<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

W.D. Frazee Sermons Ministry

W.D. Frazee

Great- Part 1

Let's be thinking of those questions as we enter into our study tonight.

We'll begin with that book of beginnings, Genesis, the 12th chapter, the first 3 verses.

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee.

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.

And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

As 1 of old testified concerning God, it is in thine hand to make great.

If God should come to you as he did to Abraham and tell you that he wanted to make you great, and tell you why, so that you could be a blessing to many people, would you be willing?

You know, there's something interesting about our attitude toward being great.

Some people want it, it makes them proud.

Some people are afraid of being proud, so they never want to be great or anything resembling it.

God wants to make you great, my dear friend, but he doesn't want that to make you proud because that isn't great.

God had a family in heaven before the creation of this world, and there was 1 creature that he made the greatest of anything that he had created.

God made Lucifer great, but he chose to let that greatness awaken pride in his heart.

But isn't it too bad when the only way God can keep you and me from being proud is to keep us so little and of no consequence what we do, that we're just humbled by the inadequacy and the lack of results of our lives.

God made him great before that nation of Egypt.

He saved the lives of millions of people, great in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of men.

Because he could say from his heart to Pharaoh, It is not in me.

God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.

Them that honour me I will honour, says God.

Daniel was great, so great that the king of Babylon got off his throne and got down before him in acknowledging the greatness of Daniel and the greatness of the God he worshipped.

But Daniel could say from his heart, this thing hasn't been revealed to me for anything that I had more than others.

But God wants to give you, King Nebuchadnezzar, the answer to your questions and problems.

Dear friends, when God can teach us to accept greatness without it making us proud, There is no limit to what he is waiting to do with the remnant.

In many a lad of today, growing up as did Daniel in his Judean home, studying God's word in his works and learning the lessons of faithful service, will yet stand in legislative assemblies, in halls of justice or in royal courts, as a witness for the King of Kings.

But it's not going to make them proud, not exalt them.

They're going to take those opportunities and use them to exalt God and Jesus Christ whom he has saved.

So let us, as men of God, have done with lesser things.

Let us enter in to God's purpose and let him do with us what he longs to do.

I will make of thee a great nation, and thou shalt be a blessing.

You remember that it took a long time to work out the plan that God had.

In recognition of that, God changed his name from Abram to Abraham.

And Abraham means the father of a great multitude.

What a wonderful expression of faith that Abraham accepted that name.

Contrary to all appearances, contrary to what people would expect, Abraham became eventually the father of the ancestor, not only of millions of people, but of the Messiah, who according to the flesh was born of the seed of Abraham.

Several hundred years later, after the time of Abraham, Moses is rehearsing to the descendants of this man of faith the history of God's dealing with them.

Turn to the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, second verse.

Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee.

Again and again in the Bible we see the dear Lord through his prophets seeking to keep alive the memories of his leading, that they might learn precious lessons.

Thou should remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no.

They were to be humble, but they weren't to be inconsequential in their influence.

Let's turn back here to the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy.

I think first we'll turn to the fourth chapter.

Deuteronomy 4, beginning with the fifth verse.

Moses says, I taught you statutes and judgments as the Lord commanded me.

This is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

God's purpose in making Israel great was that they might have influence with all the other nations.

He told them if they would just do his commandments, that the result of doing them would be such a demonstration that the other nations would say Israel has the best laws of any nation on earth, has the best way of life of any people on earth.

And so Moses says in the 7th verse, For what nation is there so great?

Israel became the greatest nation on earth as it followed out God's plans.

Who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for.

Isn't it too bad that Israel didn't stay with those laws and statutes?

Again and again they became so attracted by the customs and fashions of the nations around them that they went into idolatry, choosing the pleasures of sin for a season and missing their glorious opportunity.

Nevertheless, friends, to a certain extent at different times, they carried out these principles and in the days of David and Solomon, all the nations of the earth knew about the God of Israel.

You remember that the Queen of Sheba came from a great distance to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

God wanted, through the greatness of Israel and Israel's leaders, to impress all the people of this world with the beauty of His plan and the glory of His way.

Again and again in these chapters in Deuteronomy, God said to Israel, Be careful, don't forget.

Don't lose what I've given you, because Your wisdom is in doing what these commandments say.

Your success is in doing what the law of God commands.

That's what the law of God is for, is to give us that success.

Seventh chapter of Deuteronomy, 12th verse.

He says, if you just hearken to these judgments, listen to these commandments and do them, then the Lord is going to do all kinds of things.

12th verse, 13th verse, 14th verse, thou shalt be blessed above all people.

15th verse, and the Lord shall take away from thee all sickness.

I was reading the other day, in 1 of the inspired comments, that God intended to take everybody that came out of the land of Egypt through to Canaan without 1 of them either getting sick or dying.

As I read it, I thought, there is coming a time when God will produce a group of people and he's going to have lived through the most awful plagues that this world ever saw, and not 1 of them is going to catch those diseases.

They're going to be translated without seeing death when Jesus comes.

Had the Israelites obeyed the instruction they received and profited by their advantages, they would have been the world's object lesson of health and prosperity.

Back to Menu

Great- Part 1

Transcript

Sponsor

Related

A Tale of Two Journeys

36m

Believe All Things

31m

The Power of God Unto Salvation

When God Is on Our Side

1h 1m

High Time to Wake Up

55m

Getting Through to God

01-Oh God, Do You Care?

26m

When I’m the Weakest, Then I’m the Strongest

40m

Dunamis 2004

Looking Unto Jesus

47m

A Journey of Faith

53m

The Holy Spirit Filling Our Greatest Need

58m

Who In the World Would Want Us?

46m

Doing in God’s Image

46m

Is God Enough?

1h 11m

Sound Doctrine