Introduction to Hope for the Caregiver Program and Its Mission for Caregivers
Peter Rosenberger Foreign. Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger here on American Family Radio. Glad to be with you. Congratulations. You've just stumbled on to the nation's number one program for family caregivers. And if we're the nation's number one program, guess what? We are the world's number one program. Toto del Mundo. For those of you a little south of the border, we are the largest radio program for family caregivers in the world. I know, I know. You're saying, how could this be? We've seen your work, Peter. Well, that's a very good question. No, we're all glad to be here with you. We're glad to be able to have this conversation, to talk to those who are caring for those. How do you stay strong and healthy as you care for someone who is not well? That's what this program is all about. And I'm very glad that you took the time to join this morning. And hopefully, as we embark on this excursion to, all things caregiver related, you'll find, like I have, that healthy caregivers do indeed make better caregivers. Hope for the caregiver.com hope for the caregiver.com I read once about some Chinese farmers.
Exploring Socialism Through Chinese Farmers and State Control Over Production
I was doing some studies on this. I know. And you're saying. Well, you know, a little light reading material, but no, there's a, thing that they started in the 70s, I believe, where they created a collective group of, of farmers. And each individual farmer or the family was assigned a portion of the land that belonged to the collective. And then there was a requirement by the government to produce from that land, almost like serfdom, in the old days, in medieval times and so forth, where you had a baron and then he had a bunch of people who worked the land and they got to keep what was left over, any surplus. But they had to meet a certain requirement by the landowner. And in this particular case, it was a collective there. And then the state had their own requirements. That's what socialism does, by the way. It tells you what to produce, and you have to produce for the state. And then if there's something left over, the state in its mercy will allow you to keep it. In that wonderful. In that great. In that.
Defining Socialism and its Impact on Individual Incentive and Caregiving Parallels
A great definition of socialism, you get to keep the fruit of your labors after we have decided how much we want to take. that's, that's that warm embrace of collectivism that new, York Mayor Zoran Mamdani thinks about and, gets all Excited about what? That warm and collectivism. The warmth of collectivism. Oh, please vote accordingly you all. But I digress. That's a conversation for another time. The state dictated the yield that they needed to get back from the efforts of these farmers. And the farmer couldn't get any more land. That's it. So they're doing rice in this particular case. And so you've got this plot of land that is, finite. And that farmer then must meet the requirements of the state and of the collective before he can provide for his family. So what do you think that farmer's incentive is? The farmer's incentive to be able to provide, provide for his own family is to make the maximum yield out of that portion of land that that farmer could possibly do. Okay? So that means that farmer has to study literally every square foot of this. And these are not necessarily large parcels, but they're, they're growing this thing. And in this particular case, it was rice. So he had to know not only everything about the ground, but everything about the water, you know, to study the weather to the type of rice and the fertilizer. Every little thing, I mean the most minute details of that parcel of land was the responsibility of that farmer in order for that farmer to take care of his family. Because he had to meet the demands of the collective, he had to meet the demands of the state before he could feed his own family. Now why am I telling you all this? Well, that's a good question. I know that you tuned in, you're thinking, well, it's Saturday morning.
Caregiver Obligations Analogous to Farming Limitations and Insurance Demands
I'm going to tune in to American Family Radio and find out about Chinese rice farming. No, that's not why I'm telling you all this. I'm telling you all this because that's the world we live in as caregivers. We have a finite set of, of, in our world of what we can do and cannot do, we have obligations that are right off the bat, this has got to happen. I'll never forget this. When I got married, my father in law said very clearly to me, you know, you can't ever let Gracie go without insurance. Okay, that's, that's, that's a non negotiable standard with, with Gracie. I mean, think about that. What would happen if I let her insurance lapse? What would happen if I said, now, let's just roll the dice and see what happens. I mean, you think about that and and here's the rub. He had a policy on her that was almost maxed out. And would convert when she turned 21 or got married. And so no matter what happened, the moment I said, I do, that policy converted to her because she got married to me. Yes. Okay, for those of you following along at home, this is back in the 80s, okay? Ronald Reagan was president. And the moment she said, I do, boom, the clock started. And the conversion policy she had at that time capped out at $250,000. Now, you think about that for just a moment on the cost involved with this woman. And so I had to do, a lot of quick maneuvering to make sure that Gracie has never had a gap in insurance. And she has it to this date 40 years later. She's never had one gap. Sometimes I carry two policies. I've changed policy six times, and. And sometimes I carry two policies on her because one of them had a preexisting condition. But this, this was a demand that was dictated that I had no control over. Okay? I have got to meet that particular demand every single time, just like that farmer did. And so I had to think through this finite set of land that I had. I didn't have the opportunity to go out and buy more land. I didn't have that. Like that Chinese farmer. I don't have the opportunity to go out and buy more hours in the day. I can't just write checks for things.
Maximizing Yield Through Knowledge and Diligence in Caregiving and Life
Well, I can, but they won't go through, and then I'll get arrested, and that's a bad thing. But I cannot create more where there is no more. I just have to do the maximum yield and study this with great diligence to the absolute best of my abilities. And now here's what I've learned through this. As a caregiver, here's what I've come to understand. I have the wealth of human knowledge basically at my fingertips. I can research anything. I can learn to do anything. If I have a problem with a form filling out with an insurance company, there is help everywhere. My son nicknamed it. He's the one introduced me to YouTube University. You could study pretty much anything out there. You got AI now. You got all kinds of things that will equip you to do things to reduce the amount of time that you have to spend doing laborious things. I remember the old days when I'm out on the kitchen table with pen and paper trying to do insurance stuff and file appeals and all that kind of stuff. I don't have to do that anymore. I can use all kinds of online tools for this. There is legal help available through online legal services that I could subscribe to so that I can have a lawyer that I can go to. I have that service. You can ask me about it sometime. It's. It's wonderful service. I've been doing it for 15 years where I spend, you know, 30 bucks a month and I have access to a full law firm and I have access to this and this and this. But I have to be the one that goes out to that rice paddy every single day and examines it to extreme details. I've got to get the maximum yield out of it. I've got to bloom where I'm planted. I can't sit around and wish for more things to come my way so that I can. Oh, if I could. Well, I could do this. If we could just do that. If we. No, no, no. I've got to be diligent right where I am to get the maximum yield. So my question to you is, what's the maximum yield for you? Have you, have you done that? Have you stopped looking outside of the purview that you have and look at the field that you have and say, okay, Lord, how do I make the maximum yield from this field? What can I do to do this? To care for my family, to care for my loved one, to honor you? This is the direction that God has led me in. I land on this place and this is what gives me hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberg and we'll be right back.
Sponsor Message: Preborn and Listener Support for American Family Radio Programming
We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial £250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr hello, I'm Peter Rosenberger. Did you know that this show is listener supported? Without people like you, this show would not exist. That's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio, specifically this show as we reach thousands of people each week with biblical truth. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr m.netgive that's afr.net give.
Reviewing Caregiver Topics on Substack and Introduction to Divine Concurrence Doctrine
Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. Hope for the caregiver.com hopeforthecaregiver.com by the way, if you want to review what I just Talked about in the last block about the Chinese rice farmer. I've got that out on my substack caregiver.substack.com if you want to go out there, sign up for it. It's free. I put it out there. But again, it's talking about information that's available to you. I'm putting out free 40 years as a caregiver. Who do you know that's done this? Okay. Who do you know that's, ah, had that kind of experience that has put this kind of library out there? I've got, about a thousand episodes on my podcast. I've got, I don't know how many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of articles that I've published out there. And I'm trying to put all this into a library there at my substack. So take advantage of it. Okay. We've been talking periodically here about theology and the application thereof to caregivers. And last week we talked about the doctrine of divine concurrence, which is God's sovereign work and our real responsible actions. God accomplishes his purposes through means and our decisions and duties matter.
Introducing the Perseverance of the Saints Doctrine for Caregiver Stability
Okay, you can go back and listen that if you want to. And it's out at my substack this week. I want to continue our look at this with another doctrine. It's called the Perseverance of the Saints. Now, these two doctrines have found, foundationally stabilized me, and I'm going to tell you why. and look, I know somebody's already thinking, Peter, I have insurance forms on the table. I've got to go and clean up something. I've got to do this, this and this, prescriptions, whatever. I, got a loved one who didn't, you know, even go to bed last night. And I'm tired and I'm on my third cup of coffee. I get it. So why are we talking about theology? Well, because the waves are crashing, okay? The wind's howling, and caregivers need something solid beneath our feet. Okay, I, want you just hang on to that for just a second because, look, once you know how to do insurance, do you really need a lot of refresher courses on that? Once you know how to do laundry, do you really need a lot of refresh? It's just something that's got to be done. But you're not, like, struggling. Okay, how do I, how do I deal with this? How do I, how do I, how do I wrap my mind around that? You don't think like this. That what? I mean, how many times do you Need a refresher course to learn how to drive. And yet you'll pull out. It's traffic that's going 60, 70 miles an hour out here. The speed limits, 80. And you do it. I don't even think about it. But where we live with stress and fear and worry and anxiety is wondering what's going to happen? How do we survive this? How are we going to handle this? And we get knotted up in these things. And that's why I have been pushing myself to learn and study theology more. Okay, what do I believe and why do I believe it? And what are the implications of that belief?
