The Principle of Integrity

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. I'd like to greet each one of you in Christ's name as well this morning. This morning I would like to speak about a principle. And I know that all of us have probably heard this before. We talk about laws, we talk about principles, and we talk about the difference. [00:00:37] I'm not sure if I can just explain to you fully what a principle is, but maybe in some weak words I'll try to do that. We know that laws change, we know that application changes, but the principles of God's word stand firm, up and down, and they stay the same. We don't have to worry about them ever changing, they will stay the same. and but maybe in oversimplified terms now I just said that a principle is not a law it is well maybe [00:01:12] I'll say it this way it is an unchanging law of God but I just said it's not a law well but it's an unchanging law of God so maybe I'm arguing with myself but one more thing I need to say about a The principle here is this, that the principles of God's word do not compete against each other. They complement each other. We cannot, and I don't know if I should say this or not, but this was one of the things that we ran into at our congregation at Hicksville. [00:01:46] We do not take one principle and compete against another principle of God's word. That's not what God intended for us to do. Now, having said that, I have a simple title here and a simple outline, and it's very basic. I've titled this message, The Principle of Integrity. And let me just say this, integrity, the word integrity is not found very often in the Holy Bible, in the Scripture. [00:02:16] I looked at my Bible program, and I think there's a total of 16 verses that have the word integrity in it, And there is none of them in the New Testament. But integrity is taught throughout the whole scripture, I believe. I'm convinced of that. Integrity is derived from the Latin word integritus, and I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it right. It means, and there's a number of different definitions for it. [00:02:47] And I don't want to spend the whole morning on definitions, but let me just read what the Webster's said. The quality or state of being complete, unbroken condition, wholeness, and tyranty. And the second one, the quality or state of being unimpaired, perfect condition, soundness. Those are similar. And the third one was the one that when I heard the word integrity spoke to me. The one that I felt was the closest to my feeling, I guess. [00:03:21] The quality or state of being, let me start again, the quality or state of being of sound moral principle, uprightness, honesty, and sincerity. And then some words that describe or are synonyms to integrity are honesty, truth, truthfulness, honor, veracity, reliability, uprightness, and I added one, honest living. I don't know if you can get more simple than that, but I feel that honest living somehow describes integrity, but that's my own thing. [00:03:58] Integrity refers to the whole man, not just part of us. Now, we are, as human beings, it is foolish for us to try to compartmentalize our lives. And we've all heard the saying that we have to be the same man Monday morning as we are on Sunday morning. I guess that's a simple explanation of what I'm trying to say here. [00:04:30] And ultimately, it's not the public image that we present to people that are around us that shows or tells God who we are, but it's the private person before God that really determines who I am. Now I know, and I want to be careful, I know that if I in my home or when I'm having a private moment, how I am there shows up publicly. It does. But there is that possibility of hiding things. [00:05:06] C.S. Lewis said this and I quote him Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence of what sort of man he is If there are rats in a cellar, you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly But the suddenness does not create the rats, it only prevents them from hiding In the same way, the suddenness of provocation does not make me ill-tempered It only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. [00:05:39] Very true. We can hide, we can try to hide, but let me say right along with this, we will never hide from God. He knows exactly what's going on in here. And it seems to me, from Wall Street to Hollywood and every place in between, there seems to be a lack of integrity. You think about it, chief executive officers and people in high places, governors have fallen because of lack of integrity and huge churches, megachurches, pastors in megachurches have fallen because of integrity and everybody in between. [00:06:24] Men and women trying to cover or hide their wrongs. In fact, there is such a huge lack of integrity that every year there are, I'm not going to give you a figure because I don't know, maybe millions, maybe billions of dollars worth of taxes not paid because people don't report income, lack of integrity. And there may be people in here that know the figure, but I just know it's mind-boggling. I've heard it. [00:06:59] Lack of integrity. We could go, I could go on, we could think about a number of, we could go, there's a lot of things we could think about in this, the world around us. But I would like to, for us to think about what God thinks. And we serve a God that demands integrity. I guess I can use that. A God that epitomizes integrity. And a God that says, be not deceived what God is not mocked whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. [00:07:39] It doesn't matter if you do it in private or in secret. God knows what you're doing. I think these are all very basic things. A God that says, Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. We understand these things. I think we've been taught these things. We understand. But does it make an impression on me? How does it affect my life when I look at the scripture and begin to understand integrity? [00:08:15] Now, if I ask you where you read about integrity or what scripture to turn to, I wonder what you would say. And I'm not, I think I'm going to turn to Psalms 15, if you would like to turn with me to that passage. This is not necessarily talking about integrity as such, but it is talking about a person of integrity. I think I'm correct in saying that. It provides a description of a person with integrity, and also it provides a summary, or it gives a summary of what God expects of His people. [00:08:56] And maybe the first few verses, Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill Maybe the first verse is more of a question, who is fit to meet God, more so than integrity But then the rest, we'll just read a few verses, we'll read the whole chapter He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor, [00:09:33] in whose eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. Now there's some strong words in here. Walking uprightly, working righteousness, speaking the truth, being honest. