Tag Archives: The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.20

12 Friday Feb 2016

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The previous post in this may be found here.

Humility is not hard thoughts about oneself. It is not constant self-deprecation. Even though such talk is negative, such talk is still self-centered. The “I” is the center of the universe.

Christian humility is to have God in the center, it is submission to the will of another. While one may claim to have such humility, the humility can only be truly tested in the midst of different circumstances:

The seventeenth property of an humble soul is this: an humble soul will bless God, and be thankful to God, as well under misery as under mercy; as well when God frowns as when he smiles; as well when God takes as when he gives; as well under crosses and losses, as under blessings and mercies: Job 1:21, ‘The Lord gives and the Lord takes, blessed be the name of the Lord.’ He doth not cry out upon the Sabeans and the Chaldeans, but he looks through all secondary causes, and sees the hand of God; and then he lays his hand upon his own heart, and sweetly sings it out, ‘The Lord gives, and the Lord takes, blessed be the name of the Lord.’ An humble soul, in every condition, blesses God, as the apostle commands, in the 1 Thes. 5:18, ‘In every thing give thanks to God.’

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, “The Unsearchable Riches of Christ”, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 3 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 24.

This is more foreign to us than we may realize. Consider the song, “Blessed be the Name of the Lord”:

Blessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s all as it should be
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

It looks right, but note the words, “When the world’s all as it should be”. We sing these words and know exactly what he means: when the world is easy and comfortable for my present state. The only “as it should be” is what God gives to me. Adversity and prosperity are alike “as it should be”. The world is as God has fit it to me:

 

An humble soul is quick-sighted;
he sees the rod in a Father’s hand;
he sees honey upon the top of every twig,
and so can bless God;
he sees sugar at the bottom of the bitterest cup that God doth put into his hand;
he knows that God’s house of correction is a school of instruction;
and so he can sit down and bless when the rod is upon his back.
An humble soul knows that the design of God in all is
his instruction,
his reformation,
and his salvation.

This being true, we have a test to distinguish the ones who only pretend and profess and the ones who have taken this to heart:

You have many professors that are seemingly humble, while the sun shines, while God gives, and smiles, and strokes; but when his smiles are turned into frowns, when he strikes and lays on, oh the murmurings! the disputings! the frettings! and wranglings of proud souls! they always kick when God strikes

This does not mean that trials do not feel like trials — they do. Suffering is suffering; affliction is affliction; loss is loss. It is not laugh at death. This is not perversion or rebellion. This is simply submission to the will of God. God has brought it, God is wise. I will live with this.

The following section from the prayer “Spiritual Helps” is an appropriate ending here:

If my waywardness is visited with a scourge, 

enable me to receive correction meekly, 

to bless the reproving hand, 

to discern the motive of rebuke, 

to respond promptly, 

and do the first work. 

Let all thy fatherly dealings make me a partaker of thy holiness. 

Grant that in every fall I may sink lower on my knees, 

and that when I rise it may be to loftier heights of devotion. 

May my every cross be sanctified, 

every loss be gain, 

every denial a spiritual advantage, every dark day a light of the Holy Spirit, 

every night of trial a song.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.19

07 Sunday Feb 2016

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We live in a culture which treasures status and formal education. Even though of us who think ourselves immune to such things automatically consider one’s wealth, status & education to make one a more valuable human being. Today I read a story about a man who died in a freak accident in Manhattan. The story referred to the man who died as “Harvard graduate, Mr. X”, as if the death were more tragic because it befell a graduate of Harvard.

The instances could be multiplied indefinitely — it is the basis of our culture.

We could supply instances of celebrity pastors who somehow more importance not because of the clarity of their thought, their piety, their actual knowledge of the thing before (do we seriously think that Mr. Y is The Master of all these topics? And often, if the true be told, their “mastery” is more show than substance).

The death of people in a rich neighborhood demands hours of time on television news. The death of a man person may be included in a total, 4 were murdered this weekend.

This brings us to the humble man: Brooks shows that the actual metric of humility lies in what is not seen. The humble man does not ignore merit; it is just that the metric for merit lies the scales of God:

The sixteenth property of an humble soul is this, An humble soul, though he be of never so rare abilities, yet he will not disdain to be taught what he knows not, by the meanest persons, Isa. 11:6. A child shall lead the humble soul in the way that is good; he cares not how mean and contemptible the person is, if a guide or an instructor to him.

