainings? Now the English standard that I'm reading from tonight uses strife. The new American, it uses the word contentions. Now again, a question. Don't we all have contentions and complainings in our lives? Isn't that right? It's true. You would say, "Pastor, we all have that. We all have a grouchy neighbor, do we not?

We have complaining from the kids at times, do we not? We have someone at work. They're just downright contentious and grouchy and ornery. Isn't that right? We have quarrels in life. We have fussing in life. We have disagreements in life." Again, you can say it like this. "Well, pastor, that's just life. That's just life." So what is Solomon saying here? The drunkard brings upon himself and others strife. He brings into his life contention and complaining. Again, I will illustrate this.

The drunkard, he brings contention and complaining and strife into family relationships, into the marriage, into his relationship or her relationship with their children, into their work life. You see? I think you can see what I mean. The drunkard brings strife. He brings contention and quarreling into his life or her life and into the lives of others. And like I said earlier, this is all self-induced. And then third, notice the drunk has wounds and red eyes. This is the last two of the questions back in verse 29. "Who has wounds without cause?

Who has red eyes or redness of eyes?" Here Solomon is teaching the effects of the alcohol, the effects of the alcohol on the body. The drunkard does damage to their body. Now, there are two directions that commentators or scholars go here. First, some would say this is from quarreling and fighting. Many times the drunkard ends up in physical altercations. Many drunks come home and beat up their wives and then their wives beat them up again and beat them back up. Drunkards sometimes can get into fights with other drunkards. Many drunks have physical accidents. Yes. And so we see that quarrels and fighting can come from physical altercations.

But there are some commentators, they pointed out the health consequences from drunkenness. Alcoholism does lead to damage of the body. Now a question, don't we all have wounds? Don't we all suffer from poor health? Well, of course. Yes. Cancer comes, accidents at works may come. We can go to war and we can be maimed for life because of war or an accident. But the drunk destroys their health. You see, the drunkard brings all of this on themselves. It is self-induced. They end up in accidents like a car wreck. They ruin their health. They do all types of things to ruin their body. Wounds, the red eyes speak to that.

And this is all from the drunkenness. So in summary, notice what we see here. This is the who of the drunkard, but I'm going one step farther. This is what they look like. This is their portrait, remember? This is a picture of how they live. The drunk brings sorrow and distress into their lives and into the lives of others. The drunkard, they bring complaining and quarreling and fighting into their lives and into the lives of others. The drunkard destroys their health. Drunkards destroy their bodies and their health because of what? Because of the drink. And listen, we may not know if they are male or female.

We may not know if they are tall or short. We don't know if this drunkard here is rich or poor. We don't know what race they are. No, we do not have a picture hanging on the wall, but right here in these six questions, we have a vivid portrait of who they are and what they do. Now an application. I want us to all draw upon our own experience. Let's be honest. Let's look around us. The best way is for us to look around us and embrace the harsh reality that we see in these teachings by looking at examples around us. And listen, all of you, all of you know at least one man or one woman that fit into this description.

And see, as I've been teaching and explaining these questions, names and faces have been popping up into your mind. And you may know a coworker, or you may have an employee, or you may have an old friend, or a brother, or a sister, or you may even have a mother or a father. And this is a portrait, who they are and what they do. And listen, let's be honest. See, if this is someone who's very close to you, many times you can live in denial. You can live in denial. Let's don't live in denial. Let's be honest. Let's be brutally honest. I think about an example that might help us here.

Some of you who are in the life of our church know about this particular situation. We have a friend of ours named Jared. He's a wonderful Christian friend. He's come and led worship and taught the word in our church at times. But he and his wife, Megan, had just had a baby and they're doing well. But there was a time when they were looking forward to having their first born. And the doctors started giving them bad news. Their little boy had a heart defect. And you know, every time they went to the doctor, it was just a brutal reality. They were hitting the face with the bad news, the brutal reality, the black and white possibilities.