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up reproach against his neighbor. [00:10:15] You know, God's answer here is interesting. Rather than giving us a list of what we should do and what we do's and don'ts, this psalm describes godliness in terms of character. And there's a difference. And the qualities extend to personal issues, integrity, honesty, integrity in our relationships. This passage shows that we should approach worship not only in terms of our inward personal needs [00:10:48] but also in the light of our outward public responsibilities. It shows that character, that religion is a matter of character as well as conduct. And let me say to you, integrity moves beyond just saying the right thing. It moves us to action. And I'll just say this, this is a principle that follows me around, it doesn't matter where I go, it doesn't matter if I'm at home talking to my wife or communicating with my children or on the job, this thing, God knows exactly where I'm at and He will judge me by the way I live out my life. [00:11:38] How I put integrity to practice I think we've all heard the story of the three ladies that were talking after church And the first two said something about the preacher And they said they want a preacher that says it this way And the first one said something and the second one said it some other way And they were talking about the qualities of presenting a message And the third one said this, I like a preacher that lives out what he says [00:12:12] And I think that's not just for us, it puts me on the spot this morning maybe But all of us are preaching a message And we are being watched And our message is just as effective as the life that we live That may be an exaggeration, but I believe firmly that there is something to that We have a message to present and I would like to look at the opposite of integrity and I don't know what comes to your mind but dishonesty and hypocrisy are two words that popped into my mind. [00:12:51] The opposite of integrity is something that is an abomination to God And a lack of integrity will keep us from heaven I guess I would like to say it's that simple Proverbs 12.22 says Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord But those who act faithfully are his delight I think we all understand that Even as a young child, there's something about children that say, he didn't speak the truth. [00:13:28] And I think there's something within us that says that. But there's something beyond merely stretching the truth or not being quite honest. And this is where hypocrisy comes in. Lying with my life. Lying with my life. And I'm not going to be reading a lot, but Jesus in the strongest terms condemned the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. [00:13:59] If you would read in Matthew 23, I'm just going to refer to one verse. I'm thinking, I didn't write this down, I don't have this in my notes, but I'm thinking that eight times in that chapter Jesus said, Woe unto ye scribes and Pharisees I may be wrong on the number But there's something There was a companion sin to hypocrisy there They were setting the standard too high Higher than what God had required [00:14:30] But the hypocrisy is this He said all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe That observe and do But do not ye after their works For they say and do not and a lack of integrity, hypocrisy. They had their outside in perfect order. They looked just right. And I don't, I'm not at that chapter, but I remember reading it. They prayed openly so that people would see how holy they are. [00:15:02] But inside they were full of dead man's bones. I'm not sure if it, it didn't say that in that chapter. Now, I don't know how that strikes you, but hypocrisy is something that I believe Jesus condemns in the strongest terms there. And I think that's still a temptation that is very real for us today. And that is that we dress just right. And the outside looks just right. [00:15:34] And I'm not going to quote Vance Havner word for word, but he said something to this effect. He said, the Sunday morning crowd is the most innocent looking people there is at the Sunday morning worship service. But he said, speak to those people because some of those people have the most real needs of all people. And I'm not sure why he said what he did. What is it that makes us want, and I feel strongly that we should dress up to meet the Lord. [00:16:12] And I feel that we should, and I'm not opposed to Sunday morning worship service. I want to be clear. But are we, am I Monday morning or Tuesday or any day of the week just as ethical? Do I hold myself to just as high of a standard? Or, have we heard the term, I sure hope I don't meet the preacher in town with these clothes on. I don't know if you've heard that, but I have heard that. [00:16:45] Integrity demands that we are the same person, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. And you know, the Lord Jesus will judge us by how we live. And by the way, don't worry about the preacher. Worry about what God thinks about you. Integrity. How about integrity in the body of Christ? Let's look at the account in Acts 5 of Ananias and Sapphira. And I don't know if I wasn't planning to read this, but maybe I'll just