Hey there everybody, welcome back to another episode of Redeemed Through His Blood. I'm Scott Durfey, joined as always by our teacher, brother David Durfee. How are you, Dave? Hello, Scott. It's good to be with you. You say the title of our podcast, Redeemed Through His Blood.
Today's podcast, I think, may have something of the essence of the entire course in it in regards to making and keeping covenants, having them sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise, a little bit of a follow-up on our discussion of the gift of the Holy Ghost and having the Spirit to be with us and how to receive revelation. And today we want to talk about ordinance and covenants. But before we do, it was fun to be with you and the family at our big family reunion. Yeah, that was a great time.
We have a great family. You know, and since we got together last week, I had a new grandchild in my family, number 15. I didn't know. Congratulations, Scott. Wow. Dakota and his sweet wife, Samantha, had another little boy. They have three little boys now. Way to go. And this one's named Haas Durfee. That's awesome. Yeah. Wow, that's really sweet. Yeah, it's kind of cool. Got a lot to live up to. Yes, he does. Yes, he does. He's up to the task. A lot of pressure on him. I know that.
Yeah, he's up to the task, though, this little guy. Those two have the most beautiful little boys. They all little cookie cutter little boys. They're going to be big. Yeah, this one, you know, I think he'll be a linebacker probably at BYU or University of Utah or something like that. Anyway, yeah, you know, that's the joy, though, you know, the we have those joys and you know, there's there's families that don't quite have the same blessings and I'm grateful for the blessings that we do have.
I'm associated with another family who's gone through just a tragedy, absolute tragedy over the last week. They've had a daughter that adopted from Russia and with that came a whole bunch of conditional challenges and so on. Anyway, long story short, she ended up dying by overdose the other night and has just left a bunch of super, super sad people. That's the child of the adopted daughter. No, the the the adopted daughter's the one died. Yeah, she has a 13 year old or so child.
Yeah, who's also struggling. And there's just been all kinds of struggles and trials in that family, you know, and Dave, Deb and I were talking about it last night as we were remembering and thinking about this this poor sweet family that we love so much and and how, you know, as we have read through and as we've done the podcast again this time, there's just so much comfort that comes even in that, you know, even in the wake of that deep, deep tragedy, you know,
is because of our understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and its infinite, infinite powers and its infinite reach and right and how because we know in Doctrine and Covenants 4615 that will be judged according to our conditions. You know, we can't judge the conditions that that person is doing his mercies. Exactly. According to the conditions of the children of men, that's Doctrine and Covenants 4615.
And you know, because of that, there's just there's comfort, you know, in which it's really cool because, you know, you think of the tragedies that we face and we do all of us have to face tragedy of some sort in our life. I can't imagine for my tragedies. I can't, I guess, imagine because I see it around me, but I can't imagine the absence of the hope of the Atonement of Jesus Christ in something like that because of that hope. I know, I know that that sweet girl will be taken unto him.
Perfect brightness of hope. You know, you know, Scott, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we've said this so many times over our podcast, but it is so infinite and so intimate that in the end, all the iniquities and inequities of life will be made right. All the unfairness of life will be made right.
All of that is covered by the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Atonement of Jesus Christ and our Savior is the center, Scott, of all the covenant, the new and everlasting covenant and all the covenants, ordinances that we make in the gospel and in the restored gospel. Since you were talking about adoption, there's a story that Stephen Robinson tells in his book, Following Christ. And I just want to read this and it's just a short page.
If a page can be short, several years ago, some friends of mine adopted an older child from the third world who had lived a very difficult life before coming to the United States for a long time. Their greatest frustration in dealing with their new daughter was her crippling insecurity. She couldn't believe she was safe. She paid slavish, obsessive attention to every word her new parents uttered. For fear she would make a mistake and be sent back.
She was so terrified of what her parents might do if she weren't good enough or if she weren't perfect enough that she could not for a long time enter into any relationship of love and trust that they desired to have with her. Think about this in terms of our covenant relationship with God. They couldn't make suggestions. They couldn't even make suggestions for her improvement or constructively criticize or show any kind of irritation or impatience with her.
Whatever without sending the poor girl into a panic, tearfully begging for forgiveness and for just one more chance. It was heart wrenching to witness. Over and over they tried to reassure her that she could have all the chances she needed. There was no end of chances that their decision to adopt her was eternal. It was irrevocable and no longer open to reevaluation. She was part of their family now and need not fear she would ever be sent away. Please trust us they would plead.