Thomas Brooks, “The Unsearchable Riches of Christ”, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 3 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 23.

Humility ignores human merit and looks through the veil of flesh to see the work of God. if God has taught the simplest woman a truth, the humble man will learn from her and ignore the doctor’s erudition:

As an humble soul knows that the stars have their situation in heaven, though sometimes he sees them by their reflection in a puddle, in the bottom of a well, or in a stinking ditch; so he knows that godly souls, though never so poor, low, and contemptible, as to the things of this world, are fixed in heaven, in the region above; and therefore their poverty and meanness is no bar to hinder him from learning of them, Eph. 2:6.

Finally, it is humility that has been mark of many Christians — including Christ:

Though John was poor in the world, yet many humble souls did not disdain, but rejoice in his ministry. Christ lived poor and died poor, Mat. 8:20. As he was born in another man’s house, so he was buried in another man’s tomb. Austin observes, when Christ died he made no will; he had no crown-lands, only his coat was left, and that the soldiers parted among them; and yet those that were meek and lowly in heart counted it their heaven, their happiness, to be taught and instructed by him.

 

 

 

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.18

10 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Forgiveness, Humility, Thomas Brooks

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John Fox, author of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

Brooks continues with his explanation of humility:

The fifteenth property of an humble soul is, he will rather bear wrongs than revenge wrongs offered.

There are three parts to this understanding.  First, the action: the humble soul will not strike at injustice done to him: “Mr Foxe, that wrote the Book of Martyrs, would be sure to do him a kindness that had done him an injury: so that it used to be a proverb, ‘If a man would have Mr Foxe do him a kindness, let him do him an injury.’”

This behavior of the humble soul appears to be madness — until it is understood in the entire complex of Christian life. Thus, we must second understand the motivation for such a way of being. To merely be struck and bear the wrong could be stupidity or a depraved self-deprecation. But the humble soul finds motivation elsewhere:

“An humble soul is often in looking over the wrongs and injuries that he has done to God, and the sweet and tender carriage of God towards him notwithstanding those wrongs and injuries; and this wins him, and works him to be more willing and ready to bear wrongs, and forgive wrongs, than to revenge any offered wrongs.”

The sight of the majestic patience and forgiveness of Christ turns the humble soul to forgive others.

Third: the question of justice. The humble soul does not ignore justice; rather the one who is humble refers the matter to Chrst as judge: “The humble soul knows that vengeance is the Lord’s, and that he will repay, &c., Ps. 94:1. The humble soul loves not to take the sword in his own hand, Rom. 12:19; he knows the day is a-coming, wherein the Lord will give his enemies two blows for one, and here he rests.”

The matter of justice is crucial to the entire process. Humility is not contrary to justice, in fact it upholds justice. The humble soul does not think himself the perfect judge and thus refers the matter to the one judges justly. The referral to Christ is a rest for the one who trusts Christ to do the work of judge. The humble soul is free to forgive and love. If the love and forgiveness wins the enemy, then the enemy has been extinguished in love. If the enemy is not won, he is referred to Christ for judgment.

 

 

He need not fear

10 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in affliction, Humility, Thomas Brooks

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He need not fear confiscation that hath nothing to lose;

nor banishment, to whom heaven only is a country;

nor torments, when his body will be dashed with one blow;

nor death, which is the only way to set him at liberty from sin and sorrow.

 

Oh! but when a proud man is under troubles and afflictions,

his head and heart are full of plots and projects

how to get off his chains,

and to get out of the furnace, &c.

 

A proud heart will say anything,

and do anything,

and be anything, to free himself from the burdens that press him,

as you see in Pharaoh, &c.;

but an humble soul is willing to bear the cross

as long as he can get strength from heaven to kiss the cross,

to bless God for the cross,

and to glorify God under the cross.

 

Thomas Brooks, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.17

31 Sunday May 2015

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Humility is not a false self-deprecation; rather it is a radical God-centeredness: my honor does not lie in myself, but in Christ (which is an implication of the free grace of God in Jesus Christ). Therefore, I am not loser should another man or woman be honored. As Brooks notes:

The fourteenth property of an humble soul is this: it can rejoice in the graces and gracious actings of others, as well as in its own.

3 Brooks 22.

When honor is a zero-sum game and grace to another comes at a cost to me, then clawing back the praise another receives will be my goal. But when grace comes from a never-ending fountain what should I worry that another is raised? 

