January 21, 2006
In the Saturday Evening Session
of Stake Conference for the
Oak Hills Stake of Provo, Utah
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Sister Riddle and I are glad to be home and to make our continuing contribution to the work of the Savior here.
What is the work of the Savior? It is to sanctify His people, his sons and daughters, so that He can bring them into His presence and introduce them to Father. This Sanctification is necessary, because the Fall of Adam has made the nature of all human beings evil continually. Each of us will remain in that condition as natural men unless we take the advice of King Benjamin: “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” (Mosiah 3:19)
A saint is one who is sanctified. To be sanctified is a dual process. It is both to be forgiven of our sins and to change our nature, our character, so that we no longer sin. Our Savior suffered for us so that we could be forgiven of our sins, but we ourselves must also suffer to overcome the natural man in us that caused us to sin in the first place. Nephi described this process as going through the mists of darkness, which are the temptations of Satan, hand-over-hand along the iron rod, which is the word of God, until we have overcome our temptations and arrive at the tree of life. If our travel through the mists has been truly full of faith in Christ, we will have repented of our character flaws, we will have been forgiven of our sins, and will partake of the fruit of the tree of life, which is to receive the full love from God into our lives.
The message of God to man in all ages is the same as that He gave to ancient Israel, through Moses, after they came out of Egypt: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5–6) Again he said: “For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:45)
Let us note that the words “holy” and “sanctified” have essentially the same meaning. “Holy” is the Anglo Saxon translation of the Latin sanctus. Sanctus has the same root as saint, one who has become holy, and the word “sanctified” signifies the process of having become holy or pure. The Anglo Saxon “holy” is a variation of the word “wholly,” which means complete or fully given to something. When our Savior said: “Be ye therefore perfect” he was saying, “Be ye therefore holy,” which is essentially the same as saying “Sanctify yourselves.”
So our task is to sanctify ourselves. This is another way of saying that we should come unto Christ and be perfected in Him, which is the theme of this stake conference. The question is: How is this to be done? How can we who are getting older do it before we all leave this mortal sphere? With a bit of temerity I offer a suggestion of the four steps each of us can take to sanctify ourselves, to become pure before the Lord and be able to endure His presence.
Step 1. Go back to the basics. Do what the Savior did with the children of Israel in the wilderness when they rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave them the Ten Commandments.
To build upon the Ten Commandments is to build one’s house upon the Rock of Christ. He it is that gave the Ten Commandments, and without them, no attempt to live a higher law can succeed.
Let us now review those commandments (Exodus 20:3–17):
- Thou shalt have no other gods before me. This is the preparation for having an eye single to the glory of God.
- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. This commandment is the preparation for serving God in spirit and in truth.
- Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain. Not taking the name of the Lord in vain is the preparation for using His name with correct authority as in priesthood ordinances and in receiving His name in the temple endowment.
- Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. This commandment is the beginning of consecration, wherein we give all to the Lord, not just one day.
- Honor thy father and thy mother. Honoring father and mother is the foundation for the great work of Elijah of binding up the generations of mankind back to Adam through the sealing power of the Holy Priesthood.
- Thou shalt not kill. This is the preparation for seeing all life as God-given, therefore very precious, and the basis for the celestial activity of filling the earth with posterity.
- Thou shalt not commit adultery. This commandment is the recognition of the sacredness of sexual relations with our spouse, and an absolutely necessary antecedent to receiving a continuation of the seed forever.
- Thou shalt not steal. This commandment is the basis for the celestial recognition that all things belong to God, including our own bodies, a necessary preparation for celestial stewardship.
- Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. This commandment is the basis for the celestial injunction to avoid every idle word, to say only what the Lord would have us say.
- Thou shalt not covet. This commandment enables us to remember to be content with what God has given us, a necessary preliminary for receiving all that the Father has and to use all we have in doing good for others under His direction.
As Paul so clearly says, the law of Moses was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that through Him and His sacrifice, we might add our own new sacrifice and obtain the greater blessings.
Step 2. The context for the new sacrifice was the New and Everlasting Covenant, beginning with the baptism as offered by John the Baptist, adding the bestowal of the Gift of the Holy Ghost which our Savior brought through His own priesthood, and going on to the exalting requirements of the Sermon on the Mount. Using the more clear and complete account of that sermon as found in the Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 12), we read: “1 Blessed are ye if ye shall give heed unto the words of these twelve whom I have chosen from among you to minister unto you, and to be your servants; and unto them I have given power that they may baptize you with water; and after that ye are baptized with water, behold, I will baptize you with fire and with the Holy Ghost; therefore blessed are ye if ye shall believe in me and be baptized, after that ye have seen me and know that I am.” Baptism of water and of fire brings to each of us the blessing of the great and last sacrifice of Jesus Christ: His atonement. If we have the broken heart and the contrite spirit, our own new sacrifice, we avail ourselves of His sacrifice and attain a true forgiveness of our sins, not just a symbolic forgiveness as under the Law of Moses. Being truly forgiven, we now have the power to progress, change, and learn under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, being able to make actual changes in our character and nature with the Lord’s divine assistance.
