Our message today begins in the beginning. Genesis. God has completed his work of creation, and the crowning work of making man and woman. Adam and Eve are living in a state of innocence, uncorrupted by sin, pure inwardly in every way. In this state of happiness and devotion, Satan comes to them, and tempts them to take fruit from the one tree that God said was off limits. He says God is lying to them, and contradicting God he promises that they would not die if they ate from the tree. He said God is holding out on them, not wanting them to become like Him, so he deprives them of all the advantages that tree’s fruit would give them. His words are smooth and persuasive, and as their hands reached out our first parent’s hearts were already eating from the tree.
The Wisdom Of Integrity. That’s our sermon title today. Satan has no integrity. And he led Adam and Eve to give away theirs. Our theme verse is Proverbs 10:9, which says, “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.”
Immediately after eating the fruit Adam and Eve were filled with shame. The sense of psychological security they had when they were innocent where they had no inhibitions with each other and God, no fears, no hesitation, no doubt, no worry, no guardedness, no self-protection was all shattered. They felt new things now like shame, guilt, fear, and alienation. They felt it first towards themselves – they felt a division now within themselves. Then towards each other, as seen in the fact they didn’t want the other to see them naked anymore so they made coverings for themselves. Husband and wife hiding from each other. Then they felt it towards God. Upon hearing his voice calling for them they ran to hide in the trees from him. Shame, fear, hiding, alienation.
Integrity. It is so prized by God and by those who love God. Psalm 78:72 says of David, “And David shepherded Israel with integrity of heart, with skillful hands he led them.” God said to David’s son, Solomon, “If you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness as your father David did….[I will bless you greatly]” (1 Kings 9:4). Paul told the Philippians about Timothy, “I have no one like him, who takes such a genuine concern for your welfare..” Genuine concern. Genuine. Paul said about his own ministry, “Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Cor 4:2). Integrity is a prized trait – in God’s eyes and real followers of Christ.
The word integrity in Proverbs 10:9 is interesting. It is defined as “wholeness,” “completeness,” “full,” “perfect.” Its also defined as “simplicity” – which was interesting. But it means “simplicity of mind, as opposed to mischief and ill design.” Integrity means a “clear conscience,” where the heart is “without evil purpose.” This makes sense when we think of it because evil intent is always masked by outward pretending of good. Macbeth said of his murderous plot, “False face must hide what false heart doth know,” and “make our faces masks to our hearts, disguising what they are.” (Act 1.7, 3.2). How else could you describe Satan’s face in the garden but a false mask hiding the murder in his false heart towards Adam and Eve? “O conspiracy,” Brutus lamented before killing Caesar, “where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough to mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy; hide it in smiles and affability.” (JC, 2.1) What does Jesus say about Satan? “He is a liar, he has been a liar from the beginning, when he speaks his native language is lying.” (Jn 8). Or remember the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who had no integrity, and who tried hiding their hatred beneath flattery? “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.” They tried flattering him because they are swayed by flattery.
But integrity is when a man’s good words and his good walk, which are outwardly visible to himself and others, accords with the good that is in his heart. Integrity is when the outward “you” is a true reflection of the inward “you.” Maybe that’s some of the idea around the definitions like “completeness” and “wholeness.” It reminds me of James 1 when it warns about asking for wisdom, “When you ask for wisdom you must not doubt…the person who doubts will not receive anything…they are double minded and unstable in all they do…” Wholeness means not divided within yourself. You’re not “pretending” at faith outwardly while the reality inwardly is that you’re controlled by doubt and skepticism.
The outward you completes the inward you. Think for instance about King Abimalek in Genesis 20. He took Sarai to be his wife but he did it innocently, not knowing that she was married to Abram. He acted on the knowledge he had, and believing she was single and available, took her. When God came to him in the dream and told him he was a dead man, I think you see his fear is not only from God’s threat, but also the personal horror in his conscience at the thought he took a married woman to be his wife. He acted innocently, with integrity, but he was lied to and so he didn’t know better. Which is why God protected him and spared him and prevented him from sleeping with Sarai.
Abimalek had integrity – he had simplicity about him as the definition goes. He had simplicity in that it was the same with him on the outside as it was on the inside. Don’t confuse simplicity with simple or simpleton. A simpleton in the Bible is someone who is morally ignorant and acts foolishly, whereas someone who has simplicity is someone who is truly who they appear to be and acts morally upright. They’re not “complicated” in that they harbor evil and wickedness in their heart while their face gives a different appearance, as Macbeth said. Or as Jude said, “These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm.”
The teaching of Proverbs emphasizes integrity. We see it in chapters 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 13, 19, 20 and 28 specifically. Lets learn some things about integrity from Proverbs.
WISDOM LEADS TO INTEGRITY
First, we see wisdom is the path to integrity. Turn to 2:12-15 with me and watch how Solomon describes it…[READ]. Wisdom leads to integrity. The wise father says the same thing to his son in 4:11, “I instruct you in the way of wisdom, and lead you along straight paths.” Turn with me to James 3:13-14. I want you to notice how James describes that godly wisdom leads to integrity [READ]. The harboring of bitter envy and selfish ambition and DENYING it is contrasted with the wisdom from above. Actually, verse 15 goes on to say such bitterness and ambition are demonic, fleshly, and from this world. See the point? God’s wisdom leads to authenticity, our outward matching our inward, rather than having to cover it up.
INTEGRITY BRINGS GOD’S PROTECTION
Proverbs 10:9 says, “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.” Proverbs 2:7 says, “God is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.”
Proverbs gives us two senses here. The first is what we’re reading, that God watches over those who walk in integrity. As in, He is active to protect them because of their integrity.
But then we read 10:29 and we see another sense, “The way of the LORD is a refuge for the blameless.” In this sense, it seems that by walking according to God’s ways we avoid trouble that we would otherwise fall into if we rebelled. Proverbs 13:6 gives us the same idea: “Righteousness guards the person of integrity, but wickedness overthrows the sinner.” Here it seems to convey the idea of consequences, so basically it means you are protected from unnecessary trouble if you walk in God’s commands.
SPECIFIC ACTIONS OF INTEGRITY
- Give what you owe (3:27-28)
- Don’t plot harm against others (3:29)
- Don’t bring false accusations (3:30)
- Don’t stir up conflict (6:12-14)
- Hate ill-gotten treasures (10:2a; )
- Hate wicked schemes (10:23)
- Revere justice (19:28)
- Be honest in your dealings (11:1; 20:10, 23; Lev 19:35-36; Dt 25:13-16; JMS 3:17)…Don’t cheat people
- Be impartial in your judgments. Don’t use different standards for judging.
- Be sincere with people (Jms 3:17)
- Doing the word you hear (Jms 1:22)
BLESSINGS OF INTEGRITY
- God’s protection (see above)
- God’s praise (Psalm 7:8;
- Success (2:7)
- Contentment (19:1; 20:17; 28:6
- Confidence (Job 4:6 – your piety and blamelessness (integrity) are your confidence and hope
- Closeness to God (Psalm 101:2)
- Powerful devotion to righteousness (READ PSALM 101; READ PSALM 26:1-12!!)
CONCLUSION
Do you know the only Person to have perfect integrity? Jesus Christ. His integrity was perfect. Yet the cosmic irony was that they crucified Him because they thought Him a liar. He said He was equal with God as the Son of God. He said He pre-existed Abraham. He said He could forgive sins. They did not believe Him. They called Him a blasphemer, a liar, a demon-possessed man. They attacked His integrity, his truthfulness, his authenticity.