One of the strongest condemnation and dangers of alcohol is revealed in Proverbs Chapter 23.
It actually gives us 10 dangers or consequences of the abuse of alcohol in the Old Testament.
Let's look through them. Proverbs 23:29, "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has
complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?" We see already five dangers,
five consequences in the Old Testament of abuse of alcohol. Number one is the sorrow. People
who abuse alcohol, people who consume alcohol experience sorrow. It seemed that people are lost
after they're turning to alcohol. We see again and again this is happening to people is they become
angry, they become rebellious, they become violent and often it leads to divorce, abuse and neglect
of those who are near and to those who are dear. People experience sorrow. The second thing we see
in this verse that alcohol does, is it creates contention. It creeps into one's happy thriving
family and relationship. Something happens, fighting, arguing, violence begins to come in
into the family. I've stayed in hotels with me and my wife on vacations and both on ministry trips,
and you know when somebody's fighting next door you can be 100% sure they're drunk. That means
that they're not fighting just because something bad happened. It's because they're intoxicated.
It's very loud, things are thrown, police is involved and it's always like that because alcohol
leads to contention, it leads to sorrow, and leads to contention. And then Solomon you know tells
us that it leads to complaining. We see who has contentions and who has complaints. It's something
we're all guilty at all times or at some times but while you're intoxicated, all of your restraints,
all of your inhibitions, they leave. Alcohol leaves a person to make foolish decisions that
have permanent effects, that have sometimes last forever. Fourth danger or fourth consequence
is you experience wounds without cause. It's associated with the huge death toll that alcohol
produces. For example from car accidents, murders, homicides, domestic accidents. People who do very
bad things under the influence of alcohol and I don't have to tell you that, you see
that on the road. People who drove intoxicated. People who in the whole state of intoxication,
they killed somebody. Most people who lose their virginity, they do it under the influence of
alcohol. It helps them to go into other sins. People who even commit crimes a lot of times,
they're tipsy. I call them "sipping saints" you know because some of them still claim to be
Christian, and they're people who are under the influence of alcohol. Redness of eyes,
number five. It's associated with mental anguish. it's when one weeps or lacks sleep, their eyes
are red. Sadly people are drinking today to find happiness and at the end they are the ones that
have the least of that happiness. While we may have fun while drinking and parting, the joy
is temporary and often forgotten. If we dive a little bit further into Book of Proverbs 23:32,
it says, "At the last it bites like a serpent," so it speaks of alcohol, "and it stings like a
viper." That means a viper, a serpent releases poison. Number six is that alcohol is really
poison in your body. Alcohol is associated with something that causes seven cancers, in addition
to high blood pressure, depression and dementia. Why do people vomit after a lot of drinking?
Their stomach has more sense than their brain to get rid of the toxin. The same thing happens
with food poisoning. Why do you throw up when you get drunk? Because it shows your stomach actually
has more brains than your brain. Your stomach gets rid of toxin. The Bible talks about it,
the sting of a viper. The Bible talks about the viper, the serpent, the poison being drunk. You're
actually filling your body with poison. That's the Old Testament, we haven't got to the New
Testament yet. Chapter 23 verse 33 of Proverbs, "Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart
will utter perverse things." So the seventh danger or consequences of being drunk is immorality and
hallucinations. Now hallucinations you know what that means, you start seeing weird stuff. But
immorality comes from releasing perverse words out of your heart. See what alcohol does, is it
lowers down your self-control which often leads directly into the trap of sin. Verse 34 and verse
35 of the same chapter, "Yes, you will be like the one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
or like the one who lies on the top of the mast, saying: 'They have struck me, but I wasn't hurt;
they have beaten me, but I didn't feel it. When I shall awake that I may seek another drink?'" You
become unstable when you abuse alcohol. You become like seasick, you can't talk straight, you can't
walk straight, you can't think straight. Number nine. Your senses become dull. It says, "They
struck me, I didn't feel it." You literally lose your sensitivities, you lose your convictions.
You lose the sensitivities that God has given you to be able to operate as a human being.
You dull your senses, and number 10 is alcohol is extremely addictive. Have you noticed how Proverbs
23 ends with, "And when I shall awake that I may seek another drink?" You may say that, "Oh, this
is the last one." That's not how it happens. The Chinese proverb says: First the man takes a drink
and then the drink takes the man. The drink takes the man. It takes over you, you become addicted.