The Portrait of Drunkenness part 2

Well as always, I ask you to take your Bible and turn with me tonight on Wednesday nights where in Psalm, or excuse me, Proverbs 23. So I would ask you to turn to your Bible. Turn to Proverbs chapter 23. I was talking with one of the men of the church earlier in the week and I made the comment that you can always tell when I'm going to get into the message because I always say the same thing. Please turn in your Bible to wherever we are. On Sunday mornings we're in Matthew 5. On Sunday nights we're in Psalm chapter 3. And then on Wednesday nights we're in the book of Proverbs and have been in Proverbs since August.

But we are here together in Proverbs chapter 23 and we are continuing to examine what I have called this portrait of drunkenness. We see this in verse 29 on down to verse 35. And I know that in some of my studying and some of the resources, I believe I picked up that portrait of drunkenness so I have barred it. I have called it my own and that's what we have here in this block of Scripture, verse 29 to 35. Now if you have a good memory, you know that we examined verse 29 to 31 last week and then tonight we will finish up this block will be in verse 32 on down to verse 35.

Now I want to call you to remember how these verses fit in with our normal midweek service. We've been going through Proverbs really just one chapter at a time. We normally will examine a few verses out of each chapter. Sometimes we'll have one message of chapter. Sometimes we'll have two maybe three per chapter. We're just seeing what comes to the surface. We're not examining every verse. But when we stayed with that pattern and we got to chapter 20 verse 1, we got to this subject of alcohol. We got to this subject of drinking. We got to the subject of drunkenness.

And personally, as the preaching pastor in the life of our church, I felt that we really needed to change our normal progression. And I felt that we needed to spend some extra time here with this subject. And so these messages on alcohol and drinking and drunkenness, they are really a part of our Wednesday night series through Proverbs and that series is called Wisdom for Christian Living. But I was sharing with Brother Keith, these messages on alcohol and drunkenness can stand alone. They're really like a mini series.

And I believe these will be very, very helpful for us today in the life of our church, but also in the days and maybe even years to come. Now last week we started this main block of scripture, verse 29 to 35. This is here in chapter 23. I've said that earlier. And I called these verses the portrait of drunkenness because really that is what you see. It's exactly what you see in the verses. Solomon is painting a clear portrait with words. He's using phrases. He's using illustrations and he's using examples. Now look at these words and illustrations with me starting in verse 29. Look at your copy of God's Word. What do we see?

We see woe and sorrow and strife. We see complaining. We see wounds in red eyes. And then in verse 30, we see lingering long over wine, the new American standard says. And then verse 31, we see wine that sparkles there in the cup. And then Solomon talks about wine that goes down real smooth. And then in verse 32, we see serpents and vipers and bites and stings. I think you see what I mean. Solomon is painting a clear picture and he's using words. He's using phrases. He's using examples and illustrations. Now I want to show you another way we can see this portrait. This portrait that Solomon is painting.

And again, this is going back to the part one. I want to show you another way that we can examine this portrait. Change the order of the verses around. Look with me starting in verse 30. In verse 30, we have one who stays with the drink. And then he goes on after a strong drink. And then in verse 29, we go up a verse, we see the results. We have distress in the life. We have contention in that drunkard's life. We see complaining. We see wounds. We see poor health. And then Solomon fast forwards in my eyes to the end of the drunkard's life. The ramifications, consequences of lingering long over the cup.

In verse 32, Solomon shows the destruction of the drunkenness. It's like a poison from a snake. It's like bites from a viper. You see? Now I want to show you for a minute what's been happening for those who have been listening. Think with me for a minute. As you have listened to these verses that they've been taught, as you've been thinking of people that you know, as you've been thinking and looking at life's experiences, think about it. Names and faces and experiences have come to your memory, come into your mind, come into your conversation. Now be honest. Think about it. Solomon has been painting a portrait of someone that you know.

Yes, someone you know. For some of you Solomon has been painting a portrait of a friend. For some of you Solomon has been painting a portrait of a coworker. He's been painting a portrait of an employee. Oh, it even gets more personal when you realize Solomon has been painting a portrait for a family member. More specifically, maybe of a parent or a spouse. And you see, this has been helping you see people in your life according to the Scriptures, even when it's painful. Even when it's hard and even when you have to deal with old memories and experiences. For some, this has been educational.

