We continue our series in Proverbs chapters one through nine, and Solomon is warning his son about character flaws. That's in Proverbs chapter six, verses 12 through 15. Proverbs six, page 531 in the Blue Bibles. And what Solomon says here is in contrast to what we just sang, which was a character of a godly man, exemplified above all by our Lord Jesus Christ, Solomon here paints the exact opposite picture of a wicked man and one who is acting without integrity. So follow along as I read Proverbs chapter 6 starting in verse 12. A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger. With perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord. Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly. In a moment, he will be broken beyond healing. Here ends the reading of God's word. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you as always for your holy word. We pray now that you'd work in us by your Holy Spirit, Take away any lack of understanding or any resistance to your word, and soften our hearts to receive it. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. I wonder how many of us have ever bought a disappointing shirt. Maybe you bought that $5 shirt from a street vendor, that neat tie-dyed shirt or whatever, caught your eye there, and it looks great. Maybe you wear it home, and then you wash it, The colors run, or it shrinks, or it twists, so the seam is running kind of slant ways down your front. That is a disappointing shirt. I would call that actually a shirt without integrity. Because when we use the word integrity, what we mean is something where everything lines up. And in that shirt's case, its promise or its presentation did not match up to the reality after it was washed. So what it promised to be did not match what it actually was, and that's an integrity issue. Now, when we think about the word integrity, we usually use that word to describe a person who is honest and who is morally upright. And you can see how in a person who is morally upright, they really do line up. They are consistent, so that what that person ought to do, God's calling, what that person says he or she is, and then what that person actually does, they line up when the person has integrity. Now, for an example of someone with no integrity, we could think of the devil, who is the creature perhaps of the least integrity, and thinking of him, what is the devil's purpose? Well, God made him for good. He was supposed to glorify the Lord, and that was his created purpose, but he split off from that purpose to pursue evil. It is interesting, though, that if we consider Satan, we see that he cannot escape God's orbit. Meaning, not only does the Lord overturn his deeds and use them for the good, but Satan himself, in his methods, still has to mimic God. In other words, he can't accomplish what he wants to do without pretending to be good. So he will come as the sneaky, you know, the helpful serpent with advice, or he comes as the angel of light, or the false prophet, or something like that. A deeply divided creature, because God has made him for the good. In his words and in his actions, he is a mixture of good and evil, a kind of vicious mixture, and his purposes and intent is fully evil. So that would be one without integrity. Now, we look at our passage this morning, and Solomon describes a person who follows that kind of pattern. He calls him, in verse 12, a worthless person. And if you look at the Hebrew under that term, it is literally a man of Belial. And that term Belial shows up in the Old Testament to describe somebody who is very depraved. It is a morally dark term. Here is somebody who is deeply conflicted, and though created to do God's purposes, has given himself over to moral degradation. The term Belial in history, it's so dark that eventually it came to be understood as Satan himself. And so in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 10, Satan is called Belial. But anyway, here God is showing us this man of Belial, this no-integrity, devilish man to warn us. And positively, it gives us an opportunity to focus on integrity. What is it that God wants of us in the way of integrity? So two points. First of all, a portrait of wickedness from this passage. And then secondly, the pursuit of integrity, where we're going to use what God says here to think about our calling to be integrated people, consistent people. And in fact, that is exactly what Jesus saves us and sets us apart to be. So that's where we're going this morning. first of all, a portrait of wickedness. This is not pleasant, but it's in the Bible, and it's for us. So we're going to try to look at it carefully. So Solomon is teaching his son about integrity, and he's showing him someone who has become very twisted, someone who's become really a sort of chameleon, a crooked person, a sort of changeling, one who is is willing to adopt any crooked way to get what he wants. We see three characteristics of this person here in verses 12, 13, and 14. First, a lack of integrity comes out in words. Look at verse 12. It says a worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech. Crooked speech. That term crooked there indicates a misdirection, or things not being what they seem. Have you ever been driving down the road, and you see perhaps a sign that has an arrow to the right that says freeway entrance, but there's a drive right before the sign, and then there's another road right after it? You think, OK, that's not very helpful. Which way is it? I can't tell where this thing is pointing. And that's the way it is with crooked speech. Words that seem to be saying one thing, but what they're actually aiming at is unclear. As we think about speech, we should remember that God gives us speech as a powerful tool to do good. Words What a tool to do God's purposes. With our words, we