All my life I have heard that we are supposed to live the Christian life by faith. There are lots of definitions of what faith is. I remember an acrostic that I once heard. It went something like--forsaking all I trust him.

I don't think that I understood what it meant by "forsaking all." All what is the question. I wonder if, for the majority of us, faith is what we believe we must have when we get into a problem that we can't get ourselves out of.

Many of us don't even bother to pray the way we ought to, or at least not with much feeling until we get cornered or feel desperate. In plain language, many of us turn to God when there is nowhere else to turn. I am not going to say that there is anything wrong with that in itself. The problem is that we are getting into some pretty big problems these days because we are not turning to God when there is a choice of other places to turn.

If we can get a handle on a problem we usually don't bother God or, if we do, it is usually to ask him to approve and even to bless what we have already decided to do. I often refer to the experience that Pastor Spurgeon, the famous English preacher, had one time. He had been asked to offer the grace at a big banquet where the main course was a roasted pig. How could he offer a blessing? What would he say?

Well, he solved his problem by praying, "Lord if you can bless what you have already cursed, please bless this food." The point, my friends, is that maybe, without knowing it, we are asking God to bless what he has already cursed.

A young woman was dating a non-Christian. I am talking about a person from a non-Christian religion. She told me she was praying that the Lord would show her His will.

I don't condemn her for praying, but I have trouble with asking God to show her his will because he already has and that is that we are not to be yoked with unbelievers. I am sorry to say that many young people seem to choose to ignore that. You may say, "But Pastor O'Ffill, I married a man who was not a Christian and he is now the elder of our church."

I am glad to hear that. But you are not the rule. Though there are occasionally some exceptions, those who marry out of the faith have three possibilities. One is the case of the spouse who becomes converted. Another possibility will be to spend what would otherwise have been a happy life married to a non-believer, and the third possibility is the case where the Christian who marries the non-Christian themselves leaves the faith.

If the truth be known, the average Christian is living more and more by sight and less and less by faith. By sight I mean we are increasingly choosing to do it our way and if God can bless it, OK, and if not, well, I guess He will just have to accept me the way I am and besides, that is what many of the ministers are preaching these days anyway. God accepts you just the way you are.

There is a synthesis that has become popular in recent years that seeks to merge the concepts of living by faith, which is God's way, with living by sight, which is my way. You know what synthesis is don't you? That means to mix the concepts. It is what they like to call creating a win/win situation. Another way of putting it would be to arrive at a compromise.

I have another sermon I preach which is entitled, "He Speaks Our Language." It is based on the concept that if you want to make it impossible for your enemy to convey his concepts, take over his language. The devil is doing this well and widely. To be able to accomplish it he had to become a member of the church. But not to worry, prophecy said we could expect that the devil would become, as it were, an angel of light.

I don't need to tell you how versatile Satan is. He is the original chameleon. He will assume any shape and color you want. To the Pagans he is a pagan. To the witches he is a witch, but to the Christians he has become a saint. He seems to take the side of the oppressed and the afflicted. There would be nothing wrong with that except, in this case, the oppressed and the afflicted are very well thieves, murders and those who practice immoral lifestyles. His code words are compassion, accepting, and non-judgmental.

He has been successful at doing what modern science is not able to do and that is to mix oil with water. No, I don't mean he has actually mixed oil with water, but rather he has been increasingly successful in mixing truth with error.

Of course he doesn't advertise it as such. How successful would he be if he proclaimed that what he taught was truth mixed with error. It reminds me of some of the modern marketing methods they use these days. I laugh sometimes at some of the fruit drinks that are on the shelves in the Super Market. The label says, Real Grape Drink. Then, in smaller print, it says this drink contains real grape juice. That may not be a lie, it just isn't the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It goes on to say the so-called real fruit drink contains only 2% grape juice. The rest is imitation flavor.

But this generation has no problems with imitations. As long as it looks and tastes like the real thing we can bestow on it the name Grape juice. That way of seeing things may be harmless for some things, that is, for the eyes or the taste buds. It is another story if it is something that has to do with the eternal-something that has to do with the soul.

Error advertises itself as being the real thing because somewhere along the line it has 2% of the truth in it. The fact of the matter is that something that is only 2% true is 100% wrong. I know that that kind of thinking doesn't go over so well with the masses. It is seen, by many, as being narrow-minded, critical, judgmental or pharisaical.

So far I have been giving only an introduction or, you might say, contextualizing what this sermon is all about. I think I am now ready to speak plainly. I have entitled this sermon "Let's Give the Gospel a Chance".

