Well, praise the Lord for this beautiful morning. It's not afternoon yet. Today, my message is going to be the final part of 10 Misconceptions of the Bible, Part 3. Did Jesus turn water into alcoholic wine? And is hell eternal? Let's go to God and pray again. Dear God, we pray that you'll please be with my spirit today, Lord. Help me not to be in error, Lord. And we pray that you'll please bless this congregation, Lord. Give them ears to hear, Father. Thank you so much for each and every one. We pray, Father, your word be powerful and it'll affect our lives as we study and as we learn from it, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. If you have your Bibles, turn to John chapter 2. Before I read John chapter 2, I'm going to quickly recap the first eight misconceptions, just quickly. The first two parts of the series we discuss one through eight. I'm not going to go too deep review of it, just a brief overview of each one. It's been a few months, at least two, since we talked about it. So one, Camel through the eye of needle in Matthew 19 verse 24. This is talking about how You know, a rich man should not trust in his riches, and it's impossible for him to enter in the kingdom of God without the help of God. This is talking about the thousand-year kingdom. It's not talking about eternity. It's not talking about getting saved in eternity. The second misconception, Peter cursed and swearing, Matthew 26, 74. Peter did not use profanity or cursing. He made an oath, albeit a false oath, that he did not know Jesus. So he was cursing himself, basically, for not giving that false oath. Proverbs 29 15 18 a child left to himself bring his mother to shame so a child left to his own understanding without the correction of his father of his mother will definitely bring his mother to shame this is not talking about physically leaving a child to himself for a period of time this is talking about leaving his a child to his own understanding of things that is not corrected if his understanding is wrong. The fourth one, he who provides not for his own is worse than an infidel. This is not talking about providing for your immediate family. It's a given that a man should provide for his wife and his children. That's just a given. But this is talking about providing for a widow mother or an aunt if you're in a position to do so. If you don't do so and if you're in a position to do so, you're worse than an infidel. So it's much more than the common interpretation that if you don't provide for your family, you're worse than an infidel. So God doesn't say it. what you are if you do not provide for your family. It's definitely worse than an infidel. Eva Communication Group would manage and 1 Corinthians 15.33, this is about the bad doctrine that's being taught and in this case is the doctrine of there's no resurrection. So when you believe bad doctrine, your life will be affected, your manner of living will be affected. Imagine if you believe such a thing, how different your life would be if you don't believe in the resurrection. Heaven as our eternal home, Revelation 1 and 4. Heaven is not our eternal home, earth is. The new Jerusalem will come down to earth and God will dwell in there with his people forever. Faith without works is dead, James 2, 17 and 26. After you're saved, if you don't add works to your faith, your faith is dead. Meaning it's not going to profit you, it's not going to profit anybody. It can't do anything. It's dead. Perfect love casts out fear, 1 John 4, verse 18. So when you're abiding in God's perfect love, you will have no fear. You will have no fear, man. You will have no fear of sin. You will have no fear of the devil because God's perfect love abides in you. You're following his word and his path perfectly, so you won't have fear. But again, there's also a healthy fear that you always want to have a healthy fear of God and healthy fear of situations. And so now we're going to talk about, did Jesus turn water into alcoholic wine? So in John chapter 2, starting verse 1 through verse 11, it says, in the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said unto him, they have no wine. And Jesus said unto her, woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother said unto the servants, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And they were set. And there were set there six pots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. And Jesus said unto them, fill the water pots with water. And he filled them up to the brim. And he said unto them, draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast, and they bear it. And when the ruler of the feast hath tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the servants which drew the water knew, the governor of that feast called the bridegroom, and said unto him, every man at the beginning thus set forth good wine, and when men hath well drunk, then that which is worse. But thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him. So the Bible says this is the beginning of miracles of the Lord Jesus. So that's a very important concept to understand. If this is the beginning of his miracles, then we have to ask ourselves, we have to examine what this miracle is all about. So let's go back and look carefully at some of these verses again. Let's examine the verses again and see what we can glean from this. But before we do that, I want to stress the importance of this miracle. It is said to be the beginning of miracles, so it's the very first one. It sets the tone of all his miracles. So we ought to really examine it carefully. I know people in this church. I do not believe in that common interpretation that Jesus turned water into alcohol and wine. I know that the people of this church, Resurrection Baptists, are strong in the faith, and the men and the women of this church, and even some of the children, the older children and the teenagers, they're mature enough to really understand and dive into the story a little bit more, because these questions need to be answered. And some of these questions could be answered by the Bible itself once you compare scriptures with scriptures. So one of the first questions you want to ask yourself is, did Jesus really turn water into alcoholic wine? That's one question you've got to ask yourself because that's the common interpretation out there. Did he really turn water into alcoholic wine? You know the type of wine that people drink at a mealtime or at a social gathering or at a wedding? That type of wine, that's poisonous. Did he really do that? So let's look at verse 3 again. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said unto him, they have no wine. So the mother of Jesus, Mary, said unto Jesus, they have no wine. And here we see basically Mary saying to Jesus, they want wine. They're at a wedding and they're running out of wine. And she wanted Jesus to give them more wine. Now, I don't know about you, when I was in the world and when I went to weddings and such, there's lots and lots of alcohol in there being consumed. Here we see Mary pushing for more wine to be consumed. Is she pushing for more alcohol to be consumed? Is she pushing for more whatever vodka, whatever hard drink that they're serving at weddings nowadays to be consumed or even back then? But I believe people are misunderstanding the wedding back in the days. So maybe Mary didn't quite understand that alcoholic wine causes a lot of pain and heartaches for people that are addicted to it. Sons and daughters, teenagers, men, women who are addicted to this alcoholic wine, the heartaches and the marriages that are broken, the adultery, the lust, the stupidity that follows alcohol. Maybe Mary didn't understand all that stuff. Maybe she just was naive into thinking that, you know, this alcohol and wine is, you know, nothing and we could just freely give to people at this wedding. But according to the government, the National Association of Alcoholic Research and such, it says alcohol-related disease impact implication estimates that each year there's more than 178,000 deaths, approximately 120,000 male deaths, and 59 female deaths attributed to excessive alcohol use. And they underlined the word excessive alcohol use. So this government said, oh, you can drink as long as you don't drink it excessively. But making alcohol one of the leading preventable causes of death in the United States behind tobacco, poor diet, and physical inactivity, and illegal drugs. So apart from physical death that we see of people getting liver disease and all sorts of disease from alcohol, apart from all that, what about the countless deaths of marriages? What about the countless deaths of relationships between families? What about the countless deaths of babies that are being born because of fornication? The murders of babies because a girl was drunk. or hooked up with a guy who's drunk, and now they have a baby, and now they decide to kill this baby. What about those deaths of the drunken episodes of lust these people have? What about that? How many abortions could have been negative if alcohol didn't play a part of it? How many lives could have been saved, not just physical, but also spiritual? In Habakkuk 2.15, it says, Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puteth that bottle to him, and maketh him drunk also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness. So in verse 4, Jesus said unto her, Woman, what I have to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. So our Lord here seemed to be reluctant at first to give heed to his mother's request. But at the end, he obliged. of her request. But here's another question you've got to ask yourself. Was Jesus reluctant because he knew that making alcoholic wine was considered a woe according to Habakkuk? God forbid. Jesus is God. He knows everything. He knows the outcome. He knows the beginning from the end. So if you believe that Jesus made alcoholic wine to give to his neighbor to get drunk, then you have to ignore the verse in Habakkuk. Habakkuk. I can never say that. So you have to ignore scripture because scripture plainly says that woe unto him that give his neighbor that bottle, his neighbor's drink. In verse five, his mother said unto the servants, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there set six water pots of stone, six water pots of stone. When I was in Cambodia, we collect our water for the rain. And we have these big, gigantic water pots made of stone, about that big. After the manning of the purifying of the Jews containing two or three ferkinsons a piece, a ferkins is about 11 gallons. It's a unit of liquid measure of volume equal to about 11 gallons. So here we see. Each pot would have about two or three ferkinsons. Let's say three. So each pot will hold about 30 gallons. So you got six pots. That's 180 gallons of alcoholic wine that Jesus made that he turned water into to give to this wedding party. God forbid. Verse 7, Jesus said to them, fill the water pots with water, and they filled it up to the brim. He's like, man, fill it up to the brim. Don't waste a drop. You know, the Pharisees accused Jesus of being a winebibber. In Matthew 11, 19, it says, a son of man came eating and drinking, and they said, behold, a gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, but wisdom is justified for her children. I believe the Pharisees accused Jesus of drinking grape juice. in excess. I don't believe that the Pharisee was accusing Jesus of drinking alcohol. To that, you have to be something to accuse somebody to that degree. I believe the Pharisees had enough common sense to not accuse somebody of something like that. But here we have people running