Theological Beliefs and Their Practical Implications for Caregivers' Daily Lives
Okay. It's not just enough to say, okay, here's what I believe. why do I believe this? And what are the implications as I take care of my wife? You follow me on that? Because a lot of people just spout off, well, I believe in God. Well, okay, what are the implications of that? I mean, you can't just do this. Well, you can, but I mean, as caregivers, I have found for me that I can't just say, okay, well, here's what I believe, okay, and just kind of go about my business. No, I need to understand. Why is this important? How did I arrive here? How did I get here? What. What am I doing? And what does this mean? You know, I remember having a conversation with somebody about end time stuff, and they were thinking this, okay, you got these signs are going on, and you got this and this, and the rapture may come here and all that. Everybody, they were talking about this. And I finally stopped and I said, they said, aren't you excited about all this? And I looked at him and I said, how does this help me take care of my crippled wife today? Okay, now that kind of cut through the conversation pretty quick. And that may offend some people. You know, deal with it. Because that's my reality. That is my reality. That is my lived experience. everything I do has to be in that regard. I don't say, help me. I say, help me help you, help me, help Gracie.
Enduring and Thriving as a Caregiver Through Deep Theological Understanding
That is my whole focus in, okay, how do I endure in this situation? And I'm not content to just survive it. Go back and look at the possible, Paul, in Timothy, when he was saying, you know, I have been poured out like water, but I fought the good fight. I've kept the faith. I'm not interested in just getting through this. I want to show myself approved. I want to get, like I talked about in the last block, the maximum yield. What can I do to be productive in this. And that starts with what do I believe? Because what I believe, those questions I mentioned earlier, what do we believe? Why do we believe it? What are the implications of those beliefs? Those questions, they follow me into every emergency room. Those questions sit, beside me when the house finally gets quiet. Those questions are sitting right beside me when the doctor says, there's something else we needed to discuss. When I looked at that diagnosis earlier this year of me having cancer, I was in my studio looking at my online chart, and I saw something that rhymes with the word aroma. And I was like, christian, what do you believe? If my understanding of God cannot accompany me into those places, then I need to examine my understanding of God. Theology means the study of God. We all have some understanding of, who he is, what he does, and whether he could be trusted. The question is whether that understanding is true, whether it's accurate. I wrote about this when Billy Crystal recently talked about. He doesn't trust God anymore. He doesn't talk to him because his friends, Robin Myshel Reiner, were killed by their son, his home burned in the Palisades fire, and he's just kind of washed his hands of it. And so he's obviously acknowledging that there is a God. He just doesn't trust him, doesn't want to talk to Him. All right, so what do we do with that information? And I wrote, by the way, I wrote about that. It's called Room to Grieve. And I would really recommend you taking the time to read that.
The Need for Truth to Sustain Caregivers Through Exhaustion and Fear
I mean, you don't have to, but I'm putting it out there so that you can go into whatever field you're working in and get the maximum yield and you're not having to figure these things out the hard way like I did. Everything. But that's your decision. But anyways. Caregiver.substack.com but we're exhausted on a given day. And when we're frightened, exhausted, or grieving, we need truth that's strong enough to bear what we're putting on it. Will it? Will it? Will it stand? So let's. Let's consider this question today. Will Christ keep the people he saves?
Understanding the Perseverance of the Saints: God's Faithfulness and Our Continuing Faith
Will Christ keep the people he saves? All right. The Perseverance of the saints teaches that everyone truly united to Christ by saving faith will be kept by God's grace and will continue in faith to the end. Saints means God's people, ordinary believers, people who need forgiveness, who struggle, who repent, who depend upon Christ. Okay? That doctrine includes both God's keeping and our continuing. We persevere Because God preserves us. That matters. Because the word perseverance can sound like another assignment for us as caregivers. I mean, we're already warned. Slam out. Keep going. Try harder. Don't. Don't let anybody down. Don't let God down. We've heard plenty of that. But the foundation of this doctrine is God's faithfulness, not ours. It's his faithfulness. The Christians future rest upon the Savior who died, rose again, and continues to intercede for his people. Now, this connects directly to what we talked about last week, okay? God's work does not make our actions meaningless. His grace brings about real faith, real repentance, and real endurance in his people. We believe, we pray, we turn from sin, we keep coming to Christ. And underneath those actions is the sustaining mercy of God. Now, this promise concerns our salvation. It does not guarantee that a caregiver will avoid exhaustion or that we're going to avoid illness or depression or even the need for help. The perseverance of the saints does not require the uninterrupted availability of the caregiver. Now, where does this. Where does this teaching come from? Well, I'm glad you asked. Scripture. The church's confessions summarize what we believe Scripture teaches. That's the creeds and so forth. But those creeds have to be tested by Scripture.
Scriptural Foundations for the Perseverance of the Saints in John and Philippians
Look at Jon, chapter 10. Jesus describes his sheep as people who hear his voice and follow him. Then he says, I give them eternal life and they will Never perish. Jon 10:28. then he goes on to describe their safety in his hand and in his Father's hand. Notice who gives the life. Notice who knows the sheep. Notice who holds them, and notice that the sheep follow him. The promise never separates belonging to Christ from following Christ. Let's go to Philippians, chapter 1, verse 6. He who began a good work is faithful to complete it to the day of Christ Jesus. Our confidence rests in the one who began the work and finishes it first. Peter, Same thing. Go through it. Romans 8 takes us through the suffering and the weakness and the groaning of creation awaiting redemption. Paul doesn't pretend that the Christian life is painless. Yet the chapter ends with the conviction that nothing in all creation can separate God's people from his love in Christ Jesus. The suffering is real, the security is real. They appear in the same passage. So when did Christians begin discussing all this?
Historical Christian Views on Perseverance from Augustine to Westminster Confession
When was it codified? Well, this was long before the Reformation when, Augustine wrote about perseverance as God's gift. And he addressed it extensively in the fifth century. He wrote a work called on the Gift of Perseverance. Augustine's entire account of grace and assurance is not, though, identical to the later reform position. Okay, so let's be. I want to be clear on that. But the question of God's gift of enduring faith certainly did not begin with the Reformers and specifically Jon Calvin. Let's go to the Heidelberg Catechism. It was first published in 1563, and it begins by asking about our only comfort in life and death. I love this. Its answer centers on, belonging to Christ, who has paid for our sins, preserves us, and makes us willing to live for Him.
Dr. Jessica Peck Him.
Peter Rosenberger Okay. The Synod of Dort D O R T in The Netherlands in 1618 and 1619 addressed disputes over salvation and grace. In the fifth main section of its canon specifically addresses the perseverance of the saints. The Westminster confession, completed in 1646, devotes Chapter 17 to this doctrine. It teaches that those truly accepted in Christ and sanctified by His Spirit cannot fall totally and finally from grace. Totally and finally. Those words matter. the confession acknowledges that believers can fall into serious sin.
Dr. Jessica Peck Ah.
Peter Rosenberger And suffer terrible, terrible consequences. Now, this confession is not without controversy. We'll talk about this in the next block. Well, let me leave you with this before we go to the break. If he saves you, he can keep you. This is Peter Rosenberger, and by the way, that's Hope for the Caregiver.
