Part two of our study on economics, the business of being human, part two. I've titled today's message, Enter the Dragon, and no, not the Bruce Lee movie. The dragon, of course, biblically is the devil. So enter the dragon, what was lost and what remained. And with that said, let's begin with our text from Genesis chapter one. And 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. Thus ends the reading of God's word. So again, when you come to complicated situations in terms of biblical interpretation and the application of it to our lives, we must always go back to scripture. And when we talk about human nature, what it means to be human, What's called anthropology, of course, we need to go back to scripture and to first things, and of course that's what Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 to 28 is. It's the telos, which is a Greek word for ultimate end or goal. It tells us who man is and what his purpose is, right? And let's be honest, Adam and Eve had an astonishing destiny before them. As the image bearers of God, they were masters of the world. They could work, plan, develop, take dominion over the created order without the frustration of sin, sinful men, time, sickness, and death that we all face on a daily basis today. They had a clear path before them as they served God by stewarding his created order. stewarding his property, because the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, as Scripture saith. And as long as they stewarded his property in an obedient fashion and gained an increase for him, they would experience beatitude. Beatitude. One wonders what it was like to be them as individuals. What were their talents and abilities before the fall? Well, consider this. I think of the super athletes, people who do unbelievable things in sports. Tiger Woods in golf. Michael Jordan in basketball. the last Olympics in track, men and women who ran so unbelievably fast, we couldn't believe it, or gymnastics, and intellectually, the polymaths, or the so-called idiot savants, men or women who who are developmentally challenged and have a hard time living without constant supervision and yet they have an ability where if you throw a whole match box of matchsticks on the ground in like two seconds they can count it up that quickly and be right on point or hear music for the first time and then play it on the piano, right? And yet they still, they can barely talk and when I see these people I think That's what was latent in Adam and Eve. That was there at the beginning. That's what we were meant to be, right? That is but a glimpse of pre-fall Adam. Again, the key to Adam and Eve's life of beatitude and their vice-regency was in the recognition of the creator-creature distinction, the difference between God and his creation, man. Right? And God's ownership of the world and his delegation of it to man as the image-bearer for a specific purpose. It was necessary for them, as God's representatives on earth, to live a life of service and obedience. And again, and as I said earlier, inasmuch as they did so, God would continue to bless them. Inasmuch as they disobeyed that one command the Lord gave them, they would surely die, Genesis 2 verses 15 to 17. And sadly, as the biblical account shows us, man shortly after his creation fell into sin, Genesis 3.15. And of course, St. Paul notes it also in Romans 5 verses 12 and 13. And the rest, as they say, is history, and not a pleasant one at that, as Pastor was noting during preparation for our prayer time. We did not, we do not know God face to face as Adam and Eve did, humanly speaking. Why? Well, because all mankind by their fall lost communion with God. and are under his wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come. Equally, and due to the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we no longer live in a zero-cost world. There is a cost to everything. There is now scarcity of goods, time, and energy. The ground is cursed. There is now risk in living in a sinful world because not all investments of time, money, and effort will be fruitful. They can be the opposite, with loss. You never know. Could be loss, could be profit, depending upon one's wisdom and planning and context of God's providential opportunities that become manifest in the ebb and flow of human history. It's not static. Thus, work was not part of the curse cast on Adam for sin. It was there in the very beginning at the created order. Work is not a curse. The curse promised hardship in childbirth, Genesis 3.16, and in subduing the earth, Genesis 3.17-19. The latter because the ground itself was cursed so that its natural productivity would be perverted. And of course, the created order is dangerous, right? Scorpions, snakes, tidal waves, tornadoes, earthquakes, you name it, that's part of the curse. Man was, prior to the fall, to go forth from the Garden of Eden as an expression of the created image and have dominion over the earth as God's steward. The curse only made this more difficult as now man had to deal with his own sinful nature and the sinful nature of others and, as I noted a moment ago, the curse of the ground that would increase the difficulty of his stewardship, not the responsibility of said stewardship. We know this from what the New Testament tells us in the Gospel of Saint Matthew. Matthew chapter 25, Jesus himself gives us the parable of the talents. Matthew 25 verses 14 to 30. And of course, this is all worked out. And again, going back to the topic of economics and what's known as the marketplace, right? The issue of profit and loss is at the heart of the matter regarding the dilemma that people face when interacting with the world, particularly dealing with the area of economics. After the fall of Adam and the garden, there are costs to everything we do in time and effort, and not all costs can be recovered. I think particularly of time. When it's gone, it's gone. You can't get it back. You could be a billionaire. You could lose it all and have it back in 