around, church people, pastors, deacons, laymen, all understand, most of them believing that Jesus turned 180 gallons of water into wine. So when people equate this miracle of turning water into wine, they're actually accusing Jesus much worse than what the Pharisee was accusing Jesus. Verse 8, and he said unto them, draw out now and bear unto the governor of the feast, and they bear it. And when the ruler of the feast hath tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not what it was, but the servants drew the water new, the governor of the feast called the bridegroom and said unto him, every man at the beginning of the earth set forth good wine, when men have well drunk. So we got to ask the question, what does it mean to be well drunk in this case? Well, well drunk with what? Have you believed that? they were serving alcoholic wine, then it has to be well drunk with alcoholic wine. But if you believe that it was just grape juice, that means the wedding party and the wedding guests, they were just well drunk with grape juice. That means they drank enough grape juice that they were full. They were well drunk already. But it says here, but that has kept the good wine until now. So imagine you ask another question. So after everybody's well drunk, if you take it as alcoholic, smash, you bring out the good stuff. And now you're going to get the more smash. That doesn't make sense to anybody. It doesn't make sense to point this to God, saying that God not only knew that these people were drunk, now he's going to give them more wine and more wine. What about what if people got so drunk and that they got alcohol poisoning or they went about their driving the carriage and smash into another carriage and die. So there's many implications here that this is totally wrong. And if you're honest with yourself, if people understood and realized what they're saying, then they should ask these questions. Again, it says in verse 11, the beginning of miracles did Jesus in Canaan. Have you looked to ask people, especially mothers or fathers that lost their children and drunk driving and those sorts of things, have you asked them, do you think this is a good miracle of God that he did here? He made water into wine. Do you think that was good for him to do that? Do you think that it was good for him to offer people after they're well drunk, more wine so they could get into worse situations than they are. Whatever happens today, whatever, you know, you go to a gathering and these people have to drive home and they're all well drunk already and Jesus gives them more wine. So those are the type of questions you've got to ask and people are not willing to ask those questions. But thankfully, the Bible talks about different types of wine, and this is what we're going to go over to show you how these common interpretations are easily refuted by just looking at scriptures. The non-alcoholic wine, the grape juice, is what the Lord Jesus made. He turned water into pure grape juice, and that's a miracle. To turn water into alcohol, to me, It might be a miracle, but it's a wicked miracle, I would say. I mean, it's like one of those magicians in Pharaoh's time when they did their wicked magic and stuff. That's the type of miracle that I wouldn't consider beneficial. So I wouldn't consider that a good miracle if he was to do that. So the scripture states that there's different kinds of wine, and we're going to look at that here a little bit and compare. So as Christians, we don't want to misrepresent God's teaching, whether it's intentional or unintentional, because it gives God a bad name. It causes God's name to be doubted. It causes God's name to be blasphemed, in one sense, because people are going to look at, you know, I'm a recovering alcoholic. I see the destruction. I see all this stuff. But yet here, I see God giving me wine. It doesn't make sense. So it's confusion. So imagine your father, for example, is a cattle rancher. Imagine if you go around telling everybody that your father is a cattle rancher, he owns a thousand acres of land, has hundreds and hundreds of head of cattle and dozens of cow hands helping him out and tending to the cows and everything. But in actuality, your father only owns 10 acres, and he only has two cows, and he does the work himself. So, when you go around telling false information about your father, about the scripture, about anything like that, it's going to cause your father's reputation to take a hit, and especially when that thing is a lie. So likewise when we Christians don't bother to get the facts and to ask these tough questions to get these understanding the common misinterpretation taken care of, we put our father in that predicament. We have to examine the scriptures ourselves to get the proper understanding and the proper context and the proper interpretation guided by the Holy Ghost. So we have to labor, the virus is labor to study to show that it's self-approved. So we want to do God's service, not a disservice. We don't want to lead people astray by a false understanding, a false doctrine. So imagine a young Christian struggling with alcohol addiction. And we go and tell them, hey, it's OK, buddy. Jesus turned water into alcoholic wine. So it's OK. You could drink. You could drink it. Just don't drink it too much. But then you've got to say, well, what a contradiction. Because Jesus made a whole bunch of wine. And Jesus, if you read that story, he knows that God made a lot of it. So he's contradicting himself. The Bible says in Hebrews 5.12, So it's about high time for these Christians to be weaned from the milk and get some meat, be weaned from the fact that this shallow understanding of God's Word that they adhere to, it should be gone. It should be to the point where they're teaching other people the Oracles of God, teaching other people the right