And it was always harsh and it was always honest. And they had to embrace that. And see, when we're dealing with a portrait, who this person is, sometimes we have to just get honest. Because this might be our mother. This could be our father. This might be our brother or our sister. This might be someone who is very, very close to us. But before we move on, again, I want to go back to the imagery of this portrait. Remember, that's the title of the message. This is a portrait. And think about it with me. We have pictures. We have pictures in our homes. We have pictures in our lives. We have pictures of our parents.

We have pictures of our siblings. We have pictures of our husbands and our wives. And we have pictures of our children. But if we think about it like that, and we have this particular person who is a drunkard, and we have their portrait. See, we have that drunkard. We have the picture of that person who is an alcoholic. And think about all the people around them. Think about their ex-wife because it's ruined their marriage. Think about the picture of their wife, or that son and that daughter, or maybe that little baby that they had, right before the divorce.

You see, when you have the portrait of the drunkard, there's always these other portraits all around. There's always the ex-wife. There's always the wife of the husband that deals with the spouse who is a drunkard. There's the son that has to live with it. The daughter that has to live with it. Oh, the baby that's raised without the mother or the father. Why? Because alcoholism is stolen there. So what do we see here? We see this portrait. We see the who is the drunkard, and what they look like. So let's move on. I want us to see our second major truth. We're still holding on to this language, the who of the drunkenness.

But notice the who of the drunkenness are what the drunkard does. Notice what the drunkard does in verse 30. Those who tarry long over wine, those who go to try mixed drink. Now, I've already said two weeks in a row, the Bible does not forbid the use of alcohol. It does not. For a person to say that the Bible forbids a man or a woman to drink, well, that's really not true. It's not there. Now, what am I wanting to show us? The man of the woman who has the occasional drink is not seen in verse 29. There are people who do have an occasional drink, and they do not fit into the profile that is seen right here in verse 29. But Solomon continues.

In verse 30, he adds to that portrait, that brutally honest portrait. We see this in two different behaviors. First, we see the one who stays with the drink. Look back at the verse. Those who tarry long over wine. This is the man of the woman that lingers with the drink. They spend time drinking. The old Puritan, Matthew Henry said, they tarry long with the wine and spending time with drunken company. Instead of spending time engaging in useful productive things, they go on and they spend more and more time drinking and with those who drink, you see? So this is the man of the woman that sticks with the drink.

And they stick with those who stick with the drink, you see? So first, this is the one who sticks with the drink. And then second, this is the one who seeks the strong drink. Go back to the verse 30. Those who tarry long over wine and those who go to try mixed wine. Here we see the other side of this bad behavior. The drunk goes from staying with the drink to chasing after a strong drink. Bible scholars tell us this phrase mixed wine. It speaks to stronger wine. Now, historically and culturally, we need to see a little lesson here. In the Old Testament and in the New Testament times, they would mix wine with water. It was diluted.

We're going to cover this a little later in the series. They did this to purify the water and to make it safe to drink. But they can still drink that beverage without getting into drunkenness. Not here in verse 30. This mixed wine, it was strong wine with a greater alcohol content and they would add spices and such to add flavor. So it was strong. It was more intoxicating. So this is a stronger wine made to be stronger and more intoxicating. So in summary, what do we see in verse 30 here? What do we see? A portrait of the drunkard. He or she lingers at the cup.

They have one beer and they have another and they have another and they have another. He or she has one mixed drink and they go to another and they go to another. They go to a stronger drink. You see the drink that is more alcoholic and it's made for that purpose. Oh, they go to that drink as well. Now right here, I want to read these verses backwards. I want to do that on purpose. I want to read verse 30 and then go back up to verse 39. Now I'll paraphrase this. I'll put it in my language a little. So pardon me. But look at verse 30. Those the man or the woman. Oh, they linger over wine. Oh, those that go after stronger wine.

