In this sermon, the preacher discusses the fall of Lucifer and the consequences of his pride and self-obsession. The preacher emphasizes that nothing we have is truly our own, as everything must be yielded and given up at some point. The sermon also highlights the destructive nature of sin, which has ravaged not only Lucifer but also humanity. However, the preacher offers hope by stating that through being born again and partaking in the divine nature, we can overcome our sinful nature and find refuge in the Savior. The sermon references Bible verses such as Luke 10 and Romans 1 to support its teachings.

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. 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. I have two subjects to deal with this week in the goodwill of the Lord. 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. 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 and 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. 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 pints 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. 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 the 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 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 cherub said God to him I have set thee so when at any time we receive blessings from God and what has 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 chapter 28 and read about the covering chair 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 but 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 oftentimes 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 up home and I ask them how are you today we're pretty good which one are you pretty or good none of course they flushed a little bit and they say well oh mr. Adams just like this I can't pretend to be beautiful and the Bible tells us there's none good so we better drop that expression mustn't we beautiful pretty pretty good do the 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 the zenith of it all and yet because of that he failed 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 didn't who did not have what he had not received but everything he had he had received 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 prayers humanity that we aspire to be what we are not we aspire to have what we never will have and we are sure we can be much better Christians if we only had what we don't have or if we only were what we are not but here's one who had everything he was the admiration of all the heavenly hosts it really amazes me it surprises me to seek 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 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's no more dangerous occupation my friends and being occupied with self somebody say anyone who's 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-uh 1030 quarter to 11 looks like she's at it again surely 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 the 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 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 to sleep she wakes up at 10 or quarter after and she says um see this would be the right time I must call Dave and Agnes so Dave and Agnes are in bed by 1030 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 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 how are thou fallen from heaven Oh Lucifer you remember when the 70 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 it's greater than all 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 freak 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 brochure and steadfast and which enters into that within the veil whether the forerunner we are the after runners 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 of 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 what 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 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 occupied 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 all the qualifications to have been a good steward 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 but there is another element in this whole story he failed 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 this we're reading about the beautiful colors that composed 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 where it when I stopped to think what happened to him he lost it all because of failure in his stewardship and the years roll by 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 you come to the New Jerusalem 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's 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 then 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 cherub and I see what a marvellous reflection of the invisible God we see in this anointed cherub who covered 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 failed 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 cherubs to the New Jerusalem will these qualities have 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 but there's a price to pay for a failed stewardship did you notice we're reading in Ezekiel 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 after 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'll going to end there because of that serpentine course which he has 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 that'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 glove 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 did and had the ambition and determined to go their godless way God gave them up and he gave them up and he gave them up and three times it 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 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 first Peter chapter 4 he can't God hasn't sealed that to him and he's put a fire in the midst of him and that fire it's the worm and never dies but 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 even as it was with Lucifer 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 so 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 forever may please you to bless us in the activities of this day as we command us to thee in his name amen