interpretation of God's words, of God's principles. Christian needs to grow up in maturity to be teachers of men instead of men teaching them. We should be teaching others. So let's look at some of these new wine, the grape juice versus alcoholic wine. Brother Mike sent me this and it's a good list. I'm just going to go through quickly the difference between grape juice called new wine in the Bible and alcoholic wine. In Deuteronomy 2, it says, pure blood of the grape. Verse 14, it says, butter of kind and milk of sheep with fat of lambs and rams of the breed of Bashan, goats with the fat of kidneys of wheat, and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. Contrast that to alcoholic wine, the poison of dragons. Deuteronomy 32 as well. And the wine is the poison of the dragons and the cruel venom of apes. Wine grape juice is found in the cluster Isaiah 65. Proverbs 20 is a marker wine is a marker. Wine grape juice comes fresh out of the press Proverbs 3. The alcohol wine is addicting it causes destruction Proverbs 20 23. God turned water into grape juice and wine in John 2. In Habakkuk, it says it makes you naked. And it does. When you become drunk and you don't know what you're doing, your lust hits overdrive. And when you happen to hook up with a girl, one thing's going to lead to another, and you'll be naked just like that. Drink it abundantly, says Solomon. Solomon 5.1. But in Proverbs 23, it says don't even look at it. So you got to ask your questions. How could you decipher these things, one saying the total opposite of the other? That's where you have to put your thinking cap on. You put the Holy Spirit and pray for wisdom. And it's not that hard. Look through the Bible. You just have a simple understanding. Lamentation 2.12, giving the children and suckling. Genesis 19 facilitates incest. Remember the story of Lot and his two daughters? They got their father drunk, and that was alcoholic wine. And so they facilitated that. 1 Corinthians 11, symbolic of the Lord's blood. 1 Kings 16 will get you killed. And finally, drink it spiritually and live forever, John 6, talking about the the blood of the Lord, the wine, the representation. And finally, the alcohol and wine causes Christians to miss the kingdom, Galatians 5. So speaking of causing Christians to miss the kingdom, this leads us to the final 10th misconception of the Bible, is hell eternal. The Bible says Christians can miss the kingdom because of drunkenness on alcoholic wine. So if you miss the kingdom, where do you go? Well, the short answer is hell. And I'm going to prove it to you. So if you don't repent of your drunkenness before you die, you will, I believe, go to hell. And let's examine that a little bit. more. Galatians 5 19 says by the work now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatreds, variants, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, reviling, and such life and such like of the which I tell you before as I've also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. So these warnings, so drunkenness is in here, listed with all these other sins. These warnings were for the saved Galatians, but saved people are secured eternally and have everlasting life. So missing this kingdom is not an eternal thing, it's a thousand year thing, it's a temporal thing. So when you miss the kingdom, what does it mean? It means you're not going to be enjoying the blessings of the thousand year reign of Christ. You're not going to be in that Isaiah 66 where the lamb is lying down with the lion and where the curse, the temporary curse is lifted up, is lifted. It means you will be cast into hell for a time. It means that you will be cast into utter darkness. In Mark chapter 9 verse 4, talking to his disciples, he says, So God says here, it's better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye. So that gives us where the contrast where believers would go if they're doing drunkenness and fornication and all that. The Bible says they will miss the kingdom of God, and it says contrasting that with having two eyes to be cast into hellfire. So the opposite of making the kingdom of God is going to hell. If you don't make the kingdom of God, you're going to be cast into hell. That's what the Bible says, not what I say. In Matthew 5, again, he's talking to disciples. But I said to you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Whosoever shall say to his brother Arachah shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire. As we see in Galatians 5 and Ephesians 5 and elsewhere, missing the kingdom of God equals being cast into hell. Missing the kingdom of God equals being weeping and gnashing of teeth. Missing the kingdom of God means you are cast away, like what Paul was saying, that in my life that I've run this race and I'll make sure that I keep my body on subjection so I won't be a castaway. And being a castaway from God in this sense is being barred from the kingdom of God. But thank God that we know that the word of God is true. We know that the Bible cannot contradict itself. So in Psalm 16, it says, this David talking, I believe, it says, I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also rests in hope. For thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither thou will suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Some people believe that hell is when you're separated from God's spirit, from God's interaction with you. But the Bible says here, according to David, God will not leave his soul in hell. So that means that hell is temporary. That means God is going to remove, in this case, David from hell, his soul, at least. And in Psalms 138.8, it says, if I ascend unto heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. So I thought hell was separation from God eternally. So why did the psalmist say that if I make my bed in