La psicología como usurpadora de la verdad.

hope as my third grade teacher used to say, class, you're ready to put on your thinking caps.
Okay, that's because we're going to, we're going to do some thinking this morning. All right. And
I want to start off with a quotation take out of David Wells wonderful book. And if you don't
have this book, shame on you, you should sell your shirt and buy that book. Okay? No place for
truth. By David Wells, it's down there in the bookstore. And so it's a good read, because he has
he in that book, he has his fingers on the pulse of the evangelical church. And in that book, he
makes a couple of statements. This is one of them. He says, of all the essays that appeared
between 1980 and 1988. And what he's referring to is leadership magazine or leadership
journal, that is read by pastors all over the world. It is supposedly an evangelical journal. He goes
on and says there in the book, less than 1% made even a Remote Reference to Scripture, or any
theological idea, despite the fact that a number of topics dealt with or themselves treated in the
Bible. As the journal turns away from the Bible, to what it apparently assumes are more fruitful
sources of knowledge. It is redefining Christian ministry, and the pastor who accepts his point of
view. In the study, the evangelical pastor is now the CEO. In the pulpit, the pastor is a
psychologist whose task it is to engineer good relations, and warm feelings. If that's why you
came here today, you're going to be severely disappointed. Okay. That's an interesting
statement,

the task of the pastor

in the major evangelical church is to be a CEO, and to engineer good relations and warm
feelings. I think that captures it pretty well. He goes on and says just a page or two later, he says
a new species is now adrift in the world and washing up all along the shores of evangelical life. It
is a species eager to exchange enduring qualities for a spat of exciting new experiences a species
that thinks in terms of images rather than truth, that has no place from which to view the world
but shifts from people to people in an attempt to catch the passing sites of Voyager rather than
a thinker guided by a compass of circumstances rather than

belief.

Now, I didn't put this on the screen, but three pages after that, then he makes this statement.
He says simply put, the psychologizing of faith is destroying the Christian mind is destroying
Christian habits of thought, because it is destroying the capacity to think about life in a Christian
fashion. It is as if the topsoil were being washed away, leaving the land barren and incapable of
being cultivated. It can no longer think about life in terms of God and His purposes, to construct
a way of plausibility, all of that is lost. And when people are no longer compelled by God's truth,
they can be compelled by anything, the more so if it has the sheen of excitement, or the lure of
the novel or the elicit about it, the heretics of old one suspects would be sick with envy, if they
knew of the easy pickings that can now be had in the church.

I love that last statement.

Let me read it to you again, the heretics of old one suspects would be sick with envy if they
knew of the easy pickings that can now be had in the church.
Why? Because people don't think their faith. They just experience their faith. I don't think their
faith. Hmm.

I believe what David Wells has done here is he's painted a disturbing but very true picture of the
contemporary church. We've got to be honest, we live in a confusing time for the church with
contrary currents that swirl around everywhere. But there seems to be something that prevails
in that church. It is an anti doctrinal sentimentality that prevails. experience oriented theology
has been adopted. psychologize Christianity has so redefined basic Christian beliefs that even
the sinful propensities of the human heart have been rejected. Christians are now told they
don't need the church. They don't need their Bibles. They can trust the promptings of their own
hearts. So that theology now has been reduced to subjectivism.

That's where we're at. What is

well talking about in his book, he's talking about a phenomena called integration ism. It's a
phenomena called integration ism. It's not where they overtly throw out the Bible. See that
happened during the Enlightenment?

No, no, no,

they've taken a middle course. This is where they take human theory and human thinking and
try to mix it

with the Bible. Okay.

That's what we would call integration, thinking, defining it, we could probably define it like this.
It's the blending of biblical truth with secular psychotherapeutic theory. So much so that we
have a tendency to think in psychotherapeutic terms we don't think in biblical terms anymore.
We use psychological terms more than we use biblical terms, when we refer to problems when
we refer to difficulties and struggles and, and things like fear and anxiety and depression, those
kinds of things, things. So anytime a biblical treatment, integration ism would be anytime a
biblical treatment, which would be like a diagnosis and etiology and remedy of soul problems is
supplanted, or supplemented, or supplanted with humanistic psychological constructs, whether
overtly or inadvertently is what we call integration ism. Anytime that that happens, any time
where we try to mix human theory

with biblical truth, then it's the biblical truth that gets

watered down.

That's what happens.

Now, what I would like to do during the brief time that we've got is I want to start off and talk a
little bit about psychology in the church. And in this section, I want to give you 10 problem areas
that I see that occur as a result of this. And then I want to talk about biblical counseling in the
church. All right. This is what the people at the reclamation conference, heard this weekend on
Friday and Saturday. So let's talk about psychology in the church, and these 10 problem areas
that I think are critical understanding what happens. The first problem that we run into has to
do with property rights of the soul.
Property Rights of the soul.

