121: Precious, Part 1

This is Part 1 of a special series exploring the commandment and need for us to become precious to each other. Transcript I am sorry, I laugh at myself. I am not a very good student. I am embarrassingly oblivious to the obvious. I could tell you stories about that but, you would wonder at the Lord's patience. But, I wanted to know about Joseph and the restoration and details about what went on in Nauvoo and what has been going since Nauvoo - and where and what and who and I couldn't get enough questions out on the table. I was obnoxious, obnoxiously inquisitive - nothing about the future. I want to know about the past up until now. I saw what we were doing and how apparently important that was. And how the Lord is watching over this. And then the view expanded and I saw that God is working with people we won't encounter for some time still to get them ready for what's coming. And He is surprisingly just as involved in caring for them as He is attentive to us. Then the view increased another order of magnitude and I could see every people everywhere, and it doesn't matter who they are, where they are, what their culture is, it doesn't matter where they are in this world. He is working to bring about ultimately their salvation as well. Then the view got ridiculous for man to behold, because He has concerns about creations that are without number. But, in trying to put it into words, this is the analogy that I’ve come up with: Let's liken Zion to a bus station. And someone needs to build the bus station. And that might be us. And if we build a bus station and we have a place that can receive people and that it is a place of safety where they can pass through. When we finish with that, the bus station won't amount to much if someone doesn't build a bus. And we're not building that bus. And the buses that get built are not going anywhere if they don't have fuel. And someone has got to do that. And that is going to involve miners and explorers and manufacturers and refiners and transport people and delivery mechanisms that God is working with. And when they finally fill the buses that will be someone over whom God is responsible. When they finally get to our bus station we are not going to be the ones who stand there and say "yeah, we built the bus station - eh! We rock!" Zion is an absolutely critical component in the last days' plan of God and indispensable in the salvation of the souls of men - living and dead. But it is just a bus station. And through it will pass concourses of people with whom we’ve had very little responsibility. When He says that there is going to come "a time when the prophets are going to awaken and will no longer stay themselves and they are going to come from the lands of the north and they are going to come to the bus station to receive something at the hands of His servants Ephraim in the boundaries of the everlasting hills” - He is working on that. And He is working with people on that. And, we need to be about what He has asked us to do. And it is important - it’s indispensable. But it is absolutely no more indispensable than what He is doing among people in Asia and Europe and Africa and everywhere else in the world. And he promises as you read along the scriptures, and He tells you after the voice of warning - then He is going to preach a sermon - and His sermon is going to shake and cause fear. It is not because He is an angry God, it is because He is a loving God who knows what it takes to stir people up, to get attention, to consider the things of eternity. But that's essentially... It's hard to put into words what... but that's the analogy and I think that it conveys the meaning. Because He is the God of the whole world and every soul is precious to Him. And Christ's atonement was intended to yield the absolute greatest benefit that can be obtained through the suffering of the Lord and for some people, their reluctance is no deterrent to the Lord's desire to save them anyway. I think Zion needs to be people that receive the word with gladness – and not people we'd contend with to bring... the glory... I am really interested to see what will happen up in Boise. I think that is going to be an interesting moment. Today marks a moment when the stirrings that have been underway for years result in God’s offering to establish His people, on earth, by a covenant He ordains. The few ready to receive the Lord's offer today are scattered to the nethermost parts of His vineyard (v. 52). Despite this, a live broadcast on the Internet allows them to be grafted in at the same moment this is happening in Boise, Idaho. Correspondingly, those utterly refused to accept the offered covenant are plucked from the restoration’s tree of life because they're bitter fruit, unable to meet the Lord’s requirements. The Lord is taking the step to preserve part of humanity, not to destroy (v. 53). A few descendants of the covenant fathers have the natural gift of faith, that gift belongs to the natural branches (v. 54). When grafted we are connected to the natural roots or covenant Fathers as heirs of the promises made to them. Even after the covenant, there will still be those who are bitter and wild, who will be unable to produce natural fruit despite the covenant. These will remain for a time despite their bitterness (v. 56-57). Today only the most bitter, who refuse to be grafted in will be trimmed away. We look forward to more nourishing or restoring of truths, lights and commandments which will bless those who receive, but for those who will not the continuing restoration will prune them away (v.58). These bitter and wild branches must still be cut off and cast away. These steps are necessary to preserve the opportunity for the natural fruit to fully return (v. 59). The good must overcome the evil, this takes time and it means that the Lord's patience is extended to give time to develop and further improve. We are not expected and cannot become natural fruit in a single step. But we are expected to accept the initial graft today. The Lord is taking the steps so that perhaps, that’s a deliberate word, perhaps we may become natural fruit worthy to be preserved in the coming harvest (v.60). Perhaps is the right word. Some who are grafted will still be plucked away and burned. But others will bear natural fruit and be preserved. Accepting the covenant is not the final step. Our choices will determine whether we are bitter or natural fruit, that will decide our fate. Just as the ancient allegory foretold, the covenant makes us servants and laborers in the vineyard (v. 61) We are we are required to, this is from the covenant, “seek to recover the lost sheep remnant of this land and of Israel and no longer forsake them. Bring them to the Lord and teach them of his ways to walk in them.” If we fail to labor to recover them we break the covenant. We must labor for this last time in the Lord’s vineyard. There is an approaching, final pruning of the vineyard (v.62). The first to be the first to be grafted in are Gentiles so that the last may be first. The lost sheep remnant next and then Israelites so that the first maybe last (v.63). But grafting is required for all, even the remnants, because God works with his people through covenant making. There will be more grafting and further pruning. As more is revealed and therefore more is required, some will find the digging and dunging too much to bear and will fall away or in other words will be pruned despite the covenant (v.64). The covenant makes it possible for natural fruit to return. The bad fruit will still continue, even among the covenant people, until there is enough strength in the healthy branches for further pruning. It requires natural fruit to appear before the final pruning takes place (v.65). The good and bad will coexist. It will damage the tree to remove the bad at once. Therefore, the Lord's patience will continue for some time yet. The rate of removing the bad is dependent wholly upon the rate of the development of the good. It is the Lord's purpose to create equality in his vineyard. In the allegory equality in the vineyard appears three times in verses 66, 72 and 74. We cannot be greater and lesser, nor divide ourselves into a hierarchy to achieve the equal quality required for Zion. When a group is determined to remain equal and I am personally determined to be no greater than any other, then it faces challenges that never confront unequal people. A religion of bosses and minions never deals with any of the challenges of being equals. Critics claim we will never succeed because of our determined desire for equality. None of our critics can envision what the Lord has said in verses 66, 72 and 74 about his people. But equality among us is the only way prophesied for us to succeed. That does not mean we won't have a mess as we learn how to establish equality. Similarly, Zion cannot be established by isolated and solitary figures proclaiming a testimony of Jesus from their home keyboard. The challenge of building a community must be part of a process. Zion is a community and therefore God is a god of community and his people must learn to live together with one heart, one mind, with no poor among us. Isolated keyboardists proclaiming their resentment of community can hardly speak temperately of others. How could they ever live peacefully in a community of equals? We must become precious to each other. Although the laborers in this final effort are few, you will be the means used by the Lord to complete his work in His vineyard (v.70). You're required to labor with your might to finish the Lord’s work in his vineyard (v.72). But He will labor alongside you. He, not a man or a committee, will call you to do work. When He calls do not fear, but do not run faster than you have strength. We must find His people in the highways and byways and invite them to join in....