Proverbs 2:7
Integrity/Uprightness #1: (Definition/Relationship Between)
Pastor Martin begins a new series on 'Integrity/Uprightness,' defining these virtues and exploring their intimate relationship as presented in the book of Proverbs. He explains that integrity signifies moral wholeness and completeness, while uprightness denotes unbending moral straightness. Drawing from Proverbs and Psalms, Martin argues that these qualities are foundational for receiving divine wisdom and guidance, and that their absence leads to perverseness and ultimately despising God. The sermon emphasizes the importance of parents instilling these virtues in their children, highlighting the benefits of a life lived with integrity and uprightness, even if it means earthly poverty.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 8 sections · 51 min
- Introduction to the Series and the Book of Proverbs 0:01
- The Eighth Major Category: Integrity and Uprightness 4:17
- Defining Integrity and Uprightness: Meaning and Relationship 6:17
- Biblical Conjunction of Integrity and Uprightness 10:25
- Conscious Possession of Integrity Without Pride 14:31
- Integrity and Uprightness in Proverbs: Key Texts and Implications 26:46
- The Sure Path of Uprightness and its Religious Roots 36:37
- Integrity Over Wealth and Concluding Exhortation 46:20
Key Quotes
“What this invaluable book, the book of Proverbs impresses upon their minds is the importance of deep-seated principles in the heart, the responsibility of conduct in every step of life, the danger of trifling deviations for expediency's sake, the value of self-discipline, the habit of bringing everything to the word of God, the duty of weighing in just balances a worldly and a heavenly portion and thus deciding the momentous, the choice of an everlasting good before the toys of this earth.”
“He is not doing things out of duplicity. He's not doing things to fool people. Integrity implies conduct from which no essential moral element is lacking.”
“Where you find integrity, you will find uprightness. Where there is uprightness, you will find integrity. Furthermore, they are moral qualities or graces which ought to be registered in our own consciences and unashamedly confessed as our possession without any tinge of sinful pride.”
“Till I die, I will not put away my integrity from thee. My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live.”
“When the little bird in my bosom sings a merry song, it is no matter if a thousand owls hoot at me from without.”
“It has nothing to do with IQ has nothing to do with background it has all to do with whether or not you possess in increasing measures the moral qualities of integrity and of uprightness.”
“When you and I choose the way of moral perverseness crookedness as opposed to straightness we do not do so in terms of isolated moral rules. We do so in terms of the rights and claims of God over us. And you and I cannot choose any path of crookedness without despising God himself.”
“A plate of beans and a crust of bread with a good conscience is a banquet fit for kings. But a twelve course table full of all the dainties the best chefs could produce that are put into a mouth joined to a galling conscience it's like eating gravel.”
Applications
All listeners
- Parents must continually exhort their children to a life of integrity and uprightness while emphasizing the benefits of such a life.
- Seek to understand precisely what integrity and uprightness are, moving beyond a superficial understanding.
- If you possess integrity and uprightness, it should register in your conscience, and you should be able to affirm it without sinful pride.
- Recognize that growth in spiritual wisdom is directly tied to walking in uprightness and integrity.
- If you struggle with knowing the will of God, examine whether you lack integrity and uprightness.
- Stop vacillating and let your 'needle' settle in the direction of north, committing to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
- Inculcate in your children the truth that the integrity of the upright shall guide them in their many future decisions.
- Confess sins against God to God and sins against men to men, so that your way is a highway, free from fear of exposure.
- Live in such a way that you are never ashamed or afraid of what anyone might say about you, because there's nothing to spill that hasn't already been dealt with.
- Live by the value that integrity is better than wealth, even if it means poverty.
- Seek to impart the nobility of integrity and uprightness to your children by way of godly admonition, consistent example, and fervent prayer.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 77 paragraphs, roughly 51 minutes.
