Good afternoon.
Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to Genesis chapter 37.
In Genesis 37...
We see a picture.
that illustrates the subject of our lesson this afternoon.
as we consider the idea of uprightness or the upright.
In Genesis chapter 37, Joseph receives a vision.
And as Joseph is there with his brothers, we read in the text beginning about verse four,
But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.
Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him even more.
So he said to them, Please hear this dream, which I have dreamed.
There we were, binding sheaves in the field.
Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright.
And indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.
As they were there in the fields, a sheaf of the gleaning from the field would be something that would be common for them to see.
They'd see them bundled up, they'd see them lying down in the field as they had continued their work.
And Joseph says, I saw a vision, I saw a dream, and this is what I saw.
I had a sheaf and my sheaf stood upright.
Now you noticed it didn't say that he placed it upright.
It said that the sheaf stood upright.
He sees in this dream this vision of the sheaf standing up and its position in space, it is standing upright.
oh
but then he describes their sheaves.
He said that he saw their sheaves there in the dream and they were bowed down.
Now, again, doesn't say they were laying down.
The indication is that their sheaves also had stood up, but instead of standing up and remaining upright, they stood up and then bowed down before his sheave.
Now this didn't make his brothers very happy, but it does provide us a visual image of the term that's used throughout Scripture of being upright.
For the contrast to upright is bowed down.
And as we look at Scripture, as we examine a number of passages, we find this distinct difference between what God would have us to be in our lives, in our character, and what
the world would have us to be.
Turn over to Leviticus chapter 26.
Leviticus 26.
We read beginning in verse 11, God as He is delivering this message through Moses to the people of Israel is making it clear that He is going to place His house, His dwelling
place with Israel.
And He says,
among you and be your God, and you shall be my people." God is saying, I'm going to make my presence, my home, my dwelling place with you, Israel, and I'm not going to abhor you.
He has no misconception that Israel's got its flaws.
He is not under the impression that Israel will somehow magically become a perfect people that is sinless in every way.
Rather, his testimony and his covenant is that if they will walk after his commandments, if they will do what he has commanded them to do, if they will keep his covenant, then he
will dwell with them, they will receive the blessings of his presence with them, and he will not abhor them.
In other words, he will overlook
their sins and grant them forgiveness.
But notice what he says, I will walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people.
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that you should not be their slaves.
I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.
This second picture from Leviticus this time of the contrast of upright versus bowed down is one of enslavement.
uh
God says, I have taken you out of Egypt.
I have taken the yoke and the burden and the chains off of you.
I have pulled you out of captivity and I have caused you to be able to stand upright on your own.
I have caused you.
to be able to stand as you ought." He says, verse 14, "'But if you do not obey me and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise my statutes, and if your soul
abhors my judgment so that you do not perform all my commandments but break my covenant, I will also do this to you and proceed to tell them concerning the judgment that will come
upon them if they will not keep the covenant.'"
These two illustrations help us to visualize Egypt, or Israel in Egypt bowed down under a burden, under a yoke, under chain as slaves.
And the sheafs bowed down to Joseph's upright sheaf, both of which give us the picture of what upright means in a physical sense.
Turn to Deuteronomy 32.
In Deuteronomy 32, you'll find that God is upright.
As we examine this idea, we understand and should understand, both from this passages and others as we go through this, that we are being called to be like God.
Deuteronomy chapter 32 beginning in verse 3, for I proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God.
He is the Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice.
A God of truth and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.
as Moses writes this song about God, as he writes concerning the character and the nature of God, he describes God as one who is just, one who is righteous, one who is upright.
God is not calling us to uh an action or a character or uh a nature that He does not already exemplify for us every day.
You turn over to book of Job and you find Job is a man who lived probably around the time
Timeline wise, chronology wise of Abraham.
He lived in the days of the patriarchal age.
He lived sometime after the flood by all indications of the text.
But he wasn't an Israelite by any indication of the text.
Yet he was one who was obedient to God.
We find in Job chapter 1 and in verse 1 there was a man in the land of us
whose name was Job, that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil.
As you are introduced to this man, Job, you are introduced to him as one who is blameless and upright, who no accusation could be brought to.
and justified against him, though you will find the entire book filled with accusations against him by his friends, yet none of them had any basis in fact.
But he's introduced in the text as one who is upright.
You go down to verse 8.
Then the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered, my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?
as God is there and Satan is before God and Satan is pointing out the nature of individuals.
God says, you considered my servant, Now, you may look at this and go, well, Aaron, it's one thing to say we ought to be upright, but you're asking me to be like a man who God
says there wasn't a single other person on the planet like him.