 This age is full of such monsters that envy every light that outshines their own, and that throw dirt upon the graces and excellencies of others, that themselves may only shine. Pride is notable both at subtraction and at multiplication. A proud heart always prizes himself above the market; he reckons his own pence for pounds, and others’ pounds for pence; he looks upon his own counters as gold, and upon others’ gold as counters. All pearls are counterfeit but what he wears.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.16

31 Sunday May 2015

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https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/the-unsearchable-riches-of-christ-15/

Humility hinges upon that which contents the soul. Do I need the approval of human beings or God (John 5:44; Galatians 1:10). I have seen men and women dress up a desire for human approval in the most spiritual language. Don’t pay attention to the wrapping, look at the content.
Humility considers what will be the judgement when Christ comes; pride says what will I get now? Thus Brooks notes that humility hinges upon what one seeks:

The thirteenth property of an humble soul is this: it seeks not, it looks not, after great things. A little will satisfy nature, less will satisfy grace; but nothing will satisfy a proud man’s lusts. Lord, says the humble soul, if thou wilt but give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, thou shalt be my God, Gen. 28:20–22. Let the men of the world, says the humble soul, take the world in all its greatness and glory, and divide it among themselves. Let me have much of Christ and heaven in my heart, and food convenient to support my natural life, and it shall be enough.

3 Brooks 21. He then ends with the hideous example:

A crown could not content Ahab, but he must have Naboth’s vineyard, though he swim to it in blood. 

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.15

26 Tuesday May 2015

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It can easily become a mere slogan among a certain kind of Christian that he only seeks to “glorify God”. It is a sort of magic wand which okays anything and makes all decisions “godly”.

It is precisely at this point that Brooks raises a test: What do you do when you face affliction?  Humility is a necessary strand in godliness, and without humility there can be no glorifying God. Affliction proves humility true.

Where does your intention lie when affliction comes? Would you rather get out of the affliction or glorify God in the affliction? It is all very good to glorify God when it just happens to be your greatest ease. But what if the apparent tack to glorify God will bring on affliction or continue affliction?

Jesus may just ask a death defying humility when it comes to God’s glory. After his resurrection, the Lord said to Peter:

18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” John 21:18–19 (ESV)

Would you follow Jesus if just said he was leading you to be crucified — because such would glorify God?

Oh! but when a proud man is under troubles and afflictions, his head and heart are full of plots and projects how to get off his chains, and to get out of the furnace, &c. A proud heart will say anything, and do anything, and be anything, to free himself from the burdens that press him, as you see in Pharaoh, &c.; but an humble soul is willing to bear the cross as long as he can get strength from heaven to kiss the cross, to bless God for the cross, and to glorify God under the cross, &c., John 1:20, 21.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 3 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 21.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.14

21 Wednesday Jan 2015

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The eleventh property of a humble person is:

in all religious duties and services, he trades with God upon the credit of Christ.

This may take some explanation: When a humble being comes to God, it is “natural” for us to take comfort in our goodness, righteousness, duties. We like to feel good enough to come before God. The humble person knows he has no right standing before God, and thus he does come to God thinking that he has some earned credit for right of access.

The humble person rightly knows that our sins and rebellions have so defiled us that we have no right come to God on our own merit. Therefore, we come before God on the merit of Christ and thus are freely accepted:

Plutarch reports that it was wont to be the way of the Molossians, when they would seek the favour of their prince, they took up the king’s son in their arms, and so went and kneeled before the king, and by this means overcame him.1 So do humble souls make a conquest upon God with Christ in their arms. The Father will not give that soul the repulse that brings Christ in his arms.2 The humble soul knows that God out of Christ is incommunicable, that God out of Christ is incomprehensible, that God out of Christ is very terrible, and that God out of Christ is inaccessible; and therefore he still brings Christ with him, and presents all his requests in his name, and so prevails, &c. Oh! but proud souls deal with God upon the credit of their own worthiness, righteousness, services, prayers, tears, fastings, &c., as the proud Pharisees and those wrangling hypocrites in Isa. 58:1–3.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 3 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 20.

