I'm Taylor, and I'm Tyler. This is Book of
Mormon Central's Come Follow Me Insights. Today, Doctrine and Covenants
sections 106 through 108. So as we begin today, we want to start actually by
looking at some details at a really, really high level. If you go back to the chronological order
of contents -- it's back before section 1 in the Doctrine and Covenants -- you'll see the location
and the date where each of the sections was given in their chronological order. You'll see that
1831 and 1832 have this huge number of sections in the Doctrine and Covenants. So take a look
at the year 1834. It shows that in that one year we only received sections 102, 103, 104, then we
were at the Fishing River in June with that Zion's Camp experience, section 105, and then back in
Kirtland for section 106 is where we begin today. So here we are in November. There's been
a lot that has happened since the – those people who went west on that Zion's Camp
march have now returned to Kirtland. A lot has happened, and yet, in our Doctrine and
Covenants, we don't have most of those meetings or blessings or minutes that are recorded here
until we get this revelation given for Warren Cowdery who is Oliver Cowdery's brother, and
we'll pick that story up in just a moment. Now jump down to 1835. In that entire year,
1835, there are only three canonized revelations, section 107, then clear around in August, section
134, which is going to come later in our study, and then section 108 in December. In fact, it's
at the very end of December. It's December 26th, the day after Christmas when we get that
revelation; we'll talk about that as well. Here's the point. You look at this
and you would say that the first reaction would be, wow, Joseph Smith is
getting all these revelations early on and then as he gets closer to the end of his life, the
number of revelations drops off significantly. If all you had were the Book of Mormon
and this chronological order of contents, that's the conclusion that you would
– you would almost be forced to make. Let me – let me just show you a resource if you
– if you go to josephsmithpapers.org, click on Documents. So notice what happens as you scroll
down through this list of documents by year. You'll notice that we start with 34 in 1828 and
'29, and in 1830 we go to 38 and then 65, 36, 77, 66, and now in 1835, which is where we're going
to be in our sections today mostly, you have 155. Then next year, 1836, the following year, you
have 475. And then 82, 137, 291, 583, 288, 411, 518, 409. My point being
that the canonized revelations, part of our canon, we get a lot of them early on
and fewer of them towards the end. But the number of revelations, the number of blessings given,
the number of meetings held with official minutes, it just explodes – it goes through the roof
as you - as you watch the work progressing. So if you compare that to today, there are
those who would say, well, where are the revelations today? We're not getting what we
used to be getting from Joseph Smith back in the early days of the Church. The irony of
that question is, if you look at Joseph Smith's own prophetic ministry, you're seeing the same
pattern of a decrease in the canonized scriptures, but an absolute explosion in the heavenly
interactions in the revelations that come. They just don't end up in
the Doctrine and Covenants. In some ways we could compare this – I hope this
is an appropriate comparison – if you turn to John 21, I love how John concludes his
gospel. He's shared his stories about who Jesus is and his salvific work and
then John, his last verse says, John 21:25: "and there are also many other things which Jesus
did the which if they should be written, every one, I suppose that even the world itself could
not contain the books that should be written. Amen." And so we should take this pen here and
say that, sure, maybe the canonized revelations are decreasing, but the number of revelations
and prophetic engagement is just expanding exponentially and it's still happening today,
and perhaps we need to put a chart here at the beginning that just shows a logarithmic graph
of how much revelation is being spread upon the world and not just with the official
Church leaders, but for the growing body of the saints where God is individually
inspiring people. Even you are part of this graph as God inspires you to do things that
bring forth his kingdom on the earth today. It's beautiful. And, by the way, while you're
looking at that josephsmithpapers.org webpage, something that would be fun for some of you is
to go in and – and just start looking at some of those other documents besides the revelations that
showed up in our canonized Doctrine and Covenants. For instance, you'll notice that in the
spring or late winter, February, of 1835 you have a whole flurry of activity in – in
the prophetic office of Joseph Smith where he is giving dozens and dozens of
blessings, where he's setting apart members of the Quorum of the Twelve to be
Apostles, and he's setting apart Seventies, and you can read many of them right there, and
it's just fascinating to click through and read some of the meeting minutes and read some of the
blessings, especially to see the promises and the language that Joseph uses when he's giving, say,
forty-plus blessings in one sitting, in one day. He'll be giving forty blessings setting
apart these Seventy on March 1st and it's just fascinating to see some of the language and
the promises and the warnings that are given to them back then and to sense how applicable
some of those things are to today as well. Now one thing you will notice if you
do that exercise is there happens to be this – this urgency, a sense of urgency
in what we would call end-times prophecies, and some of those will come through in those
blessings where they're going to be told to be prepared for when Jesus is coming again which is
not unique to members of the Church in that day. Yeah, there was a lot of discussion among
Christians, and actually, other Abrahamic religions such as Judaism and Islam have this
perspective that a Messiah, or in the Christian world, that Jesus will come and there's been
often these expectations and fervor like it's going to happen soon, let's go get ready,
and sometimes people have distracted themselves with certain forms of preparation that probably
are not what God wanted. The preparation he wants us to do is be humble, faithful, to
repent, to declare the truth to others, but not sit around waiting for the doors of heaven
to open, but to actually be anxiously engaged in a good cause. We've said this before and we'll say
it again, there – the end will come. Either Jesus will come in his rapturous glory, right when we're
all doing whatever we're doing, or we will die and meet Jesus. It’ll happen. And likely, for most of
us, the Coming, the Second Coming of Jesus will happen when we die. That's when we'll see him,
just like it happened for all these individuals. Well, it's interesting culturally what's going on.
