Tuesday Evening Service 24/3/26

Humility And Pride

(Thomas Brooks)

Watch the Full Sermon HERE. 

Well tonight I want to come back to possibly my favourite of all puritans Thomas Brooks. I thought it was recently I was speaking of him but I think it’s over a year ago.

Some of his work we have spoken on include:

• ‘Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.’
• ‘Private Prayers.’
• ‘The Beauty of Holiness.’
• ‘The Golden Key to Open Heavens Treasures.’

Brooks was Born 1608 – 1680 and studied at Cambridge Emmanuel college; Jeremiah Burroughs’ college: they were friends I believe. I know Brooks was one of those who completed Burroughs works on Hosea.

He was one of Charles Spurgeon’s favourites . Spurgeon even wrote a book on Brooks’ quotes. The book is called ‘Smooth Stones Taken from Ancient Brooks’.

Spurgeon wrote this about Brooks:

Had Brooks been a worldly man, his writings would have been most valuable; but since he was an eminent Christian, they are doubly so. He had the eagle eye of faith, as well as the eagle wing of imagination. He saw similes, metaphors, and allegories everywhere; but they were all consecrated to his master’s service.

Tonight I want to draw from another work of Brooks, from volume 3 of his extensive 6 volume work. Which he calls ‘The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.’ Its 232 pages in which he covers 7 doctrines on various subjects. And within them he goes into great detail and points as Brooks does.

Some things he writes of are:

• ‘The Difference Between Christ’s Giving and the World’s Giving.’
• ‘How To Grow in Grace.’
• ‘The Great Duty of Preachers’

That is but a few.

However, I want to draw from two parts of his teaching, and it’s that of what Brooks calls ‘The Properties of a Humble Soul.’ The other is the opposite of that really, which is ‘The Dangerous Nature of Pride.’

Again, I can’t be exhaustive even within the small sections, as they too are extensive. So I will only be drawing a broader picture, and then zooming in at parts to highlight in more detail.

For the whole work Brooks uses the base text . Which is only the base text to highlight the overall work:

Ephesians 3:8

to me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to proclaim to the gentiles the good news of the unfathomable riches of Christ,

The ESV and King James use the word ‘unsearchable’ riches. Which I kind of prefer, both are fitting though.

In order to contemplate those riches, we must be willing to deeply contemplate truth. Brooks writes in his introduction, where he makes various requests to the reader -a few being on how we both seek truth, then apply truth:

The more any man is in contemplation of truth the more fairer and firmer impression is made upon his heart by truth.

He adds:

It’s not them that eat most, but digest are the most healthful. So it is not them that hear most, or read most, but they that meditate most, who are most edified and enriched.

And I use these requests by Brooks, because of the two subject matters: pride and humility.

Humility doesn’t just read, or hear truth, but the most humble take it in, and chew on it, and meditate on it, and are willing to surrender to truth.

Pride is its opposite. It may hear truth, read truth, and even amen truth, but that truth never gets to the soul, to bring change, because pride fights against humility.

Before we go into the teaching, let me read a puritan prayer, from the classic ‘Valley of Vision’, page 326 of the leather version and 180 of the paperback, entitled ‘Humility in Service’.

MIGHTY GOD, I humble myself for faculties misused, opportunities neglected, words ill-advised, I repent of my folly and inconsiderate ways, my broken resolutions, untrue service, my backsliding steps, my vain thoughts. O bury my sins in the ocean of Jesus’ blood and let no evil result from my fretful temper, unseemly behaviour, provoking pettiness. If by unkindness I have wounded or hurt another, do thou pour in the balm of heavenly consolation; If I have turned coldly from need, misery, grief, do not in just anger forsake me: If I have withheld relief from penury and pain, do not withhold thy gracious bounty from me. If I have shunned those who have offended me, keep open the door of thy heart to my need. Fill me with an over-flowing ocean of compassion, the reign of love my motive, the law of love my rule. O thou God of all grace, make me more thankful, more humble; Inspire me with a deep sense of my unworthiness arising from the depravity of my nature, my omitted duties, my unimproved advantages, thy commands violated by me. With all my calls to gratitude and joy may I remember that I have reason for sorrow and humiliation; O give me repentance unto life; Cement my oneness with my blessed Lord, that faith may adhere to him more immovably, that love may entwine itself round him more tightly, that his Spirit may pervade every fibre of my being. Then send me out to make him known to my fellow-men.

Okay, let me start with pride. Then I will move onto humility.

Brooks in his subheading for pride calls it: ‘The Dangerous Nature of Pride.’ He writes this in the very opening words:

Pride is a sin that will put the soul upon the worst of sins. Pride is gilded misery, a secret poison, a hidden plague. It is the engineer of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy, the mother of unholiness, the blinder of hearts… …It is the original and root of most notorious vices that be found among the children of men.

That one paragraph alone tells you both the nature of pride in its fullness, but also for me the depth of the puritan’s understanding of the human condition.

Brooks shares 10 propositions (statements). For time sake, and not due to any being more valid than the other, I will share 4.

Point 1

Where pride has possessed itself thoroughly of the soul it turns the heart into steel, yes into a rock.

