Stewardship - Part 1 — David Adams

Good morning to you all. I did a little bit of a double take when Brother Smith said, down here nobody worries. Because I remember very clearly the first time that I spoke to you down here, two years ago, there were five of us sitting on the platform, and I felt very comfortable because I was protected on all sides.

And then they all got up and left me, and I felt like the Ethiopian eunuch in the middle of the desert somewhere, and I did a little worrying. However, before the week was over, I began to feel at home.

I discharged my obligations, and you had been very long suffering. So I'm grateful for that memory as I come back to visit you again. They accused us Canadians of leaving the door open when we come to Florida.

Well, my first visit to you, all I brought was a light cardigan sweater. It was in January. And I said, never again will this ever happen to me. And when it was arranged for me to come in March this time, I said, well, I won't need a sweater.

I won't need anything. So I had to borrow a jacket. Now, I don't know whether that indicated I was going to get a cool reception or not, but at any rate, I'm learning. If I ever come to Florida again, that is to North Florida at any rate, I think I'll bring my goose down jacket with a parka.

That's from a Canadian who left Sub-Zero Weather when I headed to Florida this time. No, I have not come to speak to you about the Feasts of Jehovah. My subject, for I have two subjects to deal with this week in the goodwill of the Lord.

The Scope of Stewardship in the Week Ahead

My subject in the morning, each morning, will be stewardship. And we shall begin that briefly this morning. The stewardship of the Luciferic stewardship, the Adamic stewardship. And we will link with that the universal stewardship.

And then we will consider a national stewardship, an ecclesiastical stewardship, and a personal stewardship. Do you think we can encompass that mountain in the time we have this week? And then in the evening gatherings, I would like to consider with you the Lord's Prayer.

That is John chapter 17. And that will be sufficient for us, I'm convinced, for the times we'll be together in the evening. So I want to start this morning with a brief word on the Luciferic stewardship.

Lucifer’s Fall in Isaiah 14

Now you will know, I think most of you will immediately conclude that I got that word from Isaiah chapter 14. If you wish to turn to it with me, please. And we shall read two parables, two Old Testament parables.

Let us look briefly at Isaiah chapter 14. And we shall read from verse 12. Isaiah chapter 14, verse 12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations?

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof?

That opened not the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast down out of thy grave like an abominable branch.

And as the raiment of those that are slain thrust through with a sword, they go down to the stones of the pit as a carcass trodden underfoot. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people.

Lucifer’s Stewardship in Ezekiel 28

The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. And having read that passage, will you turn please for another passage, and it will save me getting you to read it later, in the prophecy of Ezekiel, chapter 28.

Ezekiel, chapter 28. Reading from verse 12. Son of man, the only one who was approximately likened to our Lord by this title, son of man. Frequently you will recall that Ezekiel is addressed in this way, but he never is addressed as the son of man, for there was only one.

And verse 12 says, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sum, or the measure, the pattern, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold.

The workmanship of thy tablets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so. Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God.

Thou wast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created until iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned.

Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.

I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic. Therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee.

It shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee. Thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.

You will conclude that having said we were to look briefly in the beginning at a Luciferic stewardship that I was referring to Lucifer of whom we have read already in Isaiah chapter 14. Some people have difficulty in understanding Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28 and in making an application which I wish to do this morning to Lucifer, the son of the morning.

I suggest to you that there is no reason to object to an interpretation of it as a parable because we don't have any difficulty with the parables of the Lord Jesus. And yet concerning this very person here called Lucifer, our Lord, spoke in parables.

Christ’s Parable of the Strong Man and Satan’s Kingdom

You remember on one occasion he was casting out a demon. It was done. And after the demon was exorcised, his enemies murmured against him and said, He's casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.

And the Lord said, If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom, please notice that word, how can his kingdom stand? For a house divided against itself cannot stand.

And they went on to say this, Luke chapter 11, A strong man, when a strong man fully armed keeps his palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, he takes away from him all his armor, wherein he trusted, he binds the strong man, is an expression from another gospel, and then he delivers his spoils.

That is parabolic, concerning the great enemy of God and men, who once was called Lucifer, the son of the morning, who was known in Ezekiel 28 as the epiphany of wisdom and beauty, who was delegated by God to be the covering chariot.

God went on to say this about all the things that he had, his wisdom, his beauty, his offices, his sanctuaries, his music, and his position as the covering chariot, said God to him, I have set thee so.