Many early Americans saw the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and other conflicts and
challenges that were going on in their society, more than 200 years back in our time, they saw
this as clear signs that Jesus was imminent, about to return. There was a group called the Millerites
that were kind of in the same region where the early saints were, and they believed, they had
a specific date that they thought Jesus was going to return – October 22, 1844. You can go look this
up. It's called the Great Disappointment. People sold farms and gave up their livelihoods and
sometimes even disrupted their families and they all gathered to one spot, it's going to happen at
12:00 noon, as if somehow Jesus knows what central mount – central time is, and they all sat around
waiting for it to happen. Many of them thought, oh, maybe we got the date wrong by a year. So they
re-predicted and nothing happened, and actually, we have lots of history – over more than 2000
years -- of groups trying to put a specific date of prediction and then stopping their lives, not
living anymore, just waiting for Jesus to return, and I just think God wants us to be prepared. He
tells us I'm coming, be prepared. I've never heard him in any of the revelations say, I want you
to spend your time trying to make predictions based on your mathematical abilities
to interpret the scriptures. It's an interesting – interesting conundrum
because the scriptures use phrases that cause people in every generation, going clear back to
the 1st century with Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians, the first letter. It – you read 1
Thessalonians and every one of those chapters have elements in it that make it feel like, well,
Jesus is going to maybe come maybe next week and so let's just sit around and wait, right? And
what does Paul do? He writes a follow-up, a second letter. And he's like let me just clarify, Jesus
is coming, but a bunch of things need to happen and this is where we get the famous phrase about
there will be an apostasy – along the way – first. Yeah. So there's a fascinating thing that happens with human nature, and I don't know
why this is, but it is this way. So at the university, when I'm teaching a class,
and I'm sure you've experienced this too, Taylor, we'll say that there's a Saturday night deadline
at, we'll put it at 11:59 p.m. We tell the students, okay, this particular assignment is due
Saturday night at 11:59 p.m. Well, as a teacher, I can go in on the back end and I can see exactly
how many people have submitted their assignment and what time they submit it. It never ceases to
amaze me when this could be at the very end of the semester and that assignment or that paper
or that research project, whatever it may be, could have been available for weeks and weeks of
the semester leading up to it, and you'll get your one or two who do it five weeks in advance,
and you kind of wonder, huh, I've never seen a student this proactive. I wonder what's going
on in their life. You wonder how they're doing. And then you just watch, so nobody does it – a
few people do it and then you get up to Saturday morning and you might have a couple dozen who
have turned in the paper or the assignment, and then this amazing thing happens through that
day of the deadline where you're getting close to the evening and now the numbers start spiking,
and at about 11:00 p.m. they just – that's where the majority – from 10:00 to 11:59, that's where
this flood, this flurry comes in. Wait a minute. We're driven by deadlines as humans? We're driven
by a hard line of, oh, I need to cram for that test. If I've got a mid-term, I'm not going
to – I'm not going to study for that mid-term in the weeks leading up to it; I'm just
going to cram for the test, meaning I'm going to review the stuff the couple of hours
before the test and then stand in the line and hope that the line goes quickly because that
knowledge that I just barely learned is I can feel it dripping out of me and I've got to get
in there to take this test before I forget it. We call it spray and pray. You spray
the information on a paper and you pray there's something true in there that will
get you, that will give you a few points. Here's the grand irony when it comes to Second
Coming elements that we see in this time period as well as today. God wants every generation
to feel a sense of urgency – not panic, not fear in the world's term of shaking in our
boots kind of a fear – but a sense of urgency. That's the beautiful thing about scripture
is they – in fact, that's what makes it living water for us, is the fact that we don't
have any section of the scriptures that we can read, any of those chapters and say, you know
what? There is no application to my life – I can't liken that scripture to me and it can't be
for my profit and it can't be for my learning. Scripture is beautiful because now I can find
those connections to me and I do get this sense of urgency, but God counters that sense of –
of a Miller prediction and dozens and dozens if not hundreds of predictions before and after him
as far as trying to nail down a date and create more of a sense of steady discipleship and steady
preparation for the coming of the Lord, whether I be alive in the flesh as a mortal or whether I
come out of the grave and meet him in the morning of the first resurrection at his Second Coming.
I've still got to prepare for his coming and God doesn't want us putting our repentance off until
we get some terminal disease and the doctor tells us you've got three days to live. Okay, now –
now I need to do my research and turn in my work. I'm going to go serve a bunch of people. I'm
going to do in three days three years’ worth of loving kindness and service and repentance and
forgiveness. So this is a great metaphor, Tyler, that we don't need to cram for the Second Coming
or for the end of our lives. It's just every day carefully taking the time to do the things that
God's asked us: love our neighbor, love God, drip by drip. So you see here in section 106
there's this – the reason we're even talking about this is this revelation to Warren Cowdery.
Right in the middle of the revelation God says to Warren Cowdery through Joseph Smith that he
comes quickly even as a thief in the night and this great promise for those who are
prepared, they won't be caught unawares. Yeah, the actual wording is beautiful here.