Have faith in us. Don't you know that only you can break the bond that now holds us together? It will never be severed on our side. Your place with us is secure. As long as you want to stay, this is your home. But still it took years for her to fully realize that she wasn't even, that she wasn't being evaluated for possible deportation every time she made a mistake or messed up. Well spiritually some of us are just like her. This is still Brother Stephen Robinson.
We've been so traumatized by our experiences in a fallen world that we have a hard time accepting the love of God and believing we could possibly have a place in his holy family. Any recipients of his love and already adopted as his sons and daughters through covenants. Some of us are still trying to earn his affection and get into the family. Our inability to accept his merciful gifts and tender mercies gets in the way of a better relationship we might have with God.
If we only knew our proper place in his covenantal love and in his kingdom and then progressed from there. I think there are so many members still in the church who still feel like they're trying to prove themselves as being worthy of the family. When they've already made covenants, when they're in the family, full pledge. Now granted none of us are equal in our adherence to commandments, keeping commandments or honoring sacred covenants. But we're all in the family if we're in the covenant.
As long as we don't sever it, as long as we don't do anything bad enough to have us removed, right? As long as we're not the prodigal who leaves and even then if he comes back, he will be received into the family with a great celebration. I mean Scott, I just think there's so much. It's so sad to me that there's so much insecurity and doubt about where people stand. With God, when they are covenant members of his, not just his church, but his kingdom.
So I hope that in our discussion today, we can help individuals and families to understand their, not just their worth as sons and daughters of God, but to understand their value to him being in the covenant and what all of that means, especially as it is sealed, all covenants, as they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. I love how you point out and draw attention to that there's still so many of us that are trying to earn our way into the family to get there.
I love in doctrine and covenant section 132, this is in verse 19, it's towards the middle of verse 19. It's talking about a revelation on celestial marriage. That's exactly right. And it's talking about how do we maintain that covenantal relationship? It's how do we qualify to keep that covenantal relationship alive in our lives? And so I'm just going to read part of it in part. It says, then shall it be written in the book, Lam's book of life? It shall be written in there.
They are sealing our covenantal process, right? As it's sealed up by the Holy Spirit of promise, that he shall commit no murder whereby to shed innocent blood. And if ye abide my covenant and commit no murder whereby to shed innocent blood, it shall be done unto them and all things whatsoever my servant have put upon them. That's a pretty tall, I mean, that's a pretty broad, you know, swath there, you know, hey, just don't kill anybody, right?
Now, now I know, you know, and that's an oversimplification and I don't want to. That may allude more to not just being in the covenant, Scott, and you're probably going to say this, but also having your calling election made sure. Right, yeah.
You know, when you have your calling election made sure, and I don't know if we'll get into that in this podcast, but when you have your calling election made sure and you receive the second Comforter and the second Annointing and all of that, which those who are talking about it don't know what they're talking about. And those who know what they're talking about, they ain't talking about it. So I don't, you know, there's not a lot, I'm more that we can say about it.
No, once an individual has received those promises and been sealed up by the Holy Spirit of promise, that's, that is about as sure as you can get. And the only way you get out of it is, is by doing the most grievous things possible. But we don't think that. I know.
So, you know, and even those of us who haven't had our calling election made sure or haven't received all those promised, you know, celestial blessings yet, being in the covenant, being in the baptismal covenant, being sons and daughters of Jesus Christ. Scott, we're adopted by Jesus Christ. He's our Heavenly Father in the sense that, well, I should say he's our spiritual Father in the sense that he purchased us with his blood. He's not our, he's not our Heavenly Father.
He's not this Father of our spirits, but he is our spiritual Father and the Father of our salvation. So in a real literal sense, as all goes back to Mosiah 5.7, we become the children of Christ when we enter the covenant and receive the ordinance of baptism. As adopted sons and daughters of Jesus Christ, Scott, he's not giving up on us easily. No. It's really hard to get out of that covenant. And he's not going to remove us.
We will remove ourselves because he is never going to give up on us in that covenant. And then when we further receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, receive that ordinance and that covenant, you know, there are five ordinances and covenants of salvation and exaltation, Scott, if you're in the church. And one of them is baptism, right? Confirmation, receive the Holy Ghost and confirmation.
If you're a man to receive the priesthood and if you're a sister to be able to exercise priesthood authority by receiving callings and those, those kinds of opportunities that come to us in the church. The other is our endowment, which includes the initiatory to be washed and anointed and endowed. That's number four. And number five is to be sealed for time and for all eternity. Those are the five ordinances and covenants of salvation and exaltation.