What metaphysical right, does any self proclaim empirical emphasis, empirical discipline, have
declaim exclusive authority in issues of the soul? You understand that question? What
metaphysical right? Does any self proclaimed empirical discipline and as soon as I see empirical
and reference it in relationship to psychotherapy, that's really a stretch. Because most of
psychotherapy is not based upon hard science. Most of psychotherapy, in fact, the research
that's out there says that 97% of that is not based upon hard science, which when we're talking
about hard science, we're talking about causation, we're talking about direct cause and effect.
All right, in research, but what it is talking about, and the way it establishes its so called truth
claims, is through covariation, that is causes that are related to effects. That's the reason why if
you go to many colleges and universities today, you will find psychology taught under the soft
sciences, the soft sciences are behavioral sciences, quote, unquote, they're the behavioral
sciences. And that's and it's the behavioral sciences that build their research, statistical and
they'll throw lots of statistics at you but statistics, you can claim statistics about all kinds of
things that people have opinions about, but doesn't necessarily make it

scientific. Okay. The soft sciences build

upon covariation that is, causes that seem to be related to effects but not necessarily direct

cause and effect acts.

So psychotherapy has systematically claimed, in this particular area jurisdiction in speaking

authoritatively about spiritual matters, certain things about the soul that cannot be tested, you
can't see it, you can't touch it, you can't feel it. And yet they claim authority in those areas. Now,
on the one hand, if you really understand the Bible, that's what we should expect in a sin cursed
world, isn't it? Because how in the world are people, people want to deny the existence of the
soul, they want to obviously deny the existence of God, even though God is implanted on their
heart is Ecclesiastes three says, eternity is stamped on their heart. Romans one says, Even

the Gentiles

who do not know God have a truth within them that they live by that has been given there by
their Creator. They have a sense of justice and a sense of right and wrong, even though they
refuse to acknowledge that it's there. So here, they want to refuse any kind of spiritual reality.
They want to refuse that, but they still run into problems that are non organic. Right? You got to
deal with that? Well, the answer is you develop a whole system of thought that is based upon a
very secular, atheistic model. And that's where modern psychology comes from. So this is what I
would think something to be expected in the sin cursed world. But here's the real question that I
want to get at why is the church Why is the church accepted this practice? In other words, they
also have bought into a psychologize approach to dealing with people problems. The Bible alone
claims sole jurisdiction in matters of the soul. Now, when the Bible talks about organic matters,
like even medical issues, occasionally the Bible refer to that it speaks authoritatively inaccurately
but the Bible is not a textbook on medicine. However, the Bible is a textbook on how we live the
conditions of our soul that tells us who we are something we can't taste, touch, feel, hear. None
of our senses on an empirical level can sense or study. God tells us our condition. Wow. Take
your Bible. Let's go over to Second Peter chapter one. Second Peter chapter one.

Verse three, seeing that his divine power is granted to us everything pertaining to life and
godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by His own glory and excellence. So
God's divine power has granted to us everything we need for life and godliness. What does the
church of Jesus Christ do for 18 150 years until a god hating Jew by the name of Sigmund Freud
came along? Right? You know, somehow, did God leave out keys to our well being, and for 1800
years, the church just floundered until we receive the insight of psychoanalytic theory. No, it
didn't flounder. I mean, there were some people who flounder because they didn't pay
attention to biblical truth either. But here, and by the way, Second Peter one is all about the
word of God. In fact, he concludes in verses 20 and 21. He says, But know this, first of all, that no
prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made
by an act of human will. But men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. So this is all about
the word of God. So it has to do with the sufficiency of the Word of God, providing us everything
we need for life and godliness,

everything that's pretty clear. That's pretty straightforward.

But we have an entire generation today that lives from one religious experience to another
religious experience. That's the reason why the top reasons why an evangelical Christian picks a
church number one, music number two children's programs. Number three, the theology

in that order. Why is that? Because I want to experience my Christianity.

That's the reason why they have a great music program that's got to be the church that I go to
really well, Paul are Peter deals with this here in Second Peter one talks about it in verse 16. He
says, sir, for we did not follow cleverly devised tails. And by the way you study the terminology
that he's using here easily modern psychology can fit underneath that, when we may known to
you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his
majesty, or when he received honor and glory from God the Father such as an otter and says,
This was made to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.
And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven, when we were with him on the holy
mountain. Even back in the first century. Peter is dealing with Christians who wanted to elevate
their religious experiences, say aye. They would go around, as we heard in the message in the
first hour, they were going around privately saying, I had this particular experience and I had this
experience, I drove these many demons out now many demons Did you drive? I had this
experience, they move from one religious experience to another experience. Well, Peter says,
you want to talk about religious experience? Top this one, I was on the Mount of
Transfiguration. All right, I stood right in front of Jesus and I saw Jesus transfigured right in front
of my eyes, along with James and John.

