Media Gratiae is pleased to announce our newest, Gospel Realities: Lessons from Galatians, written and taught by Dr. Stephen Yuille. Yuille is the professor of church history and spiritual formation at The Southerwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the preaching pastor of a local church, and serves as a content director and editor at Reformation Heritage Books.

We at Media Gratiae found the writing and editing of Dr. Yuille so helpful we asked him to create a study for us. Even though he has an incredibly full schedule, he was happy to do the work of preparing, writing, and preaching this study. We are grateful for his work. We pray after hearing from him you will be encouraged to study Galatians alongside us.

If you would like some help in studying Galatians, consider Gospel Realities: Lessons from Galatians.

Watch the study trailer here: https://youtu.be/HlAIb5uSBOI

Find more information here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/gospel-realities-lessons-from-galatians

Show Notes

William Perkins volumes from Reformation Heritage Books: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/the-works-of-william-perkins-the-10-volume-collection.html

A Perfect Redeemer by William Perkins: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/a-perfect-redeemer-perkins.html

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Several weeks ago, Canadian pastor and HeartCry missionary Hugh Morrison came to visit New Albany. While here, he preached to our congregation a number of times. We also asked him to speak to local ministers on prayer.

His talk was so beneficial to us that we wanted to share it with you. Because the talk was so long, we opted to split it for you. So this week, we present to you the second half of Hugh’s talk on the necessity of prayer for every Christian, and particularly for those in positions of leadership.

If you would like to see or hear Hugh’s sermons at Christ Church New Albany, see the links below:

YouTube playlist:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvnJqlEs5pO6h_fRk2vMVWJqEL112dvIW&si=xNEI9YMhJuXxxssB

SermonAudio playlist:

https://www.sermonaudio.com/speakers/67539/sermons?sort=newest

A few weeks ago, Christ Church New Albany hosted Hugh Morrison, a missionary pastor in Canada and invited him to preach to our congregation. During his visit, he also recorded a few podcasts with us and spoke to local ministers.

His ministerial talks were so helpful and broadly applicable that we decided to publish them. So, for the next two weeks, we will deliver his talk to ministers, focusing on the necessity of prayer in the Christian life. We pray it blesses you as it has us.

If you would like to hear Hugh’s sermons at Christ Church New Albany, you can find those here:

YouTube playlist:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvnJqlEs5pO6h_fRk2vMVWJqEL112dvIW&si=xNEI9YMhJuXxxssB

SermonAudio playlist:

https://www.sermonaudio.com/speakers/67539/sermons?sort=newest

For the last several weeks, we have considered the sweet command of Hebrews 12:2: looking, fixing, focusing our eyes upon the author of finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ. Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James have previously discussed the foundational principles necessary for obeying this command. Today, they will address whom we are blessed to look towards. Have you considered what a blessing it is to behold Christ? He is the image of the invisible God. Those throughout the Old Testament who wanted to behold God could not do so and live. But in Jesus Christ, we have the full deity of God and all of his attributes coming to meet us in friendship and mercy. So how do we gaze upon Christ? There are many passages we could look to, and we have them listed below for you to look up and examine for yourself. In these passages, we see him in eternity past, in his incarnation, learning and growing, teaching, persecution, the cross, the resurrection, and now in his enthronement in heaven! These gazes should fill our souls with hope and love for God. Charles Spurgeon said it well, “And we invite you to look to this scene that you may be lightened. What are your doubts this morning? Whatever they be, they can find a kind and fond solution here, by looking at Christ on the cross. You have come here, perhaps, doubting God's mercy; look to Christ upon the cross, and can you doubt it then? If God were not full of mercy, and plenteous in his compassion, would he have given his Son to bleed and die? Think you, that a Father would rend his darling from his heart and nail him to a tree, that he might suffer an ignominious death for our sakes, and yet be hard, merciless, and without pity? God forbid the impious thought! There must be mercy in the heart of God, or else there had never been a cross on Calvary. But do you doubt God's power to save! Are you saying in yourself this morning, ‘How can he forgive so great a sinner as I am?’ Oh! look there, sinner, look there, to the great atonement made, to the utmost ransom paid. Dost thou think that that blood has not an efficacy to pardon and to justify?” If your gaze has been fuzzy and unfocused. If you have found yourself looking more at life, stress, or even the good gifts of God more than at God, consider the words Theodore Monod wrote in his small pamphlet: Looking unto Jesus—NOW, if we have never looked unto Him! Looking unto Jesus—AFRESH, if we have ceased doing so! Looking unto Jesus—ONLY! Looking unto Jesus—STILL! Looking unto Jesus—ALWAYS! With a gaze more and more constant, more and more confident, "changed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18), and thus awaiting the hour when he will call us to pass from earth to Heaven, and from time to eternity—the promised hour, the blessed hour, when at last "we shall be like Him, for we shall Him as He really is!" (1 John 3:2).