A Humorous Interlude About Acquiring Cats to Combat a Mouse Infestation
Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. Hopeforthecaregiver.com hopeforthecaregiver dot com before we get back into our regular schedule program, I got to tell y' all something. We live out in the country, okay? We're backed up to the forest, and we've been overrun with mice, and I've been trapping them right and left. I mean, it's just. We live in this old cabin. The new part we just built and remodeled, you know, is nice and tight and sealed up and everything else, but the old part, not so much. And it was built in 1895, and who knows? I've tried to find all the access points, and I've sprayed stuff and everything else. And we had two cats. But when we spent all the time in the hospital last year, they. They departed, absconded, fled. I don't know where they are. I mean, they could be somebody's dinner. I have no idea. we had. They've been here for a while. I never even. They were just kind of. They just kind of showed up one day and one of them was a smaller orange cat. The other one was a fatter one. So I just called them fat cat, skinny cat. They stayed out in the barn, but they kept the mice away. Well, I've been trying to get some new cats and I had the word out and a friend of ours who's a nurse, she had, helped take. She helps take care of a lot of people in this community. And just a wonderful lady and she's been keeping her ear to the ground for me. And there was a guy that she was going to take care of and ended up passing away. And his family's in town trying to get rid of all of his stuff there and sell everything. And they had a bunch of feral cats out there by the barn and they trapped them and they said, do you want any? And so I went over there immediately. She said, they're in the trap right now if you want them. So I went over there Sunday night and got two of them and I was very excited. Well, the guy called me the next morning, he had three more. So I have five cats now. And I'm going to keep you posted on how this goes because, these, and these are cats with that are not friendly. Okay? You have to trap them. And I mean, I got blood in the bed of my truck where they were scratching trying to get out of the cage just to be able to get here to our place. They're not well adjusted people, cats. but that's what I wanted. I want cats with bad attitudes. I want cats with family issues that, you know, are still struggling with it. And maybe a couple of piercings and some tattoos, you know what mean? Cats? Because we have a lot of mice and a few rats in the barn. And so, I got them home and I was so excited. We have five cats of the apocalypse. Now we're going to have mouse again. I'm hoping so. And I told the cats, I said, I'll give you a little bit of food because nothing's too good for these cats. So I got a little family dollar food that I'll put out there for them and some water. That's just the. I said, if you want the buffet, the fields are gray with harvest.
Addressing Objections to the Perseverance Doctrine: Sin, Apostasy, and Warnings
Make yourself at home. I will keep you posted on whether or not the five cats of the apocalypse will do their job or not. Who knows? But anyway, we are going back to our study on the doctrine of, the perseverance of the saints, not the perseverance of the cats. But Christians disagree over a lot of things about this, the Westminster Confession, as I'm seeing in the last block, teaches that believers can fall into serious sins and suffer terrible consequences. And I want to make sure I distinguish between that because we're talking about salvation, and I'm presenting the reformed understanding because I believe it best accounts for these promises and the whole council of Scripture. but I want to give three objections that people often give to that. doesn't this give people permission to sin? It would if we were teaching that a religious profession guarantees heaven regardless of whether a person trusts or follows Christ. But that's not the doctrine here. The promise is that God preserves his people in living faith. He also disciplines them and brings them to repentance. Grace changes the people it saves. In Romans 6, Paul confronts the suggestion that we continue in sin so that grace may abound, and he rejects it emphatically. And we caregivers need to hear that. My exhaustion does not give me permission to act inappropriately. The pressure on me does not make me violating God's directives justifiable. If I wound somebody, I need to repent and where appropriate, make amends. God's keeping gives me that reason and that impetus to come into the light, where I can confess my sin to a faithful Savior. So that's objection number one.
Examining Departures from Faith and God's Use of Warnings for His People
Second objection. what about people who appear to believe and then walked away? And that is painful. And these are sometimes people we love. And first, Jon 19 describes people whose departure revealed they had not truly belonged. And Jesus parable of the Sower also describes an initial reception that does not endure. And those passages teach us that outward profession and inward regeneration are not identical. There are people that could that profess this. there are going to people that say to him, in the last day, lord, Lord, didn't we do this? He said, I don't even know who you are. I don't know you. We should also be very cautious about announcing the final spiritual condition of someone, whose story still unfolding we don't know. I can't inspect another person's heart. I keep praying, speaking truth, and calling people to Christ, but I've got all I can deal with with just me. Okay, and then the third objection is, what about the Bible's warnings? Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 contains very sober warnings about falling away. And, and we shouldn't try to somehow make them sound like they don't have any force. In Hebrews 6, the writer describes people who have experienced extraordinary spiritual privileges and then, then repudiated Christ. The Reformed interpreters differ on some of the details. But they commonly distinguish these privileges from the saving union with Christ that endures. They point, to verse nine, where the writer expresses confidence that his hearers possess the things associated with salvation. So what we're going to find is there's a difference between professing and possessing. Okay, that's, that's the big difference right there. A lot of people, professional, but professing is not the same as possessing. Do you follow me on that? The broader reformed answer there in Hebrews, to what Hebrews is talking about is that God uses warnings as a means to keep his people watchful and dependent on him. The warning is part of his preserving care. And in the canons of Dortmund there, that I was mentioned earlier from the Netherlands explicitly include biblical warnings among the means that God uses to sustain believers. And other, Christians understand these passages as warnings that genuinely regenerate believers can finally fall away.
Caregiver Confidence in Christ's Keeping Power and His Intercessory Prayers
So I'm acknowledging there's some disagreement there. I land on the side that if he saves me, he can keep me. And why is that important to me as a caregiver? First off, I, I'm not casual about abandoning Christ at all. In fact, I'm more, intense about holding on to that than I was before I came to understand this. But I think for me, I go to Peter and Luke 22. What does Jesus tell Peter? He said, satan has asked for permission, demanded even to sift him like wheat. And Jesus said, what? I've prayed for you, that your faith might not fail. And then Jesus also tells Peter that when he turns, when he comes through this to strengthen his brother, Jesus knows the denial is coming. He tells that to Peter. Peter, of course, says, no, there's no way. But he also speaks of Peter's return. And he does fail. Peter fails grievously. He denies knowing the Lord. He weeps bitterly. Yet his failure will not be the final chapter of his discipleship. And let me tell you something, I take that rather personally. I really hold on to that passage and Peter's restoration rest upon a Savior whose knowledge of, of Peter and his weakness was complete before Peter ever discovered it himself. Jesus said this is what he's asked. Satan has asked him, demanded, but I prayed for you. So where's the confidence? Is it confidence in Peter? Or is it the confidence in the effective prayers of a righteous man who is. No one is righteous but Christ. The only righteousness we will ever have is from Christ, not our own. So Jesus's confidence is in his own prayer and righteousness. And the Work of his Father and the Holy Spirit on Peter's behalf, not on Peter's figuring this thing out. And so I say to you, caregiver to caregiver, our confidence is not in anything we can do. Our confidence is that we have one who is praying for us, one who saves us, and one who will keep us. Jude 24. How many times you've heard this? Now? Unto him who is able to keep you from falling. There it is again. You know, this is the. Everything is about Christ. It's always about Christ.
The Role of God's Grace and Promises in Salvation and Everlasting Life
And then the Apostles Creed confesses resurrection and everlasting life. And then Christians across all kinds of traditions affirm those promises. The reform doctrine explains how God brings his people to that promised end. And then we've been singing about this for years, and there's some people say, well, yeah, you know, you've got that wrong. And this. Ah, but then think about the songs that you sing. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a rich like me Twas grace that brought me thus far and grace will what? Lead me home. Grace will lead me home. Not me, not my efforts. I'm not. I'm not doing this. It's grace. And the implication Jon Newton is offering you there is. It's his grace that's leading us home. you know, many of us have sung that hymn a bazillion times, but I think about what you're singing. The grace that rescued us will sustain us the rest of the journey. How firm a foundation. The final stanza. Rest on a soul, Resting on Jesus while all the powers of hell try to shake it. The answer is God's promise. Never, no, never. To forsake that soul. Come Thou found of every blessing, the text says. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. You know, we recognize this. This. If it was up to us, we would already be gone. Augustus Toplady, who wrote, A Debtor to Mercy alone, speaks of God's work enduring and of a name that cannot be erased from his hands.
Caregiver Implications: Standing in Christ, Assurance, and Resting in the Savior
I just go through him, after him, after him. What are the implications for a caregiver? What are those implications? First, we can distinguish our standing in Christ from our changing sense of assurance. By the way, that's another one blessed assurance. Well, who gives the assurance when the waves crash and they do, and when the winds howl and they do? We need to know whom we are trusting. How are you going to function if you don't know what God has said? How are you going to function if you don't understand what his promises mean for the next 10 minutes when you're in the middle of all this stuff. In Jon chapter 17, Jesus prayed for those that the Father gave him. And he included those who would believe through the apostles words. Hey, that's you and me. That's you and me. In, Jon 10, Jesus says that no one can snatch his sheep from his hand. Hey, that's you and me. Caregiver, let me tell you this. The hands carrying you and me bear the scars of our redemption. you can rest in the Savior who keeps you. He's going to bring you home. He's going to bring you home. And that is Hope for this caregiver. And I want it to be your hope as well. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver, where we're going to be right back.