How am going to live up to that?
The answer is you look at the characteristics of him and you live up not to the uniqueness of the man but the character of the man.
What is it that God describes him as?
A blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil.
Are those four things things that we can do in our lives?
Absolutely.
But notice as we go along, you're gonna see words put together with upright.
They're going to help you understand what this means.
You saw back in Deuteronomy 32, God is upright and righteous.
You saw the term just in that text as well.
You see here the term being used upright and blameless.
All of those things are going to be helpful to us, especially when we get over to the New Testament, because the New Testament really doesn't use the term upright in the way the
Old Testament does.
But we'll see some things from the New Testament nonetheless.
You go to chapter 2 of the book of Job and you see this in verse 3, then the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job that there is none like him on the earth, a
blameless and an upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?
And still...
He holds fast to his integrity.
Although you incited me against him to destroy him without cause." If you know the passage and you know the text and the events of the book of Job, you'll know that Job, after Satan
had approached the Lord and God had pointed out Job, his character and his lifestyle, Satan had insisted that the only reason why Job was that way is that God had built a hedge
around Job.
that Job was only that way in his character because God wouldn't let Satan touch Job in any way.
So God allowed Satan to touch Job.
And in one day, all ten of Job's children died, and most of his servants died, save the ones that came back to report that all of his flocks, all of his herds had been stolen,
and all of his children had died.
And in one day, went from being a wealthy man with abundance and ten children to being a man who had nothing, and all of his children were dead.
And yet, when Job experienced all of this, and when the Word came to Job, we read in verse 20, then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell to the ground and worshiped.
And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
In spite of everything that Job experienced, Job did not curse God.
Job did not turn his back on God.
Rather, God pointed out that he still holds fast to his integrity.
There's another word you need to keep track of.
God is just, God is righteous, Job was blameless and upright, a man of integrity.
Now you consider as well the book of Psalms.
The psalmist writer has much to say about the upright.
We're only going to look at one psalm, but I think it's an interesting one to help frame what this means for us.
Turn to Psalm 11.
This is one of those Psalms that a lot of people are familiar with because there's a verse in here that people know and recognize and is pretty well known.
They don't usually know much about the rest of the Psalm.
But it's not a long one, it's only seven verses.
Psalm 11 begins, in the Lord I put my trust.
How can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain?
You know that song?
Flee is a Bird?
This is where it comes from.
The psalmist writer asks in verse 3 another passage that resonates with individuals and perhaps uh more so in our country than maybe in others, but if the foundations be
destroyed, what shall the righteous do?
The text asks.
But in between these two verses that are familiar to us, that resonate with us, one that is the focal point of a song that we sing in our psalm books, another that emphasizes that
when the foundation is destroyed, the righteous are left questioning what to do, you have verse two.
So read verse one with me one more time.
In the Lord I put my trust.
How can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain?
For look, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow on the string, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart.
As the question is asked, if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
As the question is asked, can I, should I flee to my mountain to refuge?
You're in a context in which the righteous and the upright are under attack.
And they're not under attack in the way that whole armies would come and sweep over them.
They're under attack by the malice and the planning and the cunning of those who would destroy them secretly.
for the way that a righteous person is destroyed.
is not by killing their body.
but by corrupting their soul, by corrupting the foundation of the good that they do.
And so, as the psalmist writer says, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart.
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
But then he says, the Lord is in His holy temple.
The Lord's throne is in heaven, his eyes behold, his eyelids test the sons of men.
The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence his soul hates.
Upon the wicked he will rain coals, fire, and brimstone, and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup.
For the Lord is righteous, he loves righteousness.
his countenance beholds the upright.
As the psalmist writer pictures the onslaught from the enemy, as he pictures the secret and silent attacks on the character and the integrity of the righteous, he is reminded
that God sees it all too.
And that while God allows the upright to be tested, while God allows the upright and the righteous to go through trials, He is also one who sustains them through those trials.
His countenance beholds them.
So often,
individuals look and think about God as the judge waiting to condemn.
Rarely, rarely in Scripture is that the picture you have of God.
Rather you have, like you have here, the King waiting to justify the upright.
The one who stands behind and says, have you seen my servant who's just?
and upright and righteous, who rejoices in not the sinlessly perfect, but in the upright, the one of integrity, the one who will not bow.
If turn over to Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 2,
Solomon is writing to his son.
And he writes in Proverbs chapter 2 and in verse 6, for the Lord gives wisdom.
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.
