Spirit Controlled Temperament — Tim LaHaye

Tonight I've come to share a message with you that I trust will be an inspiration and a blessing. It's one that's based on the Word of God and an analysis of the way in which people operate. I function on a simple premise, and that is that when a natural, everyday, ordinary human being has a supernatural power within him, he ought to be different.

You believe that? As a matter of fact, I think the best test of whether or not you're born again does not occur in this building, but in your home. Because if Jesus Christ has done anything for you and for me, it ought to show itself at home.

How we are at home is what we really are. We can come here, you know, and put on a good front. But as our children see us, as our partner sees us, that's what we really show. And you see, we shouldn't be just showy Christians.

We should be demonstrations of the power of God within us. If a tree has life, you don't have to tell it in the spring, well, it's time to show buds and grow leaves. It just does what life demands. Well, if the Holy Spirit of God is within a believer, then he is going to demonstrate it without even trying.

The Supernatural Life Must Be Visible at Home

I'd like to show you what makes us tick. And to begin with, Pastor, I need your help. This is a fancy... Will you just grind this up? Well, can we move it up? Or do you have to tilt the whole thing to move it up?

You have to tilt the whole thing. All right. Live dangerously. Amen. In heaven, I'll sign your check. All right. Now, this is a diagram. Can everyone see this all right? I want you to... I'll move it up here where you can get a little better picture of it.

This is what you really are. This is the real you. Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Now, the soul is the seed of the will. And the thing that makes us different from animals is we have a will.

We don't have to obey God. We're miserable if we don't. But if we choose not to obey God, we don't have to. And that soul, together with the free will that God has given us, this eternal will and eternal soul that God has given us, makes us different from the animal kingdom.

This is the unique part of us that we communicate to our children and through them successive generations. Now, Jesus said, We're to love the Lord our God with all of these. Now, I'd like to show you what an unsaved person looks like.

The Unsaved Person and the Battle for the Mind

In symbol form, here we have a little picture of the big eye or the ego of man sitting on the throne of his will. And he is saying, I will do as I please. I will ascend into heaven. I will be the master of my fate.

I, I, I. Sounds like a familiar story if you know Isaiah 14. Then, Jesus stands on the outside and he knocks at the door of a person's heart. Well, Jesus doesn't come along and knock like this. Let's understand, we're in a battle for the mind.

And the Holy Spirit of God uses these eyes and these ears of ours to penetrate the mind. And whenever you hear the word of God, it's Jesus knocking on your heart's door and saying, Open the door, open the door.

Or, whenever you as a Christian hear the word of God, it's the Holy Spirit speaking to us, telling us, This is my body. I have purchased this. It belongs to me now. Walk ye in my ways. Continually, through this vehicle of our mind, one of the most phenomenal mechanisms known to man, man has never been able to duplicate anything as phenomenal as the human mind.

And if we, with our will, choose to put in our mind those things that are pleasing to God, it is going to create our feelings. But this man has chosen to disregard God. He is the master of his faith. And so he uses whatever he wants into the eye gate to his mind.

But whatever he puts in his mind will cause a feeling here. Be sure of that. Now, let's suppose this fellow comes to your church. He hears the Gospel message. He is deeply under conviction for sin. And he repents of his sin and invites Jesus Christ into his life as Lord and Savior.

Let me show you what happens. Jesus Christ comes in to take over the throne of this man's life. And I'd like to explain something. He does not cease to live. He still has a will. But Jesus Christ is Lord of his life.

And please understand that no one accepts Jesus Christ as Savior today and Lord ten years from now when he grows a little bit. Now, it looks like that with many Christians' lives. But that's not what happens.

At the moment of salvation, the Bible says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we invite Jesus in, it isn't just to forgive the mess we've made of the past, but it is to become the Lord and Dominator of our lives.

And that is conversion. You see, repentance isn't, Lord, forgive me for those lies that I told and for those things that I stole that are bothering my conscience. That is not repentance. Repentance is a turning around from the position of self-will, I will lie and I will steal and I will do as I please, to instead I will give my life over to Jesus Christ and He becomes the Lord and Master of my life.

