07 Book of Mormon Calling and Election by Mike Stroud Podcast (transcribed by Carol Crisp)

Transcription

1 07 Book of Mormon Calling and Election by Mike Stroud Podcast (transcribed by Carol Crisp) So, these precious promises that are given to us by the Lord, is that you will be sealed up to eternal life, but now, at this point, we are promised that this can happen, that it's available, but the big, little word is only 2 letters long: IF. Conditional. We hear this every time we go to the temple. In the temple we are told that you are promised to become a king and a queen, a priest and a priestess, and you are even anointed that this can and will happen to you IF you are true and faithful. So, in the temple we hear these words: 'Brothers and Sisters, if you are true and faithful, the day will come when you will be chosen, called up and anointed kings and priests, queens and priestesses.' But right now, you're only promised that it's available. Then, it says, 'The realization of these blessings depends upon your faithfulness'. So, this big word 'faithfulness' ties into this little word IF. So, what we're learning now is that it is available, possible, can be done, and it can be done in this life. In fact, we're told to seek after this in this life. So, we want to have this blessing realized. We want something to happen to us where we remove this condition of "if" and we actually are sealed up to eternal life. Right now you've been promised that it can happen. We want that to move now, from the promise it 'can happen' to the 'actual event'. That's what we want. That's what the temple is promising you, every time you go through there. Then, the rest of the endowment teaches you how to realize this promise, and have it 'locked in'. The whole purpose of the temple endowment is how to move you from 'available, possible, can do if you're faithful'... to actually 'sealed up'. So, what we do is we go from a condition (available, possible, can do if you're faithful) to a guarantee. So, it is possible for us, in this life, to receive this exceeding precious promise to be sealed up to eternal life. That means 'to have your exaltation guaranteed'. You now know, while you're here on earth, that you are going to be exalted. Right now, we sit here and say, 'I want that', 'I desire that', 'I know the Lord has promised me that I can have that if I'm faithful'. He's even told me that 'I can move from desire and condition on up to guarantee an actual experience, where I can have eternal life sealed on me in this life'. Another word for 'eternal life' brothers and sisters, is that you are now promised that you are to be a god. You now have, sealed upon you, the promise to be a god or a goddess. What's another word for god or goddess? A father, a mother. Same thing. A father in heaven and a mother in heaven is the same thing as a god and a goddess. What's another word for those? King and queen. Another word for that is priest and priestess. It's all the same. So, you can have, sealed upon you, these great blessings and promises to be a god/goddess, a mother/father, and a king/queen. You can do that now in this life. That's what's available to us. When this actually happens to you, there is an experience that takes place that's tied in with this. It's called 'making your calling and election sure'. I'm going to break that wording up. Remember the conditional part of the promise of obtaining these great and precious blessings? The IF part: if you are faithful, applies to these 2 parts. The election part and the calling part. You have already been 'elected' and 'called', everyone in this room. If you've been to the temple, you've been called and elected. What's missing is, 'to make your calling and election sure'. That's your guarantee of this whole precious promise. So, we're already to this 'called and elected' point. Now, what we're working on is to make it sure. The sure part is to be sealed up to eternal life by a priesthood ordinance, by revelation, by priesthood power, or by the voice of God himself. Does that make sense? So, when the prophet Joseph Smith says, 'Brethren, do everything you can to make your calling and election', that would not be anything, because, as a member of the church, and having gone to the temple and received your temple blessings, you've already been called and elected. You're elected to what? Well, you're called to the temple, and through the process of the temple, you are elected to become what? A priest and a king. A queen and a priestess. A mother and father in heaven. A god and a goddess. That's your election. You've already been elected. Now, what you need to do is: make that election sure. Make it happen! (An answer to a student: This 'calling' doesn't have anything to do with church callings.) This is called, and given the privilege, blessings and rights of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and all the ordinances: baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost. That's your calling. You've been called to come out of the world, into the church. Now, the church calling is to come into favorable contact with the doctrines and the principles and some of the ordinances of the restoration ie. baptism, the sacrament, all of those ordinances we have in the church. The next step now is to go to the temple, and when you go to the temple, you now receive other ordinances that take you from calling, on up to election. Election, here, means you are elected. What do we do when we elect someone here in politics? We are voting. In other words, someone recommends you, and you're voted in. Do we do that in the church? What about this stuff (on the board) right here? It's not like politics. God elects you to become something other than what you are. You are invited. You are elected to step up and become something more. So, it's not like politics, even though we use

2 the same word. You are elected to become something that you couldn't become without the temple, without the ordinances, without the members in the church. Can I just tell you that NO non-member can do this? This is impossible to do outside the church. You have to come into the church covenant to even begin the process of calling and election. At the point of baptism, you have been called. We have a song, "Come to Zion, come to Zion". What is that? It's a call. We're calling them to come to Zion from where? Babylon. "Babylon the great is falling". 'Come out of Babylon'. God calls you out of Babylon and says, 'come into the church'. Then, when you're in the church, the Lord calls you to come to the temple. You receive some ordinances, some covenants in the church, and if you don't go to the temple, your progress is stopped. For a member of the church who never makes it to the temple, their progress is stopped. Their election progress is stopped. They can never make it sure. Everything is stopped. You've heard me say this. The purpose of membership in the church, the grand purpose, is to bring people out of the world, into where? Into the church, and into the temple. Like baptism by water is only half of baptism. If you have baptism by water and you don't have baptism of the Spirit, and the Holy Ghost, your baptism of water is worthless. Joseph Smith says you might as well baptize a bag of sand, if all you do is baptize by water. So, it's baptism by water for the remission of sins AND the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. So, these exceeding precious promises are not available to you unless you come out of the world into the church, come out of the church into the temple, and receive all those blessings in the temple, and THEN these exceeding precious promises are available. Then, you are told you can do this. I promise you can do this if you are true and faithful. Not only can you do it now, but it will be sealed on your head at some future time. Brothers and sisters, if you are true and faithful, the day will come. You don't hear those words at church. The only place you hear those words is in the Temple of the Lord. So, if you never get to the temple, it's not available. So, President, do you see how important it is, that we get our members to the temple, so that they receive these temple blessings? Because, members of the church that never make it to the temple, it frustrates the purpose of their membership. It frustrates it. So, yes, it's different than our church callings. It's to come in to Zion, into the restoration, to enjoy the blessings, and step up into the church, up into the temple and through all those covenants you're called and elected. Now, if you are true and faithful, the day will come when that will be made sure. What I want to talk to about now is, how does that happen? How does the 'sure' part take place? Your calling and election made sure, as I understand it, can be done in 2 different ways. By the way, every time in the scriptures you run across this word, pay attention to it. Whenever you see that word, you're looking at some kind of unconditional blessing or reward; something that's very special, when you see the word 'sure'. Student (Steve): Is that kind of out there with the word 'fulness'? Mike: Yes, it is. When you start to think along these terms, then you can do that. Another name for this kind of stuff is 'being sealed up to eternal life' and 'having your calling and election made sure'. Another name for this is 'the fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood'. So, as we become more knowledgable on these things, we could just say, "We want to work to have the fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood." In that, what you've done is to be sealed up to eternal life, you've made your calling and election sure. That all means the same thing. So, this is the 'fulness', and this means, "receive all that you can in this life". So, 'a fulness of the priesthood', means that you receive all the blessings that you can in this life. There is much more that can be received, because that fulness goes into eternity, but it's all you can get here. So, if Bro. Stroud, or President Sevalia receives the fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood, that means that it is all of the priesthood blessings that you can receive in this life. Is there more blessings in the next world? Yes! There's much more, but you can't get more than this while a mortal in the telestial world. That's what that means. This all that is available to anyone to receive while here in this telestial world. One person can't get more than that while here. Listen to what President Joseph Fielding Smith said about this, "Do not think because someone has a higher office in the church than you have (as in a stake president, district president, bishop or general authority, or the president or an apostle) that you are barred from receiving the fulness of the Lord's blessings". You can have them sealed upon you as an elder. So, position and calling in the church, doesn't mean anything. Now watch, "And when you receive them and live them faithfully, and keep the covenants, you then have all that any man can get", and I would put in: in this life. The only place in the scriptures where that is used is D&C 124. Let's go there. Now, this fulness of the priesthood, you have to have temple ordinances in order to receive these blessings. Let's look at this, and we've done this before in here, but let's go first to vs. 27. What the Lord is doing here is giving a commandment to Joseph Smith to build the Nauvoo Temple. 27. And with iron, with copper, and with brass, and with zinc, and with all your precious things of the earth; and build a house to my name, for the Most High to dwell therein. So, here

3 the Lord gives a commandment to build the temple. Why? Vs. 28: For there is not a place found on earth that he may come to and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even the fulness of the priesthood. Okay, that is the only place in all of the scriptures where that is mentioned: "even the fulness of the priesthood". What does it mean? It means to be sealed up to eternal life, to have your calling and election made sure, to receive a guarantee in this life from God himself, that you will be exalted, that you will have a place in the highest degree of the celestial world. That's the exceeding great and precious promise. Is there a greater promise than that? How does this happen, this making your calling and election sure, to be sealed up to eternal life? It replaces the 'conditional IF'. Let's look at a couple places where it has happened. Let's go to D&C 132:49. Here's where Joseph Smith receives his calling and election made sure. 49 For I am the Lord thy God, and will be with thee even unto the end of the world, and through all eternity; for verily I seal upon you your exaltation, and prepare a throne for you in the kingdom of my Father, with Abraham your father. What just happened to Joseph Smith right there? He was sealed up to eternal life, and that means the same as what? His calling and election was made sure. What did he just receive there? The fulness of the priesthood. That is the same thing. All of these tie together, even though there's an ordinance involved that we'll talk about in a minute. It all means the same. Remember that the fulness of the priesthood means to receive the promises of God, everything that he can give you in this life. You can't get any more, in this life, because once we leave this life, there is so much more. But, while we're here, these blessings are the promise and the realization of everything that God can give you while you're here in mortality. Let's look at another one. Some of them are a little bit more obscure. Let's go to Mosiah 26:20. This is talking about Alma. Go to the chapter heading and it says what Alma is promised here, in this chapter. "Alma is promised eternal life". Now you see how all the parts start to fit? Exceeding precious promises. So, Alma has his calling and election made sure. He's sealed up to eternal life, and received the fulness of the priesthood. 20. Thou art my servant; and I covenant with thee that thou shalt have eternal life; and thou shalt serve me and go forth in my name, and shalt gather together my sheep. Did Alma receive a promise from the Lord right there? Yes, so Alma's calling and election is made sure, and he also received something called the fulness of the priesthood. Let's go back to Section 132 and let me show you something very interesting. Section 132 is towards the end of the D & C. It's almost at the end of the book. So, you might think that this promise was given near the end of Joseph's life, wouldn't you? If you notice in the preface to the section, this revelation was given through Joseph Smith as early as 1831, and was recorded July 12, So, when did Joseph have his calling and election made sure? It was written down in 1843, but this information was originally revealed around 1 year after the church was restored. Isn't that interesting? So, Joseph knew at an early age. How old was Joseph? He was born in 1805, and this was given in He was 26 years old when he had his calling and election made sure. Isn't that great? When a person's calling and election is made sure, there is a pattern that I've been able to see in the scriptures. There are two ways that this can happen. Maybe there's more, but I only know of 2 ways. Let's talk about the first way. I know of two ways that 'calling and election made sure' and 'sealed up to eternal life' can happen. Way number one: There is something called the more sure (there's that word again) word of prophecy. Let's analyze words here for just a minute. What does the word 'prophecy' mean? What do prophecies do? Student: It's revelation from God, given to man, about the past, present and future. Mike: Okay, but prophecies usually point in what direction? Prophecies usually (maybe not always) point in the future. The prophecies concerning the Son of God in the Old Testament, from Isaiah and all of the prophets, all of those prophecies, he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid, as it were, our faces from him, he was bruised for our iniquity, he was wounded for our transgressions, with his stripes we are healed, they are talking about something in the future. In our day, what future event is a prophecy for us? The second coming is a prophecy for the future. So, this is called the more sure word of prophecy. I want you to lock in the word prophecy and know that whatever this is, it's pointing to something in the future. Student mentions the Book of Mormon as a prophecy for the future. Now watch: the more sure word of prophecy. By the way, this comes from God, and he promises you, with his own voice, that some future event will be yours. So, now let's watch what happens. Here's where God comes, and with his own voice, says 3 things that I can find from scripture and from people who have had this experience, and have shared it. #1: He calls you by name. You don't see him. This is not a personal visitation. You hear his voice, so you are not

4 seeing him. This is important. Student: Is that an audible voice, or a voice in your mind? Mike: You know, I don't know. Those people I have talked to, and the ones in the scriptures, it seems to be an audible voice. But, he can speak inside you, and you think it's an audible voice. The point is, when it happens to you, there is no mistaking that it's his voice, and you understand it perfectly well, what he is saying. #2: He says, "Your sins are forgiven". Every one that I have heard about, have had this experience. #3: A couple of things. One can say that "Thou shalt have eternal life". That's a promise in there, and, then, maybe one more. This ties in with that: "Thou shalt be blessed". Now, the important part about this, brothers and sisters, this is the voice of God speaking to you. No body else is there. It's private. When it happens to Sis. Sevalia, no one else will hear it. It's a private thing between you and God. Here's my question for you. When you hear God's voice, who is this God that's speaking? Whose voice are you hearing? There's God, the Father, there's God, the Son, and there's God, the Holy Ghost. So, whose voice are you hearing? I think this is the Father. (My opinion, I can't prove that.) I'm growing in this knowledge, right? From what I see in the scriptures, I think it's the voice of God, the Father. Now, when this happens to you, the more sure word of prophecy, all of these things under way #1, are the same as being sealed up unto eternal life, and having your calling and election made sure. It's just like when people have heard, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear him". Now, I'm going to show you a couple of things. Remember that there are two ways that you can have your calling and election made sure. This is one way. You don't see God. You hear his voice speaking personally to you. Let me give you an example. Heber C. Kimball is walking down the road, and he's all alone. I don't know if he was coming or going on a mission, but the Holy Ghost came to him and said, "Heber, sit down and write." That's the Holy Spirit. So, Heber sits down by the side of the road, takes out a pencil, a scrap of paper, puts it in front of him, and he starts to write. A voice said to him, "Heber, my son." Then he talks to him and says, "Thy sins are forgiven thee. I seal you up to eternal life that where I am, you may be also." That's calling and election made sure, through what's called the more sure word of prophecy. That's the name of this process. The people I know that have had their calling and election made sure, most of them had it through this way. There is a second way that we haven't talked about yet. Student talks about when Samuel, the boy in the temple, was talked to 3 times, who was it talking to him? Mike: I think it was Christ, because Christ was the God of the O.T. Samuel was asleep and a voice calls to him and he answers, "Yea, Lord". Samuel goes back to sleep. The voice again, "Samuel". "Yes, Lord". Third time he hears the voice, he goes in to see Eli. Eli tells him to ask the voice what it wants. So, the third time when Samuel hears the voice, he answers, "Yea Lord, thy servant heareth, speak." Then Samuel has a conversation with God. Now, the God that Samuel is speaking with is Christ, Jehovah. The voice we're hearing, in this lesson, is the Father. Let's see if it's true. Let's look at the classic example of calling and election. What do you think is the best scriptural example of this is? Let's go to the Joseph Smith story, in Joseph Smith History. Sis. Stroud and I just discovered this this week! We were studying these things this week, and as we were driving on Thursday, all of a sudden, we had this thought. Let's go to Joseph Smith--History in the P of GP vs. 17. Look up to our points here, for a minute: He calls you by name, your sins are forgiven, thou shalt have eternal life. Let's see what happens here in vs. 17: It no sooner appeared (the pillar of light) than I found myself delivered from the enemy (Satan) which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. (How many people are there? Two.) One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, (One of the persons spoke to Joseph, calling him by name, and said what?) pointing to the other This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him! So, who was the first person to speak, calling Joseph by name? The Father. I think that what we have here is calling and election. Now watch, the second part is, he is talking to Jesus Christ, which is the Second Comforter. So, isn't it interesting that the Father's voice seals him up to eternal life, and the next step is, he has the Second Comforter. Turn the page, and let me show you something. Vs. 20: He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home. And as I leaned up to the fireplace, mother inquired what the matter was. I replied, Never mind, all is well I am well enough off. I then said to my mother, I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true. It seems as though the adversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why should the

5 powers of darkness combine against me? Why the opposition and persecution that arose against me, almost in my infancy? Well, I got to looking into this. Do you know what some of the things are that God the Father said to Joseph Smith, at this time? Listen to this: In Joseph Smith's 1832 account, in the 1835 account, in the 1840 account, in the 1842 account of The First Vision, all four accounts, that when Joseph was called by name, what do you think the next thing God said to J.S. was? "Joseph, thy sins are forgiven thee". In all four accounts he was called by name and forgiven of his sins. Interesting! Let me show you where this is at in the scriptures. The more sure word of prophecy is D&C 131:5. This is a definition of the more sure word of prophecy. 5 (May 17th, 1843.) The more sure word of prophecy means a man s knowing that he is sealed up unto eternal life, by revelation and the spirit of prophecy, through the power of the Holy Priesthood. So, the more sure word of prophecy means knowing you are sealed up unto eternal life. Knowing. The promises (up above) are 'made sure'. When you know that you are sealed up to eternal life, that promise is now made sure. Let's stop and talk about this for a minute before I show you the second way. This is one of two ways you can make your calling and election sure, be sealed up to eternal life, and receive the fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Student asks about patriarchal blessings. Patriarchal blessings are a prophecy. Everything you receive in that blessing is future (it will, it shall, you will, everything pointing forward). My patriarchal blessing says I was born of goodly parents, so that's past. It also says I was one of God's chosen sons, and that's past. So, most of your blessing is pointing towards things in the future. Your P. blessing is a prophetic, promised blessing that shows you what your destiny can be, tells you what to watch out for, warns you of dangers, in some cases it tells you that you are going to be married and have children, and in some cases, it doesn't. It is a prophetic blessing that promises you certain things, but at the end of the blessing it always says this, "These blessings I seal upon you are according to your faithfulness". There it is, it's the same thing. They are condi-tional. All blessings, all covenants in the church, brothers and sisters, are conditional except this (that we're talking about). This doctrine here takes all the blessings of the church that are conditional, and makes them unconditional. It removes all the faithfulness clauses, the ifs, and now seals on you the actual blessing. If you have the fulness of the priesthood (he then refers to President Sibalya, living in ) nothing's changed. You're still here. You've still got to drive your truck, and run your boat. You've still got to make a living and feed your family. The only difference is, you now know, by God's own voice to you personally, that you are now a 'priesthood king', and at some future day, you will rule and reign over the House of Israel in eternity, forever. You now know that. It's not a question of, "Oh, I wonder if I will ever get there? I wonder if this will ever happen to me? Oh, I hope it happens." All that's gone. You're still doing the same thing day in and day out, you're still leading your group of people in the church, you're still earning a living, you're still taking care of your kids, but you know something now that you didn't know before. You now have a precious promise, sealed on you. And, by the way, when this happens, you can't tell anyone about it! That's the other part. You can't talk about it. If you are allowed to talk to any-body, it will only be your wife. If this happens to you, even then, you have to have permission from the Holy Ghost, from God, to share it. So, it's kept private. And sisters, if this happens to you, when you have these kinds of experiences, you're not going to be allowed to tell everyone. If this happens to you, before him, you have to have permission to share it. You just can't go out and talk about it. It's so sacred, personal, precious. Student mentions the incident with Martin Harris, finally getting permission to take the 116 pages from Joseph Smith, and promising to show them to only 3 people. He went out and showed them to many people, breaking his covenant. Do you think Martin ever had these blessings here? Maybe. But he sure had to be tried first, to see if he could be trusted. Student asks if this event finishes your faith. Mike: Not yet. You still have faith in all of this. As a matter of fact, it's because of your faithfulness, if you are true and faithful, this will happen. The faith is finished when you step through the veil and see the Savior. Then your faith is finished. This precious promise comes before the Second Comforter (Jesus Christ). Student (??) Mike: You're in the process of becoming perfect right now. Let me ask you a question. When you have your calling and election made sure, are you perfect? No. Do you still commit sins? You can. You're not perfect yet. You're still in the telestial world. You have to watch out, because you can still make mistakes. T he difference between a called, elected and made sure person and us, is that when they make a mistake, they don't hesitate to repent. They do it quickly and thoroughly and do everything they can to repair any damage. Those who aren't called, elected and made sure try to hide it. They hope it will go away. If I don't say anything, people will forget. That's the difference. So, you're not perfect here, but you have obtained a level of excellency and

6 perfection and cleanliness. This is all part of sanctifying, perfecting and cleansing, so that you can enter the presence of the Lord. Let's go to step/way number 2. Remember that there are two ways to make your calling and election made sure, that I know of. Maybe there's more. Way number two is through a temple ordinance. The name of this temple ordinance is the second anointing. We can't talk about what this is, because it's so sacred. It's very sacred. But, I can tell you that it is a temple ordinance, which means that this temple ordinance is performed under the direction of the President of the Church. This ordinance, which is way number 2, is a second way for you to make your calling and election sure, to be sealed up to eternal life, and to receive the fulness of the priesthood. President Monson, right now, is the only man on earth who can perform this ordinance, or who authorizes persons to perform this ordinance. On the more sure word of prophecy, an interesting thing is for way number 1, that can happen to a man, or it can happen to a woman, separately. Way number two happens to couples only. So, the temple ordinance of having your calling and election made sure, if it's done in the temple, way number 2, it has to be done with a husband and a wife. Now, I asked myself the question: Why two ways? Why are there two ways to do this. Sis. Stroud and I were talking about this. It shows the grace and mercy of our Father in Heaven and his Son, Jesus Christ for all of his children. There are many worthy individuals who can't go to the temple with a worthy spouse, because either, they don't have one, or their spouse is not worthy to go there. So, they're kept from that. So, way number one, in my way of thinking, is that it is a way for individuals to be called up, chosen, anointed, and made sure, who don't have a husband or wife that can go as a worthy couple. The other reason is this. The first way can be done by people all over the world, because God knows you. There's only one president of the church. There's only twelve in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, there's only three in the First Presidency, there's only 70 in the First Quorum of Seventies, and I believe (my opinion now) the First Presidency have the authority to perform this ordinance, and I know that the apostles have the authority to perform this ordinance. I think that members of the First Quorum of Seventies, when authorized by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve, can also perform this ordinance. I'm not sure of that one, but I do know that there are 15 men who can perform this. Well, how many worthy men and women are there church-wide that could be considered for this ordinance? Maybe thousands of them. If that were to be done just by this group of people, they wouldn't be able to get anything else done! They would be so busy doing this. This is my feeling. So, the other way, the more sure word of prophecy, is a way for you to achieve the same thing, to be sealed up to eternal life, have your calling and election made sure, but not require you to go into a temple under the direction of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve, and be married--to have a husband or wife, in order to do it. Even if you were to take 10% of the members of the church, that would be a big chunk of people. You're looking at thousands of people to be 'called up'. Can I share a little something that I've learned? I think the day is coming when we're going to see more of this done in the temples. In the temple when it says, "If you are true and faithful, the day will come when you will be chosen, called up, and anointed kings and queens, priests and priestesses, but now you're anointed only to become such". So now, watch. You and I, if we've been through the temple, have already received our first anointing. Is that right? So, what this ordinance does, it does it for a second time. Everything is a pattern. The first one is conditional. The second one is a guarantee. The first one is 'to become such'. The second 'is such'. We won't talk about what's going on here. We know some things but it doesn't matter. The only important part is that this temple ordinance called 'the second anointing' also makes your calling and election sure, seals you up to eternal life as a husband and wife, as a couple, and bestows upon you the fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood. So, there are two ways this can happen. The ones we have read about in the Book of Mormon were the first way, because there were no temples at those times, and the same when Joseph Smith received his, "Joseph, I seal upon you your exaltation...". He didn't know about these things yet. Joseph didn't learn about this ordinance until a few months before he was murdered. So, way back in 1831, when the Lord says, "Joseph, my son, I seal you up to eternal life", that was way number one. When these were first done with Joseph in Nauvoo, they were done in a red brick store. There was no temple yet. Joseph knew he would die before this temple was finished and ready for ordinances. He said, "I will never live to see the Nauvoo Temple completed". So, Joseph Smith was the only man on earth, and as President of the Church, to hold the keys of this temple ordinance. It's supposed to be done in a temple. Do you know what one of Joseph's greatest fears was? It was that he would die before he could transfer this knowledge and these priesthood keys over to the Quorum of the Twelve. When he finally gave the keys of the priesthood to all the Twelve, the men around him said it was like a huge burden had been lifted off him. He said,

7 "Now brethren, I have rolled the keys of this kingdom off on your shoulders. Be men, and stand up under it, for the Lord is now going to let me rest." You know what that rest was. Martyrdom. We don't have a temple, so what did Joseph do? He had a two-story store there in Nauvoo, and he goes in there. Downstairs was the store and upstairs was his office. His house was across the street. Joseph went upstairs and said he wouldn't live to do this in the temple, so he hung some curtains from the ceiling. He divided off the room into small rooms behind curtains. They brought in a bunch of plants in pots and put them around the "garden of Eden room". Then you would go through a curtain, and next you would have the "world room" or the telestial kingdom. Then you went through the curtain and next was the "terrestrial room". Then you went into another room and passed through a veil and then you were in the "celestial room". And all these rooms were inside a small room to begin with. Here in the 2nd floor of this red brick store were the first endowments done, in this dispensation. The first endowments in 2000 years took place here! Later on, Joseph brought some of those men who had been endowed, with their wives, and did this second anointing ordinance, and sealed husbands and wives up to eternal life. I think, if I remember correctly, it was done on May 2, 1843, and there were about 9 couples involved in this. Then Joseph went to Brigham Young. Brigham was one of the first people to get the endowment. He said, "It's not exactly right yet." Joseph is being rushed. He wanted to take a little more time here, and says it is not quite right yet, but it is good enough. Now, you take what I've shown you here and you ask the Lord, and the Lord will show you what the rest of it is. What we have today is the finished product of what started then, in that red brick store, upstairs. Isn't that a great story? After Joseph died, they didn't do any more of these. No more endowments. No more second anointings, until the Nauvoo Temple was built. When they went into the Nauvoo Temple in January