This one is easily tested: Do you find yourself thinking that you have right of access when you have been well behaved but you skulk and whimper to ask forgiveness of known sin? It is a throne of grace. We have no right to grace, or else it would not be grace. But grace will receive us at all accounts. If our freedom in worship depends upon our own behavior and not the merit of Christ, we show ourselves to be foolishly proud. Let us repent on the basis of Christ’s merit and worship on the basis of Christ’s merit and rejoice on the basis of Christ’s merit and thus we will live forever on the basis of Christ’s merit.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.13

21 Wednesday Jan 2015

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The tenth attribute of a humble man is the ability to bear trials because he knows that God is the one who has brought the trial:

The tenth property of an humble soul is this, It will quietly bear burdens, and patiently take blows and knocks, and make no noise. An humble soul sees God through man; he sees God through all the actions and carriages of men: ‘I was dumb,’ saith the prophet, ‘I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it.’1 An humble soul looks through secondary causes, and sees the hand of God, and then lays his own hand upon his mouth. An humble soul is a mute soul, a tongue-tied soul, when he looks through secondary causes to the supreme cause.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 3 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 18.

Knowing that God ultimately lies behind a trial means that God has fit the trial to the person. Even the gravest trial, such as the passion of Christ, was fit to the end of God. A humble person is thus able to live in trials, not merely philosophize about trials:

An humble soul may groan under afflictions, but he will not grumble in calms. Proud hearts discourse of patience, but in storms humble hearts exercise patience. Philosophers have much commended it, but in the hour of darkness it is the humble soul that acts it. I am afflicted, says the humble soul, but it is mercy I am not destroyed. I am fallen into the pit; it is free grace I am not fallen into hell. God is too just to wrong me, and too gracious to harm me; and therefore I will be still and quiet, let him do what he will with me, says the humble soul.

How to test oneself on this point: Consider the last time you fell into a series affliction or trial: how did you bear it. I have seen a woman 99 years of age bear with vicious open blisters over body and even in her throat because she God was overseeing her trial. She was humble enough to know that God had sovereignty over all her life.

I have also seen self-professedly humble men complaint without stop over troubles which were not a tenth so severe. Humility can only be truly seen when it is tested in trials.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.12

25 Friday Apr 2014

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A humble soul sees sin as rebellion against God. Rather than justify himself before God, making excuses for sin, he sees sin for what it is. Thus,

The ninth property of an humble soul is this, It will smite and strike for small sins as well as for great, for those the world count no sin, as well as for those that they count gross sins.

He continues:

A proud heart counts great sins small, and small sins no sins, and so disarms conscience for a time of its whipping and wounding power; but at death, or in hell, conscience will take up an iron rod, with which it will lash the sinner for ever; and then, though too late, the sinner shall acknowledge his little sins to be very great, and his great sins to be exceeding grievous and odious, &c.

Brooks made a similar point in Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices: One excuse which leads to sin is the habit of making sins seem small: this is no great sin and thus I need not worry. A humble man would never think such a thing. One “remedy” offered by Brooks speaks to this:

The third remedy against this third device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin, is solemnly to consider, That it is sad to stand with God for a trifle. Dives would not give a crumb, therefore he should not receive a drop, Luke 16:21. It is the greatest folly in the world to adventure the going to hell for a small matter. ‘I tasted but a little honey,’ said Jonathan, ‘and I must die,’ 1 Sam. 14:29. It is a most unkind and unfaithful thing to break with God for a little. Little sins carry with them but little temptations to sin, and then a man shews most viciousness and unkindness, when he sins on a little temptation. It is devilish to sin without a temptation; it is little less than devilish to sin on a little occasion. The less the temptation is to sin, the greater is that sin.1 Saul’s sin in not staying for Samuel, was not so much in the matter, but it was much in the malice of it; for though Samuel had not come at all, yet Saul should not have offered sacrifice; but this cost him dear, his soul and kingdom.

It is the greatest unkindness that can be shewed to a friend, to adventure the complaining, bleeding, and grieving of his soul upon a light and a slight occasion. So it is the greatest unkindness that can be shewed to God, Christ, and the Spirit, for a soul to put God upon complaining, Christ upon bleeding, and the Spirit upon grieving, by yielding to little sins. Therefore, when Satan says it is but a little one, do thou answer, that often times there is the greatest unkindness shewed to God’s glorious majesty, in the acting of the least folly, and therefore thou wilt not displease thy best and greatest friend, by yielding to his greatest enemy.

1 It was a vexation to king Lysimachus, that his staying to drink one small draught of water lost him his kingdom; and so it will eternally vex some souls at last that for one little sin, compared with great transgressions, they have lost God, heaven, and their souls for ever. [Plutarch. Cf. Bp. Jeremy Taylor, vol. iv. p. 457. (Eden).—G.]