And all of those need to be sealed, confirmed, made sure by the Holy Spirit of promise. So let's talk just a little bit more about the Holy Spirit of promise and then we'll move into the ordinance and covenants in a little more detail. I'm really glad you want to do that because yesterday I had a quite a wonderful experience doing a little study on the Holy Spirit of promise. And it changed me. It changed me in a couple of important ways, I think.
You know, so for example, if you don't mind, I think I'll just share my experience with it. There's a couple of places in scripture where we really get exposed to the Holy Spirit of promise and one of those places is in Doctrine and Covenants section 88 verses three through four. So I'm going to read that. Wherefore, I now send upon you another comforter. And I love that word, another comforter. And this is going to have pertinence to what my experience was when I come back to that.
And let me just give a little context to this, right? So section 88 is called the Olive Leaf. OK. This revelation. It was really, it was an amazing revelation of comfort and peace and assurance to the church. Joseph Smith had called the elders home. They were having kind of a mission conference, a church conference. And he received this revelation. So when you say that I've given unto you another comforter, he's not talking about apostles and prophets here, Scott.
He's talking about the church in general and those who have made and who are keeping covenants and establishing the restored gospel. I love having you with me to do this stuff. When we went a couple of years ago, this is for our listeners. I'm not talking to you right now, David. But when we went with our listeners a couple of years ago to Nauvoo, I just. You said when we went with our listeners, when we went with our friends. When we went with our family and friends, I'm sorry.
Yeah. Yeah. A couple of years ago to Nauvoo, Dave took us on a church history tour. We'll probably put another one of those together soon. If you're interested, let me know. But to be able to follow David around and just get these little tiny insights, you know, that are important, that add texture and context and just bring this alive. I love that. Thank you. So, wherefore, I now send.
This is verse three upon you another comforter, even upon you, my friends, that it may abide in your hearts, even the Holy Spirit of promise. And that's important now. He's used the word comforter and he's used the word Holy, the title, Holy Spirit of promise. And these are both roles of the Holy Ghost. Going back to the scripture, which other comforter is the same that I promised unto my disciples as recorded in the testimony of John.
Remember when John said, I give unto you a comforter, which is the Holy Ghost who shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever. I've said unto you. And so, you know, and then in verse four here in 88, the comforter is the promise which I give unto you of eternal life, even the glory of the celestial kingdom. So the comforter, the Holy Spirit of promise.
And then that's how we take on the completion of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which qualifies us for that being able to move into the celestial kingdom. Now here's my thoughts on that. I've always kind of subconsciously thought of the Holy Spirit of promise. I've known what it is.
You know, I was having a conversation last night with a member of Alcoholics Anonymous that I was doing some step works with and I was sharing my experience about the Holy Spirit of promise and this person said, I've never heard that title before, that work before. But I've known about that. You know, we had a little experience getting to share that too.
But you know, I learned about when I was going to Rick's College in 1982, I took a missionary prep class and I really got to my first real exposure, maybe, of the Holy Spirit of promise. And I got to understand it a little bit there. But you know, as I led my life, David, we know the Holy Spirit of promise. We know its role is to go back into ratify. It has a ratifying role.
I heard I would have beddwn our speak on the Holy Spirit of promise recently and talking about how the power is a ratification power that the Holy Spirit of promise does ratify what? Ratify our covenants, which we're going to talk about here in just a minute.
But, you know, when you live a life that's largely incongruent, like I was, the thought of an auditor, right, that's what the Holy Spirit kind of became to me was an auditor or a referee or, you know, or something like that, something that was looking for looking for where I was making mistakes so that it could condemn me, right. And so, you know, that thought really is kind of condemning.
And then so if it's condemning, then it really kind of creates another self-created example of, you know, what a piece of garbage I am, you know, if I have that view. Well, understanding this, and I, you know, and I've, I think I've come to consensus or come to grips with this over the years. But when I see the Holy Spirit of promise as the Comforter, which we just read, right, that takes on a whole new empowering and loving role in my relationship with him, right.
By qualifying for the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I've been repenting in a new way, right. I've begun to feel the kind of comforting and soul-consoling companionship of the Holy Ghost, right. And if that's the case, there's no way that he can be both, which is what I saw him before, kind of on scrupulosity patrol, right. He's not on scrupulosity patrol as much as he is just to be our Comforter. So he can't be both at once.
If he's a Comforter, then his role of the Holy Spirit of promise should also be comforting. And so as I see that now, what I see is he's, you know, we talk about Jesus Christ being our advocate with the Father. The Holy Spirit kind of has that same role in this regard, in that it's through his comfort that he goes, helps me qualify, we've talked about, is through the, he's the administrator of the Atonement of Jesus Christ in my life.