of 1846, nearly two years after Joseph's death, they did endowments day and night. They did not shut down. The temple doors were not locked. They kept going constantly, because they knew they would be leaving Nauvoo shortly, and would be going West. This was their last temple, and they knew it would be years before a temple would be available again. Thousands of the Latter-day Saints received their temple blessings and many of them received their second anointing blessings, in the Nauvoo Temple. Then, they got in their wagons, went across the river, and left the whole thing behind. So, hundreds of the LDS who went across the plains, had received their first anointing and endowment, and some of them had received their second anointing, before leaving Nauvoo. Then, it was years later when the first temple in the West was ready for use, in St. George, UT. I think it was completed in the 1870's. The second temple completed was the Logan Temple, then next was the Manti Temple. The Salt Lake Temple was the fourth to be completed. It took 40 years to finish the SLC Temple, around Before the SL Temple was completed, they built a special building on the grounds of the temple called "The Endowment House". Here they did many of these things, until the temple was completed. It was a 'temporary temple'. It was torn down, when the large temple was completed. Student asks about a man who had died in an inactive state in the Church, after having been to the temple previously, and is wondering about his chances. Mike says there is always a chance, with repentance. Mercy can't rob justice, so it's up to the man, and the Lord. After you have taken on covenants in the temple, then die, outside those covenants, it's always more serious than if you had never taken them on yourself. At the same time, the Lord takes into account situations, environment, background, personalities...there's so many things that can come into that. What we say is that 'the Lord will judge and his judgment will be fair'. We can't judge these things ourselves. I can say that mercy will bless us more than we expect. That's the way I feel about the Savior's mercy, but there are still consequences for your actions. There are penalties for disobedience, but the Lord's mercy is overflowing. One last thing that we didn't talk about. Everything in the gospel prepares you for something else. The Aaronic P. prepares you for Melchizedek P. The Holy Spirit prepares you for the Holy Ghost. The H.G. prepares you for the gift of the H.G. Church membership prepares you for temple attendance. Everything is designed to do this. So, calling and election made sure is a preparatory step for receiving another exceeding precious promise. That is to receive the Second Comforter. We've talked in some length about that. The S.C. is what? It's to have a personal visitation with the Savior, himself, in this life. Calling and election made sure, the more sure word of prophecy, being sealed up to eternal life, the second anointing, all of that, prepares you for that interview. It's another step up. It's possible to have your calling and election made sure and receive the fulness of the priesthood and never have this S.C. experience. It's possible, because even after you have this experience, and know that you are sealed up to eternal life, you don't know that Christ exists. You have faith that Christ exists and he's there, and

8 he can do what he wants. That has not become sure. So, what the S.C. does is, if we want to use this word 'sure', the S.C. gives you a sure knowledge of the actual existence of Christ. You now see him face to face. Your faith is finished, and your knowledge of Christ is sure, just as your knowledge of your future eternal life is now sure. So, there is no more faith in any one of these. You now have a sure knowledge that: #1 You're going to be sealed up to eternal life and #2 that Jesus Christ actually does exist. You have seen him, and touched him. He has embraced you. He has laid his hands on your head and given you a blessing, and there's no more faith involved in that. So, when we say that Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, the doctrine of calling and election made sure is the finisher of that whole progress to that point. Now, you know. Faith is not required any more, that you're going to have an inheritance in the celestial world. You now know that. How do you know that? God's own voice told you. You can't know any better than that. If I came up to you and said, "Sister Sibalyia, I, Mike Stroud, promise you eternal life", that's one thing. If God the Father comes to you and says, "My daughter, I now seal upon you eternal life", see the difference? See, that's a sure word: I now seal upon you. The Second Comforter is a sure knowledge of the Savior, that he is the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Son of God, and it doesn't get any more sure than that. These are the "exceeding great and precious promises" that we have available. It can happen to you. That's the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.