If you look at verse 4 and 5: "And again, verily I say unto you, the coming of the Lord
draweth nigh." So if you thought it was close back in the 1st century, well, it's drawing nigh,
as Brent Top said, he calls that it's nigher than it was yesterday, "and it overtaketh
the world as a thief in the night." Oh, I knew it was coming. That sneeze overtook me
like a thief in the night; I could kind of tell it was coming but I didn't know exactly
when it would come, but it did come. And I wasn't prepared – and you were not prepared
- I couldn't tell what you were doing, I'm, like, I've never seen him get sniffly like that
– Yes, you were blown away. Okay. Verse 5: "Therefore," what's the outcome? Or what is
the result of God telling us he's going to come like a thief in the night? "Gird up your
loins, that you may be the children of light and that day shall not overtake you as a
thief." Brothers and sisters, whatever God has placed into your circle of influence in your
life today – for some of you it's caring for little children with none of the world
watching, giving you praise. For some of you it's waking up and going and working
like crazy to provide for a family. For some of you it's dealing with medical
struggles and pains and aches. You might be feeling like you can't do what you needed to do
when in reality, what you've been given by God to do, that is this work in the vineyard, and
sometimes it's going to feel like hard work, digging and pruning and nourishing by the sweat of
your brow – by the sweat of your brow -- whether it's taking care of a child or a loved one with
special needs or any of these areas or serving in your callings, it's a time that's going to feel
like work, but if we're on the errand of the Lord then I think hymn number 147
has it right, sweet is the work. That's – that's the word to describe it. It
feels sweet to us because we're not cramming for the Second Coming, we're not cramming for our
final exam, we're preparing steadily every day. Not with a sense of fear, not running faster than
we have strength, but with a sense of urgency. We're not sitting back slothful saying, all is
well in Zion, yea, Zion prospereth, I'm good, and if I – if I am guilty God will beat me with
a few stripes but I'll be saved in the end. No, it's what can I do to continually move forward
and strive to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to do all these things in this little,
teeny, tiny part of the vineyard in which he has placed me? I want the tasks that he's given
me to be able to flourish and grow, and so it's a beautiful principle as we all continually move
forward in time, getting closer and closer to that Second Coming and tuning our ears and our hearts
to the prophets rather than people's predictions. So that transitions us to the end of
this revelation to Warren Cowdery, and listen to the beautiful words that he is
given from the Lord Jesus Christ. "Therefore, blessed is my servant Warren," and again the
great beauty of the Doctrine and Covenants is that we can insert our own names and imagine
God speaking to us. So whatever your name is, listen to this and put your name in where Warren's
name is. "Therefore, blessed is my servant," insert your name, "for I will have mercy on him;
and, notwithstanding the vanity of his heart, I will lift him up inasmuch as he will humble
himself before me. And I will give him grace and assurance wherewith he may stand; and if he
continue to be a faithful witness and a light unto the church I have prepared a crown for him
in the mansions of my Father, Even so. Amen." So this story of Warren Cowdery, he was called
– again, he's Oliver Cowdery's brother and he's in Freedom, New York, and he's called to be
a presiding high priest over that region, the closest thing I think we would call
that today even though they did have a stake in Kirtland and a stake in Independence, today
the presiding high priest over that region would probably be like a stake president or possibly
a bishop, depending on the number or the size of that congregation. So you'll watch as Warren's
growth and progression – to use that analogy of preparing for the final exam or working in the
vineyard – he's working. Now here's the point. At what point can you stop working in a vineyard
and say, I've done enough work, I've done enough digging and weeding and nourishing and pruning
and grafting, now I can sit back and just relax, or not do any work in the vineyard? And obviously
the answer is, you can't. You can't ever say, okay I've arrived as far as working on
my preparations for the Lord's coming. Unfortunately, with Warren Cowdery,
he's going to fall away from the Church and not fulfill all of the promises here.
In 1837 he's going to be excommunicated. We don't know his end story in the
eternities and it's not my place to judge, but we can learn from these experiences that even
if you get great revelations and great promises and you work really hard, there's this principle
of the gospel that often gets overlooked because we focus on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and there's – even though it's not in the article
of faith there's – there's that endure to the end element that is really important in this
preparation for the eternities or preparation for the Second Coming or preparation
for the final exam, whatever it may be. Now as we turn to section 107, we
see a fairly major and significant foundational shift in how things are – are
running and going to run in the Church. Notice what we start with, in the very
beginning is one prophet, Joseph Smith. Then we call a Second Elder, Oliver Cowdery to
be the assistant, so we have the two presiding elders when the Church is first set up. You have
six people, six people total. One third of the members are actually in Church leadership; it's
a pretty good thing. It's a pretty good number. And then you – you watch as he calls
additional people. You get the Three Witnesses who, way back when they had their experience, part
of their calling, part of their responsibility, the agreement, they get all of these amazing
things that they get to see and be a witness for, but one of their responsibilities is to seek
out the Twelve and find the Twelve Apostles. Well, it's taken them a while and Oliver Cowdery
is going to tell us that it has constantly been on their mind, they've been looking, who is it, Lord,
that you have chosen, following that pattern from Acts chapter 1 where Peter and the Apostles were
trying to decide between two people and say, Lord, who did you pick? Who do you want? So they'd
been working on this effort for a long time. Then, Joseph Smith goes with this group in
Zion's Camp that we talked about in last episode, and Joseph gets the cholera, a terrible case of
the cholera, and nearly dies. Now we don't know the full extent of this because he doesn't tell
us, but it seems that there's this thought of, wait a minute, if I did die, what would happen
to the work that God is setting up here, and you'll notice that was – that was the summer
of 1834. Now in section 107, we're now in the late winter, so February of 1835 where Joseph
calls the Twelve Apostles on February 14th. And what's amazing about this section is that you
have a diffusion of God's power and authority now being spread throughout the Church. Now of course
God's power is everywhere, and God's power is priesthood power and anytime you're doing any
action in the power of God, that technically is priesthood power. There are offices that have
specific responsibilities but this is what we see, this glorious revelation where God is now
providing clear structure, guidance, and official offices where it's now not
just dependent on a life of one person, that it's the life in the body of the
saints that will be able to endure. No matter what happens to any of
these individuals, there is a way for God's authority and work to persist and to
preserve. This is one of my favorite sections. It's amazing because he sets up
this beautiful hierarchy of equality – of equality, equal power. So you have the First
Presidency with a president and two counselors. Then you have the Quorum of the Twelve traveling
high priests; we call them now the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who we sustain as prophets,
seers, and revelators. And then you have the Seventy set up with seven presidents
and the last of those presidents is called to preside over that quorum and they
have equal authority. And then you have the local stake presidencies and high council and the stake
presidency presides over the high councils spread throughout the world, and that's going to come
up here. And then we have these offices in the Aaronic Priesthood and other offices we'll
talk about in the Melchizedek Priesthood. Section 107, it's a big deal as far as
the hierarchy of the Church is concerned. Now, at the outset, we need to make this really
clear, that you have – you have the Church and its structure, and then you have – let's
just do it this way – then you have the home and its structure. Listen to this statement
by President Boyd K. Packer in April 1998 General Conference: “There is a difference in
the way the priesthood functions in the home as compared to the way it functions in the
Church. In the Church there is a distinct line of authority. We serve where called by those
who preside over us.” Then he goes on to say, “In the home it is a partnership with
husband and wife equally yoked together.” Listen to these words from President Dallin H.