The Deeper Magic of Perseverance and Divine Concurrence for Caregivers
Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger, and I am very, very glad to be with you. Hope for the Caregiver. And if you found what we're saying here today to be helpful to you, please take a moment to go out there and get involved, sponsor this program and help us do more. Hope for the caregiver.com. we've been talking about the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, and I really grab hold of that. There's two doctrines that have really sustained me over the last several years. One of them is this doctrine, the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, and that he preserves us so that we can persevere. And the other one is the one we talked about last week, which is the doctrine of divine concurrence, that his will will not be thwarted. Do you realize what a great comfort that is that we belong to him and he's got this now, that doesn't mean we're not going to go through painful things because you, wouldn't be listening to this program and I wouldn't be doing this program if we didn't have very painful things in our life. But I also wouldn't be doing this program if God in his mercy hadn't taken me deeper than those things. Remember that. There's a great line, and I love this so much, from the Chronicles of Narnia, when the White Witch felt like she had won by killing the great lion Aslan. And she said, the Deep Magic must be adhered to, that law of the Deep Magic. It has to be satisfied. Aslan willingly gave up his life. You know, he's the Christ figure in this. And then when he came back from the dead, Lucy And Susan were looking at the two provincial girls, and they were looking at him and saying, you know, how. And he said, Look, I'm paraphrasing C.S. lewis here, okay? He said, she saw the deep magic, but there was deeper magic. Basically, that's what he said. There was. There was magic. She didn't see, she didn't go deep enough. That's what I'm talking about here. We will stop and say, you know, well, God sent his son. We'll stop at Jon 3:16, for example. Send a son. And we believe this in our head. But when we're in the icu, we're wrapping our minds or, trying to wrap our minds around these things. And that's when we need to go deeper. We need to go deeper knowing that he's waiting for us in those deep places where we come to a point where we say, christian, what do you believe and why do you believe it? And what are the implications of you believing this? And I am not content to live my life as a caregiver, just as a human being, just mindlessly, just surviving through the day. I'm going to ask these hard questions, and I'm going to wrestle with them. I'm going to keep wrestling with them until I find a solid piece of land to stand on. And I have done that, and now I'm telling others what it is I found, what it is I've discovered. The deeper magic, if you will, that solid bedrock. I need no other argument.
Salvation is Christ's Work: The Implications of His Saving and Keeping Grace
I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. Go back to the hymn writers. That's why I love these hymns so much, because they wrestle with these things and put it to prose that we can remember. On, Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Okay, what does that mean? What are the implications? I just told you earlier in the program about Amazing Grace. We've been singing this. A lot of people say, well, you know, we could lose our salvation. Twas great, but they'll go right into singing amazing grace. Twas grace that brought us this far. And grace will lead us home. Who's doing the leading? Do you see? Jon Newton understood this. He understood this. He's the one that's doing the saving. If you think you're bringing something to the equation of your salvation, you're in for a rude awakening. What. What part of the salvation is. Is my part. The only thing I bring to it is the sin that required it. He does the same. Go back to look at Lazarus. Lazarus was lying in the tomb. Now, Lazarus did come forth. He did. He walked out of the tomb. But. But he didn't walk out until when Christ summoned him, raised him from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, from the Father, Lazarus, come forth. Peter, come forth. It's the same thing. You see it now. It. He makes us willing to be willing. But in of ourselves, we're not. We're dead. We're dead. What part of. I heard a seminary professor used to take his students out to the graveyard and say, okay, preach your best sermon and see what happens. Unless the Holy Spirit regenerates the heart, they're not. I don't care how many verses you play of just as I am. It doesn't matter that it's irrelevant because that's not what's doing it. It's not like you're trying to convince them of this. That's why it takes all the pressure off of us to simply bear witness to what we know.
Sharing Testimony and the Power of Changed Lives Through Christ's Redemptive Work
I know a lot of people who witness to people, or at least they say they do. But if you ever notice, they kind of witness at people, they've got a script and they're trying to win an argument. They're trying to convince you of this. I don't have to convince you of anything. All I have to do is be faithful to tell you what God has done in my life. Let me tell you about what I was and what I am now. And let me tell you what made the difference. Let me tell you about the redemptive work of God through Jesus Christ. That is the whole point of this. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their opinion. Their script, their sales pitch, their apologetics. No, their testimony, the firsthand knowledge of what they have experienced through Christ. I remember a lady called me. I was doing a kind of a drop the needle. And I was playing, him. Ah. And I was playing. He touched me. And I was getting folks to call in and say, do you know this hymn? And a lot of people called it, oh, they love this hymn. They love this, they love that. And this one lady called in, she's from North Carolina, never forget her. And I said, tell me why you love this hymn. She said, oh, I used to be one way and I ain't that way no more. I thought, man, that's about as good a representation of the gospel as I've heard. I used to be one way. I ain't that way no more. And that's it. So with that in mind, I also want to do our hymn today. We're going to go to the caregiver keyboard here, and it's a hymn that I did about a couple of months ago, but I'm going to do it again because it works so well with what we're talking about today. So let's go to the caregiver keyboard, and I'm going to play this for you. You sing along if you know it.
Hymn: He Will Hold Me Fast - A Song of Assurance and Christ's Steadfast Love
When I fear my faith will fail Christ will hold me fast when the tempter would prevail he won't hold me fast I could never keep my home through life's fearful path for my love is often cold he must hold me
Dr. Jessica Peck fast
Peter Rosenberger he will hold me fast
Dr. Jessica Peck he
Peter Rosenberger will hold me fast for my Savior loves me so he will hold me
Dr. Jessica Peck fast
Peter Rosenberger Sing it with me.
Dr. Jessica Peck Those he saves are his delight Christ will hold me fast Precious in his holy sight he will hold me fast he will not let my soul belong
Peter Rosenberger his promises shall last not by him
Dr. Jessica Peck at such a cost he will hold me fast he will hold me fast he will hold me fast for my My Savior loves me slow he will hold me fast. All my life. You and die Christ will hold me fast
Peter Rosenberger justice hands
Dr. Jessica Peck he will hold me fast
Peter Rosenberger Raised with m Him to endless life
Dr. Jessica Peck he will run fast Till our faith is time to s When he comes at last. Me fast. He will hold me fast.
Peter Rosenberger Me so
Dr. Jessica Peck he will hold me fast.
Conclusion: The Perseverance of the Saints as Hope for Caregivers
Peter Rosenberger Well, that was nice having you sing with me, Gracie.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh, thank you.
Peter Rosenberger We're gonna have to do that a little more often now that we're starting to learn how to do it. It's nice for you to start singing again. You're getting better. It's been a long couple of years, but isn't that a great song? Yeah, I love that. You know, I've been talking about on this program today the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. If he can save me, he can keep me. does that sustain you?
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah.
Peter Rosenberger Thanks. I'll let you get back to your. Whatever it is that you're doing, Grace.
Dr. Jessica Peck Thanks for bopping whatever that is that I do.
Peter Rosenberger How about I just wrap the show up? All right. Thank you, baby.
Dr. Jessica Peck You're welcome. thank you.
Peter Rosenberger I appreciate her being able to be a good sport and drop in on this, and I hope to have more of her back on here to sing because she's better at it than me. If he could save you, he could keep you. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. That is Hope for the caregiver. Hopeforthecaregiver. Com. Go out there today and get involved. We'll see you next time.
Introduction to Hope for the Caregiver Program and Its Mission for Caregivers
Peter Rosenberger Foreign. Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger here on American Family Radio. Glad to be with you. Congratulations. You've just stumbled on to the nation's number one program for family caregivers. And if we're the nation's number one program, guess what? We are the world's number one program. Toto del Mundo. For those of you a little south of the border, we are the largest radio program for family caregivers in the world. I know, I know. You're saying, how could this be? We've seen your work, Peter. Well, that's a very good question. No, we're all glad to be here with you. We're glad to be able to have this conversation, to talk to those who are caring for those. How do you stay strong and healthy as you care for someone who is not well? That's what this program is all about. And I'm very glad that you took the time to join this morning. And hopefully, as we embark on this excursion to, all things caregiver related, you'll find, like I have, that healthy caregivers do indeed make better caregivers. Hope for the caregiver.com hope for the caregiver.com I read once about some Chinese farmers.