Everything We Possess Is Entrusted to Us

When at any time we receive blessings from God, and what hast thou, said Paul to the Corinthians, that thou hast not received, what do we have that is natively our own that is to be admired, that is to be exalted or extolled?

What do we have actually of anything that we can permanently call our own? There is nothing that is really ours. For everything we must give up, we must yield at another time and place. So when he writes and says, what do you have that you haven't received, and if you have received it, then why do you boast as though it were your own?

When we go back to Ezekiel 28 and read about the covering chariot, read about all his brilliance, all his beauty, all his merchandise, all his kingdom, we must realize that everything that he has was delegated to him, was bestowed upon him.

And if it was a bestowal, then it was of necessity a stewardship. And this is where the story of stewardship begins. It begins with the highest intelligency that God created. He who summed up wisdom. He who was the ultimate in beauty and brightness.

He who was given a place that no one else had amidst the stones of fire. He who was able to occupy himself in the affairs of the kingdom of the Almighty, to whom no one could be compared, for he was the sum of perfection.

This is the one that I want to suggest to you who has for the longest time in all the annals of history and in all the universe of God being the greatest steward. For everything that he had was given to him by God and from God.

Pride and the Origin of Sin

Often times we wonder, we're asked the question, where did sin come from? And the mystery of it all is this, difficult, very difficult for our finite minds to fathom or understand, that sin originally and initially came from the wisest one that God had ever made.

And it came because he was fascinated with his own brightness. He became a captive to his own beauty. Because of that, he became the author of evil. Perhaps the most terrible gift that could be bestowed upon anyone is the couplet of beauty and brilliance.

And now probably I shouldn't trouble myself too much about warning my audience here this morning about the danger of it. Now probably none of us here, no one here this morning, either in what we were or what we are, have that marvelous combination of beauty and brilliance.

It's a fateful combination. I never advise any of my young listeners to try to attain to this combination. In fact, it's very unlikely they will. If they're beautiful, well, you know. You know, beautiful but dumb.

And if they are brilliant, then as a rule, they weren't beautiful. I sometimes say to folks at home and I ask them, how are you today? Oh, pretty good. Which one are you? Pretty or good? And then of course they flush a little bit and they say, well, oh, Mr. Adams, it's like this.

I can't pretend to be beautiful. And the Bible tells us there is none good, so we better drop that expression, mustn't we? Beautiful, pretty, pretty good. Either one or the other. But here is one who was, who had everything that normally a human being desires, beauty and brilliance.

One who was the acme, who was the ultimate, who had got to the zenith of it all. And yet, because of that, he fell. I was considering his person, his place, and his pride. And he who was the greatest of all the stewards in the universe of God, he who did not have what he had not received, but everything he had, he had received.

And that high honor, which I judge was the protector of the throne of God, was conferred upon him. And God said to him, Thou art the covering cherub, anointed to be the protector to the guardian of the throne of God with all the capability required to be just that.

For he was not a square peg in a round hole. He had not assumed to be qualified for that position. He was given all the qualifications for his obligations. How often do we see it portrayed in our prayer of humanity that we aspire to be what we are not, we aspire to have what we never will have, and we are sure we could be much better Christians if we only had what we don't have, or if we only were what we are not.

But here is one who had everything. He was the admiration of all the heavenly hosts. It really amazes me, it surprises me to read about his sanctuaries. It surprises me to read about his merchandise. It surprises me to read that he had a vast kingdom.

And yet, it was because of all this pride rose in his heart and he became discontented. He would be what he was not, never could be. He desired to be where he was not appointed to be, and could not attain to it.

He imagined somehow or another that above the stars of God he was not only constituted, but that he was going to assume the position that was not delegated to him. And this all because he became occupied.

With himself. There is no more dangerous occupation, my friends, than being occupied with self. Somebody said to anyone who is wrapped up in himself, it's a very small parcel. And yet, we have some friends, I still wish to call them friends.

But when the phone rings at our house and we say, uh-oh, 10 .30, quarter to 11, looks like she's at it again. So she lives in one of these marvelous rest homes where, as Brother Smith was saying here, you can't worry about anything.

But she took into that rest home herself, who always had been the center of all her worry anyway. And not being content with that, she wishes to share this worry with other people. And she's so magnanimous, so generous in enumerating all her problems.

So, living in one of these homes, you know they have regulated hours and regulated food and so forth. So she has her supper, or dinner as they say, down here. And after that, she goes up to her lovely private room, wonderfully furnished and everything.