That stronger drink. Oh, that's the one they have. Whoa. Oh, they have sorrow. They've invited that distress into their life. They have strife and contention and complaining. They brought that into their life. They have wounds without cause and redness of eyes. Oh, they brought ill health into their life. You see? Now an application. What do we see in this picture out of verse 30? What do we have? We have a portrait of a man or a woman. They stay with the drink. They linger over the cup. They go after more drink and stronger drink and more drink and stronger drink. Again, I ask you to be honest.

Think about the man of a woman that exemplifies this teaching in your life. Now listen. We can't believe the story of the harmless drunk here. Listen. Listen to me. Otis on the Andy Griffith show does not exist. Whether it's portrayed on television shows or movies or something that we see as harmless on the Andy Griffith show, we cannot believe the story of the harmless dream. Picture yourself. Picture for yourself the man of a woman in your life that fits verse 30. What do they do? They linger over the cup. They chase after the strong drink. Again, remember the pictures? There's always the drunk right there in the middle.

Whether it's a man or a woman and oh to the left, they have their ex-wife or their ex-husband. And then over here, there's that husband or wife that just endures it all. Then there's the son. There's the daughter. There's son number one, two, three. There's the little boy whose dad or mom never comes to their baseball game. You see? Why? It's because they linger over the cup. They chase more and more of the cup. They chase for that stronger, stronger dream. Now at this point, I want us to see that we see a shift. We have this vivid portrait, verse 29 and 30. And now Solomon gives us a warning. Notice verse 31. We see a warning.

Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. So number three in our outline, I want us to see a firm warning. We had a very important warning back in chapter 20, verse one last week. Did we not? Solomon said that the man or the woman who is deceived by alcohol is not wise. The one that is led astray by the drink is foolish. Remember, he said they were foolish. And here Solomon gives another warning. It's just a little different. Now here Solomon uses two of our senses. Now think about it. We have five senses, do we not? We have the sense of sight.

We have the sense of hearing, the sense of smell, the sense of taste and the sense of touch. Five senses. Let me go back over those. Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. And in verse 31 Solomon shows us how wine and strong drink can affect our senses. And out of this, to me there are two warnings within the warning. First he says, be careful what you see. Oh, and that what we see right here in the verse, he's saying, be careful what you see. Look at the verse. Do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup. Here Solomon is describing the wine when it is desirable to the eye.

Bible commentators tell us that the red wine of Canaan was seen as some of the best wines. In that day, as in our day, the color of the wine was one of the indications of its quality. Here Solomon is issuing a warning, and I'm going to put this in my words, if you'll let me. He's saying something like this, listen my son, listen when that wine looks so good. Oh, when it looks so good and when it looks like the best wine, oh be careful, oh be careful. Don't let your eyes lead you astray into that trap. So here we see the trap that is laid before the eyes of a man. And then second he says, be careful of your taste. Go back to the verse.

Do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup. When it goes down smoothly. Here Solomon is describing a wine that is desirable to the taste. Like I said earlier, some wine was mixed with spices and such. This wine was enhanced to good taste, especially that stronger wine. Here Solomon is issuing a warning. Again, I'm going to put it in my words. Listen my son, please listen my son. Oh, when that wine is mixed just right, when that wine is smooth and good tasting, be careful, oh be careful. Don't fall into the trap of that good tasting wine. So here we see the trap laid for the taste of a man.

Now in summary, what do we see? This is a warning, a two-fold warning. Solomon was very wise and he knew that his young son and any young man, they could be fooled. He knew that a man's senses could overrule sound and good judgment. Remember he's writing his son and he's warning his young son. He's saying, "Do not be fooled by what looks good and what tastes good." He knows that good looking smooth tasting wine can be a trap. And he goes on to say, "Don't be ruled by the senses and don't do away with good reason." What is he saying?

"Do not covet what is pleasing to the eye and pleasing to the taste." Now an application, what do we must see here? Listen, we must take this warning serious. Listen folks, our eyes can lay a trap for us and our tastes can lure us as well. I'll give you an example, take food. Now think about it, let's shift gears a little. Take food, how many of us have been tricked by our eyes and how many of us have been tricked by our taste buds? Listen, we go into a restaurant or we sit down at the dinner table and what do we do? We get too much. Our eyes are bigger than our plates. How about our good taste?