And so through his comfort and through his direction and guidance, that can be a Comfortable, that can be a comforting experience instead of, I gotta watch my P's and Q's experience, which we do, which we do, I'm not saying we shouldn't, but it takes on a different meaning, a different context for me. Well, thank you, Scott, you know, so I'm thinking of Dr. and Comments section 84, 19 through 22.
And Dr. and Comments section 84, Scott says that in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest. I think that's verse 21. 21. In the ordinances thereof, speaking really of the temple, that they are contemplating building, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest. Well, skip forward to the dedication of the Kirtland temple in Dr. and Comments section 109.
In the dedicatory prayer, Joseph Smith says that in this house, they may receive a fullness of the Holy Ghost, a fullness of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost, Scott, is the messenger and the administrator, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and it is the power of godliness that is manifest into our life by and through the Holy Ghost, which is nothing more than the atonement and power of Jesus Christ in our life, Scott.
That's really what the power of godliness is, is the atonement of Jesus Christ administered into our lives through the fullness of the Holy Ghost.
When we make, when we receive ordinances and we make covenants, and I probably have told this story about with Brother Matthews in my home in Minnesota, when I told Brother Matthews who wrote the Bible dictionary in a discussion we were having late one evening, he was staying with us in our home for a week and I said, I've come to conclusion, Brother Matthews, that whenever we faithfully receive any ordinance of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the atonement of Jesus Christ is applied in our life.
He sat there for a minute and I could tell he was really thinking about what I said and he said, repeat that please, and I said, whenever we faithfully participate in any ordinance of the gospel, the atonement of Jesus Christ is applied in our life, either as a giver of the ordinance or a receiver of the ordinance. Didn't even write it down. Well, he said, you got a pencil, David? Yeah. He said pencil. Yeah. So I went and got a pen. I love that because I think there's a lesson for us there.
We talked about personal revelation. It was a profound lesson for me, Scott, this man who'd written the Bible dictionary and he said they're pondering this, then he says, let me write it down. So he wrote it down and there's power in that. And so he wrote it down and he sat there and he looked at it and he studied it from, it must have been a couple of minutes and he looked up at me and he said, thank you, David, that was worth coming to Minnesota for. I believe that's true.
Said I believe that's true. And I've concluded that it's true to Scott that whenever we participate in any ordinance of the gospel, which are associated with covenants, when we faithfully participate in any ordinance, the gospel is a giver of the ordinance or is a receiver of the ordinance, the atonement of Jesus Christ or the power of godliness is manifest in our life through the fullness, the blessings, the gift of the Holy Ghost. That's how it works.
Now when we receive those ordinances, if we have faithfully received them and they are ratified by the gift of the Holy Ghost, we can say we have received the Holy Spirit of promise that it's been sealed, that it's that it's that blessing that ordinance has been accepted by God and to our benefit and blessing forever and ever as long as we are faithful. Being faithful doesn't mean that you're sinless. Being faithful does not mean that you're sinless. You cannot be sinless in this life.
Being faithful, you know, in fact, this is also in brother Robinson's book on following Christ, the word, the word faith Scott in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament in the Hebrew. It doesn't have much to do with with mental assurance or mental conviction or belief. So many people, I think, just synonymously think that think of faith as being belief. But that's not the way the Hebrew prophets spoke about faith. Faith and being faithful is not just believing.
It is so much more than that. It is the real word for it. The Hebrew, the primitive root word is a man or a man, a man, which means to support, to have conviction, to be carried by. You know, it's a verb. It's a really strong verb, which means that God will support us, that he will carry us, that to be faithful means that we will be found in the covenant with him, not just that we'll always believe in him.
Granted, if we're faithful, we're going to believe, but faithful is a much stronger word than just belief or believing in something. So when we are faithful, it doesn't mean that we're going to be perfect or that we're going to be sinless. It means really that we're going to rely on him and be supported by him. And we're going to do the best we can to support him in his work and to be involved in his work. That's what it means to be faithful, not perfect or sinless.
So when we're in the covenant, Scott, we have this special relationship. I remember being with someone in my family who I love, and we were sitting in a car and we were talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ and we were talking about the importance of the temple and the importance of the ordinances and covenants in the temple. And I said to this dear child of mine, you know, making and keeping covenants is not another checklist. It's not about a list of things that you should do or not do.
Making and keeping a covenant has everything to do with the heart and your relationship with deity. That's what it's about, Scott, is having a relationship with deity and being bound by them, to them, them being bound to us, not just us to them. But when we make a covenant with God, he becomes bound to us. He becomes bound. Right? Dr. N. N. comes in section 82, verse 10. He's bound. He's connected to us. Through him we are justified, through his righteousness.