And every time we assert authority over our lives from that point on, we are reneging, so to speak, on the transaction we made with Him. Now, this man is a Christian. And when he has received Jesus Christ as Lord of his life to become his Dominator, then a miracle also takes place.

He becomes a new creation. I'm going to ask you to say a verse of Scripture with me. I do it boldly because I know in a church like this you know it. It's one of my favorite verses in the Bible. If you don't recognize the tag when I give it, then when we start saying it together, you'll recognize it and we can all say it together.

But I want you to say with me a verse that describes this experience. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. How many of you know that verse? Great! I knew I was in home country. All right, let's say it together. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

All things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. Isn't that a phenomenal verse? When Jesus Christ sends his Holy Spirit into our lives, we become a new creature. We have a new motor within us.

You see, the heart of man is the motor of man. All function of the heart or all function of the body is motivated by the heart. Not the mind, but by the heart. You see, the heart is the feeling sensation.

And scientists tell us that in from our temples and back from our forehead, we have an electronic switchboard, so to speak, which they call the emotional center. That's what Jesus meant when he said, The heart, as a man thinketh in his heart and out of the abundance of the heart.

So everything happens. So, we can control this heart by feeding this new nature. He comes in as a baby nature. If you were saved last Sunday, you have a brand new baby nature. Don't expect to act too much like a Christian right away.

Why? Because this old fellow has so many entrenched habit patterns set in motion that it won't be long and you'll be acting more like him than you act like him. You say, well, what should I do? Go back to the church and see if I can't get another installment?

No. I've gotten an education in the last nine months. Nine months ago, I became a grandfather for the first time. And, you know, that is a frightening experience. And I've learned a lot of things. One is that babies haven't changed much in the last few years.

They still cry and they still smell. And, you know, they're very demanding. But they all have one thing in common, they need to grow. And they have this insatiable appetite. You know, two o 'clock in the morning or two o 'clock in the afternoon makes no difference.

They want to eat. Now, a baby Christian should do exactly the same thing. Want to eat, eat, eat. Now, what does he eat? He eats that which will help him through the eye gate and through the ear gate primarily.

And you will find what you put into your mind will cause you to feel. That's the reason that you feel so great when you've gone to the house of the Lord and heard the Word of God. You don't analyze it and say, am I just having an emotional kick or something?

No, no. You're feeding your spiritual nature and He is strong in the Lord. That's one of the reasons many of us who have gone to young people's camps would come away after a week of concentrated study in the Word of God and we were strong in the Lord.

We go back into school in a secular situation. And if you didn't have a continual feeding station and you weren't regular about your Sunday church habits so that you could continue to supplement your spiritual diet, it wasn't long before your battery ran down spiritually.

And you couldn't understand it. Why? Because the Word of God wasn't dwelling in you richly when you were back at school like it was when you were at camp. We need this continual service station. And may I just pause here to point out that that's what the church of Jesus Christ is doing today.

The church is a spiritual service station. We take all the wrecks and all of the accidents and all of the new Christians and all of the old Christians and we feed them the Word of God and then we send them out into the highways and hedges and the factories and the places of business to communicate the good news that more and more people need to accept Jesus and come to the house of the Lord to feed on the Word of God that this new nature might grow thereby.

Feeding the New Nature Through the Word of God

Which of these two natures? Now I'm assuming everyone in the house on a Thursday night is a born-again Christian. I hope I'm not making an invalid assumption. If you're not, what you need to do is invite Jesus Christ in as Lord and you'll have this same new nature.

Now, which of these two natures controls your life right now? You say, well, this one. In some cases it's a big nature because you've been a Christian for a long time and you've quit feeding this old nature.

Well, I'll tell you which one controls you. The one you feed the most. If you feed as a Christian, if you feed through the eye gate, the rubbish of this world, and I mean it is getting more and more like trash than ever before.

If you feed the news media and the boob tube and the movies and all of the things of the world into your mind, be sure of this, it isn't going to do one thing for your spiritual nature. But it will sure do a lot for your sensual appetites.

And I want to point out one thing, that you as a free moral agent decide what you will let your eyes and your ears absorb. Let me illustrate something. Pastor, may I use this as an illustration? May I use it as an illustration of pornographic literature?