This isn't necessarily about you, but it's shown you afresh and anew, maybe in a way in which you've never seen what alcohol and the drink can do to a man or a woman or a life. And this has also been a big warning. This has been a big warning for some because there can always be someone out there you're dabbling with the drink. Any alcohol in the drink is chasing after you and it could be really just catching hold of your life. And so this could be a big, big warning for you. And this is all good. This is all good. So let's just continue with this portrait of drunkenness. I have said it. I'll say it again. This is a part two.

And we will examine five truths that are outlined tonight. Now I'll go ahead and warn you. I'll say don't worry. We're not going to be too long. Some of these major truths are rather short. For me in my study this week, this is just kind of how they fell together. And really this just picks up right where we left off last week. As always, I encourage you to take notes. We want to take what the Lord gives us. We want to study it together. Yes, we want it to be a part of our conversation in our homes with our children, our spouses.

But also we want to study what the Lord gives us because we want to hold on to everything the Lord wants to teach us and is desiring to teach us. So let's go back and let's read over our verses. I want to start with where we started last week in verse 29. And then we'll go on down to verse 35. Proverbs chapter 23 starting in verse 29. We start off with those three questions. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine. Those who go to the strong mixed wine. Verse 31, this is that warning.

Do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles there in the cup and it goes down smoothly. In the end, verse 32, it bites like a serpent and it stings like an adder. Your eyes will see strange things. Your heart will utter perverse things. You will be like the one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast. And then the last verse, verse 35, there's a shift. This is in quotations. They struck me, you will say, but I was not hurt. They beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I wake? I must have another drink. Well, let me do this.

Let me pray over these verses and then we'll get right into the message dividing these verses. We will call the body of the message. So let's pray over the scripture. Let's ask the Lord to open up our minds and our hearts and give us an understanding here tonight. So let's pray together. Lord, thank you that we're able to meet like this. Thank you for the opportunity with technology. May this absence stir within us a desire to be with each other more. When we text message, when we call, maybe when we go by and check on someone at a distance, may all of these things stir within us to desire to be back soon. Lord, I long for the day.

We long for the day when we're here tonight in the pews, when we're here tonight as normal, when we're here in our classes, we long for that. But Lord, I pray that as we're in our homes, in our dens or maybe even still at work, I pray, God, that you would take the word that's taught and explain and apply it to our lives. So Lord, I pray that you'll help us all to submit ourselves to your scriptures and have your way in us specifically with this subject of alcohol and drinking and drunkenness. So help us tonight and we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Well, let's start off with number one, what I'm calling the drunk has a distorted reality.

This comes out of the beginning of verse 33. This is what I'm calling the drunk, the drunkard. He has this distorted reality. Look at verse 33, "Your eyes will see strange things." Now, if you pay attention, again, all of these scriptures go together. If you pay attention, you do see a shift. In verse 31, we have a warning. And then in verse 32, we have the end, the results, the ramifications of lingering over the wine. Well, here Solomon shifts to what will happen to the man or any person who gets hooked on the drink. One commentator put it like this. He said that we see the effects of wine's venom.

Remember the language of the serpent and the snake and the poison, the viper? This is the effects of the wine's venom on the life. Now here Solomon speaks to the eyes. We see that in the scripture. He says that the drunkard will see strange things. Now, if we think about it, we can picture this goofy, funny drunkard, the one who sees the fuzzy pink elephants over in the corner of the room. You know what I mean. We've seen characters like that maybe on television or maybe in movies. The man or the woman who gets drunk and they see these images. They see the fuzzy pink elephants. They see the strange UFO in the night sky.

They see little green men from Mars out of their windows. They have this alcohol-induced crazy imagination that some may think is humorous. And we've heard jokes about people and circumstances like that. But Solomon is not being cute here. Solomon is not being humorous. He's not cracking a joke. Here we have the effects of the alcohol on the man or the woman's thinking, on their reasoning. This does not, this does speak to the one-time drunken episode. Yes, one-time drunken episode could cause someone to behave this way, of course. But this also speaks to the long-term effect on drunkenness on the man or woman's mind. They become delusional.

