I was suggesting to you, Sunday I believe
it was, that the couplet that we use
when folks, you ask them how they are
and they say they're pretty good, that they're
generally neither pretty nor good, easier than the
pretty and good one.
I think it will at any rate.
Let's pursue our subject of stewardship this morning,
reading from the book of Genesis, chapter 1.
We have considered what we have called the
first and longest steward of history, from the
highest to the lowest, from the greatest to
the least.
And now I want to move on, although
we'll be meeting him again in our study
this morning, likely.
I want to move on to the second
major steward of history.
We might ask ourselves the question when we
begin this subject, or we have already begun
it, of stewardship.
What really is a steward?
How can we define a steward and how
can we define the term stewardship?
And very, oh I suppose you could say
elementary.
A steward is one who has been entrusted
with the goods of another, and because he
has that stewardship, the bestowal of another's goods,
then he is under authority, responsibility, and accountability.
And so, if we keep this in mind
as we go in our study, perhaps it
will clarify some things which otherwise might not
be so.
So, I want to read with you two
or three excerpts from the opening chapters of
the book of Genesis, and then we shall
go to one reading in the new.
Let's look at chapter 1 and verse 26.
God said, Let us make man in our
image after our likeness, and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth.
So, God created man in his own image.
In the image of God, created he him.
Male and female, created he them.
And God blessed them, and God said unto
them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over every living
thing that moveth upon the earth.
And then let us move down into chapter
2 and verse 4.
These are the generations of the heavens and
of the earth, when they were created in
the day that God made the earth and
the heavens, and every plant of the field
before it was in the earth, and every
herb of the field before it grew.
For the Lord God had not caused it
to rain upon the earth, and there was
not a man to till the ground.
But there went up a mist from the
earth, and watered the whole face of the
ground.
And the Lord God formed man of the
dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and man became
a living soul.
Further down in chapter 2, verse 15, the
Lord God took the man and put him
into the garden of Eden to dress it
and to keep it.
The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of
every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil thou shalt not eat
of it, for in the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
And the Lord God said, It is not
good that the man should be alone.
I will make him and help meet, or
suitable, compatible for him.
Out of the ground, the Lord God formed
every beast of the field, and every fowl
of the air, and brought them unto Adam
to see what he would call them.
And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that
was the name thereof.
And Adam gave names to all cattle, and
to the fowl of the air, and to
every beast of the field.
But for Adam there was not found and
help meet for him.
The Lord God caused a deep sleep to
fall upon Adam, and he slept.
He took one of his ribs, and closed
up the flesh, and stayed thereof.
And the rib which the Lord God had
taken from man made he a woman, and
brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, This is now bone of
my bones, and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman, because she was
taken out of man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and
his mother, and shall leave unto his wife,
and they shall be one flesh.
And they were both naked, the man and
his wife, and were not ashamed.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any
beast of the field which the Lord God
had made.
And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath
God said, Ye shall not eat of every
tree of the garden?
The woman said unto the serpent, We may
eat of the fruit of the trees of
the garden, but of the fruit of the
tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat
of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest
ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye
shall not surely die, for God doth know
that in the day ye eat thereof, and
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil.
When the woman saw that the tree was
good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be
desired to make one wise, she took of
the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave
also unto her husband with her, and he
did eat."
And then we'll move down a few verses
for time's sake.
Verse 9, And the Lord God called unto
Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice in
the garden, and I was afraid, because I
was naked, and I hid myself.
And he said, Who told thee that thou
wast naked?
Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I
command thee that thou shouldest not eat?
The man said, The woman whom thou gavest
to be with me, she gave me of
the tree, and I did eat.
The Lord God said unto the woman, What
is this that thou hast done?
The woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and
I did eat.
And the Lord God said unto the serpent,
Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed
above all cattle, and above every beast of
the field.
Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust
shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life.
Thy will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt
bruise his heel.
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and
thy desire shall be to thy husband, and
he shall rule over thee.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree of which I
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of
it, curse is the ground for thy sake,
and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all
the days of thy life.
Thorns also, and thistles shall it bring forth
to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb
of thieves.
And the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread, till thou return unto the ground,
for out of it wast thou taken, for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return.
And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because
she was the mother of all living.
Now, to spare us turning later, just go
to the gospel by Luke, please.
Luke 4.
Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned
from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of
the devil.
And in those days he did eat nothing.
When they were ended, he afterward hungered.
The devil said unto him, If thou be
the Son of God, command this stone, and
it be made bread.
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written
that man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word of God.
And the devil, taking him up into a
high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms
of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him, All this
power will I give thee in the glory
of them, for that is delivered unto me,
and to whomsoever I will I give it.