Top that one.

How many of you have been there, done that and gotten that T shirt?

Nobody. Peter says,

you want to talk about the reliability of religious experience?

Well, I had this experience with Jesus.

You understand we're not against experience. That's not the issue. It's where does it fall in terms
of a person's priority? So Peter says there I was on a Mount of Transfiguration, I had this
tremendous religious experience, where Jesus was transfigured right in front of my eyes and
look at verse 19. He says, far we have the prophetic word made. Notice this, more sure. More
Sure, more sure that my eyewitness account of the Transfiguration, absolutely. That I can
depend upon the prophetic word is more sure, than my religious experience. Now, no matter
how many tingles you add, when you had your religious experience, the prophetic word is more
sure, more certain, more absolute, more trustworthy than my ability to be able to observe the
known world and come to conclusions about the known world. Even though Jesus is the center
of my observation, and part of the transformation. It's the revealed word that is more sure that
my empirical experience Wow. And yet, Christians still want to import all the empirical studies
of psychology and to try to direct their life and tell them what they ought to do.

Well, this is why we say

that God knows God knows best. As verse three here says, He has given us everything we need
for life and godliness, God alone claims property rights of the soul. This is his sole S O L E
jurisdiction in matters of the s o u

l.

Sold jurisdiction and matters of the soul.

So that's the first thing. Well, I'm going to have to move a lot faster if I'm going to do this.

All right. Number two. Another major problem is medical metaphors. The redefined rhetoric of
soul care. And again, we as Christians have adopted a lot of medical metaphors. Medical
Psychiatry is not I want you to understand this is not a ape apathetic towards Christianity. It is
openly hostile. It has systematically changed the language of soul care problems to medical
terminology. Thomas SATs in his book The myth of psychotherapy says although Freud did not
invent the idea, he was exceptionally adept at naming some of the complaints of physically
healthy person's symptoms that they pointed to underlying diseases called neurosis, which he
offered to relieve by means of a species of conversation called psychoanalysis. So, as a result of
that man, according to Freud is no longer sinful. He's just sick. Terminology, terminology, the
terminology alone makes the client a victim with a disease. I agree with that. I think that
psychologists are first and foremost rhetoricians.

That's what they are. They're rhetoricians.

The therapy of psychotherapy is primarily conversation.

It's what it is.

And there's a redefinition. You've heard me talk about this before about the fact it was Freud
that actually coined the term mental illness. And there is no such thing as mental illness you
think about it, there is no such thing as if there are brain illnesses. That's true. My father in law
had brain cancer I do during Doomers we can have traumas of the brain we can have aneurysm
is the brains, we can have strokes in the brain, all those things can happen to the brain, there
are brain illnesses, but the mind cannot get ill because the mind is an intangible thing.

It's not organic.

And yet he weds together mental with illness. And when you wed those two thoughts together,
mental with illness, when you wet those things together, what would you say? Why would you
even want to do that? Because he knew that psychotherapy would not gain the respect among
the people if it didn't have the veneer of scientific respectability. And so he wedded
psychotherapy with medical science as closely as possible and used medical terminology in
order to describe problems. knew that. So medical labels for soul problems, actually drives
people people further from the truth. We're not thinking about problems. In biblical terms,
we're thinking about problems in psychological terms. The way that you think about a problem
suggest the remedy for that problem. Third, environmental determinism. For Freud this means
that man is a socialized animal. Man's problems are due to his wrong environmental influences.
The super ego has affected the ego and the ID and repress the ID, and sit since the ID and all of
its instinctual drives into hiding.

Or that's the reason behind all man's difficulties. According to Freud.

Man's problems are due to wrong environmental influences. It essentially says that, at least in
psychological jargon, man is not responsible for the way that he is turned out. biogenetic
psychology reduces man to the sum total of his chemical parts. He's nothing more than evolve
animal hardwired to think and feel and act at the dictates of his physical components is biochem
biochemistry

drives him.

But in contrast to that, we've got something radically different going on on here and the word of
God, the Bible speaks of man is a depraved center. Sometimes that man suffers because of his
sin. Sometimes, he suffers at the hands of others who are sinning against him. So sin and
suffering sin and suffering sin and suffering is what goes on to what other people do those two
things. That's true. But even the person who is suffering at the center of other people has a
choice.

They have a choice.

How they're going to handle that how they're going to respond to that certain attitudes that
they're going to form as a result of what other people have done or how they have reacted

to what other people have done.

So man is responsible for his choices and often achieves really above and beyond his expected
capacity to supernatural transformation through the work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of
God brings about unexpected and lasting changes in people's lives.