I remember when I was in college. a new science was born. I'm not sure that you can really call it a science. If something is scientific, it is predictable. Something that is based on a scientific principle is something that, if you do the same thing every time, the result will always be the same until you do something different. The new, so-called 'science' was psychology. The word is from two Greek words which, when they are put together, mean 'the study of the soul'.

Now I am not going to say that we shouldn't study the mind. But I am not sure that it should be called a science because the human mind is really unpredictable. We can describe how it works, but we cannot say with certainty what it is going to do next.

Before I go on, I should say that it is not the purpose of this sermon to put down those who have chosen to make the study of the mind a life's work. There are many wonderful Christians who have done just that. My concern is what will we use as the baseline from which we will study the mind. Whose yardstick will we use?

I preached a sermon once entitled "Broken Cisterns". In this sermon I showed how modern psychotherapy has, as its founders, people who were atheists and agnostics and who made no bones about their feelings about spiritual matters. Their focus was completely godless.

Some would say, "But, Pastor O'Ffill, don't worry those days are over. We recognize that Freud and Jung, as the founders of modern psychotherapy, were godless men, but those days are over. What we are talking about now is Christian counseling."

Well, I am glad to hear that except I am afraid that, if we are not careful, we will do something like what I did one time when I discovered there was a rat in the garage of my house.

Somehow he had gotten down in the holes of the cement blocks. I tried to get him out but I couldn't. It sounds gruesome, but I finally just poured cement into the hole. Though that was the end of the rat, the fact was his essence was still in the wall.

This might be what has happened, in some instances, in our attempt to sanitize or maybe I should say, to Christianize the heritage that the founders of psychotherapy have left us. In some instances, which I am about to show, the essence of the rat is still in there.

Now I want to be perfectly clear. I believe we should study the mind, but that as Christians we should do so based on the Word of God. Now someone may say that that is exactly what Christian Psychology has done and I am sure that is true in some cases. But there are other cases and they may be in the majority when what are basically pagan concepts have been simply biblicized. We must be aware that just because a person can find a text for something doesn't mean that it is true.

If you need just a text or two to give something credibility then you can make the Bible pretty much say whatever you want including that hell burns forever, the ten commandments are no longer binding and that we go to heaven when we die. The same is true with the Spirit of Prophecy. There is always a quote out there somewhere that can fit a point that a person may want to make. It is important, friends, that we don't use one text or one or even two quotations to prove a point. Every text must be in agreement with every other.

Now let's get down to business. The basic premise of Scripture is that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Scriptures are the account of how that all came about and what God plans to do about it. The Bible traces from before the creation of the world a story that we call the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan and ends the story with the time in which all that is sin and sinners are destroyed and all things will be made new.

I am sure that having said that the basic premise of Scripture is that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, it would be the best part of wisdom, if you were the enemy, to do one of two things. The first would be to teach that what the Bible calls sin really isn't, and the other would be that, if somehow a person gets tangled into the sin, that they are somehow not responsible and that the blame should be laid on something or someone else.

You won't believe it but Satan has not only been able to pull off one of these options but both and the result for his cause has been phenomenal. I remember during the years of Jimmy Carter's presidency there was discussion of making what would be called-if I remember correctly-a neutron bomb. This bomb would have the advantage of leaving the infrastructure in place while simply killing everybody who came into contact with its radiation.

The devil has, as it were, dropped a spiritual neutron bomb on the church. The infrastructure is in place but casualties among the members have been huge. It reminds me of the text in 1 Timothy 4:6, "But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth."

I'm now going to illustrate what I believe has happened. I want to say at the outset that it may appear to some that I am being hard on Christian Psychology. I hope that what I'll say is being hard on psychology and psychotherapy that is not Christian. I respect those who are using the Word for the cure of souls. But, as I have suggested earlier, I am afraid that all which has the name Christian on it may not necessarily be Christian.

What I am about to say may be seen by some viewpoints as being bigoted or judgmental. I hope that it is neither. I also hope that I will be able to use just the right words. After all, we cannot read each other's minds and so we must communicate with words.

I would also like to say that there is no doubt that sin has done a number on all of us. We are all infected with it and, not only that, but we tend to spread it to others-which is not difficult because they, too, are carriers. Scripture makes it clear that there is none righteous no not one and that we have all sinned and continue to come short of the glory of God.