If thou therefore worship me, all shall be
thine.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee
behind me, Satan, for it is written, Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him
only shalt thou serve.
Now, there are a number of passages that
we might read, but for time's sake this
morning, we will just read this much.
I want to look with you, following up
the consideration that we had of the first,
greatest, and longest steward of history, which we
call the Luciferic Stewardship, and move on this
morning to consider the Adamic, and consequently the
Universal Stewardship.
For Adam was the second of whom we
read in the Scriptures whom God constituted a
steward.
And it is required, you remember 1 Corinthians
4 tells us, of stewards that he be
found faithful.
I want to look with you in some
detail that we're allowed with our time this
morning at the qualifications of Adam becoming a
steward.
The first thing we read was, in chapter
1 of Genesis, God said, Let us make
man in our image after our likeness.
We have said before that we are all
made stewards because there's nothing that we have
which is of our own.
We have inherited that which we have, that
which we are.
Our personalities even are a composite made up
of our forefathers.
I have a number of characteristics of my
personality that, if I knew where they came
from, I'd send them back right quick, but
we're not allowed to do that, so we're
saddled with it.
We are as we were by inheritance, and
we are not responsible for being who we
are, and our personality is not our manufacture.
It is an inheritance, and because we're not
responsible for it doesn't mean to say we're
not responsible for what we do with it,
for that's where the rug comes, as they
say, and that's where the scripture teaches us
the possibility of transfiguration of personality.
I remember speaking one time on that subject,
the transfiguration of personality, and how that we
need not be what we were when we
came into the world, and we need not
go on continually being what we are by
nature or by inheritance, and a little Scottish
lady came up to me after the meeting,
and I had labored the point.
I guess it was laboring.
I suppose they labored listening to it, but
anyway, she came up to me afterwards, and
I saw a twinkle in her eye, and
I'm always apprehensive about little Scottish ladies with
twinkles in their eyes, and she said, Mr.
Adams, I would like to tell you something.
When we were girls, is that the way
you say it, over in Scotland, she said,
we had a saying over there.
My mother-in-law came from Scotland, incidentally.
Well, it wasn't incidentally, it was fatalistically, but
anyway, she said, we had a saying over
there, and it was this.
When you get old, you'll be what you
always were, only more so, and with that
little saying, she took the complete, not only
the foundation and the bottom, but all the
fabrication of my message completely out the door
with her when she went.
I had been trying to say that the
New Testament scriptures teach the transfiguration of personality,
and the word transfiguration in the New Testament
is only used three times, and two out
of the three concerns ourselves, the believers, but
she told me that when I was going
to get old, I would just be what
I always had been, only more so.
Who wants to be more so?
That not being a more so, but that
being more so.
A more so is more so when you
get older.
So, at any rate, this is the position
that we are in.
This is what God made Adam, and he
made him a steward of this, of his
character, of his person, of his constitution.
God made the man, first of all, it
says, in our image, and secondly, it says,
after our likeness.
Now, I suggest to you, because these are
two Hebrew words, they don't mean the same
thing.
I believe that the word image means, or
teaches, representation.
We, having lived for a number of years
in a country where imagery was very, very
common, and the worship of images, or idols,
or whatever, was very prevalent, and it may
have been some distant saint, or it may
have been the poor old beggar who sat
at the gate of the rich man, full
of sores, and I used to wonder about
him as I saw them in papier-mâché
form, or plaster of Paris form.
This was Lazarus, and I said to some
of them, is this really Lazarus?
No, this is just an image of Lazarus.
Well, it's not really Lazarus, then.
No, but it is a representation of Lazarus.
So, the images are a factual, visible representation
of that which is invisible.
Is that correct?
Can we apply that with this statement?
Let us make man in our image.
We will make him, and put him there
in the creation on earth, to represent us.
That's what he's there for.
That's his stewardship, and that's why we made
him in our image.
You say, but isn't that the same as
likeness?
No, I don't think it's the same as
likeness, because these are two distinct words.
They have two distinct teachings, I think.
So, if God, having made man in his
image, with the purpose and the object in
view that he would always be his representation
on earth, then that was the stewardship that
God committed to him.
He is there to represent the invisible God.
Now, I used to think, in thinking about
this subject, well, I guess there's no image
left.
Then, when you go on to the second
word, after our likeness, I said, well, that's
one thing for sure.
The likeness is lost.
Down through the ages we go through our
Bible, and we see so much of that
which is contrary and opposed to the likeness
of God.
And, in my own mind, I wiped it
all out, and I said, well, that's the
end of that.
That was pre-or antediluvian time.