He is a shield to those who walk uprightly.
Solomon, as he describes the Lord, does not describe him as one constantly throwing a stumbling block in the way of the upright.
Rather, he describes him as one who stores up sound wisdom.
He has put together, as it were, the silo, and he has stored up all the grain necessary, all the sustenance necessary to keep the upright going.
And what is it that he's stored up?
Wisdom.
He has stored up sound wisdom so that the upright can continue sustained and moving forward.
But then Solomon says not only does he store up sound wisdom for the upright, but he is a shield to those who walk uprightly.
God's view of the upright, God's view of the righteous individual, God's view of the one who walks in his integrity is that he is both the sustainer and the defender of that
individual.
but not of those who turn back.
Over in the book of Habakkuk, in this small, minor prophet as it is described nowadays, Habakkuk is dealing with the struggles of a ungodly nation that God says he is going to
judge.
And when God says he's going to do that and he's going to do it through the Chaldeans, you read in verse chapter 1 and in verse 12, Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my
Holy One?
We shall not die, O Lord, you have appointed them for judgment, O Rock, you have marked them for correction.
You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.
Why do you look on those who deal treacherously?
And hold your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he.
Why do you make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them?
As this prophet is observing and seeing these visions of God's judgment to come through the Chaldeans on the nation of Judah, he says, I'm struggling because I know your
character.
I know your actions.
And yet I see this continuing on, and now I see you saying that you're going to use a more evil nation to judge this people.
He says, take up all of them, verse 15, with a hook.
They catch them in their net.
They gather them in their dragnet.
Therefore, they rejoice and are glad.
The Chaldeans had a practice.
in which they would conquer a nation and then they would take their slaves off into captivity by running a hook through their nostrils and tying them together.
And trust me, where the hook went, so did you.
They would go about capturing the strongest, the greatest, the ones of the ability to do labor, and they would carry them off into captivity, leading them by the nose.
And the prophet wants to know how this can be.
Verse 16, therefore they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their dragnet because by them their snare is sumptuous and their food is plentiful.
Shall they therefore empty their net and continue to slay nations without pity?
God, how long are you going to let this nation persist?
Speaking of the Chaldeans.
But then notice what the prophet says.
I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what He will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected.
the prophet addresses God and says I've told you what I'm thinking I've told you my questions now I'm gonna as it were stand on the defense line I'm going to stand on the
rampart of the defenses looking for dangers ahead and I'm going to stand here in my watch until you tell me why I'm wrong
with the expectation he knows he's wrong because he doesn't see it God's way.
Then the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time.
But at the end it will speak and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come it will not tarry.
Behold the proud.
His soul is not upright in him.
but the just shall live by faith." That phrase is uttered again and again and again throughout the New Testament.
But did you realize that the contrast, the beginning of the phrase is God telling a prophet, you go look at that proud man over there.
Who's he referencing?
Nebuchadnezzar.
He's referencing the king of the nation that's coming in destruction, who's filled and uplifted with pride.
And it says, you see inside of him, he's not upright.
But the just shall live by faith.
God emphasizes to this prophet, I know the difference in people.
I judge them not by the outside, but by the inside.
And I will judge them accordingly.
The just are a contrast.
to those who are not upright.
And as you look at scripture, you see these examples and you begin to see the picture come together.
Turn over to Colossians chapter 1 and you see the picture coalesce even more.
For in Colossians chapter 1, you find with clarity that God makes it clear that obedience to the gospel makes one upright before God.
In order for one to stand before God upright,
in order for one to walk before God upright, he must begin here.
Colossians chapter 1, Paul writes beginning in verse 19, for it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him,
whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
and you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and
above reproach in His sight." What is it that we saw, again, not using the word upright, but all those connecting words?
What is it that God described the upright as?
He described them as righteous.
He described them as one of integrity.
He described them as one who is just.
He described them as one who was blameless.
And what is it that Christ in the body of His flesh makes us?
For He made us holy and blameless.
and above reproach in His sight, if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was
preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
How do you make one upright?"
before God.
Paul says that it is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it is through the payment of His blood that was shed for us, that an individual is made upright, blameless before God.
But it is only through His continuance in the faith that he remains upright before God.
Tell them about Acts chapter 5, if you will.
In Acts chapter 5, we find an example in the lives of the disciples.
where they are tested to see whether they will continue in their integrity.
We read in Acts chapter 5 beginning in verse 17,
this life.
And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught, but the high priest and those with him came and called the council together with all the elders of
the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought.
But when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they returned and reported, saying, Indeed, we found the prison shut securely, and the guard standing
outside before the doors.