read and I'm not going to be saying a lot about this. [00:17:24] But this caught my attention as I was looking at this, and I think I'm going to read maybe verses 1 through 11. Maybe I'll ask you to stand for a change of position. Acts 5, verse 1 to 11. But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? [00:18:01] Whilst it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost, and great fear came on all them that heard these words. And the young man arose, wound him up and carried him out and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. [00:18:39] Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost. And the young man came in, and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. I'm going to stop reading there. You may be seated. [00:19:11] So what was going on? Here was a lie in action, you could say. What was the thing that was, what was going on? Or maybe we should have started in verse 36 of chapter 4. The appearance of making things look correct. Just before this, there was a man that had sold everything and handed everything in. It was the appearance that things were all right, was the initial lack of integrity, you could say. [00:19:49] The initial lack of integrity. Lest I forget, I'll just say this. The omission of truth is just as much a lie as a real lie. And this is something that I learned as a, I think I was, it impressed me as a 6th grade boy going to school I remember I had a school teacher that said this one day We had a story and I don't know, we were discussing the story [00:20:21] And finally the teacher said, so let's say you are at your friend's house and there you are on out on the porch and and one of your friends breaks the flower pot and the mom comes out and asks what happened and you're silent you don't say anything that made an impression on me that has stuck with me the omission of truth is just as bad as a lie but the church now let's look at deception in the church [00:20:53] The church cannot prosper or go forward if there's deception among the members. It just will not work. And I don't know if there would be many casualties if God would deal with me or us like he did with these people here. I don't know. And I hope it wouldn't be that way. But I think that God wanted to make a statement here [00:21:24] That deception wounds the body of Christ And it makes us dysfunctional It makes us dysfunctional And it's a sin against God We are crippling the whole congregation if we are not living a life of integrity If we are lying with our life And verse 4, I believe it says, you have not lied to men, but to God You have lied to God [00:21:55] And ultimately, Ananias and Sapphira did lie for what they did It may have just been an omission of facts initially, but they did lie You know, I think the lack of integrity within the body of Christ and its individual members will undermine the entire mission of the church if it's let go, if it's just kept. [00:22:26] It's no small matter to tolerate a lack of integrity. And I believe firmly that men and women of integrity place a high value on a clear conscience. Keeping our accounts cleared. Paul said that, and this is maybe out of context, in Acts 24.16 when he said, And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. He's emphasizing a clear conscience, and I recognize that we need a God-trained conscience in order to have a clear conscience that stands. [00:23:05] But a clear conscience is vital in spiritual warfare. If we do not maintain a clear conscience, we cannot be effective for God. It takes intentionally trying, intentionally living a life of integrity. There's a statement that I've heard in our circles, and you know what? I've said it myself. And I don't know why I, well, I've noticed that when the devil starts his work or tries to get his foot in the door, he, he helps us or he, we get to saying things that are almost right, that are so close to right that they sound good. [00:23:54] But I've heard this statement, and like I said, I've said it myself, that, you know, the church is asking me to do this, dress this way, be, or we present ourselves in a certain way, but, well, we're not really violating a principle of God by not dressing just this way. And so we we go about and we have a little bit different type of what we have our own individualistic idea. [00:24:28] But you know what? That sounds good. We're not violating a principle of God, but we are actually violating a principle of God. Integrity, honesty. As long as I go in and out these doors, I have said, I support this church, and I am being dishonest if I do not do that. God help us. There's a man, Helmut Thielick, was a theologian and pastor, pastor through Hitler's Third Reich, said this, [00:25:02] The avoidance of one small lie may be a stronger confession of faith than a whole Christian philosophy, championed in lengthy, forceful discussion. And I believe that. I believe that. If we live lives of integrity, we have a message. We carry with us a message. And the opposite is true. What about our business? What about the way we do business? And we talked about this in our Sunday school class this morning. [00:25:35] What is the relationship master to servant and servant to master? And how does integrity enter in? I was thinking along the same lines, but maybe in a little different vein. How well do we maintain our integrity in business dealings? We live in a world where it seems like everybody, well, I shouldn't say everybody, Many people are looking for something or nothing. No service provided and yet an income. [00:26:07] And it's prevalent. And let me just say this. We are so, we are, in this society we cannot help that we are here. But God help us that we don't allow our society to influence the way that we conduct ourselves. We have that responsibility. Isn't it true that our economy sank largely because of that mentality? It's a spiritual problem. It's beyond just what meets the eye, I think. [00:26:43] Why is it that the stock market and the like are so attractive to us? Money for nothing, where I don't have to provide a service. Let me just say this, and not all of