Oaks given in the October 2005 General Conference: “A most important difference in the functioning
of priesthood authority in the family and in the Church results from the fact that the
government of the family is patriarchal, whereas the government of the Church is hierarchical. The
concept of partnership functions differently in a family than in the Church. The Family Proclamation
gives this beautiful explanation of the relationship between a husband and a wife: While
they have separate responsibilities, ’in these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are
obligated to help one another as equal partners,’” that we may become one. That's the goal here,
whether it's a home or whether it's a church. You'll notice that in councils of the Church it's
going to function differently in the hierarchical structure or setup of that authority, that power
of God given to people on the earth to act in his name for the salvation and the welfare of all of
God's children compared to how a husband and wife counsel together in love and righteousness.
There is no first counselor in the home. There's no vice president in the home. It's an
equal partnership moving the work of God forward in that home family setting, that
familial setting of – of the priesthood. Now, let's talk about priesthood for a
moment. It was Elder and Sister Renlund, we've talked about this before, but Elder
and Sister Renlund in their book about the Melchizedek Priesthood, Elder and Sister
Renlund use this beautiful analogy of the earth, and then they use the analogy, if you go out
and you pick up a little handful of dirt and you hold it, what do you say? Here's a little
bit of earth, I'm holding the earth. But you don't imply that you're holding all of the
earth in your hand, whereas God, who is sovereign and the God of the universe, he even uses that
analogy when he says, worlds without number have I made and mine hand can hold them and mine eye can
pierce them, I know – I hold them all in my hand. But what does he give us? He gives a portion of
that bigger earth. Well, if you translate that into a different area and say, God's
power is defined as the priesthood, the expanse of all-encompassing power of God to do all
of God's work with all of the keys and the rights and the privileges and the authority, that would
be called the priesthood of God, but what does he do? He gives us portions, he gives us access to
his power and we can then function in that power. Now, in the hierarchical Church as outlined in
section 107, what we see is that he defines some priesthood offices to which men can be ordained,
some keys of the priesthood which can be conferred on people, and then you get men or women – men
or women -- have this ability to function in the power of the priesthood, and we've had some
beautiful talks given in General Conference from President Ballard, President Oaks, President
Nelson, and others talking about if you're functioning in a Church calling, you
are using the power of the priesthood because there is no other power from God to
do God's work and his work and his glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal
life of man. Any ministering, any nurturing, any speaking, any teaching, anything we do is done
with that power of God given to us on the earth. Now stop and translate that for
just a moment into a home setting. I'm not going to give any specifics but there
have been countless occasions when one child or another in our home has been struggling
with something, whether it be emotionally or physically or mentally or spiritually, with
temptation and other struggles, and I have watched as my dear wife has taken those children
who are struggling under her wing and brought them into her – into her power where she'll listen
to them and she'll counsel with them and she'll pray with them and she'll read scriptures with
them and sometimes she'll just let them talk and then express confidence in them. The best way
to describe it is I have watched the power of our heavenly parents manifest over and over and over
again as my wife has interacted with our children in moments of need. What power is that? It's
not – it's not some ethereal, no-named power that's somewhere out there in the universe. It's
priesthood power given to – to us to bless lives. Her very presence, just the fact that she's
there, her spirit, her soul, with this child, she becomes this shield of faith as she's helping
that child manufacture their own shield of faith. It's as if her very presence is
pushing back the forces of darkness and the forces of evil to
help build up that child. Now that's in a home setting. Think about every
calling in the ward or in the stake or in the Church for that matter, somebody is called to
do something. Well, what are they called to do? It's ultimately to push back the forces of
darkness and to chase darkness from among people and to bring light and to be that refuge
and to – to fortify their faith. What does it mean then when we get into this section 107
when we're going to talk about priesthood callings where somebody then presides? What is a
bishop presiding – what does that mean? Next time you walk into a sacrament meeting, look up at the
stand at your bishop or your branch president and as he's sitting up there on the stand
drumming his fingers together greedily looking at the crowd thinking, ha ha, look at
all these people, what can I get from them? Brothers and sisters, to preside in
the Church, in the hierarchical Church, doesn't mean that you're going to go in greedily
trying to get anything from those whom you are called to preside over, because keep in mind,
if this were a kingdom of the world, that's how it would work. But we're not in a kingdom of the
world where the king or the queen is the top – top dog. We're in the Church in an inverted kingdom
where the presiding authority stands at the head in the hierarchical organization, whether
it be the Relief Society or the Primary or the ward or the stake or the Church in general.
What it means to preside is it means to serve, to nurture, to bless, to teach,
to persuade, to encourage. It's a lot of work. Sweet is the work. So
when you walk into a sacrament meeting, look up at the stand and look at
that branch president or that bishop. They're probably not looking with a covetous eye;
they're probably looking with a prayerful eye, looking over that congregation saying
in their mind and in their heart, dear Lord, who needs help? Who's hurting?