bless God himself, we worship him. With our words, we're to build up and instruct other people to help them. It's a great tool for good, as God intended it, but it can be turned into a great tool for evil. And what we see with the wicked man is he is using his words as kind of whips and goads to get people to do what he wants. kind of cattle prods these words, and little of what he says is consistent with his true meaning or intent or character. Well, yeah, leave it at that. So there are some typical types of crooked speech, and we'll just survey some of them. There is certainly harsh speech, and harsh speech would be Words that are threatening, or that are abusive, or that are ridiculing, or something like that. And Proverbs chapter 16 verse 24 says, a worthless man's speech is like a scorching fire. So this is a kind of scorching speech that tries to drive people in certain ways. There is flattering speech, which is a sort of other side of the coin. Flattering, of course, is when somebody lavishes on the praise to butter somebody up in order to get this person to do what they want. Proverbs 29.5 says, a man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. Then there's misleading speech, and that's a kind of speech that throws others off balance, kind of like the ambiguous road sign. Proverbs 26 verse 19 says, how the worthless man will say, was I not joking? So it's a kind of speech that's tricky. And it tries to set up a scenario one way, oh, you didn't know I was joking? So it's just, you never know quite what you're dealing with. And there are other kinds of ignoble speech as well. So these are crooked words. So here's this man with no integrity, crooked words. Look at verse 13. So if 12 was talking about words, 13 is talking about winks. Solomon describes how such a person will communicate with hidden signals or quiet signals, and he talks about winking. Now apparently in this culture, winking was not quite the playful thing it is in our culture, but a kind of signaling thing. It goes together with pointing with the foot or with the finger, kind of being the kind of category of the raised eyebrow or the nudge-nudge, that sort of thing. And this kind of communication, there is appropriate, you know, there are appropriate occasions to communicate with a look. You can do that. But as it's being described here, this is a problematic thing, and it's problematic in two ways. First of all, if something is good, why can't you say it out loud? So this is someone who's communicating non-verbally, and it's not a good thing. Secondly, Signals are often used to gang up on somebody. It's a sinister move. If you can imagine a couple of shifty guys leaning against a building and somebody walks by and then they kind of glance at each other, that's not a good thing. They're probably up to no good. They're these kind of quiet signals that is ominous. It's ominous, you know, it's much less severe, but it's also, it's not a good thing, you know, to kind of raise your eyebrows about somebody who did something stupid, so you kind of like, you know, laugh about it with somebody else. That's a way of also kind of ganging up on somebody, and that's not healthy. Proverbs 16, verse 30 says, whoever winks his eyes plans dishonest things, and he who purses his lips brings evil to pass. What God is describing for us here is a sort of predatory behavior where this signal maker is forming an alliance with others in this sort of wink-wink behavior. And he will typically do this to put somebody else at a disadvantage. Maybe he wants to, he or she wants to show, I'm the big guy here. Or maybe trying to get support for some trick he wants to pull, something he wants to pull off. Whatever. This kind of sinister sort of communication is something that characterizes somebody who is not straightforward. Again, this is lack of integrity. There's this ill intent, but it's not being said. And so first we have the words, crooked words. Then we have these kind of sinister winks, signals. Verse 14 talks about how this person, as it were, goes to war with other people. And that's of a piece with what's been described so far. So here's verse 14. It says, with perverted heart, he devises evil, continually sowing discord. An evil person loves upset. This character that's being painted here loves upset, because it's hard to get your way in time of peace. If the gazelles are all grazing peacefully, it's hard for the lion to sneak up on them. They're likely to see him. But in a situation of confusion and upset, there's much more opportunity. And so this wicked man really prefers upset, and he loves disturbance. And so behavior consistent with this would include spreading gossip, raising issues, trying to get people all riled up. And perhaps this is done out of a sort of malicious, just a malicious spirit. That's possible. Oftentimes it will also be strategic because in creating discord and disturbance and conflict, There could be an opportunity to then rise up in leadership. Or there could be an opportunity as people are at war with each other to make bargains that will benefit this conflict maker, this troublemaker. Or, while everyone is disturbed and in conflict, perhaps he can dip his hand into the till, literally or figuratively. So this wicked man of Belial loves division. The Apostle Paul actually warns about this in the context of the New Testament Church, when he says in Romans 16, verses 17 and 18, Paul says, I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. Avoid them, for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. Boy, Paul is describing in a New Testament church conflict exactly what Solomon is describing here in our passage. So we see multiple warnings about this in scripture. Solomon has his own warning, and he brings that out in verse 15. Troublemakers get into trouble