1536. Integrity Matters

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from The University Chapel platform.

Today's speaker is Alan Benson. It is a joy for me to be with you in chapel today. Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn to the opening chapter of the book of Job.

That's where we're going to land. I do want to speak today on a topic, a topic of integrity. And as I do today, I hope you understand that if there is a way in your mind to see this platform and this pulpit on an equal plane with you, that is my heart. This is a matter of struggle and the arena of growth for every believer. And this is not a topic where somehow I sit up here elevated above you because I've come to that station in life where I have figured out how to live every day with perfect integrity. That is just not the nature of being broken and fallen and living in a broken and fallen world. This is the arena of the heart in which all of us must pursue hard after Christ.

Next semester, we're going to talk about, in our doctrinal themes, the doctrine of anthropology. And in particular, we're going to explore week after week what it means really to be fearfully and wonderfully made. Young people, I hope that you sit here today and I hope you understand just who you are in God's sight.

You aren't made by accident. Think about the other end of life. I had the privilege recently of thinking about death in a message I was preaching on the Lord's table. But think of the other end of life and the fact that God looks at the death of one of his children and he says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

It's not a light matter for him. Your beginning and your ending are matters of great gravity to the creator God of the universe. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. God has made you and I as his image bearers and we not only have been created with the capacity to reflect our God, we have been made with the capacity to have an authentic, a genuine, a personal relationship with God. When God formed Adam out of the dirt of the ground, the scriptures tell us that he breathed into his nostrils the Ruach Elohim, the breath of God and the result of that was that Adam became a living soul, a nefesh. God made a being with an eternal soul that could have a relationship with God himself. And part of the marvelous creative design of God in making you, not just in making mankind, but in making you was that he instilled in each of us an amazing instrument, a moral compass, a directional navigational moral sensor that has the capacity to direct the decisions we make, the values we hold in the actual direction of our lives.

God did not do that for any other of his created beings. God put within you a conscience. It's been referred to by many writers as many different things, a moral compass and an inner voice. But God built into us as moral beings.

When he breathed into mankind, his own breath making us a living soul, a moral being, an eternal being, a conscience, an inward capacity to be rightly related to God as we then process through the moral affairs of life. And conscience helps to direct us morally. Romans 2.15 says they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness.

And their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. 2 Corinthians 1.12, Paul talks about the testimony of our conscience. 1 Timothy 1.19, Paul writes about having faith and holding it in a good conscience and that by rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith. He's setting aside a well working, a properly functioning conscience resulted in a shipwreck of faith. The conscience is an instrument by which our moral decisions and directions are guided.

Romans 9.1, Paul says I'm speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. His conscience was so tuned that in the decisions he was making, it was affirming for him that he was walking in accordance with God's instructions. You see the conscience can be adjusted. Hebrews 10.22 speaks of an evil conscience. 1 Timothy 1.5, 1 Peter 3.16, 1 Peter 3.21, Acts 23.1 all speak of a good conscience. 1 Corinthians 8.7 speaks of a conscience that is weak and results in being defiled. 1 Timothy 3.9 and Acts 24.16 and Hebrews 13.18 all speak of having a clear conscience. 1 Timothy 4.2 speaks of men whose consciences are seared, inoperable. And so there are adjustments that can be made to our conscience. Hebrews 10.2 speaks of people that have made a decision that has resulted in the fact that they no longer have any consciousness of sins.

They've come to the place where their conscience is so broken that the moral compass isn't telling them what is right or what is wrong. Hebrews 9.14 thankfully speaks of the blood of Christ and the capacity to have our conscience purified. Hebrews 9.9 speaks of the fact that we can have a conscience that is being perfected or brought to even finer instrumentation in how it affects our decisions.

And yet Titus 1.15 speaks of that same conscience as having the property of being defiled or actually working the opposite way. The question I want us to explore today is how do I live every day? What do the decisions of life look like in that I want to respond properly to my conscience and I don't want to improperly adjust it?

How do I live? What are the matters of life that actually impact how my conscience is working? And today I want us to talk about the fact that integrity matters. Integrity matters.

And so I want us just to explore a couple of things. What is a practical understanding of integrity? Integrity is this, adherence to moral and ethical principles, soundness of moral character or honesty. That's a definition. What does that mean?

What does that look like? How, when I'm faced with life and decisions of life, would it be better for me to now steal somebody else's answer because it gets me the right grade on this exam? Would anybody ever know?

Is the result of the exam actually the greatest outcome? When I tell a story, do I use all kinds of hyperbole and make myself seem better than I actually was in the story? Do I get pity and bring attention by maybe going the other direction? I tell the story so that it actually makes me look like I was in much more dire circumstances than I was in because it brings me attention. You see, these are all matters with regard to integrity.