A number of years ago a man named Dr. Karl Menninger wrote a book entitled, "Whatever Became of Sin?" Though the word "sin" still exists, there are fewer and fewer things these days that qualify to be called sin. Nowadays sin has been changed to either a crime or it is a disease. This means that we have assumed responsibility for our own fate. If something can be made a crime, it can later be decriminalized, and if it can be made a disease, we simply must live with it because we cannot be held responsible for what we cannot help.

I am not going to talk about crime and punishment or, shall we say, the increasing lack of punishment; but I don't need to tell you that increasingly the issue is not is a person guilty of a crime, but were the rules of jurisprudence followed. It is more and more common that those in the legal profession will do battle with each other over who is correct as to procedure rather than if the accused is guilty or not.

But as I said, I am not going to talk about crime and punishment. I am going to talk about the trend to make something a disease. This is done through what is called labeling.

All around America there are self-help groups that meet to provide mutual support for hurting people. Many of these groups meet in churches. One common factor in their discussions is what some have called psycho-speak. Psycho-speak is a vocabulary invented by psychological experts and it is being taught in books, magazines, radio, and television. Psycho-speak uses labels to describe every human behavior. The labels are often presented in noun form such as: "an ill person", "an adult child", "an abused person," "a handicapped person," "an addict, " "an alcoholic," "an enabler", "a co-dependent, "a kleptomaniac, " "a psychotic, "a foodaholic, " "a schizophrenic, " a nymphomaniac." The list seems to be endless. In common conversation, these terms are often preceded by the confession, "I am... " in which a person accepts his assigned role in our "dysfunctional" society.

Some may argue that these labels help us to understand ourselves so we can more effectively manage our problems. They will say that unless you know what the disease is, you can't treat it.

I believe people are attracted to psycho-labels for possibly two reasons, 1) the belief that anything short of perpetual happiness is a medical ailment that needs professional treatment, and 2) that since these disorders are actually illnesses, the individual bears no responsibility for their existence or solution.

Someone may ask, " But what's the harm in labeling behavior as illnesses?" Friend, there are at least four major problems with psycho labels.

1. The first problem is that psychological categories under the heading of "mental illness" provide crippling excuses for sinful behavior. Now I do not suggest that all mental and emotional problems are the result of sinful thinking or behavior. There is no doubt that certain abnormal behavior can be traced to physical problems. We are aware that brain tumors, neuro-chemical imbalance, mercury poisoning, poor nutrition, hypoglycemia, fatigue, pain and a host of other physical disorders have an impact on the thinking processes of human beings.

To make the disease theory of human behavior valid, it is necessary to believe that the mind and the brain are the same thing. But some have suggested and I tend to agree, that the mind and the brain are not the same thing. The mind is not a thing and so technically it cannot have a disease.

Though a person can have a diseased brain they can't technically have a diseased mind anymore than you can have a purple idea or a wise space. There are diseases of the brain such as tumors, meningitis, neurosyphilis, and epilepsy, but strictly speaking the mind cannot really become diseased any more than the intellect can become abscessed. In plain words, while the mind functions within the brain, they are not the same thing.

2. Another problem with psycho-labels is that labeling something as a mental disorder has served to determine society's attitude toward mental/emotional and behavioral problems. A classic example of this is the label of alcoholism. In the days before this label was attached, people who drank in excess where called drunkards. Being a drunkard was not perceived as having an incurable disease. Many were the stories of the town drunk coming down to the altar and being changed. Now, when a person is diagnosed as being an alcoholic, they are told that their situation is incurable, and they will be an alcoholic for life, and that if they do not attend AA they will be a prime candidate for reverting to their disease.

A friend of mine, Dr Ernest Steed, who was for many years the director of the Temperance Department for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, doesn't agree that what we call alcoholism is a disease. The problem is not 'can a person become physically addicted to alcohol'. The problem is 'shall we call this a disease as we would leprosy, cancer or TB'. Once you contract cancer, you have it and don't have to go anywhere. It has a life of its own, or I should say, a death of its own. In the case of alcohol and drugs you have to go somewhere and take something. Again, I say-and you will understand later why I am making this contrast-is it consistent to call this a disease?

Though surely there are risk factors that may cause leprosy, TB, or cancer to occur, a person who has once contracted these diseases does not have to do anything to cause them to progress, while a person who is on drugs or alcohol, strictly speaking, must do something or the condition-being drunk or high on drugs-does not exist. As you may guess by now, what I am saying is that to have leprosy, TB and cancer you don't have to make a choice. To get drunk or high, you do. Another major problem with psycho labels is what we might call perpetual victimization. When one accepts his label, he is forever categorized. We have all heard people say "I am an alcoholic, so it is not my fault", or "I am a co-dependent... so it's not my fault."