Exploring Socialism Through Chinese Farmers and State Control Over Production
I was doing some studies on this. I know. And you're saying. Well, you know, a little light reading material, but no, there's a, thing that they started in the 70s, I believe, where they created a collective group of, of farmers. And each individual farmer or the family was assigned a portion of the land that belonged to the collective. And then there was a requirement by the government to produce from that land, almost like serfdom, in the old days, in medieval times and so forth, where you had a baron and then he had a bunch of people who worked the land and they got to keep what was left over, any surplus. But they had to meet a certain requirement by the landowner. And in this particular case, it was a collective there. And then the state had their own requirements. That's what socialism does, by the way. It tells you what to produce, and you have to produce for the state. And then if there's something left over, the state in its mercy will allow you to keep it. In that wonderful. In that great. In that.
Defining Socialism and its Impact on Individual Incentive and Caregiving Parallels
A great definition of socialism, you get to keep the fruit of your labors after we have decided how much we want to take. that's, that's that warm embrace of collectivism that new, York Mayor Zoran Mamdani thinks about and, gets all Excited about what? That warm and collectivism. The warmth of collectivism. Oh, please vote accordingly you all. But I digress. That's a conversation for another time. The state dictated the yield that they needed to get back from the efforts of these farmers. And the farmer couldn't get any more land. That's it. So they're doing rice in this particular case. And so you've got this plot of land that is, finite. And that farmer then must meet the requirements of the state and of the collective before he can provide for his family. So what do you think that farmer's incentive is? The farmer's incentive to be able to provide, provide for his own family is to make the maximum yield out of that portion of land that that farmer could possibly do. Okay? So that means that farmer has to study literally every square foot of this. And these are not necessarily large parcels, but they're, they're growing this thing. And in this particular case, it was rice. So he had to know not only everything about the ground, but everything about the water, you know, to study the weather to the type of rice and the fertilizer. Every little thing, I mean the most minute details of that parcel of land was the responsibility of that farmer in order for that farmer to take care of his family. Because he had to meet the demands of the collective, he had to meet the demands of the state before he could feed his own family. Now why am I telling you all this? Well, that's a good question. I know that you tuned in, you're thinking, well, it's Saturday morning.
Caregiver Obligations Analogous to Farming Limitations and Insurance Demands
I'm going to tune in to American Family Radio and find out about Chinese rice farming. No, that's not why I'm telling you all this. I'm telling you all this because that's the world we live in as caregivers. We have a finite set of, of, in our world of what we can do and cannot do, we have obligations that are right off the bat, this has got to happen. I'll never forget this. When I got married, my father in law said very clearly to me, you know, you can't ever let Gracie go without insurance. Okay, that's, that's, that's a non negotiable standard with, with Gracie. I mean, think about that. What would happen if I let her insurance lapse? What would happen if I said, now, let's just roll the dice and see what happens. I mean, you think about that and and here's the rub. He had a policy on her that was almost maxed out. And would convert when she turned 21 or got married. And so no matter what happened, the moment I said, I do, that policy converted to her because she got married to me. Yes. Okay, for those of you following along at home, this is back in the 80s, okay? Ronald Reagan was president. And the moment she said, I do, boom, the clock started. And the conversion policy she had at that time capped out at $250,000. Now, you think about that for just a moment on the cost involved with this woman. And so I had to do, a lot of quick maneuvering to make sure that Gracie has never had a gap in insurance. And she has it to this date 40 years later. She's never had one gap. Sometimes I carry two policies. I've changed policy six times, and. And sometimes I carry two policies on her because one of them had a preexisting condition. But this, this was a demand that was dictated that I had no control over. Okay? I have got to meet that particular demand every single time, just like that farmer did. And so I had to think through this finite set of land that I had. I didn't have the opportunity to go out and buy more land. I didn't have that. Like that Chinese farmer. I don't have the opportunity to go out and buy more hours in the day. I can't just write checks for things.
Maximizing Yield Through Knowledge and Diligence in Caregiving and Life
Well, I can, but they won't go through, and then I'll get arrested, and that's a bad thing. But I cannot create more where there is no more. I just have to do the maximum yield and study this with great diligence to the absolute best of my abilities. And now here's what I've learned through this. As a caregiver, here's what I've come to understand. I have the wealth of human knowledge basically at my fingertips. I can research anything. I can learn to do anything. If I have a problem with a form filling out with an insurance company, there is help everywhere. My son nicknamed it. He's the one introduced me to YouTube University. You could study pretty much anything out there. You got AI now. You got all kinds of things that will equip you to do things to reduce the amount of time that you have to spend doing laborious things. I remember the old days when I'm out on the kitchen table with pen and paper trying to do insurance stuff and file appeals and all that kind of stuff. I don't have to do that anymore. I can use all kinds of online tools for this. There is legal help available through online legal services that I could subscribe to so that I can have a lawyer that I can go to. I have that service. You can ask me about it sometime. It's. It's wonderful service. I've been doing it for 15 years where I spend, you know, 30 bucks a month and I have access to a full law firm and I have access to this and this and this. But I have to be the one that goes out to that rice paddy every single day and examines it to extreme details. I've got to get the maximum yield out of it. I've got to bloom where I'm planted. I can't sit around and wish for more things to come my way so that I can. Oh, if I could. Well, I could do this. If we could just do that. If we. No, no, no. I've got to be diligent right where I am to get the maximum yield. So my question to you is, what's the maximum yield for you? Have you, have you done that? Have you stopped looking outside of the purview that you have and look at the field that you have and say, okay, Lord, how do I make the maximum yield from this field? What can I do to do this? To care for my family, to care for my loved one, to honor you? This is the direction that God has led me in. I land on this place and this is what gives me hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberg and we'll be right back.
Sponsor Message: Preborn and Listener Support for American Family Radio Programming
We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial £250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr hello, I'm Peter Rosenberger. Did you know that this show is listener supported? Without people like you, this show would not exist. That's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio, specifically this show as we reach thousands of people each week with biblical truth. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr m.netgive that's afr.net give.
Reviewing Caregiver Topics on Substack and Introduction to Divine Concurrence Doctrine
Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. Hope for the caregiver.com hopeforthecaregiver.com by the way, if you want to review what I just Talked about in the last block about the Chinese rice farmer. I've got that out on my substack caregiver.substack.com if you want to go out there, sign up for it. It's free. I put it out there. But again, it's talking about information that's available to you. I'm putting out free 40 years as a caregiver. Who do you know that's done this? Okay. Who do you know that's, ah, had that kind of experience that has put this kind of library out there? I've got, about a thousand episodes on my podcast. I've got, I don't know how many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of articles that I've published out there. And I'm trying to put all this into a library there at my substack. So take advantage of it. Okay. We've been talking periodically here about theology and the application thereof to caregivers. And last week we talked about the doctrine of divine concurrence, which is God's sovereign work and our real responsible actions. God accomplishes his purposes through means and our decisions and duties matter.
Introducing the Perseverance of the Saints Doctrine for Caregiver Stability
Okay, you can go back and listen that if you want to. And it's out at my substack this week. I want to continue our look at this with another doctrine. It's called the Perseverance of the Saints. Now, these two doctrines have found, foundationally stabilized me, and I'm going to tell you why. and look, I know somebody's already thinking, Peter, I have insurance forms on the table. I've got to go and clean up something. I've got to do this, this and this, prescriptions, whatever. I, got a loved one who didn't, you know, even go to bed last night. And I'm tired and I'm on my third cup of coffee. I get it. So why are we talking about theology? Well, because the waves are crashing, okay? The wind's howling, and caregivers need something solid beneath our feet. Okay, I, want you just hang on to that for just a second because, look, once you know how to do insurance, do you really need a lot of refresher courses on that? Once you know how to do laundry, do you really need a lot of refresh? It's just something that's got to be done. But you're not, like, struggling. Okay, how do I, how do I deal with this? How do I, how do I, how do I wrap my mind around that? You don't think like this. That what? I mean, how many times do you Need a refresher course to learn how to drive. And yet you'll pull out. It's traffic that's going 60, 70 miles an hour out here. The speed limits, 80. And you do it. I don't even think about it. But where we live with stress and fear and worry and anxiety is wondering what's going to happen? How do we survive this? How are we going to handle this? And we get knotted up in these things. And that's why I have been pushing myself to learn and study theology more. Okay, what do I believe and why do I believe it? And what are the implications of that belief?