This is before the fall, and now man
is no more considered to be in the
image of God, nor is he considered to
be likely in the likeness or similitude of
God.
Then, to my surprise one day, I'm perusing
somewhere, wandering through the New Testament someplace, and
I discover that these two words are used
again in the New Testament.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, you remember that
man is to be uncovered in public assembly
because he is the image and glory of
God.
And, the woman is to be covered in
public assembly because she is the glory of
the man.
Therefore, the exposition, the exposure of the glory
of God is in the man who is
made in the image of God.
You say, well, now, but just a minute,
that Corinthian assembly was in tremendous default.
I know that.
There was doctrinal confusion.
There was moral decrepitude.
There was political and social failure.
Yes, but the apostle still says that he,
even in New Testament times and the days
of the Corinthians, still retains the responsibility of
representing God.
He was made in the image of God.
And then, I also was wandering through James
one day, came across that passage in chapter
3 where it says, My brethren, all these
troubles that you are having amongst you, and
it is certainly a tremendous confrariety that you
should be as you are, because with one
mouth you bless God, and with the same
mouth you curse men who are made after
the similitude of God.
So, I discovered the two words crop up
again in the New Testament, and after all
these millennia of the course, the sad, tragic
course of human history, the two words are
used again.
So, the one is representation, and the other
is reflection.
God made man in his image to represent
him.
He wants to be a material, visible representation
in a material world of the invisible God
of the celestial world.
That's why he's here.
But, he was also to be a reflection
of God.
The characteristic, the moral character of God was
to be seen in this man, or in
this human family, because you remember, you notice
when we're reading in chapter 1 that he
mentions both of them being created, and that
he made, or called their name, Adam's, or
their one.
Let's see just a minute, a little more
of that.
So, here we are with this responsibility imposed
upon ourselves.
We are here to represent God in our
walk, in our talk, in our character, in
our ways, in our business, in our assembly,
and in our homes.
We are here with the obligation of representing
God.
You know how humanity has failed in that
stewardship.
But, we're also here to be seen with
the qualities, the moral character of God, in
the likeness of God, and that is another
field, isn't it, of stewardship, but it's part
of the one stewardship that was imposed upon
Adam.
Now, these were his qualifications.
Now, let us notice the scope of his
stewardship.
In verse 26, chapter 1, God says, Let
them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, over the fowl of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth.
Let them have dominion.
This is mentioned again in Psalm 8 and
Hebrews chapter 2, which are additional passages very
similar to what we have here.
So, the psalmist is out on the hills,
the Judean hills, at night, and he's contemplating
the stars, and the writer of the epistle
to the Hebrews goes back to the eighth
Psalm, and from there you are taken back
to Genesis chapters 1 and 2, and he
says, What is man that thou visitest him?
When I consider the heavens the work of
thine hands, the moonless stars which thou hast
made, I say to myself, What is this
microscopic, puny little creature?
What is he?
Yet, I remember that thou hast put him
over the works of thine hands.
Administration, or administrative stewardship, it's a matter of
authority and government, and then he goes on
to say, Thou hast put all things in
subjection under his feet, and he enumerates some
of them.
But, here's the dimension of this stewardship.
He was to have dominion, he was to
be a ruler, he was to be a
governor, representing and reflecting God, and the area
of his authority was the whole earth.
Now, this is the scope of his stewardship,
and we shall see, and you know, of
course, without further ado, you know how his
stewardship was lost.
He failed in the stewardship.
But, let us go on, let us look
something else, down to verse 28.
God blessed them, and God said unto them,
Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, and subdue
it.
These are interesting words, aren't they?
Interesting verbs here.
This is part of his stewardship.
He was to be fruitful, his task was
to multiply, he was to replenish the earth.
That's an interesting word, isn't it?
And, you have probably heard various discussions on
the subject.
He is to replenish the earth, and he
is to subdue it, to subdue it.
This is government, this is authority, this is
the exercise of the stewardship that God has
given to him.
He was to have, he was meant to
have dominion, he was meant to have government,
he was meant to have authority.
He was to bring everything, something a little
bit like Paul said in the second He
was to bring everything into subjection to God
before, this is said, before he opened the
floodgates of lawlessness.
It was said that the purpose of his
creation was that he should subdue the earth.
Then he goes on to speak about the
dominion again.
Now, he's spoken in verse 27 and chapter
1, about male and female created he them.
Now, let's look over at chapter 2, verse
15.
We began to read, the Lord God took
the man and put him into the garden
of Eden to dress it and to keep
it.
He was not to be an inactive Lord,
he was sovereign.
The sovereignty that he was to exercise was
over the whole earth.