Introduction to the Series and the Book of Proverbs
How Not to Foul Up the Training of Your Children This is cassette number 33 in a series given by Pastor Albert N. Martin in the Adult Sunday School class of the Trinity Baptist Church on October 6, 1991. Now, in our ongoing studies of this most important subject, how not to foul up the training of our children, we have concentrated our attention on seeking to flesh out the directive of Ephesians 6, 4, given to fathers explicitly, implicitly, to mothers as they share the burden of the training of the children. Fathers, do not provoke them to wrath, but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord. And for a number of weeks, we've been seeking to discover the major points of emphasis in the book of Proverbs, this, this inspired manual of godly parental admonition. And in order to urge any who have not yet really dug into the book of Proverbs or who have not purchased Bridges' commentary, in order to use it personally and with your families, let me read a little excerpt from his introduction, Roman numeral page 14,
in seeking to set forth the peculiar benefits and unique contribution of the book of Proverbs, Bridges says, one other weighty consideration the writer would advert to as having directed his attention to this book is its distinctive character as a book for the young. The wise man's father propounded a most anxious question. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? His son in this book has fully opened the answer.
By taking heed thereto according to thy word. Nay, he expressly states the book to be written for the heeding of youth. Chapter 1, verse 4, chapter 4 and verse 1. It takes them as it were by the hand and sets up way marks to warn against coming danger and imminent temptations and allures them into the bright ways of God by the most engaging motives.
And never surely was the object so momentous as at the present day. Our young are growing up in a period when the foundations of the earth are out of course. 1846.
Our young are growing up in a period when the foundations of the earth are out of course and when subtle and restless efforts are making, are seeking to poison, their hearts and pervert their ways. Nothing therefore can be more important than to fortify them with sound principles that when withdrawn from the parental wing into a world or alas a church of temptation, they may be manifestly under a divine cover as the children of a special Providence. What this invaluable book, the book of Proverbs impresses upon their minds is the importance of deep-seated principles in the heart, the responsibility of conduct in every step of life, the danger of trifling deviations for expediency's sake, the value of self-discipline, the habit of bringing everything to the word of God, the duty of weighing in just balances a worldly and a heavenly portion and thus deciding the momentous, the choice of an everlasting good before the toys of this earth. These lessons thoroughly inwrought in our children will prove to be the best security against all attempts
The Eighth Major Category: Integrity and Uprightness
to loosen the hold of principle and to entice them to take enchanted ground. And then he goes on to amplify that, but I trust again that wets your appetite as the peculiar benefits of the book of Proverbs as a model of godly parental admonition is set before us again this morning. Having established the foundational element of all godly admonition as being the fear of God, we focused our attention upon seven major categories of admonition in Proverbs, which ought to be major elements in our admonition and instruction. We come today to the eighth and at this juncture what I regard to be the final category of major emphasis after which I plan to address several concluding issues in winding down this series of studies over the next few weeks. Now the eighth major category is that of integrity and uprightness. And in order to make the material parallel to the preceding lessons, I will state the issue as follows. Parents must continually exhort their children to a life of integrity and uprightness
while emphasizing the benefits of such a life. Parents must continually exhort their children to a life of integrity and uprightness while continually emphasizing the benefits of such a life. For remember, the Scripture says, Godliness has promise for the life which now is and of that which is to come. And it is perfectly proper.
Defining Integrity and Uprightness: Meaning and Relationship
Yea, it is our duty in admonishing our children to the various strands of what constitutes a life of godliness, not only to set before them the great ultimate issues of heaven and hell, but the issues in this present life. For I say, Scripture says, Godliness has promise of this present life as well as the life to come. And with respect to the virtues of integrity and uprightness, we will discover that Solomon is continually urging the acquisition of these virtues and buttressing his exhortation by setting forth the benefits which accrue from such a life. Now in order to appreciate these biblical words and concepts, let me begin this morning by Roman numeral 1, addressing the basic meaning of an intimate relationship between integrity and uprightness. It was very interesting to me that when I was speed reading again and again the book of Proverbs, and I came to the conviction that the book of Proverbs is the book of Proverbs, and I came to the conviction that the book of Proverbs is the book of Proverbs, to the conviction that integrity and uprightness were indeed one of the major strands of emphasis, that was relatively easy to discern.