In fact, I want to read that scripture, Scott, in 2 Nephi 2, verse 3, this is Lehi to his son, to his sons. Why don't you start with verse 1? And now, Jacob, I speak unto you. Yeah, to Jacob. Thou art my firstborn in the days of my tribulation and the wilderness. And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow because of the rudeness of thy brethren.
Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God, and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain. This is because he's in a covenant. You've got to think about Jacob is in a covenant and his afflictions will be consecrated for his gain because of this covenantal relationship that he's in. And then read the rest.
Wherefore, thy soul shall be blessed and thou shall dwell safely with thy brother Nephi, and thy days shall be spent in the service of thy God. Wherefore I know that thou art redeemed because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer, for thou hast beheld that in the fullness of time he cometh to bring salvation unto men. So Lehi tells Jacob, who's pretty young at this point, right? He's probably a teenager. You believe telling your teenager that he's saved, that he's redeemed.
I mean, most members of the church aren't even sure if they're saved or redeemed. I sometimes get the feeling. And then Lehi's telling his son, Jacob, that he's saved or redeemed, not because of his righteousness, the righteousness of thy Redeemer. But because of the righteousness of his Redeemer, because, because, God, he's in a covenant relationship with him. Because of the covenant, Lehi can say that.
Because you are in the covenant relationship, the new and everlasting covenant relationship, which we'll talk more about later, the new and everlasting covenant, because you are tied to the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you are redeemed. I hope our listeners feel like they're redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ. It's not some future event. If we're in a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ, we are redeemed. We are justified.
We call ourselves saints, which means that we're sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Sanctified means to be made pure, but the word saints comes from sanctified. We are redeemed, Scott, and that's because of this covenant relationship that we're in. President Nelson trained general authorities, I think it was the last day of March 2022 before General Conference, March 31st, 2022. And that talks, I'm sure it was somewhat edited, was put in the Lea Honah magazine in October of 2022, six months later.
And I really recommend all of our listeners really study this talk by President Nelson. It's really not a talk, it's training for general authorities. Training for general authorities on what a covenant is and the importance of making and keeping covenants. The everlasting covenant by President Russell M. Nelson, and it's in the Lea Honah, October 2022. So not even a year ago.
And it's interesting to me, I think sometimes I make the mistake in my life, I think, Scott, of I'm really trying to get down the conference reports and I really listen and study conference reports, but sometimes I'm not as good at reading the church magazines. And it's kind of interesting to me that he chose to have this printed in a church magazine. And I think that's, that should, I don't know, raise all of our awareness about the importance of church magazines and reading and studying those.
And I, apparently they feel strong enough about it, the brethren, that they're going to make that available to all members of the church. Yeah, for free, and so this is in the Lea Honah, and he talks about how important it is to have a covenant relationship. And this is what he shares with us, which I think is really profound. He says, a special love, and we receive a special love and mercy when we make a covenant with God. When we make a covenant with God, we leave neutral ground forever.
God will not abandon his relationship with those who have forged such a bond with him. In fact, all those who have made a covenant with God have access to a special kind of love and mercy. In the Hebrew language, the language of the Old Testament, in the Hebrew language, that covenantal love is called Hased, Hased, which has no English equivalent. There's no, nothing in our English language that is equivalent.
Translators of the King James Version of the Bible must have really struggled how to render Hased in English. They often chose the word loving kindness. Oh, wow, yeah. Loving kindness. I studied this, that word again this morning, loving kindness. This captures much, but not the entire meaning of Hased. Other translations were also rendered such as mercy and goodness, sometimes just love, sometimes just kindness.
Hased is a unique term describing a covenant relationship in which both parties are bound to be loyal and faithful to each other. Heavenly Father is loyal to us, God. He is so loyal to us because we have this covenant relationship. We're bound to him and he's bound to us. But sometimes we just think of that as being a one-way thing. We often just think, oh, I got to stay connected to him. The truth is, he's connected with us. I have to be bound to him. He is bound to us.
When we make and keep covenant, Scott, it goes both ways. And he's a lot, I know he's a lot more loyal than I am. And because I can't be sinless in a fallen world, he is sinless. I can't be perfect here in mortality, but he is perfect and he keeps these covenants perfectly, which I can't do.