Throughout this series we have been conducting a giveaway. If already receive emails from Media Gratiae then you are already entered to win. If you don’t get them, you can sign up here:

https://www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway

Sign up to win a copy of Looking Unto Jesus here: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/looking-unto-jesus-ambrose.html

Theodore Monod’s Looking Unto Jesus

https://www.gracegems.org/30/looking_unto_jesus.htm

John’s Sermon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOLMyt5SYpI

Scripture References:

John 1

1 Peter 1:20

Hebrews 2:14-18

Luke 2:52

Hebrews 5:8-9

1 Peter 2:21-23

Hebrews 12

Colossians 2

Zechariah 12:10

John 19

Ephesians 1

Romans 4:25

Revelation 5:6-14

1 Thessalonians 4:16

2 Thessalonians 1:7-10

Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts

You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Last week we looked at the Greek word apherontes eis, which translated literally is “away from look toward.” And we shared how we must look away from certain things if our eyes are going to focus on Jesus Christ. This week Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James share specific things we must look away from.

First on the list is the temptation to long for the old life. This common refrain is found in the book of Exodus. The Israelites complain that life in Egypt was better than walking in the desert with God. The Christian can be tempted to look fondly upon life before Christ. We must fight this.

Second on the list are sins that perhaps were not very tempting at one time, but they are now. It will be impossible to run the race of life with Jesus if we hold on to sins such as greed or the idolization of people’s opinions.

The third item to look away from are the good things. Paul said he counted all things as rubbish. He was willing to let go of all he knew previously, all his “right” upbringing, in order to gain Christ. If we as individual Christians or careful churches take pride in our past relationship with God, we will not run today’s race well.

We are still giving away two copies of Isaac Ambrose’s Looking Unto Christ. Sign up here:

https://www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway

John’s Sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-aPhM2DO4k

Sign up to win a copy of Looking Unto Jesus here: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/looking-unto-jesus-ambrose.html

See our previous episodes where we mentioned Looking Unto Jesus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLLiw_Xqa08

Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts

You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Last week Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James introduced our new series that will, by the grace of God, help us walk closer to Jesus in 2025 than we did in 2024. We will spend a great deal of time focusing on that sweet command to "look unto Christ."This week we are still getting help from Isaac Ambrose's book "Looking Unto Christ" (details on the giveaway linked below).

In order to look toward an object, we must first look away from all other objects. Imagine a groom who sees his bride walking down the aisle. There are many people in the church with them, but his eyes are fixed on one. That is how the Christian life should be. There are many things in our lives, but our focus should be on the one thing needful.

In this week's episode, John and Teddy dive into a bit of Greek language in Hebrews 12:1-2, hence the odd title of this episode. Your English translation of Scripture may say "fixing our eyes on Jesus," "looking to Jesus," or "looking only at Jesus." But there is a nuance in the Greek term apherontes eis that is hard to convey. The literal translation is away from look toward. So the writer of Hebrews is telling us that in order to look to Christ, we must first look away from every other thing in life.

We pray this episode helps you identify the things in your life you have been looking to for hope, comfort, and help that are not Christ, so that you may look to Christ alone.

If you are interested, you can sign up here:

https://www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway

John’s Sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-aPhM2DO4k

Sign up to win a copy of Looking Unto Jesus here: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/looking-unto-jesus-ambrose.html

See our previous episodes where we mentioned Looking Unto Jesus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLLiw_Xqa08

Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts

You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Even the sweetest commands from our King are still commands. We may be tempted to view commands such as "Do not kill" as more weighty than the command "Look unto Christ." But both are spoken from the same authority, God himself. Therefore, they are worthy of the same attention, effort, and obedience.

For the next few weeks, we will be discussing the command to look unto Jesus. There are several passages that state this command, each in a different way. But it is a theme of both the Old and the New Testaments. For this week's episode, Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James are getting help from a journal entry written in 1773 by John Newton. Many of you will know Newton as the author of "Amazing Grace," among other hymns. But the particular journal entry we are resourcing in this week's episode reads:

This is the Ninth New Years day I have seen in this place. I have reason to say, The Lord crowneth every year with his goodness. The entrance of this finds me and my _ [dear Mary] in health and peace. I am still favoured with strength, and with some liberty for my public work and hope the Lord is still pleased to work by me, for the edification of his people already called, and the awakening of sinners. As to myself, It is given me to trust in the Lord Jesus for life and salvation – I know he is both willing and able to save. Upon him as an All-sufficient Saviour and upon his word of promise I build my hope, believing that he will not suffer me to be put to shame. My exercise of grace is faint, my consolations small, my heart is full of evil, my chief sensible burdens are, a wild ungoverned imagination, and a strange sinful backwardness to reading the Scriptures, and, to secret prayer. These have been my complaints for many years, and I have no less cause of complaint than formerly. But my eye and my heart is to Jesus. His I am, him I desire to serve, to him I this day would devote and surrender myself anew. O Lord, accept, support, protect, teach, comfort and bless me. Be thou my Arm, my Eye, my Joy and my Salvation. Mortify the power of sin, and increase the image of thy holiness in my heart. Anoint me with fresh oil, make me humble, faithful, diligent and obedient. Let me in all things attend to thy word as my rule, to thy glory as my end, and depend upon thy power and promise for safety and success. I am now in the 49th year of my age, and may expect in the course of a few years at most to go whence I shall no more return, nor have I a certainty of continuing here a single year or even a month or a day. May thy grace keep me always waiting till my appointed change shall come, and when the summons shall come may I be enabled to rejoice in thee, as the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.

For the rest of this podcast series, we will be getting help from the first few chapters of Looking Unto Jesus by Isaac Ambrose. This 17th-century book was written after a prolonged illness and has been helping Christians gaze at the surpassing beauty of Jesus Christ for over 400 years.

Looking Unto Jesus was out of print for some time, but we were happy to find it available for sale again. We were so happy, in fact, that we bought two copies to give away at the end of this series. If you would like to be entered to win a copy, you can join the Media Gratiae email list. Our email subscribers get two emails a week: the first is a devotional thought from trustworthy writers and sometimes our own studies, and the other email highlights the podcast content we are publishing that week. If you are interested, you can sign up here:

https://www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway

Sign up to win a copy of Looking Unto Jesus here: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/looking-unto-jesus-ambrose.html

See our previous episodes where we mentioned Looking Unto Jesus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLLiw_Xqa08

Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts

You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

"If my God preserves you, and preserve you he must, or else you are not his; if he will keep you, and keep you he will if you have committed your souls to his faithful guardianship, that an honor awaits you!" These words by Charles Spurgeon perfectly summarize the objective promise for every believer in Christ.

God has promised that every Christian will finish this life clinging to Christ. He has done all the work necessary to fulfill this promise and will see it to completion. Yet this doesn't mean we are without responsibility. We must press on, fight, and run forward. We must run the race set before us. We can do so confidently, knowing He will make our efforts effective.

This week Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James continue our discussion from last week about how our union with Jesus Christ should quicken our spiritual pace in 2025 and beyond. We pray this becomes a watershed year for you—one where you can look back and see that you made greater use of God's means of grace than in 2024, continuing this pattern in the years ahead.

John 10:28

John 6:35-40

Matthew 10:22

Matthew 14:10-14

Romans 11:22

Colossians 1:21-23

Revelation 2:7

Revelation 2:11

Revelation 2:17

Revelation 2:26

Revelation 3:5

Revelation 3:12

Revelation 3:21

1 John 5:4

Philippians 1:6 and 2:12-13

Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts

You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Last week we mentioned a new series with Teddy James and Jeremy Walker. This week we decided to postpone that series because Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James recorded a two-episode series for the conclusion of 2024 and beginning of 2025. John and Acey Floyd recorded a series focusing on Union with Christ several months ago. As we said during those episodes, there was much more we could say on the topic, and so we wanted to revisit it with a particular emphasis on looking ahead to a new year.

Likely everyone has heard the adage "Once saved, always saved." While that is a true statement, it is also incomplete and far too small to truly convey the depth of finishing this life united to Christ. But one of the biggest problems with that statement is that it leaves no room and no application for the warnings of Scripture. It also leaves large questions for those who apostatize from the faith. This is dangerous for every Christian because it means we will miss what God is saying in those passages, and it could cause us to finish slowly and poorly.

To help us think about finishing well, John and Teddy discuss what faith is, what apostasy is, and why understanding those things is crucial to living a life and dying a death close to Christ.

Scriptures mentioned:

Hebrews 3:12-4:2

Hebrews 6:4-8

Hebrews 10:26-39

2 Peter 2:30-21

The story of Alexander:

2 Timothy 4:14-15

1 Timothy 1:19-20

Acts 19:29-34

Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts

You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

See Jordan’s study, Christ Our Treasure: Enjoying the Preeminence of Jesus in the Local Church - https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/jordan-thomas

Over the last three weeks, Dr. John Snyder and Jordan Thomas have been discussing the ultimate jewel of the Christian life. We all know that Christ is to be the precious treasure of our individual and corporate Christian lives, but sometimes we must fight a difficult battle to keep Him as our focus.

After John mentioned session four in last week’s episode, we thought it would be a good idea to present that entire talk to you for this week’s podcast. We pray you are encouraged by this session and it fuels your love for both Christ and your church.

See Jordan’s study, Christ Our Treasure: Enjoying the Preeminence of Jesus in the Local Church - https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/jordan-thomas

See the 2024 Media Gratiae Ministry Report

-https://report.mediagratiae.org/