025 OLD Book of Mormon Classes: What is the purpose of the Melchizedek Priesthood? Transcribed by Julie Kidman

Transcription

1 025 OLD Book of Mormon Classes: What is the purpose of the Melchizedek Priesthood? Transcribed by Julie Kidman A couple of questions that I want to ask and we ll put one on the board now. That is: What is the purpose of the Melchizedek Priesthood? And then the other question that I want to put down here is (you d think that we d know the answer to this): What is the priesthood? Now we have this second question, what is the priesthood? We have readily memorized statements on that that we can shoot out as members of the church real quickly. Can you give me a readily memorized statement on What is the Priesthood? what is the common thing that we hear in the church? Student: The holy power of God to act in His name here on the earth. That definition usually includes two words. The power and authority. Those are two words; power and authority given to man to act in the name of God. Is that a true definition? It is. That s a true definition. Like everything in the gospel, we have different levels and the more that you seek and the more that you are diligent, you can understand different levels of almost all gospel things. So, I m going to come back to this one in just a minute; what is the priesthood? I d like to come up here and ask, what is the purpose of the Melchizedek Priesthood? Student: To bring salvation. Ok, Salvation. To bring us the salvation. Good. I m going to give you a couple of key words. Let s put ordinations. Is that right? Conferrals. Whenever you ask in the church What s the purpose of the priesthood? these are some of the things that you re going to hear. I m going to put Ordinances that then covers all of those. Student: What is conferrals? To confer the priesthood. How about this one, annointings, healings. We could probably list several more up here, do you want to put a couple of more? Student: Comfort the sick. Ok, healing the sick. Now what I want to show you is that all of these things aren t the purpose of the priesthood. These things are the processes of the priesthood. Salvation would be towards the purpose of the priesthood. But the rest of these and many more would describe more the processes of the priesthood than it does the purpose. Scripturally there is only one purpose of the priesthood that I can find. I can only find one purpose of the priesthood. That is to bring men and women... I m going to clarify that a little bit to be more specific... to bring men

2 and women into God s presence. Now I m going to add something to that. Here s the mystery hidden in plain sight. The number one purpose of the priesthood is To bring people into God s presence. I want to add something here. Preferably in this life. That s what I want to add and I want to define this life as mortality. While we re still mortals. So, get the feeling of being brought into the presence of God. Literally standing in his presence, one on one, face to face and having Him give you some privileges and promises that only He can deliver. Angels can t do it. It has to be a message, a ministry, a promise and a privilege that only is delivered to you personally by Him face to face and do it now in this life. Scripturally that is the only purpose that I can find for priesthood, I m sure there are others. Salvation in a broad sense but in this light scripturally. Why in this life? Why? Question. Is it necessary to have this experience in this life in order to claim exaltation in the celestial world in the next life? Student: It s easier. Steve: It s not necessarily easier to see Him in this life but it is more rewarding if we see Him in this life and it also brings us blessings. Can you imagine knowing that you ve done everything that you can to gain exaltation? You ve crossed the finish line. Now the only thing that you have to do the only thing that you re able to do is to be His servant and do what He wants you to do to draw people to Him. Knowing that you re already there, that s a tremendous blessing I would think. Let me show you what Steve s talking about. There is an advantage... the point is you do not have to have this 2 nd comforter, enter into the rest of the Lord, experience in this life in order to claim and inherit an exaltation in the highest degree of the celestial world but there are definite advantages to doing it in this life. Let s go to D&C 50 and let me show you the advantages of a person who has come up to this level of achievement. Now this verse is taking about people that have risen to this level of achievement and have a face to face, personal interview with the Savior while still living in mortality. D&C 50:27 Wherefore, he is a possessor of all things; (now stop and think about that for a minute) for all things are subject unto him, both in heaven and on the earth, the life and the light, the Spirit and the power, sent forth by the will of the Father through Jesus Christ, his Son. That s what happens when you obtain these privileges while still in mortality. Verse 28 also gives us a little insight. D&C 50:28 But no man is possessor of all things except he be purified and cleansed from all sin. Is this easy to do this? Is it easy to come up to this level of spiritual excellence? To be cleansed from all sin and purified and sanctified. Is that easy? Is it something done overnight?