Then when it came to ascertaining precisely what are these qualities of integrity and uprightness, it's one of those things you say, well, surely I know what integrity and uprightness are. They are. They are. And one sits with paper and pen and starts trying to write down what is integrity, what is uprightness, why are integrity and uprightness joined so often in Scripture.
And so it drove me back to my concordance, to my lexicons, to word studies, and what I want to do is to give you basically, in trying to show the meaning and intimate relationship of integrity and uprightness. Just to mention briefly the root meaning of the two main Hebrew words used for these moral qualities, integrity, the Hebrew word tom or tumah, it means the quality of being complete. It implies conduct from which no essential moral element is lacking. When a man does what he does with integrity.
He does it with all of the major components of noble moral action present. He does it according to the law of God. He acts with integrity. He does it with a sense of his accountability to God.
He does what he does, and what he does is what he's unashamed that others should know he is doing, so that what they see is what is. He is not doing things out of duplicity. He's not doing things to fool people. Integrity implies conduct from which no essential moral element is lacking.
Moral wholeness or completeness are bound up in the root concept of the Hebrew word. Uprightness comes from a root which means straight or even. It implies unbounded. It implies unbounded.
It implies unbounded. It implies unbending moral straightness. If an action is morally pleasing to God and is likened to a straight line, uprightness is walking that straight line and not deviating from it. So that integrity speaks primarily of completeness or wholeness, and uprightness speaks of that which is straight or even, unbending.
Biblical Conjunction of Integrity and Uprightness
Moral straightness. Now, note the close relationship between these two things. One text in Proverbs and one in the book of Psalms. Psalm 25.
This is why I'm treating them together, because we see them treated together in the Word of God. In Psalm 25 and verse 21, the psalmist prays, let integrity be your strength. Let integrity be your strength. Let integrity be your strength.
Let integrity be your strength. Let integrity be your strength. Then he says this, let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for thee, redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. Now the commentators differ as to whether or not the psalmist is praying, let my own integrity and uprightness preserve me in this present trial, for if you read the psalm, it's evident.
It's a psalm in which the psalmist is contemplating. Conscious of the oppression of his enemies, conscious of his own sin, conscious of dangers and his need of guidance, and he may be praying in the midst of this, let integrity, my moral wholeness and uprightness, my moral straightness, let them preserve me in the midst of this trial. For, Lord, I trust in you. I am a believing man who has walked in integrity and uprightness. O Lord, preserve me. Or it could be that he is thinking of these moral qualities as they exist in God, and asking that God's integrity and God's uprightness would preserve him, and therefore he is in a posture of waiting upon God, trusting in God.
But now, whether the qualities are correct or not, it is up to God. They are conceived of as qualities in the psalmist or in God. One thing is clear, they are set against one another in the closest proximity, and that is all I want us to see in this passage. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me. They are brought into this very close conjunction.
Now, turning to the book of Proverbs, we see the same thing. In Proverbs chapter 2, and we could use other texts, but I...
I want to bring, as I told the men, on Friday, in constructing topical sermons, two or three good witnesses are sufficient, even if you may have seven or eight. If two or three do not persuade a man, eight will not, and the added five will weary the people of God who want to move on to the rest of the lesson. So, Proverbs 2 and verse 7. In this section where he is exhorting his son to receive his...
to lay up his words, to lay up his commandments with him, to cry out for true heavenly wisdom, he says, then, verse 5, thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God, for Jehovah gives wisdom. Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright, and a shield, or he is a shield to them. That walk in integrity.