10 years. You don't get time back. Thus, man must manage all the resources he has while he lives, both as a servant of God, but equally in terms of how he manages his daily household affairs. Again, the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25. He must learn the proper, meaning the wise method of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services if he is to survive, not to mention prosper. He must be a wise problem solver who is willing to count the cost to all that he does, as Jesus admonishes in Luke 14, verse 28 to 31. He must count the cost because nothing comes for free. Somewhere, somehow, someone has to pay. There's no free lunch. The market is the arena of buying and selling that takes place in the world every day where buyers and sellers of goods and services compete with one another to achieve their goals financially. Let's make a deal. If we're not happy, we move on to someone else. If I don't want to buy something at that price, I go somewhere else and engage in what's known in economic theory as substitution. I'll get something else. If I can't afford the steak, I'll buy the hamburger. Sellers equally, if they don't want to sell for a certain price, they won't sell the good, they'll hold on to it. So again, the market determines the true cost of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services at the real price. Meaning the market value that people are willing to pay for said good or service. That's why socialism doesn't work. You can't get an accurate price accounting. in a socialist economy, much less a communist economy, right? You can't have a bureaucrat living a thousand miles away who knows what you need and what the best cost for what you need is. Price controls on goods and services, rent controls, anything with government intervention, as our Romanian friends can tell us, causes nothing but trouble, and it interferes with men and women being good stewards for God. It turns human beings into slaves for the state. Thus, socialism, communism, any of that government intervention at all types, is always wrong biblically. It acts as a barrier between the stewardship between the human race and our Lord and Creator. The whole point of stewardship is either an individual person has managed his or her time, money, and effort wisely and makes the right choice regarding the price of purchase as a buyer or seller, or he or she suffers a loss. That's the heart of economics, for everything costs someone something. Time, money, and effort. Again, time, money, and effort are not free, except for people who live off other people. That's why St. Paul tells us, if a man does not work, he shall not eat. That's why welfare is wrong. Therefore, as stewards of the Most High God, Christians have to be wise in their management of all that God sets into their hands. They are expected to gain an increase for Him during their brief sojourn on His earth and be wise in the management of this stewardship. Ultimately, they will receive both temporal and eternal rewards or sanctions as how they carried out their tasks. This is made clear in Ecclesiastes 12, 13, and Romans 14, 12, and of course, Galatians 6, 7. You reap what you sow. Conclusion. Adam was a steward before the fall. But he did not face the curse. Post-fall, Adam and Eve did have the curse upon them and the created order, Genesis 3.17, a curse in which both Adam and Eve and all their posterity would have to work through as God's stewards of the earth and all that it contains. It's inescapable. Sadly, some mistakenly believe that the curse of God on Adam for his sin removed the Dominion Covenant, or the so-called Creation Mandate, if you prefer that. But the fact is, God restated that same command to Noah post-flood. when he got off the ark, Genesis 9, Genesis 9, verse 1 through 11. Word for word accounting, and the same thing God told Adam in the garden, Genesis 9, 1 through 11. Thus, man cannot escape the necessity of being what St. Paul called a wise master builder, and being such in all areas of life. Indeed, and to quote Mr. Moore again from last week, properly understood, stewardship includes all of life, all of men's actions and attitudes, personality and personal influence, and money matters, the acquisition, handling, spending, saving, investing, giving, and final disposition. Use of the land, resources and tools. One's profession, job or place of service. Education and the use of education. All these kids who graduate, I'm interjecting here, high school or college and then they're still living at home and doing nothing. What? One's place of worship, the witness of his or her life, personal testimony, purpose and goals in life, quote unquote. Lastly, the scripture informs us of Judgment Day, when the Master returns in power to judge everyone's performance to see if he or she has been a faithful steward, Matthew 25, verse 14 to 30, and to reward each according to their value for God of his or her efforts while on earth, as St. Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 11 to 15. My earlier reference to being a wise master builder for the Lord, 1 Corinthians 3, 11-15. Again, the real world application of the theological principle of judgment day is, of course, the free market. Not only a pure economic sense of buying and selling, but in the moral sense of how one not only manages his or her resources, but equally how he and she treats others in the operation of this management of work and charity. Proverbs 11, verse 1, and James 5, verse 12. This is the biblical doctrine of economics at its core. Stewardship of the owner's resources, meaning the Most High God. Let's pray. Almighty God, whose Son, Jesus Christ, in his earthly life shared our toil and hallowed our labor, be present with thy people where they work, make those who carry on the industries and commerce of this land responsive to thy will, and give to us all a pride in what we do and a just return for our labor, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, amen.