Theological Beliefs and Their Practical Implications for Caregivers' Daily Lives
Okay. It's not just enough to say, okay, here's what I believe. why do I believe this? And what are the implications as I take care of my wife? You follow me on that? Because a lot of people just spout off, well, I believe in God. Well, okay, what are the implications of that? I mean, you can't just do this. Well, you can, but I mean, as caregivers, I have found for me that I can't just say, okay, well, here's what I believe, okay, and just kind of go about my business. No, I need to understand. Why is this important? How did I arrive here? How did I get here? What. What am I doing? And what does this mean? You know, I remember having a conversation with somebody about end time stuff, and they were thinking this, okay, you got these signs are going on, and you got this and this, and the rapture may come here and all that. Everybody, they were talking about this. And I finally stopped and I said, they said, aren't you excited about all this? And I looked at him and I said, how does this help me take care of my crippled wife today? Okay, now that kind of cut through the conversation pretty quick. And that may offend some people. You know, deal with it. Because that's my reality. That is my reality. That is my lived experience. everything I do has to be in that regard. I don't say, help me. I say, help me help you, help me, help Gracie.
Enduring and Thriving as a Caregiver Through Deep Theological Understanding
That is my whole focus in, okay, how do I endure in this situation? And I'm not content to just survive it. Go back and look at the possible, Paul, in Timothy, when he was saying, you know, I have been poured out like water, but I fought the good fight. I've kept the faith. I'm not interested in just getting through this. I want to show myself approved. I want to get, like I talked about in the last block, the maximum yield. What can I do to be productive in this. And that starts with what do I believe? Because what I believe, those questions I mentioned earlier, what do we believe? Why do we believe it? What are the implications of those beliefs? Those questions, they follow me into every emergency room. Those questions sit, beside me when the house finally gets quiet. Those questions are sitting right beside me when the doctor says, there's something else we needed to discuss. When I looked at that diagnosis earlier this year of me having cancer, I was in my studio looking at my online chart, and I saw something that rhymes with the word aroma. And I was like, christian, what do you believe? If my understanding of God cannot accompany me into those places, then I need to examine my understanding of God. Theology means the study of God. We all have some understanding of, who he is, what he does, and whether he could be trusted. The question is whether that understanding is true, whether it's accurate. I wrote about this when Billy Crystal recently talked about. He doesn't trust God anymore. He doesn't talk to him because his friends, Robin Myshel Reiner, were killed by their son, his home burned in the Palisades fire, and he's just kind of washed his hands of it. And so he's obviously acknowledging that there is a God. He just doesn't trust him, doesn't want to talk to Him. All right, so what do we do with that information? And I wrote, by the way, I wrote about that. It's called Room to Grieve. And I would really recommend you taking the time to read that.
The Need for Truth to Sustain Caregivers Through Exhaustion and Fear
I mean, you don't have to, but I'm putting it out there so that you can go into whatever field you're working in and get the maximum yield and you're not having to figure these things out the hard way like I did. Everything. But that's your decision. But anyways. Caregiver.substack.com but we're exhausted on a given day. And when we're frightened, exhausted, or grieving, we need truth that's strong enough to bear what we're putting on it. Will it? Will it? Will it stand? So let's. Let's consider this question today. Will Christ keep the people he saves?
Understanding the Perseverance of the Saints: God's Faithfulness and Our Continuing Faith
Will Christ keep the people he saves? All right. The Perseverance of the saints teaches that everyone truly united to Christ by saving faith will be kept by God's grace and will continue in faith to the end. Saints means God's people, ordinary believers, people who need forgiveness, who struggle, who repent, who depend upon Christ. Okay? That doctrine includes both God's keeping and our continuing. We persevere Because God preserves us. That matters. Because the word perseverance can sound like another assignment for us as caregivers. I mean, we're already warned. Slam out. Keep going. Try harder. Don't. Don't let anybody down. Don't let God down. We've heard plenty of that. But the foundation of this doctrine is God's faithfulness, not ours. It's his faithfulness. The Christians future rest upon the Savior who died, rose again, and continues to intercede for his people. Now, this connects directly to what we talked about last week, okay? God's work does not make our actions meaningless. His grace brings about real faith, real repentance, and real endurance in his people. We believe, we pray, we turn from sin, we keep coming to Christ. And underneath those actions is the sustaining mercy of God. Now, this promise concerns our salvation. It does not guarantee that a caregiver will avoid exhaustion or that we're going to avoid illness or depression or even the need for help. The perseverance of the saints does not require the uninterrupted availability of the caregiver. Now, where does this. Where does this teaching come from? Well, I'm glad you asked. Scripture. The church's confessions summarize what we believe Scripture teaches. That's the creeds and so forth. But those creeds have to be tested by Scripture.
Scriptural Foundations for the Perseverance of the Saints in John and Philippians
Look at Jon, chapter 10. Jesus describes his sheep as people who hear his voice and follow him. Then he says, I give them eternal life and they will Never perish. Jon 10:28. then he goes on to describe their safety in his hand and in his Father's hand. Notice who gives the life. Notice who knows the sheep. Notice who holds them, and notice that the sheep follow him. The promise never separates belonging to Christ from following Christ. Let's go to Philippians, chapter 1, verse 6. He who began a good work is faithful to complete it to the day of Christ Jesus. Our confidence rests in the one who began the work and finishes it first. Peter, Same thing. Go through it. Romans 8 takes us through the suffering and the weakness and the groaning of creation awaiting redemption. Paul doesn't pretend that the Christian life is painless. Yet the chapter ends with the conviction that nothing in all creation can separate God's people from his love in Christ Jesus. The suffering is real, the security is real. They appear in the same passage. So when did Christians begin discussing all this?
Historical Christian Views on Perseverance from Augustine to Westminster Confession
When was it codified? Well, this was long before the Reformation when, Augustine wrote about perseverance as God's gift. And he addressed it extensively in the fifth century. He wrote a work called on the Gift of Perseverance. Augustine's entire account of grace and assurance is not, though, identical to the later reform position. Okay, so let's be. I want to be clear on that. But the question of God's gift of enduring faith certainly did not begin with the Reformers and specifically Jon Calvin. Let's go to the Heidelberg Catechism. It was first published in 1563, and it begins by asking about our only comfort in life and death. I love this. Its answer centers on, belonging to Christ, who has paid for our sins, preserves us, and makes us willing to live for Him.
Dr. Jessica Peck Him.
Peter Rosenberger Okay. The Synod of Dort D O R T in The Netherlands in 1618 and 1619 addressed disputes over salvation and grace. In the fifth main section of its canon specifically addresses the perseverance of the saints. The Westminster confession, completed in 1646, devotes Chapter 17 to this doctrine. It teaches that those truly accepted in Christ and sanctified by His Spirit cannot fall totally and finally from grace. Totally and finally. Those words matter. the confession acknowledges that believers can fall into serious sin.
Dr. Jessica Peck Ah.
Peter Rosenberger And suffer terrible, terrible consequences. Now, this confession is not without controversy. We'll talk about this in the next block. Well, let me leave you with this before we go to the break. If he saves you, he can keep you. This is Peter Rosenberger, and by the way, that's Hope for the Caregiver.
A Humorous Interlude About Acquiring Cats to Combat a Mouse Infestation
Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. Hopeforthecaregiver.com hopeforthecaregiver dot com before we get back into our regular schedule program, I got to tell y' all something. We live out in the country, okay? We're backed up to the forest, and we've been overrun with mice, and I've been trapping them right and left. I mean, it's just. We live in this old cabin. The new part we just built and remodeled, you know, is nice and tight and sealed up and everything else, but the old part, not so much. And it was built in 1895, and who knows? I've tried to find all the access points, and I've sprayed stuff and everything else. And we had two cats. But when we spent all the time in the hospital last year, they. They departed, absconded, fled. I don't know where they are. I mean, they could be somebody's dinner. I have no idea. we had. They've been here for a while. I never even. They were just kind of. They just kind of showed up one day and one of them was a smaller orange cat. The other one was a fatter one. So I just called them fat cat, skinny cat. They stayed out in the barn, but they kept the mice away. Well, I've been trying to get some new cats and I had the word out and a friend of ours who's a nurse, she had, helped take. She helps take care of a lot of people in this community. And just a wonderful lady and she's been keeping her ear to the ground for me. And there was a guy that she was going to take care of and ended up passing away. And his family's in town trying to get rid of all of his stuff there and sell everything. And they had a bunch of feral cats out there by the barn and they trapped them and they said, do you want any? And so I went over there immediately. She said, they're in the trap right now if you want them. So I went over there Sunday night and got two of them and I was very excited. Well, the guy called me the next morning, he had three more. So I have five cats now. And I'm going to keep you posted on how this goes because, these, and these are cats with that are not friendly. Okay? You have to trap them. And I mean, I got blood in the bed of my truck where they were scratching trying to get out of the cage just to be able to get here to our place. They're not well adjusted people, cats. but that's what I wanted. I want cats with bad attitudes. I want cats with family issues that, you know, are still struggling with it. And maybe a couple of piercings and some tattoos, you know what mean? Cats? Because we have a lot of mice and a few rats in the barn. And so, I got them home and I was so excited. We have five cats of the apocalypse. Now we're going to have mouse again. I'm hoping so. And I told the cats, I said, I'll give you a little bit of food because nothing's too good for these cats. So I got a little family dollar food that I'll put out there for them and some water. That's just the. I said, if you want the buffet, the fields are gray with harvest.