Who's struggling? Who needs – who needs some protection? Or you go into Relief Society meeting
and that Relief Society president isn't sitting up there thinking, think of all the meals I
can get from this. It's quite the opposite. It's who needs me? Who can
I help? Who can I bless? So as we jump into 107 we want to make this
very clear that the power that is being given, the offices that are being held, the keys that
are being given, remember keys do two things: they both lock and they unlock. You can unlock the
powers of heaven in the lives of these people, and you can at times lock the gates of hell against
those temptations and the powers of darkness and discouragement that are – that are beating on
either your children or people you're called to serve. Keep in mind that all of this, let's
not lose the point here of section 107 and get so excited about the offices and the duties
and the presidings and the authorities and the equality of the different quorums. The
whole point of priesthood is God giving us Godly power to do Godly things. It's all an
invitation to become more like Jesus, that's it. He's saying, I need you to be like
me, and it's this invitation to come unto Christ, and one of the ways he does that in a
hierarchical setting is through offices and keys, and he does it in the home and he does it
in communities, he does it in government. Any time anybody's doing anything on the
Lord's errand, they are using power of the priesthood even though they may not be a
priesthood holder in the office and key sort of realm that we're going to be talking about,
but that's an important reminder for all of us, that we don't get so excited about the – the
administration elements of the Church, that we overlook the fact that all of this is given as
an invitation to become more like Jesus. Amen. All right, look at verse 1. "There are, in the
church," now I don't want to over-emphasize this, but it's important, in the church, so maybe
circle church because we're not talking about the familial or patriarchal
order of the priesthood here, this is the hierarchical order of the priesthood
that governs the Church, and, by the way, isn't it fascinating that in those first five
years of the Church's existence they're trying to figure some things out and then in this one
revelation, after calling the Quorum of the Twelve and they're ready to go out on their very first
mission as a quorum, they come to Joseph and say, do you have revelation for us? Do
you have some direction for us? They pray, and this is the revelation that
comes, well, specifically, verse 1 through 58 comes this day, and then Joseph adds verse 59
through 100 from a revelation that had come back in 1831 that he's now tagging onto the end because
this is the perfect place for it. So in your scriptures, in section 107 you may want to make
a little dividing line between verse 58 and 59 because the fresh revelation is 1 through
58 and then the older stuff that is still applicable but now it has a place, it fits.
Hmm, I wonder if there's a lesson there. I wonder if there will be times in your
life where God will give you revelation that lacks full context or full setting to where
you know what to do with it and you have to kind of set it aside for a while and have faith that
the day will come. If God gave you the revelation, he's going to give you the application of it,
but sometimes he doesn't do it right away. So I wonder if there are times when you and I would
benefit from instead of getting frustrated or filled with anxiety because we've been given this
revelation and we don't know what to do with it, sometimes it's a piece of the puzzle that he just
wants in place, now set it aside, we'll come back to it; this is exactly what happens here. Where it
gives you a key but he hasn't presented the door that has to be opened with that key. You don't
know which car this thing is going to start or which house this is going to let you in, but you
know you've got a key. Beautiful principle there. Now back to verse 1. "There are,
in the church, two priesthoods, namely the Melchizedek and Aaronic,
including the Levitical Priesthood." Just really quickly, remember the twelve
tribes of Israel, one of the tribes was Levi. He was the third son of Jacob, name changed to
Israel, so Levi then 400 years down the road has a descendant named Aaron, brother of Moses,
who is Moses's – Moses and Miriam's brother, and Aaron then becomes the father of all
of these priests in the Old Testament. So the priesthood line comes through that tribe, the
Levitical Priesthood, Levi, or Aaronic Priesthood, Aaron his descendant. We call it today the
Aaronic, just so you understand the wording here. And then the other one, the higher
priesthood, is called the Melchizedek. Why? He's this great high priest. By the way, his
name is fascinating in Hebrew – Melchizedek. Yeah, so in Hebrew, the word Melech means
king, a very interesting word, and the word Zedek or Zadok, actually even in
the Arabic today if you say Zedek it actually means like a very close friend
that actually means righteous, even loyal. And this little “i” in here actually kind
of combines these two Hebrew words together that one of the potential meanings of Melchizedek
is king of righteousness. We actually might add this in here because in the ancient world
sometimes words were meant for both men or women, so king or queen of righteousness, and if you
think about the temple and really overall, the work of God, he wants us to become
kings and queens of righteousness. So embedded in the meaning of Melchizedek is the
whole purpose of what God's priesthood is all about. It's to help us to become like our heavenly
parents, kings and queens of righteousness. So if at any point you ever hear the word
Melchizedek, just remind yourself, oh yeah, it's a prompt for me to remember this is my goal that
I am striving for, to be like my heavenly parents. It's beautiful – beautiful. Verse 3, "Before
his day," so keep in mind Melchizedek lived in Abraham's time period. Abraham was actually
going to pay tithing to Melchizedek. Verse 3, "Before his day it was called the
Holy Priesthood, after the Order of the Son of God." That's a long name. "But out
of respect or reverence to the name of the Supreme Being, to avoid the too frequent repetition of
his name, they, the church, in ancient days, called that priesthood after Melchizedek,
or the Melchizedek Priesthood." So now you understand the - why we call
it that rather than its original name, which is fascinating because the original name has
this beautiful concept, It's the Holy Priest-hood, and, by the way, the word hood – so priest
hood, so if you look up in the Oxford-English dictionary in the etymology of the suffix
hood, where it comes from, it's a condition or a quality. It's this state of
being – state of being. Uh huh. So fascinating, priest hood, it's a state
– you are taking something upon you. It's the state of becoming a priest or to have
priestly power and perform priestly functions. What's also interesting, Tyler, here is the use of
the word order, so what's the opposite of order? It's disorder, chaos, and if you think about
creation, Genesis 1, what does God do? He actually brings order to where there was chaos or disorder.
Everything has a place and a purpose. So we have this word order and there's another word that
we often use in the Church and it's ordinances. Ordinances are how we provide order. We have
the ordinance or the order of baptism, which is provided through the power of the priesthood.