Their reasoning becomes distorted. Ultimately, they have a distorted reality. In the end, this leads to awful consequences. The drunkard's reasoning is distorted and this affects even those around them. Now help me here with your imagination. I do this often. I picture for myself a woman who goes to the doctor and the physician tells her, "You know, ma'am, you really need to stop drinking. Maybe the doctor looks at her and says, 'Ma'am, you have liver damage and you've developed some other complications, maybe like diabetes.'" And you know, all of this stems from alcohol abuse. But what does she do? She ignores that doctor.

She ignores what maybe her family says. She ignores what others would tell her to do. And you know what she does? She just goes home and she goes right back to drinking. See, that's a distorted reality. And you could add to this. You could give other examples like this. So first we have this drunk. They have this distorted reality. Second I want us to see the drunk has a disgusting rhetoric. This is our second major truth right out of verse 33. The drunkard, they have this disgusting rhetoric. Go back to the verse. Your eyes will see strange things and your heart utter perverse things. Now this goes right along with this distorted reality.

This is another effect of the alcohol on the man or the woman. Here we have an effect that runs deeper than you know, just like before. Now here Solomon speaks of the man or the woman's heart. Not the eyes. Now he shifts to the heart. Now here we can also hear this, you know, funny story. We can hear the goofy, funny drunk who just says something or anything to anyone. You know the picture. We've seen these people. We've seen these men, these women on television or on a particular movie. Maybe when they are sober, they are quiet, they are restrained.

But after they get to drinking a little, they start to talk a lot and they start to say really just anything. But this is far from being humorous. There's something here. The English standard uses the word heart. The new American standard uses the word mind. But it offers a footnote noting that this can mean the heart. Now what is Solomon showing us here? It is out of the heart that the words of the mouth flow. The mouth reflects the heart. The mouth reflects the mind. And even the meditations of the heart, the imaginations of the mind. Because the drunk's sense of reasoning and reality is warped, then his heart is full of sin.

I need to say that again. Because the drunkard, because their sense of reasoning and reality is warped, then his heart is full of sin. And as a result, they say perverse things. They say sinful things. The drunkard's reasoning and reality is affected. So rather than stopping what could come out of their mouth, their mouth freely speaks sinful things, wicked things, shameful things. Again I ask you to use your imagination with me. I picture a man here that normally could be quiet and reserved. And you know when they get the drinking, you know their mouth, their lips, their tongue, it just gets loose.

And because of years of drunkenness, they have embraced, listen, a whole host of other sins. Now what happens in this circumstance? He gets the drinking and he gets mean. And he gets mean with his wife and his family. And this man, he gets the drinking and then he verbally abuses his family. Why? Because that comes out of the heart. He gets drunk and he says lewd things about women. And he gets the drinking and out of his mouth come all sorts of profane things, foul language, cursings and meanness. And look, all of this comes from where? It comes out of the heart. So what do we see here?

Out of verse 33, "The drunk has a distorted way of thinking. The drunkard has a disgusting mouth." And listen, both come out of the heart. Because they have embraced the drink, they have a sinful heart. And out of that heart come a distorted reality and disgusting speech. These are the effects of the wines, poison on the heart, on the thinking, on the mouth. You see? Now again, I ask you to do what I've asked you to do several times. You know, I've asked you to just have a picture of certain people on your walls. You know, it's sad to say, this could be a picture of your mother. This could be a picture of your father.

This could be a picture of someone in your family. This could be a picture of someone who is a friend or maybe an employee or an employer or a coworker, a neighbor or a friend. So let's move on. We've looked at two major truths. The drunkard has a distorted reality. The drunkard has a disgusting rhetoric. And now number three, the drunkard makes delirious and deadly decisions. I call this delirious and deadly decisions. Look at verse 34. You will be like the man who lies down in the midst of the sea, like the one who lies on the top of a mast. Now here we see some of Solomon's illustrations.