And how many times that happened? To me,

and you've heard me talk about this before. I mean, there are times in counseling where a man I
think, John, you did such a great job. You did. I walk out of there, how can anybody resist that
truth? And nothing happens. And there have been other times where I've walked out with my
hang in my head thinking, Man, I did a horrible job today. Lord, why do you even use me? And
people's lives radically

change? What happened is the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit makes a difference. He is the one who
makes a difference in people's lives.

So it's my responsibility to administer the word as effectively and lovingly and caringly as I can,
the way it was intended, when it was revealed to be ministered, and then I have to leave the
results up to the Holy Spirit. I can't change anybody. Right? If you think you can, you haven't
been a parent

you have not been a parent. Well, then, number four, psychical determinism.

You see underneath every man is, according to Freud, well, according modern psychology.
Underneath every man is this dynamic unconsciousness,

dynamic unconscious.

And that controls his thoughts, his feelings and his deeds. These unconscious factors now are
kept from conscious recognition by repression. And no one can control that. Those repressed
unconscious experiences, thoughts, and how they affect that person. This dynamic can be
expressed in enigmatic ways, such as dreams and tongue slips and unusual emotional or an
unhealthy relationships. And you see, once you define problems in that way, then it takes a
trained psychotherapist or analyst who can come along and peel back the layers of
consciousness and finally get down to the core issue. Right? Well, what's really going on deep
down inside this is really killed. And if you really believe that, if you really believe that somehow
buried in the you're out of awareness, mind, down deep inside is the key to your well being,
then that really puts you in psychotherapy for the rest of your life. That's really true. Because
you may uncover some things, supposedly, you bring them out and you really do, how do you
know that there's not still hidden in that deep, subconscious, something that's even a better key
to your well being. So that puts you in psychotherapy for the rest of your life. And the only
people I know that can afford that are Hollywood movie stars. They're the only one who can
afford though, that therapists all over this area are making big bucks. Because why? Well,
they're constantly supposedly uncovering these layers of consciousness trying to get down to
the subconscious problems that are buried in this out of awareness mind. Well, let me share
with you that biblically and scientifically there is no such thing faster seatbelts, put your crash
helmets on, there is no such thing as a subconscious. Okay, that's not the way contemporary
psychology defines it. It doesn't exist. It's a non entity, biblically. And scientifically.

It's baloney.

If it if there was, by the way, just from a biblical side, if there was subconscious, there's not a
hint in Scripture anywhere in the Bible, not a hint. And you can't get it from the way that you
define the word Suquet or soul. There's not a hint of the subconscious, anywhere in the Bible.
So God left this whole core thing out, when he was trying to reveal to us how to have a better
life, how to live and prosper and how to be happy and content. Because these things are buried
deep, where I can't get Adam, through rationality, my own rationality will never get out of it.
That's reason why Freud and Carl Gustav Jung, and a lot of the guys in their line were referred to
as The irrational psychologist because no amount of rationality is ever going to get to those.

Let me do a very quick, I'm not going to spend a long time with this. But I'm going to do a very
quick review on what we dealt with. Well, the last time just in case you were not here. And by
the way, this message, in fact that we're going to be sort of cleaning up today is a great
introduction for tonight's message with our pastor in the evening service is just perfect. You'll
see why when you come back for the evening service, but it's just ideal for this. And after
hearing what he was going to talk about, in terms of discipleship in First Corinthians chapter
four, then I said, God just prepared for me to do this at this particular time is kind of an
introduction to that. So I'll do his introduction for him. You won't even have to do it tonight. And
then you guys can come back and near the rest of it. Okay. So we started off and talk a little bit
about the impact that psychology has had. And we started off with a little quote by David Wells,
no place for truth. Let me remind you that he mentions here is about a journal called Leadership
general journal that has been in existence probably for about 30 years, pastors all over the
country receives this particular journal, and they usually they are conservative or evangelical
pastors who receive this journal. And he says, of all the essays that appeared between 1980 and
1988, less than 1% made even a Remote Reference to Scripture, or any theological idea, despite
the fact that a number of topics dealt with are themselves treated in the Bible. As the journal
turns away from the Bible to what is apparently assumes or more fruitful sources of knowledge,
it is redefining Christian ministry, and the pastor who accepts its point of view. In the study, the
evangelical pastor is now the CEO and the pulpit the pastor is this a psychologist whose task it is
to enter engineer good relations and warm feelings. Then he goes on and says a new species is
now adrift in the world and washing up all along the shores of evangelical life. It is a species
eager to exchange enduring qualities for a spat of exciting new experiences, a species that thinks
in terms of images rather than truth, that has no place from which to view the world but shifts
from people to people, and an attempt to catch the passing sides of voyeur wager, rather than a
thinker guided by a compass of circumstances, rather than by belief. Now there's so much more
that he says in that but there you got the idea. And what Wells is really speaking about is about
Christian integrationist and we said that integration ism was essentially blending biblical truth
with secular psychotherapeutic theory, trying to find common ground between those two areas.
Anytime a biblical treatment, diagnosis, etiology, and remedy of soul problems is supplemented
or supplanted with humanistic psychological constructs, whether overtly or inadvertently, what
whenever that takes place, that's when integration ism actually occurs. All right? So it's the
attempt to take the truth of the Word of God and find some, somehow some common ground
out there in the secular mindset and secular psychology and find the two and blend them
together. And oftentimes, that's done. And that's sold to Christians under the adage, all truth is
God's truth. All right. Well, certainly that's true. All truth is God's truth. And all truth does belong
to God. But it's just as true that all error is the devil's error. Just as well, and we somehow
divorced from the Bible, think that we are neutral observer, observer observers, who can take
the truth of psychology, find common ground with that of the Scriptures and sort of blend the
two together. And we mentioned the first in our first message, that every time that occurs, it's
the word of God suffers. Every time that occurs, then things get watered down in the scripture,
and, of course, that's not what we should be doing as believers