We have the order or the ordinance of marriage or temple covenants, and one that we
see every week is the order or the ordinance of remembering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We call
that the sacrament. So the priesthood is a way to provide order and direction and guidance in our
lives, and whenever you see the rituals of the Church or the ordinances, it's an invitation
to remind all of us that God is a God of order, and when we participate in that order, we also
can have a fullness of his love and his power. Beautiful. Now he gets into some of the
specifics, so you'll notice you have verse 9, "The Presidency of the High Priesthood . . .
have a right to officiate in all the offices of the church." Keep in mind it's a hierarchy, it's
ordered. There's a reason for this order in a – in an organization that eventually is going to fill
the whole world, according to Joseph's prophecies. So then you go from the Presidency of the
High Priesthood, that's the First Presidency, verse 10, high priests have the right
to officiate in their own standing under the direction of the presidency. Look at
verse 11, an elder has the right to officiate. So then we get down to the Priesthood of Aaron
in verse 13, and why is it called the lesser priesthood? He answers that question in verse
14, because it's an appendage to the greater, or the Melchizedek Priesthood, and has power in
administering outward ordinances, like baptism. That's why you get John the Baptist who – who is
this priest who's ordained when he's very young and he's given the authority to baptize.
Fascinating that he's the one that the Lord assigned to restore that power in the
latter days to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery is John the Baptist, that power to baptize,
that Aaronic Priesthood that he held. Then you get verse 18, "The power and authority
of the higher, or Melchizedek Priesthood, is to hold the keys of all the spiritual
blessings of the church." So we unlock doors, we let people into – into temples and
into covenants and connections with God in the hierarchical order of the Church, how it's set
up, through those keys of the higher priesthood. Verse 20, the power and authority of the lesser,
or the Aaronic Priesthood, is to hold the keys of the ministering of angels, and to administer
in outward ordinances, the letter of the gospel, including baptism and some of these
other things we've been talking about. Now very quickly, it might be helpful to just
very succinctly see these various offices. So what you have in the Aaronic Priesthood side is you
have four offices: the bishop who presides over the Aaronic Priesthood and the bishopric is the
Presidency of the Aaronic Priesthood in a ward, and then you have priests, you have teachers, and
you have deacons. Now we were introduced to these offices back in section 20, but here you
get more clarification and more description. And it's interesting that up until about 1908
these offices were given to adult men, and under the presidency of Joseph F. Smith beginning
around 1908 and continuing on through about 1922, there are some adjustments to who was
invited into these priesthood offices. And now many of us are familiar with deacons
beginning around 12 or in their 12th year, teachers in their 14th year, priests in their 16th
year. So these changes only happened in the last hundred years, and the point here
is that there's ongoing revelation. God never originally said in here
like what specific – specific age, but to Joseph F. Smith back in 1908 and further
on, God gave some further clarification about inviting the young men who are growing up in
priesthood offices these, different opportunities. So the bishop being the presiding high priest
over that Aaronic Priesthood set of quorums, some people are perplexed by the fact that
for the first set of decades, these are mostly grown men, and then like you said Joseph F.
Smith changing it, and then for many of us, it was very simple, at age 12, age 14,
and age 16, that’s when a transition occurred, or the ordination occurred. But then
more recently the Handbook of Instructions tells us that in January of the year that a young
man is going to turn 12, so many – most of the time it's 11-year-olds and 13 year-olds and 15
year-olds. And some would say, why the change? I wonder, I wonder if there's incredible
power in something like section 107 where it lays out these principles, these offices,
without being highly proscriptive to this level, which then means that God can continue to
guide a living, breathing, adapting, growing Church to meet the needs of the world in which we
live and the rising generations how to best bless them. So rather than seeing this as a frustration,
this, to me, I love the fact that God lays out section 107 in 1835, and these offices in both
the Aaronic and the Melchizedek Priesthood side, the offices have not changed in all these years
since 1835, but we've adapted the use of those offices and how they're applied so that we can
meet the needs of a growing, global church. So we have the offices of the
Melchizedek Priesthood which are Apostle, you have Seventy, you have Patriarch,
you have high priest and elder. Now notice how beautifully this is
set up and then later on you get where he describes in verse 64 through 66 the Presiding
Apostle, the President of the High Priesthood, becomes the leader, he is
the President of the Church, and we sustain all of the members of the First
Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve as prophets, seers, and revelators, but there is one
who holds all the keys for the work at one time. Now check this out. We have the
Seventy who are called here in section 107, and for years after this initial group is
called – they're called to be special witnesses, kind of like the Apostles, but their call
is specifically to go out to the Gentiles and preach the gospel as special witnesses
of Christ in section 107, and then we come into this period of the Church for decades and
decades where collectively as a Church we don't really know what to do with the Seventy, and so up
until President Spencer W. Kimball as the prophet, we have Seventies who are called and ordained
to the office of a Seventy at the stake level, and they're basically functioning as stake
missionaries, that's what they do. So you have elders quorum, seventies quorum, and high priest
quorum or the high priest group in a ward because the high priests quorum belongs to the stake and
the groups belong to the wards or the branches. But we didn't know what to do with the Seventy
until President Kimball's ministry as the prophet, as the President of the Church, where the Lord
revealed, oh, this is actually how the Seventy are intended to be used now moving forward. That's not
to say that all previous prophets had it wrong. That's the beautiful thing. We don't have to –
we don't have to pit current prophets against past prophets and say only one of them can be
right. The way these principles are laid out in section 107 is, it was perfectly fine for them to
use the Seventy in a stake missionary assignment for all those years, all those decades, but then
when the need arose with a growing global church, God gave the revelation, no, this is going
to be a General Authority position now, because previous to this you have the First
Presidency and you have the Quorum of Twelve Apostles and then you had assistants
to the Twelve – we didn't have Seventy until we now create that particular
Seventies to be General Authorities under the direction of the Twelve Apostles to
help carry the work further into the world. Well, since that time President Hinckley then
in his prophetic ministry has it revealed that, wait a minute, section 107 verse 96 tells
us also other Seventy can be called until seven times seventy, so we can have multiple quorums of
seventy, it doesn't just need to be the quorum of the seventy. We can have 2 quorums, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, and the number has continually grown. Why? Because the work of the Lord has continued
to grow in all the world, and so we have some of those quorums that are General Authority
Seventies, and then we have others of those Quorums of Seventy that are Area Authority
Seventies, so their – their right to administer the directions given to them from the First
Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve and the seven Presidents of the Seventy and area presidencies
