An Unacceptable Offering
READ Malachi 1:7-8, 10, 13-14
What are the priests offering on the altar of the Lord?
Old, blind, lame, sick
“three-legged ewes”.
They are offering the dregs of
what they have, not the “first fruits without blemish”.
READ 3 Nephi 9:19-20
What is the equivalent of a “three-legged ewe” in the
context of what sacrifice the Lord requires of us today? (I.e. a broken heart
and contrite spirit)
It is talking the talk but not
walking the walk (“draw near unto me with the lips, but their hearts are far
from me” see JSH 1:19).
It is living the outward
standards and behaviors but not offering one’s “whole soul” on the altar (“make
clean the outside of the cup… but within are full of extortion and excess” see
Matt 23:25-28).
What rewards do those receive who are sacrificing an
unacceptable sacrifice?
The praise of the world – they
can seem very “religious” and even outwardly “righteous”.
And that’s about it… the Lord
is not happy with this “deceiving” action.
Who Shall Abide the Day of
His Coming
READ Malachi 3:1-3
What is the role of the true messenger sent from God?
To prepare the people for the
coming of the Lord.
That “coming” is ultimately
His Second Coming in glory, but also refers to His coming to you, preparatory
to His coming in glory so that you can be sanctified to the degree that you
won’t be utterly wasted when He comes in glory; the first is the coming of the
Lamb to His temple on earth (you) while the second is the coming of the Lion to
the world at large, to defeat all armies and reign on the earth in its
terrestrial state of light.
What does it mean that the Lord will “suddenly come to
his temple”?
He is unexpected when He comes.
Things may progress quickly –
where one might think, “there is much to do before He comes”, those things may
come to pass very quickly.
Temple = in the New Jerusalem.
Temple = your body is a temple
(see 1 Corinthians 3:17 and 6:19-20).
Who may abide the day of His coming?
Only those who are prepared:
received the truth and taken the Holy Spirit as their guide (see Parable of the
10 Virgins in Matt 25:1-13 and D&C 45:56-57).
Those who are purified as He
is pure – they hear His voice, they see Him, they are not asleep but have
awakened, arisen, have entered the Gate to His path, and have navigated that
path to the Tree and Fruit at its end (see D&C 35:21 and D&C 38:8).
They that turn to God with all
their heart (see Joel 2:11-13).
They that have put on the
whole armor of God (see D&C 27:15-18).
An Unchangeable God
READ Malachi 3:6-7
How changeable is an unchangeable god?
Not at all!
The Son is the great prototype
of all saved beings (LoF 7:16), for any mortal to be saved they must be
assimilated into His likeness, to the degree that a saved being must be
“precisely what He is and nothing else” (LoF 7:9).
So where does all the change come from?
From us – we have “gone away
from mine ordinances” – changed them and not kept them; but we have tried to
disguise our changes as His will as defined in the current practices of the
Church (we have done this today – and the Israelites in the 100’s of years
prior to Christ’s birth had done the same.
What must we do?
Return to Him and He will
return to us.
Receive Him in your hearts and
live the true, unchanged “new and everlasting” covenants, ordinances and
doctrines.
Seek to understand what you’ve
lost via prayer and study of the scriptures – and prepare yourself to receive
true messengers from heaven to teach you what you’re missing.
Tithing
READ Malachi 3:8-11
Why does the Lord ask us to prove Him?
We are here to live by faith.
We are here to connect with
Him again.
He has the capability to bless
us in very temporal and tangible ways, if it is His will for us.
But if not, He his goal is our
immortality and eternal life – and whatever experiences we need to go through
to facilitate that ultimate objective, which may include abject poverty.
Return of Elijah
READ Malachi 4:1
Who will be burned as stubble?
The proud and ALL who do
wickedly.
What does “leave them neither root nor branch” mean?
They and their posterity will
be completely annihilated physically and will not be saved spiritually, plus
their line will end (the branch).
Their dead ancestors in the
spirit prison will have no hope of salvation either (the root).
READ Malachi 4:5-6
What is the curse the Lord will smite the earth with?
That unless Elijah’s work is
successful, ALL will be burned as stubble and left neither root nor branch (see
Jacob 5:46-48 – it is the “loftiness” or pride of the vineyard that causes
nothing profitable to be produced by it).
To truly understand the
mission and spirit of Elijah, we have to read from a talk that Joseph Smith
gave in January of 1844, months before his death.