Now, here, in the Hebrew parallelism, the upright and those who walk in integrity are one and the same person. An upright man is one who walks in his integrity. A man who walks in his integrity is an upright man. So, you see that they are so closely related, not exactly synonyms, but so related in the moral constitution, of an image bearer of God, that where you find integrity, you will find uprightness.
Conscious Possession of Integrity Without Pride
Where there is uprightness, you will find integrity. Furthermore, they are moral qualities or graces which ought to be registered in our own consciences and unashamedly confessed as our possession without any tinge of sinful pride. Whatever they are, the basic concept is complete or moral wholeness, straight, unbending, moral straightness or strictness. They are closely related, and furthermore, if we possess these qualities, it should register in our consciences, and we should be able to affirm that we possess them without carnal pride. Look at several examples. Look at several examples, Psalm 26, Psalm 26 and verse 1, Psalm 26 and verse 1. Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity.
I have trusted also in Jehovah without wavering. Examine me, O Jehovah, and prove me. Try my heart and my mind. For thy lovingkindness is before my eyes.
I have walked in thy truth. I have not sat with men of falsehood. Neither will I go in with dissemblers. I hate the assembly of evildoers.
I will not sit with the wicked. Now, he's not saying he's sinless, for he says, I will wash my hands in innocency. So will I compass thine altar. So he was conscious of his own integrity.
And even when praying that God would search him, out and show him any areas of deviation, yet undetected and undiscovered, he has a conscience which affirms that he has walked in moral integrity. He has walked by the straight line of the word of God. That has been the basic fundamental intention of his heart and action of his life. Not perfectly, but purposefully pervasive, and really without any notion of sinless perfection.
So he is conscious of his own integrity and it's right that he should be. Then when we turn to the book of Job, we have perhaps the classic example of this great principle. That these qualities of integrity and uprightness are qualities which if a man or woman possesses them, ought to register and will register in his conscience, and he can boast of them without being guilty of sinful boasting. We read in Job chapter 2 and verse 3, And Jehovah said unto Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God and turns away from evil, and he still holds fast his integrity, although you moved me against him to destroy him without cause. God says he's an upright man, and he is holding fast to his integrity, to his moral wholeness,
or completeness. Verse 9, Then said his wife unto him, Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Renounce God and die. But he said unto her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks.
And then after his so-called friends have all come in and said, Now Job, look, we know in God's world there is an unbending, inflexible law of divine operation. God blesses the righteous with favor manifested in his providential appointment of health and wealth and prosperity. God unmasks hypocrites who strut about like they are godly men by bringing them to physical and material destitution. Therefore, Job, from one who at one time was healthy and wealthy and looked upon as the wise, sagacious counselor of others, God has pulled away the mask of your hypocrisy, and there you sit on your heap of ashes, scraping your boils with an old piece of a broken pot. Now, Job, own up to reality. You have been a hypocrite. That was basically their thesis.
If you read all the chapters, and they said, If that's not the reason why you're where you are, tell us. And Job had no answer. Job had no answer. But though he had no answer, it's very interesting.
There's one thing he would not do, and that was relinquish his self-conscious possession of integrity before God. Listen to him. In Job chapter 27. And that's why I say these moral qualities register in the conscience of the one who has them, and he can speak of them with great assurance without being guilty of presumption or sinful pride.
Job 27. They let loose all of their volleys upon him, trying to prove their theological framework. The righteous are blessed. Hypocrites and the wicked are unmasked and cursed.
Therefore, Job, you fit this category. Job again took up his parable and said, As God liveth who hath taken away my right, and the Almighty who hath vexed my soul, for my life is yet whole in me, and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils, surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness, neither shall my tongue utter deceit. Far be it from me that I should justify you, in other words, I will never acknowledge your thesis to be right just to get you off my back. Till I die, I will not put away my integrity from thee.
My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live. He says, Do what you will, say what you will, say what you will, say what you may. Till I die, I will not capitulate to your vicious theological conclusions.