I have heard it said that when our
Lord was here, and you know that he
came as the second man, and he also
came as the last Adam, and we must
not confuse those, must we?
For while he was the last Adam, for
he's the last federal head, nevertheless he was
not the last man.
For there's a whole race of men following
in the footsteps of the second man.
And you jump across all the ages, and
you say from Adam to the New Testament,
are there only two men?
There are only two men who in themselves
were the true representation of God, and the
second man was the better of the two,
as you can see.
For he became flesh because God was manifest
in flesh, and his name was to be
called Emmanuel, God with us.
He was the only one who fulfilled the
purpose of being the reflection of God.
He that has seen me has seen the
Father.
How sayest thou then, show us the Father?
They had both seen and hated both me
and my Father.
Such was the indissoluble link, if we may
use a term like that, in the essence
between the invisible, the immortal, the eternal God,
and God manifest in flesh.
Our Lord said himself in John 15, they
who have seen me have seen the Father.
And he said to Philip, how sayest thou
then, show us the Father?
And he said, why his enemies they have
both seen and hated both me and my
Father.
Isn't that a very conclusive statement?
Because he was here in the likeness of
God.
He took upon him the form, from which
we get our word nature, the form of
a servant being made in the likeness of
men.
Why?
Because though Adam was sovereign, he was a
servant, but he was not a slave until
after the fall.
So the sovereign was to serve.
He was to till the garden.
He was to subdue the earth.
He had a task which was imposed upon
him, and the one who came was the
one who came to redress that which had
been undressed by the first man, first Adam,
who was the sovereign Lord of creation as
God made it.
But he was not to do it by
himself.
So we come to another of the qualifications
of Adam to be God's second major steward.
So we look down at verse 18, the
Lord God said, it's not good that the
man should be alone.
I will make him a help, totally compatible
with him.
And let me put an emphasis on that,
because having said that in verse 18, look
what he said in verse 19, out of
the ground, the Lord God formed every beast
of the field, every fowl of the air,
and brought them unto Adam to see what
he would call them.
Whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was
the name thereof.
Why is that inserted between verses 18 and
20?
What has verse, no, sorry, verses, including verses
19 and 20, and the close of verse
20, why is that inserted there?
God having said, it's not good that the
man should be alone.
By the way, what's the major ingredient of
marriage?
And what's the major feature that holds marriage
together?
I'm told, and I have read some things
from psychologists, they're in class all by themselves,
fortunately, some of us have never admitted to
that.
As far as the psychiatrists are concerned, I
think every one of them needs one.
But I have heard it said, of course,
that the major, and they tell young folks
this, the major feature, the major ingredient, the
major necessity of a marriage is communication.
I beg to differ on that, because I
think there's something that is eminently superior to
communication.
It is not good that the man should
be alone.
Oh, what does he need?
Knowledge he doesn't need.
Capability of administration he doesn't need.
Purpose in life he doesn't need.
This is all covered by what we've considered
already this morning, but there's something he does
need, and it isn't said that he needed
it until it is first clearly stated that
Adam has a vertical fellowship with God.
Adam has a horizontal relationship with the creation
around him.
Birds of the air, beast of the field,
fish of the sea, and so much is
he an integral part of that creation that
God brings the creatures of his hands, to
Adam to see what he's going to call
them.
Whatever he called them, that's what they would
be, always known as such.
Why?
Because here's a man whose intelligent capacity is
sufficient to look at anything God has made,
and to know why he made it the
way he made it, and to give it
a name in keeping with the purpose of
its existence.
And having said that, it says, but there
wasn't a companion considered one to be alongside
or compatible with Adam.
What's the first name the man needed?
That his relationship with God did not supply...
I say that carefully...
that his relationship on the horizontal with the
creation around him over which he's been made
sovereign did not supply...
what was it?
Compatible companionship.
That's what he needed.
And I tell the young folks when they're
getting married or have just been married, and
every once in a while I kind of
step something in for those who are married
40 and 50 years, you know.
If there's to be one major necessity between
you in marriage, it is this.
You must be companions.
And this companionship is what God has very
clearly outlined here as the major feature of
the purpose of marriage.
I will make him someone who will be
totally compatible with him.
They come to me and they say, well
brother Dave, we've been we've been married for
three years, five years, one time 21 years,
and you know we can't hack it anymore.
Why?
Because we're not compatible.
We're incompatible.
Nonsense.
The reason why God brings man and woman
together is because of absolute compatibility.
Now you say, you don't know my husband.
Maybe it's my good fortune.
If you have any idea what my wife's
like, I welcome the ignorance.
At any rate, let me say this.
I do know that this is the major
feature, and was the major purpose of God
having made the woman.