But because I'm in this covenant, I know that I am redeemed and that if I'll just not give up, if I will continue in the doctrine of Christ, faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, indoor to the end, which I think means partake of the sacrament. President Elton has said, indoor to the end means continue to participate in the ordinances of the gospel. So if I just continue to be worthy enough to partake of the sacrament, I'm in the covenant. I'm on the path.
I'm not only in the path. I'm in the kingdom. I mean, I'm in. I'm not only on, but I'm in. I'm in the family, Scott. I'm not just on a path. I'm in the family. That's different. And that's how I choose to see it. And when we're in his family, oh man, we don't have to act like adopted child from a third world country, you know, who's so insecure that anytime we make a mistake, we think we're going to be kicked out. That's not how this works. That's not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's not the plan of redemption. He is, he is there for us. Jesus Christ is there for us. Now there's a difference in our relationship in making and keeping baptismal covenants versus making and keeping temple covenants. And first of all, when we participate in baptism and we renew our baptismal covenants when we partake of the sacrament, we, we say in the sacramental prayers, right, we make a covenant that we are willing to take upon ourselves his name.
Well, we did that when we were baptized. We took upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ and we became the adopted sons and daughters of Jesus Christ. Spirit children, right? But when we make this covenant, when we partake of the sacrament, that we will, that we are willing to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, it's talking about the temple.
It's talking about going to the temple and there taking upon ourselves again the name of Jesus Christ, but in a more profound, deeper sense, more significant, where we become joint heirs with Jesus Christ, where he's no longer just our, our father, but he now be, we now become joint heirs with him. Like my wife's main name was Terry, Wendell B. Terry. You knew him. You worked with him. What a amazing man, right? Absolutely. And what, what a good man.
And my wife carried that name with honor and reverence because of what Wendell Terry had done with his name. And she was so proud to be a Terry. But when we became married and she took upon herself my name and we became joint heirs with Christ. When we nailed across that alder, Scott in the Salt Lake temple on May night, sorry, May 19th, her birthday on December 19th. I won't tell you what year could it'll date me because you can't remember it. I remember it.
I absolutely remember it December 19th, 1975. Anyway, six months after my mission, when we nailed across that alder and we received each other and she took my name and we became joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Scott, it's, it's, it's a different relationship versus having using the name of your father mercy using the name of the bridegroom and Jesus Christ is the ultimate bridegroom. And when we go to the temple, we become his bride.
Yeah. We become, we take upon ourselves his name, not now as an adopted son or daughter, but as a joint heir. Scott, that relationship is not broken easily unless we go run off as described in the book of Hosea, Hosea in the Old Testament. We run off and we go whoring, whoring after other gods. That's the only way we break that relationship, Scott. When we are bound to him, when we are married to Christ, when we are joint heirs with him. And I love that scripture, right?
In in Romans chapter eight, it talks about being joint heirs with Christ. And by the way, the early Christian father, Scott knew all about these temple covenants. Yeah. They knew all about them. Yeah. And they were engaged in them and they had received them. But when we become a joint heir with Christ, you can't get out of that relationship easily. I mean, you are bound to him. He is bound to us.
And I just the this, this new term that President Nelson is introducing us to has said is this special covenantal love and grace and mercy and loving kindness that you can't give, you can't get by not being in a covenant relationship with him. So as members of the church, we should be so, so, so, so grateful for the covenants, blessings, power, strength that we receive by being members of his restored church and gospel.
I want to take just a second and maybe put a little more emphasis or focus, spend maybe just a minute or two more of time on this idea that he's loyal to us. You know, because I think that I think that deserves some attention because here's why. I know that I, for one, and if this has been my experience, then surely it's been others experience, but I think it's quite prevalent throughout the church that, you know, we believe that we need to earn, which we do.
You know, we just we need we believe that I just got all like the like the adopted third world child in the story that you started with, right? And every time we make a mistake, I think that I have in the past, not now, but in the past have thought, always mad at me. Oh, I've got to I've got to go crawling back. I've got to do my penance or whatever the case is.
But but to think of this and it makes sense, you know, because if we go to Moses in the Pearl of Great Price, chapter one, verse 39, we learned that my work and my glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. And when we think and when we when we put that in distill that and talk about exactly what is immortality and eternal life of man mean, we know that eternal life in that context, in that context.
In fact, in most scriptural context, eternal life means that we are joined earths with Christ, right, that we do receive that exaltation. So if that's his work and his glory is to bring that to pass, why wouldn't he be loyal to us? Why wouldn't he be on our side? Why wouldn't he be encouraging and and coaxing even and helping us along?