Addressing Objections to the Perseverance Doctrine: Sin, Apostasy, and Warnings
Make yourself at home. I will keep you posted on whether or not the five cats of the apocalypse will do their job or not. Who knows? But anyway, we are going back to our study on the doctrine of, the perseverance of the saints, not the perseverance of the cats. But Christians disagree over a lot of things about this, the Westminster Confession, as I'm seeing in the last block, teaches that believers can fall into serious sins and suffer terrible consequences. And I want to make sure I distinguish between that because we're talking about salvation, and I'm presenting the reformed understanding because I believe it best accounts for these promises and the whole council of Scripture. but I want to give three objections that people often give to that. doesn't this give people permission to sin? It would if we were teaching that a religious profession guarantees heaven regardless of whether a person trusts or follows Christ. But that's not the doctrine here. The promise is that God preserves his people in living faith. He also disciplines them and brings them to repentance. Grace changes the people it saves. In Romans 6, Paul confronts the suggestion that we continue in sin so that grace may abound, and he rejects it emphatically. And we caregivers need to hear that. My exhaustion does not give me permission to act inappropriately. The pressure on me does not make me violating God's directives justifiable. If I wound somebody, I need to repent and where appropriate, make amends. God's keeping gives me that reason and that impetus to come into the light, where I can confess my sin to a faithful Savior. So that's objection number one.
Examining Departures from Faith and God's Use of Warnings for His People
Second objection. what about people who appear to believe and then walked away? And that is painful. And these are sometimes people we love. And first, Jon 19 describes people whose departure revealed they had not truly belonged. And Jesus parable of the Sower also describes an initial reception that does not endure. And those passages teach us that outward profession and inward regeneration are not identical. There are people that could that profess this. there are going to people that say to him, in the last day, lord, Lord, didn't we do this? He said, I don't even know who you are. I don't know you. We should also be very cautious about announcing the final spiritual condition of someone, whose story still unfolding we don't know. I can't inspect another person's heart. I keep praying, speaking truth, and calling people to Christ, but I've got all I can deal with with just me. Okay, and then the third objection is, what about the Bible's warnings? Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 contains very sober warnings about falling away. And, and we shouldn't try to somehow make them sound like they don't have any force. In Hebrews 6, the writer describes people who have experienced extraordinary spiritual privileges and then, then repudiated Christ. The Reformed interpreters differ on some of the details. But they commonly distinguish these privileges from the saving union with Christ that endures. They point, to verse nine, where the writer expresses confidence that his hearers possess the things associated with salvation. So what we're going to find is there's a difference between professing and possessing. Okay, that's, that's the big difference right there. A lot of people, professional, but professing is not the same as possessing. Do you follow me on that? The broader reformed answer there in Hebrews, to what Hebrews is talking about is that God uses warnings as a means to keep his people watchful and dependent on him. The warning is part of his preserving care. And in the canons of Dortmund there, that I was mentioned earlier from the Netherlands explicitly include biblical warnings among the means that God uses to sustain believers. And other, Christians understand these passages as warnings that genuinely regenerate believers can finally fall away.
Caregiver Confidence in Christ's Keeping Power and His Intercessory Prayers
So I'm acknowledging there's some disagreement there. I land on the side that if he saves me, he can keep me. And why is that important to me as a caregiver? First off, I, I'm not casual about abandoning Christ at all. In fact, I'm more, intense about holding on to that than I was before I came to understand this. But I think for me, I go to Peter and Luke 22. What does Jesus tell Peter? He said, satan has asked for permission, demanded even to sift him like wheat. And Jesus said, what? I've prayed for you, that your faith might not fail. And then Jesus also tells Peter that when he turns, when he comes through this to strengthen his brother, Jesus knows the denial is coming. He tells that to Peter. Peter, of course, says, no, there's no way. But he also speaks of Peter's return. And he does fail. Peter fails grievously. He denies knowing the Lord. He weeps bitterly. Yet his failure will not be the final chapter of his discipleship. And let me tell you something, I take that rather personally. I really hold on to that passage and Peter's restoration rest upon a Savior whose knowledge of, of Peter and his weakness was complete before Peter ever discovered it himself. Jesus said this is what he's asked. Satan has asked him, demanded, but I prayed for you. So where's the confidence? Is it confidence in Peter? Or is it the confidence in the effective prayers of a righteous man who is. No one is righteous but Christ. The only righteousness we will ever have is from Christ, not our own. So Jesus's confidence is in his own prayer and righteousness. And the Work of his Father and the Holy Spirit on Peter's behalf, not on Peter's figuring this thing out. And so I say to you, caregiver to caregiver, our confidence is not in anything we can do. Our confidence is that we have one who is praying for us, one who saves us, and one who will keep us. Jude 24. How many times you've heard this? Now? Unto him who is able to keep you from falling. There it is again. You know, this is the. Everything is about Christ. It's always about Christ.
The Role of God's Grace and Promises in Salvation and Everlasting Life
And then the Apostles Creed confesses resurrection and everlasting life. And then Christians across all kinds of traditions affirm those promises. The reform doctrine explains how God brings his people to that promised end. And then we've been singing about this for years, and there's some people say, well, yeah, you know, you've got that wrong. And this. Ah, but then think about the songs that you sing. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a rich like me Twas grace that brought me thus far and grace will what? Lead me home. Grace will lead me home. Not me, not my efforts. I'm not. I'm not doing this. It's grace. And the implication Jon Newton is offering you there is. It's his grace that's leading us home. you know, many of us have sung that hymn a bazillion times, but I think about what you're singing. The grace that rescued us will sustain us the rest of the journey. How firm a foundation. The final stanza. Rest on a soul, Resting on Jesus while all the powers of hell try to shake it. The answer is God's promise. Never, no, never. To forsake that soul. Come Thou found of every blessing, the text says. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. You know, we recognize this. This. If it was up to us, we would already be gone. Augustus Toplady, who wrote, A Debtor to Mercy alone, speaks of God's work enduring and of a name that cannot be erased from his hands.
Caregiver Implications: Standing in Christ, Assurance, and Resting in the Savior
I just go through him, after him, after him. What are the implications for a caregiver? What are those implications? First, we can distinguish our standing in Christ from our changing sense of assurance. By the way, that's another one blessed assurance. Well, who gives the assurance when the waves crash and they do, and when the winds howl and they do? We need to know whom we are trusting. How are you going to function if you don't know what God has said? How are you going to function if you don't understand what his promises mean for the next 10 minutes when you're in the middle of all this stuff. In Jon chapter 17, Jesus prayed for those that the Father gave him. And he included those who would believe through the apostles words. Hey, that's you and me. That's you and me. In, Jon 10, Jesus says that no one can snatch his sheep from his hand. Hey, that's you and me. Caregiver, let me tell you this. The hands carrying you and me bear the scars of our redemption. you can rest in the Savior who keeps you. He's going to bring you home. He's going to bring you home. And that is Hope for this caregiver. And I want it to be your hope as well. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver, where we're going to be right back.
The Deeper Magic of Perseverance and Divine Concurrence for Caregivers
Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger, and I am very, very glad to be with you. Hope for the Caregiver. And if you found what we're saying here today to be helpful to you, please take a moment to go out there and get involved, sponsor this program and help us do more. Hope for the caregiver.com. we've been talking about the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, and I really grab hold of that. There's two doctrines that have really sustained me over the last several years. One of them is this doctrine, the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, and that he preserves us so that we can persevere. And the other one is the one we talked about last week, which is the doctrine of divine concurrence, that his will will not be thwarted. Do you realize what a great comfort that is that we belong to him and he's got this now, that doesn't mean we're not going to go through painful things because you, wouldn't be listening to this program and I wouldn't be doing this program if we didn't have very painful things in our life. But I also wouldn't be doing this program if God in his mercy hadn't taken me deeper than those things. Remember that. There's a great line, and I love this so much, from the Chronicles of Narnia, when the White Witch felt like she had won by killing the great lion Aslan. And she said, the Deep Magic must be adhered to, that law of the Deep Magic. It has to be satisfied. Aslan willingly gave up his life. You know, he's the Christ figure in this. And then when he came back from the dead, Lucy And Susan were looking at the two provincial girls, and they were looking at him and saying, you know, how. And he said, Look, I'm paraphrasing C.S. lewis here, okay? He said, she saw the deep magic, but there was deeper magic. Basically, that's what he said. There was. There was magic. She didn't see, she didn't go deep enough. That's what I'm talking about here. We will stop and say, you know, well, God sent his son. We'll stop at Jon 3:16, for example. Send a son. And we believe this in our head. But when we're in the icu, we're wrapping our minds or, trying to wrap our minds around these things. And that's when we need to go deeper. We need to go deeper knowing that he's waiting for us in those deep places where we come to a point where we say, christian, what do you believe and why do you believe it? And what are the implications of you believing this? And I am not content to live my life as a caregiver, just as a human being, just mindlessly, just surviving through the day. I'm going to ask these hard questions, and I'm going to wrestle with them. I'm going to keep wrestling with them until I find a solid piece of land to stand on. And I have done that, and now I'm telling others what it is I found, what it is I've discovered. The deeper magic, if you will, that solid bedrock. I need no other argument.
