From a great chess player of Cincinnati, we learn that in the early part of the last century, an artist who was also a great chess player painted a picture of a chess game. The players were a young man and Satan. The young man manipulated the white pieces; Satan the black pieces. The issue of the game was this: should the young man win, he was to be forever free from the power of evil; should the devil win, the young man was to be his slave forever. The artist evidently believed in the supreme power of evil, for his picture presented the devil as victor.
In the conception of the artist, the devil had just moved his queen and had announced a checkmate in four moves. The young man’s hand hovered over his rook; his face paled with amazement–there was no hope. The devil wins! He was to be a slave forever.
For years, this picture hung in a great art gallery. Chess players from all over the world viewed the picture. They acquiesced to the thought of the artist. The devil wins! After several years, a chess doubter arose; he studied the picture and became convinced that there was only one chess player upon the earth who could assure him that the artist of this picture was right in his conception of the winner. The chess player was the aged Paul Morphy, a New Orleans resident. Morphy was a supreme master of chess in his day, an undefeated champion. A scheme was arranged through which Morphy was brought to Cincinnati to view the chess picture.
Morphy stood before the picture for five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. He was all concentration; he lifted and lowered his hands as, in imagination, he made and eliminated moves. Suddenly, his hand paused, his eyes burned with the vision of an unthought-of combination. Suddenly, he shouted, “Young man, make that move. That’s the move!”
To the amazement of all, the old master, the supreme chess personality, had discovered a combination that the creating artist had not considered. Trust the King. Let the King attack. If the young man had trusted the King from the start, he could have defeated the devil very quickly.
Isn’t that true in our lives? If we would trust the King, Jesus Christ our Lord, it would be no contest. The devil is already defeated. If we trust the King we would be at peace with God and have peace in our own lives. We would defeat our greatest of all enemies. This enemy is not the devil but death and eternal separation from God because the King has defeated death. By His resurrection from the dead, we, too, shall live. John 14:19: “Because I live you shall live also.”
But something aggravates me about the church today. We in the Church have quit trusting in the King but instead are trusting in our feelings, emotions, and vision and have turned from the word of God to the experience of man. We trust in extra-biblical revelations from men. “God told me…” No. God didn’t tell you anything! He has already said all He is going to say through the King.
Hebrews 1:2-3: “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Trust your King.
Watch sermons and read sermon texts and other articles by going to www.tomahawkmbc.com. Listen to Pastor Jack Ward’s sermons on WSIP FM 98.9 every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Watch his sermons on his Facebook page.