“3 Yea, blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Those who find themselves lacking the Holy Spirit will become rich in that spirit if they will come unto Christ and be born again.
“4 And again, blessed are all they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Blessed will be all who are sorry for their past sins, brokenhearted about them, who come unto Him in baptism, for they shall receive that greatest of all comforts, the Comforter Himself, to be their constant companion.
“5 And blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The meek are those who truly have a contrite spirit, who are willing to listen to and obey the whisperings of the Holy Spirit.
“6 And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.” Our Savior here gives us the great key to salvation: we must want it, as strongly as we want food and drink when we are starving. If we realize our fallen nature, admit that evil besets us continually, and desperately want to do good in place of evil, we make the best preparation possible for treasuring the Holy Spirit when it comes to us.
“7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” One of the indispensable marks of a true servant of Jesus Christ is that he or she forgives all others their trespasses. If we know that we are absolutely beholden to our Savior for forgiveness of our trespasses, and we understand that He cannot and will not forgive us until we forgive others, we will readily forgive others, and be merciful to them, so that we can obtain that merciful forgiveness for ourselves. Only in that state of forgiveness can we grow rapidly in the nurture of Christ to become like Him in heart, might, mind and strength.
“8 Blessed are all the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” This tells us that great, hopeful truth that when we have changed our character under the influence of the Holy Ghost and have become as much like our Savior as we can, He will then give us a new, pure heart. We then will no longer have any disposition to do evil, and the temptations of Satan will be as ineffective on us as they were on our Savior during His mortal ministry. In that state of purity we can then stand that greatest of all blessings, to be redeemed back into the presence of God and see Him, knowing Him even as he knows us. This is eternal life, to know our Savior, and to have Him introduce us to the Father. This is the highest possible culmination of human effort, and the reason for which each of us was born into mortality: to overcome the flesh and the world and to be brought back into the presence of those who love us most.
We need to go through the Sermon on the Mount as we would a checklist, pondering each statement of the Master to discern clearly what are the next steps we must take in our repentance, so that the temptations of the adversary might be as ineffective on us as they are on Him.
Let us turn now to the third thing we can do to come to Christ and be perfected in Him.
Step 3. Step three is to receive the full benefit of the blessings of the temple. As we begin the endowment, we first receive our washings and anointings, which part to me is the heart of the endowment. In this initial step, we receive all of the background blessings requisite to serve as kings and priests, queens and priestesses to the Most High. Each promise is precious and literally out of this world. Like the gift of the Holy Ghost given at the time of our confirmation, this ordinance does not literally give us the blessings, but rather the right to claim the blessings. We claim these blessings by our faith, repentance, and humble asking for each blessing, then treasuring and using each blessing so that we can retain them.
Next we need to fix in our minds and hearts an absolute determination to obey the instructions and commandments of God to us in every detail. We must be so firm in our minds, and our hearts must be so set on pleasing Father and His righteousness, that nothing can successfully tempt us to disobey Him. After their transgression, Adam and Eve did learn to obey God in all things. They came unto Christ, and were perfected in Him, and were redeemed from the Fall even in their mortal state. And we can be redeemed also if we will follow them and become completely obedient to God, in our repentance, even as they were.
And with Adam and Eve, we must also learn to sacrifice. To sacrifice is to give up or go without something of value. To sacrifice to obey God lets Him know where our values are, where our hearts are taking us and will take us. When we keep the sabbath day holy, we attend our church meetings and do the work of the kingdom, and we give up going to the movies, or shopping, or attending athletic events, or hunting or fishing. We give up the things that would please us in other circumstances in order to please God and to show Him that we really do hunger and thirst after His righteousness.
When we are dedicated and delivered to obedience and sacrifice, we are then ready to fully live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then and only then can we offer true faith in Jesus Christ, profound repentance that changes our hearts, minds and actions, and can fully receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands of those who have the true authority to bestow it. The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ can become the rule and the law of our lives only when firmly embedded in a context of humility that enables full obedience, and suffering that enables sufficient sacrifice. How precious and powerful is the Gospel law when toyed with by one who has not laid the foundation upon which to build the sturdy house. Whatever house we build, sturdy or flimsy, it will be the house we dwell in for eternity. For that house is our character, our own habits of doing good or of doing evil, or of some mixture. Those who are committed to full obedience and the sacrifice of everything of this world, perhaps even their own lives, are prepared through fully living the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ to build that character which will house the work of pure love and service to all eternity.
With the firmness of heart and mind that enables us to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we must pay special attention to the gifts which God has given us, particularly to the gift of a physical body which has the power of procreation. It is tempting to look at the plants and animals of the earth which procreate so faithfully and to take procreation as something entirely common, natural, and casual. But procreation and the personal relations which enable it in human beings must never be taken as common, natural and casual for those who are made in the image of God Himself. You and I are literal children of God, gods in embryo, potential heirs of all that is good and godly in the universe. You and I were begotten in the spirit by parents who recognized their procreation as a task most holy, of the essence of their holy work to bless others, to share in all of their powers and blessings. God will have a people who are sexually pure, who accept and love Him, and who will not sell their birthright for that mess of pottage which is illicit physical pleasure. He does not ask us to give up the opportunity of sexual relations, but he pleads with us to have our pleasure only within bounds, only with the one He has appointed unto each of us through holy matrimony to cooperate with in procreation. Is this too much to ask of those with whom He is trying to share all His powers for eternity? Certainly not. And this requirement turns out to be one of the great keys to the possession of all things.
Those who will be and are sexually pure are then ready to give all things to God for His use in blessing His other children. Giving all things to Him is another key to the possession of all things. If we are willing to give all things we hand our power over to God for His use. He will be willing to give all things in His power for our use to do the work of righteousness for eternity. This is the great opportunity of consecration. To consecrate is to set something aside as holy, to dedicate it to the work of Christ, to bless His children in the time present in this world, and to continue that consecration to all eternity. We consecrate all that we possess or control to that same end.
A Latter-day Saint armed with demonstrated obedience, willingness to sacrifice all things of this world, living the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, sexually pure and fully consecrated, is ready to receive the greatest blessings eternity has to offer: the blessings of celestial marriage in the holy temple wrought be the power of God Himself. This calling to the patriarchal order of eternity is the preparation for living in eternity in family kingdoms, exactly as does our Father in Heaven. If a couple have laid an adequate, secure foundation for this step in keeping the ten commandments, profiting from the Sermon on the Mount, enjoying faithfulness to the blessings and promises of the endowment, they stand on path to exaltation. That path leads them to learn to be a good husband and wife, good father and mother, even as they have learned hitherto to be good children to a perfect Father in Heaven and to an imperfect mortal father and mother.
I need to say a word to all of you who are single at this point. Being single is not of itself a barrier to exaltation and the great blessings Father is trying to give to all of us through Jesus Christ. Being single is also an opportunity to benefit from the blessings of the Ten Commandments, The Sermon on the Mount and the Temple Endowment. If you live each day in obedience to all that you know and understand of the ways of Christ, role acting with Him as if He were your spouse, striving in all things to become pure, selfless, full of love for all, abounding in good works, the time you spend single is also efficacious for you in coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him. If you will use each day of mortality as a delightful challenge and opportunity to prove your faith in Christ and your willingness to be a good spouse: cooperative, humble, prayerful, cheerful and full of love, you will also gain the character which will enable you to live with a divinely appointed spouse in the due time of the Lord. Remember that the greatest weapon of Satan on the faithful is despair. If you will count your blessings instead of your trials and frustrations, you will not be stopped from growing in the nurture of the Lord and becoming ready to receive all your promised blessings at Hi hand. God is good, He is fair. He will not shorten anyone’s blessings in eternity because of the circumstances of time over which they had no control. Trust in Him, grow in Him, come unto Christ and be perfected in Him and you will find that your eventual blessings will surpass your fondest hopes.
Now we come to Step 4, the capstone and polishing of our coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him. I commend to you Moroni Chapter 7, which is the great sermon of Mormon on faith, hope and charity. If we will carefully review chapter 7 frequently, and are able to assure ourselves as we do this that we are acting with all of our being in true faith in Jesus Christ, in true hope in Jesus Christ, and in the pure love of Jesus Christ, then indeed have we put it all together and have come unto Christ.
If we think we have true faith, hope and charity, there is a proof in the pudding. If we have those things we will love God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength, and will love our neighbor as ourselves. Having fulfilled the two great commandments, there is a reward. Our Savior will give us a new heart, which is pure. And when we have a pure heart, he will reveal Himself to us, and we will be redeemed from the Fall. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Why would anyone want a pure heart and to be redeemed from the Fall? Because then our efforts to do good will have no impediment. If there is anything that will perfect our marriage, draw our children close to us and to the Lord, enable us to succeed in our church callings, and to confront every challenge the world offers us, it is having a pure heart and a pure love, to do what our Savior would do if He were in our place. This is coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him.
It is my prayer that each of us will take our God-given opportunity of coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him to our hearts, and do it, that we will have no regret when this mortal life is over. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.