And she puts on the TV, she lies down and has a sleep. She wakes up at 10 or quarter after and she says, gee, this would be the right time. I must call Dave and Agnes. So Dave and Agnes are in bed by 10 .30.

One of those very unique occasions when we can manage it. And if one of us is not asleep, the other one is. And the phone rings just at the head of the bed and we say, oh, no. Here we go again. And everything that she wants to talk about is what has happened in the past with herself, her husband, her family, her relatives.

And all the stories we have heard innumerable times. But I wish these people who are so obsessed and engrossed with all their problems that Brother Smith was singing about here now, would seek to share them with somebody else now and then.

And certainly not at a quarter to 11 at night. This one made the fatal mistake of being preoccupied with himself. And that was the fatality that overtook him and produced in him, engendered within him, sin which is so ravaged, not only his part of the creation, but your part and my part as well.

Christ’s Security for Believers

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer? You remember when the Seventy come back in Luke chapter 10 to recount to the Lord the success of their mission and how they say, why, even the demons are subject to us through thy name.

And the Lord said, I was watching Satan like lightning, having fallen and falling out of heaven. We may be made sure again this morning, dear friends, those of us who are believers in the Lord Jesus, that that could never, ever happen to us.

No man shall pluck them out of my hand. No man shall pluck them out of my Father's hand. My Father who gave them to me is greater than all. And we've been looking at the gifts bestowed on our Lord from the Father in our evening sessions.

So we have security. I often think that Hebrews chapter 6, which is a tremendous problem to a number of believers who forget how it closes, who forget that saying about the frailness of our mortality, the weakness of our human nature, goes on to say that we have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil, whether the forerunner, we are the afterrunners, has for us gone, even Jesus, made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

We have a security in Christ that exceeds, as heaven is higher above the earth, the insecurity that we find in ourselves. We have fled for refuge from what? In Hebrews chapter 6, it is the failure and the fall of our own corrupt human nature.

We have fled for refuge from that. What to do? To lay hold upon Him who has gone within the veil, the forerunner, the anchor of our soul. And we know that we are safe, not in self, but safe in the Savior.

This one aspired to be when he was not. This one aspired to go where he could not go. And our Lord speaking of him in Luke chapter 11, tells us that he has a kingdom. That's exactly what we read as well in Matthew and Luke's account of the fall of Lucifer.

The Responsibilities and Rewards of Stewardship

This is the Luciferic stewardship. Look what was entrusted to him and see the results of pride because of it. Then again, we have the place that he occupies, the covering cherub, the anointed cherub that covered.

What holy dignity. What high office to enjoy. What responsibility was imposed upon this one. And yet he had all the qualities and all the qualifications to have been a good steward. And it turned out that he was the first and the longest steward of all time, of all history.

We may have opportunity in the occasions that are before us to consider not only the dangers of a stewardship, but also the demands of a stewardship. And then we will have opportunity to look at the rewards of faithful stewardship.

From Lucifer’s Stones to the New Jerusalem

But there is another element in this whole story. He fell. He who walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Who was in Eden, the Arden of God. Did you notice as we're reading about the beautiful colors that compose his vesture?

Have you read of those stones, those beautiful stones in any other place? Do you remember that the breastplate of the high priest was similarly adorned? And when I think that all these beautiful qualities and qualifications of Lucifer, the covering cherub, when I stop to think what happened to him, he lost it all because of failure in his stewardship.

And the years roll by and you don't see them again in any extent until you come to the high priest. And there these beautiful gems are now again portrayed not as the covering of Lucifer, but as the breastplate of the high priest.

And then you go on through the New Testament and you say, when do they appear again? And you come to the New Jerusalem and you discover in the New Jerusalem the foundation of the walls thereof were adorned with all these beautiful stones.

And one time I took with little interest the trouble to compare the sets of stones, the precious stones, the beautiful stones that represent the qualities of him who has them. From Lucifer to the high priest, from the high priest to the New Jerusalem, that which was lost here was bestowed here in the high priest's breastplate.

But then what happened? The priesthood failed. Then from there the stones appeared again in the New Jerusalem. And what is a ruby? What is an emerald? What is a sapphire? What is an onyx stone? It is merely a stone on receiving, capturing all the elements of light through the prism of the stone.

Light is refracted and what they emit is what we see. Why do we see green in an emerald? Why do we see purple in an amethyst? Why do we see red in a ruby? It is because the emerald takes in all the white light and through its own personal qualities reflects green.