What does it really look like? So let me walk us through some areas, if I can, of some distinctions with regard to integrity. Maybe this helps a whole lot more than a definition. Choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gain. When you care more for the hard truth than the easy lie, integrity is telling myself the truth while honesty is telling the truth to others. Integrity is making sure that the things that you say and the things that you do align. Integrity is making the choice to do what is right instead of what is convenient. Integrity is choosing courage over comfort, choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy, and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them. Integrity is seen in keeping a commitment even after the circumstances have changed.

Wisdom is knowing the right path to take. Integrity is taking it. So integrity, as you can see, if you think through all of it, getting a practical understanding of it, integrity is really how we live every day. It is what is going on within us as we process our values, as we process right and wrong, and we make decisions about how we're now going to live, what story we're going to tell, what decisions we're going to make.

Integrity matters. I want us to see this in a character in scripture, and so I've asked you to turn to the book of Job. I've actually read through Job a lot in my Bible reading. I've preached many messages from Job, but as I prepared this message on integrity, I discovered something about Job that at least never had jumped out at me in the way it did as I was preparing for this. So let's do a little bit of a case study about Job.

Let's begin at the beginning. Job 1, 1, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil, okay? We have established for us this guy's moral character.

He is upstanding and he is outstanding. Jump down to verse 6. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.

The Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth, from walking up and down in it, and it sounds like this restlessness, almost of a roaring lion, right? And he is out there and he's moving to and fro. It's not like, ah, I've got to get my steps in.

There's an activity that's taking place. There's something he is doing as he is coursing throughout the world. Verse 8, the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job?

I want to stop for a moment. Yes, it is in this conversation that God is the one that brings up Job, but I believe there's something about his question that is in reference to what Satan has been doing going back and forth and up and down in the world. He has been trying men.

I think that's what's happening. And so in that setting where he has been considering men, God says to him, have you considered Job? Notice what God says, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil. Verse 9, then Satan answered the Lord and said, doth Job fear God for naught? Come on, God, you're going to bring up Job and tell me all about who he is and what he is like and that he's upstanding and he's outstanding? Do you think I don't know that there's a reason he serves you? Verse 10, hast not thou made an hedge about it and about his house and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substances increased in the land? You see what's happening here in the book of Job, the conversation before Job is even entered into the life circumstances that he will face is actually about the integrity of God.

You mean you're going to bring up Job and then maybe have this flesh out and then I see that Job is a great guy, but I know that you actually have made it possible for him to be that? You don't have any integrity, God. Don't give me an example of somebody that's perfect and upright and the reason he is is because you made him upon. So understand that God's integrity is going to be put to the test here. Verse 11, put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, all that he hath is in thy power only upon himself put not forth thine hand.

So Satan went forth in the presence of the Lord. And so understand it is God that makes Job exhibit A and in doing so God is putting his own integrity on the line. Jump into chapter 2 and verse 3. And the Lord said unto Satan a very similar statement, hath thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil.

But notice God adds something that he didn't say in chapter 1. And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause. God points out after the first testing that Job is a man of integrity. Literally that thing that you said about him that he was only serving me because of what he could get out of it, that the relationship I had with him was just because I protected him and I blessed him and all of those things.

I want you to see that after you have carried out this first testing, Job is a man of integrity. He means what he says and he says what he means. He has made a commitment and he keeps to that commitment.

I am not just some kind of a vending machine to make his life better or worse. Notice in Job chapter 2 and verse 9, imagine all that Job has faced. That most of it he has faced with a companion by his side in a one flesh relationship. One that is to know him better than anyone else is to know him.

One that is to inform his decisions and walk out life's journey with him, his wife. In Job chapter 2 and verse 9, then said his wife unto him. Notice this question. Dost thou still retain thine integrity?

Curse God and die. You see Job's wife knows and understands Job's convictions. She knows Job's value system. She understands Job's belief in God and in light of that she encourages Job to deny all of that in order to escape this ordeal. Job, I know you know God and I know you stand by your faith. I know that you rest in him.

I know you're the one that would say, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. But Job, this is too much. And if you keep holding to that, you're going to continue to suffer. Why don't you just curse God and die and get this over with, if you will.

This is a pathway of escape. Do you know one of the areas where we fall into failing integrity is when life mounts up and we're willing to just do something to escape. Notice what Job says in verse 10. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.

What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Job keeps a right relationship with his God because he determines to maintain his integrity. Understand, Job couldn't look and say, I know exactly what God's doing. Let me explain it to you. Let me tell you exactly what God's thinking. Hey, you know what? I was out in the woods and I just happened to overhear this conversation between God and Satan.