I don't know what God's doing to me. I don't know why my bright day has been turned into a horrible night and day of deep darkness. But one thing I do, I cling to my integrity. I am not the hypocrite you say I am.
I am not the wicked man you say I am. And in specific instances, he even recounts the ways in which he showed himself to be a righteous man in showing compassion upon the needy, parting with his goods voluntarily in general benevolence and concern for others. And he is conscious in the theatre of his own conscience amidst all the confusion of this unexplained providence that he had walked with integrity before God and he would not relinquish that. Chapter 31.
Here you see he gets into some of the specifics of his integrity. And he knew these things to be true. I made a covenant with my eyes. How then should I look upon a virgin?
He says, I have a conscience that no way condemns me that I have been breaking the seventh commandment mentally. I made a covenant with my eyes. How then should I look upon a virgin? For what is the portion from God above and the heritage from Almighty on high?
Is it not calamity to the unrighteous and disaster to the workers of iniquity? Does he not see my ways and number my steps? If I have walked with falsehood and my foot hath hasted to deceit, if I have only appeared to be a godly and an upright and a blameless man, if I have been a sham and a hypocrite, let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know mine integrity. If my step hath turned out of the way and my heart walked after my eyes, and if any spot hath cleaved to my hands, then let me sow and let another eat.
Yea, let the produce of my field be rooted out. If my heart hath been enticed unto a woman and I have laid wait at my neighbor's door, then let my wife grind unto another and let others bow down upon her. You see what he's saying? If I'm guilty of what you say I am, secret sins, open sins, if I'm the hypocrite you say I am, then let God make it evident by allowing my wife to be violated by another man.
He says in the midst of all of this, I hold to my integrity. Spurgeon beautifully, as only Spurgeon could do, captured this thought with these words. When the little bird in my bosom sings a merry song, it is no matter if a thousand owls hoot at me from without. Isn't that beautiful?
When the little bird in my bosom sings a merry song, my own conscience, maintaining the sense of integrity and uprightness, when that little bird, he made this comment based on the Psalm 26 passage that we looked at, when the little bird in our bosom sings a merry song, then he says, it matters not if a thousand owls hoot at me from without. Now what have we established from the scriptures? Well I hope to the convincing of your judgment, we've established that the basic meaning of integrity is moral wholeness or completeness and uprightness is unbending moral straightness that they are closely related qualities so much so that the upright man is the man of integrity, the man of integrity is the upright man and these qualities can be known and innocent and innocently confessed without being guilty of sinful pride. Now have I convinced your judgment from the word of God on those matters? I trust I have. If so then let's move into second place to see their place in the book of Proverbs from the key texts
Integrity and Uprightness in Proverbs: Key Texts and Implications
and what I hope we'll have time to do before the class is over is to consider seven key texts on integrity and uprightness in the book of Proverbs. We won't be able to do much applying but I do want to teach this morning and to bring these passages before you. Turn please to the one to which previous reference was made. The first occurrence of them in the book of Proverbs is chapter 2 and verse 7.
Chapter 2 and verse 7. Now a little more about the meaning. All we were concerned about in our previous touching of this text was to show how closely related are the matters of uprightness and integrity. But now in the context what is the significance of their use?
Well Solomon is telling his son to lay up his commandments and to be an earnest seeker after divine truth. And in that setting he makes this principle very clear that the wisdom he is to seek that comes ultimately from God will only be known by the upright and by those who walk in integrity. He lays up sound wisdom not for anyone who asks for it and even asks for it diligently and seeks for it with great earnestness but who asks and seeks for it in a path of uprightness. He lays up sound wisdom for the upright and whether we accept the rendering and a shield to them that walk in integrity truth being constituted a shield to protect from error or God himself becoming a shield this much is clear that the wisdom that will protect us from moral evil is not given simply to the one who desires it and who asks for it and who seeks it but the one who walks in integrity.
