The Whole Counsel

In today’s episode of The Whole Counsel, Dr. John Snyder is once again joined by Louis Sacran, an experienced pastor and counselor.
In session two of Biblical Help for Life’s Problems, Louis addresses our ideas about God’s faithfulness. God’s faithfulness is not the same as God fulfilling all our preferences for life. Louis takes us to various passages to clarify what it means for God to be faithful and shows that he is indeed trustworthy.
Louis also addresses the choices we face in pressing circumstances. What is beyond our control? What is our ultimate desire? What dangers and deceptions can we avoid?
We pray you will be helped by Louis’s wise counsel as we have been.
 
SHOW NOTES
📖 Kingdom Life: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

This week on The Whole Counsel, John is joined by Louis Sacran to discuss how to handle difficult problems biblically. Louis has many years of experience as both a pastor and a counselor. John has asked Louis to discuss the most common problems he encounters among believers.
We all, from time to time, face problems that are especially hard for us. In this first episode, Louis offers us wise advice on viewing our problems in light of Scripture and practical insight into handling those difficulties. Louis lays the groundwork for a biblical perspective of ourselves. How we view ourselves affects everything. All of us are saints, sinners, and sufferers, and we must keep those three views of ourselves in proper balance.

This week we are taking a short break between series and re-airing a favorite episode in which John Snyder is joined by a long-time friend and fellow minister, Jordan Thomas. You may recognize Jordan as a contributor to the studies Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically and Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty. John and Jordan spent a few weeks discussing the descriptions of Jesus found in the book of Hebrews. This week's discussion focuses on Hebrews 1 and the 34 descriptions of Jesus in those 14 verses.
Next week we will begin a new, short series with pastor and biblical counselor Louis Sacran. Louis and John will spend several weeks discussing wise counsel for common problems we face.
SHOW NOTES:
📖 Looking Unto Jesus by Theodore Monod
📖 Looking Unto Jesus by Isaac Ambrose
Check out Jordan's sermon series on Hebrews: https://www.gracechurchmemphis.com/sermons?offset=1436720400215&reversePaginate=true&category=Looking+Unto+Jesus

There is a secret to finding contentment. The secret has been revealed in the Bible, and Christians have proclaimed it for 2000 years. Despite this, humanity seems stubbornly confused about the source of happiness. We are naturally inclined to look for it in all the wrong places. The secret to finding contentment is that you don’t find it by pursuing contentment itself, but by looking for it in Christ.  
In this final episode of the Life of Joy series, John Snyder and Justin Miller discuss how Christ is the foundation, the center, and the cornerstone of Christian contentment.
They conclude the series not only by reflecting on Justin Miller’s forthcoming book, A Life of Joy, but also by recommending several books that have encouraged them in their pursuit of Christ-centered contentment and joy.
 
SHOW NOTES
📖 Kingdom Life: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
📖 A Life of Joy: Learning Christian Contentment by Justin Miller
📖 The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs:
Free from Chapel Library
Banner of Truth edition
📖 The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11, by Thomas Watson
ebook
physical copy
📖 The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ by Thomas Vincent
📖 Mortification of Sin by John Owen
📖 The Diary of Andrew Bonar

There is a vast difference between contentment and complacency, though we may be tempted toward the latter.
In this episode of The Whole Counsel, John Snyder and Justin Miller explore why biblical contentment is never passive, indifferent, or spiritually stagnant. Rather than settling for “enough” of Christ, the believer who is truly content finds that satisfaction in Him creates an even greater desire to know Him, obey Him, and enjoy deeper fellowship with Him.
Looking to passages such as Proverbs 1, Philippians 4, and Colossians 3, they discuss the danger of spiritual complacency and the joy of a life that rests in God’s wise providence while pressing forward in holiness. Along the way, they show that Christian contentment is not stoicism or resignation to circumstances, but joyful submission to a sovereign Father whose gifts always draw His children closer to Himself.
If Christ is the object of our contentment, then contentment will never diminish our pursuit of holiness. Instead, it will continually fuel it.
Show Notes
Kingdom Life: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/kingdom-life
A Life of Joy: Learning Christian Contentment by Justin Miller - https://freegracepress.com/collections/coming-soon/products/a-life-of-joy
The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs -
Free from Chapel Library: https://www.chapellibrary.org/book/rjoc/rare-jewel-of-christian-contentment-the-burroughsjeremiah
Banner of Truth edition: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/christian-living/the-rare-jewel-of-christian-contentment/
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

Contentment is one of the distinguishing marks of the Christian life—but it is also one of the most difficult graces to cultivate. Why is it so hard to gain and so easy to lose?
In the third episode of our A Life of Joy series, Justin Miller and Dr. John Snyder examine five of the greatest obstacles to Christian contentment: worldliness, busyness, bitterness, grief, and opposition. Drawing from Scripture, the Puritans, and personal experience, they show how these common struggles pull our hearts away from Christ and how God uses even painful providences to deepen our joy in Him.
Rather than settling for shallow happiness or stoic resignation, believers are called to find lasting satisfaction in Christ alone.
Show Notes
Kingdom Life: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/kingdom-life
The Life of Samuel Rutherford by Andrew Thomson: https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Rutherford-Andrew-Thomson/dp/1164013874
Samuel Rutherford and His Friends by Faith Cook: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/ebooks/samuel-rutherford-and-his-friends/
Letters of Samuel Rutherford: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/letters/letters-of-samuel-rutherford/
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