3 Steve: It s easy and it s not easy. What you have to do is really quite small. All you have to do is surrendering your will, your ego to our Father in Heaven, to the Lord Jesus Christ. You just totally submit everything. It s a short recipe. It s usually hard because you have problems with the natural man. So, surrendering your will completely. It s one thing that you say, I give myself to you, take me Lord, Jesus, I m yours. That s one thing and then actually you end up doing everything your way, which is usually the way it is for a person that says, Yes, I give myself to Christ. We need you to go out and home teach five families, we re short. Five Families!! You ve got to be kidding me. Isn t there someone else in the ward that can at least take three of those five. Take me Lord, Jesus, I m yours, I surrender completely. Can you see the fallacy with that? Even being able to surrender to Him the real way, the way that is required to obtain this level of spirituality has to be a gift given to you by the Spirit. It s just isn t something that you decide that you re going to do. You re brought up through the processes and steps of sanctification to where the Lord empowers you, not only with the desire to do it but with the ability to do it. To do it on our own we just can t do it. All we can do on own is say the words, I m going to do this but to really be successful at it you have to be enabled. You have to be empowered by God to even do it. So, a lot of people speak the words but it s not really done. Let s go over to section 130 and let me show you something else too. Let s go to D&C 84. This is a great section on priesthood. Section 84 is where the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood is. This is like all other Gospel Doctrines; understood at different levels. The shallowest level of the Oath and Covenant, which is correct, is simply to be ordained and have the priesthood conferred upon you and be ordained to an office in the Priesthood. That s the way that it is usually taught, especially to our young and new members of the church who are looking at priesthood ordinations. But I want to go a little bit further now. D&C 84:16-27 Verse 17 the Lord is talking about the Melchizedek Priesthood. Which Priesthood continueth in the church of God in all generations, and is without beginning of days or end of years. Now, is priesthood personal, is it a personage, is it a man or a woman or is it something separate from organized mortal beings? Student: No Ok, so priesthood is not a person. What does it mean to be without beginning of days or end of years? Student: Is always is. Is always was, always is, always will be.

4 So, whatever priesthood is, always was, always will be. Here s a question that I have for you. Did God have a beginning? Student: In the Bible it says, In the Beginning. Student: That s the beginning of our time, not His time. He didn t have a beginning. Now, there is something inside of all of us that we ll refer to as intelligence, or primal life. That really is eternal and never has a beginning and coexists eternally and there is no beginning or end to it. But it is not an organized entity. It is something that exists in eternity and needs to be organized through the process of spirit birth in order to progress. So my question in this is that in all of us, Father included, there is something that is truly eternal and never can be created. Student: That s like static energy. Energy always is, it may change, but it never increases and it is never less. Very good, I like that. I like to think and other people call this primal life. Joseph Smith referred to it as the mind of man. It is something inside us that is eternal that is not created or made. It is something that is in us though. Now when your Father in Heaven and His wife have a child and that child is a Spirit Man or Woman, a Spirit Boy or little Girl, and this eternal part of it is incorporated within that spiritual organization. Now here is my question. As an organized being, did God have a beginning? Did Heavenly Father have a beginning as an organized male person? The answer to that is yes. He does have a beginning. So do all beings in eternity. But priesthood never did. Here is your key. So priesthood is even older than and predates any organized male or female organized being. It s always been there. Now you should be asking in your mind, what is this thing? It is through priesthood that your Father in Heaven becomes a Father in Heaven. It s that power that s always existed that takes any man or woman in any time in the eternity and brings them up to the level of a God or a Goddess. That s what priesthood is. So, we can grab ahold of that now and every person that progresses from small to large, which is what the gospel does. The gospel takes us from small things and always moves it to larger things. In every way, in priesthood, in spirit. Everything in the gospel is designed to start out with what the scriptures call a portion and move out from there to what the scriptures call a fullness. Let s go over here to verse 18. D&C 84:18 And the Lord confirmed a priesthood also upon Aaron and his seed, throughout all their generations, which priesthood also continueth and abideth forever with the priesthood which is after the holiest order of God. Now, there should have been a word that should have kicked you in the side of the head and that word is, holiest. Now you can t have a priesthood which is after the

5 holiest order, unless you have two other priesthood orders that tie in with it. Leading to that you have one that is called, holier and underneath that you have one that s called holy. Holy, Holier, Holiest. You can t have holiest unless you have the other two. So we have various orders of priesthood here. So, we have various priesthoods that are designed to start with a portion and to move out to a fullness. It took me a long time to wrap my mind around this, a long time. But if you can wrap your mind around this thing that everything in the gospel begins with portions and move out to fullnesses. If we look at it, we re the ones who stop it. Most people die with a portion and never get beyond the portion. And the reason that they don t get beyond the portion is because they don t know about it or they aren t diligent in pursuing it. So, it is really us that set up boundaries here. But you can t go to the big fullness of anything without starting out with the small portion. So now, here s a little thing, Joseph Smith said this: All priesthood (this is a great key) is Melchizedek, but there are different portions or degrees of it. (TPJS, p. 180). For example, we know of two priesthoods that we know of, we know of the priesthood called Levitical. Have you ever heard of that? We have another priesthood that we know of called Aaronic. These are lesser orders of the Melchizedek priesthood. All priesthood is Melchizedek with various orders designed to do what? To take you from this portion level and expand you out to a fullness. Student: Is there a difference between the Aaronic and Levitical Priesthood? I thought that they were the same thing. They are different. I don t want to get into that today. Why don t you look into that, study that, and find out the difference. The answer to your question is: yes, they are different. Student: The Catholic Church uses the same principle.... until you re ordained a priest you re a member of the Aaronic priesthood, so it s the same as the church down the street. Let me tell you what. The Catholic Church has a lot of truth and is the ancient mother church and things have spun off of that. It s been prostituted. Now let s go on over here now and let s find out now in verse 19. Now from verses it is talking about the holiest order of the Melchizedek priesthood. D&C 84:19 And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. Now notice that it mentions the word key here. This holiest order of the Melchizedek priesthood which means that we ve gone out... what is the holiest order called? Do you know what the holiest order is called? Student: Melchizedek