You know that hamburger just tastes so good and we eat too much. I mean, we have chips and sauce in front of us and it just tastes so good and we can't stop eating. We know that a steak that we order, it's going to be good and we order the biggest one on the menu. Why? Because we are fooled by our eyes and by our taste buds. I think about me as an example. When I do that, I usually look at my wife later and I look at her and I say, "Why did you let me do that?" And she turns it right around and says, "It was you.

You're the one that ate too much." See, I know that can be funny when we talk about food, but what about when it applies to the drink? What about when it applies to alcohol? Now I want to show you something. Look at alcohol advertisements. Think about it. You see an alcohol advertisement in a magazine or you see it on television and I want you to notice they focus on two things. They focus on the eye and on the taste. Everything that is before you looks good. They have that beverage looking good. Even the ones in the ad are looking good. Whether it's a man or a woman, they're dressed just right. They got that look.

See, they are appealing to the eye. They're appealing to the eye and they always talk about how good it tastes, how good it tastes. You see? They are appealing to the trap of the eye and they are appealing to the trap of the taste. So let's move on from our firm warning, which was number three out of verse 31. I want us to see number four, a brutal prediction. Now this will be a lot shorter and then we'll move towards the conclusion of the message. We have a brutal prediction out of verse 32. What does Solomon say? "In the end, it bites like a serpent and it stings like an adder." Here we have consequences.

Here we have ramifications of the drink. We have the results of the drunkenness. Now I call it a prediction because Solomon is predicting the end of the drunkenness. Go back to the verse. "In the end," there's the prediction. Now here we have two illustrations. The bite of a serpent and the sting of a viper. Of course, we know that all sin results in death. Romans 3, 23 teaches us that the wages of sin, the consequences, the sting of sin is death. But here Solomon brings to mind the image of a viper, the image of a snake, the image of this biting insect. Here Solomon shows us that drunkenness ends in poison.

Just like poison from a snake, just like venom from a serpent, just like the pain of a bite drunkenness will destroy. Now haven't we seen that? I mean, haven't we seen that? That drunkenness will destroy? And what is Solomon saying here? Solomon is saying, "In the end," this is a prediction. Now question, what does that look like? Some of the scholars I looked at this week said that this speaks to the next day, that notorious hangover. Some say that in the end speaks to the next day. But many commentators say that this speaks to the end of life. They say that this speaks to how the drink will ruin a man or a woman's life.

Now I think that's where it's going. I think that's what Solomon means. Look at the verse, "In the end." What is he saying? "In the end." I'm gonna put it in my words again. He's saying, "Listen son, listen. In the end, at the end of it all, it's like the bite from a serpent. It's like the poison from a steak. It stings and it destroys and it kills." Now in application, what must we see? We must see the end. We can't look at it from the front side. We've got to see the whole picture. Now some of you who are older, you can see the end because you've lived long enough to see the end. What happens after years of drunkenness? You've seen it.

What happens after a lifetime of being hooked on the drink? Well, you've seen it. What happens when the alcohol has run its course in a life? You've seen it. Oh, it's just like a copperhead snake that bites a man. I'll never forget as a kid, I had a family friend who was bitten by a snake. I had an uncle in my life and his mother and father were part of our family as well. And I'll never forget my uncle's mother. She was an outdoorsman as a woman. She fished and hunted and worked on the farm.

And she spent countless hours fishing and hunting, but lo and behold, she was at home one time working in the flowers and about an eight inch copperhead snake bit her right on the end of the finger. And I remember going to the hospital to see her. And she was sitting in that bed and they had her stretched out and they were doing what doctors do. And I remember seeing her arm just swelled and black and blue and it was rotting literally from the venom. Now that didn't happen overnight. It didn't happen right away. It took some time because the venom was working from the inside out. And see, we can't look at this thing from the front side.