are now given to the area authorities to help work with those local stake presidents and local
leadership within a geographic area, and when that area authority leaves that particular area, he no
longer has any authority. It's a house of order. And a neighboring bishop doesn't come to your
ward and tell you what revelation the Lord has given him for your ward, just like a neighboring
Area Authority doesn't go to a different part of the world and have any authority to administer
the ordinances or proclaim the gospel because there are Area Authorities there, whereas there
are General Authority Seventies who have general authority over the whole world, and so
that helps us keep it a house of order. Are you noticing the beauty of this
organizational structure, this setup, all of these things that you're
going to read in section 107, the various priesthood offices and who presides
over the different groups and what that role is, how it's this foundational organization in
a hierarchical Church that is both solid and steadfast and immoveable, but at the same time
extremely adaptable to the needs of the world around us. That's why we can call it a living,
breathing, growing church, is because it's not stuck in 1835. We're not held hostage by
the setting and the cultural surroundings of the church members in 1835. It's ingenious and
only a God sets things up this way. This is not – the principles in section 107, whether they
be for the hierarchical Church or for the home, manifestations of priesthood power, this is
not something that men and women come up with. This is given to us as heaven sharing a little
bit of their power with us to be able to do things that help us grow to become more like
them, and the more we are faithful in that, the more power they give us and the more
opportunities we have to bless lives and to chase darkness from among us and to shine light in
dark corners of people's lives and move forward. This is a great outline. Let me talk
about different quorums that we have in the Melchizedek Priesthood. One of the
quorums I'll add here is the First Presidency, and then the next quorum is the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles, and then we've talked about Quorums of the Seventy. It's significant that in
Doctrine and Covenants section 107, God identifies that these quorums are actually all equal in
power and authority. Now there is a hierarchy, but when the Prophet and President of
the Church dies, the First Presidency of the quorum is temporarily dissolved, so it
turns out that then the Quorum of the Twelve, which is equal in power and authority of
the First Presidency, is who is in charge of operating the Church until a new prophet
with counselors is established, a new quorum. Now incidentally, I think these words
are interesting. The word quorum - this word quorum actually means sufficient or
sufficiency or enough to make valid decisions. So we talk about the quorum, we're really talking
about the sufficient amount of people necessary to make a valid decision. Let me also throw out
another word that shows up in this text which is very significant. It's the word unanimity. What
we learn in D&C 107 is God demands these quorums to work in unanimity, to be unanimous in their
decisions. Now this is a very significant word. This actually means one, and then this word here means spirit or
mind. So literally what we are talking about is to act with one spirit and one mind, and if
you look at how the Church operates and how these quorums operate, they spend quite a bit of time
deliberating, in council, talking and discussing, and they don't make decisions until they become
of one spirit and one mind, because God himself is of one spirit and one mind. The Godhead
is ultimately uni – unified in its purpose, and God asks and expects the quorums of the Church
to do the same as the members should be as well. This is a really powerful concept because some
people have wondered, why does it – why does it sometimes take the Church so long to make certain
adjustments? I think the reality is until God has made it clear to every member of that First
Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, those – those earth-shattering or major changes
aren't going to occur, which sometimes might require a longer period of time in order to get to
that unanimous decision as a collective quorum of prophets, seers, and revelators, and there's great
safety in that, that we're not – that we're not tossed about by every wind of doctrine that blows
and that they don't just stick their wet finger in the air to see which direction the cultural winds
are blowing and say, okay, let's go that way. There's – there's safety in being a little
more methodical and a little more careful before we throw out previous practices or
previous ideas and just jump on a bandwagon. Well, the problem would also be if you
basically had political parties in the Church and different apostles were vying for power and
like here's my doctrine and another apostle says here's my doctrine, they're building their own
kingdoms and God is saying this is my kingdom and I want you to be unified with me and it can
take a while. You can see this in friendships and in wards and in families. It can take a
while through discussion and learning experiences to become unified around certain things. God
expects that and frankly, without that process, we do not learn how to become God. If all that was
is God just reveals all the truth and everybody is forced to all see the same thing at the same time,
that actually wrecks the whole plan and purpose of the plan of salvation, the whole purpose of why
we fought a war in heaven to maintain our agency, and God is extremely willing to
be patient to wait for unanimity. So look at verse 30. I love this in – in that
concept right there, I love it when it comes to any Church calling, whether you're having
a discussion with your ministering partner, with your families that you're called to minister
to, whether it be a couple of nursery leaders working together or a Young Men's advisor,
counseling with the bishop, bishopric, or a Primary presidency, look at these –
look at these principles in verse 30. "The decisions of these quorums," now in this case
they're referring to these priesthood quorums that we've been talking about, but the principles
apply across all the Church as well as at home. Imagine if we actually applied this to society and said the Church is actually
in the world, imagine if this is what we did across nations and societies as we talk about the
future of our civilizations and our societies. Wow. Verse 30, "The decisions of these quorums,
or either of them, are to made in," now notice the qualifying words here, "all righteousness,"
not 75 percent righteousness, not partway there, no, it's fully faithful, fully
loyal, fully righteous, "in holiness and lowliness of heart, meekness,
long-suffering, and in faith, virtue and knowledge, temperance, patience,
godliness, brotherly kindness and charity." Wow. That is a long list. If you sit down with
your family in a family council or with a spouse or with a presidency or with any group that
you're supposed to work with and you consider the breadth and the depth of that list that God
just gave you, this would change the world. It would change the way we interact with everyone and
we would stop being so easily offended ourselves and stop being so quick to offend others and be
more prone to at times suffer long as we have to work through this hard process of discovering
truth and discovering what we're supposed to do with this organization or this family or whatever
the quorum activity may be. Beautiful principles. So verse 39 is where you get the office of the
patriarch. Here it's called evangelical ministers, but Joseph gave us prophetic clarification,
it is referring to the office of patriarch, so every stake in Zion is
supposed to have a patriarch set apart and ordained to that office of the
Melchizedek Priesthood, and what an amazing office that is and what an amazing part of
the Church that is, what those patriarchs do. And then you get this long section verse
42 through 54 where he's describing the patriarchal order of the priesthood among the
ancients. Then in verse 68 through 76 you get this description of the office of the bishop
and what that bishop is supposed to do, and those – those bishops, they are shepherds and
they are called to preside over that flock and to minister to the needs of those flocks.