And these are really, really good illustrations or examples. He speaks of the sea. He speaks of boats or ships. And he speaks of a sailing mast, which would be a part of a ship. He is illustrating truth about the drunkard here. He is using these examples to picture the drunk and the drunkard. And this is really serious and sad behavior. Now this is one particular decision by the drunkard. This is one decision, but we have two pictures of behavior. The decision is to drink, and then we see two different behaviors out of the drunkard. So first I want us to see the drunk becomes delirious with intoxication.

He becomes delirious with intoxication. Look at the beginning of verse 34. You will be like the one who lies down in the midst of the sea. Here Solomon is giving us a picture, a teaching illustration. Now the picture is not of one who is lying in the open sea. He is not lying in the waves or in the open ocean. The picture here is of one who is in a ship at sea. The second part of the verse mentions the mast of a ship. So the drunkard here is picturing as being one tossed back and forth like a ship in the sea. They are delirious and dizzy from intoxication. They are dizzy with the drunken intoxication. They are sick in their drunkenness.

They are sick in this delirious, dizzy, drunken intoxication. Look it's just being seasick on alcohol. So the drunkard, he becomes delirious and dizzy in this intoxication. And then second, the drunkard makes dumb and deadly decisions. This drunkard makes dumb and deadly decisions. We see this in the second part of the verse. You will be like the one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like the one who lies on the top of a mast that would be of a ship. Now here Solomon continues to use this illustration. Here Solomon speaks of the mast of a ship. Now let me give you a really quick, simple explanation here.

The mast was the pole which held up the sail on a ship. Some had more than one mast, some had just one mast. Simply it was the tallest part of the ship. And the language here points to the lookout which was on the top of the mast of the ship. So they would have these ships with a mast and they would be this small little perch or lookout that would be at the top of the mast. And so the language here points to the lookout which was there on the ship's mast. And here Solomon pictures the drunkard who was asleep in the top of the mast in the lookout while the ship is being tossed to and fro, tossed here and there in the sea.

And you see this is dumb and this is deadly. This is a dumb and a deadly decision because this would have been one of the most dangerous places on the ship. So in summary what do we see here? These are two different pictures. One illustration. The drunkard makes one decision and that is to drink and become drunk. In that decision he is just like a ship that is tossed to and fro in the sea. He is delirious and dizzy with his intoxication. Even to the point of being sick like someone who is seasick. Now think on that picture. He is just like someone who is seasick. And then next he is like one who would venture to sleep at the top of the mast.

He would go to the ship's mast and he would be sleeping. He is making a dumb and a deadly decision. Now think about that picture. Now an application. I want to change the picture. I don't think any of us have a sailing ship. Maybe that is hard for us to get our minds around. And I want to change the picture. And I want to make some application out of verse 33 as well. So I want us to see today the drunkard is just like the one who gets seasick. Oh look he might not be on a sailing vessel like this but we understand seasick. I think back to two different times in my life.

I can remember as a little kid one time in the life of our church, the church I grew up in, there was a group of men who went on a little deep sea fishing excursion. My dad went and men in the church and you know I look forward to that. I love the outdoors. I like a little honey. I used to love to do some fishing. And oh I can remember us loading up and going on that little deep sea fishing trip. But you know we went through a squall. We went through a storm. And oh man that ship started going up and down. That fishing boat tossed to the left and to the right and what happened? I got sick. Oh I got really sick.

Every smell on that boat made me sick. Every sight made me sick. And see that's the picture here. That's the picture. What is he saying? The drunkard is just like the individual who gets sick. And what do we see? They are delirious with their drunkenness. Well that is just what you see with the drunkard. They are delirious with this intoxication. They are even sick with this intoxication. And then we see that they make a dumb and deadly decision. They go from making these delirious drunken decisions to dumb and deadly decisions.

Now imagine with me a man or a woman and they get so drunk that they will just be willing to ride on top of a speeding car. Now think about it. We have seen people do that. Someone gets in a car and they go real fast and they go down curvy roads, busy roads. They go down back alleys and country roads. Well this would be what we see here. Think about someone getting so drunk that they would literally ride on top of a car. We would say that's dumb. We would say that that's deadly. Now that would be what I would call the modern day equivalent. Now look at this man or this woman. Back to verse 33. They have a distorted reality.

