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Transcript 094B — Salvation is for Alcoholics Too
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: I have a problem. This is not a religious problem. I'm an alcoholic. Not too bad, but I do drink. I know it's sin. But my wife left me about six weeks ago, and she said it was because I drink. Well, that's up to her. But my wife called me, and I said, "I do believe in God. I'm not the best church man there is, but I never mistreat people. But I do drink." She hurt me. See, I still have feelings.
HC: Let me ask you. You drink because you find in alcohol some kind of an answer, don't you?
CALLER: Well, I don't have to think. I think when I sober up. I still have the same problem I had before I started to drink. You see, I turn to drink when I have a problem.
HC: First of all, I sense that you are disappointed in yourself. You wish that you could be a better man.
CALLER: Yes.
HC: And in your frustration, in your feelings of self-pity, and so on, you find that you can face life if you can only take a drink.
CALLER: Yes. That's about the only way.
HC: That's the way you can face life. Life isn't quite as cruel. The rough edges are taken off. And you can get along this way.
CALLER: How do you know that?
HC: Well, because I can hear what you're saying. Now you see, one of the problems is that we as human beings kid ourselves that we're really kind of important, that we really ought to measure up to something. We really think that we ought to be somebody.
Now actually, when we go to the Bible and let the Bible tell us about ourselves, we don't find that at all. The Bible says that we're nothing but hopeless, rotten sinners. We're under the wrath of God, and there's nothing good within us. There's nothing that we have in our life to be proud about. There's no place that we're going that's worth anything in ourselves.
That's the first thing the Bible teaches. Secondly, the Bible teaches that God created us the way we are outside of sin. In other words, God did not make you a man with a hundred talents. God made you the way you are, with the talents that you have. Now one man might be able to sing and to be a musician, and to speak eloquently, and be a math whiz, and be able to run the hundred yard dash in ten seconds flat, and he can just do everything well. Okay. God made him that way.
But another man, about all that he can do real well is that he's an excellent janitor, let's say. Or he's a fine bricklayer. Or he does a fairly good job as a carpenter, or whatever. Or maybe another man, his main claim to fame is that he's just a good husband for his wife. But insofar as success in business, he doesn't have it. Insofar as success in something else, he doesn't have it.
The two things you've got to get through your mind are this. Number one, that God made you the way you are. And you should not aspire to be like somebody else. The second thing you've got to realize is that in yourself, because of the fact that you're a human being sold under sin, you are under the wrath of God; you are a sinner. The only way that anything is going to come of your life is if God will do it for you.
CALLER: I ask God, I say, ''Get me through this day." I'm not the worst man in the world.
HC: Why do you say that, that you're not the worst man in the world?
CALLER: Because I do drink, you see. I know I've got two sins against me. I smoke and I drink.
HC: But you see, when we come to the Lord, we don't come trying to prove any worthiness of any kind. A lot of people look to God, but that doesn't mean that they're going to be saved. Effectively, what you're saying (and maybe you haven't realized this), "Look God, basically I'm a fairly good Joe. I'm a fairly good person. Now I have a couple of sins. I drink and I smoke. But outside of that I'm a pretty good Joe."
All right. Now God is never going to listen to you, because God didn't come for the righteous. As long as you come to God that way, it's a closed door, because when God looks at you, He says, "Look. You not only drink and smoke, but in your whole life you are a sinner. Your whole motivation in life is sinful. Your whole attitude toward God is sinful. Everything about you is sinful." This is what the Bible says about every person.
And so when you go to God, you can't go, "Oh, Lord, look at me. I'm basically pretty good, but I have a couple of sins." We have to go to the Lord with a broken and a contrite heart. We have to realize the awful truth about ourselves, that we're sinners, that we're under the wrath of God, and we justly deserve to go to hell. We come spiritually bankrupt to God.