hell, thou art there? So in order to reconcile and to understand that hell is not eternal, we have to understand that the word of God does not contradict. So this hell must be different from what we commonly understand it as. When the Catholics say that hell is eternal and all that, It's probably talking about the lake of fire, and the lake of fire is eternal. Revelation 20 says, And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. And death and hell, there you go, the word hell, delivered up the dead which were in them. and they would judge every man according to their works and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death so we see in verse 14 death and hell was cast into this place called the lake of fire so if hell is eternal Then why this disruption? Why did God take hell and cast it to another place? You would think that hell would just be there and all that, but no, because hell is not eternal. Hell is temporary. That's why Jesus was able to warn his disciples, warn his believers that you could, you might, if you sin and not ask God for forgiveness in the time allotted to you. And verse 15 says, whosoever was not found, written the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire. So the lake of fire is the eternal place for unbelievers. And that's what hell, the common understanding of hell, they misrepresent that. So the lake of fire is the eternal resting place for unbelievers. Not for believers, because the Bible says, if your name is written in the book of life, you will be eternally with God. So take comfort my friends if your name is written in that book of life by believing in faith alone in the beloved Christ that he died for your sins past present and future your name will be written in that book of life because it's his finished work it's his uh Perfect life that he lived for you, so you don't have to. If we are dependent upon what we do to save ourselves, then none of us will ever make it. I don't care how good you are. I don't care if you only sin one time in your lifetime. That's enough to disqualify you. So hell is not eternal, but the lake of fire is. So in conclusion, to wrap this whole thing up, It's very important for each and every one of us to be humble and to truly understand the Word of God, the principles of God, the framework of God. Our earthly life, our kingdom life depends on it. Our understanding of the Word of God depends on how a life we live, whether it be a good life or a bad life, whether it be a life of sloth or whether it be a life of good works. Our understanding, our exposition of God's Word shows forth God's character and we must not put God's character in a bad light because of our lack of understanding. We must correctly understand and correctly follow the Word of God and truly learn and not just be hearers only. We must be true ambassadors of Christ. We don't want to sell short any or misrepresent anything of the Lord, our Prince of Peace in his kingdom. Let's give you a short story of when I got saved, the Lord instantly took alcohol away from me. I got snared into alcohol within an hour or two. My very first party I went to, never drank ever in my life, but the very first party, after two hours of this party, I was hooked. And the first sip I took was so disgusting, I spit it out. I said to my friends, why do you drink this stuff? This stuff's nasty. But with anything, with peer pressure and not wanting to be the party pooper, you go and do it, and within an hour or two, you're hooked. And I can remember from that time forth, every time we go to parties and stuff, I would crave this thing. It's like crazy. Just one party and now I'm craving this thing? That's why the Bible says it's quick. It stings you like a snake. It bites you. And you know how snake bites. It's real fast. to the point where you have five, ten beers, and you think, well, this tastes like water. So now you're into this perpetual cycle of thinking that you can handle things where you don't taste it anymore, so you can handle hard stuff. Then it ended up being, and only for by the grace of God that I'm not in the worst state when I was young. I could have been in a lot of trouble. I could have been drunk driving. I could have been beaten up by gang members. I could have been messing with the wrong girl. I could have been all that. But God saved me from that. But that's not an excuse. You still have to understand that this alcohol is wicked. It can sting you like so fast. And for the young people that are in here, don't ever touch it. Don't ever. The Bible says even not to look at it. So how much more so not to touch it? So with that, but God saved me from that. And to people listening out there in some other land, if you're addicted to alcohol, God could save you. God could take it away. You ask God to take it away, he will. And sometimes it's a long process. Sometimes it's instant. But I believe that if you're sincere about it, He will take it away. So with that, let's pray. Dear God, we thank you so much, Father, for your wisdom. We thank you for the word that's in here. We pray, Father, that our understanding would be true and be guided by the Holy Spirit and not what we think, Lord. We pray, Father, that people in here who or young who's growing up and might one day not be, you know, looked over by their parents and they're on their own, I pray that these words will come back to them and not be tempting in any way to partake in this wicked, a sin, Lord God. We pray, Father, You'll please just be with those who are struggling with this addiction, Father. It's a vice that a lot of people can't handle, Lord. And I pray, Father, You will just help them, Lord, if they stumble upon this message, that You would just help them, Lord, to understand. God, we give You thanks for Your Word. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.