is watering the truth down. So then we talked a little bit about 10 critical problems. Now, if you
weren't here, I'm not going to rehearse all these 10 Again, but I'm just going to relist them real
quickly without making a whole lot of comment about them. You will want to go to the joiners
website and kind of listen to the message they are downloaded on your computer and listen to
it there and that way you can get a more thorough explanation than we said. We have 10 critical
problems with psychology today. One is the property rights of the soul. Oh, who owns those
property rights, we would say that this God the Bible does has property rights over the soul. I
said, there's no such thing as mental illness, because it's impossible for the mind to be ill, only
the brain can get ill. But mental illness is an oxymoron. It's actually a phrase that was developed
by Sigmund Freud. And, and it was an attempt to somehow wed the biological hard sciences
with that, which is the philosophical or spiritual way in, which is psychology, it was an attempt to
wed those concepts together. So we still use the word freely today, even some of the most
sophisticated researchers still use the terminology, even though it's very, very imprecise
terminology, and doesn't really describe things. Now, are there true brain illnesses? That yes,
there are? Can there be some types of chemical imbalances that are part of the brain? Yes,
absolutely. Can the brain have some kind of traumatic effect? Yes, certainly, the brain can have
stroke as well, the brain can have cancer, the brain can have tumors, and all those things are
true in the brain, as long as the soul is united to the body, then that physiological part of the
body, the brain is going to have an effect upon the soul. And sometimes, that means a negative
effect if some kind of trauma has occurred to the brain. So we have issues of property rights of
the soul, then we have medical metaphors, the redefined rhetoric of the soul, because, again,
see this gets back to the mental illness concept. Now, everything is redefined in what is
commonly a spiritual definition is redefined in medical medical terms, then we have
environmental determinism. So you get behavioral psychology skin Arianism.

Where the your environment basically affects the person and determines the person. We have
major problem with that cyclical determinism as well. That is those things that are buried
somehow, in deeply under layers of consciousness in your subconscious. And we talked a little
bit about that were from a biblical standpoint, and even from a scientific standpoint, the
concept of the site subconscious is nonsense. It doesn't exist the way modern psychology or
psychotherapy defines the subconscious. It's not there. Is there an unconsciousness in man?
Yes. Is there a consciousness in man? Yes, but there is no such thing as subconscious, then there
is the professionalism where everybody has to have a professional degree in order for you to
help another person. That's not true. That is just not true. And you're gonna see why I say that a
little bit later on today. So there's professionalism, six, hedonistic to the ology. In other words,
ultimately, the goal of psychotherapy is for everybody to be happy. Right? You know what,
that's a very frustrating goal. Because we live in a sin cursed world. And were there going to be
times where all the work you do and all the chemicals you take, and all the psychotropic drugs
that you imbibe, are not going to make you happy. Right, but their ultimate ends is happiness
where for us, as counselors with the Word of God, are the ultimate ends of man is to glorify God
and enjoy him forever. That's the, that's the ultimate ends of man now, for Miramare be a time
when glorifying God, we're not going to be happy. It's going to be hard. It's going to be difficult.
It's not going to bring us any happiness or pleasure, we have a tendency that people should
think in our culture today, people should be happy all the time. That's why we take drugs to
make us happy. I'm not happy. So I'm gonna take some drugs in order to make me happy. So I've
got to be happy. Although no one has seen Kirsten environment, that's not going to be the case.
The Bible is very clear about that. In fact, I suggested to you during that first message, that it's
actually the difficult hard times of life, that build our character. Right. That's what builds our
character when we don't feel well, but we still persevere. Romans chapter five, verses three
through five. That's pretty clear, along with Hebrews chapter 12, verses seven through 11. That's
pretty clear. That is we are to endure hardship as discipline. God is treating us as sons. That's the
reason why we're breeding up a group of evangelicals in our day and age that are 20 miles wide
and a half inch deep. All right. In other words, there's no character to them. And that's because
they're seeking this elusive happiness. Oh, there's so much I want to say about that insight
knots. This is I'm getting bogged down in these. All right insight Gnosticism is something that
basically is where it says we have to have a higher knowledge of the soul or the psyche. And only
those people who have this higher knowledge are really qualified to be able to help other
people. That is absolutely nonsense. That's not true. In fact, some of the higher knowledge that
they supposedly have, that's the way the Gnostics of the first century did believed, we have a
higher knowledge of God that nobody else have knew. If you're not a part of our elitist club,
then you can't You're not really a viable, viable in terms of your spiritual standing before God.
And John talks about that. And first, John. And then you'll see a little bit later on how John
actually deals with that. And second, John as well. But all right, evolutionary science, of course,
behind all psychology, what drives the whole system is a view that man evolved from lesser
forms, animals and substances. There's a deep abiding Self Reliance that's taught there, you
know, you can you can improve your life. You you can do certain things to make your life
prosper. All of those things. Teach that man is in control of his entire destiny. And the Bible says
that God's in control of our destiny, you can do certain things to try to improve the quality of
your life and then get hit by a car.