Look at verse 15 if you have your Bibles open. Calamity will come upon him suddenly. In a moment, he will be broken beyond healing. We could paraphrase that by saying, God is God, and he's not gonna put up with wickedness. And there will come a day when the devil himself is thrown into the lake of fire, and he will be, in that sense, broken beyond healing. He will be in there, not to come out. And so God will deal with it, and so it is with the wicked and devilish person who does not repent, but goes on in his own wicked way. That person will be dealt with by God, and will be, in the eternal scheme, broken beyond healing. In this life, too, it is often the case that a person who is living in this mesh of lies, a mischief-maker, a conflict-prone person, is often suddenly broken. Where that person's lies catch up with him, and he is bankrupted or loses his good name, or is jailed, sometimes even killed. And I think you can all think of examples of devious people whose ways have suddenly caught up with them, and oftentimes it does happen with a bang. Down he goes. Payday came, and it came quickly, and it came with a vengeance. And that's what God is warning us about here through Solomon. So there's a portrait of wickedness, a troubling picture. and a warning to us. That's the first thing we're going to look at. Secondly, the pursuit of integrity. In pursuit of integrity, when we see this terrible picture of double dealing, and we see how painful and how ugly it is, how it stands for disturbed people and kind of broken hearts and conflict and trouble, that picture reminds us of how beautiful integrity is. Because integrity and righteousness is a beautiful thing. It is a beautiful thing when God in his mercy enables Christians to speak and act like the Christians we are. So that our calling and who we are line up. with integrity. And it is wonderful to realize and to rejoice in the fact that one big thing Jesus is up to is restoring our integrity as Christians. Jesus is restoring our integrity, and he does it in a couple of main ways. The first way Christ restores our integrity is through what we could call the honesty of repentance. The honesty of repentance. You remember when Christ began his ministry, the first words out of his mouth, actually the first word, was repent. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That was the first call. The first call to us to get honest about who we actually are. When I look at this portrait of the wicked man, how I wish I could completely distance myself from it, but I can't. And neither can any of us. There have been ways in which our speech has been destructive, scorching, manipulative. Certainly there have been times, unfortunately, where we've participated in picking on others. When there's been conflict and we didn't hate it, we loved it. We loved hearing all that bad stuff and kind of getting into the thick of it, which is terrible. So we see that about ourselves, and this is a call to us to repent, because there is no integrity, there is no integrity until we, first of all, admit there's a problem. We have to admit that who God calls us to be, which is righteous and good, does not, unfortunately, always line up with who we are. And so the first thing we have to do is to repent of our sins and to turn to Christ. He is the healer. And we often meditate on the work of Christ, and it is especially, I think, comforting to do that through the lens of integrity. Think about our Savior, who comes into the world as the one to redeem us, and he's going to live perfectly for us, who have such integrity issues. Think about the uprightness of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53.9 says, there was no lie found in his mouth. Who Jesus was called to be and who he was always lined up. And he does that to gain a righteousness that is imputed to us when we trust in him. And what a blessing that is. Christ in his saving work goes to the cross. And remember in our passage how the wicked man deserves to be broken without remedy. Well, Christ bearing our sins goes to the cross and he is broken for us. He is bruised and crushed for our transgressions, taking that penalty on himself for our sake, so that our sins might be washed away. And so the first thing we need to do is, in the honesty of repentance, to admit to God the many ways we fall short, and once again, run to Jesus Christ. How we need him. How are we gonna be saved without Christ? We can't. And so the first part of integrity is to come to Him, to trust in Him and rejoice in such a Savior. Christ's saving work continues in us. Not only does He pay for our sins and impute His righteousness to us, but He is our renewer and our teacher. So Jesus makes us new creatures inside, and he fills us with his Holy Spirit. He teaches us in his word, like our passage today, and he teaches us more and more to be the people we are. Colossians chapter three, verses nine through 10 is a classic verse that talks about this, and it's very much to the point of our passage. Listen to this. It says, here Paul writes, Do not lie to one another. Don't lie. Seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator. So Jesus has saved us and he has renewed and is renewing us and he's teaching us to be unified. so that who we're supposed to be, who we're called to be, and fundamentally who we have been made to be, more and more lines up with who we actually are. He's teaching us integrity. And this is, how does this happen? Well, through things like this sermon, through life, through the word, God teaches you to, more and more, what it means to be truthful and honest and honorable and upstanding. He teaches us and empowers us to become more unified and more consistent. And what a wonderful thing it is, because for the wicked man, he causes trouble wherever he goes. And the kind of