Now, it isn't. I know I've read this. It's a very fine and excellent paper. I'm flabbergasted you could put out such a fine paper. But that didn't come out the way I meant. It speaks well for this local church.

I've read it. He's been sending it to me. And I really appreciate it. But now, as a free moral agent, let's just assume that this is a piece of pornographic literature that used to be against the law.

Today you can pick it off any newsstand. And as a Christian, I walk into the newsstand, you walk into the newsstand, and I make a choice, do I not? I can walk over there and I can look at it. But I'll tell you one thing, whether I'm a Christian or not has not one thing to do with the results.

If I read pornographic literature, how do you think I'm going to feel? Pornographic. I'm going to have my baser man respond. I have an old nature. Now, some of you may be so wholly sanctified you think this guy is dead.

Well, you come and see me afterward and I'll tell you, we'll get into an argument. And before long you'll prove he's very much alive. And every time, every time we put in our minds that which feeds this nature, we only make him stronger to overcome this new nature.

Now, I have another choice. When I go to bed tonight, I can decide I'm too tired to read the Word of God, program my mind for slumber, and just crawl in and go to sleep. And you know what my subconscious mind will do all night?

Your subconscious mind never shuts off, never underestimate its power. You know what my subconscious mind will do? It will mull over all the things that have happened, and if I've read something of a sensual nature, that's what my food will be during the night.

In fact, one of the reasons I'm convinced so many Americans are emotional and neurotic and on the verge of a nervous breakdown is very simply because the last thing they do every night before they go to bed is watch the news.

That's right. Eleven o 'clock news, you know, we've just oriented ourselves. We used to go to bed at a decent hour. Now we have to sit up and watch the eleven o 'clock news, you know. And so the bright-eyed guy comes on, you know, and he looks at us through those horn-rimmed glasses, and he tells us what a dismal status the world is in.

The world news, you have the skyjackings over here, and the thuggings and the muggings and the, you know, all the rest over here. And then he says in a cheerful voice, now we'll turn to the national news.

So someone up here is being attacked and molested and all kinds of thievery, and then we hear about this gait that's going on in some watered villa in Washington. And we begin to wonder, who can you trust?

And people go through all of this, and then now let's have the local news. You know, you hear about someone that was shot down the way and someone whose house was burned down, and all these nice, juicy tidbits.

And then they switch to the sports news, and you found your favorite team just lost its last game. And so you crawl into bed with all these negative thoughts rattling around. Now, how do you think you're going to wake up in the morning?

Depressed, discouraged, despondent. And people wake up all across America the next morning, and they say, oh, another day. And may I offer you a suggestion that will be very helpful? I have, in my counseling ministry, dealt a great deal with depressed persons.

God just has given me a very compassionate heart for these needy people. And I have tried experiments with suggesting that every night before they go to bed, they sit down and read a couple of chapters of the Word of God, and then bring out their handy little list of ten things for which they are grateful in their life.

Always have a list of at least ten things that you're grateful for. And if you couples are having problems in marriage, I can tell you how to change it in two weeks. Just make a list of things you thank God for in your partner, and then go over that list every night before you go to bed.

And the last thing you say before you go to sleep is, Lord, I want to thank you for Mary or Bill. I want to thank you for this in their life and that. And do you know how you're going to wake up in the morning?

With a bright new hope. It is absolutely cathartic the way this has a transforming effect on your mind. Try it. And you see, the Bible teaches us that we should let the Word of God dwell in us. How? Richly in all wisdom.

But I'll be sure of one thing. Whatever you let dwell in your mind is going to cause you to feel. Our culture is so brainwashed into thinking that anything we feel like doing, we should do. Boy, that is a lie.

There are fellas in jail for doing that. The best way I know to destroy your life is just be a spontaneous combustionist of the feeling variety. Just do anything I feel like. You know what I would do if I felt like it?

I would eat everything in sight. I have an insatiable appetite. You know my favorite food? German chocolate cake. I once told someone my vision, my very carnal vision of heaven is I'm going to dive off a diving board into a German chocolate cake and eat my way out.