He made her to be what nothing else
in the creation was, a compatible companion.
And that's what we are to jealously guard
and retain.
Whatever intrudes on that, whatever spoils that, whatever
brings that into a state of failure, whatever
there's any lack in the marriage relationship, there
has got to be basically companionship.
And when two walk together, for any length
of time, you know what happens to them.
I was in Tampa on one occasion, and
my wife went to get her hair washed
or shampooed or something, and I took her
over, and it's one of these schools where
they have two long rows of them.
Those students, they're learning.
It's all right.
It's only a quarter of the price.
Don't run it down.
And so she said to me, come back
in an hour and a half.
I said, all right.
So I went away.
About an hour and a half, I came
back and walked in the front door, and
there was a young girl there, about 22,
I think she was, and she said to
me, are you looking for Mrs. Adams?
And I said, yes.
She said, way in the last chair, way
down there on the right.
So I went away down this aisle, and
here they are working on both sides, you
know.
And I said, are you nearly finished?
She said, yes, just a few minutes.
So I said, okay, I'll wait up front.
So I went back up front, and I
said to these six in there, tell me
something.
You intrigued me.
She said, why?
I said, how did you know I was
looking for Mrs. Adams?
She said, well, I'm getting married in three
weeks, and they've told me that if two
people live together long enough, they get to
look like one another.
I told my wife that happened.
She said, huh, you sure spoiled my day.
That's something I hoped never would happen.
I said, well, there you've got the proof
of it.
That's what the lady said to me.
All right.
They are brought together because they're compatible, and
there's no other companionship.
We had three single girls go through our
house one time, stay for two or three
days, and one of them, her favorite pet
at home was a boa constrictor.
I said, you're kidding.
Are you married?
And she said, no.
I said, huh, can you imagine making a
boa constrictor your companion?
My goodness.
And she said, it's so temperamental.
I put it into a fish tank whenever
I have visitors, and put the lid on
it, because she's so sensitive of anybody intruding
into our companionship.
Aye, aye, aye.
That's the only content of me.
So, anyway, here's the basis of it all,
and this is to capacitate Adam to be
a sovereign, fulfilling, God-designated steward.
These have dominion.
They are to have dominion, it's said.
Did you notice in chapter one?
They are to have dominion over all the
earth.
All right.
What happens?
Adam goes into the deep sleep.
You all know this story.
You know the allegory.
You know the teaching of it.
Just let me mention one or two things,
and then I shall be done.
I'm often done before I'm finished, but anyway.
God introduces to Adam his companion, and did
you see what it said?
He brought her to the man.
What did he do?
He gave Adam a new stewardship.
What was that?
He.
Adam looked at her, and he said, now
this is bone of my bone.
What's that indicate?
The strength of the relationship.
The skeleton, the sculptor, that which holds the
union together.
Bone of my bone, he said.
And we have this repeated, as you know,
in Ephesians chapter five.
So, what is a marriage relationship?
It is to be strong in its structure,
never to be dissolved, except by death.
Bone of my bone.
And then he said, this is flesh of
my flesh.
What's that?
It's the sensitivity of the union, and I
judge there's nothing more sensitive than the marriage
union.
Only takes a look, it only takes a
prolonged silence, only takes a gesture, or an
idle word.
What happens?
You've cut into the sensitivity of the relationship.
Isn't that so?
It's not only bone, you see, it's to
be strong, but to be very, very sensitive.
And there's a stewardship for us.
We are to recognize and to guard the
sensitivity of our marriage relationship.
And you will understand, of course, that this
is in view of the relationship between the
Lord and the church.
Are we not members of his body, of
his flesh, and of his bones?
Is this not one of the great mysteries
of the New Testament?
This is where it all began, you see.
Now, Adam receives a stewardship, and it's very
likely he early failed in that stewardship of
marriage.
Why?
He was to guard her.
He was to protect her.
He was to keep her.
That's going to come up in our study
in the evening, in John 17, as you'll
see.
This is what Adam was charged with.
It was God who brought her to him,
and commending her to him, he made Adam
again a steward of the most precious thing
he had given him, and in that, alas,
he failed.
As the last Adam, the second man will
never fail in the relationship which he has
established between himself and his companion, being the
bridegroom to the bride.
The consequences of that we shall have to
look at on another occasion as our time
is gone.
Shall we pray?
Our Father, enable us to fulfill the purpose
for which thou hast made us, that we
might be thy representation here before others in
this world, that we might be the reflection
of thy person, and that we might be
true to the relationship thou hast given to
us, and the stewardship of the bond of
love, that thy blessing remain with us, as
it may please thee, the rest of this
day, in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.