A person asked to speak to me one time at a camp meeting. Before she began she said, "I am an alcoholic." I asked her if she drank. She said that she hadn't drank for ten or more years. Before she began to tell me what was on her mind I said, "Please don't misunderstand me. You don't drink and neither do I. You are only an alcoholic to people who still drink. You may say that you used to be an alcoholic but if you are not drinking you are just like me." But there is the label again. Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.

Another time I was in Europe visiting our servicemen's center in Frankfort. It was a men's ministries weekend. A young Sergeant gave his testimony. He said that he was an alcoholic. Of course he hadn't drunk in years. Later after Sabbath School, just before I began to preach, I called the soldier forward. I said, "Sergeant, I am going to give you a promotion."

You know in the services, if you are not getting regular promotions, you have to leave. I told him that morning that I was going to give him a promotion. I said, "Sargent, I have a promotion for you from Jesus. He has set you free and given you the victory. You don't have to call yourself an alcoholic anymore." I will never forget the big smile that came to his face.

This generation has a vested interest in not letting us get past the past. There is no doubt that sin has done a number on us. We are victims of sin but when we accepted Jesus as our personal Savior, although we didn't get a new body, including of course, a new brain, we did get a new mind. Our mind is who we are. I am not my head or my lungs but I am my mind.

The gospel is based on two realities. The first is that we are responsible for what we are and the second is that Jesus has made himself responsible to save us if we will trust in Him.

The net result of what I am calling 'psycho labeling ourselves' is that 1. It infers and we are not responsible for our behavior and 2. It is teaching us that we must always live with the past hanging over our heads. This philosophy tries to make ineffective the words in 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says that if we are in Christ we are a new creation. Old things have passed away and all things have become new.

Two of the most liberating truths of the gospel of Christ are that God forgives us for our sins and we no longer have to remain slaves to the past. We can experience cleansing and total healing through the unlimited power of God.

This is the message that we are to proclaim. Unfortunately, as pastors and counselors, we often have bought in to the devil's deceptions and, consequently, being a Christian is often little more than a paint job rather than a whole new beginning.

This may come as a surprise to you, but listen to this. It is from 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."

But that is not all. Listen to what comes next. "And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

Notice how awful the past. So bad that if you persist you will be lost. Notice this text mentions two classes that are particularly relevant in our day-drunkards and abusers of themselves with mankind. We would say alcoholics and homosexuals. As I have said earlier, the devil has been successful in getting across the idea that once an alcoholic always an alcoholic and that homosexuals can't help their lifestyle. In this regard, some even run their lifestyle back to God who made us male and female and say that they live as homosexuals because God made them that way. I can't see how God could have created alcoholics and homosexuals and then said, in effect, because I have made you the way you are, you cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

My friends, such labeling is the opposite of what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. Why are we such a stubborn and stiff-necked people? Why won't we give the Gospel a chance to do in our lives what Jesus meant for it to do?

There is a wonderful text in 1 Corinthians 10:13 which says that no temptation has seized us but except what is common to man. And God is faithful. He will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. But when we are tempted, He will provide a way out so that we can stand up under it.

Some might argue that this verse does not apply to serious disorders and addictions, but merely to normal temptations that mentally healthy people experience. But the context shows that Paul is writing about obsessions-abuse of alcohol, overeating, and sexual addictions. It says that the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry and that we should not commit sexual immorality as some of them did.

A third result of psycho labeling is that it stunts the development of mental, social and spiritual maturity. These days counselors will often tell middle-aged men and women that they are the "adult children" of such and such. The theory is that since they suffered torment at the hands of their parents or other authority figures, they must bear their psychic scars forever. The best they can hope for is to learn to cope. They can never be whole because they were eternally damaged. This is supposed to explain why they never learn to say no to alcohol, food, or drugs. Who can blame them if they become sexually promiscuous or if they get into extreme debt? It is to be expected that they, too, will abuse their children and perpetuate the cycle of violence. After all, they are only children in big bodies.

Yet the Apostle Paul wrote, "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me (1 Corinthians 13:11). With the power of God, no matter how horrible one's childhood may have been-and I do not discount the incredible horror inflicted upon millions of children-one can experience genuine healing of a wounded heart and grow into full maturity in Christ.