All right, God's in control of your destiny. Ultimately, self determinism as well. We had teaches
self reliance, it teaches self determinism, and rather than reliance upon God, rather than
reliance upon a divine, omnipotent bullet, benevolent Creator, who controls your life from
beginning to end. So all of those things are a part of deep, deep concerns that we have about
psychology. Now. This is the part that we didn't get to before. And that is biblical counseling in
the church. And we want to pick up there because this really gets us into discipleship and talking
about what God intended. It's amazing how Christians survived. until the mid 1800s, when a god
hating man by the name of Sigmund Freud came along and develop the area of psychology. It's
amazing Christians really didn't have serious answers for real problems, until that happen. At
least that's the thinking of a lot of people today. But that's not true. That's not true. We had
answers. And Christians use those answers. And they use them because they had the 66
canonical books of the Bible as the inspired inerrant Word of God. Now, what does God want us
to do with that? Well, that's the key thing. So let me define what biblical counseling is not and
then we're going to talk a little bit about what it is all right, let's define what it's not. Another
word words, when we're talking about biblical counseling, want to make sure that we're talking
about the same thing. Because in our day and age, there are many different different definitions
of biblical counseling. I remember back in the late 1970s, you mentioned biblical counseling,
most people didn't know what you're talking about. They thought it was some kind of form of
psychology. But now, since biblical counseling has been around for 3040 years, or a resurgence
of that among the church, now there are all kinds of different approaches, and people who call
themselves biblical counselors, when in reality they're not. And there are different views of what
biblical counseling is. We want as best as possible will allow the Bible to define what is biblical
counseling. We don't want outside influences to define it. We want the scriptures to define it,
because that's where our authority comes from. So let's talk about it. Number one. Biblical
counseling is not an autonomous ministry. It is not an autonomous ministry. We're not talking
about training people to go out and counsel and disciple people outside of the church, like
hanging up a shingle and putting up a freelance center for counseling come and come in. To me,
I am the Gnostic with the insight into serving, solving your problems in life. No, it's not an it's not
an autonomous ministry that's isolated from a local church. Why? Well, because many problems
arise with those kinds of ministries. One is that there's a lack of accountability. There's lack of
accountability. It's just some counselor out there hanging out a shingle. And they're nobody
oversees what they're saying. Even if they call themselves a Christian, there's no properly
ordained elders overseeing the content of their council. And so they can teach a variety of
things. Back when we were in Ohio, we had a very prominent Christian Counseling Center in our
area. And the funny thing about it was, when their family members got into trouble, they sent
their family members to our church to get counseling, I'm sure that that would undermine their
clientele, if they ever knew that. But they did.