Now that's what I feel like doing. But I know I wouldn't get through the back door if I did. And so I have to deny myself that. There are all kinds of things that we deny ourselves. And the Bible tells us that we're to keep, we're to keep our body in subjection and put off the old man.

Walking in the Spirit Versus the Works of the Flesh

Now how in the world do we do that? By putting on the new man. By walking in the Spirit. You see, as we feed our mind, so we cause this new man in Christ Jesus to react. And I'd like to point out tonight that we have plenty, plenty of equipment and material.

I have a diagram here that I want to preach to you. You didn't think I was going to use the Bible, did you? Well, let's turn to the book of Galatians. And I want you to read a passage with me. In the light of this diagram, by the way, in my opinion, this is one of the most important passages in the Bible for Christians to master.

Now we should learn the Word of God. And you can't learn the Word of God just by going to church once in a while and listening or just sitting. You have to study the Word of God. And I've never known God to use anyone in or out of the local church that didn't study the Word of God.

Because if you don't study it, you don't have anything to communicate. And if God is going to use your life and mine, directly or indirectly, it has to be in the battle for the mind. All right. Now in verse 16 it commands us something.

Galatians 5. This I say then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. All right. Now the secret of the Christian life is in that verse. What is it? Walk in the Spirit. You cannot be miserable if you walk in the Spirit.

All right. Let's turn that around. When you're miserable, what does that tell you? You're not walking in the Spirit. Right? All right. But when you're not walking in the Spirit, notice you have a warfare going on.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Let me show you how that works. Here we have the flesh.

Here we have the new nature. Let's keep it simple because I'm not much of a mathematician. Let's suppose that this fellow is 21 when he accepts Jesus Christ. How old is this old nature? Twenty-one years old.

Let's suppose that was 21 years ago. He's 42 now. That means he's almost halfway through life, and that almost gets further and further away every year. Anyway, here he is at 42 years of age, and he's 21 years old in Christ.

Now, which of these two natures is the strongest? Depends on which one he fed the most. But he is going to have both of these natures within him, and at 42 years of age, be sure of this, he can feed either one.

He can feed either one, and the one he feeds the most is going to dominate his life. And you will find that these two war one against another. And the only way, as a Christian, you and I can be happy and successful is to walk in the Spirit.

Do you know who the most miserable people in the world are? They're Christians who do not walk in the Spirit. You see, an unsaved person doesn't have this new nature in here reminding him every time he's going contrary to the Word of God.

So if you're here without Christ tonight and you say, Good night, why do I want to be a Christian? Christians are uptight. I just point out, I've met a lot of uptight Christians. I've been uptight. I know what it's like to walk on both sides.

I've walked year for years in this man, and I know what it's like to walk in this one. And any Christian who's walking under the motivation of the flesh is a lousy illustration of Christianity. But that's not God's will nor God's plan.

God's plan is that we walk in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit as we feed our mind the Word of God and as we yield ourselves to the control of the Spirit. There's going to be a warfare within us. Okay, now look at verse 18.

If you're led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now, get this. The works of the flesh, that is, the manifestations of the flesh, are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. We don't have to go into a long debate about that.

Anyone that's motivated by this old man to commit adultery, fornication, lasciviousness and uncleanness, it's obviously, it's the sinful, carnal nature. Idolatry, witchcraft, oh yes, we can see that. Notice this next one.

Say that out loud to me, would you? Hatred. That's one of those nice, respectable Baptist sins that we don't mention very often. But he lists it in the same class as adultery, fornication. I hope that gives us a new perspective of inner rebellion and bitterness and animosity and unforgiveness that we are prone to harbor.

Variance, going around trying to create some variation whether there's no cause. Emulations, wrath, that's hatred. And strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like.

By the way, if we didn't read your pet sin, it's covered right there. And such like. Of the witch, I tell you before, as I've also told you in time past, they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Let me point out something here. He's not saying those who occasionally do those things. He's talking about those who as a habit, pattern, and life's motivation do those things. You'll find that unsaved people do those things because they don't have a new nature.

Now notice the breath of fresh air in verse 22. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And there suddenly you find an exciting concept.