And of course, we've been given those instruments of grace through the Holy Ghost, through repentance, through the temple, through all the things that we've talked about so far. But I think that it's important and I'm going to invite our listeners and I'm going to accept my own invitation on this. I hope that we can contemplate in what ways, in what ways do I feel Heavenly Father's loyalty towards me? And how does that show up? How does that manifest itself in its life?
What graces am I experiencing? Even in my difficulties, I shared with you a pretty difficult experience that I know of family and it's affecting our family that's going on because of the death of a sister, a child, a loved one, a mom, a tragedy.
And as I'm going through that, I can feel if I look for it and if I align myself the way that we've talked about aligning ourselves throughout the podcast, if I can align myself with my Heavenly Father's spirit, the spirit of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit of promise here, then I can feel His loyalty, then I can feel that embracing, then I can feel those proverbial spiritual arms wrap around me and say, hey, come on, man, we can do this together. It's okay.
We can just continue to move forward through anything. And I think that loyalty as it shows up from Heavenly Father and I hate to use, personify almost those kinds of human emotions or words to deity, but that's my point of reference. If I can feel that loyalty towards me, if I can, Deb's the primary president and I know that they're preparing for our primary program, which will be coming up. And I know that the theme is, I will remember him and he will remember me. Yeah. You know.
He never forgets us. Yeah. We were always before him. Oh, Scott, that's good. You know, Elder Hayfn, Bruce Hayfn used to say, we, in his book called The Broken Heart, we like to sing the song, Who's on the Lord's Side Who? But we don't have a him in the church that, where we sing, the Lord is on our side. You know, that's what we should be more focused on. You know, we need to be on the Lord's side and we need to be about his business.
And we've been called and many of us set apart and we need to be striving. That's the key word, I think, is striving, right? But Scott, the Lord is on our side. We talk about being prepared. If you're prepared, you shall not fear. So we talk about, we need to be prepared. The truth is, Scott, Dr. Inc. Section 78 is an interesting read.
Those who want to take on that challenge, count how many times the word prepared is in Dr. Inc. Section 78 and see how many, how many of those prepareds, how many relate to us as individuals and how many of those relate to God. Does the scripture say more often, more often than telling us to prepare ourselves? The scriptures more often say, I have prepared a way for you. That's what it means to be in the covenant, is not just us preparing, but that God has already prepared a way for us.
That's, I find that to be so strengthening, reassuring, motivating. When I know that instead of me, just sometimes, you know, in my weakness, when I feel like I'm working my guts out to try to be good or try to help or try to be, you know, a servant of God, which I've done nothing compared to those who established the gospel and the restoration in these latter days. I've been thinking about them and what got them through all of their afflictions.
Orson Spencer, for example, Scott, wow, he suffered so much when they left Nauvoo. His wife died, his child had already been died and buried in Nauvoo. He takes his wife from Iowa back to Nauvoo to bury her next to her child, who had buried a few months before. Then he's called on a mission to go east. He leaves six of his children in the hands of others to get across the plains. While he's on a mission, he doesn't come back to Salt Lake Valley.
He's not reunited with his children for another three years. Some of them have died. Wilford Woodruff apologized to him personally saying we did the best we could with your children, Orson. And Scott, there have been so many. The Pond family, remember, I remember President James Fowles telling the story about Stilman Pond, who lost his wife and I think eight children who all died at winter quarters. He buried all of them at winter quarters. They got cholera and they all died at winter quarters.
His whole family. His whole family. His wife and all of his children. He buries them. And what does he do? He's in the Covenant, Scott. He knows he's in the Covenant. He knows his family is in the Covenant. And he walks across the plains by himself. But it's the power behind that covenant that allowed him to do that, Dave. That's the key. Right. That is the key. One of my favorite quotes from the early pioneer journals is Sarah P. Rich, wife of Charles C. Rich.
She talks about, she was actually one of the temple workers in the Naboo temple who helped some of the women receive their covenants and helped to officiate in the ordinances in the Naboo temple. Her and Charles C. and many others. But anyway, she said that when she left Naboo and she crossed the Mississippi River and she took one last look, she turned around and she had one last look of the Naboo temple on the hill before she went over another hill and would never see it again.
And she said, in essence, I'm paraphrasing. How did we do it? She asked. We did it because the covenants we had received in the house of the Lord. Had we not received those covenants in the house of the Lord, it would have been like taking a step into the dark. Well, they, they weren't in the dark. They may have suffered and they, they, they did and many of them died. We should talk about church history and the struggles of the Iowa trail from Naboo to winter quarters and how many died.