Because they knew that that what they were going to get there was something that been
faithfully derived from the word of God. So we're talking about helping people we're talking
about being faithful to the scriptures and deriving that counsel from what the scripture says. So
there's a lack of accountability. Oftentimes, there is doctrinal compromise in groups like that. In
other words, they're not fastidious, they're not careful with doctrine. Very few are because you
understand that the majority of their training is in the area of psychotherapy. That's the majority
of their training, very little formal training in theology, or in counseling from a faithful, biblical
anthropological view. All right, very little training in that area. And so as a result of that, there is
significant compromise that occurs. In fact, most Christian psychotherapist work from the
premise that you have a layered subconsciousness. And you have to basically peel back those
layers of consciousness to get down to these things that supposedly determine you deep in your
soul. It's, it's derived from the irrational psychotherapy of Freud and Carl Gustaf yawn. So that's,
that's the premise that they're working from so significant doctoral compromises occurs. I never
forget, several years ago, there was a woman who came for counseling, she had gotten to a
psychotherapist because she was angry and upset. This was a Christian psychotherapist, she was
angry and upset over the fact that she and her husband and all of her kids were very short. All
right, she was upset about that. They were all short, they weren't very tall. And that made her
mad. Alright, and the therapist, the Christian therapist, eventually said to her, well, one of the
things that you need to do is you need to forgive God. Now, I've heard that before. And in fact, I
can show you Christian psych books that talk about that forgiving God, and then they'll they'll
always follow that up with this statement. God's big enough, he can take it. Right. God's big
enough. That is pure heresy. As if God has done something wrong, God never does anything
wrong. It's not true. You know, forgive God for anything. It's up to him to forgive us. That was
the issue. Well, why does he do that? Because that will make her feel better. See, there's that
hidden instinct etiology again, right? It'll make her feel better. If she can say to God, Okay, God, I
forgive you for making my husband so short. I forgive you for that. Then, then I can feel better. I
walk out and say, so it has to do with the therapeutic value of the feelings. It doesn't have
anything to do with the truth. So there's doctrinal compromise. And some oftentimes, there's
financial compromise. Use of resources that shoot first should be given to the advancement of
the gospel in the local church is actually turned over to counseling centers like that. So there's so
much we can say about that. But when we're talking about big bouncing, we're not talking about
setting up freelance centers for counseling. We're not talking about that. Secondly, biblical
counseling is not an activity reserved for the experts. This is the Gnostic side of things. Far too
many have given counseling this Gnostic flavor are what we're talking about what I'm
advocating here is a model that any believer willing to be like a Berean can follow. Gnostic say
we're in the know we have some kind of special field of knowledge not available to the average
believer who only has the Bible in the Holy Spirit. Only have the Bible, the Holy Spirit, the two
most powerful things the entire universe. Unfortunately, many Christians, including pastors
have contributed to that kind of thinking. Being a biblical counselor requires work, it requires
effort, it requires dependence upon God requires a biblical balance, grab your Bible for
moments, go over to Colossians chapter one. We're interested in verse 29. Notice how Paul talks
about this. And by the way, the context here is discipleship, it's counseling. And in fact, Paul
talks about his own counseling and discipleship ministry. He says, For this purpose, also, I labor
Colossians chapter one, verse 29.

But his personal purpose also i labor striving according to His power, which so mighty roughly
works within me. So that's why we say this requires work. It requires effort, it requires
dependence upon God. We're not trying to keep a client in counseling, because that particular
client is a good source of revenue for my freelance center. No, we're trying to graduate them
out of counseling as quickly as possible, so that they can learn to be dependent upon God in His
Word. Now, we're not going to graduate them prematurely before they know how to deal with
their problems. But our goal is not to keep them in counseling indefinitely. And some of you
already heard me tell the story, but I'll tell it again, because we have so many new people in the
church. It's like the it's like the young man who went through college and his graduate school in
psychotherapy. And he came home to visit his father and mother one summer and his father
said, you know, son, I've had this site, our site clinic for several years, your mother and I are
ready to go on a vacation would you be willing to take the entire summer and and so your mom
and I can go on vacation. So he's fresh out of grad school, he's assured that no problem will take
over. So he took over for the entire summer, parents went off to Europe, spent three months in
Europe came back at the end of the summer. He said, Well, son how to go he says, Great, had a
great summer everything went terrific. Good. His father said in fact, you mirror Mrs. Adams. She
lives about three or four blocks up the street. You've been seeing her for years. Oh, yeah, yeah,
yeah. I cured her. You did what? I cured her. Oh, you dummy. She put you through college and
grad school and she no doubt did her and her insurance program. There's the idea. No, we're
not talking about that at all. We're not talking about setting up something No, no. In biblical
counseling, you work with person. It's requires a lot of effort. And here, Paul says here he labors,
I labor striving according to His power, which so mightily works within me. That's that's real
counseling. It's real discipleship. I love what Spurgeon said, when he said, We must work as if it
all dependent upon us and praise if at all dependent upon God. He's right. We work as if it all
depends upon us. But we pray as if it all depends upon God. And ultimately, it does depend
upon God, God, we realize that, but God still wants us to do our part. So I labor I strive, with all
the energy within me to disciple help, counsel. So now, how do we do this? Well, let's go to the
book of Romans. Romans chapter 15. notices the Apostle Paul concludes this epistle, he says in
verse 14, he says, In concerning you, my brethren, I myself, also am convinced that you
yourselves are full of goodness. Now this is not internal goodness, he's not talking about that,
but goodness in the way that they treated one another. You're full of all goodness, filled with all
knowledge and able to admonish one another. That word admonish is the word that can be
translated counsel. It can be translated worn. It's the word Nyssa Tao. You're filled with all
knowledge. Now who's this written to? This is not written to pastors. It's not written to church
leaders, or elders. or, or deacons, or deaconesses is not written just for them. It's written to the
entire church. He's admonishing the entire church that Rome, every one of them who were full
of this goodness, this goodness in the way that they treat one another, filled with all knowledge
and also able to admonish or counsel one another. They're able to do that. So if you're a
Christian, you're equipped to give counsel, very similar statement and Galatians chapter six and
verse one, over to Galatians, six, one very similar thing. He's not admonishing here, pastors. He's
not talking to elders, or church leaders, or deacons or deaconesses, Who's he talking to?
Brethren, if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one spirit of
gentleness, each one look into yourself so that you too will not be tempted.