READ TPJS 371:8-372:4 and
373:2-374:1
“What shall I talk about
to-day? I know what Brother Cahoon wants me to speak about. He wants me to
speak about the coming of Elijah in the last days. I can see it in his eye. I
will speak upon that subject then. The Bible says, “I will send you Elijah the
Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he
shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of
the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
Now, the word turn here should be translated bind, or seal. But what is the
object of this important mission? or how is it to be fulfilled? The keys are to
be delivered, the spirit of Elijah is to come, the Gospel to be established,
the Saints of God gathered, Zion built up, and the Saints to come up as saviors
on Mount Zion. But how are they to become saviors on Mount Zion? By building
their temples, erecting their baptismal fonts, and going forth and receiving
all the ordinances, baptisms, confirmations, washings, anointings, ordinations
and sealing powers upon their heads, in behalf of all their progenitors who are
dead, and redeem them that they may come forth in the first resurrection and be
exalted to thrones of glory with them; and herein is the chain that binds the
hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, which
fulfills the mission of Elijah. And I would to God that this temple was now
done, that we might go into it, and go to work and improve our time, and make
use of the seals while they are on earth. The Saints have not too much time to
save and redeem their dead, and gather together their living relatives, that
they may be saved also, before the earth will be smitten, and the consumption
decreed falls upon the world. I would advise all the Saints to go with their
might and gather together all their living relatives to this place, that they
may be sealed and saved, that they may be prepared against the day that the
destroying angel goes forth; and if the whole Church should go to with all
their might to save their dead, seal their posterity, and gather their living
friends, and spend none of their time in behalf of the world, they would hardly
get through before night would come, when no man can work; and my only trouble
at the present time is concerning ourselves, that the Saints will be divided,
broken up, and scattered, before we get our salvation secure; for there are so
many fools in the world for the devil to operate upon, it gives him the
advantage oftentimes. The question is frequently asked, “Can we not be saved
without going through with all those ordinances? I would answer, No, not the
fulness of salvation. Jesus said, There are many mansions in my Father’s house,
and I will go and prepare a place for you. House here named should have been
translated kingdom; and any person who is exalted to the highest mansion has to
abide a celestial law, and the whole law too. But there has been a great
difficulty in getting anything into the heads of this generation. It has been
like splitting hemlock knots with a corn-dodger for a wedge, and a pumpkin for
a beetle. Even the Saints are slow to understand. I have tried for a number of
years to get the minds of the Saints prepared to receive the things of God; but
we frequently see some of them, after suffering all they have for the work of
God, will fly to pieces like glass as soon as anything comes that is contrary
to their traditions: they cannot stand the fire at all. How many will be able
to abide a celestial law, and go through and receive their exaltation, I am
unable to say, as many are called, but few are chosen.”
What does “turn” the hearts mean?
To bind or seal the people
together.
What is Joseph concerned about?
The Saints don’t understand
the importance of the coming mission of Elijah.
The Saints won’t accept things
that are contrary to their traditions (and it seems like the message about
Elijah may be contrary, or he wouldn’t have said that).
The Saints don’t have much
time to get the Nauvoo Temple finished so that they can “make use of the seals
while they are on the earth”.
And unless they finish the
Nauvoo Temple such that the Lord visits and accepts it, and restores the High
Priesthood that had been lost, the Saints will be cursed and scattered and will
not regain the priesthood which enables being sealed and saved (see D&C
124:27-50).
As a result of this, Joseph
laments that he does not know how many Saints will be able to abide a celestial
law and receive their exaltation, for many are called but few are chosen.
What is Elijah’s latter-day mission?
To turn the hearts of the
children on earth to their “fathers” in heaven who have received God’s promises
and hold the High Priesthood or Holy Order and are “sons of God” – Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob and the other patriarchs (see JST Genesis 9:21-23).
Such that they are sealed
together to them as sons to fathers.
And adopted into the same
family – the House of Israel.
And Elijah has the power to do
this – to open the heavenly portal and descend with this sealing power and
enact what must be done on earth to prepare a people to withstand the glory of
the Lord and His people who will come with Him at His Second Coming, so that
those on earth are not utterly wasted by the glory that emanates from them.
This was the reason that
Elijah was translated, so that they could come back to earth and open the way
for those in the heavens to descend and be sealed to those faithful souls on
earth.
READ Abraham 1:2-3
What was Abraham’s goal?
To reconnect the chain of
saved souls back to Adam which had been broken with the idol worship of his
fathers.
…Through the sealing or
adoption of himself into that family by acquiring for himself the “rights of
the fathers” or to enter the “ancient order of things” which the fathers had
also entered; he needed to “turn his heart” to the fathers who had possessed
these blessings.
If
Melchizedek was a “new name” for or title given to Shem the son of Noah,
Abraham could have received the sealing necessary to join the family when he
met Shem to pay tithing and receive “blessings” from him (see JST Genesis
14:25-37).
And if we, through the mission
of Elijah, can connect ourselves with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or the “fathers
in heaven” to whom were given the “promises” that Adam and his family had from
generation to generation ending with Shem, we too can avoid being utterly
wasted when they all come back with Christ as His family in their glory to the
earth, because we will be one of them.
No wonder they will fall upon our necks and kiss us, as family who are
reunited after a long parting (see TPJS 380:2 and 381:2).