I think it's pretty well documented that over a thousand died in Iowa alone. Just trying to get to winter quarters. Anyway, that's a discussion for another time, but they were willing to die, Scott, to do whatever it took. And for some of them dying, dying was maybe easier than living the way some of them suffered. And they did it because they knew God was on their side. Even in their afflictions, they knew he was on their side. They knew he had prepared a way for them.
They knew they were covered. They knew they were redeemed. That's what they knew in life or in death. They were redeemed because they had made and received covenants from God and they were in that relationship, them and their families and they were sealed and they had the same promises of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the new and everlasting covenant. Everlasting goes back to our premortal existence, Scott. We made covenants with God in the premortal existence.
It's everlasting because he made covenants with us there. And I find that again to be really inspiring, motivating that I made covenants with God in the premortal existence that I would return to his home, his presence, and that he's going to prepare a way for me. All I have to do, Scott, is make sure that my heart's right, that I'm daily repenting, and that I am continually renewing my covenants with him by partaking of the Holy Sacrament.
We'll maybe do one more week on this topic because I don't think we've hardly scratched the surface. But when we partake of the sacrament, we renew all our covenants with him. Not just baptism. Not just baptism. Right. We renew our ceilings. We renew our endowments. We renew all of our em blessings of the temple and baptismal and all covenants that we have made with God when we partake of his flesh and we drink of his blood when we partake of the sacrament.
The Atonement of Jesus Christ, in other words, is the center and the focus of all gospel covenants. Darrell Bock You were just sharing how that covenant and the power behind the covenant was so pronounced and so important in terms of the experience of our founders, our pioneers, those that sacrificed more than we can even comprehend. A couple years ago, Deb and I had the opportunity. And it was a beautiful opportunity. I don't think Deb would ever do it again, but I'd do it in a heartbeat.
But we were called to be mom, pa in a trek, right? A trek experience. And for this trek experience, we have a wonderful lady in her stake named Shana Edwards. And she wrote this song. She wrote and composed the music and the lyrics to this song. John M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. Their hope was brighter than the fire of the cruel and angry men. Their love was deeper than the
snow and stronger than the wind. Now remember we're seeing this as it relates to our covenant, our covenant power, our covenant experience, our covenant relationship. Here's the verse, the fire of the covenant they made burned in their hearts like a flame, on wavering, unquenchable, undimmed by the night the fire of the covenant burned bright.
I love that, Scott. Yeah, I do too. Fire of the covenant. I think that articulates in a way words that I wish I could say, you know, words that but it but it but it it helps me to kind of feel and to kind of see if that's the power of that covenant for them. You know, what challenges do I face? What planes am I crossing today? What difficulties have I been asked to bear? What crosses have I
been asked to bear? Well, the fire of my covenant should allow me because if Heavenly Father's love and loyalty towards me, I should know there's nothing that would be set before me that with that that that can't be surmounted because of the fire because of the power of the covenant, which I have made, David, for God so loved the world, right? And he gave his only begotten son. That was the covenant we understood and we made with him before we were ever born. We understood
he loved us so much he would offer his son. I Scott, God is on our side and that offering of his son was made for every individual listener for you for me because he loves us. It is not ever easy, but it is so simple to remain in the covenant when you understand the power and the blessings that are available to us, not just on the covenant path, right?
But when you're in the family, yeah, and we're in the family and we are joint heirs to inherit some pretty amazing blessings if we will just strive to be faithful, which does not mean perfect or sinless. We just need to strive to be faithful, which means loyal, which means to support, to help to be an instrument for God in his work. Yeah, another thing it means is to be dependent dependent on the merits of him. Yeah, who was
like rely on him. Yeah. Yeah. I wish we had more time. We do. We'll get to continue. Talk some more about it next week. I could just keep talking about this stuff is so important to me and and because of the effect that it's had in my life, we began today by talking about how a through adoption a person felt unworthy to be with a family. We often feel that way. We often feel sometimes that our mistakes may preclude us from that covenantal relationship. When we feel
that way, we are wrong. We need to know that that's the accuser. That's the accuser. Exactly. It's the accuser that's using us that way night and day. Yeah. And so we need we need to remember that. Wow. He loves us and his love for us is just incomprehensible. But I think we begin to get a peek into that deep love when we embrace the things that we've talked about today. That's our challenge to us. We've given a couple of challenges or invitations here today. I hope
that we can all embrace those and our lives will become better because of them. I testify to that in the name of Jesus Christ. Thanks for being with us today. Remember, you have been redeemed. We say that and I hope it doesn't become cliche. You have been redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ. May we all come to know that fully for our own experience in our own lives. That's our prayer. Thanks for being with us today. We look forward to being with you again next week.