This is the beginning point of a solution, when we realize the awful truth about ourselves, that we've messed it up. Now your sin happens to be drinking. Somebody else's sin is something else. And maybe some other unsaved man's problem is something nobody else knows about. And he may think he's a pretty good person also. But Jesus didn't come to call the righteous. He came to call sinners to repentance.
And so you, first of all, have to realize that your alcoholism is only a symptom of the fact that in your nature you are finding your answers everywhere except in Christ. You're finding your answers everywhere. And one of the places you're trying to find answers is by drinking. Through drinking you find that you can face life for a little while longer, even though you know it's destroying your family, and it's destroying your job, and it's destroying you personally.
But wonderfully, wonderfully, God came for sinners just like you are, sinners, who are alcoholics, who are adulterers, who are fornicators, who are thieves, who are robbers, who are murderers. I don't care how wicked a person is. These are the kind that Christ is interested in. Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost.
And remember the publican of old. He came into the temple. And he dared not look up. He stood afar off. He felt so tainted, so polluted, he wouldn't dare come into the temple, the holy temple, and dared not look up to God because he was so ashamed. He was so burdened by his sin. And he smote his breast, the act of some who is just beside himself in shame and sorrow because of what a terrible sinner he is.
And what does he cry out? "Lord, have mercy on me. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner." He didn't come and say, "Lord, have mercy on me. I'm basically a very good man, but I've got a couple of sins in my life." God would never have heard him. God would never have heard him. You have to come to Him realizing that you're a no-good, rotten sinner. And no human being wants to hear that. Our self-respect is violated. Our ego is humiliated. But that's what the Bible tells us, that we're spiritually bankrupt, that we're under the wrath of God, and we're subject to hell. And until we look at ourselves honestly, we're not going to get any victory. We're not going to get help from God.
We've got to look at ourselves exactly the way the Bible does, and that is that we're in deep and terrible trouble because of our sins. And so there's nothing you can do to extricate yourself, except to throw yourself on the mercies of Christ, to cry out to Him for mercy. "Oh, Lord, here I thought that I was a pretty good person, but now I realize I am nothing but a proud, egotistical person. I thought my only sin was alcoholism and smoking. Now I realize that my sin is pride. My sin is everything else. And so, Lord, forgive me. Oh, Lord, forgive me. I don't want to sin anymore."
CALLER: I do. I lay down at night, and I say, "Lord, forgive me." I say, "Have mercy upon me." And I say, "Either take my life or the one who did wrong."
HC: You see, here is the problem. With your mouth you are praying the Lord to have mercy on you. But in your heart, in your heart you feel that basically you're a pretty good person.
CALLER: I don't see what I've done wrong to people.
HC: All right. Now that's where the problem lies. Because the Bible says that basically you are not a good person. The Bible says that basically you are a wicked person, and I would say this to any person who is unsaved. I'm not judging you personally. I'm only using the Biblical language.
The Bible says that the heart of man is desperately wicked. And when you are speaking to God, "Oh, Lord, have mercy on me," you are paying lip service to what you ought to say. You are paying lip service. Your mouth is saying something that is not from your heart.
If you were being honest with God, you would be praying this way.
CALLER: I'm trying to be honest.
HC: But I'm only trying to show you that if you're really going to find salvation, it has to begin in your heart, that you know that you're not basically a good person, you're not basically a worthy person, you're not basically a fine individual with just a couple of sins in your life.
But basically you're a sinner. Basically, you're in rebellion against God. You want your own way. And that's one of the reasons you drink, because you want to do your own thing. You're basically in rebellion against God, and now you go to God and you pray, ''Oh, God, I realize that I'm really in rebellion. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. Oh, Lord, have mercy on me. I'm a sinner. I don't want to sin anymore. Have mercy on me. I don't want to live such a rebellious life any longer. Oh, Lord, have mercy on me and forgive my sins."
CALLER: I think I understand a little bit about it. Yes, you told the truth there. I mean, I'm supposed to be a pretty good guy. Yet I drink, and I pray to God. I do. I pray on the road. And God must help me some way, because He takes me to Redding and back.