There are nine, nine strengths of the spirit-filled life. Nine strengths of the spirit-filled life. Love, joy, and peace. Anyone ever been hurt by love, joy, and peace? Don't you enjoy being around people that exude love, joy, and peace?

And then long-suffering, that's patience. And then gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. This is the spirit-filled individual. This is the individual that is committed to the Spirit of God.

And may I point out that this is what God the Holy Spirit wants to do for you and me today. One day on an airplane out of Dallas going to Austin, Texas, I was seated next to a psychiatrist. And I, of course, wanted to talk to him about Jesus.

And the minute I mentioned Jesus' name, he became so incensed, I thought for a moment he was going to leap off the plane. But when he saw how high up we were, he changed his mind. And he instantly got into a heated debate.

He just jumped all over me because of the Christians he had met and blah, blah, blah. And he said to me, by the way, he was half-plastered. His bloodshot eyes and his breath smelled such that I knew he had had a few before he got on the plane.

And then the girl came, you know, one of those half-clad girls that came along with one of those dresses. Well, I'm not sure it is a dress. Like my daughter said, Dad, I think that's just a wide belt.

Anyway, she came along and she said, Would you men like a drink? And I said, No, thanks. And he said, I'll take his. And downed them both. And then when we got into talking about Christ, he got so nasty.

And then turned to me and I could just sense he shifted into a habit pattern. He asked a question that he had probably asked a hundred people before. He said, If you claim to be a Christian, I want to ask you a question.

What has Jesus Christ done for you today? How do you answer that? Did he have a legitimate right to ask that question? Drunk as he was, he had every right to ask that question. If I claim to be indwelt by the supernatural power of God, then he ought to have done something different in my life.

Have you ever thought about that? What has Jesus Christ done for you today? I'd like to show you what he can do for you today, depending on the raw material you started out with. What Jesus does for us is dependent upon what we are to begin with.

And you'll find that we all have a variety of besetting sins, the sin that does so easily beset us. And have you ever noticed that some Christians are all hung up on a sin that is no temptation to us?

Isn't it nice to feel self-righteous whenever you see that? I don't understand why that Christian falls into that sin. I never have that problem. Of course, he probably doesn't have a temptation in an area where we have a problem.

You see, we all have one. And you know, interestingly enough, it will follow a temperament pattern. I'd like to give you a very quick overview of the four temperaments concept. It will be very quick, and I think you'll find it interesting.

The Four Temperaments and Their Spiritual Weaknesses

And then I'll sum it up by showing you, taking us where we are, God the Holy Spirit is able to lead us out into a full, rich life. For example, the theory of the four temperaments is the best concept or theory of why we act the way we do that's ever been propounded.

It's not original with me. It's a little older than I am, in fact. It's 2 ,400 years old. But this theory is that there are four basic kinds of people that are born this way. You're born with a certain kind of temperament.

And it has strengths that we have on the outside of our circle, and weaknesses on the inside. Now, those of you in the back, don't feel bad. I'm going to blow this up in a minute, and you'll be able to see it.

And these four basic temperaments, the sanguine super salesman, the cleric, hard-driving leader, and the melancholy mystic, and the easy-going, nice phlegmatic, all of these people have strengths and weaknesses.

The problem is their weaknesses are so powerful, they overshadow their strengths, and they're rarely able to be used of God unless they walk in the Spirit. And God's use of your life is dependent upon your gaining the nine strengths for your many weaknesses.

And I don't care who you are or what temperament you are, whatever your weakness, there's a strength in the Spirit-filled life on a practical, everyday basis. Now, before I go into an analysis of this, let me just give you a couple of thoughts to think about.

One is, no one is all one of these. You know, we just don't come out that way. Both your mother and father have made a contribution to you, and since opposites always attract each other in marriage, that's why we have such an interesting adjusting to do, then your children are going to be kind of a composite.

But you'll find that the genes that have produced our color of eyes and color of skin and hair and body style and so on, those genes also produce the kind of temperament we have. And that temperament is the raw material from which God will save us by the working of His Holy Spirit.

Now, that's one of the things I want you to remember. Another is, if you've been a Christian a long time, you may find it difficult to diagnose your temperament. And you know why? Because the Holy Spirit has already done so much for you.

