Sermon Title: Checkmate
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 11:8-16
Introduction
No other twenty-four-hour period in Abraham’s life is related more fully than that described in Genesis 18-19. This gives a hint of the importance of this story for the writer of Genesis (Wenham).
Review from last week:
Abram gets to know the LORD more intimately each time the LORD comes to Abram to reaffirm His Covenant. With each encounter with the LORD, Abram learns something new about who God is. The first three things listed below are consistent in each of these accounts. The following five observations will probably always be consistent in the narrative of your life:
- Abram always learns to know the LORD through the Word of God (Genesis 12:1; Genesis 15:1; Genesis 17:1).
- Abram always responded in worship (Genesis 12:7, 8; Genesis 15:9; Genesis 17:3) and immediate obedience (Genesis 12:4, 6-9; Genesis 15:9-11; Genesis 17:23, 26).
- While seeking to obey God’s Word there was never the complete absence of doubt, fear, and uncertainty (Genesis 12:10-13; 15:2-3, 8, 12; Genesis 17:17; 18:10-12).
- Abram’s expectations were shattered (Genesis 17:18-19).
When in doubt, Abram prays and is encouraged through God’s Word.
So God is putting Abraham in places and circumstances that will make the fulfillment of his promise humanly impossible. Abraham and his own ingenuity:
- Goes to Egypt and sells Sarah to the Pharaoh to save himself.
- Believes that Eliezer of Damascus will be his heir.
- God promises Abram that the seed will come from Abram’s body (Genesis 15:4), but said nothing of Sarai. So why not use a concubine to make the promise happen?
Genesis 17:15-17; 18:9-12: Checkmate
Checkmate is the ultimate goal in chess. The game of chess ends as soon as the king is checkmated because checkmate leaves the defensive player with no legal moves. In normal chess the king is never actually captured. The game ends as soon as the king is placed in checkmate (Wikipedia). In chess there is always the possibility of check and stalemate. There is never such a thing as stalemate with God.
Why does God put us in checkmate? God puts us in checkmate to magnify His sovereign grace and keep us in our humble place.
And one of the central beliefs that we have as God's people is that this is good news, not bad news. It is good news because God himself, known to us in Jesus Christ, is more valuable and more satisfying than anything we could ever be or do in our own power. The most loving thing that God can do for us is to make himself indispensable to us. The most loving thing God can do for us is not to make much of us, but to work by his sovereign grace so that we can enjoy making much of him forever. So, if he would love us, he must exalt his sovereign grace and keep us in our humble, happy place. That is why God over and over and over again in the Bible does things in a way that makes us utterly dependent on God for what is humanly impossible - to magnify his sovereign grace and keep us in our humble place. (John Piper).
Remember, last week when we discussed the meaning of El Shaddai (God Almighty) by using Psalm 22:9, “Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.” Being put in checkmate and having your dreams shattered is God giving Himself to you.
รจ What were the objects of Abraham and Sarah’s faith? Hebrews 11:8-16 with a focus on vv. 10-11 (Abraham was looking forward to the city whose designer and builder is God; Sarah considered Him faithful who had promised). What happened during those 24 years that helped Sarah have faith? She was able to see God’s track record of faithfulness. Abraham and Sarah had spent 24 years knowing God as Elohim, Yahweh, El Elyon, El Shaddai, El Roi.
“Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14a).
- “Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17).
- “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27).
- “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).
- Luke 1:35-38
We use this truth to encourage us in what God has said. We do not use this truth to tell God what to do (Word of Faith movement).
God waits until it is humanly impossible for the child of the covenant to be born in order to show that it is not by human effort that the covenant people will be created. It is a work of divine and sovereign grace. The formation of a people of God for the sake of his name from all the families of the earth is not a human creation. That is why Ishmael would not qualify as the covenant child. Symbolically he stood for the work of the flesh, the product of Abraham’s presumption and unbelief (Piper).
See Romans 9:6-8 – “But through Isaac” speaks of method rather than means. Do not apply this principle to your desires. Apply this principle to the promises of God. You can be confident of this principle when navigating through forgiveness, anger, sin, marriage, sanctification, teaching, worry, etc. Apply Genesis 18:14 to the promises God has made in the Scripture, not to getting a promotion. The applies to our salvation and sanctification:
- Salvation: Mark 10:23-27
- Sanctification: John 15:1-5
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7). The Divine speaker (Genesis 18:9-15) came to encourage Sarah. Most of the interaction prior to this point has been between God and Abraham. Now the LORD is coming to encourage Sarah.
Next week Genesis 18:16 through the end of Genesis 19
No other twenty-four-hour period in Abraham’s life is related more fully than that described in Genesis 18-19. This gives a hint of the importance of this story for the writer of Genesis (Wenham).
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