Description:
Our purpose in this study is to identify the difference between a heart dedicated to God and one dedicated to self. Based on the Word of God, we all start out as sinful. As David said in Psalm 51:5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”
Message from Marsh: “May your personal walk with the Lord lead you to be transformed, renewed, and blessed.”
Marsh
Founder/President
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Men and Matters of the Heart
LESSON 6 – The Upright Heart
Recognizing Sin, Savior, and Salvation
(www.mensgroup.org – “Original Study”)
Lesson Focus: Our objective is to compare our desperately wicked heart, which we have from birth, with the actions required to obtain an upright heart.
“Blessing on every man that decides for God. Who kneels to honor the work of Christ to save him and desires to live a life that is upright.” – C. Marsh Bull
Starting Prayer: Father God, my life is drawn daily to do acts of sin. I want to have a heart that is upright and able to push away evil thoughts and actions. Help me better understand an upright heart so I can live it out.
Opening Questions:
1. When was the last time someone called you righteous?
2. What were the circumstances around this identification of you?
Scripture Passage:
Lord, do good to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart. (Psalm 125:4)
Phrase Explanation:
We are continually told that there is good in every person. That we have to look for it and believe that man is good at the core. Although that may be the opinion of some, that does not square with God’s word. Jeremiah said under the Spirit’s inspiration:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
We can see how a desperately wicked heart might want to be revealed as other than that. It would want to deceive us about our own nature. Jeremiah continued:
I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve. (Jeremiah 17:10).
The heart, the internal part of our being including the immaterial part of the mind, emotion, and will, is identified as deceitful (Proverbs 6:14; 26:24), scheming (Proverbs 6:18), evil (Proverbs 26:23), perverse (Proverbs 11:20; 17:20; Psalm 101:4), destructive (Psalm 5:9), slanderous (Psalm 41:6), and cunning (Psalm 64:6). These words create a powerful picture of the heart within us all. No one is exempt.
Is there concrete proof of these accusations of a wicked and deceitful heart? Yes. After the fall of Adam and Eve, God couldn’t allow them to stay in the Garden of Eden, so they were ushered out. Years later Cain, their oldest son, murdered Abel, their second son. In a short period of time darkness entered the heart of Cain.
More time passed and Noah was chosen to build an ark to house animals and eight humans. The rest died in a worldwide flood because “the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence…for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways” (Genesis 6:11-12). No one was left out of that “all” statement. Later after centuries of slavery, Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt and they were given the Ten Commandments. These ten laws laid out their actions toward God, their parents, and their neighbors.
Then Jesus entered the world, lived among us, and died on the cross having done no evil. He is good to the core because He is God to the core and He becomes God’s perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of everyone. Jesus provided a way for humankind again to have a pure heart that could be upright, honest, truthful, and God-loving.
This is a pure heart and it aligns with gracious speech and pure hands. It is a heart that thinks carefully before speaking. A pure heart’s attitudes and actions lean toward God and not away from Him. The way of these people is bright and joyful. How has this change happened? Christ exchanged His Godly nature for our sinful nature on the cross and brought each believer a new nature so that we can operate out of it.
To be upright is to have a heart that has been cleansed; made new by God. An upright heart’s motives and actions are not aligned with evil. Can you say that of your own heart? Understanding and accepting that we are not upright and need a savior leads us to grasp the price God paid to save us and make that happen.
Thank Him today that you can have a heart that is upright because of Him.
Discussion Questions:
1. Why don’t we have an upright heart?
2. What is the nature of our sinful heart?
3. What one memory reminds you of the way your heart used to be?
Application:
1. How is an evil heart turned to an upright heart?
2. When have you felt that upright heart working inside you and how did you know this?
3. What one action could help you to keep your heart upright?
Closing Prayer: Father God, you have been gracious to me through your Son, Jesus Christ, and I thank you for your patience, love, and plan. Help me to recognize it and commit my new heart to it daily.
Suggested Additional Resources:
Similar or opposite verses: Psalm 7:10; 11:2; 24:4; 32:11; 36:10; 51:10; 73:1; 94:15; 97:11; Proverbs 20:9; 22:11.
This concludes Part I of the “Men and Matters of the Heart” study.
All our Blessings,
Men’s Group Foundation, Inc.
A mensgroup.org “Third Party Original Study”
Written by Richard Matteson
Rmattesonrealty@gmail.com
214-690-6662
Use these links to navigate to various parts of this study:
Intro | Lesson 1 | Lesson 2 | Lesson 3 | Lesson 4 | Lesson 5 | Lesson 6
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