The ruby takes in all the white light and because of its own qualities it reflects the red and we see a ruby as red. Then I look at these stones in the covering cherubim and I see what a marvelous reflection of the invisible God we see in this anointed cherub who covers.

But he lost it all because of sin. I look to the high priest and I see the stones again being reflected in the priesthood whose object it was to represent God in Israel. The priesthood fails. And I look again and I see them again in the New Jerusalem and I say, Thank God!

There is a city coming and these precious stones will be reflected again or represented again in the walls of that city. Now, I discovered in comparing the three sets of stones ten of them were common to all three.

That opened up to my mind an admiration for the work of God from the covering cherub to the New Jerusalem. Will these qualities of God ever be seen again? Yes, my friends, they will. And it is the object as we shall see when we come to the Adamic stewardship it is the object and purpose of God today that you and I in our small corner in our small way and in our small ability should reflect something of the glories of the perfection of our glorious Lord Himself.

The Consequences of Failed Stewardship

But there is a price to pay for a failed stewardship. Did you notice we are reading in Genesis chapter 28 this statement? He says, Because thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries in verse 18 by the iniquity or the unrighteousness of thy traffic therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee and it shall devour thee.

I was having some studies one time with the chart on the book of the Revelation and on the chart was depicted the course of Satan during from the beginning before Eden and then before the fall and then down through Eden and across through the ages and then finally coming to ascendancy again in the chapter 20 of the book of the Revelation and then off into eternal judgment.

And there was a young lady sitting in the meeting that day and she came to me and she said, Mr. Adams, can I ask you a question? I said, sure. She said, Tell me, does the devil know as much as you do?

And I said, Why do you ask me that? She said, because you have painted for us on this chart the history of Satan. Where he began and how he will end. And the reason why he is going to end there because of that serpentine course which he has laid.

She said, Tell me something. Does he know that's his end? I said to her, Let me say this to you. I don't believe Satan knows everything even if it's written in the book. For these things have to be spiritually discerned.

Don't they? And he who has not the spirit of God does not understand them. But I do believe this. He certainly knows what is written in the book. And I'm sure he knows that the course, his course, has been predetermined.

She said, Tell me something. If this is true and he knows what he's doing, what he's going to do, and where he will finally end in eternal fire, why doesn't he change his course? And I said, My dear, there's one answer to that.

He can't. She said, Well, why can't he? I said, Because he can't change his nature. And I go back to Ezekiel chapter 28. Did you see what the God said about Satan here when he passed sentence upon him?

I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee and it shall devour thee. We hear a lot about addiction. To this, that and the other thing. Sorry, we can't be different. We can't change our ways. Why not?

Because it's something in me that demands, which we call addiction, that demands that I gratify myself with this. What is it that comes out of the fallen cherub? A fire, says God. I will place a fire in the midst of thee and it shall devour thee.

He never ever can be anything but what he is. God sealed him to his proud, arrogant, deceiving, lying, covetous nature. Reminds you of Romans chapter 1, doesn't it? When they insisted in their sin. When they had the ambition and determined to go their godless way.

God gave them up. And he gave them up. And he gave them up. Three times it's said. He gave them up. He gave them over. There's nothing worse, my friends, than God to leave us alone with what we are as we are.

Being Born Again and Sharing in the Divine Nature

So I said to this girl, I said, let me tell you this. You and I can be born again. We can be made partakers of the divine nature. According to 1 Peter chapter 4. He can't. God has sealed that to him. And he's put a fire in the midst of him.

And that fire, it's the worm that never dies. What a terrible thing, isn't it? If I have anyone in my audience this morning that doesn't know what it means to be born again, to be blessed by God with the knowledge of salvation by faith in Christ, let me say to you, my friends, the most disastrous thing that could happen to you would be for God to leave you alone.

That fallen nature that we have, that sin that's coiled in our hearts and constantly expresses itself, if not forgiven, if not cleansed by the precious blood of Christ shed at the cross, to do just that, our faith is sealed forever.

Prayer for Grace and Salvation

Even as it was with Lucifer, the son of the morning. May God lead us into recognition of the fact we have nothing that is our own, but what we have in Christ we have forever. Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank Thee for the grace that sought us, for the love that sought us, for the blood that bought us, and for the grace that brought us to Thyself.

What we are, O Lord, we lament, but we thank Thee that in the Lord Jesus we have our satisfying portion, we have our Savior, and we have this. May it please Thee to bless us in the activities of this day as we commend this to Thee in His name.

Amen.