this applies, but for some reason my mind went to this as I was thinking about integrity. And how, maybe this is a totally different principle, but what about Genesis when it talks about, [00:27:15] In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread. What is God saying by that? What are we taking from that? Does that still stand true today? Does it? I think it does. I think it places a responsibility on me to be careful how I, what I do and how I receive my, the money that we have. When we lose that sweat of the face principle, we compromise God's standard of integrity in business, I believe. [00:27:52] Now, much could be said about this, and I don't have time, but there's one thing. And I want to say this for the fathers and mothers in this room, this congregation. My dad, and I'm not saying that this is not scriptural, but he taught me something by doing something. And it was this that whenever, and I hardly dare say it because I know there's people that would take issue with me. [00:28:23] Even my wife did. But whenever there was an open house and door prizes and free food, my dad would not go. He said, I did not work for that, and so I do not feel right taking that. Now you may say the flip side is, I have a business, I want to promote my product, so I give you free coffee and you come buy my product and I'll give you a gift. Well, I'll leave that up to each individual's conscience. But there's something that I took from that, and we never discussed it too much. [00:28:59] But you, we as parents, are teaching our children by the way that we live, the standard that we uphold in this. And I respect him for that today even. I think that he did well in that. Proverbs 27 says, bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. It may seem that for a brief moment that prosperity is only for those that are able to fudge things a little bit, that can just talk a little better than we can. [00:29:34] But you know what? The sweetness that we sense can just turn into gravel in our mouth. Deceit never pays. Underhanded business deals sometimes yield sweet profits. But from a biblical point of view, smart money is made only through ethnical integrity. That's the only way for a Christian to make smart money, is through integrity. Proverbs 11.1 says, A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight. [00:30:10] You know, as men of God, we should be above reproach in what we do in the business world. We may be able to hide our shady dealings from our brother in church beside us. We may be able to hide, but let me say there's a day coming when everything will be open. There will be no more hiding. There's a list of things that I found as I was studying. It says something about what the world needs today. And then there was a whole list, and I'm just going to point or just read a few of them. [00:30:44] It said the world needs men. And number one, it said who cannot be bought. You know, we get to this thing of we're enticed by things. But if there's some foul play or something that's not quite straight up and down, let's not do it. Let's stay away. The world needs men that put character above wealth. Character above wealth. Men who will be as honest in small things as they are in great things. [00:31:17] That's what the world needs. That's what we need for our own homes, our own congregation, our own community. I need to make a closing statement here and I would like to end on a on a positive something you know we could almost sink in despair with all the lack of integrity that we see around us but remember this saying and I know this isn't scripture but remember this saying be the change that you would like to see just just start living that change. [00:31:55] That life straight as a barrel. Just just be that person of integrity. And the other thing I would like to say is the level of integrity in the local church will only be as high as the commitment of each individual or the commitment each individual has made to live a life of integrity. If you understand what I'm trying to say. So you as an individual, each one of us, it begins with us. [00:32:26] The body of Christ cannot rise above the individuals that make it up or make it's made up of. And maybe that seems like a tall order. You know, there's times when I want to do the right thing. I feel, you know, I feel like I'm this is what I need to do in a business deal. And whatever relationships, whatever. And we missed the mark. But I'm talking when I say this about integrity. I'm simply suggesting or asking that we are men and women that are honest with each other and with God. [00:33:08] If we are totally honest, we do not always say the right thing or do the right thing. But when we're willing to say that I'm sorry, or I'm willing to keep my accounts clear, willing to forgive people instead of having a slanderous tongue about something. You know, we don't always do the right thing. But if we long, if we have a vision for integrity, we are willing to say I'm sorry. I just didn't do that quite right. [00:33:40] We live in a fallen world and we observe, as I said earlier, we observe the world around us. But we have a message. And when the world around us sees integrity in our lives personally, in our congregation, we become the salt and light of our neighborhood, our community, and wherever we go. If we have a high level of integrity, our lives must be characterized by integrity if people are going to take our message seriously. [00:34:16] It's just the short and long of it. Now, I've talked about individuals with integrity, and I've talked about a congregation, but I want to end on this. There is nothing, I don't think, well, I shouldn't say nothing, But there is, I have a high regard for a congregation where a whole group draws together and they are interested in maintaining integrity. [00:34:50] Where there's open sharing and people are honest with each other. You know what that does? What it does to me is it gives me hope. It gives me hope. And it brings security to the brotherhood. and it helps us move in the right direction. May God help us to be those people in this community.