Now do you see that in the passage? That not anyone can attain to increased measures of divine wisdom. He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. Those whose pursuit of wisdom has this end in view I want to know more that I may be more conformed to the straight line of the will of God uprightness moral straightness as opposed to crookedness and he is a shield to them that walk in integrity moral wholeness those committed so to live that what men see is what is and what is lacks no major component of moral action that is pleasing unto God. Now you see this has worlds of implications I only direct you to one. You see why? Sitting in the same building under the same ministry week in and week out year in and year out some people grow in their accumulation of spiritual wisdom like this and others go like this.
And you know what the difference is? Some are walking in uprightness and integrity and others are not. Just that simple. God is committed God is committed according to this passage to lay up sound wisdom only for the upright and a shield of truth to those who walk in integrity.
It has nothing to do with IQ has nothing to do with background it has all to do with whether or not you possess in increasing measures the moral qualities of integrity and of uprightness. Now Proverbs 11 3 not even showing its application to children we are just going to see the place of these qualities in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 11 and verse 3 The integrity of the upright you see here they are again The integrity of the upright shall guide them but the perverseness of the treacherous shall destroy them. The opposite of integrity in the structure of the Hebrew poetry is perverseness or crookedness. Do you see that? The integrity of the upright shall guide them.
What's the opposite of integrity? It's perverseness. If integrity is moral wholeness perverseness is moral crookedness. The integrity of the upright those who are hewing to the straight line of God's moral demands are contrasted with the treacherous.
Now in the passage what are we taught? The teaching is that integrity ensures sound judgment in matters of guidance. Why is it so difficult for some people to know the will of God? It's because they lack integrity and uprightness.
You see if I may use this imagery and I wrestled with what kind of illustrations would help you. Integrity and uprightness are to the soul what a properly fixed properly adjusted properly magnetized compass is to the mariner or to the one who is traversing an uncharted wilderness. You see if you never know whether your compass will naturally and immediately and with real settledness point to the north how in the world can you find your way? Sometimes it's wavering and it's pointing to the north and then a bit to the northeast and some how can you find your way?
This passage says the integrity of the upright is like a properly magnetized properly balanced accurate compass. When a man is walking in integrity his great concern is to please his God. His great concern is to walk in the light of the law of God. To walk in the light of the priorities in his life of seeking first the kingdom the well-being of his soul the well-being of the souls of his family the prosperity of his inner man.
So when as this very week he's facing a major career job decision I had a call from someone in one of our sister churches with the knowledge and consent of his own elders tremendous opportunity to leave a university where he presently works seeking to work with athletes in their academic schedules and he has an important influential position and he had a marvelous position opened up to me and I had a chance to talk to him out in California USC that would mean a promotion an advancement in pay and influence prestige and who knows what else and it's tailor made to the very thing that career wise he's always wanted. But all I need to do is ask a few simple questions that had to do with the well-being of his soul the well-being of his wife's soul the well-being of the souls of his children the temptations that this situation would bring him to this world to present to him and the decision was very easy to make. Why? Because his integrity was like a properly balanced magnetized compass and he saw his way clearly. Some of you constantly struggle in matters of guidance because you've got a flopping needle that has never settled in the direction of north.
That's your problem and you're going to go on having that problem until you stop vacillating and letting the needle waver with every little pull of pride and lining your pockets and impressing your relatives. No! You come to the place where you say Oh God one thing matters in life to me to live is Christ. I'm going to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and that integrity will guide you.
But the perverseness the crookedness of the treacherous shall destroy him. Integrity is like a fixed compass to walk in the fear of God to change the imagery. It's like a fixed rudder locked in the direction of the law and the will of God and engines that will only run when we're moving in the direction of the glory of God and the good of our souls. Now think of your children.
