Talk—Stan Froese
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You know, I think.
Every time I go to a young people's hymn saying.
I have to say this to myself or to them, what an encouragement it is to hear you sing. It's not possible to sing. I just love it that the singing out and not just mumbling along, it's great. So thanks for the privilege to be here. Let's pray before we open the scriptures.
God our Father, we give thanks for this happy time together.
Here tonight and throughout the weekend that we've had, we give thanks for that.
Wonderful theme we had through.
The readings of salvation by grace. A perfect and complete salvation.
And we pray our God that every soul in this room here tonight would be in the present enjoyment, the present possession of that.
Salvation. We give thanks and we ask help now as we open the scriptures one more time.
That it would be a little encouragement to help us.
Continue on in the path of faith and we pray it in Jesus name, Amen.
I want to start. I've got 3 scriptures I want to turn to.
And start with Psalm 130 and verse 3.
Psalm 130, verse three. If thou Lord, should mark iniquities, oh Lord, who shall stand?
But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
That's one of my favorite verses in the songs. That last one.
There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
That's not the fear of being afraid.
Of trembling.
It's that fear of reverence.
That fear of love.
And I want to tie this in with.
A story in Matthew, and I hope I can.
Can make it understood.
There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared, if God wouldn't forgive us.
Where would we be? Would there be any point in fearing him?
Not really.
We'd be doomed, but there's forgiveness with him. That's the kind of God we have to do with, a God who forgives.
So let's go to Romans 4.
Another of my favorite verses.
And verse 16.
Romans 416.
Therefore it is of faith.
That it might be by grace to the end, the promise might be sure.
To all the seed sort of stop.
It's of grace.
It is of faith that it might be by grace. That is, God's salvation is offered to us on a basis that's not depending on me. We heard a lot about that this weekend, and I want to encourage all of us to go back over those chapters that we had.
They're the foundation for Christian life. If you don't have a good grip of what God thinks of you and how you stand before him, you really can't live as a Christian ought to live.
And I think the story that we're going to go to is going to help us with that understanding.
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God wants us to be sure.
If it depended on me, it would not be sure.
It'd be really shaky all the time because I do pretty good one day and the next day I don't do so good.
And God's salvation is good every day, all day.
I can bank on it, I can put my feet on it and it'll help me when I want to go out and do something for him.
And I hope that, and I know that each one of you, with that new life within you, you want to do something for the Lord Jesus.
Matthew 25.
We'll just read from verse 14.
For the Kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered them unto them his goods.
And unto one he gave 5 talents, to another two, and to another one to every man, according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey. Then he had he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. Likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his Lord's money. After a long time the Lord of those servants comes and reckons with them. And so he that had received 5 talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliver, it's done to me 5 talents. Behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things.
I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou delivered stun to me two talents. Behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make the ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
Then he which had received the one talent, came and said.
Lord, I knew thee that thou art and hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown.
And gathering where thou hast not strode. And I was afraid.
And went and hid thy talent in the earth. Lo, there thou hast, that is thine.
His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strode. Thou Artest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it to him which have 10 talents. Well, maybe we'll just stop there.
We had a term.
Mentioned in the meetings Eternal security.
And.
The weekend I was here about 3 weeks ago, Curtis had a nice talk here on peace.
Not too far off from eternal security laboratories.
He could have been using that term I think.
That is.
Because I'm trusting in the Lord Jesus.
I know.
That he's for me.
I know that.
He's going to Take Me Home to be in the father's house no matter what.
That gives me confidence in my life.
I know that he's good.
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This these first two.
They made investments, you know I'm not any.
Buddy that knows much about investing, but I think I know this much that if you make an investment you are taking a risk.
That investment might turn out, and it might not.
And so they had somebody else's money and they were taking a risk with it.
Why?
I think they trusted him, they knew him, they believed that it was OK to take a risk.
With what he had committed to them.
So they took the risk and it was worth it.
Do you feel like sometimes when you step out to do something for the Lord, you're taking a risk?
You might say the wrong thing, I sure do.
But it's really helpful to remember.
That no matter what how it turns out, he's on my side, he loves me, he cares for me, and I can take that risk.
OK, I fall on my face. He loves me on my face.
But the man.
At the end that got one talent, it wasn't because he just got one talent.
That he buried it. That he did nothing with it.
To produce anything for this man that gave it to him.
It was because he didn't trust him.
He said you're a hard man.
You're gonna I'll be in big trouble if I take a risk for you.
He didn't know it.
I think maybe at this point I'm going to.
Share a.
Not exactly a story. It's the.
The project of building the Golden Gate Bridge.
Part part of that project I don't know.
All the details of the Golden Gate Bridge, but it's pretty impressive. The towers are about 740 feet high.
The road beds at least 200 feet above the water.
The cables that hold it are three feet in diameter.
They're painting it constantly to keep it in good shape.
Can you imagine working?
At 200 feet above the water all day.
And the road beds not made yet. It's just partly there. The framework might be there. You're walking on a beam.
And it's 200 feet to the water. You fall, you die.
Well, the.
The chief engineer said.
That they figured at the time it was in the 1930s and that bridge was going to cost $35,000,000 to build.
And they figured that every million dollars they spent on a bridge project, they would lose a man.
And he said I'm not gonna lose 35 minutes.
So once they got a certain amount of the superstructure up, he ordered a net built out a 3/8 Manila rope.
And it was on 6 inch squares and it was huge, $175,000 worth of net. That was a lot of money back then. And they stretched that net underneath where the men were working mainly.
And then they took 400 LB weights and they threw it into the net just to show them in that it would hold them and that would sag way down and come back up. They pull the 400 LB weight off of there and say, see if you fall, you're going to be okay. You'll get some rope burns maybe, but you'll be OK.
So they worked on that bridge.
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And the inspectors would come by and they would look at those men working on the bridge and they'd say those men work as though they're not afraid. They're not walking like this on a six inch beam. They're just striding along and they get a lot done.
So I like to compare that to having eternal security to be unlike these first two that trusted their Lord.
Rather than the fellow that didn't trust him.
We can get a lot more done if our confidence is in him.
Well, there were 19 men that fell into that neck.
They got saved.
From falling into the water.
And it's too bad what they called themselves.
Anybody have a guess?
They formed a club and they called it the Halfway to Hell Club.
Not a good thing to joke about, right?
Anyway.
He didn't lose 35 men.
There were some men that fell and died not into the neck it was they were where the net was not but.
They did lose 14 men, not 35.
Anyway, my point is.
If you don't have that solid piece.
Open this book and get into it and see what God really thinks.
Of his son.
You, trusting in him, see what he thinks of you.
Because if you do, you're going to find out that you are eternally secure if your faith is in Jesus.
And you're going to find out too, that you don't have to step out with trembling to serve him.
You don't have to. Sometimes we still do, but.
He's not going to beat you if you fall.
You might get a rope burn, but you won't die. You'll be OK.
And it's worth serving him.
So that's all I had. Let's pray.
God our Father, we give thanks for the Lord Jesus.
For that work he accomplished.
We give thanks.
That.
We have this assurance in your word that the believer in him.
Is good for all eternity.
And that relationship as children of God.
Is sure.
And eternal.
So we pray, our Father, that everybody in this room here tonight.
Would have the Lord Jesus as their Savior, and that we might be growing in our confidence in Him as we would grow in knowing Him, but we would trust Him.
Both for our eternal well-being and for the difficulties of each day.
So we pray this and give thanks in Jesus name, Amen.