6 Now, because all priesthood is Melchizedek. So, what s the holiest order of the Melchizedek? It has a name, what is it? It s not patriarchal. Patriarchal is next to the holiest priesthood. What s the holiest order of the Melchizedek priesthood? It s called this... this is going to make sense to you... the fullness of the Melchizedek priesthood is the highest order of the priesthood. Let me show you where it s mentioned. Go to section 124. Now this was a time that Heavenly Father commanded Joseph to build the Nauvoo temple. Now the commandment has been to build the Nauvoo Temple. D&C 124:27 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. (Now the commandment is for them to build a temple, why?) For there is not a place found on earth that he (God) may come to and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even (what?) the fullness of the priesthood. Keep in mind that this was given in The Melchizedek priesthood was restored in So we re not taking about just the priesthood here. The Melchizedek priesthood has been restored through Peter, James and John since 1829 but in 1841 the Lord says, Build me a House because there is no place on earth that I can restore to you this order of the priesthood... meaning the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Student: He s talking about Temple Work. It s part of temple work. Joseph Smith knew that he was going to die. He had received the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood and wanted to give it to others but he knew he wasn t going to live long enough to complete the Nauvoo Temple. He knew that he wasn t going to see the Nauvoo Temple completed. So therefore, he took his store in Nauvoo and turned the top floor of his store into a temple. While they are building the Nauvoo temple, he turned the top floor of his store into an endowment temple and in the top floor of the Joseph Smith store he gave the ordinances of initiatory, endowment sealing and the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood there. Was it given generally to a lot of people? No, it was only given to six or seven husbands and wives before the prophet was murdered. One of them that it was given to was Brigham Young and Brigham Young as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve went ahead and finished the Nauvoo Temple and as soon as they finished the Nauvoo Temple day and night for a month they 24/7 gave the ordinances to the Latter-Day Saints because they knew that they were going to leave Nauvoo and they didn t know how long it would be before they would see the inside of a temple again. Day and night they gave these ordinances and many men and women received this higher priesthood called the fullness of the Melchizedek priesthood. Steve: Did any pioneer leaving Nauvoo live to see the temple built in Salt Lake City?

7 Yes, many of them did. They left in 1846 and the Salt Lake City Temple was dedicated in Yes, there were many that were there in Nauvoo that received these blessings in the Nauvoo Temple that were able to participate in them again in Salt Lake City. But keep in mind that before the Salt Lake Temple was completed they had the endowment house. They also had the St. George Temple that was done and the Logan Temple that was completed before Salt Lake. But in Salt Lake City before they could perform these ordinances while the Salt Lake Temple was being built they built a special building called The Endowment House and that s where they gave these ordinances and performed these ordinances prior to the dedication to the Salt Lake Temple. The point is this: What is the main purpose of the Melchizedek Priesthood? That s what we re working on. Let s go over here and read the verse that we were reading. D&C 84:19 And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key (it s not keys, it s a key to 2 things) of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. So this priesthood, whatever this is, it holds the keys to the mysteries and to the knowledge of God. See that, the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. How this is worded it takes the key of the mysteries of the kingdom and the key of the knowledge of God and says they are the same thing. even means that they are the same thing. Student: They also used of instead of from so it s a knowledge of God. I like that. What is the key to the knowledge of God? It s tied into the holiest order of the Melchizedek Priesthood. What is this? The key is in knowledge. The word to Know. To know God. Either this means that you know about God or you know God. Knowing about God means you are gathering information. This scriptures over here: D&C 50:27; D&C 84:16-27; D&C 138:18-19; D&C 124: What you are doing is gathering information. You re learning about Him. There s a difference in learning about Him and knowing Him. So what we have right now is that to know God means that you enter into His personal presence and He teaches you things that can only be learned from Him. I want to emphasize something. Angels are messengers, true messengers, sent from God to teach you things that the Lord wants you to learn. They are messengers. But Angels will not teach you what God is going to teach you. He has an agenda. He has reserved information for you that He will not impart by angels. There is something that he has for you, to tell you, to do to you, to show you that He will not impart through Angels. It s reserved for this experience. No let s come back here.. To know God (when?) in this life. Preferably. Does it have to be? No. Then why preferably? With what we ve been talking about now with receiving this special knowledge from God Himself, face-to-face. Look what verse 18 says.