They are out of touch with reality because of the long term effect of drunkenness. They have a disgusting rhetoric, a dirty mouth. Their hearts are sinful so what happens? Their mouths are sinful. Their mouths are full of cursing and meanness and dirty talk and they make dumb decisions and they end up delirious with drunkenness just like someone who is seasick. And listen, their drunkenness leads them to dumb and even disastrous decisions. You know I go back to something I have asked you to do. We can picture certain individuals who have done these things. Names come to our minds. Experiences that we know of. Yes. So let's move on.

I want us to see verse 35. I want us to look at verse 35 with me and notice there is a change. This is in quotations here. They struck me you will say. I'm reading from the English Standard Version. It continues. But I was not hurt. They beat me and I did not feel it. And then there's a question. When shall I wake? I must have another drink. Here Solomon makes a shift. Notice it's like he gives us a hypothetical. You know what a hypothetical is? There's no name given. It's just this hypothetical situation. And you know in my mind even this afternoon as I was finishing up I just wondered if Solomon had someone in his mind.

I wonder if Solomon if this just pictured someone in verse 35 maybe someone that he knew maybe it was someone that he saw as a child or maybe even someone he knew as a king. So we see this shift this change. But notice number 4 the drunk has drugged senses. This is what I'm calling drugged senses. This is at the beginning of the verse. They struck me you will say but I was not hurt. They beat me but I did not feel it. Truthfully we have a picture here at the beginning of verse 35 of verse 29. We learned in verse 29 that the drunkard has strife. They have contentions in their life.

Maybe the strife is what led to this particular maybe it was a fight. You see look at the verse they struck me but I was not hurt. They beat me and I did not feel it. Here we have a situation where this drunkenness leads him to blows. Now we do not have any way of knowing what exactly happened here. Was it a fight? Was it like this robbery? Was he mugged? Was the drunkard simply assaulted by a group of thugs? We don't know. But what we do know is this. We see in the verse they struck me you will say but I was not hurt. They beat me but I did not feel it. What do we see? His senses are drugged by the alcohol.

And then fifth we see the drunk has disastrous thinking. The drunk here at the end of the verse has disastrous thinking. What does he say? When shall I wake? I must have another. Here we have what I call a disastrous way of thinking. Instead of a fight or a robbery or a beating causing the drunkard to change their drunken ways no. They simply go right back and they do it all over again. Isn't that what we see? They go right back and they do it all over again. They have lost all sense of pain. Yes. They have lost all sense of good reason. Look back at verse 33 the beginning.

Your eyes will see strange things and your heart will utter perverse things. Remember the drunkard has a distorted view of reality. They have a warped sense of thinking. So what do they do? They wake up bruised. They wake up battered and they ask for another drink. Now what is my point here? This is disastrous. To me this is like this downward spiral. They have lost their senses and they are making disastrous decisions. Now an application. This is dealing with verse 35. The drunkard has drunk, drug senses. In the drunkard he has a disastrous way of thinking. How do we see this today? Think about this. The drunk who drives drunk.

The man, the woman. I mean they just get all liquored up and what do they do? They get into their car and they drive drunk and they have a wreck. They hurt themselves. They hurt other people. Maybe they even kill other people. But what do they do? They go right back to drinking and they go right back to driving again. That is exactly what we see in the verse. They struck me you will say but I was not hurt. They beat me but I didn't feel it. When shall I wake up? I must have another drink. And then what do we see? The drunkard, they have this husband or wife you know. This husband or their wife, they are both drunkards and what do they do?

They beat each other up all the time. It's always this domestic abuse situation. What do they do? They just do the same thing every weekend. That's the same thing we see in the verse. They struck me you will say but I was not hurt. They beat me but I did not feel it. I did not feel it. When shall I wake up? I must have another drink. And we see that behavior illustrated more than we know. Now as I move to the conclusion, the conclusion of what we are looking at tonight, I want to quickly show you Solomon's portrait. Now this portrait of drunkenness starts in verse 29, goes all the way down to verse 35. Solomon paints a vivid picture here.