HC: God, in His mercy, has kept you alive.
CALLER: He must be doing something.
HC: But the question you have to face is, What if I would die tonight? Where would I spend eternity? And you don't know when it's going to be God's time to take you. And yet tonight you still can make your relationship with Christ what it ought to be, if you will just abandon yourself to Christ and claim the truth about yourself, that you're a sinner, that you're in terrible trouble with God, and that you cry out to Him for mercy.
And the minute you begin to think in your heart, "But after all, I do have my self-respect, after all, I am a pretty good guy in some ways." Forget it, forget it! In God's sight every action of yours is "as filthy rags," the Bible says. In God's sight every time you move you're just adding to your guilt before God because, fundamentally, in your life, you are in rebellion against God.
And once you get hold of that awful truth, and then you begin to talk to God about that, ''Oh, God, have mercy on me. I suddenly realize what a horrible sinner I really am. Oh, God, have mercy on me. No wonder I drink, and I have such a rebellious nature, when I really want my own way, and I'm going to try to find my own solution. Oh, Lord, forgive me for thinking that You're going to deal kindly with me because I'm some kind of a worthy person. Oh, Lord, just have mercy on me. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. Oh, Lord, I'm a sinner, and I just want to be saved. I just want to be saved. I want to know that Christ has paid for all of my sins. I don't want to sin anymore. I don't want to be in this kind of rebellion against You."
CALLER: Mr. Camping, you speak the truth to me. I'll remember what you said.
HC: But let me say this, Only Christ will save you. And the path to salvation is repentance, is a recognition of the awful condition of sin that you're in when you're unsaved, and acknowledging this before God, confessing this, and repenting, where we really find in our life an earnest desire: "I don't want to sin anymore."
CALLER: Mr. Camping, I go to church in Oakland, and I went in front of the pastor, and I accepted Christ.
HC: You see, you accepted Christ, but you were not saved. A lot of people accept Christ, but they don't understand that that isn't salvation. Salvation has to do with a broken and a contrite heart. It has to do with entrusting our life to Christ.
Now the fact that a man drinks indicates that he has not entrusted his life to Christ. He is still trusting in his alcohol to get him through a rough situation. That is clear evidence that he has not placed his trust in Christ. And this is what salvation is all about, that I've entrusted my life to Christ.
You'll begin to find the way, if you start with the dismal truth about yourself, the awful truth about yourself, that you are not basically a good person with a couple of sins, but that fundamentally you are a sinner, under the wrath of God. And if you want a commentary about yourself, if you want to read the Bible about what your condition is, read Romans 3. Romans 3 outlines in stark language how God looks upon you, or any other person who is unsaved. And this language is not nice language.
It says in verse 10: "None is righteous, no not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God." The fact that you say, "Lord, forgive me, because I've got a sin in my life," and yet basically you think you're a worthy person, indicates that you're not really seeking for God. It simply means that you are trying to find a God who will take you on your own terms rather than on God's terms.
Now it goes on in verse 12: "All have turned aside. Together they have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive." Remember what Jesus said about the Pharisees. "You're white-walled sepulchres, full of dead men's bones." He was using the same language that we find in verse 13. "Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive."
They deceive themselves, about their self-respect and personal pride, and what have you, and their own self-worthiness. And they deceive others, making them think they're pretty good people. "The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery. And the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Now that's a horrible statement. That's a terrible statement. But that's the way God looks at an unsaved person. And so if you have any doubts in your mind as to what your sin condition is, read Romans 3 a few times.
And then, with that fresh in your mind, go to the Lord and beg for mercy. "Oh, God! That's the way it is. I thought I was a good person with a couple of sins. And now I discover that I'm hopelessly lost. I discover that I'm a terrible person in Your eyes, and I deserve to go to hell. Oh, God, have mercy on me. Oh, Lord, save me."
That's the beginning of salvation. Okay? And many of us will be praying for you.
CALLER: Thank you for your time.
HC: Thank you for calling. Good night.