8 D&C 130:18 Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. Can I just put in there, whatever principle of intelligence (can I put in there also knowledge? Can I put in there also experience? Whatever principle of intelligence that we attain when? In this life. Not in the Spirit World, not after the Resurrection, not in Eternity. In this Life means before you die. Now look at the next verse. D&C 130:19 And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come. If you gain more intelligence and knowledge... look what we have here, what we are talking about. The key to the Melchizedek Priesthood is to turn the door and the lock that gives you the knowledge of God. In other words, to KNOW Him. What this verse is saying is if you have that knowledge through your diligence and obedience. In other words, you re not going to get this knowledge without a heck of a struggle. It ll be the biggest battle that you ll ever fight in life is to come to that point where you can qualify as a natural fallen man in a dying world to come up through your diligence and obedience to a level of purity and cleanliness where God himself will come and visit you face to face in this life. But it s going to take diligence and obedience, two keys, and if you are diligent and obedient we will have what does it show there advantage. There s your key word. And notice that this advantage that this verse is talking about can only be claimed through diligence in this life. There s no advantage in the Spirit World. There s no advantage in the Resurrection. In the matter of fact, the advantage that we have in this life goes with us to the Spirit World and rises with us in the Resurrection. But if you wait until the Spirit World or Resurrection to gain this advantage you ve waited too long. The key to this thing is NOW. What s God telling us? He says, I ve got things for you right now that you can t even comprehend. Brigham Young says this: We (men and women of the church) live far below our privileges and below God s expectations. That s a powerful statement. We just come to a point and we get deceived and lied to and we except these deceptions and lies as truth and it stops us. We call these things traditions and we let these traditions and of the fallen man rob us of privileges and of God s expectations. I want to tell you something, I testify to you, the Lord, Jesus Christ anxiously awaits the time when He can personally visit you face to face. He anxiously awaits that and we re the ones that keep him waiting. Because, first of all, we don t know it. If we ve never heard that this is available you can never achieve something you re not aware of. Today shows you that not only is it not scriptural, it s expected. It s a commandment that you do this and God has given you the Melchizedek Priesthood as the vehicle to bring you into His presence. This is what this is all about.

9 So, now look, one of the keys to this priesthood is to give you knowledge of God. In other words, to bring you to the point that you can know Him face to face. Next verse, this gets better, here s one more key: D&C 84:20 Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest. So, this key also has something to do with the ordinances of this order of the priesthood. The ordinances of this order of the priesthood does what? Through these ordinances the power of Godliness manifest. Let s word this another way. Without the Melchizedek Priesthood and the ordinances of the Melchizedek Priesthood, there is no power for you to become godly. But what is this? What is godly? Notice it s a small g. Look how it is worded. It says, Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness (small g) is manifest. So, what does this mean. What does this right here, godliness, mean. To become a godly person, male or female. Now let s see what we ve done. The priesthood has two keys. One opens the door to the knowledge of God and makes it possible to see Him face to face and the other key is through the ordinances of this priesthood, by participating in these ordinances, there is power to make you godly. What s the opposite of a godly man? A natural man. What s the opposite of godly woman? A natural woman? The fallen woman, the fallen man. What we are talking about is that the Melchizedek Priesthood ordinances have power to transform you. Once that transformation takes place, then Christ comes but He can t come until a level of sanctification, a level of purity and cleanliness takes place. A level of perfection? No, perfections not required here. Nowhere is it talking about perfection to see God, but it is talking about sanctified, which means to be made clean from the atoning blood of Christ. That is the absolute requirement. And we re all working on that, you re all doing that. Think back a year, think about the troubles that you ve had a year ago... think where your short comings were... think where your knowledge was... think about what your attitude was...think about the changes that are taking place here. These changes that are taking place are, and I ve seen it in everybody in this room, is called the process of sanctification. You re being made holy. For what purpose? So that Christ can come visit you, that s the purpose of the priesthood. The ordinances of the priesthood sanctify you, for what purpose? So that you can come into His presence and be embraced by Him, be taught by Him. Do you imagine what that will be like? Think about it for a minute. He actually comes and visits you. And it s private. The world doesn t know about it, it s just you and Him. Sisters, it s you and your Savior. Brethren, it s us and our High Priest. Our Great High Priest, because he ordains you. There s an ordination there. He puts his hands on your head and ordains you embraces you. He shows you the creation of His hands, he shows you what He s done and in the process of seeing the creation of the world, the universe and the solar system, he

10 also shows you your creation from the beginning, in the premortal life up to where you re at. He shows you everything that s happened to you to bring you to this point. Then he ordains you and shows you what the rest of your foreordained mission is and empowers you through an ordination to achieve it. Now how important is this and to what advantage is it to us? If you have this kind of experience, would it change your role as a father? Would you be a different father after this experience? Would you be a different mother after this experience? Would you be a different Bishop, Stake President, Home Teacher, husband after this experience? Yet, with it this is what comes with it --- are you ready? Don t tell anyone. That comes with it. As a matter of fact. He comes to that point because finally he knows that He can trust you to keep silent. He s not going to come to you if He doesn t feel that He can trust you. He s got all this testing and all these trials... you know, like being slapped around and kicked around... to see how you ll handle the gospel and do with what you ve got until eventually he can say, now I can come and things will be kept private and sacred between you and I. He ll allow you, probably, to tell your wife or tell your husband, but nobody else. Student: That save a lot of problems too. You know, like he came to you, why didn t he come to me?... He told you that, how come He didn t tell me that? That s right. And you re under an obligation now to keep it quiet and just serve, serve, serve. That s what you re under an obligation to do at that point. Student: tells story of woman coming to his restaurant and him feeding her. Paul says that sometimes angels come disguised as men and women, beggars and homeless, as a test to see what you re going to do. Let s go to verse 21: D&C 84:21 And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh. Now verse 22 is the kicker. D&C 84:22 For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live. Without what? Without this... without everything that we have talked about here... without the key to the knowledge, without the key to the ordinances that make men and women god... you see, without this priesthood. So, right there in that last verse... what is the main purpose of the Melchizedek Priesthood? To bring you into the presence of God, preferably in this life. Now, let s go a little bit further watch in 23 now if you want to look up in Exodus at home you can read this for yourself. Two chapters, Exodus 19 and 20 tell you what D&C 84:23 is talking about. You may want to look at that and see what happened. We talked about it a little bit last week. This Moses plainly taught the

11 Children of Israel in the wilderness. What did he teach? Well, everything that we ve talked about here, this is what Moses taught them. Why? Because Moses wanted to do this with them. Moses wanted to bring his whole national family into the presence of God as a nation. D&C 84:24 Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God. There it is. If that little thing is the purpose of the Melchizedek Priesthood, another word for sanctify is the power of godliness. See, everything is like a jigsaw puzzle and just comes in and fits together when you have the doctrines of the restoration. Student: They are giving us an indication that if you re not godly enough that you re going to see the face of God but you re going to die. That s correct and millions will see the face of God during the judgement and be banished. So obviously we are talking about doing it now and surviving and letting it be a wonderful experience and a privilege and a precious one at that. You see again a limited experience for people who qualify and you cannot qualify without the Melchizedek Priesthood. You can t do it. Now, can a woman see the face of God without the Melchizedek Priesthood? Yes, she can cause God is no respecter of persons... have you ever heard that? And all are alike unto Him. Male and female, bond and free, black and white, and all are alike unto God. And so if He were a respecter and women are not allowed to have the priesthood then they would not be able to see the face of God. So it has to be open for women too. So the Melchizedek Priesthood is not required for a woman to enter into the presence of God and see His face. Now you say, Why is it required for men and not for women? Because it is required for men. This is what we are taught here. Notice that women aren t mentioned anywhere here? Now most people that read section 84 in the Doctrine and Covenants this it s a men only place. No, no, no. This is a section on priesthood and priesthood belongs to men in this life but it doesn t mean that seeing the face of God can t be done by a woman. It can. Look at verse 24: D&C 84:24 But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore, the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, (why is the Lord kindled? Because they rejected the invitation. Remember the last week? OK, that was the first provocation.) swore that they should not enter into his rest (that s what we re talking about right here, the Melchizedek priesthood) while in the wilderness, which rest is the fullness of his glory. D&C 84:25 Therefore, he took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also; So, in this time in Exodus 20 up to John the Baptist and to the ministry of Christ, the people generally enjoy the lesser priesthood. Take a look at the next verse:

12 D&C 84:26 And the lesser priesthood continued, which priesthood holdeth the key of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel. But not the key on seeing the face of God and knowing Him. See. That was lost to a whole nation for almost 2,000 years. Generally, it was not had but Moses had it and then for that 2,000 years from Moses on up to John (actually it wasn t 2,000 years it was 1,000+) only certain men held the Melchizedek Priesthood. But generally among the population the men did not. Student: Was that the cause of a lot of their problems? It was and they never could come up to a level where the Melchizedek Priesthood could function. But now let me show you a different period of time. At this same time where the children of Israel in the Middle East don t have the Melchizedek priesthood, and that same time and year in the Americas the Nephites do. The Nephites, during this whole period of time, where nobody in the Middle East (except a few isolated men leaders and such) the general population of men do not hold the Melchizedek Priesthood but among the Nephites the general population of the men enjoy the Melchizedek Priesthood. Student: Is that because it is reserved for a selected few. Nope, that s because they did not reject the invitation. Children of Israel lost this right because God said I want to come up, you ll be my people, you ll see my face and they said, no, thank you. Student: The priesthood was available to all men, not just the select few. Yes, no, and in the early days it was administered by a selected few. But anybody who can qualify here s your key brothers and sisters, I don t care what nation you are, I don t care what lineage you are if you meet the qualifications set by God regardless of birth you can enjoy the blessings of the priesthood. Now let s go to 2 Nephi 25 I will show you. Look at the date on the bottom of the page. We re at almost BC, right? This is after Moses. Moses is at 1900 BC and we re now at 600 BC. Go with me to verse 23. You will not find this kind of writing anywhere among the children of Israel. What you re going to read here does not exist among the children of Israel. They could just never come up to it, watch: 2 Nephi 25:23 For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. Now watch, here we go: 2 Nephi 25:24 And notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses, (which was commanded because everybody on earth at Moses time were commanded to keep that law) and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ, until the law shall be fulfilled. Here s your key.

13 2 Nephi 24:25 For, for this end was the law given; (What end? To bring us to Christ and be reconciled to him. Now watch.) wherefore the law hath become dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith yet we keep the law because of the commandments. Do you know what it means to be alive in Christ? What do you think that means? They keep the law but they only do it because of the commandments sake. The law for them has fulfilled its purpose. What was the purpose of the law? To bring them to Christ, be reconciled, an atonement and with that comes the Melchizedek Priesthood and all of the ordinances of the temple and this was the way that they become alive in Christ. Look at the new verse. 2 Nephi 24:26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we prophesy of Christ, (you won t read anything like this in the Old Testament, nothing, because it wasn t there among the people. They killed the animals, they kept the law but it became a law that lost its meaning and they did not know what they were doing. It s like us going to sacrament meeting every Sunday. We go there every Sunday and we partake of it as a ritual and most of us don t really know what it s supposed to do for us we just do it because it s always been done) and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they make look for a remission of their sins. 2 Nephi 24:27 Wherefore, we speak concerning the law (of Moses) that our children may know the deadness of the law, (we do it because it s dead to us. Why do we do it? Well, because we are command to. But it s done its job. It s fulfilled its purpose. The law has come up and has brought us with it and has made us alive in Christ. It goes on and says...) and they, by knowing the deadness of the law, may look forward unto that life which is in Christ, and know for what end the law was given. And after the law is fulfilled in Christ, that they need not harden their hearts against him when the law ought to be done away. And with them being alive in Christ comes the Melchizedek Priesthood. Now let s go to Jacob 4 and let s see what this people was able to do with this. They are offering up the Law of Moses but they are way past it in their spiritual progression. Keep in mind. This is a group of people that is still killing animals and obeying the Law of Moses and they always will all the way through the Book of Mormon up until Christ comes and says, don t do it anymore. So, they re going to do this for 600 years but the requirement has been fulfilled and they now kill the little animal and worship in that way with a different mindset. It s done its job and with the Melchizedek Priesthood. Jacob 4:6 Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; (the people in the Middle East that don t come to this level do not enjoy those blessings of revelations and prophecy. They don t have it. They are just performing dead ordinances ) and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea.

14 Do you know which order of Priesthood is required to command element and have it obey you as if you were God? Do you know what the order of the Priesthood is? It s called The Holiest Order of the Melchizedek Priesthood. What do we call it? The fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood. You don t do these things unless you have the fullness. You re standing as if you re God and you look at a mountain and you say, move, you look at a river and say, part, you look at trees and say, you re in the way, you look at a rock and say, we re hungry be thou bread and it happens because the elements obey you as if you were God. How do you do that? Well, they are still killing animals according to the Law of Moses but it has taken them to a higher level that our Israelite brothers and sisters never enjoyed but the Nephites did. That s why the whole nation of the Nephites were extincted through genocidal warfare. Did you know that? Because they had come up as a nation to a level of excellence and then turned against it. Where much is given, much is required and He who sins against the greater receives the greater condemnation. The Israelites weren t wiped out. Do we still have their ancestors here? The Nephites --- go find me a living Nehites in 2012 there aren t any. Why? Because they came up to this level of priesthood power and order and then sinned against it as a nation and there are no Nephites. Student: Mohonrimuriacumr had the same thing, right? 2,000 years before Christ. And so did Adam. Now let s go look at something. Let s go to section 107 and let me say; what is the one thing that Adam wanted to do? What was his main goal before he died? What did he want to do? He wanted to bless his children, right? What does that mean? What did it mean that he wanted to bless his children? He wants to give them to Holiest Order of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Why does Adam want all of his righteous children to come up to this level? Because that enters them into the presence of God. Was he successful? Not on his whole society, but he was successful with a group. Let s look at it. D&C 107:41. Now you should know what this mean after today. D&C 107:41 The order (Highest Order of the Melchizedek Priesthood we re not just talking about the Melchizedek Priesthood. It is the Holiest Order of the Melchizedek Priesthood the Fullness of the Priesthood) was instituted in the days of Adam, and came down by lineage in the following manner. D&C 107:42 From Adam to Seth, who was ordained by Adam at the age of sixtynine years, and was blessed by him three years previous to his (Adam s) death, and received the promise of God by his father, that his posterity should be the chosen of the Lord, and that they should be preserved unto the end of the earth. Let s skip on down Enos was ordained by Adam.

15 D&C 107:44 Enos was ordained at the age of one hundred and thirty-four years and four months, by the hand of Adam. Verse 45 Cainan is ordained by Adam D&C 107:45 God called upon Cainan in the wilderness in the fortieth year of his age; and he met Adam in journeying to the place Shedolamak. He was eightyseven years old when he received his ordination. Why is Adam doing all of this? Because he s alive. He lived 1,000 year, right? Adam had the right as High Priest to officiate in giving this to others. Verse 46, Mahaleleel was ordained by Adam D&C 107:46 Mahalaleel was four hundred and ninety-six years and seven days old when he was ordained by the hand of Adam, who also blessed him. Verse 47; Jared was ordained by Adam, 48; Enoch was ordained by the hand of Adam and now we re up to about 900 we re almost up to that. D&C 107:47-48 Jared was two hundred years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam, who also blessed him. Enoch was twenty-five years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam; and he was sixty-five and Adam blessed him. Verse 49; And he (Enoch) saw the Lord, (What did Enoch do to get to that point? He did what we ve been talking about all morning here. So guess what? Enoch s purpose and priesthood was fulfilled because what? God appeared to him?) Do you read about the other ones here? Did Enos, Cannan, Jared have that happen? It doesn t say that they saw the Lord. It only says that Enoch saw the Lord and walked with Him and was before His face continually. Was Enoch still a mortal man at this time? Yes he was. How was he able to do it? It s just like we have been talking about. It s the same pattern. God is no respecter. So you look at this and you say, If this can happen to Enoch, unless God is a liar and He is a respecter of persons, if it happened to Enoch, it can happen to me. Verse 50 D&C 107:50 Mathuselah was one hundred years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam. D&C 107:51 Lamech was thirty-two years old when he was ordained under the hand of Seth. Somewhere in here Adam has died. So somewhere between Mathuselah and Lamech Adam dies. D&C 107:52 Noah was ten years old when he was ordained under the hand of Methuselah (his grandfather)

16 What s the purpose of the priesthood? To bring you into the presence of God and to bring your children with you and you wife and so on and these guys had the authority to do that. D&C 107:53 (Think about everything that we ve talked about today) Three years previous to the death of Adam, (He was almost 1,000 years old.) he called Seth, Enos, Cannan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Mathuselah, who were all High Priests, with the residue of his posterity who were righteous, (can I tell you that there were millions of Adam s posterity that weren t righteous? The majority of his family were apostate. That s why Noah comes along and says we ve got this kill them all. They re so bad. But there was a group of righteous under these great patriarchs. Small group compared to the whole.) into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, (which is what we called today Missouri) and there bestowed upon them his last blessing. What do you think that was? What did Adam have that he wanted all of these righteous posterity? He wanted them to have the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood and gives it too them. He bestows upon them this priesthood ordinance and bestows upon them what we ve been talking about. Now look at verse 54, what s the first words in 54? D&C 107:54 And the Lord appeared unto them, and they rose up and blessed Adam, and called him Michael, the prince, the archangel. So, after he gives them the blessing, what s the first thing that happens, BOOM, the veil s open and the Lord says, I m here. See what happens here. I don t know how many people were here, but I have a hunch that it was thousands that were brought in. Why did this whole residue of Adam s posterity finally see the Lord God? Because of the priesthood that Adam bestowed upon them. The ordinances and the power and the key and the knowledge. It ripped the veil right out and the Lord appeared and rose up and called him Michael, the prince, the archangel. Isn t that neat. The invitation is to us, brothers and sisters, just like it s been to all of God s family. Truly the Lord s course is one eternal round, he is no respecter of persons and he wants all that will qualify to come up and receive this. Is this a commandment that we enter into the presence of God in this life? Is this a commandment? It certainly is an invitation. Is it a commandment? If you hold the Melchizedek Priesthood and you ve been ordained, it is a commandment that you come up and obtain these blessings. Will it damn you if you don t? Well, it will certainly restrict you, you will lose some advantages. In the hereafter there are definite advantages. Section 67. Let s see what the Lord has to say about this order of the priesthood in our day. D&C 67:10 And again, verily I say unto you that it is your privilege, and a promise I give unto you that have been ordained unto this ministry, (that s us brethren if you hold the Melchizedek Priesthood and sisters if your husbands are righteous Melchizedek bearers you are in this. You are in it with him. You are not missing out

