Stewardship - Part 2 — David Adams

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. I've considered what we have called the first and longest steward of history, from the highest to the lowest, from the greatest to the least.

Defining Stewardship and Its Responsibilities

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, 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, 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.

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.

Adam’s Creation in the Image of God

Let's look at chapter one in 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. 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 two, and verse four. 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.

Farther down in chapter two, 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 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, and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead 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.

They shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Now the serpent," remarkable how that's inserted right here, isn't it? "...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.

The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then 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.".

The Fall and the Loss of Adam’s Stewardship

And then we'll move down a few verses for time's sake, and 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 art naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded 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, chapter 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. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. 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 wilt 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.

Humanity’s Inherited Nature and Responsibility

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. We're 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.

But 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, of 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 morsel, but being more so. A morsel 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.

The Image and Likeness of God

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 is 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, 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 in 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 contrariety 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 was 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 characteristics, 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, Adams, 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.

Adam’s Dominion Over the Earth

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, in 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 8th 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? And 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.

Fruitfulness, Government, and the Work of Stewardship

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, replenish the earth. That's an interesting word, isn't it? And, you have probably heard various discussions on the meaning of that word.

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 verse in his tent. 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 in 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 hath seen me hath 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.

Marriage as Compatible Companionship

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 they all, 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.

Having said that, it says, but there wasn't a companion considered one to be alongside or compatible with Adam. What's the first thing 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, too, that if there is 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 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, but you don't know... 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. Don't you know? 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 not 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, and they said, 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, and she said, oh, 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, 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.

It's a moment of contempt for 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 said.

Marriage, the New Stewardship, and the Bride of Christ

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 men.

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. It 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 it's 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, but 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 will 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.

Closing Prayer for Faithful Stewardship

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, we beseech thee. Amen.