Rather than getting into the specifics of the duties of a bishop you can read those here
and how they're described. I just want to say from my own personal experience, not speaking from
my head, but speaking for a moment from my heart, how incredibly blessed I feel to have been
ministered to by so many bishops in my life and each one at a different phase in my
life. I remember them all. I love them all and I felt of God's love for me through their
individual ministry, and their ministries are very different the way they ran things,
very different, but in every single case I – I sensed of God's care and concern
for me through their ministering efforts, and I – I pray God's blessings to be on all of
the bishops and their wives and their families throughout the world and moving forward in time,
because that is such a beautiful, ministerial calling that is given to them to represent
the Lord in such a direct way in their wards. Then you get verses 85 through 91 where he's
describing the various presidents who preside over various quorums, and what that means, and
remember in the inverted kingdom of the Lord, if you're a deacons quorum president or a teachers
quorum president or an elders quorum president, that just means you got an assignment to serve
and minister to and pray for and meet the needs of all those people in that quorum to
which you've been given keys to preside. And then let's finish with verse 99. "Wherefore,
now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all
diligence." Did you notice that? Act in the office in which he is appointed implies that I
don't need to worry about filling your calling, Taylor. I don't need to receive revelation for
you. I can ask, I can listen, I can give you some recommendations and counsel, but at the end
of the day, I don't want to get between you and heaven. I don't want to tell you how to do your
calling. Now that's in the hierarchical setting. I also don't want to tell my wife how to be a good
mother or how to be a good wife. That's between her and the Lord. I'm going to learn my duty and
go to God and find out what the Lord would have me do to be a more effective husband and father
or a more effective – fill in the blank with whatever your Church calling is. The more we
can get people connecting with heaven and with scriptures to learn with our mind and our heart
and through revelation and through experience, how to better officiate in whatever – whatever
callings or offices or responsibilities we have, I think the more heavens will open the windows
and give us the revelation. I think part of the problem is, is we turn horizontally to seek
direction of what should I do in this setting and we turn horizontal rather than
vertical, and the Lord's saying, I would tell you and I would guide you but you have to
ask, and so that would be our invitation there. So to conclude today's lesson, let's look at the
short section, section 108, that was given to a newly called member of the Quorum of the Seventy
or high priest, Lyman Sherman, and I want to point out two really compelling verses that were
given to him but I think can apply to all of us. Verse 2, "Therefore, let your soul be at rest
concerning your spiritual standing, and resist no more my voice." If you carefully review the
sections and the revelations God has given, very, very often he tells people, your sins are
forgiven. Be at peace. Do not fear. Here he says, be at rest concerning your spiritual standing.
We sometimes spend so much time worried about our spiritual standing before the Lord that we
actually fail to take action to build the kingdom of God. What he's saying is stop being so focused
on your standing before me. My Son, Jesus Christ who died for you has you covered if you
continue to make progress in being faithful, repenting, and spreading that message to others. And then verse 7. How do we do that? So if
we are at rest with our spiritual standing, what are we asked to do? "Therefore, strengthen
your brethren in all your conversations, in all your prayers, in all your
exhortations, and in all your doings." So now as we conclude this lesson, our invitation to all – to everyone, including
ourselves -- is to take correct principles that have been revealed through the scriptures
and the words of the living prophets, and don't be afraid to go to heaven repeatedly
asking how those principles should be applied, whether it's in your Church settings or in your
home settings or in your personal settings. How do I live those principles and how do I put them into
practice? And please don't hold yourself hostage to past practices and past contexts historically,
or, we've always done it this way and we have to just keep doing it this way. You'll notice God's
prophets today aren't afraid of adjusting the how. There can be adjustments made from time to time
to make those principles a little more meaningful for you today right here, right now. So may the
Lord bless all of us as we turn more heavenward than ever before and seek more than ever before to
hear him as he gives us answers to these questions of how to carry forth his kingdom on the earth and
build up that vineyard, not in a sense of panic, but with a high degree of a sense of urgency
that we're preparing for that final exam today. Not tomorrow, not next year, not next decade, we start preparing for that final exam
by doing the things that God has given us to the best of our abilities, based
on true principles and doctrine today. Just know that God has shared his power with
us. Men, women, and children have access to that priesthood power, and the more
we recognize it and the more we apply it, the more of it we're going to have access
to down the road and the more fit for the kingdom we will be and the more powerful
instruments in his hands we will be. We leave that with you in the name of
Jesus Christ, amen. Know that you're loved.