So that today's behavior won't give you a good picture. I have found that unsaved people, I can diagnose their temperament in five minutes. But I know Christians intimately, and I still can't figure out what is their basic temperament.

And to me, that's a thrilling illustration of the Holy Spirit. Another thing I want to warn you, don't use this as a psychological club to examine all your friends. I want you to use this for self-analysis, and then maybe to help you understand why other people do what they do.

It makes it much easier to get along with them. Okay, first of all, meet my friend Sparky Sandwin. Sparky Sandwin is that effervescent, supersonic, extrovertish salesman type that could sell refrigerators to the Eskimos.

In fact, I'm sure he could even sell rubber crutches to the crippled. But this man, this man is a natural-born actor and speaker. I mean, he can talk off the top of his head or wherever he speaks and make it sound interesting.

Here are some of his strengths. He is very outgoing and personable and responsive to everything around him. He is what I call a people-people. If you watch a Sandwin, when he's alone, he's just kind of glum.

But the moment he sees a people, his face just sparks up and he just comes to life. One of the problems a Sandwin's wife has is, why is it he can sit like a big blob of gelatin in the living room chair and then all it takes is the doorbell and he just jumps into action and, you know, he's just a whirlwind of activity and she thinks, Wow, what turned him on?

I can tell you what turned him on, a people. Really. Sometimes a bird will do it, you know. They're very responsive to everything around them. By the way, if you have some of these Sandwin people, enjoy their spontaneity and their happiness.

I believe personally their major contribution in life is to just spread good cheer. Don't look at all the things they forget to do. Enjoy that. They're carefree. They never worry about the past. They never worry about the future.

I have a very dear friend whose life has been a disaster. He had an unhappy marriage. He was saved. That was a difficulty. He lost his son when he was 12 years of age. His wife turned bitter and she re-divorced him.

And here we are driving through the city of Portland, Oregon. He's all alone, been single for six years and happy as a lark. And we were talking about the miserable people that come to me and ask for counseling as we were holding meetings and so on.

And he turned to me and very spontaneously said, You know, God has been so good to me, I've never had a problem in my whole life. Only a Sandwin would look at life like that. They're super compassionate.

You tell this fellow a sad story and he'll break down and cry right there. And they're friendly, enthusiastic. They love to please people. They'll go out of their way to do anything for people. They're just people-oriented creatures.

Now, if I could stop there and that's all there was about it, that'd be neat, wouldn't it? By the way, I always give the strengths first. You know, put a little sugar coating on the pill. And when you make up your mind what you are on the basis of strengths, don't be so carnal as to change it when we get to the weaknesses.

That's a natural tendency. Here are some of his weaknesses. Number one, he's emotionally unstable. He can not only weep with those that weep, but he can get mad at the drop of a hat. And you step on his toe or you do something and he just blows his cork.

He gets red in the face. You've heard the expression. He turns livid with rage. Well, it's Sparky Sandwin. Now, one thing about it, he never carries a grudge. Once he's blown up all over you, he forgives you.

And he never carries a grudge. In fact, he never gets ulcers. He gives them to everybody else. He's undisciplined. He just never finishes anything. That's why he's unproductive, always on the move, and usually voted man most likely to succeed in college but fails in life because he doesn't follow through and finish.

He's got a jillion things going. His wife will usually say, Our garage is filled with unfinished projects. And he's weak-willed. He's always going to go on a diet or he's always going to quit doing this or he's always going to turn over a new leaf.

And he's loud and egocentric and very undependable. The only thing you can depend on him to be is late or forgetful or whatever. And exaggerate? I mean, this fellow is a great storyteller. And some of you department superintendents, you love to have Sparky Sanguin go down there to the junior department and tell the kids a story.

You know, that is always a calculated risk for several reasons. One is he may forget to show up. Another is he never studies in advance, and so you're just not sure whether it's going to be a Bible story, a Bible-related story, or a parallel story, or something totally different.

In fact, I know one Sanguin who had Goliath killing David. This individual is prone to be fearful. He's prone to be fearful in his lifestyle. He has a bold exterior, but underneath there is a basic insecurity.