But when we opened them, we found no one inside.
Now, in the high priest, the captain of the temple
and the chief priests heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be.
So one came and told them, saying, Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.
Then the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned.
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name?
And look, you have filled Jerusalem
with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood on us.
These chief priests, these individuals with soldiers at their beckon call had told the disciples, don't speak anymore in the name of Jesus.
You don't teach anymore in the name of Jesus.
We'll put you in jail and we'll do worse.
And yet, at the beckoning of the angel, they went right back out.
first thing that morning, led out of prison by the angel, and they did exactly what?
Preached Jesus.
So when they're again arrested and they're again brought before the chief priests, they said, did you not remember that we told you, do not speak anymore in this name?
But Peter, verse 29, and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men.
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.
Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him." Peter said, we ought to obey God rather than men.
Peter insisted they would not bow.
They would stand upright.
They would speak the truth.
They would not cower.
They would not bend.
They would not be bullied.
They would only speak the truth.
Now, verse 33, when they heard this, they were furious and plotted to kill them.
And then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people, and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little
while.
And he said to them, men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men.
For some time ago, Thiddeus rose up, claiming to be somebody.
A number of men, about four hundred, joined him.
He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing.
After this,
And Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away many people after him.
He also perished and all who obeyed him were dispersed.
And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing, but if it is of God.
You cannot overthrow it.
lest you even be found to fight against God." Gamaliel, though he did not obey what was taught, had clarity of vision to realize that if this originates with God, you can try and
you can try and you can try to get these men to bow, but it won't work.
And you might take their lives, but you won't defeat whatever God's doing.
If you turn over to Revelation, Revelation chapter 3, as John is writing to the churches, you see that sometimes the thing that you have to be upright about is something that is
being faced from outside the church.
And sometimes it's from inside the church.
In Revelation chapter 3 and verse 1, and the angel of the church in Sardis write, these things says he who has seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know your works, that
you have a name, that you are alive, but you are dead.
As John writes to this church, he says, I know you think you're right with God, you're wrong.
I know you think you're alive in Christ, you're dead." He goes on to say, be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works
perfect before God.
Remember therefore how you have received and heard, hold fast and repent therefore if you will not watch.
I will come upon you as a thief and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.
You have a few names even in Sardis.
who have not defiled their garments.
And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy." As John, through the Word of the Spirit, writes to these churches, he writes to the church at Sardis and he says,
you're a dead church.
You're not alive in Christ anymore.
but you have some members who walk in their integrity.
You have some among you who are not dead, they're alive, and they'll walk with me.
Sometimes the threat that comes to our uprightness does not come from outside.
Sometimes it comes from those around us.
to be tempted to be drawn away after the world even by those who are in the church.
Turn to Galatians chapter 5.
As we close, here are some practical matters in which Paul writes about uprightness.
For he writes about the new man.
He writes about the one who walks in the Spirit.
the one who walks with God.
We read in Galatians chapter 5 and in verse 16, I say then walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts the flesh.
the lusts, lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are evident, are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions,
dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past that those who practice such
things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law.
And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit.
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
As Paul encapsulates the life of a Christian, he goes down the list and he says, this is not an upright person.
This is not an upright person.
If you're doing these things, this is not an upright person.
This is a person who has bowed.
This is a person who has been enslaved.
This is a person who allowed themselves to once again be enslaved to this world.
But we walk in the Spirit.
Over in the book of Ephesians.
In Ephesians chapter 5 and in verse 8, Paul writes, "'For you were once darkness, but now you are the light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light.
For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.'"
For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.
But all things are exposed, are manifested by the light.
For whatever makes manifest is light.
Therefore, he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time
for the days are evil.
Therefore, do not be unwise.
Understand what the will of the Lord is." As Paul writes to the church, he calls upon these brethren to walk as children of light, to stand in their integrity, to not depart
from their faith.
to be those who were converted from darkness to light and to never allow this world to bring them back to darkness.
God is the support and the shield of the upright.
We need to be those who are the upright.
If you're here this evening and you have needed the invitation of Christ, to either depart from darkness, to depart from the world and put Christ on in baptism, you can do that
today.
If you're a member of the body of Christ and you look at your life and you say, I've not been walking as an upright person.
I've been bowed down to the world.
I've been enslaved to the darkness.
I've allowed myself to walk back and I don't want God at war with me.
Then why not return?
Why not do
what God told the church in Sardis to do and return and repent.
If you have need of the invitation of God, why not come now as we stand and as we sing.