As we’re looking for this righteous walk—the establishing of God’s justice in His Word—the next admonition is that we would love mercy.  We’re to be merciful; amen?  Not only love it in that we love partaking of it, but love it in that we would desire to manifest it in every opportunity available with our brothers and sisters.  Don’t we need to be more merciful toward one another?  We have all seen, or we face the different aspects of, mercy and we would see it so many times when the individual comes in, now, to either repossess something that would cause the heart’s cry toward that that man that is the debtor to cry out and say, “Have mercy on me.”  “If you’ll just have mercy on me, I’ll pay you all,” was the story that we’re so familiar with.  The unmerciful man would not, after having received mercy himself, would not extend mercy and imprisoned this individual.  When the final authority was made aware of it—there is that day of reckoning when justice will be established once and for all.  But we know the story and how he went and said, “I forgave you and you’re not willing to show mercy and to forgive in such a small matter?  Everything that you desired of me that I gave you is right now going to be taken back from you and justice mete forth because you are not able to show mercy.”  I think that’s something in our lives that the lack of mercy comes from, that pride, that haughty spirit that always seems to want to make us judge, that always thinks that somehow our declarations are truth, our perceptions are reality.  God is calling each and every one of us this morning to a pursuit of humility, to a reality that anything that comes to us that is righteous, that is right, that is good, originates in God and not in us; amen?

He’s telling us this from the very beginning that there is more hope of a fool than he that is wise in his own eyes.  As you look at the Scriptures—and there are so many opportunities to look for the humble man—instilled into each and every one of us is that satanic lie that somehow humility is weakness instead of strength.  If you’re humble, men will take advantage of you—if you’re truly going to fulfill that call of God on your lives that displays a true humility, not thinking of yourselves more highly than you ought to think.  Each and every one of us has that same propensity, that innate draw from within that, somehow, we are special.  We have rights.  We deserve certain things in this life.  Let’s remember, we were lost and He sought us; amen?  Prevenient grace—we didn’t seek Him; He sought us.  He gave us that grace and that ability, that little gift of faith that caused us to be able to believe and make that profession of faith in Who He is.  It all originates in God.  That in and of itself should humble us at all times.

As we look for the Lord’s grace in these last days, this walk that we’re in, I think it’s important for us to see this in Matthew 11:29.  Jesus gives this admonition—we’re all very aware of it, but if we can grab ahold of the reality of this—He said, “Come unto Me and learn of Me.  I want you to ‘take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart….’”  He said, “I want you to learn of Me.  I want you to represent Me.  I want you to put this same character of Christlikeness into everything that you’re involved with, everything that you do.”  He talks about that aspect.