So who is he talking to, he's talking to the church, the entire Galatian church, they were able to
disciple one another, with the Word of God, restore one, that is that word restores the word
that means was using a classical Greek of setting a bone. That's what there's nothing more
helpless than a broken Christian, broken because primarily of sin. And then they're useless to
the church, they're broken, but you you through help and counsel, come alongside and restore
them back into functional service for Christ, to do so in the spirit of gentleness, looking to
yourself, so you're not tempted or broken by the same thing that broke them. So that you will
not be tempted, is the idea. So? Again, that's given to all Christians. Well, number three, biblical
counseling is not an optional ministry, either. It's not an optional ministry. It's not one of those
things that you add to the church, like adding a senior saints dinner. Alright, or a radio ministry,
or

a youth outreach. Now, it's not one of those things that you tack on the external part of the
church is okay, we're gonna make a vested interest just in this area, kind of as a special type of
that's not it at all. If you think that's what biblical counseling is, then you missed the whole
thing. No, biblical counseling is a part of the very fabric of how the church functions. It's not a
ministry, you tack on the edges, right? Or splice on it. It's a part of the very fellowship of the
church. You don't see these auxilary ministries taught in the Scripture, no one's talking about
this kind of ministry is talking about being a part of the very interpersonal relationship that
occurs among believers, in the normal exchange of everyday life. This is what happens. You're
ministering the Word of God to one another faithfully. Grab your Bible. Let's go over to Acts
chapter 20. You can see this, the apostle Paul is very clear. Acts chapter 20. This is his farewell
address to the Ephesian elders. He knows this is the last time he will see them while on this
earth. And so it is a tearful goodbye. And he gives them last minute instructions on how he
wants them to handle the ministry there at Ephesus. And by the way, I think that the way that
this is stated in the flow of the argument of the book of Acts, that this is just a sample of what
he did, and all the other churches. He doesn't repeat the same thing that he does, because that
would be redundant. But this is a sample of actually what he did. Now, the other churches, the
Ephesian church, when he leaves it, he gives them all these instructions, as chapter 20 Verse 20,
he says, now use my ministry with you as an example. He says how I did not shrink from
declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly. That's the public
proclamation of the Word of God. And notice this is the second thing, From House to House.
That's the private proclamation of the Word of God. Okay. There's the public proclamation of
the Word of God and there's the private proclamation of the Word of God. Paul says, emulate
what I did in my ministry in your church there at emphasis when I leave you and I'm not Not
going to return. I want you to emulate that. There's the public preaching of the Word of God.
There's the private preaching of the Word of God. So, we've got to get back to an X 2020 vision
of the ministry. Okay? public, private, public, private. Then later on, he says in verse 31,
therefore be on alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years, I did not
cease to hear we are new Fatah. Oh, admonished counsel, warn. And notice next two words
after that, each one. He didn't say each group. He didn't just preach to them as a whole. He says
each one how I did not cease to admonish counsel each one with tears. By the way, it will soon
as he adds with tears at the end of it, you get this idea of counseling, it's not this white coat
clinical approach to counseling. It's where you're involved with that person so much that you
identify with their particular problems that their problems bring you to tears. How I did not
cease to admonish and counsel and warn you and disciple you on a personal level with tears. So,
Paul, reinforced his public teaching with practical teaching from house to house. You he warns a
false teaching, he warns of doctrine error, he warns about the way that they were practicing
what they were doing. And he did that publicly in his preaching, and he did it privately in his
counseling. We saw the same thing in Romans chapter 15, verse 14. Let's go back to Colossians
chapter one, verse 28. Go to Colossians 128. We were just in verse 29. But look at verse 28. This
is the reason why I said here within context, Paul's talking about personal discipleship. He says,
We proclaim Him admonishing there's our word Noosa Tao again, or I'll make it into an English
word, nouveau Tao wing.