upset and the difficulties that are there are pronounced. But with people who are being renewed in the image of Christ, it's quite the opposite, where more and more we are healed and knit together. We are more and more at peace with ourselves because we are learning to live as the Lord calls us to live. And we are not only being healed and knit back together ourselves, but we can then proceed to be a great help to others who also need to be healed and unified. So instead of being like a scorching fire, We're more like a shady tree where people who gather around us or who come into our presence are blessed and pointed to the Lord by our consistency and our faithfulness. We are more able to do God's work in their lives and to point them to the Lord. And so this integrity is a wonderful and beautiful thing. The unified life. As we draw to a close this morning, let's think a little bit more about how this unified life looks like. In short, it looks like the very opposite of the wicked man that Solomon describes. So you look at verse 12, and it talks about how the wicked man uses his word, they're crooked words, so these are words used to deceive and destroy, destructive words, But God calls the Christian to speak constructively, so we're called to speak in praise of God and in help of our neighbor, to try to bring that down to earth just a little bit. I'm willing to bet that at some point this week, you're going to have some sort of a issue with somebody, and you are going to be tempted to let that scorching fire fly, and either scorch them to their face or behind their back. That'll be your first temptation. And maybe, maybe by God's grace, I hope, I pray, that you will be able to put that to death by God's Spirit. But then there will be another temptation, and that is to kind of grimly clam up and think, okay, I'm not going to say anything. I'm not going to say anything. But that also falls short of what God requires of you. Because God, remember words are a powerful tool and they're to be used for doing good. And so don't clam up, open your mouth and say words of healing or reconciliation. If you truly can't find anything good to say, I guess you can maybe say nothing. But let it be wise and insightful, winsome, constructive. And then as you do that, you will be at one with the purpose God has for you. Constructive words. Verse 13 speaks of the wicked man ganging up on people. So here's this kind of wink-wink, nudge-nudge behavior that's mean-spirited and destructive. This wicked guy is a bully, and this is predatory sort of behavior that tries to gang up on people. And what does God call us to do? Well, don't be a bully, yeah. Don't be a predator, but it's more than that. Just as God has come to our rescue and he stands by us in our weakness, so with God's people we are to be a protector, a protector. And so when there are those who are being taken advantage of or somebody's picking on them, whether it's in your workplace or at school or whatever, it is the call of a Christian and salt and light to seek to promote that person's good and well-being and to protect them. That might be kind of a scary thought. You say, well, if someone's getting picked on and I stand with them, I'm gonna get picked on too. Maybe I'll just clear away. No, that's not what God has for you, I don't think. We're to be doing good and carrying out God's call in our life, not just avoiding evil. And if you're afraid that by associating with someone weak, you're going to be bullied as well, let me just say that it is far better to be bullied than to be a bully. It is far better to be bullied than to be a bully. Because if you are being picked on, then at least you can cry out to the Lord for His help and ask Him to strengthen you, and the Lord will help you. He'll also probably give you more compassion for others. And so God will be healing you. He'll be knitting you together, stitching you together. But if you're picking on somebody, it is like morally you're coming apart. God has a great call on your life, and you're going aside from it by mistreating someone made in his image, which is a serious thing. No, it's much better to be bullied than to bully. God calls us to be protectors. Verse 14 speaks about how the wicked man revels in conflict, and our role as Christians is, it is more than just don't do that. God actually calls us to be peacemakers. So when that kind of stuff is going on, as best you can, with integrity, to try to bring those sides together and help them to find common ground and to try to speak well of people. That's a great calling. It's not always easy, but that's the way God is. God has reached out to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. He's made peace with us. And so Jesus says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. So this is a life of integrity, and it is a beautiful thing. Solomon describes the wicked man, and he's just coming apart. He's coming apart. But for the person of integrity, saved by Jesus Christ, trusting in Christ, being taught by Christ, their life is coming together. They're learning to be who God has made them to be in Jesus Christ. May God help us to catch this vision and to grow in being unified Christians. Let's pray and ask for his help. Our Father in heaven, how we desire to be unified Christians, knit together with your purpose for us, consistent in what we say and do, having that be consistent with our profile as your dear children, as those saved and dearly loved in Jesus Christ. Father, a high calling, but one by which you equip us for by your Holy Spirit. So Father, help us to put far from us all wicked and false ways and help us to seek to be peacemakers and those who speak well and do good. Let us do this, we pray, for the name and for the sake of the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.