The commands of God-His invitations-are given to every human, whether one grows up in a loving Christian home or in a cesspool of hell. Thank God, Jesus did not make the offer only to those who had healthy childhoods when he said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full". (John 10:1).

I was interested to learn that in 1917 only 59 forms of mental disorders were recognized by the American Psychiatric Association. By 1952 this number had grown to 106 and by 1980 it was 292. Specific disorders now include nicotine dependence, self-defeating personality disorders, and hypoactive sexual desire disorder. But some things that were considered disorders before 1973 were removed, namely homosexuality.

Someone may say that giving everything a name makes it easier to get a handle on it. But, seeing the growth of the disorders, it is apparent that whatever is being done must not be working.

But why should I categorically condemn labeling? The Bible labels us who have chosen to follow Jesus as our Savior. One of the Labels that the Bible attaches to us is that we are Children of God. Jesus says in John 1:12, "To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." Later Paul says in Galatians 4:7, "No longer a slave, but a son, and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4:7). A valid question is what does He mean by slaves? I think we know the answer. The world has labeled us as losers and incurable slaves of our passions and propensities. But the Gospel says we are not.

Another label that the Bible attaches to us is that we are redeemed persons. The world doesn't allow us to get on with our lives. It wants us to look back. When God was delivering Lot and his family from Sodom, they were told specifically not to look back. We cannot go forward by looking backward. Though many have a past that is literally horrifying, when we accept Jesus as our Savior we become His purchased possession and no longer are bound by our past.

You may say, "But Pastor O'Ffill, I know people who are good Christians who are haunted by their past." This is unfortunate but very likely is a result of not completely accepting by faith the deliverance that the Gospel promises to us. When we try to blend the philosophies of the world with the truth of the gospel what we get is a gospel that is not able to do what Jesus meant for it to do. We must choose this day whom we will believe, and I hope that we can, by faith, not only believe but live the words of Jesus when he said, "Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more."

We must also bear in mind that if we harbor bitterness and resentment in our hearts toward those who have damaged us in the past, this bitterness will keep us emotionally living in the past and keep us from pressing on toward the mark of the high-calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Another label, in addition to being a child and redeemed or bought back from our past, the Bible designates us as forgiven people. David declared, "He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases". Psalm 103:3. We have the blessed promise that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The victim of incest who often mistakenly assumes that he or she must have deserved such treatment needs not spend years in therapy to sort out blame or to comprehend why something so awful took place. A biblical understanding of man's sinful nature removes much of the mystery.

Healing begins to take place when the victim learns to rest in God's glorious love. Understanding God's unlimited forgiveness for the sins he truly has committed can free an abused person to forgive those who sinned against him.

And what of the abuser? Because of the awfulness of what he has done to others, he may well assume that there is no possibility of forgiveness for him. The best he can do, according to the modern mindset is to undergo years of therapy so that he will never repeat his crimes. But psychotherapy will not change his heart, and the psychologized rapist, when released from jail, may well repeat his abuse whenever possible.

But how can we know when someone who has done these things has truly repented and is changed? Two indications will be 1- his desire to ask the forgiveness of the ones he so viciously ravaged and 2-his willingness to submit himself to close supervision and strict accountability.

Another label that the Bible puts on us is that we are a new creation. The Apostle Paul, who could call himself the chief of sinners because of what he did during the time he was responsible for the persecution of the church, wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away and behold all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17.

A person cannot be truly reformed through therapeutic techniques. What is needed is the miracle of transformation and that is something that must be done by the Holy Spirit. Ezekiel 36:26 explains how it works. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh". The book of Titus calls it "the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5.

The fifth and final label the Bible puts on us as Christians is victor. Society wants to makes us all victims of something. Jesus promises to make us victors. This is not a theory or a dream. It becomes in Christ a reality. John says in 1 John 5:4, "Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith." Yes, friend, instead of being victims we become victors in Jesus Christ our Lord.

I must remind us that living by faith is hard work because it flies in the face of all that we are being told. But the reward is great. We have the choice. To paraphrase the words of Joshua in Joshua 24:15, "And if it seem evil unto you to accept the Gospel, choose you this day what you will buy into; whether modern psychobabble which is founded on the principles invented by man or every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God as revealed in his Word. But as for me and my house, we will reject the wisdom of man and we choose rather the wisdom of God."

Friend, we have tried the wisdom of the world. Let us from this day give the gospel a chance. "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." Ephesians 3:20,21