The Sure Path of Uprightness and its Religious Roots
How many major decisions they're going to have to make. Well God help us if we don't seek to inculcate in them this truth that the integrity of the upright shall guide them. All right. Third passage with a parallel Proverbs 10 and verse 9.
We go backwards. He that walketh uprightly here's our word uprightness now He that walketh uprightly walketh surely but he that perverted his ways shall be known and then look at 1519 as a parallel passage the way of the sluggard is as a hedge of thorns but the path of the upright is made a highway and it's that phrase the path of the upright is made a highway. Now come back to Proverbs 10 9 He that walks uprightly walks surely. In other words it's the picture of a man walking uprightly is not constantly touching and testing well is there a hidden snare here and is there some facts over a hole there and no. He knows where he's going and he's going and he gets there because the path of the upright is like a highway. He's got a single eye to the glory of God to walk by the law of God.
He doesn't always have to be saying well if I go here will someone discover that I've been dishonest in my business deals and if I go here will it bring about a series of relationships and factors that will unmask that I really am not what I'm pretending to be and if I step here will I you see the man who walks uprightly finds that his path is a highway. Look at the three Hebrew children they were committed to be servants of God and when Nebuchadnezzar said and said look you guys got a decision to make if you don't do this they were almost rude and said look King no need to negotiate the issue's already settled we've got a wide highway before us. A highway marked out by the law of God that we should worship the Lord our God and serve only Him and we don't need to debate and discuss and have a discourse over this subject of whether or not we're going to bow down and worship you. King if God wants to deliver us He'll deliver us if He doesn't so what the highway is before us we're going to walk it end of discussion. Because they were upright men walking in their integrity the one who walks uprightly has steady feet
on a straight path. He's never afraid that if I do this it may kick open the trap door out of which will come some skeleton that I've buried. Or if I step here I may break through into a whole cavern of issues that I've put out of sight and I want no one to know. No if every step along the way when I've sinned against God I've confessed it to God and sinned against men I've confessed my sin to men my way is a highway.
I never need fear that someone's going to jump out of the bushes and explain to me that I've sinned against God I've confessed and exposed me. It's a wonderful thing so to walk that whoever might appear around the next corner you're never ashamed or afraid of what they might say. Do you live that way? That there's nobody on the face of the earth that can quote spill the beans on me because there's nothing to spill.
It's all been spilled that needed to be spilled in the presence of God and cleansed in His blood and where necessary spilled before the individual or individuals that it ought to be spilled in the presence of God and therefore if anyone should challenge me when I turn the next corner I say that thing is under Christ's blood that thing has been made right with so and so get out of my way I'm on the king's highway on my way to the celestial city. You see that in the passage how vital this principle is the integrity of the upright shall not only guide them but according to Proverbs 10 9 he that walks uprightly shall walk surely the path of the upright is as a highway whereas the path of the perverse is like trying to walk over a hedge of thorns. Proverbs 14 and verse 2 just trying to see now the central place of these virtues he that walks in his uprightness fears Jehovah but he that is perverse in his ways despises him. The Hebrew word perverse has the fundamental concept of turning aside or departing.
So here are what we would call the true religious roots of uprightness and of integrity. Remember we've said how the fear of God is foundational to all of them here's an example of it. Uprightness and integrity have been set before us without bearing their roots system now the root system is bare. He that walks in his uprightness fears Jehovah.
What lies behind his commitment to walk a line that is morally straight? What is it that keeps him holding to his integrity moral wholeness? It is that he is walking in the fear of God. God's eye is upon him.
God's smile is his greatest delight. God's frown his greatest dread. And he that is perverse or crooked in his ways he's not walking in the way of straightness but moral crookedness. Why does he do that?
Listen. Listen. Why does he do it? It's because he despises God.
You see that? He that is perverse in his ways despises him. And the hymn refers to God. When you and I choose the way of moral perverseness crookedness as opposed to straightness we do not do so in terms of isolated moral rules.