Don't worry about it. I know what's going on. Job knows nothing. And in the midst of not knowing what God is doing and not understanding what God is doing, he knows his God and he loves him and he trusts him. And he says the means for me in staying right with my God right now is really simple. I'm going to maintain my integrity. You see, friends, this is what God intends integrity to do in your life when you don't know what God is doing and you don't have all the answers and your faith seems way more complex than you can explore and there's hurts that you don't want and there's losses that you don't need and there's challenges that you can't face.

You know what God is saying to you? I put within you a conscience and in this moment I want you to trust me by just simply determining I will do the next right thing. I'm not going to lie with my lips. I'm not going to betray with my heart. I'm not going to find an easy pathway out. I'm not going to say, you know what, 90% of the human beings on the face of this earth will look at my circumstance and say, hey dude, I don't blame you for doing that. I get it. Your life is so hard. I'm not buying any of that.

I'm going to do the next right thing. You come then to Job's counselors at the end of the book and we can't go through that all. We don't have time but I want you to understand that basically his friends come to him and all of them in one way, shape or form espouse what you and I know as retribution theology which basically means this, Job, if you do good, God is duty bound to do good to you and if you experience pain, it's because you are bad or have done evil and so as I look at your life, I don't know what is going on.

I can't explain all of this but dude, there's something wrong somewhere for you to be going through this and all the blessing you had, it's gone so you must be doing something because God's not blessing you. In one way, shape or form, that's the way they counsel him and how does Job respond after all of this counsel and by the way, in their speeches, there's some great counsel about life. There's actually some incredible truth about God in their speeches but it's tainted by this broken idea of the fact that God is just in heaven as some kind of a vending machine and all of my religion is about getting him to do good for me or keeping him from doing bad to me.

Young people, do you realize that most Christians' relationship with God is still that? There are some of you that are going to this next week saying, now God, I haven't worked hard enough this semester and I really haven't studied. What do I have to do to get you to bless me on this exam? And you know what, I believe God in heaven looks down on you and He says, what are you talking about? I want a relationship with you.

Job 27, 4-6, jump over there. Job says this, my lips shall not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit. God forbid that I should justify you. Till I die, I will not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Men, I don't know much, you're my friends. And no, I don't understand all that God is doing but you need to understand that I'm not going to try some religious act just so that I can get God to let up. I don't think that's who my God is. I am not, on the other hand, going to confess to something so that maybe it would bring from God a dew drop of mercy and make my life better. My God is not merely a religious vending machine.

I have a relationship with Him and so I'm not going to confess and give assent to what you are saying because somehow maybe it will make my circumstances better. My integrity matters. Job 31, 6 then, God looks down and Job speaks to him and he says, let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know my integrity.

Young people, this is the heart of the matter. Your relationship with God is actually sourced in the value of your integrity. God doesn't look and say how many times do you go to church? How many times have you read the Bible? How many hours do you spend in prayer?

How much money do you give away? And I'm not saying that any of those things matter, but if you don't prize your integrity, none of them matter to God. Last thing I would have you to see as we finish is the priority of integrity.

I have a listing. I've worked through my Bible and found as many places and as many relationships as I could find in the New Testament, the Old Testament, that actually take the issue of integrity and apply it to the relationships of life. I will briefly say to you this, there is not a relationship in life that matters to you that isn't impacted by your integrity. Proverbs 10, 9, he that walketh uprightly walketh surely, but he that preferth his ways shall be known. John, 1 John 3, 18, my little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

You hear integrity? Proverbs 20, verse 6, most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man, who can find? The just man walketh in his integrity. Proverbs 11, 3, the integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them. 1 Peter 3, 16, having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. Proverbs 19, better is the poor that walketh in his integrity than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool. 2 Corinthians 8, 21, providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. And you will find that God directly connects you living with integrity to you having joy and success in your marriage, in your friendships, in your work relationships, in your church relationships, with your parents, in every relationship that you would value in life. All of them will be negatively impacted if you make the decision that I'm going to manipulate this somehow to make you think better of me than just simply choosing God I will live with integrity.

Young people you are fearfully and wonderfully made. God put within you a conscience that he wants to shape and mold as a compass to direct you morally, but the way that you respond in life by choosing a pathway of integrity will determine how close that relationship with your God and others you will have. While today we have talked about matters of integrity, I hope you leave this chapel with this thought.

In light of my relationships with God and my relationships in life, integrity matters. Let's pray. Father, thank you for making us. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for shaping us. God, I pray that you would help each of us to choose in whatever circumstances we find ourselves to prize our integrity and to do the next right thing for your glory. For it's in Christ's name that we pray it. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Alan Benson at Bob Jones University. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow at this same time as we study God's Word together on The Daily Platform.