In a nutshell pride hardens the heart. Brooks says when that happens:

He stirs not, he yields not.

Brooks uses Pharaoh as an example: God sends plague after plague yet he will not yield.

Pride just won’t give in, it won’t take the warning; worse - no warning, no pleading, nothing suffices. To say they dig their heels in is an understatement.

Pride sees no wrong in self, but when correction comes, when that plague comes, they become victims, that keep the heart hard as steel.

Point 2

Brooks says:

Pride sets a man in opposition to God… …pride is a sin that of all sins makes a man or woman most like to Satan.

What was it that made Peter pull Jesus aside and say, I forbid it that you would die? Pride. How did Jesus respond? “Get behind me Satan.”

Pride is full of love of self while acting like you’re caring for others. It says it’s because I love you, but in truth it’s because you fear your own loss.

I love Brooks; statement:

Humility makes a man like to angels, and pride makes an angel a devil.

He adds:

Proud souls are satans apes, and none imitate him to life like these.

Brooks then adds a pleading warning:

Oh that they were sensible of it, before it be too late, before the door of darkness be shut upon them.

I have literally met people whose lights were going out in front of my face as they held onto their issues, and anger and pride, and justification, and done all to refuse repentance and confession.

I kid you not brothers and sisters, I have seen lights go out, and they end up in darkness. All they have left is denial, bitterness, blame, negativity.

The lights grow dimmer each day as they stop meditating on truth and stop heeding warnings, and stop listening to God’s Word and what once pierced them, now has little effect because pride has built a wall.

Point 3

Of all sins spiritual pride is most dangerous, and must be most resisted.

What does Brooks mean by ‘spiritual pride’? Brooks calls it:

…a swelling of the mind…

And he then explains what that swelling looks like:

It is a lifting up of a man’s self, by reason, by wealth, by honour, by relation, by the despising of others.

In other words, he lifts himself up in his own strength and his own esteem, and as they do, they come directly against God.

Because as Brooks says:

Spiritual pride is a white devil, a gilded poison, by which God is robbed of his honour.

A white devil, what a statement, spiritual pride dresses well, speaks well, acts well, knows well, but it is all for self-edification.

That swelling of pride, of ego, Brooks writes:

It unfits men for any service.

Any time over the years I’ve spent time with people full of spiritual pride, I have always had to come to the conclusion that they cannot be used for anything, they are just so into themselves that they will hurt anyone in their plight for praise.

They just can’t stop competing and seeing everything from a selfish perspective.

Even competing in knowledge of God, in knowledge of the Word. And in so doing making themselves an enemy of God, and an enemy of anyone who is a threat.

Okay fourth and lastly….

Point 4

Pride unmans a man, and makes him do acts below a man.

Pride makes you do things to people that are not only unchristian but inhumane.

Listen, anger is driven by pride, so we can’t just say we were a bit angry. That anger driven by pride makes us do and say things that are evil towards others. Then our pride says ‘em, I was just hurt.’

Yes, that may be the case but that hurt was driven by you dethroning God and placing yourself in that lofty place of king.

Its saying: worship me, honour me, praise me, I’m the centre of the world. And in so doing you reduce others to suburbanite wretches.

Pride has names to lessen the inhume acts, words like ‘venting’, ‘overreacting’, what about this for a shocker: ‘I was just tired’. Right, okay so tiredness equals devilish behaviour?

Brooks concludes this point by stating:

Oh what wretched unmanly acts have the pride of many persons put them upon.

Okay, let me now give the opposite and indeed the opposite effect. That truly brings the riches of Christ to our lives. Four points on humility from Brooks.

Point 1

Brooks writes:

It is very, very sad to consider how few humble souls there be these days.

I would say to Brooks today, even less now than in the 17th century.

The church today seems to teach and see humility as a weakness to not be pursued, but instead it is more about the journey of greatness.

That’s always been the world’s message but now it seems it’s the church’s also. Which is the polar opposite to Jesus’ message on self-denial.

Brooks:

The humble soul forgets not his former sinfulness and his former outward meanness.

Brooks uses Apostle Paul as an example when Paul writes in Romans 7:23

But I see a different law in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin which is in my members.

Do you know when Paul wrote that? 14 years roughly after his Damascus experience. Yip, Paul never lost sight of his wretchedness, nor who saved him from it. Pride does; humility doesn’t.

Point 2

A humble heart submits to every truth.

In other words, they don’t justify wrong, nor rebel against truth. They embrace truth and place deep value on it. They love truth, they love what truth holds, and they know truth is the key to freedom. It’s a prideful man who fights against truth.

Point 3

 humble soul knows it can never be good enough

Brooks adds:

It can never pray enough, hear enough, mourn enough, believe enough, fear enough, joy enough, repent enough, loathe sin enough, be humble enough.

Okay forth and last…

Point 4

A humble soul will quietly bear burdens, and patiently take blows.

Brooks adds:

A humble soul is a mute soul, a tongue tied soul, because he looks through secondary causes and sees the hand of God and then lays his own hand upon his mouth.

All causes can be handled when we know they are secondary to Him.

Amen.