We do so in terms of the rights and claims of God over us. And you and I cannot choose any path of crookedness without despising God himself. And David is the great example of this because in 2 Samuel 12 we don't have time to turn to the passage but when the prophet Nathan indicted David for his sin the heart of his indictment is this you have despised me God said to the prophet. David you did not break an abstract law.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. Thou shalt do no murder. David you despised me.
My law was an extension of myself reflecting my own moral character as it impinges upon your behavior. And David when you turned aside from my laws you first of all had to despise me. That is regard me as a being unworthy of honor and homage and obedience. You treated my person and being contemptuously.
And you and I can never sin without showing contempt despising God. That's why this passage says he that walks in his uprightness fears the Lord but he that is perverse in his ways despises him. Then Proverbs 19 verse 1 Proverbs 19 and verse 1 with 28 verse 6 Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool. And then the parallel passage chapter 28 and verse 6 Better is the poor that walks in his integrity than he that is perverse in his ways though he be rich. So you see the contrast is between a man whose poverty is the companion of his integrity and another man whose wealth is the companion of his perversity. And if anything the passage tells us that the price some people pay to maintain their integrity is poverty. Their poverty is not the result of drunkenness and of gluttony.
Integrity Over Wealth and Concluding Exhortation
It says the drunkard and the glutton shall come to wrath. Sometimes poverty is the result of profligate living. Sometimes it's the result of upright living. That a man to advance his material state would have to do what?
He would have to give up an element of moral wholeness, integrity or an element of moral straightness uprightness. Far better is the poor man who has as his companion that lovely singing bird within his breast called a good conscience. A plate of beans and a crust of bread with a good conscience is a banquet fit for kings. But a twelve course table full of all the dainties the best chefs could produce that are put into a mouth joined to a galling conscience it's like eating gravel. And the scripture says these are the values that we must live by and by the grace of God seek to impart to our children. Our time is gone. Let me give you two other texts to look up and God willing next week be prepared to think with me and hopefully discuss with me some of the practical implications of uprightness and integrity as we seek to impart them to our children.
Proverbs 20 and verse 7 20 and verse 7 and Proverbs 28 and verse 18 and then if you want an example of what integrity means in the nitty gritty Genesis 20 verses 5 and 6. Well as I told the men there is a difference between teaching and preaching on Friday and if there is any difference the essential difference is that in teaching the primary goal is to set out a block of biblical truth whereas in preaching the primary goal is to set out the truth with a view to moving the affections and the will and I have taught this morning but you see I hope this teaching will lay the solid foundation to convince your judgment that integrity and uprightness are no little matter in Solomon's instruction of his son. Let us pray. Our Father we are so thankful that we have the scriptures as a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. As we have meditated this morning upon these moral qualities of integrity and uprightness we thank you that we behold them in you the God of uprightness the God of integrity.
We behold them in your beloved son. We behold them in characters in the scripture who were filled with the spirit of your son and we pray that you would give us a hunger and a thirst to know these moral qualities in the spirit of your son and we pray that you would give us a hunger and a thirst to know these moral qualities in our lives that we may thereby manifest that we are walking and living in your fear. Seal these things to our hearts may they make their due impression upon our own lives that in turn we may with a good conscience holding fast to our own integrity seek to impart the nobility of these virtues to our children by way of godly admonition to our children by way of godly admonition to our children by way of godly admonition consistent example consistent example and fervent prayer and fervent prayer hear us receive our thanks for your presence with us in Jesus name amen
write us at the trinity book service post office box 569 Montville New Jersey 07045
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This verse is expounded to show the close relationship between uprightness and integrity and their role in receiving divine wisdom.
This verse is expounded to demonstrate how integrity guides and ensures sound judgment, contrasting it with perverseness.
This verse is expounded to reveal the theological root of integrity and uprightness, linking them directly to the fear of God and contrasting perverseness with despising God.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
More from the archive