We've got to look at it over a period of time and years. That's what he's dealing with here. The brutal prediction. What does he say? In the end, it's going to kill you. See, that's a guarantee. You need to, you might need to write that down. This is a guarantee. Now in conclusion, look at what we've studied. Last week we examined the personification of drunkenness. And then tonight we've looked at the portrait of drunkenness. These are vivid descriptions. These are clear warnings. This is relatable language. It's easy for all of us to see. Very, very practical. But I want to speak straight to you. Whether I know you or not.

Listen, my friend. You would be a big fool to ignore this teaching. You might say, "Pastor, you're not supposed to call somebody a fool." All through Proverbs we see that the one who ignores wisdom, the one who ignores Bible teaching, well, they're a fool. And so I'm saying to you, don't be a fool here. Don't be a fool. Now remember what I gave you at the end of the message last week. I asked you to study our friend Noah and our friend Lot. Remember Noah and remember Lot. See, we have the advantage of looking back on their lives. Look what the drink did to them. Oh, the drink ruined part of Noah's family line.

Ultimately, Lot, it ruined the end of his life and his heritage. Go back and study. Go back and study the life of Noah and Lot. And look what the drink did to them. And explain that to your kids. Share that in your home. But I'll take a step further. Moms and dads, be honest. When you have people like this in your life and you have children old enough to be able to understand these things, you need to take these examples and teach them. Because our young people don't have the advantage of time. They can't see what this thing looks like 20 or 30 or 40 years later.

I was talking with a friend of mine this past week and we were discussing a mutual friend who has this battle of alcoholism. We're seeing these verses fleshed out in his life. I have a good friend of mine. Doesn't live around here. He has a brother, a young man dealing with this same issue. These verses are just fleshed out of his life. I think about a man in our church whose dad passed away as an alcoholic. These verses were just fleshed out in his life. Now as I close, I want to take your mind back to my picture illustration. Think about it. When we have our children, what do we do? We have baby pictures. Isn't that right?

As they grow up, we have baby and children pictures. We have those baby pictures and those children's pictures in our homes. They're on our desks. We hang them in prominent places. But you know, as they get older and they graduate from high school, we always have those high school graduation pictures. I really hate that this coronavirus lockdown, this quarantine, will not allow our high school graduates that we know, they're not going to be able to walk down those aisles and have those pictures like maybe you and I have. But you know, we have those high school graduation pictures. Then the time comes and we get married.

We have those wedding pictures. You know, we have the album or just the one picture that sums it all up. And it's on the wall. We have wedding pictures. So we have baby pictures and children's pictures and high school graduation pictures and then wedding pictures. But we never hang up the picture of the drunk. What about the drunk? We never hang his picture up on the wall. We never take a picture of our grandmother or our mother or our sister or our neighbor, our friend or our dad or our brother. We never take a picture of their drunkenness. And at the end of their life, and we don't hang that on the wall, but Solomon does.

What do we have here? We've looked at the personification of drunkenness. And now we have the portrait of drunkenness. So how do I end? How do I close? If you're listening tonight and you're dealing with this subject and this use of alcohol, I urge you, my friend, Ron, it's just not worth it. But you know, maybe you're dealing with this on a very personal level. Maybe this is your father. Maybe this is your brother. Maybe it's a family secret and nobody knows. You've got to deal with it properly, biblically. It can be really tough, I know.

But you see, for those of us who are not prone to this temptation, we left the drink a long time ago, maybe we never have been involved in this. We need to make sure we teach our children, teach our teenagers, because they must know what happens if they fall off the cliff of drunkenness. Now, as I always do, I make ourselves, I make us available. I make myself available, our church available. If you need us for counsel, if you need us for help in this area, we'll be glad to help. So that's the invitation, what the word says, the teaching of these verses.

And if you need us, you reach out to us and we'll be glad to help you. deal with this subject of drunkenness.