In the first episode of this series, Justin Miller helped us understand what Christian contentment is and why it differs from both complacency and stoicism. But if contentment is not something we naturally possess, how do we learn it?
In this episode, Dr. John Snyder and Justin Miller explore Paul’s statement in Philippians 4:11, “I have learned to be content.” Together they consider how God uses trials, hardships, disappointments, and even unanswered prayers to teach His people that Christ is sufficient. Drawing from Scripture, the Puritans, and the lives of believers who have walked this path before us, they discuss why contentment is learned in the school of providence.
They also examine the truths that fuel Christian contentment: God’s sovereignty, God’s goodness, His commitment to work all things for the good of His people, and His wise use of affliction to wean us from the world and teach us to treasure Christ above all else.
Show Notes
A Life of Joy: Learning Christian Contentment by Justin Miller - https://freegracepress.com/collections/coming-soon/products/a-life-of-joy
The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs -
Free from Chapel Library: https://www.chapellibrary.org/book/rjoc/rare-jewel-of-christian-contentment-the-burroughsjeremiah
Banner of Truth edition: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/christian-living/the-rare-jewel-of-christian-contentment/
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

For years, believers have turned to Jeremiah Burroughs’ classic work The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment to learn what it means to rest in God’s wise and fatherly providence. In this new series, Dr. John Snyder is joined by Pastor Justin Miller to discuss his forthcoming book, A Life of Joy: Learning Christian Contentment, which seeks to bring these timeless truths to a new generation of Christians.
In this first episode, Justin explains how his own struggles in ministry led him to study the biblical doctrine of contentment more deeply. Together, he and Dr. Snyder explore the difference between true Christian contentment and its counterfeits. Christian contentment is not complacency, spiritual laziness, or stoic resignation to circumstances. Rather, it is learning to receive every providence from the hand of a wise and loving Father, finding our joy not in changing circumstances but in Christ himself.
Whether you are facing trials, disappointments, unanswered questions, or simply desire a deeper joy in Christ, this conversation provides a helpful foundation for understanding one of the most neglected and necessary graces in the Christian life.
Show Notes
A Life of Joy: Learning Christian Contentment by Justin Miller - https://freegracepress.com/collections/coming-soon/products/a-life-of-joy
The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs -
Free from Chapel Library: https://www.chapellibrary.org/book/rjoc/rare-jewel-of-christian-contentment-the-burroughsjeremiah
Banner of Truth edition: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/christian-living/the-rare-jewel-of-christian-contentment/
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

Samuel Rutherford’s letters are often remembered for their soaring descriptions of the beauty and loveliness of Christ. But Rutherford was not content merely to comfort sleepy Christians. He also knew how to awaken them.
In this final episode on Samuel Rutherford, Dr. John Snyder examines a series of Rutherford’s letters written to stir believers out of spiritual lethargy and call them to earnestness, holiness, and wholehearted pursuit of Christ. Whether addressing young converts, careless professors, or discouraged saints, Rutherford repeatedly presses the same point: Christ is too precious to be followed lazily.
These letters confront the danger of spiritual drift, warn against assuming salvation without evidence of perseverance, and urge believers to cultivate prayer, holiness, watchfulness, and delight in Christ. Yet Rutherford’s exhortations are never cold or merely moralistic. Again and again, he reminds us that true obedience flows from hearts captivated by the sweetness of Christ himself.
This episode also includes one of Rutherford’s most beloved warnings to dry and wandering believers: “We are rather dry than thirsty.” His counsel is simple and searching — stop dwelling far from the well and return to Christ.
As this series on Rutherford concludes, Dr. Snyder reflects on the enduring value of these prison letters and the way they continue to call believers to sincerity, diligence, and deeper communion with Christ.
“Keep Christ and entertain him well.” — Samuel Rutherford
Show Notes
Kingdom Life: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/kingdom-life
The Life of Samuel Rutherford by Andrew Thomson: https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Rutherford-Andrew-Thomson/dp/1164013874
Samuel Rutherford and His Friends by Faith Cook: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/ebooks/samuel-rutherford-and-his-friends/
Letters of Samuel Rutherford: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/letters/letters-of-samuel-rutherford/
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

Samuel Rutherford knew suffering, imprisonment, isolation, and loss. Yet from his prison cell came some of the richest descriptions of communion with Christ ever written.
In this episode of Dr. John Snyder continues exploring Rutherford’s letters by focusing on one central theme: the nearness of God. Drawing from Rutherford’s prison correspondence, Dr. Snyder examines the different ways Scripture speaks about God’s presence and how Rutherford experienced the sweetness of Christ in ways he once thought impossible on this side of heaven.
Rutherford writes of the believer’s regret over loving Christ so little, the overwhelming abundance of Christ’s love toward his people, the dangers of idolizing spiritual experiences, and the diligence required to pursue deeper fellowship with God. Again and again, his letters press us beyond merely knowing truths about Christ into delighting in Christ himself.
What happens when a believer discovers that his soul is too small to contain the love of God? Rutherford’s answer is simple: stop standing on the shore and throw yourself into the ocean.
“If this whole world were the beam of a balance, it would not be able to bear the weight of Christ’s love.” — Samuel Rutherford
Show Notes
Kingdom Life: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/kingdom-life
The Life of Samuel Rutherford by Andrew Thomson: https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Rutherford-Andrew-Thomson/dp/1164013874
Samuel Rutherford and His Friends by Faith Cook: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/ebooks/samuel-rutherford-and-his-friends/
Letters of Samuel Rutherford: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/letters/letters-of-samuel-rutherford/
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