Salvation is Christ's Work: The Implications of His Saving and Keeping Grace
I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. Go back to the hymn writers. That's why I love these hymns so much, because they wrestle with these things and put it to prose that we can remember. On, Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Okay, what does that mean? What are the implications? I just told you earlier in the program about Amazing Grace. We've been singing this. A lot of people say, well, you know, we could lose our salvation. Twas great, but they'll go right into singing amazing grace. Twas grace that brought us this far. And grace will lead us home. Who's doing the leading? Do you see? Jon Newton understood this. He understood this. He's the one that's doing the saving. If you think you're bringing something to the equation of your salvation, you're in for a rude awakening. What. What part of the salvation is. Is my part. The only thing I bring to it is the sin that required it. He does the same. Go back to look at Lazarus. Lazarus was lying in the tomb. Now, Lazarus did come forth. He did. He walked out of the tomb. But. But he didn't walk out until when Christ summoned him, raised him from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, from the Father, Lazarus, come forth. Peter, come forth. It's the same thing. You see it now. It. He makes us willing to be willing. But in of ourselves, we're not. We're dead. We're dead. What part of. I heard a seminary professor used to take his students out to the graveyard and say, okay, preach your best sermon and see what happens. Unless the Holy Spirit regenerates the heart, they're not. I don't care how many verses you play of just as I am. It doesn't matter that it's irrelevant because that's not what's doing it. It's not like you're trying to convince them of this. That's why it takes all the pressure off of us to simply bear witness to what we know.
Sharing Testimony and the Power of Changed Lives Through Christ's Redemptive Work
I know a lot of people who witness to people, or at least they say they do. But if you ever notice, they kind of witness at people, they've got a script and they're trying to win an argument. They're trying to convince you of this. I don't have to convince you of anything. All I have to do is be faithful to tell you what God has done in my life. Let me tell you about what I was and what I am now. And let me tell you what made the difference. Let me tell you about the redemptive work of God through Jesus Christ. That is the whole point of this. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their opinion. Their script, their sales pitch, their apologetics. No, their testimony, the firsthand knowledge of what they have experienced through Christ. I remember a lady called me. I was doing a kind of a drop the needle. And I was playing, him. Ah. And I was playing. He touched me. And I was getting folks to call in and say, do you know this hymn? And a lot of people called it, oh, they love this hymn. They love this, they love that. And this one lady called in, she's from North Carolina, never forget her. And I said, tell me why you love this hymn. She said, oh, I used to be one way and I ain't that way no more. I thought, man, that's about as good a representation of the gospel as I've heard. I used to be one way. I ain't that way no more. And that's it. So with that in mind, I also want to do our hymn today. We're going to go to the caregiver keyboard here, and it's a hymn that I did about a couple of months ago, but I'm going to do it again because it works so well with what we're talking about today. So let's go to the caregiver keyboard, and I'm going to play this for you. You sing along if you know it.
Hymn: He Will Hold Me Fast - A Song of Assurance and Christ's Steadfast Love
When I fear my faith will fail Christ will hold me fast when the tempter would prevail he won't hold me fast I could never keep my home through life's fearful path for my love is often cold he must hold me
Dr. Jessica Peck fast
Peter Rosenberger he will hold me fast
Dr. Jessica Peck he
Peter Rosenberger will hold me fast for my Savior loves me so he will hold me
Dr. Jessica Peck fast
Peter Rosenberger Sing it with me.
Dr. Jessica Peck Those he saves are his delight Christ will hold me fast Precious in his holy sight he will hold me fast he will not let my soul belong
Peter Rosenberger his promises shall last not by him
Dr. Jessica Peck at such a cost he will hold me fast he will hold me fast he will hold me fast for my My Savior loves me slow he will hold me fast. All my life. You and die Christ will hold me fast
Peter Rosenberger justice hands
Dr. Jessica Peck he will hold me fast
Peter Rosenberger Raised with m Him to endless life
Dr. Jessica Peck he will run fast Till our faith is time to s When he comes at last. Me fast. He will hold me fast.
Peter Rosenberger Me so
Dr. Jessica Peck he will hold me fast.
Conclusion: The Perseverance of the Saints as Hope for Caregivers
Peter Rosenberger Well, that was nice having you sing with me, Gracie.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh, thank you.
Peter Rosenberger We're gonna have to do that a little more often now that we're starting to learn how to do it. It's nice for you to start singing again. You're getting better. It's been a long couple of years, but isn't that a great song? Yeah, I love that. You know, I've been talking about on this program today the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. If he can save me, he can keep me. does that sustain you?
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah.
Peter Rosenberger Thanks. I'll let you get back to your. Whatever it is that you're doing, Grace.
Dr. Jessica Peck Thanks for bopping whatever that is that I do.
Peter Rosenberger How about I just wrap the show up? All right. Thank you, baby.
Dr. Jessica Peck You're welcome. thank you.
Peter Rosenberger I appreciate her being able to be a good sport and drop in on this, and I hope to have more of her back on here to sing because she's better at it than me. If he could save you, he could keep you. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. That is Hope for the caregiver. Hopeforthecaregiver. Com. Go out there today and get involved. We'll see you next time.
(00:00) Introduction to Hope for the Caregiver Program and Its Mission for Caregivers
(01:25) Exploring Socialism Through Chinese Farmers and State Control Over Production
(02:32) Defining Socialism and its Impact on Individual Incentive and Caregiving Parallels
(04:45) Caregiver Obligations Analogous to Farming Limitations and Insurance Demands
(07:16) Maximizing Yield Through Knowledge and Diligence in Caregiving and Life
(10:00) Sponsor Message: Preborn and Listener Support for American Family Radio Programming
(11:07) Reviewing Caregiver Topics on Substack and Introduction to Divine Concurrence Doctrine
(12:20) Introducing the Perseverance of the Saints Doctrine for Caregiver Stability
(14:07) Theological Beliefs and Their Practical Implications for Caregivers' Daily Lives
(15:34) Enduring and Thriving as a Caregiver Through Deep Theological Understanding
(17:46) The Need for Truth to Sustain Caregivers Through Exhaustion and Fear
(18:27) Understanding the Perseverance of the Saints: God's Faithfulness and Our Continuing Faith
(20:41) Scriptural Foundations for the Perseverance of the Saints in John and Philippians
(21:58) Historical Christian Views on Perseverance from Augustine to Westminster Confession
(24:10) A Humorous Interlude About Acquiring Cats to Combat a Mouse Infestation
(26:59) Addressing Objections to the Perseverance Doctrine: Sin, Apostasy, and Warnings
(28:53) Examining Departures from Faith and God's Use of Warnings for His People
(31:21) Caregiver Confidence in Christ's Keeping Power and His Intercessory Prayers
(33:44) The Role of God's Grace and Promises in Salvation and Everlasting Life
(35:22) Caregiver Implications: Standing in Christ, Assurance, and Resting in the Savior
(37:13) The Deeper Magic of Perseverance and Divine Concurrence for Caregivers
(40:21) Salvation is Christ's Work: The Implications of His Saving and Keeping Grace
(42:17) Sharing Testimony and the Power of Changed Lives Through Christ's Redemptive Work
(44:21) Hymn: He Will Hold Me Fast - A Song of Assurance and Christ's Steadfast Love
(48:10) Conclusion: The Perseverance of the Saints as Hope for Caregivers
Live
Did you know American Family Radio is listener-supported? Your monthly financial support will allow us to continue upholding Godly values through our numerous channels, like American Family Radio, One Million Moms, The Stand magazine, and many more.
Become a Great Commission Partner TODAY to help AFR transform culture by rebuilding the family. When you donate today, you’ll get access to:
