Text: “And as for me, Thou upholdest me in mine integrity,
and settest me before Thy face forever.” Psalm 41:12.
Good morning,
God-honouring Christian! You and I are
well aware, made aware by God the Holy Spirit, that if we are to name the Name
of Christ Jesus as our Saviour, we must also yield to Him as our Lord – and
that necessarily demands of us the highest Christ-like integrity. To be ‘Christian’, one must seek to be like
Christ in every area of our lives. To
possess such a high Christian integrity, is to be a sound witness of the grace
of God working within our lives daily.
Thus we honour the Lord God.
“Wherefore the
Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy
father, should walk before Me forever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from
Me; for them that honour Me I will honour, and they that despise Me shall be
lightly esteemed.” (1 Samuel 2:30)
Those of us, God’s
elect, that profess the Name of Christ as our Saviour and Lord, must practice
the very highest integrity before God and men, otherwise we are found to be
hypocrites and bring no honour to the Name of Jesus Christ the Lord.
“Nevertheless the
foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth (knows, and
continues to know) them that are His.
And let everyone that nameth the Name of Christ depart from
iniquity.” (2 Timothy 2:19)
Only a
manifestation of the highest integrity, continuously, should be practiced by
Christians. When we fail, (not IF we
fail!) we must confess that failure to the Lord and be immediately renewed in
faith and necessary Christian integrity.
We are under the world’s microscope daily! We must pray continually for God the Holy
Spirit to fill us with His Holy motivation, desire to follow Christ; and a
strict conscience against all sin. For,
if left to ourselves, we will naturally follow the path of sin and disobedience
to the laws of the Lord God. (1 John 1:8-9)
Verse 12. “And as for me, Thou upholdest me in mine
integrity. We are
like those glasses without feet, which can only be upright while they are held
in the hand; we fall, and spill, and spoil all, if left to ourselves. The Lord should be praised every day if we
are preserved from gross sin. When
others sin, they show us what we should be, but for grace. ‘He today and I
tomorrow,’ was the exclamation of a holy man whenever he saw another failing
into sin.” (C.H. Spurgeon,
Treasury of David, page 201)
True and mutually
trusting fellowship with others of ‘…like precious faith…’ in Christ, is such a
vital concept to practice. We are all of
Adam’s fallen race, his original sin blighted the whole of mankind with a
similar penchant to sin and run into disobedience to God.
Therefore, to have
Christian companions whom we can really and totally trust with our personal failings/faults,
is to have fellowshipping friends to whom we can come with confidence to
confess our faults and to pray with, in repentance, for renewed cleansing from
daily sins. Mutual trust is absolutely
necessary in such a successful relation of fellowship in Christ Jesus. The strictest confidence must be held by both
parties if such close fellowship is to be maintained and faith nurtured within
the church.
“Confess your
faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual prayer of a righteous man (made
righteous in Christ) availeth much.
Elias (Elijah) was a man of like passions as we are, and he prayed
earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space
of three years and six months.” (James
5:16-17)
Dictionary Definition: Integrity – (noun)
entireness, wholeness; the unimpaired state of anything; uprightness, honesty;
purity. (The Chambers Dictionary, page
835)
“This same
integrity is like Noah’s ark, wherein he was preserved when others perished,
being without it. It is like the red
thread, which the spies of Joshua gave to Rahab, it was a charter whereby she
claimed her life when the rest were destroyed, which had not the like. So is this integrity of small reckoning, I
confess, with the men of this world, which think that there is no other Heaven
but earth; but as Rahab’s thread was better to her than all her goods and
substance when the sword came, so this is better to God’s children than al the
world when death comes.” (William Burton
1602)
Christian
integrity involves the entire man/woman of Christ, in word, thought, deed, and
motivation. It is the proof of
genuineness; of the reality of the Son of God actually living within the being
of the believer - especially concerning his/her constancy of Christ-likeness in
the eyes of the unbelievers all around.
To manifest such a
high quality of Christian integrity is to be ‘…the salt of the earth…a light on
a hill that cannot be hidden.’ It brings
immediate glory to the Christ of God Who has performed such a miracle of
Christian regeneration. (John 3:308)
Verse 12. “…And settest me before Thy face
forever”. It is a
very real wonder of God’s Sovereign grace that, not only does the Living Lord
God elect (choose) a soul for Salvation from ‘…before the foundation of the
world…’; but that He grants us the integrity-power of God the Holy Spirit, Who
not only ‘quickens’ us from having a dead spirit to be a living spirit in
Christ Jesus, but empowers us to walk with genuine Christian integrity day by
day! (Acts 1:8)
Furthermore, after
having performed and exercised this miracle of quickening and saving grace –
the Lord God empowers us to serve Him, with His full promise that we shall be
set before His Holy face forever in Heaven!
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Thought: ‘Dear Lord God, please uphold me in Holy integrity day and
daily; that I might bring glory to Thy Holy Name and not shame. Amen.’
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