No brushes, no paints, no canvas and Solomon uses questions. We saw a series of questions in verse 29. Solomon uses words and certain phrases. He uses examples. He uses illustrations. He uses descriptions and more to do what? To paint us the portrait of the drunkard. We see what the drunkard does, what he looks like in verse 29. Remember those questions? We see what the drunkard does in verse 30. They linger over the wine. They hang over the cup. They have more and more wine. They go after more and more. They go after the strong drink. And then what happens? They begin to act like we see in verse 29. And then it's almost like Solomon pauses.

He just pauses as he really gets going good. He gets going good in verse 29 and 30 and then he pauses with verse 31 and he gives this firm warning. What does he say? Don't be fooled by the wine. And what does he say? Don't be fooled by the way it looks and don't be fooled by how smooth the wine goes down. That is exactly what we see folks in modern day alcohol advertising. They show you how good it looks from the models on the screens all the way down to what they say the alcohol tastes like. Then we see this brutal prediction in verse 32. I believe personally this is the end of the life. After years of drinking it's poison. It's poison.

And then we see their distorted reality and their disgusting rhetoric out of verse 33. They just have a warped sense of reason and everyone else in life who is not like that can't understand why they think the way they think. And then they just speak all types of perverse things. And then we see their delirious and deadly decisions. Their delirious because they're drunk. Their seasick. And you know what? They make so many deadly decisions, dangerous decisions, dumb decisions. And then we see their drug senses and their disastrous thinking.

They are abused by the drink and circumstances caused by the drink and they wake up and they go right back and do it again. Now I want you to see something here. I want you to think about it. The drunkard doesn't necessarily fit all of these verses. I mean really a true drunkard does not necessarily fit every one of these descriptions but he or she will eventually fit most. May the Lord help us to examine what we see here and may the Lord help us to take what we see in this portrait and apply it to those people and circumstances and see them properly and correctly.

Now I want to finish out this portrait of the drunkard by asking you to hang a picture on the wall in your mind. I've asked you to do this. I want you to hang a picture, maybe pictures on the wall in your home, not just in your mind but in your family, in your conversation in your home with your children as they get old enough to be taught this way. I want you to sit down with your husband or your wife and be honest. And I want you to have pictures in your home, in your mind, in your conversations. Maybe you paint this picture of your mother or your father from these verses. That's sad, I know.

But maybe you have a mother or a father that fits these verses and you're honest with your spouse, you're honest with your children. Maybe you have a brother or sister or another family member and they fit the portrait here of the drunkard and you're honest and you discuss that portrait of your brother or sister or some other family member. You're honest with your wife, you're honest with your husband and you use that as a teaching illustration with your children. Maybe it's a neighbor, a coworker, a boss, a family friend, an old friend. What am I trying to show you?

Take these verses and identify people that you know and you have those portraits in your mind, in your heart, in your home, in your conversations. Use them as teaching tools with your children. And then as I close this section, I want to call you to memorize their end. We must remember the end. What does he say? In the end it bites. In the end it bites like a serpent. There is this sting like an outer. Listen, in the end is poison and the poison kills and destroys the life because listen, on the front end it never looks that bad.

We must memorize the end and then use those portraits that we have in our family and in our conversations with our family. Use those examples to illustrate verse 32, the end. And then I want us to memorize the warning. What does he say? Verse 31, "Do not look at the wine when it's red." Oh, when just the sight of the alcohol calls your name. Oh, do not look at it when it sparkles in the cup and when it goes down smoothly. This is a warning here. Maybe there's somebody here listening or not. You needed to hear that warning.

I know some of you are like, "Brother Chris, pastor, this is not a temptation for me." But for every one of us that this is not a temptation, there are others that this is a temptation and we need to hear, heed, and hear this warning. Well, what have we looked at? Quite a bit. Verse 29 on down to verse 35, what have we seen? We've seen this portrait of drunkenness. We started off in chapter 20 verse 1 with the personification of drunkenness and then next week I'll go ahead and tell you where we'll be. We'll be earlier in chapter 23 and we'll be looking at some other instructions starting from verse 19 on down to verse 21.

And then we'll wrap up these teachings, these messages on drunkenness.