17 on a thing. You ve got to do this together because your husband can t do this without you and you can t do this without him. So it s a partnership.) that insasmuch as you (do 3 things #1) strip yourselves from jealousies (you can t allow yourselves to be offended anymore. We have to help people get over this offense stuff; they offended me, I was offended You can t ever do this as long as you allow yourself to be offended or to offended anyone.)and (#2 your) fears... Strip yourselves of your fears. I was talking to some missionaries up in and we were talking about this. One of them was a zone leader and I said, Elder, do you think that these things are available? Do you think that these things are available to people? Do you have to be an apostle or prophet to have these blessings? He said, No, I think that they re available, but not to me. And I said, Why not? and he said, Well, I just don t think that I could ever do that. I might be able to do that in the next life. And I said, Why not now? and he said, Bro. Stroud, I just don t think that I could do this. You mean, see God face to face in this life? and I said, Yes, Elder, in this life and he said, Oh I don t know. What you need to do is strip yourselves of fears. There is something called the veil of unbelief. We get to a point where we teach this doctrine and we sit in class and we say, I know this has happened. I know Moses has had it and Moriancumr had it, I know that Nephi had it, and I know that it can happen. That s one level. The next level is; I know that the First Presidency and the Twelve have had it. I know that. I feel that. That s appropriate and that s true. That s the next level. Then you come up to the next level and you come into class and you hear that God is no respecter of persons and you start to understand that and you start to think that maybe you don t have to be an apostle or apostle to have this, that maybe this can happen to common ordinary everyday people. That s the next level. And then the next level you get up there and you say, is it possible that it could even happen to me? And then the next level is, It is possible that it could happen to me. And what s the next level? It not only can, it WILL! Can you see how this goes like this? This is what the doctrine of the priesthood is where it says,...then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews of heaven. (D&C 121:45) Sister Stroud: If you go over in section 67 to verse 3 it breaks that down about fear, it says: D&C 67:3 Ye endeavored to believe that ye should receive the blessing which was offered unto you; but behold, verily I say unto you there were fears in your hearts, and verily this is the reason that ye did not receive. You were afraid and you didn t get what you could have had. The biggest fear of all is what? I don t think it can happen to me. That s the number one fear and that s called, the veil of unbelief. When I first started talking about these kinds of things 7-8 months ago there were people in the room saying, oh my gosh I wonder what

18 he s talking about. And now I think that there are people that are saying, I m going to do this, and have confidence that they can. Not by yourself, but through the Atonement of Christ. Let s go back to 67:10:.. strip away your jealousies and fears (#3)and humble yourselves before me, (you have to get away from pride. You ve got to drop away from the way things were, forget how things were and move on. Break out of that self-imposed prison. And move up. If you ll do that look what will happen)... the veil shall be rent (do you know what rent means? rip that thing) and you shall see me and know that I am Now, this is not talking about here after brothers and sisters because to see Christ here after is not going to require you to strip yourselves of jealousies, fears, and humble yourselves. That s a requirement now so that this can happen now. There s going to be millions of prideful people that are going to see his face and have to go live and do other things. But to strip yourselves of these things now is to enjoy the privilege and promise now. Did you see this? Here s a fun little thing. Here s a mystery. God wants you to have this knowledge he wants you to know these things we ve talked about what know means. And when does He want you to do it? NOW. KNOW NOW Let s look at another one. Go over to section 88. Student: What does it mean: not with the carnal neither natural mind, but with the spiritual.? It means that in order to do this you have to be sanctified you can t be the natural man who has a natural mind. The natural man has got to go. And that sucker does not go easy. That one is entrenched deeply. Are the things that we ve talked about today a commandment? We ve already said that it s a privilege and a promise but is it a commandment? D&C 88:62 And again, verily I say unto you, my friends, I leave these sayings with you to ponder in your hearts with this commandment which I give unto you, that ye shall call upon me while I am near That ye shall call upon me while I am near is the first part of the commandment. There are various parts of this commandment. Verse 63. D&C 88:63 Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you. Now verse 68. If we will do what he commands. Call on Him while He s near. Draw near unto Him. Seek Him. Ask, seek, knock, then what?